November 18, 2012 – 7:38 pm
Tweet In 2007, Microsoft introduces a new version of Windows called Vista, a grand name for what turns out to be an embarrassing dud. (Memories of my first and determining interaction with Vista can be found here.) Steven Sinofsky, once a Bill Gates technical assistant and, at the time, head of Microsoft Office development, is [...]
November 11, 2012 – 6:46 pm
Tweet As I’ve written many times in the past, I’m part of the vast chorus that praises the Apple Store. And not just for the uncluttered product displays, the no-pressure sales people (who aren’t on commission), or the Genius Bar that provides expert help, but for the impressive architecture. Apple beautifies existing venues (Regent Street [...]
November 4, 2012 – 10:14 pm
Tweet A couple of hours after landing in SFO from Paris, I find myself setting up two new tablets: a Microsoft Surface and an iPad mini. While on the road, I had read much on both products and felt reasonably well prepared for the tasks. This proved correct. But the product experience was another thing. [...]
October 28, 2012 – 9:47 pm
Tweet On October 23rd, Apple announced the widely expected iPad mini. The company also surprised most by also introducing a faster “4th generation” iPad, swiftly replacing the one launched on March 7th this year, seven and a half months ago. That same day, Tim Cook proudly proclaimed a an iPad milestone: 100 million shipped since [...]
October 21, 2012 – 7:54 pm
Tweet Apple and Samsung are engaged in a knives-out smartphone war, most infamously in the courts but, more importantly, in the marketplace. In its latest ad campaign, Samsung has cleverly “borrowed” a page from Apple’s own marketing playbook, posturing the iPhone as the choice of autumn-aged parents and brainwashed queue sheep. But when it comes [...]
October 14, 2012 – 7:16 pm
Tweet It’s a beautiful sight when, year after year, a company stays true to its original idea. But when a business loses the plot, we witness a sorry spectacle, an expensive slide into mediocrity. Every wayward company is wayward in its own way: Accountants masquerading as product planners; wannabe visionary execs jealousy trying to prove [...]
October 7, 2012 – 8:55 pm
Tweet Not against their VC overlords, mind you. No, calling themselves “Pigeons” (The Fleeced) they staged a highly visible protest (Google translation) against their government’s latest stroke of the money pump. In a nutshell, the new Socialist administration proposed to tax an entrepreneur’s capital gains as ordinary income. In very rough numbers, the tax rate [...]
September 30, 2012 – 7:24 pm
Tweet A short week after releasing the iPhone 5, Apple’s CEO publicly apologizes for the Maps fiasco and the company’s website updates its description of the new service. As the digital inspirations blog found out, the unfortunately emphatic description that once read: Designed by Apple from the ground up, Maps gives you turn-by-turn spoken directions, [...]
September 23, 2012 – 5:09 pm
TweetWhile still a teenager, my youngest daughter was determined to take on the role of used car salesperson when we sold our old Chevy Tahoe. Her approach was impeccable: Before letting the prospective buyer so much as touch the car, she gave him a tour of its defects, the dent in the rear left fender, [...]
September 17, 2012 – 3:42 am
Tweet Mark Zuckerberg admits Facebook was wrong to bet on HTML5 for its mobile app. Indeed, while the previous version was a mere wrapper around HTML code, the latest iOS app is much improved, faster, nimbler. Facebook’s CEO courageously admits the error, changes course, and promises to ship an equally native Android app in the [...]
