Apple slowing 'Web Apps' over 'App store Apps'

Leading firms with their own Platforms are likely to resolve to such behavior as Apple is doing with “Open” web apps. Most of the times people like me call such firms “Being Evil”.

Apple handcuffs 'open' web apps on iPhone home screen

Apple's iOS mobile operating system runs web applications at significantly slower speeds when they're launched from the iPhone or iPad home screen in "full-screen mode" as opposed to in the Apple Safari browser, and at the same time, the operating system hampers the performance of these apps in other ways, according to tests from multiple developers and The Register.

It's unclear whether these are accidental bugs or issues consciously introduced by Apple. But the end result is that, at least in some ways, the iOS platform makes it harder for web apps to replace native applications distributed through the Apple App Store, where the company takes a 30 per cent cut of all applications sold. Whereas native apps can only run on Apple's operating system, web apps – built with standard web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript – can potentially run on any device.

IE9 is out

IE9 is released. Let us see those cool HTML5 websites.

IE9 Release Globally Available for Consumers and Businesses

The final, consumer-ready Internet Explorer 9 is available for download starting at 9:00 PM PDT at www.BeautyOfTheWeb.com in 39 languages. With this set of browser releases, the best experience of the Web is on Windows. IE9 shows how your Web experience and browser are only as good as the operating system they run on:

Fast. With IE9, the Web delivers a new level of performance by unlocking the power of the PC hardware through Windows.

Clean. With IE9, consumers can keep sites at the center of their browsing experience, pinning them to the taskbar and interacting with them the same way they do applications.

Trusted. IE9 offers industry-leading protections (like SmartScreen) for the real-world threats (such as malicious sites and phishing scams) that consumers face every day on a sometimes-hostile Web.

Interoperable. With hardware-accelerated HTML5, developers can use the same markup across browsers to deliver a new class of Web experiences that feel more like apps than sites.

IE9 went from early preview to final release in less than a year, and in that time became the fastest growing beta of IE ever, with over 40 million pre-release downloads and 2% usage share on Windows 7. An important factor was the Web community’s engagement as the IE team took a more open and transparent approach across the nine platform releases of IE9.

Post-PC era? Think again

Marco Arment (founder of Instapaper, which I love) nails it when he says iPad isn’t an Office Productivity device. He writes:

The iPad isn’t really a great “office productivity” device, in the traditional PC sense. It can be used that way in some cases, but it’s rarely the best tool for the job.

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It seems that Apple has discontinued the Keyboard Dock with the launch of the iPad 2, which confirms that they saw it as a temporary hack, too. And rather than issue a huge update to the iWork productivity apps, they branched out into different uses with iMovie and Garage Band, and beefed up the graphics processor more than any other upgrade to strongly benefit games.

I don’t think this was their plan from the start — I think Apple didn’t know any better than we did, a year ago, whether the iPad was going to end up as a productivity device in practice. They probably thought, like we did, that it would replace laptops a lot more often.

But, as often happens in technology, the iPad hasn’t “killed” the laptop at all — it has simply added a new role for itself. And that role doesn’t include office productivity for most of us.

So true. I can’t think of leaving my laptop and using a tablet device for Office Productivity functions I do which includes using E-Mail (Outlook 2010) and Microsoft Office (Excel, PowerPoint, Visio etc). Multiple reasons for this, but most of these have to do with lack of input and output devices. I find it difficult to use my fingers so well on a virtual keyboard on a Tablet device as compared to a physical keyboard of a Laptop. I don’t want to carry VGA connector cable or a keyboard dock with a Tablet. I tend to carry a lot of data on my laptop which I can’t on a Tablet device with limited storage (64 GB max). I know there are cloud options but some of my data is confidential (from work), some very private and cloud is not an option to store this data.

Primarily, iPad and other tablet’s capabilities as a media consumption device is great. You can read books, watch movies, browse web, and now create music also. It also serves well for very app-specific business usage like taking orders in a restaurant, with hospital staff, with real estate guys who want to show different layouts on a site visit etc. So what iPad has done is created a niche for itself as a Media consuming, mostly Read-Only device. And as we speak with iPad 2, media creation (Garage band and iMovie apps) also comes mainstream.

 

iPad or any other Tablet device cannot signal a Post-PC era unless we get enterprises also onboard (I know Apple is working hard on this). These at best signal a Post-Netbook era, an era which nobody wished for but still happened in absence of cheaper/user friendly media consuming devices.

Early Results of iPad 2 Launch

iPad 2 Reality check.

Piper Jaffray: iPad 2 totally sold out, 70% to new buyers

•Munster is sticking with his estimate of 400,000 to 500,000 iPad 2s sold, compared with 300,000 iPad 1s in its first weekend last year.

•The difference is that nearly all those iPad 2s were sold in one day; stocks were essentially depleted by Saturday and not replenished. In its calls to retailers over the weekend, his team was unable to find a single iPad 2.

•70% of iPad 2 buyers were new to the iPad, compared with 23% of iPhone 4 buyers who were new to the iPhone at launch.

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"We believe this shows Apple is expanding its base of iPad users, which is critical to maintaining its early lead in the growing tablet market. As the user base grows Apple's lead widens, and the company has a proven track record of building unmatched brand loyalty, which we believe will be a potent combination as the tablet market evolves."

Topolsky and Nilay Patel leave AOL/Engadget

Hello, I must be going

It's hard to believe that I'm currently writing the words I seem to be writing, though a casual stock-taking of my senses dictates that it must be true. Here I am, at my computer, typing letters one by one into a plain text document, rolling along through one of the strangest posts I've ever penned for this site. Okay, probably the strangest ever.

After nearly four years at Engadget, it's time to make my exit. There are things I'm after and challenges I want to take on that just don't fit with my day-to-day schedule here, so off I go.

Kara Swisher writes about Nilay leaving too.

Windows Phone 7 Marketplace hits 10000 Apps

Windows Phone 7 Marketplace hits 10000 Apps. Proud to say, I contributed one.

Windows Phone 7 marketplace hits 10,000 apps, WP7 updates still way outnumbered

It's a milestone in the life of any OS: the day you reach that magical 10,000 app number. Windows Phone 7 is the latest kindred soul to achieve the feat, accomplishing the task in just over four and a half months. For some perspective, it took the Android Market 11 months to hit five figures, and 142 days for the iTunes app store to do the same. Microsoft's been adding around 1,000 apps a week since it hit 5k right before the New Year, and as of late that rate's been picking up.

535K XBOX 360 consoles sold in February

XBOX still riding the Kinect wave sold 535,000 units in February, 27% increase from the same period last year.

NPD: Xbox 360 tops U.S. console sales in February

Market research company NPD released its latest sales figures on Thursday. Despite a temporary slip in December (due to shortages), Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console has dominated the charts for 9 months. The Xbox 360 outsold both the Wii and Sony PlayStation 3 in February with 535,000 units. The sales figures are up 27% from the same period last year. “It’s a great month for us,” Xbox spokesman David Dennis told seattlepi.com, noting that Feburary 2011 was the Xbox’s biggest ever non-holiday month. “I think you can attribute the numbers to pent-up demand from the holidays for Kinect, particularly with the supply-chain issues we had.”

AOL lays off big in India

AOL Restructure hits India employees the maximum. 700 layoffs in all in India (that’s close to 70%).

AOL Severance Deets

Back office and support functions will transition to 3rd party partners and many current AOL India employees will transition along with those roles to continue to support core AOL functions with new partner companies. For our business and our scale, it makes business and financial sense to partner with other providers.

Overall, the structural changes in India will impact close to 700 jobs, with approximately 400 transitioning out of the company, and 300 transitioning to outsourcing partners to continue to work on the AOL business. AOL India has been a significant part of AOL, starting with call center outsourcing in 2002 and morphing into a business operations center. The employees of AOL India are talented, energetic, and hard-working – and we will be offering impacted people transition services. I would hope that India becomes a great future consumer market for AOL based on India-first product development.

Kinect Sales Surpass Ten Million, Enters Guiness World Records

Microsoft confirmed they have sold 10 Million Kinect Sensors so far, also 10 million standalone Kinect games sold worldwide to date. That’s a Billion Dollar plus brand new revenue stream.

Kinect Confirmed As Fastest-Se​lling Consumer Electronic​s Device

Guinness World Records, the global authority on record breaking, today confirm that the Kinect for the Xbox 360 is the Fastest-Selling Consumer Electronics Device. The hardware, that allows controller-free gaming, sold through an average of 133,333 units per day, for a total of 8 million units in its first 60 days on sale from 4 November 2010 to 3 January 2011.

The sales figures outstrip both the iPhone and the iPad for the equivalent periods after launch.

Google shipping beta on hardware also now

Google has extended shipping beta (and non-working) software on hardware devices also now. Reality check from XOOM release.

Ars reviews the Motorola Xoom

Although the Xoom has a lot to offer, the product feels very incomplete. A surprising number of promised hardware and software features are not functional at launch and will have to be enabled in future updates. The Xoom's quality is also diminished by some of the early technical issues and limitations that we encountered in Honeycomb. Google's nascent tablet software has a ton of potential, but it also has some feature gaps and rough edges that reflect its lack of maturity.

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Although the Xoom was designed to support Verizon's new 4G LTE network, support for this network is not enabled out of the box. Consumers will have to ship the device back to Motorola to have it fitted with the necessary components. The 4G hardware upgrade will be available at no cost, but will take 6 business days to complete.

It's not clear yet exactly when Xoom buyers will be able to send in their Xoom to receive the upgrade, but Verizon says that it will be available "shortly" after the product's launch. Reports suggest that "shortly" means within the next 90 days.

LTE isn't the only hardware feature that's not working right out of the box. The Xoom's microSD card slot is also non-functional, due to software issues that are attributed to Honeycomb. Motorola says that the feature will be fixed soon in an over-the-air update. The Xoom's much-touted support for Adobe Flash is also absent at launch and will similarly be delivered in an upcoming software update.

Salvation doesn’t come cheap

John Naughton calls Apple evil mostly based on the recent decision to apply 30% tax on subscriptions.

Forget Google – it's Apple that is turning into the evil empire

Umberto Eco once wrote a memorable essay arguing that the Apple Mac was a Catholic device, while the IBM PC was a Protestant one. His reasoning was that, like the Roman church, Apple offered a guaranteed route to salvation – the Apple Way – provided one stuck to it. PC users, on the other hand, had to take personal responsibility for working out their own routes to heaven.

Eco's metaphor applies with a vengeance to the new generations of Apple iDevices, which are rigidly controlled appliances. You may think you own your lovely, shiny new iPhone or iPad, but in reality an invisible virtual string links it back to Apple HQ at One Infinite Loop, Cupertino.

You can't install anything on it that hasn't had the prior approval of Mr Jobs and his subordinates. And if you are foolish enough to break the rules and seek your own route to salvation, then you may find when you next try to sync it with iTunes that it has turned into an expensive, beautifully designed paperweight. If that isn't power, then I don't know what is.

The Ramanujan of Chess

The Ramanujan of Chess

In 1929, a man from Sargodha in Punjab arrived in England, part of the entourage of a Nawab. He had learnt chess in the Indian way, the modern form played in the West had some significant modifications, and he finished last in the first tournament he played. He learnt from the experience and within months went on to win the British Chess Championship, repeating the feat in 1932 and 1933. He also played top board for Britain in three chess Olympiads registering impressive performances against some of the top players in the world.  His one game against the Cuban world champion Jose Raul Capablanca was a victorious masterpiece, and is counted among the great games of all times. And then in 1933 he disappeared, headed back to what is today Pakistan with his patron, never to play competitive international chess again.

Practicality and Indians

Some right and a lot wrong. I feel that such articles are meant for consumption in the west and written with that audience in mind. But, what do I know, I am a “Practical” Indian.

Uncompromising Practicality Could Be India's Downfall

The difference between a road and a lane in India is that the lane is hypothetical, like the equator. So Indians change lanes at will, usually without using a turn signal. Running a traffic light is not a serious event either. In the middle of all this, pedestrians run across the road with glee.

India is a commotion. In Mumbai, people dangle from the doors of the local trains for a more ventilated ride, they travel on the roof, they risk death by crossing the tracks just to save themselves the trouble of taking the footbridges. Life goes on this way.

At the heart of this condition is an important Indian character — the uncompromising practicality of the individual, an untamed form of great personal freedom and informality. Every person, irrespective of his level of education or social background, will do what is most convenient to him in the short term. All rules and systems are subordinate to the sheer force of practicality.

The Tata Group

The Economist covers Ratan Tata and the Tata Group in great detail. Essential reading for my colleagues and an eye opener for the rest.

Out of India – The Tata Group

RATAN TATA is as different as can be from the popular image of a business titan: he is a natural gentleman who lives austerely, litters his conversation with references to “dignity” and “duty” and is happiest when talking about his pet dogs, two German shepherds. He owns less than 1% of the group that bears his family name. But he is a titan nonetheless: the most powerful businessman in India and one of the most influential in the world.

The Tata group, of which he is chairman, is a giant too—or rather a collection of them. This family of companies covers cars and consulting, software and steel, tea and coffee, chemicals and hotels. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is Asia’s largest software company. Tata Steel is India’s largest steelmaker and number ten in the world. Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces is India’s biggest luxury hotel group by far. Tata Power is the country’s largest private electricity company. Tata Global Beverages is the world’s second-largest maker of branded tea. Overall, the group earned 3.2 trillion rupees, or $67.4 billion, in revenues in 2009-10 (see chart) and 82 billion rupees in profits.

IE9 reversing the trajectory

From what I have experienced, IE9 RC is a solid improvement over IE9 beta which was quite good too. And looks like I am not alone. On these new releases, IE has reversed the trend of falling market share and have now 0.78% gain across all operating systems.

IE9 Reaches 36 Million Downloads; Internet Explorer Share Grows

Since its release on February 10th, the IE9 RC has already been downloaded over 11 million times. Together with the IE9 Beta, IE9 has been downloaded over 36 million times since its initial availability on September 15, 2010. As of February, IE9 has now surpassed total combined downloads of IE8 Beta and IE8 RC, and Net Applications reports that IE9 now represents 0.66% of all worldwide browser usage share on Windows with 2.09% usage share on Windows 7.

Net Applications also reported this month that Internet Explorer share increased by 0.86% across Windows. Across all operating systems, IE share also grew 0.78%.

Kindle Stars

Inspiration. Amazon has provided a platform for Self-publishing and a great tool for delivery of these books.

The Very Rich Indie Writer

Amanda Hocking is 26* years old. She has 9 self-published books to her name, and sells 100,000+ copies of those ebooks per month. She has never been traditionally published. This is her blog. And it’s no stretch to say – at $3 per book1/70% per sale for the Kindle store – that she makes a lot of money from her monthly book sales. (Perhaps more importantly: a publisher on the private Reading2.0 mailing list has said, to effect: there is no traditional publisher in the world right now that can offer Amanda Hocking terms that are better than what she’s currently getting, right now on the Kindle store, all on her own.)

20% Time at Microsoft

Richard G Russell, a Principal Development Manager at Microsoft writes about his expereince with 20% time, called Prototyping in Microsoft jargon.

Working At Microsoft–20% Time and Prototypes

But, when we are not focused on finishing a coding, integration or stabilization milestone, we very often have time to work on 20% kind of things – often way more than 20%. We call this prototyping.

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In summary, there are times in our product cycles when people have quite a bit of discretionary time. Way more than 20%, often close to 100% for weeks. This is deliberate. We use this time for prototyping, thinking, experimenting and learning. Many excellent product features come directly out of this fruitful time and efforts. Most of this work is done at the grass roots level and determined by individual contributors or small teams of people with like interests and passions. This is not a new thing. The Windows organization has worked like this for a long time.

Kindle going free??

Amazon may be giving out Kindle free to Amazon Prime users. As I have indicated before, Prime members spend 130% more than the non-Prime members so this ties well with the plan of increasing value of Prime and retaining/growing Prime members.

Free Kindle This November

In October 2009 John Walkenbach noticed that the price of the Kindle was falling at a consistent rate, lowering almost on a schedule. By June 2010, the rate was so unwavering that he could easily forecast the date at which the Kindle would be free: November 2011. Since then I've mentioned this forecast to all kinds of folks. In August, 2010 I had the chance to point it out to Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon. He merely smiled and said, "Oh, you noticed that!" And then smiled again.