Thursday, September 9, 2010

That Google privacy video in Times Square is bogus & unfair!

Remember that video that Consumer Watchdog posted about Eric Schmidt & the “free ice cream truck”? This video was posted by Consumer Watchdog & was aired in Times Square.

I recommend you watch it just so you can get the full sense of what I’m writing about.

This is insane! Of all people to pick on…WHY GOOGLE? Microsoft’s Bing tracks you, Yahoo, OMG, and pretty much every other site on the web tracks you through cookies! And the fact of the matter is, Google is not selling the data they collected from you to anybody else? It’s purely for business reasons! They just want some information to give you relevant ads! All the major video & news sites do this! It’s really unfair to exclusively beat up Google for this! Google is absolutely not selling the information they collected to any government or business! They’re using the data privately to gather some information about your interests to deliver you relevant advertisements! But if you’re going to pick on Google, you might as well pick on the other big name news & video sites as well because they do it too! And the only reason Consumer Watchdog made this video is to scare corporate America! It’s very clear and it’s pure fact! They hate corporate America & that includes Google! And that’s beside the fact that most of the world’s population doesn’t even know who Eric Schmidt is? If Consumer Watchdog is trying to “send a message”, they’re doing an awful job of that because most Americans, including ME think that they’re just trying to rag on Google! And honestly, I don’t feel that most Americans understand that this data is privately being held within Google’s servers just so they can deliver relevant ads! Google is now the new Microsoft of the 1990’s! Google seems to be getting in anti-trust issues that Microsoft had in the 1990’s. So naturally it makes sense for big name media companies to trash-talk Google!

In fact, I wish sites would collect data about me just for the purpose of relevant ads! If it brings up more ads that are relevant to my interests, then I say, “Track me Google! Track me please!”. If I visit a website that tracks me exclusively for the purpose of relevant ads, and doesn’t sell it to anyone, then I’m totally okay with it! And as far as I know, Google doesn’t sell their tracking data to anyone else!

That’s why I say this video is bogus & unfair towards Google! Do you agree?

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

The death of Windows & Desktop OS’s?

I think we’re close to seeing it! Finally the day where we won’t have to install OS’s on our devices! The day when we just choose what browser or browsing experience we want & don’t have to bother with everything else. We won’t have to worry about importing data because it’ll be completely on the cloud and easily accessible with one click!

But of course that’ll have to happen with adoption from the rest of the industry & all the tech companies. So this adoption will come slowly. Over the course of possibly 5 or more years!

Here’s what will need to happen for this to be a successful transition:

  • Kiss goodbye to installing the OS yourself & other hassles! OS makers & OEM’s will have to learn that people don’t want to hassle with their OS & the software they have on their devices. They just want a device that will give them what they want! The average consumer just wants something that’ll give them access to email, web surfing, and apps at a touch of a button.

  • Software makers & OEMs will have to move to the cloud. Whether or not they like it, they need to move to the cloud to be successful. Their data is at risk when they handle everything on old fashion desktops. Moving their data & software to the cloud won’t be easy, but it’ll be a worth while investment!

  • Move the operating system to the cloud I know Microsoft doesn’t like the idea, but transferring Windows to the cloud would be a wise choice. OS makers such as Microsoft who still proves to be successful in the desktop OS space, are being forced to move their software into the cloud, eliminating the need for big hard drives & CD’s to install their software. Take Google’s Chrome OS as a good example, it’s something you run on your system that is just a complete browser-based solution that can do the best of all worlds! It’ll be capable of checking email & doing day-to-day activities like web browsing as well as running web-based applications. And HTML5 will make running web-apps possible!

  • The User experience should be nice & friendly. The only thing that would complete the online-based OS would be installation. You shouldn’t make people install the solution to make this possible. It should just come with the device & even the first time the customer turns on the device, it’ll just work. Their data will be online so with a touch of a button, they’ll have their personal data. This system will allow them to run their web-apps right out of the box without problems. But software makers need to improve the experience for this to work. An example would be Microsoft making a web-based OS that doesn’t require any user intervention from the start. It should include a web browser (if it was Microsoft I’d assume they’d put the cruddy Internet Explorer on it) and nothing else. Because all the user’s data & applications they use & love will be on the web. Google offers a solution like this called Google Chrome OS. It’s basically the Google Chrome browser running like an operating system. Except they need to complete the experience by making it so we don’t have to slip a disc in every time to run it. Just have it built into the device!

  • Users need to adapt too. Many people already use the web. However, most of the world’s web users don’t understand or care to know what a web browser is. Most users just see whatever is their by default and go with it because it’s “easy” or “convenient”. Which is why IE’s (Internet Explorer) global market share is so high! This part is why I think it’ll take some number of years before this complete transition to the web will take place. If we as the smart techies of the tech industry come together to educate the general web population about web browsers & the choices they have between browsers, then we can completely transition to the cloud.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Former HP CEO Mark Hurd steps up as new CEO for Oracle.

Did anybody see this coming?  That was my initial thought when I saw the story from Information Week. According to Info Week, Charles Phillips has resigned as CEO. Allowing Mark Hurd, former HP CEO, to step up to the plate to fill his shoes.Last month, Mark Hurd was ousted as CEO of HP due to sexual harassment claims.There has been some speculation that Mark Hurd would become the new CEO for Oracle, the owner of Sun Microsystems. Larry Ellison was caught on the record of saying this according to Info Week, “Mark did a brilliant job at HP and I expect he’ll do an even better job at Oracle.” Larry Ellison also said, “When Charles approached me last December and expressed his desire to transition out of the company, I asked him to stay on through the Sun integration which has gone well. We will miss his talent and leadership, but I respect his decision.”  For all the negative ranting I’ve been doing about tech companies, this will be the first positive opinion I’ll have. Mark Hurd was a great CEO for HP & did them well & restored the company’s ability to sell products of dying markets. And I have no doubt that Hurd will do the same for Oracle.

My next iPod will be a Zune! And why I think the new iPod lineup is a flop!

After the Apple Event, I found myself disappointed with the reality of the new iPod lineup. The iPod Shuffle only got buttons back and a smaller, lighter design. So what?! The new iPod Nano has eliminated the click-wheel, but now is just a small 2-inch LCD touch-screen wristwatch! And it's important to take this into consideration:

    • The iPod Nano now cannot play video! :(

    • The new Nano can't run iPhone apps!

    • And the screen is too small!

      The iPod Touch may have gotten a "nice refresh". I disagree completely!

      Understand that the iPod Touch:

        • Has the weakest camera I have ever seen! Not even a megapixel! And the resolution that the camera takes is incredibly poor. My question is: Why the heck did Steve put a camera in the iTouch in the first place?!

        • It has a front-facing camera. But hold on a second! This camera only works with FaceTime (Apple's incredibly unsuccessful video conferencing software!). You can only call other iPhone 4's & 4th gen iPod Touches! If your friends one of the two devices, you can't call them! It's completely useless! Again, why did Jobs bother putting a camera in the device!

        • The 8GB iPod Touch is now $30 more expensive! Steve, you have disappointed me greatly! You give us a crappy camera and charge us 30 extra bucks for a camera that may cost 5 bucks to manufacture!

          I'm not going over the positives of the iPod Touch. Let me make myself clear...I hate the iPod! All iPod models! Proprietary software, you have to sync to iTunes to get content, and it's just plain flat too expensive for some very bleak functionality!


          So, why do you like the Zune so much?
          Not to be a Microsoft fanboy, but the Zune is much more compelling! The Zune HD gets you 16GB for less than the price of an 8GB iPod Touch! A Zune HD 32GB for a little more than an 8GB iPod Touch!
          The Zune HD:
          • Offers Zune Pass, a music service from Microsoft that gives you unlimited songs for $15.99/month! And every month you get to keep 10 songs in download form! That is so much more economical than buying songs by the dozen on the iTunes Store!
          • Gives you an HD-Radio receiver!
          • Works with HD video!
          • Offers Wi-Fi (duh!)
          • And something that the iPhones & iPods need...Wireless syncing! Allows you to sync to your PC wirelessly!
          • And unlike iTunes, the Zune software for the PC is not "crapware"! It works well without bugs! The stability and performance of the Zune PC software is an order of magnitude better than iTunes!
          By the way, the library of music on the Zune store is comparable to iTunes. The Zune store has a nice library of music & videos!

          Allow me to summarize this with one simple equation.
          Steve Jobs + greed + poor product quality = New iPods are terrible!

          Microsoft Zune software + convenience + price of content & hardware = Zune rocks!