Category:Technology

Abdel Ibrahim and Jon Dick's post about the Samsung Galaxy Note inspired me to put their words into an advertisement:

via The Brooks Review

Last month marked 5 years since the iPhone was first introduced.

Research In Motion has had their research in motion for the last 5 years and they've finally responded to the smartphone challenge and the current leaders in this space, Google and Apple:

You've had 5 fucking years and this is your response?

Looks lovely, but I hope they don't count on this saving their company.

Image via The Verge

Apple announced yesterday that a nonprofit group it partly finances, the Fair Labor Association, would begin inspections at supplier factories in China, most notably Foxconn. This follows a string of horrific stories coming out about Foxconn in recent months, some detailing suicides by workers protesting draconian working conditions. Apple's moves are an important first step, one that other technology companies that use Chinese labor are sure to follow. What is confounding is how any tale of woe involving China's labor force is a surprise at this point.

China has little more than token labor laws, and unions are outlawed. There is, and has been, little recourse for the worker to demand better working conditions, shorter hours, better pay, or benefits. The decades-long fight for workers' rights that took place here in the United States and other western nations beginning in the late 1800s has never taken place in China. Little things that American workers expect as a condition of employment, like the 40-hour work week, weekends, living wages, health and retirement plans, a ban on child labor, and workplace safety, are of little concern to the powers that be in China.

And this extends beyond electronics manufacturing. As another example, conditions are so horrendous in Chinese coal mines that thousands of miners die yearly in mining accidents, far and above the worst death rate for coal miners in the world.

Chinese laborers face some of the harshest working conditions on the planet, but it's not because they're Chinese.

Once upon a time, it was a risk to life and limb for American workers to simply get out of bed and go to work. Mills and mines exploited labor in ways just as terrible as in China today, but American workers began to fight back against their employers. Changes did not take place overnight. It took decades, and thousands of deaths (both work-related and protest-related) for American workers to get the protections that we have. This led to the costs of American labor rising for American companies. Their solution, in turn, was to shift that labor to countries where the long fight for fair labor practices had yet to be fought, and labor was cheap.

The out of sight, out of mind attitude of American companies, including Apple, followed by their shock once overseas working conditions come to light, is wholly disingenuous. It costs money to be fair to your workers. Sending work to a place where labor is not costly is more than mere indication that workers are being exploited. Rather, it is a virtual guarantee.

From Roberta Cowan at Reuters:

Next-generation software for BlackBerry's smartphones is "ready to compete", Research In Motion's new chief executive, Thorsten Heins, told more than 2,000 technical developers on Tuesday, expressing confidence in RIM's long-term future.

This reminds of those Japanese holdouts who continued to fight even after World War II ended.

via The Loop

So Microsoft now thinks the Web is better without plug-ins (via CNet):

"Metro-style IE runs plug-in free to improve battery life as well as security, reliability, and privacy for consumers," said John Hrvatin, Internet Explorer program manager lead, in a blog post. "A plug-in free Web benefits consumers and developers and we all take part in the transition."

How convenient. I guess that whole push with Silverlight to de-throne Flash is over, eh?

For the record, I was wondering Silverlight's relevance way back in 2007.

iFixit.org sounds very interesting. Probably because I grew up spending a lot of time in junkyards and my dad's basement fixing shit too:

We have been traveling to developing countries in Asia and Africa, visiting e-waste scrapyards and small repair shops, meeting "fixers" who breathe new life into gadgets that the western world has tossed away, and photographing the journey. Part travelogue, part investigative reporting, part soapbox, iFixit.org promises only one thing: a clear-eyed, thoughtful look at global repair culture.

via Minimal Mac

via The Atlantic

Sam Biddle for Gizmodo on ultrabooks:

What is an Ultrabook? Intel says they're supposed to be affordable (around $1,000), thin (no more than 0.8 inches), light (no more than 3.1 pounds) and tenacious in the battery. They're to have speedy SSD storage. That is Plato's Ultrabook.

Thank you, Mr. Biddle. The term has been driving me crazy since it was introduced. It was adopted by PC makers to help them compete with the MacBook Air and term 'netbook' started to lose its coolness a few years ago.

Oh, by the way, the MacBook Air just turned 4 years old.

How many times to I have to say I'm tired of writing about Apple?

MG Siegler responds to the rumor Google will introduce their own Android tablet this spring:

The problem here is that Amazon is selling the Kindle Fire at or near break-even (they may even be losing money on each unit sold when you consider marketing, etc). And customers are getting what they pay for -- a tablet of significantly less quality than the iPad.

If Google is going to undercut the $199 price, the hardware is either going to be shit -- or Google is going to have to take a significant loss on each one sold. Maybe they do that and say they'll make it back in search advertising. But there is real money they're going to have to pay to an OEM to get them to agree to that.

Siegler's whole post is spot on, but what about the ecosystem this "highest quality" Android is going to live in? Eric Schmidt's quote seems to be addressing the hardware of the device. Hardware is only half the story.

It's like selling a car to someone who lives in the desert. Sure, they have a great piece of automotive technology with climate control, and power steering and satellite radio, but it's useless without access to roads and gas stations and mechanics.

This is essentially what Android tablets are today — cars in the desert.

Amazon gets this and while their car might be crappy, they at least have roads to drive on and places to go. Books, music and movies, all a few clicks away. Seamless.

Yes Google has their Android Marketplace but from most the articles I've read, it's a place where you can't make much money and the piracies rival what you'd see on a Canal Street here in Manhattan.

So for me, I could give a shit what Google releases, if they release anything, this spring. If I have nowhere to go when I drive off the dealer's lot, it's not even worth buying.

I love as more and more details and clues are leaked regarding Apple's future product plans, things become so obvious to these brilliant, insightful analysts.

Shaw Wu of Sterne Agee talks about Apple's (supposed) entry into the television market (via paidContent.org):

Frankly, we are not surprised and believe AAPL should enter the TV space as this is arguably the only major end market the company is not currently participating in a bigger way.

"Moreover, we have picked up several data points indicating activity from component makers to manufacturing partners as well as AAPL's own patent filings from at least 2005.

"We believe it makes sense for AAPL to produce Apple TV in both a set-top box as well as an integrated all-in-one version to give users choice.

Wu wasn't surprised at all. Wonder if he was expecting this 6 months ago, or a year? I'm sure that part in Walter Isaacson's bio of Steve Jobs where Jobs talks about cracking the TV market didn't help you at all either.

Analysts are about as reliable as weather people. It's only when they see the clouds on the horizon can they predict the rain.

Newsflash - I can do that too.