Posts tagged Technology

Google now officially owns Motorola Mobility

Larry Page, Google CEO:

I’m excited to announce today that our Motorola Mobility deal has closed. Motorola is a great American tech company that has driven the mobile revolution, with a track record of over 80 years of innovation, including the creation of the first cell phone. We all remember Motorola’s StarTAC, which at the time seemed tiny and showed the real potential of these devices. And as a company who made a big, early bet on Android, Motorola has become an incredibly valuable partner to Google.

Introducing Readlists: Your Reading, Unbound and Remixed

Jeffrey MacIntyre on the Arc90 blog:

We are pleased to release a new experiment today: Readlists, a free and incredibly convenient app for collecting, sharing, and enjoying bundles of articles, poems, recipes—you name it. It’s as simple as cutting and pasting links to ordinary web pages, that are then transformed into a clean reading view, but with the power to send them as specially tailored collections: to email, to Kindles, even as ePub-standard iBooks on your iPhone and iPad devices.

This is pretty nifty. Could be great for when you’re going away for a weekend or on holiday. It gives you an easy way to gather together a series of articles and have them automatically bundled together as an eBook on your iPad or Kindle. Works really well.

Waterstones deal with Amazon puts Kindle and ebooks instore

Zoe Wood, The Guardian:

Waterstones said it was planning a digital revolution in its stores, with Kindle ereaders on sale for the first time and free wifi, so customers can choose between buying a physical book or downloading it then and there.

This deal is being met with increduility by many in the media, but I think this is a pretty sensible move by Waterstones. I know that I enjoy wandering around Waterstones and browsing through the physical books. I find books that way that I don’t find any other way. But more often than not, having found a book that I want, I then look it up on my iPhone/iPad and download it as an eBook.

If I’m reading this correctly, this deal would seem to imply that when that happens, Waterstones will get a percentage of the sale. So whereas before they got nothing when people like me bought eBooks whilst browsing their physical shelves, now when that happens they will get paid.

They might not get paid a lot, but the last time I checked not a lot is still more than nothing.

U2's Bono to become the world's richest musician…thanks to Facebook

NME:

Given the social media company is currently valued at over $100billion (£63 billion), this makes Bono’s share worth over $1.5 billion (£940 million) and puts him well above Paul McCartney, who is currently the world’s richest rock star with a fortune of £665 million.

Bono owns 2.3 per cent of the shares in Facebook through his private equity firm, Elevation Partners—hence why he’ll be a whole lot richer at the end of today!

Facebook is the new email: everyone uses it; no one really wants to

Facebook has been in the news a lot lately ahead of it - today - becoming a publicly traded company on the stock market. I’ve been giving it a lot of thought in light of both that, and also a new statistic just out suggesting that as many people use Facebook today as used the Internet in 2004. Crazy.

Despite the growth of both Twitter and Google+, neither of these have come close to the level of ubiquitous use that there is of Facebook.

Everyone (more or less) uses Facebook; niche groups use Twitter and Google+. And in that sense, Facebook has become almost like email. It is now - socially at least - the default means of communicating and staying in touch with people.

But rather like email in the workplace, Facebook has gone from being a new, exciting means of communication to something you feel you have to use. Just like email, the joy has gone. We’d like a better alternative (lots of us tried Google+), but we don’t see one. We’d like to drop Facebook in the same way we wish we could scrap email—but we can’t. We don’t really have a choice.

The challenge for Facebook is to discover if they can keep making money when - for so many of us - using Facebook is a function rather than a joy.

2 Billion Jobs to Disappear by 2030

Thomas Frey, innovation editor for THE FUTURIST magazine:

Most of the jobs getting displaced are the low-level, low-skilled labor positions. Our challenge will be to upgrade our workforce to match the labor demand of the coming era. Although it won’t be an easy road ahead it will be one filled with amazing technology and huge potentials as the industries shift.

This is a really fascinating look ahead by the futurist Thomas Frey. We may disagree over whether the changes he see’s happening as a result of technological advances are a good thing, but there’s no doubt this is the direction we’re heading in. And that has huge implication for how we educate our kids to be equipped for the new world.

10 million active Twitter users in the UK

A year ago Twitter set up an office in the UK. One year on they’ve announced some pretty impressive figures. There are now 10 million active users here in the UK. One in six people. That’s good going. And it fits with my anecdotal observations that I’ve been seeing a growing number of friends dip their feet into Twitter’s waters.

I should add that Twitter is undoubtedly my favourite social network. It’s where I find my most interesting articles and stumble into great conversations.

Apple's move away from Google Maps is high risk

John Gruber, Daring Fireball:

This is a high-pressure switch for Apple. Regressions will not be acceptable. The purported whiz-bang 3D view stuff might be great, but users are going to have pitchforks and torches in hand if practical stuff like driving and walking directions are less accurate than they were with Google’s data. Keep in mind too, that Android phones ship with turn-by-turn navigation.

Astute observation from Gruber about the implications for Apple of their moving away from Google to their own mapping service. At the very least they have to match what Google already offers which is no easy task. And, ideally, they need to push ahead in such a way that leaves Google behind. Big, bold move by Apple.

How to make money online

Some really great advice from Seth Godin.

Apple to ditch Google Maps

Mark Gurman, 9to5Mac:

Apple will drop the Google Maps program running on iOS since 2007 in favor for a new Maps app with an Apple backend. The application design is said to be fairly similar to the current Google Maps program on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, but it is described as a much cleaner, faster, and more reliable experience.

It’s been no secret that Apple have wanted to break any reliance on Google for any core services. It’s also been no secret that Apple have been working on their own mapping service for quite some time. So, whilst this comes as no real surprise, it is still a pretty significant step.

If the above report is correct, the transition away from Google Maps will happen with the next version of iOS due out later this year.

Soon you won't get ripped off using a mobile phone in Europe

BBC News:

Regulations to make using a mobile phone abroad significantly cheaper have been passed by the European Parliament. The plans, which were voted in by a huge majority, include imposing a price cap on operators. From July, using mobile data in Europe will not cost more than 70 cents (56p) per megabyte - far less than current rates.

Good news. And soon we’ll simply be able to set up an account with a local network when in another country.

It’s been pretty ridiculous how expensive it’s been to use a mobile phone when traveling outside of the UK to Europe. Some people have ended up with stupidly big bills on arriving home. Thankfully things are going to be getting much, much better.

All MPs to get iPads

Rowena Mason, The Telegraph:

The House of Commons has decided that all 650 MPs are eligible for brand new [iPad’s] which sell for at least £400 each.

I missed this last week. It’s an interesting move that is intended to save both paper and money in the long run. Of course, it also highlights the growing dominance of the iPad when it comes to tablet technology.

iPhoto for iPad highlights strength of iPad over all other tablets

Andy Ihnatko, Chicago Sun-Times:

[iPhoto for iPad] doesn’t just reassert the iPad’s supremacy over all other tablets (although, yes, it’s yet another reminder of the total hopelessness of the Android tablet app marketplace). It goes way beyond that. iPhoto asserts the iPad’s equality with notebooks. I spent a whole week in a foreign country with lots of work to do, and I left my laptop at home. iPhoto for iPad is one of the reasons why I pulled that off without any real sacrifices.

There’s been quite a lot of criticism of Apple’s recently released iPhoto for iPad app. People have said it’s too complex and non-intuitive. This piece argues that that’s a good thing as what they have created is a proper photo-editing app as opposed to simply a mobile photo-editing app.

I’ve not used it a lot yet, but I have been impressed with its capabilities—even if it is taking some time to figure out what all those capabilities are and how they work.

And, as Andy points out, the one other thing this app highlights is just how far out ahead the iPad is of other tablets when it comes to apps. There’s nothing close to an app like this anywhere else.

How to make sure you don't become a social recluse

Nice article with several tips to help make sure you stayed engaged with the real world and real people.

With so many great technological advancements, it is becoming so much easier to just end up staying at home watching TV, playing computer games, and working the social networks. That’s not wrong, but we still need to get out, do different things, and engage.

Even if this isn’t a particular problem for you, it’s worth a read. You might get inspired to do something new with your life!

HT: Ollie Francis