Windows Phone 8 Doesn't Need An Installation Disc

Paul Thurrott, writing for Supersite for Windows:

Look, it’s possible that someone, someday, will run into this screen innocuously. Software isn’t perfect. But this isn’t a case of innocence, it’s someone purposefully not explaining what they did and then making Windows Phone look bad as a result. Hilarious!

The story here is that a picture was posted on Twitter that seemingly showed Windows Phone 8 prompting the user for an installation disc.  Unfortunately, the person who posted the picture failed to mention that they were attempting to load a modified boot loader.  This is of course not anywhere near the expected use of the phone, and it is irresponsible at best and disingenuous at worst to have posted the photo without providing context.

Amazon is Probably Starting a Music Price War

Aabha Rathee, writing for Wall St. Cheat Sheet:

Amazon announced last week that its 22-million song catalog was now optimized for users of Apple devices in a way that lets them circumvent the iTunes store and pay lesser for their music. Users will be able to the Safari web browser on their iOS device to access the music, with purchases then directly stored to their Amazon Cloud Player library.

Rathee later goes on to mention (via quotes) how this action is similar to the strategy that Amazon employed when eBooks became available on the iPad. As Matthew Yglesias opines in an article over on Slate, Amazon can be a scary competitor even when (or perhaps especially when) it doesn't care about profits.

I'm not entirely convinced that Amazon can continue to play the market share game this aggressively, but I'm intrigued by the prospects of a formidable competitor keeping Apple on its toes.

Nokia Wants You To Print a Shell For Your Phone

Joel Willans on Nokia's site, quoting Nokia Community & Developer Marketing Manager John Kneeland:

Perhaps in addition to our own beautifully-designed phones, we could sell some kind of phone template, and entrepreneurs the world over could build a local business on building phones precisely tailored to the needs of his or her local community. You want a waterproof, glow-in-the-dark phone with a bottle-opener and a solar charger? Someone can build it for you—or you can print it yourself!



This is a fantastic idea and is clearly a forward-looking move by Nokia.  The era of 3D printing is upon us, and it is in the best interests of many companies to follow suit by releasing usable 3D printing documents for their products.  It's a great way to build customer loyalty and PR buzz by fostering a community based on a product.

The Boeing 787 Failed a Battery Test in Spectacular Fashion Back in 2006

Dominic Gates, writing for The Seattle Times about a failed battery test on the Boeing 787 program:

During testing of a prototype charging-system design in the 2006 incident, “the battery caught fire, exploded, and Securaplane’s entire administrative building burned to the ground,” according to a summary by the administrative law judge in a related employment lawsuit.

The ruinous fire resisted the initial efforts of two employees with fire extinguishers, and escalated, despite the dispatch of a fleet of fire trucks, to destroy the 10,000-square-foot building.

It reached temperatures of about 1,200 degrees and resulted in losses of millions of dollars.

Despite the fact that Boeing won the commercial airplane crown in orders and deliveries from longtime rival Airbus, it has been a rough start to the year for the folks at the airplane maker. The reason? Issues with the 787.

Gates' article delves into more detail about the failed battery test as well as the FAA's role in approving Boeing's design for handling battery fires. The infographic in the article is superb.

Every new airplane model has its 'teething issues' during initial Entry into Service. The 787 is running into some atypically difficult issues, but I'm quite confident that the folks at Boeing will solve these problems and the 787 will grace the skies for many years to come.

Sony Might Be Getting Its (Design) Groove Back

A few days ago I had a discussion with some friends about how strange it was that Sony had yet to make any sort of real impact on the mobile world. This lack of impact was particularly intriguing to me considering that Sony has such a rich design history. This design history is so rich, in fact, that one of Apple's industrial designers produced the often-shared 'Jony' phone design concept which was inspired by Sony's design aesthetics.

It was excellent timing (for my benefit, at least) to see that Sony has revealed its Xperia Tablet Z which looks to my eye to be a very pleasing design. At 6.9mm, it is slightly thinner than the famously-thin iPad Mini but in a 10.1-inch form factor. The fact that it runs Android Jelly Bean is the icing on the cake. (Quite attractive cake, by the way.)

I'm a bit concerned about battery life based on the small (6000mAh) battery, but all in all I'm starting to be convinced that Sony might be returning to its design roots.

Google Paying for Traffic Over a Network Sets a Bad Precedent

Ewan Spence, at Forbes:

This is a wedge moment. Google appears to have blinked and decided that Android’s market share is more important than the principles behind net neutrality. Orange is quietly letting others know they have a deal in place, and you can be sure the rest of the world’s networks are wondering how they can get their slice of the pie.

This sets a really bad precedent.  I can understand why Google felt that this was a good move (or at least the lesser of two evils), but this business deal will only further encourage the networks to do more 'double-dipping'.

That's honestly what this is, folks: double-dipping.  The networks are upset at their role as 'dumb pipes' and are attempting to grab more money by charging end users for Internet service and trying to bully web services (like Google) into also paying for the privilege of delivering services to those users.

France Wants to Tax the Collection of Private Data on the Internet

Eric Pfanner, writing for The New York Times:

The report published Friday said a tax on data collection was justified on grounds that users of services like Google and Facebook are, in effect, working for these companies without pay by providing the personal information that lets them sell advertising.

I can empathize with the dilemma facing governments today. The world economy, in general, has not been good and the related tax revenue has been impacted.  However, that doesn't excuse naked cash-grabs like this proposal. Trying to argue that users of Internet services are 'working' for those companies is like trying to argue that the act of cooking a hamburger is a form of 'manufacturing'.

As it has been said, "The only things certain in life are death and taxes."

Microsoft Should Be Allowed To Have Sales, Too

Paul Thurrott, on Supersite for Windows:

How dare Microsoft make Windows 8 Pro available so cheaply for a pre-set period of time and then simply begin pricing it normally exactly when they previously announced they would do so. How dare they!

As Paul correctly points out in his article, there isn't any good reason for folks to be angry at Microsoft.  The pricing was clearly on a time-limited promotional basis.  The normal pricing is exactly the same as Windows 7 pricing.  

Perhaps part of the reason for the outrage is the way some in the tech media have presented the story in their headlines.  Instead of choosing a headline like "Microsoft Is Jacking Up The Price Of Windows 8 Upgrades", why not choose the more neutral (and honestly, more accurate) headline of "Promotional Pricing Ends for Windows 8 Upgrades"?

The iPhone 5 Doesn't Need 'Saving' (and Neither Does Apple)

Rick Aristotle Munarriz, in an article for The Motley Fool:

An early upgrade cycle isn't necessarily unusual for Apple. When the tech giant introduced the new iPad two months ago, it came just eight months after the third generation of the iconic tablet. Apple even raised the stakes by rolling out the lower-priced iPad Mini at the same time.

However, it's clear that sooner will be better than later at a time when the market's starting to lose faith in the magnetism of the iPhone 5. Even before this week's unconfirmed report of Apple scaling back supplier orders for iPhone 5 screens, analysts performing channel checks were talking down their projections.

Misek himself is now lowering his shipment expectations for the current quarter from 48 million to 44 million. It's certainly not as bad as some of the gloomier revisions out there, but it's just one more connected pro hosing down his forecast.

The hubbub began when The Wall Street Journal reported on information from Japan's Nikkei regarding dour news for the iPhone 5. The key point in the WSJ report was this line:

Apple’s orders for iPhone 5 screens for the first quarter, for example, have dropped to roughly half of what the company had planned to order, the people said.

However, as noted in a rebuttal by Mark Rogowsky on Forbes:

What’s missing from that quote, however, is what Nikkei originally included and can still be found on Reuters (although no longer on WSJ): “Apple has asked Japan Display, Sharp and LG Display Co Ltd to roughly halve supplies of LCD panels from an initial plan for about 65 million screens in January-March, the Nikkei cited people familiar with the situation as saying.” And that 65 million number we know is completely absurd.

65 million LCD panels is indeed absurd. A chart in an article by Dan Gallagher for MarketWatch shows a much more reasonable (but still very high) estimate of 48 million. It should be noted that this 48 million number is much closer to the "48 million to 44 million" referenced above. 65 million iPhones would be off the chart (literally).

The stock market has completely unrealistic expectations for Apple. For some reason, in the market's opinion it is not good enough for Apple to simply be a top level competitor in the marketplace, it has to dominate in order to be considered worthy.

I don't know what Apple will say in next week's quarterly results call, but I'm fairly certain that it will be something to the effect of 'we sold bunches and bunches of the iPhone 5'.