Microsoft tablets - straight from Ballmer

 Posted on June 30, 2010  |  Erik

The Loop: “During the question period, Ballmer said Microsoft’s tablet will be made with Intel processors and Windows 7, instead of its mobile Windows platform. “We’re coming,” he said. “We’re coming full guns. The operating system is called Windows.”” Sigh. Isn’t the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result? The reason the iPad is doing so well is that it’s an entirely new take on how to interact with a device in this form factor, from the UI, to the application provisioning, to the administration (or more specificaly, the lack thereof). [Read More]

The Mac Mini is definitively not dead

 Posted on June 15, 2010  |  Erik

Sigh - why oh why is Apple doing this to me? One after the other, they’re launching products that I really want over a very short time period. First the iPad, then the iPhone 4 and now a Mac Mini upgrade with all of the features I’ve been waiting for: built-in HDMI, easy access to the memory, even more elegant design. My budget hurts. There’s only one thing really wrong with this picture and that’s the European pricing. [Read More]

iPad charging subtlety

 Posted on June 9, 2010  |  Erik

I just noticed an interesting thing with my iPad and iPhone that are often connected to my MacBook Pro 13". It appears that only one USB port can be in full charging mode and that the order that you connect the devices is important. If I connect the iPhone followed by the iPad, the iPad will not charge (or rather it goes into the trickle charge mode with the standard USB power draw). [Read More]

Stanza for iPad!

 Posted on June 4, 2010  |  Erik

Yay! I just saw this update come along today on the iPhone, and I was worrying that with the Amazon purchase of Lexcycle, Stanza would be left to die quietly. Unfortunately, my wife took the iPad today to show off at her office, so I can’t check it out right away. A few of the very useful tidbits that make it (to me) more useful than iBooks or the Kindle is the fact that this version will also let you send it ePub files, so ePubs on your DropBox account or received by mail are importable directly without having to resort to iTunes. [Read More]

iPad interaction lessons

 Posted on June 3, 2010  |  Erik

OK - here I am almost one week in with the iPad (16Gb Wifi) and a few general thoughts on usage. Dock or not? As expected, using a touchscreen positioned like a regular monitor is tiring and inefficient. The iPad dock is great for use with an external keyboard, but without some kind of pointing device, any on screen UI interaction is a pain. In hindsight, I probably didn’t need to buy the dock. [Read More]

Re: John Battelle's Is The iPad A Disappointment?

 Posted on June 3, 2010  |  Erik

Wow - there’s a huge pile of confusion in this article. A little judicious use of Google to fact check before writing would be in keeping for someone so well informed about search technologies… Is The iPad A Disappointment? Depends When You Sold Your AOL Stock. - John Battelle’s SearchblogI hardly know where to start on this, so I’m just going to try and hit a few of the highlights. First off, his kick off point: [Read More]

PCs are like trucks

 Posted on June 2, 2010  |  Erik

One of the comments made by Steve Jobs at his interview at D8 struck a chord with me since I was trying on a very similar metaphor to try and explain the iPad and where it fits in our current computing ecosystem. Quoted from Macworld: PCs are like trucks: While talking about the iPad and whether tablet devices are bound to replace the laptop, Jobs resorted to an analogy involving motor vehicles. [Read More]

Re: ongoing by Tim Bray · Corporations and Emotions

 Posted on June 1, 2010  |  Erik

ongoing by Tim Bray · Corporations and EmotionsI think that Tim hits the nail on the head here. An outpouring of vitriol directed solely at BP does nothing to deal with the underlying issues of the industry as a whole. I suspect very strongly that there are no big players in this industry with their hands completely clean of the kind of mismanagement and regulatory manipulation that BP has been accused of. [Read More]

Violin Memory Inc Release New All-SSD Array

 Posted on June 1, 2010  |  Erik

I think that we’re really starting to hit a watershed with the use of SSD and DRAM based storage arrays. Witness the latest announcements from Violin as published over on the Storage Architect: Enterprise Computing: Violin Memory Inc Release New All-SSD Array: " The Violin Approach So what happens if you can remove the cost issues and buy an SSD-based array for the same price as tier 1 storage? This is the route Violin Memory are taking to market – make the SSD storage array as closely priced to tier 1 arrays as possible. [Read More]

2M iPads in less than 60 days

 Posted on May 31, 2010  |  Erik

That’s just insane. We’re talking about a run rate of close to 25 iPads per minute being sold. To top this off, I can point to significant anecdotal information in my immediate entourage of people that are planning to buy one, but were just waiting on mine so they could play with it first. :-) This 2M is not just the early adopter geek crowd, but a much richer and varied consumer base. [Read More]