Posts tagged Won’t
Fabled Google Drive Won’t Be Another Dropbox
Feb 9th
The Wall Street Journal has revived rumors about Google launching a cloud storage service called Drive. The comparison everybody wants to make is to Dropbox. The thinking is that Google will challenge everyone’s favorite start-up by releasing a native desktop and mobile Drive app with the same syncing features Dropbox users know and love.
Google Drive rumors have been around for many years, and they’ve always conformed to the understanding of “The Cloud” that has prevailed at the time. If it’s not like Apple’s iCloud, which is integrated into Apple’s devices, then it must be like Dropbox, which lives on the Web but syncs through a client. But think outside the box for a minute. Google has new and unique cloud services that Dropbox and Apple don’t. There’s room for a third, stand-out option here.
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Google Docs
Google already has a browser-based file system, Google Docs. It originated as a sort of word processor in the cloud, but it can actually handle and store many kinds of files, such as PDFs, JPEG images, MPEG audio and video, and it’ll handle pretty much anything containing text. That does make it a pretty compelling stand-in for Dropbox when it comes to simply storing files.
It even has a nice disk drive icon now, after last year’s Google makeovers. Google Drive, indeed:
Are people already using Google Docs as a cloud drive? Spanning, a company that provides backup for Google apps users (not just Google Apps users; free customers, too), took a look into how thousands of people are using it, and it studied their use to better optimize its services. Consequently, it has some insights into Google apps users to share.
Spanning has found that over half of the files in their customers’ Docs accounts were not Google Apps-created. They were PDFs, audio, video, photos and Microsoft Office files. By file size, non-Google files comprised over 85% of the stuff people stored in their Docs accounts.
So, at least for the use case of storing files, lots of people are already using Google Docs instead of Dropbox. What Docs does that Dropbox doesn’t is allow users to create and edit certain kinds of files. If you use Google Docs as your cloud document service, you’re probably using it to make and work on documents, too. That’s more than Dropbox can offer, standing on its own. (We’ll get to apps built on top of Dropbox in a minute.)
Search, plus Your World
There’s a new Google product that didn’t exist last time the Google Drive rumors surfaced. It’s Google. Or rather, it’s Google+. On January 10, Google revealed Search, plus Your World, which threw everybody for a loop. If you don’t understand that Google+ is the user-centric backbone of Google itself now, it doesn’t make sense that this one side of Google search has stuff from this weird social network in it.
While this early stage of Search+ is definitely about putting Google+ in users’ faces, that’s not what the message is. “Your World” does not consist solely of YouTube videos shared on social networks. Google’s personalized search also tries to figure out what a search means to you, so it can return something more meaningful. It’s two modes of search: Global mode searches the indexed Web, and personal mode tailors it to you.
How much more useful would this be if Google’s personalized search had your files in it? If your Google Drive contained your documents and music and other local files, they could show up in your personalized search results. If you couldn’t remember whether you read something online or in a document you downloaded, Search+ could find both. Now we’re giving meaning to the “Your World” part.
Dropbox has search, but it only contains part of what you’re looking for when you search “your world.” It’s more useful as one of many services in a third-party cloud search app like Greplin, which also logs into Google apps and searches across. Google’s new social signals run through all its services now, so if it’s in your Google cloud, Google search will find it, period.
Dropbox Is A Platform. It’ll Be Fine.
Between Docs and Search+, whatever Drive Google eventually ships (whether it’s in a few weeks or another X years) will have lots of unique capabilities that make it a different beast from Dropbox.
That’s exactly the way Dropbox wants it.
Dropbox turned down insane amounts of money from Apple, because it didn’t want to get rolled in as a feature of one integrated system. That’s why iCloud doesn’t work like Dropbox. Apple wanted cloud syncing that was just there, so users don’t have to know where their files are. Developers in the Apple ecosystem can just hook into iCloud. Their applications become Apple-specific. In exchange, they get free marketing in the App Store, and if Apple is feeling generous it features their apps as the App Of The Week or something.
Dropbox said “no” to all that. It wants to be the next Apple or Google, and its valuation seems optimistic about that possibility. Apple’s cloud is totally integrated with its devices, using hardware as the platform. Google’s cloud is integrated with its services, using the Web as a platform. Dropbox is a platform.
Dropbox lets different clients on different systems read and write to it. Dropbox doesn’t have a Google Docs because anyone can build a word processor on top of it. We can build a thousand word processors on top of it, and if they can all read the same file format, they can all work together. Dropbox’s platform ubiquity is what it’s all about, and that’s why Google (and Apple) can’t copy it.
Lead photo: AHMAD FAIZAL YAHYA / Shutterstock.com
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Google Won’t Pause New Privacy Policy – Should They Have To?
Feb 3rd
Google refuses to bend to EU regulators, who have asked the company to hold off on rolling out their new privacy policy. In the U.S., Google responded to a letter and attended a closed-door privacy briefing with members of Congress.
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Why Petitions Won’t Change Apple’s Labor Practices Anytime Soon
Feb 1st
Not even 24 hours after Apple reported its jaw-dropping Q1 financial results, the company found itself as the target of some relentless investigative journalism by the New York Times. In particular, as part of an ongoing series about Apple, the Times published a detailed investigation of some of the tech giant’s biggest overseas suppliers, ugly labor abuses and all.
From deadly plant explosions and poisonous screen-cleaning chemicals to unsafe working conditions and long hours, the report was anything but forgiving. In response, there is a small but growing chorus of consumers asking Apple to do more about these issues. A petition demanding a more ethically-built iPhone 5 and other products is said to have amassed 40,000 signatories in its first 24 hours.
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Apple has already made some efforts to improve labor practices among its suppliers, something the Times article acknowledges. It has thoroughly audited its suppliers, in many cases pressuring them to change more egregious practices. This year, the company even published a list of its suppliers for the first time, in an effort to be more transparent. Still, as the Times report illustrates, many abuses persist.
The company, like others that make consumer electronics, remains in an awkward position as its quest to meet growing demand clashes with the ethical concerns that naturally arise when the manufacturing is done in countries that lack the U.S.’s labor laws. Apple has stated that achieving the level of efficiency they now boast simply wouldn’t be possible in the United States, where manufacturing has waned, labor is costly and regulations too strict to allow for lightning speed turnaround on last-minute changes. To stay competitive, it needs to keep its operations in places like China.
E-Signatures vs. Wallets: Which Votes Count More?
Forty thousand signatures may sound like a lot, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to 37 million. That’s how many iPhones Apple sold in its last quarter, in addition to more than 15 million iPads. The pressure from consumer and human rights groups may well ramp up in the coming weeks and months, but for the time being the number of people voicing their concern is only .07% of the number that bought iPads and iPhones in the last quarter. That’s not counting iPods and Macs.
To make a substantial impact, there would need to be an actual boycott of Apple products widespread enough to make a noticeable dent in their sales numbers. Some may decline to buy the iPhone 5, iPad 3 or iTV in protest, but probably not enough to make a difference.
Alternatively, the issue would need to turn into a much bigger PR problem for Apple, leading consumers to think twice or forcing the company to preempt an exodus by pressuring suppliers to shape up.
This isn’t to suggest that a concerted enough Web-fueled protest couldn’t generate the pressure required to encourage change. We saw it happen in more ways than one with the SOPA and PIPA debate. Still, this is Apple we’re talking about. Rather than asking citizens to phone their representatives, such a protest would be asking millions to break their addiction to some of the most popular consumer electronics products of all time. These are devices that have woven themselves deeply into our day-to-day lives.
If people were to flee Apple, where would they go? To one of Apple’s competitors? They’re not exactly innocent either.
What do you think? Are labor rights issues enough to cause you to reconsider buying devices like smartphones and tablets? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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[UPDATED] Source: Next Xbox Won’t Play Used Games
Jan 26th
An unnamed source is telling video game news site Kotaku that the next version of Microsoft’s Xbox will not play used games.
The person, identified as a “reliable industry source” also told Kotaku that Xbox 720 will be able to play Blu-Ray discs, an option not offered on current versions of the Xbox. The next generation of Xbox is expected to be released later this year or early in 2013.
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We’ve asked Microsoft for confirmation and comment. We’ll update if they get back to us. So far most speculation about the new machine is just that, as Microsoft hasn’t even confirmed if the new system will be called Xbox 720, or when it will be available.
Update: “As an innovator we’re always thinking about what is next and how we can push the boundaries of technology like we did with Kinect,” said Microsoft spokesperson Allison Milton. “We believe the key to extending the lifespan of a console is not just about the console hardware, but about the games and entertainment experiences being delivered to consumers. Beyond that we don’t comment on rumors or speculation.”
It was unclear how Microsoft planned to thwart people from playing used games on their consoles. Game publishers have long complained that the used game market erodes their bottom line, but users, who are expected to pay more than $300 for the new units, may bristle and turn to systems on which they can still play second-hand games.
Other rumors tied to Xbox 720 is that it will mark the debut of Kinect 2, Microsoft’s highly-praised hands-free sensor. The newer version of Kinect would contain an on-board processor to better detect user motions, according to Kotaku.
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Source: Next Xbox Won’t Play Used Games
Jan 25th
An unnamed source is telling video game news site Kotaku that the next version of Microsoft’s Xbox will not play used games.
The person, identified as a “reliable industry source” also told Kobatu that Xbox 720 will be able to play Blu-Ray discs, an option not offered on current versions of the Xbox. The next generation of Xbox is expected to be released later this year or early in 2013.
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We’ve asked Microsoft for confirmation and comment. We’ll update if they get back to us. So far most speculation about the new machine is just that, as Microsoft hasn’t even confirmed if the new system will be called Xbox 720, or when it will be available.
It was unclear how Microsoft planned to thwart people from playing used games on their consoles. Game publishers have long complained that the used game market erodes their bottom line, but users – who are expected to pay more than $300 for the new units.
Other rumors tied to Xbox 720 is that it will mark the debut of Kinect 2, Microsoft’s highly-praised hands-free sensor. The newer version of Kinect would contain an on-board processor to better detect user motions, according to Kotaku.
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Why Apple Won’t Disrupt the Textbook Industry Anytime Soon
Jan 19th
Apple revolutionizes stuff. It’s practically conventional wisdom in the tech world that, even if they’re not first in the game or necessarily even the best, the Cupertino-based giant has a tendency to make a noticeable impact. They didn’t invent the MP3 player, smartphone or tablet, but they sure have redefined all of those products. Even if this tendency is strong, it’s not necessarily always how things play out. For an example, look no further than the Apple TV.
Today, the company set their sights on textbooks, an industry Steve Jobs himself described as being “ripe for digital destruction.” True as that may be, is what Apple planning to do in the space really all that disruptive?
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There’s no doubt that giving authors dead simple tools for publishing their own interactive e-books is a big deal. As Nieman Journalism Lab’s Joshua Benton so effectively outlined earlier this week, creating a “Garage Band for e-books” could do to book publishing what the advent of the blogging platform did for short-form self-publishing on the Web. And it’s also true that the immersive, interactive experience of learning from the kinds of digital textbooks Apple demoed today has far more potential than print ever did.
If the company’s efforts are going to help revolutionize textbooks and education, it’s going to be some time before that happens, and they’re not going to do it alone.
Costly and Not Cross-Platform
Apple released the second version of its iBooks app for iOS today, which includes access to the new textbook titles. One thing the company did not announce is that the app is coming to other platforms. Granted, the iPad is still the leader of the tablet market, but Android is slowly catching up and Amazon just released a device geared toward content consumption that costs less than half of the entry level iPad. And it’s growing fast.
Of course, Apple ultimately wants to sell more of its hardware, but if it really wants its textbook initiative to truly take off, it will have to develop apps for other platforms, just as Amazon has done with its Kindle apps.
Another barrier to widespread adoption of this model is the cost of the iPad. It starts at $500, which is not something every American family can afford, especially with an economy in flux. With hundreds of “pages” of content, 3D interactive graphics, embedded video and other bells and whistles, we have to imagine these books aren’t particularly light on file size. As the books accumulate over time, alongside other content stored on the iPad, the 16 GB entry level model may no longer cut it, making it an even more expensive investment.
Not Aimed at the College Market (and Did We Mention the iPad is Expensive?)
The cost issue might be mitigated somewhat if the initiative were not targeted exclusively at high school students.
At least for the time being, Apple’s digital textbooks are targeted primarily at high school students. That fact alone presents a few roadblocks to the initiative being truly disruptive. For one, not every high school student in the United States can afford a $500 tablet device. Apple may well end up dropping the price when they launch the iPad 3 in a few weeks, but even then we’re probably still talking about a several-hundred-dollar gadget. Many middle and upper class families can afford that, but kids in inner city schools and other low-income areas, some of which can barely afford enough paper textbooks, aren’t going to be learning from iPads anytime soon.
For college students, investing in an iPad or similar device to replace textbooks makes simple economic sense. A single semester’s worth of textbooks can easily approach the cost of an iPad. If the e-books available on the device are drastically less expensive than their paper counterparts, it would be foolish not to make the digital switch. Of course, how dramatically prices would drop remains to be seen.
Apple is Partnering With Big Publishers, Not Killing Them
College textbooks are enormously, obscenely profitable for the the companies that print them. In fact, they’ve come up with all kinds of creative ways of milking more money out of students. Textbooks about ancient history will be revised and re-issued every other semester and the company will package supplementary CD-ROM’s and other digital learning materials, using them as a justification to jack up the price.
To get its new initiative off the ground, Apple is partnering with major publishers like McGraw Hill, Pearson and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. For the high school market, perhaps those companies can afford to agree to a $15-per-book price tag. But when it comes to higher education, publishers are unlikely to allow a $180 biology print textbook be replaced with a $15 e-book. That would cut into their profits pretty dramatically. At the same time, interactive e-textbooks can’t be resold once they’re used, so perhaps the publishers can be convinced that their e-book revenues will be replenished on a semesterly basis without fail.
Interestingly, at the same time that Apple has unveiled major partnerships with textbooks publishers, it also unleashed what appears to be a powerful, easy-to-use publishing toolkit for producing those books. If independent authors manage to create enough competition, it’s possible that bigger publishers will have no choice but to play ball with Apple’s preferred pricing for textbooks.
Apple’s Not the Only Player
There’s little reason to doubt that a decade from now, the classroom and the tools in it will look very different from what students are accustomed to today. The textbook is indeed one of the educational tools that is most in need of a digital makeover. When paper textbooks are finally a thing of the past, it won’t have been Apple’s efforts alone that got us there.
For one, education is already being blown wide open by the Web. The mere concepts of “the lecture” and “the textbook” begin to look antiquated in light of things like Khan Academy, Wikipedia, Wolfram Alpha, iTunes U and MIT’s Open Courseware.
Those examples are just the tip of the iceberg. You’d be hard-pressed to find a student in the U.S. today that isn’t already using the Internet to supplement their educational experience to some extent. Apple is well aware of the changes that are already underway. That’s why they’re doing this. That’s why their DIY publishing tools include the ability pull in pieces of the Web and incorporate HTML5 and JavaScript.
Apple is also not the first company to try to re-imagine the textbook for a digital world. The so-called “smartbooks” offered by e-textbook startup Inking are in some ways more advanced than what Apple is bringing to the table. Other companies already active in this space include Chegg and Kno, as Audrey Watters points out on Hack Education.
Indeed, Apple is anything but the first entrant into this space. Not that that’s stopped them in the past.
Lead textbook photo by Stephen Cummings. Phil Schiller photo courtesy of The Verge.
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Google Won’t Erase Links to Max Mosley Hooker Orgy Stories, So He Sues
Dec 15th
In his epic battle for privacy for rich and famous people, Max Mosley has taken aim at a new target: The Intrawebz and their evil “search machine” kingpin, Google. The search engine giant has refused to manipulate results in order to r…
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Microsoft to Developers: Sorry About the Whole IE6 Thing, Won’t Happen Again
Dec 15th
Dear Web developers: Microsoft knows how many hours of your life have been wasted trying to troubleshoot designs and functionality for Internet Explorer 6, and they’re sorry. They promise they’re never going to do that to you again.
To ensure such nightmares are never relived, the company will start rolling out automatic upgrades to Internet Explorer across Windows 7, Vista and XP, the company announced in a blog post today. Rather than relying on users to update the browser themselves or requiring you to trick your parents into updating theirs around the holidays, Windows will update to the latest compatible version of IE on its own.
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By adding this feature, Microsoft borrows from other browser manufacturers like Google, who enables automatic updates for its frequently-updated Chrome browser. If this kind of functionality were available on Windows ten years ago, it could have help saved many headaches for front-end developers and designers, who have long wrestled with multiple versions of IE to get things looking just right. Microsoft has come a long way in terms of supporting the latest Web standards in recent versions of IE, but version 6 has stubbornly lived on. It’s now to the point where even Microsoft can’t wait to see it die.
This doesn’t mean that every Windows machine on the planet will automatically be updated to the latest stable build of Internet Explorer overnight. The automatic update feature will be rolled out in Australia and Brazil first, and then to other countries over the course of next year. The software will upgrade to the most recent version of the browser that’s compatible with one’s operating system. Thus, Windows XP users can only go as high as Internet Explorer 8. Still, that’s a huge and worthwhile improvement from version 6.
The feature will be available to most Windows users, but it can easily be disabled, much to the delight of corporate IT departments everywhere.
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WiFi Won’t Do; Why I Need 3G On My Tablet
Dec 13th
My tablet goes everywhere I go. I use it for work, for navigation, for music streaming in the car. It always has my work email, which I do not push to my Android phone for fear that it would never stop buzzing. I tweet from everywhere, all the time with it, read my Kindle and various news apps.
I fundamentally disagree with the assertions made by the R. Paul Singh, the CEO of SocialNuggets, in his guest post on ReadWriteMobile earlier today. He said that Wi-Fi is all you need for a tablet. I want to have 3G/4G cellular data on my tablet. Otherwise the device is more or less useless to me outside the house.
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The Cost Is Not As Great As You Think
Foremost, let’s be clear here. My 3G tablet is an iPad 2. I pay Verizon $20 a month for 1GB of cellular data. I can change that plan on a month-by-month basis if I so chose, dropping it one month or increasing my limit the next month. So, I pay $240 a year for the convenience of having connectivity everywhere I go, $480 for two years. Less if I drop the coverage for months when I know I am not going to need it. As of yet, I have not needed to change the plan once.
For most users, 1GB is going to be more than enough data for their particular uses. Twitter, maps, email, news apps and nominal music streaming do not consume mass amounts of bandwidth. With the extra cost of a 3G iPad, my total cost-of-ownership is about $600 more over a two-year span. Again, less if I turn off the cellular plan for months when I do not need it. The choice is a decent ploy that Apple has pushed on the carriers.
The carriers do not sell iPads on contract. The device costs the same no matter where you go. If you are looking at buying an Android tablet you then will get into the realm of carrier contracts. That was more of a concern before Android tablets started dropping in price. The first real Android Honeycomb tablet, the Motorola Xoom, cost $799 without a contract, $599 with a contract when it was first released. Samsung 10.1-inch Galaxy Tabs costs $529 on a two-year contract then the data plan you get roped into. What Singh maybe should have said is that you may not want to buy an Android tablet that has 3G/4G capabilities.
Image: Motorola Xoom
Wi-Fi Is NOT Everywhere Nor Is It Always Free
I hate coffee shops. I do not spend a lot of time in McDonalds or Starbucks. The coffee shop down the street from me in Boston charges for Wi-Fi as do most of the other coffee shops in the general area. The fact of the matter is that, while Wi-Fi is increasing in prevalence across the U.S. and Europe, it is far from ubiquitous. Also, I do not like shared Wi-Fi. There is little I dislike more in life than having to pay to use someone else’s insecure Wi-Fi.
Another place where I rely on the my tablet is in the car. The car does not have Wi-Fi unless it is one of those new-fangled cars that come with its own hotspot. My iPad and Android smartphone have completely replaced physical maps for me. The maps app is more powerful and accurate on the iPad than on my Android.
I have stopped getting lost. It does not matter where I am, I rely on my 3G tablet to show me where I am. Part of Singh’s argument also has a tint of urban-bias. Yes, in the city, there is going to be more Wi-Fi available with AT&T Hot Spots, restaurants and coffee shops offering wireless service. All those different Wi-Fi spots are not going to help me when walking down the street looking at a map trying to figure out where I am going or if I leave the city. A good portion of the U.S. does not have ubiquitous Wi-Fi. In terms of abroad, I was recently in London and Montreal trying to figure out where I was. I had no cellular data because international roaming rates are outrageous. So, I tried logging onto various Wi-Fi spots available around me. This proved to be a complete nightmare, especially as I started moving around the cities.
I do not believe that I have to make a concerted effort to pre-cache all of my reading material on Wi-Fi before I leave the house. Maybe it is part of my profession, but I want the news, in real time, wherever I am. If I am getting on a plane? Sure, I will pre-cache my reading material but the plane is one of the only bandwidth-less places in all of modern society.
Hotspots & Tethering Are Not Always Practical
Mobile hotspots through carriers like Sprint, AT&T and Verizon are not really cheap. The hotspot receiver is often on contract and will cost anywhere from nothing to $250. On Sprint, you get 3GB a month for $35 with 6GB and 12GB options for $50 and $80. You want to talk about total-cost-of-ownership (TCO)? A MiFi hotspot is going to cost you more than most any tablet data plan. It is also probably more data than you need for your tablet. The people who use these are professionals that are often out of range of Wi-Fi or are trying to create their own secure and private connection at a crowded conference (smart reporters love them, if they can write the bill off to their companies).
Then there is the matter of tethering you phone. What that comes down to is you are more or less going to spend the same amount with that tethering plan that you would on tablet. It is convenient at times to tether your computer but the tablet is a stand alone device. Users should not need to rely on one device to power the other. The rates for tethering from At&T and Verizon are the same they charge for data on the iPad. AT&T charges an extra $10 for a single GB above the threshold.
There is then the issue of the battery. When you turn on tethering on your device, a pop-up warning comes up saying that you might want to make sure you plug your device in because it is about to suck through its battery. What if I am trying to navigate or I am not close to a charger but would like to conserve my battery? My tablet becomes useless because I am going to burn through my phone’s battery. What am I stuck with then? A tablet without connectivity and a smartphone with no battery.
To be honest, the lack of 3G/4G is not going to affect the majority of users. It has been pretty well established that most people use their tablets in the home anyway. Wi-Fi tablets outsell cellular versions. Mostly, that is because they are cheaper.
Is Wi-Fi fine for your tablet? Maybe. But that is only if you do not plan on using the device to its fullest functionality anywhere you are at anytime. To me, that is handcuffing the capabilities of these great devices.
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Link-Assistant.Com: Yahoo! Site Explorer Shutdown Won’t Affect SEO SpyGlass – SBWire (press release)
Nov 28th
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Link-Assistant.Com: Yahoo! Site Explorer Shutdown Won't Affect SEO SpyGlass
SBWire (press release) Com, the leading SEO software provider, has made an official statement that Yahoo! Site Explorer closure won't diminish the value SEO SpyGlass brings to its users. According to Viktar Khamianok, CEO at Link-Assistant.Com, “SEO SpyGlass, the backlink … |
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