From the monthly archives:

August 2010

Just how bad is Flash on Android?

August 31, 2010

Pretty bad. In fact, if you’re thinking video, utterly unusable. Kevin Tofel of GigaOm and JKOnTheRun is someone who isn’t a dyed in the wool iPhone or Apple fan. In fact, he replaced his iPhone with a Nexus One in January (a process that I’ve recently gone through, more of which anon). And that’s why [...]

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“We’re putting the band back together. We’re on a mission from God”

August 29, 2010

Well, it was a nice break. But I think I have unfinished business here. Stay tuned…

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The end, goodbye (and hello)

August 13, 2010

I’ve been writing here for over eight years, and in that time what started out as a simple collection of links and bits and bobs that I  found interesting has mushroomed into something huge. I’ve no idea how many posts. But I’m tired of it, so I’m effectively closing the site. I’m not taking it [...]

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When mobile carriers ruled the world

August 12, 2010

If you want to understand what happens when you allow the mobile carriers to dictate hardware, look no further than the fate of the Samsung Epic 4G: “The Galaxy S will eventually hit Verizon rebranded as the ‘Fascinate’, but it won’t have the front-facing camera. Likewise, AT&T will get the phone, rebranded as the ‘Captivate’, [...]

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Apple reassures FutureTap: “We’re not making a patent claim on your work”

August 11, 2010

Remember the story about how Apple was stealing a third-party app developer’s work and patenting it? At the time, I explained in a long post that the patent was nothing to do with FutureTap’s excellent WhereTo? application. And, after consulting a patent lawyer who managed to get in touch with Apple’s patent lawyers, that’s exactly [...]

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My one comment on the Google/Verizon net neutrality announcement

August 10, 2010

I don’t have enough time to do a long post on Google and Verizon, but I will say this: claiming you’re preserving network neutrality on the Internet by redefining what “Internet” means isn’t going to wash. If “Internet” can be defined as “wired-only” and “not including any random ‘Premium’ services we might think of”, then [...]

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Why Andy Ihnatko is my favourite tech writer

August 6, 2010

Because he writes stuff as good as this: “As for Google? Well, the death of Wave doesn’t matter to Google. They still have their ad business, and their search, and their maps, and their mail, and their mobile OS, and a hundred other projects going on at once. Is that their problem? Has Google become [...]

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iPads only selling to the Apple faithful? Only if you count anyone with an iPod as “the faithful”

August 6, 2010

In search of a headline, Marketing Magazine cites a YouGov survey as showing that the iPad is only “reaching out to the converted“: “In the two months since the iPad launched in the UK, YouGov has found that 96% of the 713 iPad owners surveyed owned products such as an iPod, iPhone or Mac.” Why [...]

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No, Apple isn’t patenting developers’ work. But it still has a bigger problem

August 6, 2010

Patents are hard to understand. If any government wants to reduce the costs of running a business quickly and easily, it should revamp the system of patents to make them easy for people who aren’t lawyers to read, and harder to actually get in the first place. So it’s no surprise that there’s been a [...]

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The death of Google Wave means a step-change at Google

August 5, 2010

It would be easy to write an “I told you so” post about the demise of Google Wave. Launched with the kind of fanfare that tempts hubris, it was quickly abandoned by even the most fervent of Google-boosters. Scoble, to his credit, was bang on the mark after just a few days. What I find [...]

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