April 2010
Missing a Bossanova
by Volker Weber
[via JPL]
Nokia N8
by Volker Weber
Nokia announced the first Symbian^3 device this week. It's not out yet, but I am looking forward to trying it out. My expectation is that Symbian needs another rev to ^4, before it catches up with the competition, but I am holding my judgement on the N8 until I have used one.
Facebook's Eroding Privacy Policy: A Timeline
by Volker Weber
Interesting summary by the EFF:
Since its incorporation just over five years ago, Facebook has undergone a remarkable transformation. When it started, it was a private space for communication with a group of your choice. Soon, it transformed into a platform where much of your information is public by default. Today, it has become a platform where you have no choice but to make certain information public, and this public information may be shared by Facebook with its partner websites and used to target ads.
To help illustrate Facebook's shift away from privacy, we have highlighted some excerpts from Facebook's privacy policies over the years. Watch closely as your privacy disappears, one small change at a time!
Je ne comprends pas
by Volker Weber
Sometimes I am puzzled and confused. I did not understand the New Economy. I would not understand how it was supposed to work. And as we found out, it didn't.
Currently I am puzzled on a much smaller scale. I am watching a marketing effort I don't understand. I can't say it's wrong. I just don't understand it. Imagine you would take a solid business to a hip event, and people would completely ignore you. Then you organize a hip event, and your business would not understand it. You can always fake success by letting your choir do all the dancing, but why wouldn't you rather play the game you are good at?
I have to confess, while I think the Palm Pre is a very solid device, I did not understand the Pre campaign either. Marketing isn't something I could work in. But I do admire the people who are good at it. Engineers tend to think you just have to build a great product and it will sell itself. It won't.
Jobs on Flash: Hypocrisy So Thick You Could Cut it with a Knife
by Volker Weber
Holier-than-thou, an adjective, meaning "marked by an air of superior piety or morality". Everybody has moments in their life where they get into a "holier-than-thou" attitude, and I think Steve Jobs' open letter regarding Adobe, and Flash in particular, really fits the bill. There are three specific points I want to address to illustrate just how holier-than-thou, hypocritical, and misleading this letter really is.
Time to get out once more
by Volker Weber
Tomorrow will be a lot colder and possibly rainy. According to the Nexus.
Free MP3 tracks from the upcoming Vital EP
by Volker Weber
Airport - 5:32
Going Back - 3:44
Read It - 4:36
Conversate - 2:40
Saying - 4:56
The News - 5:23
HP to Acquire Palm for $1.2 Billion
by Volker Weber
HP and Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which HP will purchase Palm, a provider of smartphones powered by the Palm webOS mobile operating system, at a price of $5.70 per share of Palm common stock in cash or an enterprise value of approximately $1.2 billion. The transaction has been approved by the HP and Palm boards of directors.
Interesting tidbit:
Today at 5 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. PT, HP will conduct a live audio webcast for financial analysts and stockholders to discuss HP’s agreement to acquire Palm. The webcast will be hosted by Todd Bradley and is accessible at www.hp.com/investor/webcast.
Todd Bradley is executive vice president of HP’s Personal Systems Group. Prior to joining HP, Bradley was CEO of Palm.
OpenWGA is ...
by Volker Weber
... is an open source Java based high end content management and web application development platform.
It packages an integrated hierarchical document repository and a full featured JSP-tag-library based template engine. The repository features multi language support, versioning and approval workflows and comes with easy manageable access control.
The OpenWGA runtime system features user authentication, caching, security features and transparent database access.
One of my favorite places away from home
by Volker Weber
BlackBerry 6 sneak peak at WES 2010
by Volker Weber
Mixed Tape 32 "Orange Distortion" is out
by Volker Weber
01 DESTROY SHE SAYS | ZOE.LEELA | 3:40
02 SAID ANYWAY | CRASH & BERNEY | 3:59
03 CALL ME UP | JOURNALS | 3:12
04 WATERFALL | SMASHIN DRUMKITS | 3:17
05 GOOD THINGS | JON SPANYOL | 3:33
06 WORDPLAY | DAZZ & KEKO | 4:42
07 TESTIFY | STATE OF THE ARTIST | 3:26
08 RUN AWAY | SONNYMOON | 3:20
09 MANGO | PROJEKTIONISTA | 2:48
10 SOMEBODY BUT ME | THE 4COLOURS | 3:23
[via Alper]
Two new Pearls - which one do you like better?
by Volker Weber
Läcker + Ekologisk
by Volker Weber
Gartenlust
by Volker Weber
Two blocks from our home ...
New Facebook 1.2 app for webOS
by Volker Weber
The 1.2 update includes customizable webOS notifications, support for Facebook videos, keyboard shortcuts, and more. The Facebook for WebOS application makes it easy to stay connected with your friends. With the application you can share status updates, upload photos, check out your News Feed, browse your friends photo album and profiles, get your upcoming events and check on your messages inbox wherever you are. The app also integrates with other aspects of Palm webOS and Synergy, so you can instantly view Facebook info in your Contacts app or use the Photo app to upload directly to Facebook.
Gravity to the rhythm
by Volker Weber
How to protect your privacy on Facebook
by Volker Weber
Got to this page and uncheck the checkbox behind "Instant Personalization". Also remove all checkmarks on this page.
You also have to block the applications Microsoft Docs, Pandora and Yelp.
Smart phones can be small
by Volker Weber
Last week the UPS guy brought two new phones: a Palm Pre Plus and a Palm Pixi Plus. The Pre Plus is very similar to the Pre. It loses a button (the touch area performs the same function without the button), it has an improved slider mechanism, and more importantly doubles both storage and RAM. The Pixi Plus is a new device to this market. The Pixi has never been sold here. And it's a very interesting one.
Both the Pre+ and the Pixi+ have a new keyboard layout. Orange is gone as a secondary color, and Palm has moved around a few punctuation marks for a simple enhancement: ä is now the secondary character on a, ö on o, ü on u and ß on s. This is a very smart layout that others could copy. I like the Pixi+ keyboard better than the Pre+, since the keys are somewhat higher. Also, the candybar Pixi+ holds nicer than then slider Pre+ when typing.
I never missed the button in the touch area below the screen, and frankly, it's a minor change. The big change is doubling the RAM. Apple is misleading you regarding multi-tasking. It's not about battery, it's about memory. Doubling the RAM speeds up everything when you have a couple of apps open at a time. For me that would be Mail, Calendar, Tweed, Facebook, Evernote, Phone.
The Pixi+ is fast when you have one or two apps open, but it suffers when you put the load above on the phone. Due to its weaker processor it also won't run 3D games. The screen resolution is only 320x400 instead 320x480 on the Pre+. It is very sharp, but I find it lacking out in the sun.
What I do like about the Pixi+ is the size. It's a very small phone compared to other devices. An iPhone is huge in comparison. But the Pixi packs the same punch. It will even work as a mobile WLAN router. Imagine you retire to a hotel room. Plug in the Pixi to recharge, open the mobile hotspot app and enable the WLAN router. Then use your notebook to access the internet untethered. Up to six devices can connect.
What you really want is the optional Touchstone wireless charger. It spares you from fiddling with the small doors that hide the microUSB port. Just place the phone on the Touchstone and it will hold it in place while charging it. The Pre+ now comes with the required back, but for the Pixi+ you have to buy it extra. If you experience the behaviour below, it's broken and needs to be replaced.
Both phones will be sold by O2 and Vodafone a week from now in Germany. If you have a Pre, I don't think you need to upgrade to a Plus. Should you consider buying one now that Palm isn't really "winning"? I don't think the platform will go away, even if Palm fails. The App Catalog is growing quickly (more than 10% over the last two weeks), Palm has just released a new development kit, so the jury is still out. O2 Germany has said the Pre has been the best selling smartphone for the company so far.
I did not have to bet with my own money, since these are test units. I certainly like using them. The Pre has returned to the Palm mothership, so will the Pixi Plus. The Pre Plus wins an editor-refuses-to-give-it-back award for being the more powerful of the two machines. But it was very close. If the Pixi would not have shown me its limits while multitasking, it would have won hands down for looks and the trim body.
Air traffic is picking up
by Volker Weber
And it's not VFR in lower flight levels. LH494, service from Frankfurt to Calgary, for instance is cruising at 33,000 ft in this picture.
Introducing Project Ares
by Volker Weber
Project Ares is the first mobile development environment hosted entirely in a browser, lowering the barriers for web developers to jump into mobile development.
A Next Generation iPhone Walks Into A Bar…
by Volker Weber
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a guy walks into a bar. No, a guy walks into a bar with an iPhone. No, a guy walks into a bar with a next-generation iPhone disguised as a current-generation iPhone. No, a guy walks into a bar with his next-generation iPhone disguised as a current-generation iPhone and leaves it there. Okay, we’ve never heard anything like this before.
Very good reporting from Techcrunch. Read the whole story.
IBM Reports First-Quarter Earnings
by Volker Weber
Revenues from the Software segment were $5.0 billion, an increase of 11 percent (5 percent, adjusting for currency) compared with the first quarter of 2009. Revenues from IBM’s key middleware products, which include WebSphere, Information Management, Tivoli, Lotus and Rational products, were $2.8 billion, an increase of 13 percent (8 percent, adjusting for currency) versus the first quarter of 2009. Operating systems revenues of $499 million increased 1 percent (down 3 percent, adjusting for currency) compared with the prior-year quarter.
Revenues from the WebSphere family of software products ... increased 13 percent year over year. Revenues from Information Management software ... increased 11 percent. Revenues from Tivoli software ... increased 23 percent, and revenues from Lotus software ... increased 1 percent. Revenues from Rational software ... increased 7 percent.
Numbers for the individual brands are not reported 'adjusting for currency'. Without that adjustment, things look better than last quarter, especially for Tivoli.
Free Lonely Planet iPhone guides for stranded travellers
by Volker Weber
In response to the widespread chaos caused by the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano, Lonely Planet is offering 13 of its European iPhone guides free.
The guides will be free until Thursday, 22 April from the iTunes app store:
- Amsterdam
- Barcelona
- Berlin
- Budapest
- Copenhagen
- Istanbul
- London
- Moscow
- Munich
- Paris
- Rome
- Stockholm
- Vienna
Auch in Sachen Asche weiß Lotus was
by Volker Weber
Von Franz Mattes am Flughafen Stuttgart fotografiert. Wobei Anspruch und Realität nicht immer übereinstimmen. ;-)
IBM clarifies Designer licensing
by Volker Weber
In Domino Designer 8.5.2, we're clarifying the license to match the original intent -- you will be able to use the free Designer to "develop and test applications in a non-production environment". In the interim, if you decide to use Domino in the Amazon EC2 cloud, the agreement for that service also allows you to use the free Domino Designer there as well (since the EC2 instance is also restricted to develop/test).
Further down in the comments:
... simply, we don't sell Domino Designer anymore. We sell two CALs -- messaging and enterprise. To access a production Domino server with Designer, you need a Domino Enterprise CAL (US$159 list price). Otherwise, it's free to download and use.
Summary: IBM wants you to develop Notes/Domino applications. They do not want to give away the Notes client. Since Designer is a superset of the Notes client, the legalese is complicated.
Ramsauer
by Volker Weber
Konstantin Klein: Liebe Internet-Nichtgutfinder
by Volker Weber
Liebe Internet-Nichtgutfinder ...wie ich höre, waren einige von euch (Linkt euch doch selbst!™) in der vergangenen Woche auf dem im Berlin stattgefunden habenden Kongress der Internet-Gutfinder und haben nacheinander oder auch gleichzeitig den Kongress, die versammelten Internet-Gutfinder und das Internet an sich nicht gut gefunden. Das, liebe Internet-Nichtgutfinder, ist ebenso euer gutes Recht wie darüber, dass ihr das alles nicht gut findet, in Publikationen zu schreiben, die ebenfalls dafür bekannt sind, Internet-Gutfinder-Kongresse, Internet-Gutfinder und das Internet an sich nicht gut zu finden.
Lufthansa over Darmstadt
by Volker Weber
Photo Tommy Igiel
Lufthansa is moving aircrafts to Frankfurt. They are flying low and without passengers.
Finest club music from Vienna
by Volker Weber
Buy it on iTunes or subscribe to a mailing list to get it for free. If you do not want a newsletter you should use the direct download links for CD1 and CD2.
[via @leyrer]
Office 2010 Product Guides
by Volker Weber
The Office 2010 product guides provide an overview of what’s new in your favorite Microsoft Office programs and a deeper look at benefits across all Office 2010 programs, as well as Office Web Apps and Office Mobile 2010.
The G11 was a good purchase
by Volker Weber
The G11 is now 3 months old, and I have no regrets. I keep it close by, so most of my photos (example) today are shot with this camera. And I have to conclude that it is way smarter than I am. In full automatic it makes better shots than I can produce with my DSLR in full manual.
Maybe I should retire from the SLR shooting.
Wer wird denn gleich in die Luft gehen?
by Volker Weber
How to get video into your mobile device, or how to extract MP3 from Youtube
by Volker Weber
I get asked this question so often, even from very literate people, that I should repeat it once more. You want to convert video for your iPad, iPod, iPhone? Found this really old song on Youtube and don't know how to get the audio from it to play on your mobile? It's quite simple:
Step one: get a Mac. That was the obvious one.
Step two: install Evom. Hint: that's move backwards.
Step three: drag the favicon from Safari (or the file you already have) to Evom.
Step four: select your target.
Step five: let Evom do its thing. Drag more sources to the window if you need to. Yes, while it's busy.
Step six: enjoy.
Data usage off - an important switch
by Volker Weber
Use WLAN only without a data tariff.
Norwegian government run from an iPad
by Volker Weber
The prime minister of Norway was among those stranded by the closure of European airspace. Jens Stoltenberg, who was in New York for President Barack Obama's nuclear summit, is running the Norwegian government from the United States via his new iPad, his press secretary Sindre Fossum Beyer said.
Lotus @ re:publica 2010
by Volker Weber
Ich habe ja schon befürchtet, dass Lotus auf etwas verhaltene Reaktionen stößt, aber dass es so schlimm kommt, habe ich dann doch nicht gedacht.
3Sat sucht Publikum ... Das ist woanders.
Kids, don't try this at home
by Volker Weber
Palm Pre Plus und Pixi Plus bei O2 und Vodafone
by Volker Weber
München, 13. April 2010 — Palm gibt heute bekannt, dass die Palm Pre Plus und Palm Pixi Plus Smartphones ab dem 28. April 2010 sowohl bei o2 als auch bei Vodafone erhältlich sein werden.
Wesentlicher Vorteil gegenüber dem Pre ohne Plus: mehr Speicher, damit vermutlich schneller, und mit der für den Touchstone notwendigen Rückseite. Ein Pixi habe ich noch nie in der Hand gehabt.
Ich schleppe übrigens gerade den Pre rum. So ein wandelnder WLAN Access Point ist 'ne dolle Sache.
Nokia announces three new messaging devices: C3, C6 and E5
by Volker Weber
Nokia is trying to win this based on price (in Germany, including taxes, before subsidiaries): C3 120€ (2Q10), C6 290€ (2Q10), E5 239€ (3Q10). Interesing: the launch site mentions prices even lower, before taxes and subsidiaries: 90, 220, 180.
Alle devices have free Ovi maps navigation, access to social media and messaging, qwerty keyboards, the C6 sports a touchscreen. The software is old skool: S40 on C3, S60 V 5 on C6, S60 V 3.2 on the E5.
Bye bye, last.fm?
by Volker Weber
Burried in a lot of words:
These changes also mean that we are retiring our own on-demand track streaming, which we’ve run for the last two years in the US, UK, and Germany.
This would be the end of the long-lasting love affair between my Sonos and last.fm.
Update: Matthew Ogle from Last.fm clarifies that this does not affect radio streaming. What they killed is playing a song on demand, which Sonos did not support anyway.
The next generation of Google Docs
by Volker Weber
Today we are hosting nearly 400 CIOs and IT professionals from around the world at Atmosphere, our inaugural event at the Googleplex dedicated to cloud computing. The discussion is centered on how companies can focus their technology expertise on projects that truly improve their businesses instead of managing complex applications, technology platforms and devices. We are also sharing details about improvements to Google Docs, made possible by a new codebase that will allow us to deliver richer functionality more quickly.
Carbonoptik, Qualitätsanmutung und anderes Geschwurbel
by Volker Weber
Sehr geehrter Autor, liebe Schaltgetriebe-Sportler,
worauf kommt es an? Auf den Eindruck von Agilität oder auf Agilität? Die Motordrehzahl steigt, damit der Motor bei seinem optimalen Betriebspunkt arbeitet. Und durch das CVT-Getriebe kann das Fahrzeug beschleunigen, ohne aus diesem Betriebspunkt herauszufallen. Wenn die gewünschte Geschwindigkeit erreicht ist, dann kann die Motorleistung durch Drehzahlsenkung optimal angepasst werden. Weil das nicht so leicht zu verstehen ist, bietet Audi bei seinem CVT-Getriebe die Simulation von acht festen Übersetzungen an. Damit kann der Traditionalist dann sein Auto so weit verdummen, dass die Agilität sinkt und der Eindruck von Agilität steigt.
Agilität kann man übrigens messen. Dazu verwenden viele Tester gerne die schaltfaule Beschleunigung von 80 auf 120 im höchsten Gang. So ein böses CVT-Getriebe macht diese Messung schwierig, weil es schaltfaul einfach die Übersetzung anpasst. Es sei denn, man verdummt es auf das Denkplateau des Testers.
"Eindruck von Agilität", das nehme ich nun in meine Liste von Fachbegriffen der Brumm-Brumm-Presse gleich hinter Carbonoptik und Qualitätsanmutung auf.
Synergy of pen & touch
by Volker Weber
Pen and touch computing have long-thought to be mutually exclusive methods of human-computer interaction, but as the Microsoft Research project “Manual Deskterity” shows, the two intuitively combined makes for a much powerful input method than each of them might ever be on their own.
[Thanks, Amy]
Spring is finally here
by Volker Weber
... says our young cherry tree. So do the hawthorn:
Research in Motion releases its own BlackBerry Twitter client
by Volker Weber
I have been testing this client for a couple of weeks and have not been very impressed. The release however changes everything. While I was looking at "Please wait" a lot in the beta build, the release is much better.
[via Computerwoche]
Ralph Haupter to lead Microsoft Germany
by Volker Weber
Microsoft just announced, that Ralph Haupter will replace Achim Berg as head of Microsoft Germany. He has been with the company for five years, serving as COO for three years. Ralph Haupter is a 12-year veteran of IBM where he was accountable for all software channel sales across EMEA, overseeing a staff of approximately 500.
A welcome addition to iPhone OS 4
by Volker Weber
Sometimes it's the small things that open new opportunities. This switch will let you use an iPhone without a mobile data tariff, WLAN only.
Exclusive Steve Ballmer iPad Review
by Volker Weber
[via Amy]
iPhone OS 4 - not for everyone
by Volker Weber
It was bound to happen. So far Apple has done a very good job of keeping its iPhone platform current on legacy hardware. There are three iPhone and three iPod touch generations out there. Within the current OS the differences are minor. Only the iPhone 3GS will encrypt the local storage or record videos, but that's about it.
With OS 4 this will change. You will have three classes of devices:
- The current hardware, iPhone 3GS and newer, will be running all of the OS 4 features.
- One generation down, the iPhone 3G and the second generation iPod touch, will be upgradable to OS 4, but it won't support all features. Apple says that it won't multitask 3rd party applications for instance, which is most likely due to hardware restrictions. Not enough RAM. I also think it won't support some enterprise features, like mail encryption.
- The first generation iPhone and iPod touch will be left behind. That looks like a more deliberate decision. There is not much difference in capabilities.
You can read all the new shiny details at Apple's site. Apple is still making a lot of fuss about multitasking, which works well on all the other platforms. I do believe it is going to work nicely, and I am looking forward to seeing Apple fanboys turning from "who needs that" to "cooooool". Happened with cut&paste before.
A unified inbox is nice for people with more than one device. Better device management is a welcome addition for business use; so is the ability to have more than one Exchange account.
I could not care less for iAd. So far I did not really miss ads on my iPhone, and I believe that most users are not looking forward to them. What else is new? iBooks. Yeah, right. Reading books on the iPhone. Looks like a necessary evil now that Apple sells books to be consumed on the iPad.
And then finally, folders for apps. I can see who needs that. :-)
Bottom line: iPhone OS is maturing nicely. Apple is developing a legacy problem with hardware that won't die. Now bring on the new hardware!
Wie geil ist das denn?
by Volker Weber
[Danke, Schweppes]
OK, I want this
by Volker Weber
But only if I can't have that. ;-) Why don't I have one? Because I only need it once a year.
A talented young man
by Volker Weber
[Thanks, Karen]
Great news from Nokia: Free OVI Maps navigation now for E66 and E71
by Volker Weber
Ratingen, 6. April 2010 — Die neue Version von Ovi Karten, die seit Januar für über zehn Nokia Mobiltelefone sowie kommende S60 Smartphones mit GPS kostenlose Navigation ermöglicht, ist nun auch für das Nokia E71 und Nokia E66 kostenlos verfügbar.
That is worldwide navigation with preloaded maps on the phone. Pretty fantastic for a slim device like the E71.
iPod app on iPad
by Volker Weber
Looks rather strange when blown up to twice the size. You really want a native app.
Apple to announce iPhone OS 4 this Thursday
by Volker Weber
First Day iPad sales: 300 thousand
by Volker Weber
CUPERTINO, California—April 5, 2010—Apple® today announced that it sold over 300,000 iPads in the US as of midnight Saturday, April 3. These sales included deliveries of pre-ordered iPads to customers, deliveries to channel partners and sales at Apple Retail Stores. Apple also announced that iPad users downloaded over one million apps from Apple’s App Store and over 250,000 ebooks from its iBookstore during the first day.
I believe that is more than first day iPhone sales.
Kehrwoche for beginners A1
by Volker Weber
how to become a Kehrwoche specialist/insider's knowledge (e.g. how to make as much noise as possible so everybody notices you're doing it)
[Danke, Tobias]
Fits on the iPad
by Volker Weber
Lego Matrix
by Volker Weber
WebOS 1.4.1 on O2 Germany
by Volker Weber
WebOS 1.4.1 is downloading on my Palm Pre. It not only brings paid apps to O2 Germany, but is also supposed to turn your Pre into a mobile WiFi hotspot. This capability is a separate download from the catalog:
The app disables your WiFi connection and creates a new network as an access point. You can set your own SSID and passphrase.
If O2 had been able to provision my recently defunct test-SIM, I could also tell you how well it works. Hint, hint. ;-)
