software
We Don’t Plan to Build Apps for WinPho8
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5968080/google-we-dont-plan-to-build-apps-for-winpho8
If you’ve been holding out for a Gmail or Drive app on WinPho8, you’re all outta luck. Google has announced that it has no plans to roll out Windows Phone 8 software for the major Google apps.
Speaking to V3, Clay Bavor, product management director at Google Apps, explained:
“We have no plans to build out Windows apps. We are very careful about where we invest and will go where the users are but they are not on Windows Phone or Windows 8. If that changes, we would invest there, of course.”
Instead, Google plans to concentrate its efforts in iOS and Android apps:
“In 2012 we’ve laid some of the ground work and really improved the experience of our core apps on mobile devices, such as adding native editing of spreadsheets for both iOS and Android apps.”
Like Google Maps, which is now back on iOS. So, if you have an intimate love affair with the big G, look like WinPho8 still isn’t for you. [V3]
Image by AP
How the US Air Force Wasted $1 Billion on a Failed Software Plan
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5967081/how-the-us-air-force-wasted-1-billion-on-a-failed-software-plan
The US Military makes its fair share of mistakes when it comes to technology—but over the weekend, the New York Times revealed that even upgrading a single software system can go horribly wrong for it.
The New York Times describes the situation:
Last month, [the Air Force] canceled a six-year-old modernization effort that had eaten up more than $1 billion. When the Air Force realized that it would cost another $1 billion just to achieve one-quarter of the capabilities originally planned – and that even then the system would not be fully ready before 2020 – it decided to decamp.
You might expect the project to be exotic and experimental. If that were there case, the expense and failure might be understandable, if not desirable. But in fact the project was the implementation of commercial off-the-shelf software. Known as the Expeditionary Combat Support System, the plan was to improve the management of logistics using software from Oracle. Four years of development—and over $1 billion dollars—later, and neither Oracle nor the Air Force have anything to show for their labors.
So what went wrong? According to the New York Times, the plan was scuppered by constant redesigns, poor time management and lack of accountability:
[The System] was restructured many times, including three separate times in the last three years, Ms. McGrath says. “Each time, we chunked it down, breaking it into smaller pieces, focusing on specific capabilities.” But this was not enough to save the system, she says, because program managers did not succeed in imposing the short deadlines of 18 to 24 months that the department now requires for similar projects…
[A] report cited many concerns, but the main one was a failure to meet a basic requirement for successful implementation: having “a single accountable leader” who “has the authority and willingness to exercise the authority to enforce all necessary changes to the business required for successful fielding of the software.”
If anything, we should be grateful that the Air Force decided to kill the project before it haemorrhaged more cash. If you want more detail, you should definitely read the Times piece. [New York Times]
Image by expertinfantry under Creative Commons license
Meet Magine, The iPad App That Shows Just How Cool An Apple TV Could Be (AAPL)
People love TV.
Stats to prove it:
- About 100 million people pay for cable TV, according to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.
- The average monthly cable bill was $86 2011, according to NPD. It’s expected to be $123 by 2015 and $200 by 2020.
So, if we’re all in love with TV, why are we excited about the near-certain prospect of an Apple TV?
Mainly because the software for current TVs and set-top boxes is terrible. Cable company software is ugly and hard to navigate.
Impressed with our MacBooks, iPads, and iPhones all of us – including industry insiders like Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes, for example – imagine Apple could do a much better job.
Over in Sweden, a startup called Magine (pronounced like Imagine without the “I”) has done more than just dream.
It built a product for iOS and Android, which streams and records 16 Swedish television channels. Sometimes called the “Spotify for TV,” its shows us just how cool Apple TV software could be.
With Magine, your iPad is both a remote and a viewing device. Apple TV will have to work the same way, right?
Instead of hitting the “guide” button on your remote and navig! ating wi th arrows, you can use gestures.
This is how you select a show – by touching it.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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Amazon Trashes The iPad Mini On Amazon.com (AMZN, AAPL)
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ipad-mini-comparison-on-amazoncom-2012-10
Amazon is using its heavily trafficked front page to trash the iPad mini.
As you can see below, Amazon does a head to head comparison with the Kindle Fire HD and the iPad mini. The Kindle Fire HD comes out on top.
A few things about this ad. Amazon says it can play HD movies. In his review of the Kindle Fire HD, David Pogue said, “Incidentally, despite the name ‘HD,’ the screen can’t actually show you movies in hi-def. It may have the requisite number of pixels, but most of them are dedicated to black letterbox bars; the screen is the wrong shape for movies. And you can’t enlarge the playback to fill the screen, as you can on an iPad.”
And Walt Mossberg in his review said, “The Fire HD isn’t as polished, fluid or versatile as the iPad.”
The reason for that is iOS, Apple’s mobile software which is vastly superior to Amazon’s tablet software.
The real question for people looking at buying a tablet is whether or not it’s worth paying an extra $130 for an iPad mini which has better software and a bigger library of apps. Also, we should get official reviews of the iPad mini this week, which will give us better independent comparisons.
Google goes back to basics, announces GSA 7.0 for all of your enterprise searching needs
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/09/google-announces-gsa-7-official/
Long before retail outlets were flooded with Android-powered electronics, Google embarked on its maiden voyage into the world of hardware. Venturing out into uncharted waters, the then only web search company released a glaring yellow box known as the Google Search Appliance. Sticking to its search engine roots, Google’s first piece of enterprise hardware was designed to help its customers perform fast and effective searches of internal networks. While the GSA may not be the search juggernaut’s most noteworthy piece of equipment, it doesn’t mean that the company has abandoned its original vision for the platform.
Filed under: Networking, Software, Google
Google goes back to basics, announces GSA 7.0 for all of your enterprise searching needs originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Oct 2012 16:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Samsung aims to become key player in digital content distribution through company buyouts
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/27/samsung-aims-to-become-key-player-in-content-distribution/
The writing has been on the wall ever since Samsung’s acquisition of mSpot, but the Korean firm today confirmed to Reuters that it plans to join the ranks of Apple, Google and Amazon in the world of digital content distribution. Most importantly, it plans to do so through buyouts. Samsung executive Kang Tae-jin offered a rather frank overview of the company’s ambitions, saying that it will grow Music Hub into one of the top four services in terms of revenue and subscribers within the next three years. According to Kang, the push isn’t so much to tap a new source of revenue, but rather to drive hardware sales — perhaps it sees Apple’s rumored move into music streaming as a bit of a threat. That said, the announcement also dovetails with rumblings of Samsung’s efforts to build a more self-sufficient software ecosystem. Whatever the true reason, we’d imagine that the folks at Pandora, Spotify and the like are now watching the phone a bit more intently. Wouldn’t you?
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile
Samsung aims to become key player in digital content distribution through company buyouts originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Sep 2012 04:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Android Has A Hardware Fragmentation Problem Too
Source: https://intelligence.businessinsider.com/welcome
Android’s fragmentation problem isn’t just a software issue; it has a hardware problem, too. Android has hardware fragmentation because it supports a slew of handsets from a number of manufacturers. As of September, the most popular screen size and density for Android phones accounted for about half of the market, with the balance taken by nine other screen sizes and densities.
This too can make developing on Android a headache because developers must prepare their app for a range of screen sizes. Compare this to the iPhone, which until last week always had the same screen size.
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Dr. Augustine Fou is Digital Consigliere to marketing executives, advising them on digital strategy and Unified Marketing(tm). Dr Fou has over 17 years of in-the-trenches, hands-on experience, which enables him to provide objective, in-depth assessments of their current marketing programs and recommendations for improving business impact and ROI using digital insights. 
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