Phone, Tablet and Gizmo Thread #0x02

[Raja Bose]

^^^Centralization of sales/marketing was a long time coming for Mickey otherwise it really hurt their operations. Mickey cannot operate in its old mode where Windoze and Office were isolated silos and rest were side shows and product versions came once every few years - that is not going to fly even in enterprise today. That has changed decisively since 2011. Unlike GE, Mickey's products are not that heterogeneous if one thinks about it. Consumers want products to work together, get consistent messaging about product placement and want freedom of choice but not flooded with 10 million of them either.

Every successful company will expand its horizons. Mickey has a strong base in enterprise and is not too shabby on the consumer front despite popular perception - most consumers around the world still use Windoze in their personal lives, Outlook.com has as many users as Gmail now and XBOX is a pretty big success on the consumer products front (even FruitCo doesn't come close here despite all the money poured into AppleTV, leave alone Chacha or Sammy). Even on a much smaller scale, Mickey is a much larger player in automotive IVI than FruitCo, Chacha, Sammy combined. So its natural they will try to expand into consumer products more where they haven't paid as much attention but have had some successes and failures so its not totally a new plunge.

Any company which sits happily on its laurels and doesn't chart new waters will stagnate and die (example Bibi), that is why all smart companies ensure they have a strong revenue base to keep the cash rolling in and use some of that cash to try new things which provide them even more control of their destiny. Expect Chacha to also go the FruitCo way in a manner similar to Mickey especially if Sammy starts to pull away. That is inevitable.

[Anujan]

Outlook.com has as many users as Gmail now and XBOX is a pretty big success on the consumer products front (even FruitCo doesn't come close here despite all the money poured into AppleTV, leave alone Chacha or Sammy).

Hotmail and gmail were always neck and neck in terms of usage numbers. They force migrated everyone in hotmail to outlook.com? If those numbers were counted then obviously outlook.com will have as many users as gmail. Two years back hotmail posted that they had about 360 million users and were the biggest email provider
http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_bl ... years.aspx
After migrating all of them to outlook.com, outlook.com has about 400 million users as of May
http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-out ... email.aspx

Claiming that they added 360 million users overnight and it is the fastest growing email service ever is a bit of Sialkot statistics. On the other hand, if this renaming means that they will be serious in keeping outlook.com upto date (as opposed to hotmail which had started to stagnate) then it is a good thing for the users.

[Raja Bose]

^^^Why wouldn't they convert hotmail.com to outlook.com? Why have 2 different online e-mail services which do the same thing especially since the backend is the same anyways? The move was also part of Mickey consolidating the experience of the Outlook native e-mail client with their web mail services (hence, the name change too to ensure consistent branding). The outlook.com UX is pretty much on par with the native client now in terms of usability, look and feel etc. so going forward whenever the native client gets updated, so will the web version. I have no idea why the Gmail team seems to be screwing up one thing after the other and this pakiness has been going on since 2010. They are literally an example of why one shouldn't fix what ain't broken. The latest crappiness I observe is, if you want to reply to an e-mail, you get the regular reply form but if you want to change the subject of the e-mail, it pops up as that annoying panel.

[Vayutuvan]

Can you even change the subject in a reply to an email? I wanted to do that but could never find out how to. (In the context of gmail, i.e.)

[Mort Walker]

I like both Gmail and Outlook, but prefer Gmail as its integrated with my Goog services. If you want pakiness, then look no further than IBM with Lotus Notes email. What a POS.

[Mort Walker]

Got a chance to play around some more with the Lumia 920 camera. Stills only, no video. I wish they put the controls of the pro camera app on its native interface. It seems to be one of the better cameras for a phone.

Aside from the 808 or 1020, none of the camera phones can match a decent compact camera.

[Raja Bose]

^^^Doesn't the new update put the pro controls right in?

[Mort Walker]

^^^Didn't see it. I was poking around with the photos and emailing them to myself to see on a big screen.

[Raja Bose]

^^Hmm...which carrier was this phunwa from? Or was it unlocked?

[archan]

Can you please share some pics?

[Vayutuvan]

I like both Gmail and Outlook, but prefer Gmail as its integrated with my Goog services. If you want pakiness, then look no further than IBM with Lotus Notes email. What a POS.

History
IBM Notes has a history spanning more than 20 years.[24] Its chief inspiration was PLATO Notes, created by David R. Woolley at the University of Illinois in 1973. In today's terminology, PLATO Notes was a message board, and it was part of the foundation for an online community which thrived for more than 20 years on the PLATO system. Ray Ozzie worked with PLATO while attending the University of Illinois in the 1970s. When PC network technology began to emerge, Ozzie made a deal with Mitch Kapor, the founder of Lotus Development Corporation, that resulted in the formation of Iris Associates in 1984 to develop products that would combine the capabilities of PCs with the collaborative tools pioneered in PLATO. The agreement put control of product development under Ozzie and Iris, and sales and marketing under Lotus. In 1994, after the release and marketplace success of Notes R3, Lotus purchased Iris. In 1995 IBM purchased Lotus.

When Lotus Notes was initially released, the name "Notes" referred to both the client and server components. In 1996, Lotus released an HTTP server add-on for the Notes 4 server called "Domino". This add-on allowed Notes documents to be rendered as web pages in real time. Later that year, the Domino web server was integrated into release 4.5 of the core Notes server and the entire server program was re-branded, taking on the name "Domino". Only the client program officially retained the "Lotus Notes" name.

IN 2008, IBM released XPages technology, allowing Lotus Notes data to be displayed to browser clients on any platform supporting standard web standards, as opposed to non-standard standards. This includes PC web browsers, smartphones, tablet computers and more.

Isn't Ray Ozzie CTO of M$ (or is that stale news?).

[Mort Walker]

^^Hmm...which carrier was this phunwa from? Or was it unlocked?

Locked to ATT.

[Mort Walker]

Can you please share some pics?

Sorry, but no. They are of family members that I choose not to post. I will post some innocuous ones after next weekend where it is a holiday in the US.

[anmol]

Google Glass is good PR for Chacha to show they are still cool after almost decade and a half, that's essentially it. The technology is just not there and even if the basic technological challenges are solved, it still has a large number of HCI issues of which there are no easy solutions.

And Kinect does that for microsoft. Though it is little more mature.

[Singha]

kinect provides the bones for rugged and potentially ubiquitous gesture control systems incl that of TV , house lights, personal robots, car AV systems and many more.
its not the first to do it, but if it reaches mass deployment on the back of some killer AP like next-gen TVs costs will come down and it will be become popular for other ends.

[Raja Bose]

Google Glass is good PR for Chacha to show they are still cool after almost decade and a half, that's essentially it. The technology is just not there and even if the basic technological challenges are solved, it still has a large number of HCI issues of which there are no easy solutions.

And Kinect does that for microsoft. Though it is little more mature.

Not really. Kinect is now a 2nd generation mass market consumer product which does what it does really well out of the box, from the day it was introduced - this is something which typically FruitCo excels at, not stodgy ol' companies like Mickey. In comparison Google Glass is still at a science experiment level in terms of technology and UX, to be honest.

[Singha]

I forsee when kinect like compacted hw will be part of every TV, smartphone and tablet, instead of crudely using the front camera to track peoples faces and handwaves as its being tried now . early days yet.

[archan]

Can you please share some pics?

Sorry, but no. They are of family members that I choose not to post. I will post some innocuous ones after next weekend where it is a holiday in the US.

Of course, it is expected you'd share only general images. I'm curious how low light shots would come out.

[Singha]

many comparison pages are already on the web like this http://www.wpcentral.com/nokia-lumia-10 ... us-920-925

however the phone could cost 40K in india, a 15K PS will match it and a 15K phone will be a phone. 15+15=30.

if it cost around 25K then mashallah I would camp outside the store to get one.

[Singha]

chinese will not rest until they collectively drive samsung out of smartphones.

[Mort Walker]

many comparison pages are already on the web like this http://www.wpcentral.com/nokia-lumia-10 ... us-920-925

however the phone could cost 40K in india, a 15K PS will match it and a 15K phone will be a phone. 15+15=30.

if it cost around 25K then mashallah I would camp outside the store to get one.

You really can't tell detail on small web sized shots. Ideally, you want to view in native resolution and then compare all of the samples at some fixed size.
An Rs.15K compact camera is under $300 and you're right that it will give you better shots than most all camera phones.

[Singha]

the photos by the 1020 look nice and richly toned here...like taken with a dslr and a decent lens.
http://www.wpcentral.com/nokia-lumia-10 ... review-cam

[SaiK]

Sorry, but no.

Just show us the mumbhai dhobi ghat - 920 shots of dawn, noon and dusk without even the shadow of human beings in it. . imho, none of these p&s cameras (for that matter i don't know how to do in a SLR) can take pics to avoid the glare of brighter objects or the shade areas being too dark. what is the trick?

[Singha]

dslr divide the pic into more segments for more granular exposure metering I believe.
hence they are able to score over PS usually when circumstances are challenging.
in good conditions, PS are now able to hold their own mostly.

[Mort Walker]

The metering system of sensors, electronics and s/w in a digital camera add cost. It is true, newer compact cameras have kept up, but metering systems in DSLRs have improved considerably too in the last few years. I have yet to see any consumer compact camera with matrix metering. Where many cameras fail, regardless of size, is on the white balance setting. Even Nikon's D700 full frame had poor white balance IMHO, and Nikon/Sony fixed it in the last few years. Canon has been very consistent on its white balance and requires very little post processing across its product line.

[Mort Walker]

Sorry, but no.

Just show us the mumbhai dhobi ghat - 920 shots of dawn, noon and dusk without even the shadow of human beings in it. . imho, none of these p&s cameras (for that matter i don't know how to do in a SLR) can take pics to avoid the glare of brighter objects or the shade areas being too dark. what is the trick?

Use filters and spot metering.

[KJo]

^^^Hurd sahib is in Oracle, no? I heard he sometimes run on the Oracle Trail in the early morning but never caught him.

Yeah Hurd Saahib tried to b@ng some vendor woman who has some soft-pron flicks to her name and got herded out of the co.

[KJo]

Google Glass is good PR for Chacha to show they are still cool after almost decade and a half, that's essentially it. The technology is just not there and even if the basic technological challenges are solved, it still has a large number of HCI issues of which there are no easy solutions.

Agree. I don't see people walking around with that thing. It is too obvious unlike a foon or some such device you can hide.

[Sushupti]

Much more powerful than supercomputer of 90s(just for $149) which uncle refused us and our newspapers carried wailing lines like why Uncle doesn't love us. A $15 wireless keyboard combo alongwith spare LED monitor and you have a nice Linux desktop

http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/ ... 13Twitter4

[vina]

The Decline of e-Empires-- Paul Krugman. NYT

August 25, 2013
The Decline of E-Empires
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Steve Ballmer’s surprise announcement that he will be resigning as Microsoft’s C.E.O. has set off a huge flood of commentary. Being neither a tech geek nor a management guru, I can’t add much on those fronts. I do, however, think I know a bit about economics, and I also read a lot of history. So the Ballmer announcement has me thinking about network externalities and Ibn Khaldun. And thinking about these things, I’d argue, can help ensure that we draw the right lessons from this particular corporate upheaval.

First, about network externalities: Consider the state of the computer industry circa 2000, when Microsoft’s share price hit its peak and the company seemed utterly dominant. Remember the T-shirts depicting Bill Gates as a Borg (part of the hive mind from “Star Trek”), with the legend, “Resistance is futile. Prepare to be assimilated”? Remember when Microsoft was at the center of concerns about antitrust enforcement?

The odd thing was that nobody seemed to like Microsoft’s products. By all accounts, Apple computers were better than PCs using Windows as their operating system. Yet the vast majority of desktop and laptop computers ran Windows. Why?

The answer, basically, is that everyone used Windows because everyone used Windows. If you had a Windows PC and wanted help, you could ask the guy in the next cubicle, or the tech people downstairs, and have a very good chance of getting the answer you needed. Software was designed to run on PCs; peripheral devices were designed to work with PCs.

That’s network externalities in action, and it made Microsoft a monopolist.

The story of how that state of affairs arose is tangled, but I don’t think it’s too unfair to say that Apple mistakenly believed that ordinary buyers would value its superior quality as much as its own people did. So it charged premium prices, and by the time it realized how many people were choosing cheaper machines that weren’t insanely great but did the job, Microsoft’s dominance was locked in.

Now, any such discussion brings out the Apple faithful, who insist that anything Windows can do Apple can do better and that only idiots buy PCs. They may be right. But it doesn’t matter, because there are many such idiots, myself included. And Windows still dominates the personal computer market.

The trouble for Microsoft came with the rise of new devices whose importance it famously failed to grasp. “There’s no chance,” declared Mr. Ballmer in 2007, “that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share.”

How could Microsoft have been so blind? Here’s where Ibn Khaldun comes in. He was a 14th-century Islamic philosopher who basically invented what we would now call the social sciences. And one insight he had, based on the history of his native North Africa, was that there was a rhythm to the rise and fall of dynasties.

Desert tribesmen, he argued, always have more courage and social cohesion than settled, civilized folk, so every once in a while they will sweep in and conquer lands whose rulers have become corrupt and complacent. They create a new dynasty — and, over time, become corrupt and complacent themselves, ready to be overrun by a new set of barbarians.

I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to apply this story to Microsoft, a company that did so well with its operating-system monopoly that it lost focus, while Apple — still wandering in the wilderness after all those years — was alert to new opportunities. And so the barbarians swept in from the desert.

Sometimes, by the way, barbarians are invited in by a domestic faction seeking a shake-up. This may be what’s happening at Yahoo: Marissa Mayer doesn’t look much like a fierce Bedouin chieftain, but she’s arguably filling the same functional role.(Ouch. RB Mullah... watch out!. Motorma Mayer has a sharp scimitar to lop off your ding dong if you do too much ping pong!)

Anyway, the funny thing is that Apple’s position in mobile devices now bears a strong resemblance to Microsoft’s former position in operating systems. True, Apple produces high-quality products. But they are, by most accounts, little if any better than those of rivals, while selling at premium prices.

So why do people buy them? Network externalities: lots of other people use iWhatevers, there are more apps for iOS than for other systems, so Apple becomes the safe and easy choice. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Is there a policy moral here? Let me make at least a negative case: Even though Microsoft did not, in fact, end up taking over the world, those antitrust concerns weren’t misplaced. Microsoft was a monopolist, it did extract a lot of monopoly rents, and it did inhibit innovation. Creative destruction means that monopolies aren’t forever, but it doesn’t mean that they’re harmless while they last. This was true for Microsoft yesterday; it may be true for Apple, or Google, or someone not yet on our radar, tomorrow.

[Mort Walker]

^^^Whatever it is MSFT is going through a shake up and if there was a successor planned, they would have said so to make the transition smooth. They missed the mobile computing revolution in the last 10 years when they had dominance with Windows Mobile and failed to capitalize on it. Yes, Uncle Fester raised revenue from $22 billion to $78 billion in the same period, but that is very much like our own MMS and Chidu taking credit for growth of the Indian economy over the last 10 years. Growth was in spite of leadership because the fundamentals were solid.

It appears MSFT will bring in an outsider. One rumor is John Legere the CEO of T-Mobile USA who knows mobile devices very well and has turned around the 4th largest telecom company in the US.

[Raja Bose]

^^^Mickey does well becoz its SVP level management is strong and knows their job well. If it was a cult driven shop like FruitCo they would have had an equally volatile history like FruitCo does. Putting too much reliance on some super star CEO is great for media frenzy but bad for business.

[Raja Bose]

Sometimes, by the way, barbarians are invited in by a domestic faction seeking a shake-up. This may be what’s happening at Yahoo: Marissa Mayer doesn’t look much like a fierce Bedouin chieftain, but she’s arguably filling the same functional role.(Ouch. RB Mullah... watch out!. Motorma Mayer has a sharp scimitar to lop off your ding dong if you do too much ping pong!)

KJo goes first! Marissa is looking to become a future governor or senator of California,...I doubt she gives 2 $hits about Yahoo! unless it fulfills that desire of hers.

[Anujan]

MM Motorma is a good product person. Knows to micromanage products to perfection -- is not a good strategist. The stuff that separates CEOs from VPs. She needs to get some ambition and the guts to have a vision before she can become a turnaround CEO.

She is trying to replicate Chacha inside yahoo without having a mobile platform, a browser or a social network -- will be a tough uphill battle.

OTOH, she can effect a turnaround if she buys back search business from M$, collaborates closely with facekitab and tries to get into mobile either by collaborating with M$, or with facekitab on their monstrosity called "home" on android or one of those "fourth alternative" fellas like Firefox OS.

Remind me again? What does yahoo do exactly?

Longish but fascinating:
The Truth About Marissa Mayer: An Unauthorized Biography
http://www.businessinsider.com/marissa- ... phy-2013-8

[Raja Bose]

She needs to get back Yahoo's strategic assets....stuff which has been pawned out by previous management.

What exactly has Mme. Mayer done which makes her a good product person? Somehow I dont buy the usual rosy corporate history of her 'achievements'.

[Anujan]

^^^
Do read the article. Many people in Google are mentioned -- quite a bit of SDREs in there -- Sundar Pichai, Amit Singhal and stuff.

Meanwhile Kara Swisher says Ballmer's departure was sudden despite the "all izz well" from everyone

http://allthingsd.com/20130825/ballmer- ... e-company/

[Singha]

>> ^^^Mickey does well becoz its SVP level management is strong and knows their job well.

does anyone know who is the high council that runs facebook ? is zuck of the same caliber as page to keep it running?

[Vayutuvan]

Wow. Chacha Fester is out? Events are moving at lightening speed while moi is frantically typing some prop calculus. But then no skin ahf moi knows hain JEE?

[anmol]

MSFT screwed over its partners who were working on mobile devices using WP/Win CE. They simply refused to allow native apps being written for even simple things (from the OEM,, not app vendors).

What kind of apps ?

[Raja Bose]

>> ^^^Mickey does well becoz its SVP level management is strong and knows their job well.

does anyone know who is the high council that runs facebook ? is zuck of the same caliber as page to keep it running?

That is called the "M-Team" in facebook and its full of boor-o-crats (I once did a pitch in front of some of them). It doesn't matter if Zuck is of the same caliber as Page....what really makes Chacha successful are its SVPs, not Page. People are too smitten with the Mahdi way of running a company....that is not sustainable as we can see.

---

Yeah read the Marissa bio article last night....its fairly well written with nice tidbits. I guess Amit Singhal and Marissa were never going to be dating buddies.