google – The Crow's Groove

Thoughts: the Google+ iPad App Is Underwhelming So Far

This evening I noticed that the Google+ iPad app was available in the App Store. I downloaded the app immediately and gave it a thorough spin. After playing with it for about 20 minutes I have come to the verdict that it’s underwhelming, at least on user-friendliness. It has quite a number of design flaws in my opinion. Although it looks very slick at first glance, I was longing back to the tablet-optimized Google+ browser version that I have been using on my iPad in the past few weeks.

A couple of things I don’t like about the Google+ iPad app: Continue reading Thoughts: the Google+ iPad App Is Underwhelming So Far

Thoughts: My Bet Is That Microsoft’s Surface Is a Winner

After checking a few posts on the announced Microsoft Surface tablet, my opinion is that they hit a sweet spot here. It’s going to sell very well. The Surface tablet will run Flash and it will run Windows RT apps that can also run on a desktop in the future when Windows 8 is released. The Surface Pro edition will run all your existing Windows software and can be used in your home environment and in a business setting.

What I am seeing here is that the desktop world and tablet world are integrating slowly but surely. A few years from now, a lot of people won’t own a desktop or a laptop: they’ll own a tablet. It will be more than enough for everyday use for the majority of users. Hell, it will even be enough for most business users as well! This will be especially true if companies start making docks for tablets like Microsoft’s Surface that will transform it into a laptop-like device.

My bet is that an awful lot of people will want to own a Surface tablet or an other Windows tablet from an other manufacturer. People are already used to Windows on their machines, at home as well as at work. The step to a Windows tablet will be much easier for them than stepping into Apple’s iOS world. That will not mean that Microsoft is going to reign the tablet space. Apple is the undisputed leader here and will keep that position for the at least the coming 3 to 5 years. Manufacturers of Android tablets should be more worried in my opinion. They could lose market share to Microsoft’s Surface easily, especially when you consider the hybrid desktop/tablet usage combination.

Finally, here is a post with over a dozen of links to news coverage on the Microsoft Surface:
http://www.windowsobserver.com/2012/06/18/microsofts-new-tablet-floats-to-the-surface/

Is Google Earning More Money from iOS than from Android?

Here is a link to a very interesting opinion post on how much money Google makes from Android compared to iOS. Estimation of the earnings from Android have been based on Google’s proposed settlement of the Java patents lawsuit that was started by Oracle. I found the numbers surprising and they are probably not too far from the truth.

Link : Digital Trends – Wait, Google earns four times more from iOS than Android?

Oracle Drops Final Claim in Patent ‘476

Good news on the Oracle-Google-Android lawsuit. The final claim of the following ridiculous patent has been removed from the case:

transitory electrical and electromagnetic signals propagating through some medium, such as wires, air, or a vacuum

What the hell were the people thinking that granted this patent in the first place?

If you have time and are interested to read up on the Oracle-Google-Android lawsuit, then check out this extensive write-up at Groklaw.com linked below.

Link : Groklaw – Oracle Drops Final Claim in Patent ‘476 and Google Moves to Strike Portions of 3rd Oracle Damages Report

Google Again Pulls Malicious Apps from the Official Android Market

A number of times I posted links to Android malware news, like this one.

An important lesson in these messages was: don’t download apps from untrusted sources because you risk downloading an app that contains malware.

Every now and then though, the official Android Market gets infected with malware apps. And it happened again recently, where Google had to pull 22 malicious apps from the Market. The post linked below talks about an estimate of 14,000 infected users.

In total, Google took down over a hundred malicious apps already. Since Android phones are very popular with over 500,000 activations a day, I am afraid these malware practices will get worse. I hope I won’t be right and Google invents a mechanism to find and block these apps as soon as they appear.

In the meantime, people should not only be careful when downloading apps from external sources. The Android Market can contain a nasty bug every now and then too.

Link : CIO.com – Google Pulls 22 More Malicious Android Apps From Market

Number of Android Malware Apps Is Growing Faster Every Month

The lesson to be learned here is in the last sentences of the article:

In a related blog post, Juniper said it discovered a “trove of malicious applications aimed at Android users hosted across different Russia-based third party app stores,” which serves as a reminder to only download Android apps from trusted locations, like Google’s Android Market, Amazon, etc.

Link : HotHardware – Android Malware Infestation a Fast Growing Problem, Report Says

Oracle Rumored to Buy webOS from Hewlett-Packard

Today I read the post linked below that talks about a rumor that Oracle is planning to buy webOS from Hewlett-Packard. HP became the owner of webOS when it acquired Palm and released the Touchpad a few months ago that used webOS as its operating system. Sadly for HP, this tablet failed miserably and only became popular for a short while when the price was dropped to $99 in the United States, resulting in a fire sale.

The post is a bit cynical when stating the following:

Oracle? How does that work, you ask? Well, Oracle has close ties to Apple, since Oracle’s CEO, Larry Ellison, was one of Steve Jobs’ closest friends. This explains – in large part – Oracle’s interest in suing Google over Android’s use of Java technologies. Since Oracle probably has some spare change lying around, a purchase of webOS and associated IP may give them some additional patents to sue others with.

I sincerely hope that a great, though unpopular operating system like webOS will not end up as ammunition in patent lawsuits.

An other post on ZDnet publishes the same thoughts and has some other views as well. The link to this post can also be found below.

Oracle Pokes Android in the Eye

Google uses Java components in their Android OS that were built by IBM. Now that IBM drops support for these components and jumps on the OpenJDK train together with Oracle, things get trickier for Google.

Link : InformationWeek – Oracle Pokes Android In The Eye

Google Is Not Giving up Easily in Java/Android Lawsuit

My guess is that this lawsuit is going to take a very long time to come to a conclusion…

Google has filed a response to Oracle’s lawsuit filed in August, denying infringement on any of Oracle’s intellectual property. The company not only argued that it had not crossed any of Oracle’s patents, but even if it did, the patents should be ruled invalid and unenforceable. Additionally, Google said that Oracle shouldn’t be pointing fingers, as Oracle itself is practicing double standards when it comes to the open sourcing of Java.

Oracle originally accused Google of both patent and copyright infringement over its heavy use of Java in the Android software development kit. At the time, an Oracle spokesperson stated flatly that Google “knowingly, directly, and repeatedly infringed Oracle’s Java-related intellectual property” when developing Android.

According to Google, those accusations are completely baseless, and the company takes things a step further by pointing out that the “open source” nature of Java isn’t quite so open source after all thanks to Sun. Basically, Google argues that Sun had released much of the source code for Java 2 SE under the GPLv2, which “contributed to its widespread acceptance among software developers,” but that the company later required developers to demonstrate compatibility with specific Java requirements in order to obtain a license.

Link : ars technica – Google opens up can of open source worms in Oracle Java suit

How to Upgrade Your WordPress Site to Use Asynchronous Google Analytics Tracking

The following article gives a clear explanation of Google’s improved tracking method by using asynchronous tracking. The steps to upgrade your WordPress site are very simple, especially if you use one of the two plugins mentioned in the article.

If you don’t use the new tracking code yet then I recommend doing it as it will make your web pages load faster and enhance the collection of analytics data.

Continue reading How to Upgrade Your WordPress Site to Use Asynchronous Google Analytics Tracking

Best Buy CEO Says iPad ‘Cannibalizing’ PC Laptop Sales by 50 Percent

The statements of Best Buy’s CEO don’t surprise me. Considering that the tablet era has only just begun, I think that the market share of tablets will grow even more in the future. The iPad won’t be the only contender in this market. In the fourth quarter of 2010 and in 2011 a lot of new tablets will be introduced. Most of them will be based on Google’s Android OS. Examples that I have played with at the IFA Trade Show are the Dell Streak and Samsung Galaxy S tablet.

Continue reading Best Buy CEO Says iPad ‘Cannibalizing’ PC Laptop Sales by 50 Percent

Not Everyone Is Charmed by Google Instant

Charlie Brooker, a columnist for The Guardian, isn’t exactly charmed by Google Instant. And I think he has a point.

I clipped only three paragraphs here, but it’s best to read the whole thing to get his point completely. He has a clear message about the decrease of attention span and productivity that the majority of computer users suffer from these days.

Amplify’d from www.guardian.co.uk

I’m starting to feel like an unwitting test subject in a global experiment conducted by Google, in which it attempts to discover how much raw information it can inject directly into my hippocampus before I crumple to the floor and start fitting uncontrollably.

That afternoon, it unveiled a new feature called Google Instant. It delivers search results before you’ve finished typing them. So now, if I visit Google and start typing my own name, it shows me links to Craigslist the moment I hit “C”. When I add the “H”, up pops the homepage for Chase online banking. By the time I’ve spelt out “Charlie”, I’m presented with a synopsis and review score for “Charlie St Cloud”, a film starring Zac Efron. Add a “Br” and Charlie Brown gazes back at me.

As the name suggests, this all happens instantly. It’s the internet on fast-forward, and it’s aggressive – like trying to order from a waiter who keeps finishing your sentences while ramming spoonfuls of what he thinks you want directly into your mouth, so you can’t even enjoy your blancmange without chewing a gobful of black pudding first.

Read more at www.guardian.co.uk

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/axh94P

A Detailed Opinion Piece on the Oracle vs. Google Lawsuit

People who are following the news on the big tech companies may have heard already about Oracle’s patent lawsuit against Google Android. I have read quite a few articles and blog posts on this subject and shared quite a few on my Twitter page in the last week.

One post by Daniel Eran Dilger on RouglyDrafted.com deserves special attention in my opinion. He knows what he is talking about when he carefully dissects every aspect of the lawsuit, the history of Google’s Android, the talks between Google and Sun, Apple’s and Microsoft’s position and lots more angles. Daniel explains everything in such a way that anyone is able to understand what’s happening. And if you want to know more details and delve deeper, then you can follow the links that are scattered around in the text.