Archive for November, 2008

Google iPhone Search App Problems with British Accents

On Monday, Google’s new voice search application for the iPhone hit the iTunes AppStore. It’s a free application that allows users to speak their search text to perform Google searches. The application works great.. as long as you have an American accent. It’s been reported to be returning especially strange results for users with British accents. The Daily Telegraph, a newspaper in the U.K. has reported that users had the device interpret the word “iPhone” for several different words including “sex”, “sledding”, “my sister”, and “Einstein” (I hope they’re not related..). Google has stated that the application is available in U.S. English only so far, but there were definitely some confused users before the clarification was made. The application actually works quite well with an American accent but has made for some confusing and funny search queries.

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Filed under News : Comments (0) : Nov 19th, 2008

Adobe Bringing Flash to More Platforms

It seems that Adobe is seeing the threat of Microsoft Silverlight to its Flash platform and is taking Flash to more platforms. The two most noticeable platforms that Adobe is missing in its lineup are 64-bit Linux and iPhone support. Yesterday, news reached the blogosphere that support for both platforms was coming. An alpha for the 64-bit Linux platform has been announced and Adobe will finally support both 32 and 64 bit versions of the “big three” desktop operating systems: Windows, OS X, and Linux. Adobe support for the iPhone rumors have been flying for some time, but yesterday Adobe announced it would be focusing on a build for the ARM platform. Of course, the iPhone isn’t the only phone that runs on ARM processors, but it’s evidence that Adobe is focusing its efforts on mobile phones, possibly the iPhone. Steve Jobs has said a few times that Flash was too heavy for the phone to handle and that Flash Lite was too stripped down to be useful. The lack of Flash and Java support were the two biggest complaints that Apple received in its lawsuit in the U.K. over its ads claiming you can get to “all the Internet”. Microsoft’s Silverlight platform is still missing on the iPhone and is sounds as though that won’t happen for the time. Flash support on more devices and platforms will help Flash remain the dominant platform in multimedia web content, no matter what technology comes out as being the easiest and most efficient.

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Filed under Tech Trends : Comments (0) : Nov 19th, 2008

Windows as a TV-Tuner Commercial

So I recently saw a Microsoft commercial about how Windows could be used as a DVR. They had testimonials on how they can record TV and take it with them as though this was a new thing for PCs to do. Much like the ‘Mojave Experiment’ commercials, these commercials are a bit out of base with reality. What person, in their right mind uses a PC as a DVR and then takes it with them? What about the shows that are on when your PC is on the road? Oops.. Seriously, use a MythTV box and share out your shows as podcasts so they can sync to your iPod or Zune or just use a real DVR. You’ll use less power with a real DVR and not have to worry about having your PC left home while your favorite shows are on. If you really must use your Windows PC as a DVR, use something like Orb so at least you’re not taking the PC with you. It’s free and it allows you to access your TV tuner card from another machine over the web. Okay, I’m done.. I just couldn’t take it any longer.

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Filed under Tech Trends : Comments (0) : Nov 17th, 2008

VMware: A Traditional Licensing Model in a SaaS World

With our economy closing in around us, companies are investigating ways to save money and improve efficiencies. Startups that are looking for VC are struggling to find cash to front projects that involve IT projects. One way to conserve costs is to virtualize infrastructure to get the most of hardware purchases. VMware has been considered by many to be king of virtualization. However, VMware’s cost of entry is extremely high. A startup can get into the VMware ESX line with a starter pack which allows for 6 CPU’s, virtual center, and 3 years of support for $20,000. That’s actually an incredible deal when you go try to buy that software retail with machines from an OEM. Unfortunately for VMware, an organization can get into virtualization using Amazon’s EC2 service or other cloud computing provider for a much lower cost per machine. Perhaps a subscription-based model could allow for a lower point of entry for organizations into the VMware architecture? The technology is great but so far their licensing hasn’t adjusted to the way the market is moving. Even Steve Ballmer harped on VMware for its pricing model. Of course, they do offer the ESXi version of their software for free, but it doesn’t allow you to hook into a SAN or migrate guests between VMware hosts.

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Filed under Tech Trends : Comments (0) : Nov 17th, 2008

Canonical Announces ARM Support

Canonical has announced that it will be adding ARM support to its mainstream desktop operating system. Ubuntu support for ARM will begin with version 9.04 which will be released in April of 2009. ARM is the architecture of choice for most mobile devices. Back in April, of a build of Ubuntu 7.04 and 7.10 by Nokia popped up in the blogosphere. Most netbooks have been built utilizing the Intel Atom processor, but ARM has recently announced its intentions to move into the netbook market with a partnership with Canonical. Netbooks are increasingly becoming mainstream and will play a vital role in the desktop operating system marketshare game. Microsoft has already made it very clear that the Windows team will be focused on performance and boot times on lower-end hardware, i.e. netbooks. Canonical has also been focused on the netbook market as that has been a stronghold for Linux as the idea of the netbook has evolved.

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Filed under News : Comments (0) : Nov 16th, 2008

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