Monthly Archives: March 2011

Today’s comment of the day comes from Shofar regarding online advertising- “In all the years I have been using Google on my PC and now phone I would say I have checked ads less then 10 times IN TOTAL – years worth of use.Google will not be getting rich on me, though I think they are entitled to some payback for the services they give us.”

Interesting point and it is one I agree with- when I consider how many Google services I use, I have no problem with some form of payback for what I get.

When was the last time you saw a new HTC phone that made you want to rush out and buy it? A slew of Android powered smartphones have been announced by HTC over the past few months and the company is starting to share some of the traits that are hurting RIM. The same old materials, the same old faults and absolutely minimal originality. The keyboards on some phones have been shocking and the loudspeakers have been even worse. Throw in battery lives which seem to get shorter with each generation and materials which always look borrowed from the previous release and it is quickly looking like a never-ending cycle of rehashed phones that offer nothing, but the most frustrating kind of Deja vu.

The HTC Hero- that was the phone that last made me sit up and think of HTC as one of the leaders. Since then they have followed the pack and offered little to suggest they are catching up.

Below is the top ten most followed people on Twitter, courtesy of The Guardian, and I realise now that I am getting old. In my opinion the best musician in the list is probably Barack Obama.

The battle over how generic ‘App Store’ is continues and I find myself in the unusual position of understanding Apple’s point of view more than Microsoft’s. Apple used the term first for iTunes apps and the others have followed with their own dedicated App Stores. However, none of them have used those magic words and instead use terms like ‘Windows Marketplace’, ‘BlackBerry App World’, ‘Ovi Store’ and ‘Android Market’.

I understand the Microsoft stance that ‘App Store’ is too generic, but the same could be argued about Windows, Office and literally millions of product names that have become a part of the English language. It all tends to come down to who got their first- we still use ‘Hoover’ to describe vacuum cleaners in the UK, some still use ‘Palm’ to describe a PDA and there are many examples of company names being used to describe products, simply because they got their first.

We used to shop at PalmGear, Handango and the like and the word ‘app’ was never used. It started to become common when Apple coined the phrase and now we all use it. I really do think Apple has a right to the phrase, but feel free to shoot me down if you disagree.

IS GOOGLE THE ONLY BIG WINNER WITH ANDROID?

YES: 48%

NO: 52%

I guess we can call this one a draw because the final result was so close. Opinions via the comments suggested that the ‘No’ vote would win, but the actual voting was much more pro the idea that Google will be the biggest winners from Android. On a side note, this topic received the most votes so far of any Devil’s Advocate.