08.22.10
e-Books
Interesting infographic. How long until the 10:1 book to e-book sales total is 1:1 or even 1:10?
Click on the picture to zoom-in…
06.28.10
Bilsky News
The Bilsky Supreme Court news is out…
The lower court’s decision is affirmed, and so no patent for Bilski. However, business methods are not found totally ineligible for patents, just this one. Not everyone on the court agrees in all particulars. So it’s complicated, and obviously not all we hoped for.
From Groklaw.
06.26.10
AT&T iPad Bait and Switch
I’ve never been a big fan of class action lawsuits, but AT&T deserves to be called out for this one…
The complaint alleges that iPad purchasers who initially opted for the limited data plan have been stripped of their ability to later opt for the unlimited data plan. Even those customers currently signed up for the unlimited data plan cannot switch to a limited plan and then later opt for the unlimited plan, as was originally promised. Apple and AT&T announced this policy change with less than one week’s notice to their customers and only about a month after Apple and AT&T began selling 3G-enabled iPads.
The complaint further alleges that consumers were convinced to opt for the more expensive 3G model, costing $130 more than a non-3G model, based on the advertised benefits of having an unlimited data plan and the freedom to continually switch in and out of that plan as their demand for data changed.
“The availability of an unlimited data plan was a key reason why consumers paid the extra $130 charge to access the 3-G network, and their ability to switch in and out of the unlimited data plan was also an important consideration in the decision to purchase an iPad,” stated Lieff Cabraser attorney Michael W. Sobol. “The complaint alleges that Apple and AT&T should have known at the time they were promoting the availability of unlimited data plans, they were not going to keep that promise.
From Ars.
05.22.10
Nice Little Touches
This is a nice touch from the Kindle app for the iPad… depending on the time of day that you’re using the app, the background changes to have a dusk or night sky…
03.03.10
Plate Tectonics
An interesting view of what the tectonic plates look like. The Nazca plate is the one that caused all the trouble in Chile…
(click to zoom in)
From DRB. Also on DRB’s page is what things should look like in 50, 150, and 250 million more years after expected tectonic movement.
02.23.10
Flight Aware
File this in the category, “stuff I’d like to find later”…
The FlightAware.com web site provides free flight tracking of private and commercial flights as well as airport activity, flight and airport maps with weather, and aviation statistics for airports in the United States.
Users can also search by airline flight number or the aircraft’s registration if it is a non-commercial flight, or select a flight from an airport’s status page. Information provided includes:
- Proposed departure and arrival times
- Actual departure and arrival times
- Proposed and actual altitude
- Proposed and actual airspeed
- Four month history of that flight or aircraft
- Time elapsed and time remaining
- Filed Route
Details from the Wikipedia entry.
01.30.10
Information Wants to Be Free
Stewart Brand was the person who originally coined the phrase “information wants to be free”, but apparently, his original quote was actually about the paradox of the value of information…
On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it’s so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other.
As told in Chris Anderson’s book Free.
01.27.10
My Take on the iPad
From Daring Fireball 4 weeks ago…
Like all Apple products, The Tablet will do less than we expect but the things it does do, it will do insanely well. It will offer a fraction of the functionality of a MacBook — but that fraction will be way more fun. The same myopic feature-checklist-obsessed critics who dismissed the iPhone will focus on all that The Tablet doesn’t do and declare that this time, Apple really has fucked up but good. The rest of us will get in line to buy one.
Sounds like he had a frickin crystal ball.
As for the name… yes, it sucks. But all new names suck when they’re first announced. The name iPod was derided when it was first launched. Those of us who were at Accenture when it was renamed thought the name was horrible… But those feelings change, and the awkward, nonsensical names — we get used to them, and then over time they are unique trademarks that it is hard to remember our original derision.
If you really want need multitasking, or a camera… go get a netbook instead. This iPad thing isn’t for everyone, and we should all just get comfortable with that. Innovation is rarely without critics. Oddly, I’ve never heard someone complain about how a Kindle doesn’t allow multi-tasking…
I have to admit the actual iPad feature set underwhelms compared to many of the wacky rumors that were swirling before launch (where’s the unicorn menu item?)… but it’s still the product I’ve been waiting years for. The only real technology that is really new in the iPad is the Apple A4 processor. So, if there’s nothing new, why haven’t we seen this stuff packaged together in a product before? Why aren’t there other tablets already available to choose from?
My biggest gripe about the iPhone is the requirement of an AT&T 2 year contract (even if you pay an unsubsidized price). With the iPad you have more options — no contract, or skip on the cell connectivity completely. Sure AT&T still sucks, but now I am not forced into a 2 year contract, even if I want to use the AT&T data plan. The addition of no-contract cell data plans may end up being the biggest innovation of the iPad.
Another plus — this is the first “computer” I would recommend to my grandmother. It’s the right device for someone who “doesn’t get computers” or for someone who doesn’t need anything beyond email, facebook, and a browser. You might want multi-tasking to run Pandora and AIM in the background, but a lot of people wouldn’t even notice that was “missing”. (Sidebar: the iPhone does support multi-tasking, just not for the apps you want. The phone and iPod apps can run in the background while you run other apps.)
Could the iPad be better as a product? Of course. But I, for one, am excited.
