HTC One, Android Zero
There was a word missing from HTC’s unveiling of its impressive new HTC One phone. HTC executives talked about the BlinkFeed streaming home screen, the redone Sense user interface, the BoomSound audio system, and the Zoe photo-plus-video app. But there …
Spectrum: The Wheels of the FCC Grind Slowly
Remember back at CES in January when Federal communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced a plan to free 195 MHz of spectrum in the 5 gigahertz band for expanded Wi-Fi? I hope you we’re planning on using it anytime soon.
As …
Spectrum: Multiplication Beats Addition
Martin Cooper recalls the days of mobile radio-telephones before cellular service:
You’d have one station in a city and you could conduct in that city 12 phone calls at one time. During the busy hour, the probability of connecting, of getting …
Spectrum: Sharing Nicely Can Go a Long Way
Sharing has been part of U.S. spectrum policy from the beginning. When the government started handing out AM radio licenses in the 1920s and 30s, a relative handful of stations were assigned “clear channels” that they did not share with …
The Enterprise Is Important. Let’s Get It Right.
One of the most striking features of much tech writing today is its near total ignorance about corporate software and systems. Except for sites like ComputerWorld and others that specialize in the enterprise, reporting is sparse and when it appears, …
BlackBerry Delivers a Product: Now It Has To Sell It
Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg nicely summed up the first day of the rest of BlackBerry’s life: “Good launch,” he tweeted. “Now it’s all execution.”
After what seemed like an interminable pregnancy, BlackBerry (the new corporate name; Research In Motion …
Business and Social Media: The Good and the Ugly
I had an interesting little experience this morning with how customer services organizations use social media well and badly.
I was headed to New York for the BlackBerry 10 launch and took the first train on the Washington Metro Red Line …
Apple and the Burden of Bigness
A lot has been written lately about “exponential growth,” nearly all of it wrong. If you want to see what real exponential growth looks like, check out the graph of Apple’s revenues and profits . And this tells an …
Cheering for BlackBerry
On Wednesday, Research In Motion will launch its bid to save itself with the redesigned from the ground up BlackBerry. I’ll be at the launch event and I will judge the new hardware and software on their merits, still I …
Apple and Imperfection
Near the end the dot-com bubble, smart investors finally realized that a major problem with tech stock pricing was that dozens of companies were priced to perfection: Their stock prices were so high relative to the underlying financials that only …
Spectrum: Where It Came From, Where It Goes
In the the beginning, wireless spectrum in the U.S. was free. In 1983, the Federal Communications Commission created the first analog cellular networks by assigning two chunks of airwaves in the 800 MHz band. One chunk was reserved for the …
Spectrum: The Shortage Is a Crisis, but Not Serious
The late economist Herb Stein used to say that “if something cannot go on forever, it will stop.”
A profound economic truth lies behind that seeming flip statement. The world is forever on the verge of running out of vital commodities–oil, …
Why Hardware, and CES, Still Matter
An odd notion that hardware no longer matters has lately taken hold in the world of tech commentary. For example, in a well-argued piece explaining his decision not to attend the Consumer Electronics Show, Buzzfeed’s Matt Buchanan writes:
[S]oftware and services have …
The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch: Windows 8 Is Tough Even on a Great Windows 8 Laptop
I have been using Windows 8 through its several beta and preview versions on equipment designed for earlier editions, and I have been wondering for many months whether my unhappiness with it resulted from shortcomings of the hardware. I’ve now …
Google vs. Microsoft: Just Cut It Out
Hostilities between Google and Microsoft are heating up, and users are being caught in the crossfire.
Microsoft, of course, has spent the last couple of years trying to bring the wrath of the federal government down on Google. This campaign failed …
Qualcomm and the Birth of the Smartphone
Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs’ appearance on the Charlie Rose Show brought back memories of the earliest days of smartphones. Jacobs told rose that he originally proposed adding a cellular radio to the Apple Newton MessagePad. When Apple demurred, Jacobs headed …
CES 2013: Where’s the Excitement?
Next week, as I have in early January for I can’t remember how many years, I’ll head for Las Vegas and the International Consumer Electronics Show. I’ll admit I don’t much like either Vegas or CES, but this year, I’m …
Why Mourn the Death of Pirates?
At some level, I have a bit of grudging admiration for CNET for publishing an article so obviously hostile to the the interests of its corporate parent, CBS. But on the other hand, it is long past time for anyone …
Patents: That Word Does Not Mean What You Think It Means
Yesterday, the internet was abuzz with reports that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had “rejected” another Apple iPhone patent. Many commentators jumped to the conclusion that, since this patent figured heavily in Apple’s recent legal …
The Shape of 2013: Predictions for the Year Ahead
After 15 years of making predictions, with a track record that would have made you rich if you’d bet on them, I’ve been away from the practice for a couple of years. But as the regulars at Tech.pinions have agreed …
Maps for iOS: What Does Google Have Against Tablets?
Google’s failure to understand that a tablet is something other than a really big phone is becoming one of the great mysteries of the technology world. The Android tablet business has been crippled by a lack of dedicated tablet apps, …
How To Make Windows 8 Great
There has been a lot of discussion here lately, both in posts such as Why IT buyers are Excited About Convertibles and Hybrids and Microsoft Surface: How Relevant Are Legacy Apps and Hardware? about the failings and the potential of Windows 8. So inspired …
How I Met My Computer: Technologies That Changed My Life
I got into computers because I was fascinated by a friend’s programming manual. It was at the University of Michigan, probably in early 1966, when I had my first look at The MAD Manual, a beguiling guide to the Michigan Algorithm …
Why Apple Manufacturing Needs Few Workers
Apple CEO Tim Cook’s announcement that the company would do some Mac assembly in the U.S. brought on a flurry of publicity vastly disproportionate to the importance of the development. It’s good that manufacturers see opportunities for U.S. operations for …
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