Looking through my snaps from Microsoft’s Times Square launch of Windows 8 and Surface RT, I was struck by this image of a man capturing the event on his Apple iPad.
The picture was snapped in New York City on Wednesday 25th October 2012.
Category Archives: apple
Telerik Icenium: new desktop and cloud IDE for mobile development
When I heard that Telerik is bringing out a new IDE for mobile app development, I could contain my excitement, especially after learning that it is another PhoneGap/Cordova based approach, wrapping JavaScript and HTML as a native app. While speaking to Telerik’s Doug Seven though, I found myself increasingly impressed.
If that name sounds familiar, it might be because Seven was a director of Product Management in the Visual Studio team at Microsoft, and you can see that influence in the new IDE, which is called Icenium. Spot the Metro-style buttons at top left of the IDE!
Icenium has several components. There is a Windows IDE called Graphite, illustrated above. Those on other platforms, or in distributed teams, can use Mist, which is a browser-based IDE which replicates many of the features of Graphite. There is also a set of cloud-based services to handle building apps for iPhone, iPad and Android devices. This means you do not need to install all the necessary SDKs on your own machine. Icenium also lets developers build signed iOS packages without needing to have a Mac.
The Icenium Device Simulator lets you test applications quickly on your own machine.
The tools look good, though I have not tried them yet, but the unique feature of Icenium is the ability to deploy and test quickly on multiple devices. Code is kept synchronized between Graphite and Mist, and also pushed out though LiveSync to multiple devices. Here is a snap of the view from Doug Seven’s desk, grabbed from his online presentation. He showed me how a code change ripples almost instantly to all these devices for testing.
An intriguing part of this is an iOS app called Ion which is a sort of runtime shell for Icenium apps. This means you can load apps for testing onto iOS devices that are not unlocked for developer use. You can also demonstrate apps on a client’s device using Ion. Apple’s attitude to runtimes in the App Store must be softening.
Icenium supports version control using either a Git repository hosted on the service, or your own choice of URL-based Git repositories.
Pricing will be per-developer at $16.00 per month if you sign up for a year, or $19.00 per month without a contract. Once you sign up, you can use all the tools on all your machines. You can also use Telerik’s Kendo UI Mobile framework. It is free until May 1 2013.
Isn’t Icenium’s cloud build feature similar to what Adobe’s PhoneGap Build already does?
“It’s a great comparison,” says Seven. “Adobe has the technology to make this [seamless development experience] possible, they just chose not to do it … [PhoneGap Build] is not integrated into the workflow. It’s a very manual process, I have to zip up my files, submit them to the PhoneGap Build process, then I get back these application packages that I have to manually deploy to my devices to see if it works.”
There is no support yet for mobile web apps, as opposed to apps packaged with Cordova, but this is a possibility for the future.
Like Adobe, Telerik has found WebKit and Google Chrome irresistible, despite Seven’s Microsoft background. WebKit is embedded in the Graphite IDE. You can use Mist with any modern browser, though “the one limitation is that the browser-based device simulator does require Chrome,” though he add that in general, “I use Mist on my iPad all the time.”
Amazon.com sales stats snapshot shows why Microsoft is reinventing Windows
Anyone who questions the need for Microsoft’s radical reinvention of Windows need look no further than Amazon’s sales stats.
I was on Amazon.com checking out the specs for Samsung’s new Ativ slate, and happened to click the link for best sellers in Computers and Accessories.
On the morning of 17th October 2012, here is how the top 20 looked:
- Six Android tablets including Samsung Galaxy Tab at number 1 and Google Nexus 7 at 3
- Four varieties of Apple iPad at number 4, 7, 9 and 13
- Two Apple MacBooks (Pro and Air) at positions 2 and 16
- One solitary Windows laptop at number 10 (Dell Inspiron).
A mix of networking devices, screens and accessories make up the other eight places; I chose the entire sector because it puts tablets and laptops alongside each other.
This is not about price. That Dell laptop is $429.99, little different from the 16GB iPad 2 at $399.99 and 42.5% of the cost of the MacBook Pro.
Windows still outsells the Mac overall. Gartner gave Apple just 13.6% of the US PC market (excluding tablets) for the third quarter of 2012. However, Windows is boosted by large corporate sales, where the Mac is still a minority taste; Amazon is largely a consumer vendor.
Further, Amazon’s figures change hourly and I may have hit a low spot; check out the current list yourself.
Finally, the large number of Windows laptops on offer dilute the ranking of any one – though there are a lot of Android tablets on sale too.
For Microsoft though, this is still a worrying list to see. Today’s Windows 7 devices are not what consumers want. Reinventing Windows for tablets was the right thing to do – though that does not, of course, prove that Windows 8 will succeed. Windows 8 pre-orders are not high on the list either – and yes, they are on the list; the Samsung Ativ convertible is currently at 60.
Boom time for audio?
The hi-fi industry is on its knees, or so I had thought. That may be true for traditional home stereos; but at a gadget briefing for UK press yesterday I saw more audio stands and stands highlighting audio products than I can recall. The themes: headgear (both headphones and earbuds) and wireless speakers.
As an example, Cygnett was highlighting its noise cancelling headphones and various earbuds, and told me that this is a fast-growing market.
I enjoyed the exotic things more of course, like the Edifier Spinnaker Bluetooth speakers – that little round thing is a wireless remote.
Even more striking are the Opalum wall speakers, like this FLOW.4810 model, with an array of 48 1″ drivers in each active speaker.
You can hang them on your wall like this:
At the other end of the scale, BoomBotix showed its Boombot2 Bluetooth mini attached to the handlebars of a bike; a good way to make yourself unpopular, perhaps, but fun to see.
Canadian speaker company PSB was showing its high-end M4U noise cancelling headphones
I had a quick listen and they sounded good, though it is always hard to tell for sure in a crowded room. Neat feature: a press-button remote on the cable enables an external microphone so you can hear someone talking to you without removing the headphones.
Audyssey was there with its excellent powered speakers and docks; search this site for some reviews.
Another company with striking designs was Libratone, showing its Zipp AirPlay portable wireless speakers.
One thing I did not see much of: old-style iPhone / iPod speaker docks that charge while you play. One exhibitor told me that users will think twice about buying docks with physical connectors now that Apple has changed the design and made everything incompatible without an adapter. In any case, wireless is more stylish. Bluetooth seems most favoured, since it is widely compatible; Android is making its mark and Apple-specific devices are becoming less attractive.
Also worth a mention is Urbanista, which showed its stylish headphones and earbuds, though the focus seems more on fashion than sound; like the London earbuds designed, I was told, to look like cuff links.
The home stereo may be dead; but there is still innovation in audio. One factor is that almost any portable device – whether dedicated music player, smartphone or tablet – is capable of producing a high quality signal. Connect to the right headphones or active speakers and the magic begins.
Apple looks mortal
This has been a bad week for technical journalism. Everything was going according to script; new iPhone announced on 12th September; not really much new but oh, the design, oh, the performance, oh, the small touches. Then those with early access to devices poured forth their reviews: “probably the most beautiful smartphone anyone has ever made,” said The Telegraph, while Walt Mossberg on the Wall Street Journal said that “Apple has taken an already great product and made it better.”
Mossberg did say that the new Maps app in the iPhone5 was “the biggest drawback” though the faults he found were, in retrospect, minor. He observes the lack of public transport information, and add that “while I found Apple’s maps accurate, they tend to default to a more zoomed-in view than Google’s, making them look emptier until you zoom out.”
When iOS 6 was rolled out generally this week though, the public had a different take on the subject. One factor was that they looked at the maps in their own location, whereas early reviewers tend to be located in major cities. The big issue is not the lack of public transport routing, though that is an issue, but the poor quality of the data. It is simply not of release quality. One small example. Birmingham Airport is a significant destination in the UK, but if I search for it here, I get mysteriously directed to Aldridge Airport, 20 miles north.
Note: “Aldridge Airport” closed in the sixties and is “Now an open space used for football, dogwalking and the buzz of radio controlled aircraft.”
Birmingham airport itself seems missing.
This search is no challenge for Google Maps.
Maps are important on a mobile device, and this was an instance where the technical press, labouring as usual under short deadlines and the unrealistic challenge of perfectly encapsulating the qualities of a complex product with a few days of skimpy research and a few hundred words, let the public down.
More significantly, it is the biggest PR disaster for Apple that I can think of in recent years, certainly since the launch of the iPod in 2001, which was in a sense the beginning of Apple’s mobile adventure. When a tube station puts out a notice mocking Apple’s maps you know that this is a problem that everyone is talking about, not just the Twitterati.
Why has Apple done this? It is paying the price for escaping Google dependence, a real problem, but one that you would have thought could have been better addressed by licensing maps from Microsoft or Nokia, both of which have better maps; or by sticking with Google a little longer while putting its own effort out as an alpha preview while it fixes the data.
Apple will no doubt fix its maps and the decision to break with Google may eventually look good, but it is hard to see how it can fix them quickly.
The big reveal here is how Apple is prioritising its long-term industry strategy ahead of the interests of its users. Apple has done this before; but never with such obvious harm to usability.
It is still, no doubt, a beautiful phone, and the maps issue will be solved, if only by using Google’s web maps instead.
Apple looks mortal though, and the script is not playing back as planned. People who once would only have considered Apple will now be more aware that alternatives are in some respects better. The longer the maps issue continues, the more significant will be the effect.
Apple should withdraw its broken maps, go back to Google at least temporarily and reinstate the old maps app.
Farewell to the Squeezebox
It looks as if Logitech has discontinued the Squeezebox, a range of devices for playing music streamed from the free Logitech Media Server. Logitech also runs a streaming service on the internet, Mysqueezebox.com, which supports internet radio, Spotify integration and more.
The Squeezebox devices are no longer on sale on Logitech’s web site, and a press release announces the Logitech UE range. This includes wireless speakers which play music via Bluetooth, a Smart Radio that connects to internet streaming radio and other services, earphones and headphones.
But what of Squeezebox? Here is the nearest I can find to an official announcement:
We’ve just announced our new brand, Logitech UE, and with it merging the design/engineering capability of Logitech and the Squeezebox product with the music know how of Ultimate Ears. We are positioning this new brand to serve music lovers across a wide range of music listening device, and amongst them the Logitech® UE Smart Radio.
Important for you to know, The UE Smart Radio can play alongside your Logitech Squeezebox products, but will operate and be controlled separately and will no longer receive updates. The team is working hard on releasing in a few weeks an optional software update for existing Squeezebox Radio users. This update will allow Squeezebox Radios to upgrade to the new Logitech UE Smart Radio experience.
Rest assured that the Squeezebox platform you’ve been enjoying over the years will continue to provide you access to a rich world of music and we’ll continue to address any questions or troubleshooting on our Logitech.com support page.
The news is sad but not surprising. Logitech is struggling with declining revenue and losses, and there are various reasons why the Squeezebox system no longer looks strategic. It works alongside iTunes but does not fit all that well with Apple products, it has always been a little bit too techie, and the era of filling huge hard drives at home with your music is probably in decline, thanks to internet streaming. I have been meaning to post about the good results I get from Google Music on the Nexus tablet, and of course there is Spotify.
I still love Squeezebox. If you want the uncompromised quality of lossless audio combined with multi-room support, where each player can play something different, it is a fantastic and cost-effective system. The Squeezebox Touch, reviewed here, is appreciated by audiophiles for its high quality audio.
Squeezebox might still be a viable for a company like Slim Devices, the original creator of the system, but makes less sense for a mass market company like Logitech, which acquired Slim Devices in 2006.
My thanks to the Squeezebox team for transforming audio at home for me and thousands of others.
Update: if you are wondering what is the future for Logitech Media Server (LMS) see this thread which has comment from a Logitech engineer. There is a new media server called UE Music Library (UEML) which is simplified compared to LMS and has no player control: the UE Radio can simply select music from the library and play it. No random play in UEML. UE Radio will not play music from LMS as far as I can tell. LMS is not going to receive major updates but will be supported with maintenance fixes for the time being.
The one thing missing from Windows 8 tablets announced so far: simplicity
This week at IFA in Berlin PC manufacturers have been showing off their shiny new Windows 8 tablets. Vendors are competing for who has the cleverest way of combining touch-screen, tablet, trackpad and keyboard into a single portable device. Here is the HP Envy:
or take a look at this PC Pro preview of the Toshiba Satellite U920T:
Ratchets stretch up and down the panel’s rear, with a central puck keeping the action light and smooth, and the screen flips up and back with a fluid action.
Sony has a Surf Slider, Dell XPS Duo slots into a keyboard dock.
I do understand the reason for all these gimmicks. Sometimes you want a tablet, sometimes you want a laptop, and the idea is to combine them into a hybrid device, just as Windows 8 itself lets you flip between Modern UI (formerly known as Metro) and Desktop.
At the same time though, there is a risk that these vendors are not learning from the past. Two things in particular:
- The failure of Microsoft’s first Tablet PC. Most models had twist screens and keyboards and styluses. The styluses were prone to getting lost, the twist screens and keyboards were expensive, and tablets became premium-priced devices that were inconvenient to use. Faced with the choice between Tablet PCs and cheaper, simpler laptops, most customers chose laptops.
- The success of Apple’s iPad. A keyboard is an optional extra, but most manage without it. The screen has a single button, there are a couple of switches and a volume control on the side, it has a dock connector, and that is it. Nor is it premium-priced, at least, not in the context of Apple’s range.
Looking at the effort Microsoft has put into the touch-friendly Modern UI it is obvious that Microsoft has made provision for tablet-only users. Start screen, big icons, easy install and removal of apps, most of the frequently used settings available without going to the Desktop. It is also obvious that Microsoft intends Windows to go further in this direction. Office 2013 just has OneNote MX in the Modern UI, but more is coming.
Where then are the devices that focus on the simplicity of a single slate, with a wireless keyboard on offer if needed, priced to compete sensibly with Apple and Android tablets?
Maybe there will be some of these; but the messaging coming out of IFA is all wrong and I predict that once again many customers will opt for “just a laptop” once again and for the same reasons as before.
This of course will do nothing to disrupt the tablet/iPad market.
One other thing. The IFA unveilings make Microsoft’s forthcoming Surface look better than ever. This does have an optional keyboard, but it is built into a touch cover, and from what I can tell Microsoft has successfully avoided rachets and gears.
If Surface succeeds and flipping hybrids fail, you can be sure there will be a ton of Surface-a-likes at the 2013 IFA.
Mac App Store, Windows Store, and the decline of the open platform
Valve Software’s Gabe Newell caused a stir recently when he said at the Casual Connect event in Seattle that Microsoft’s Window 8 is bad news gfor game vendors:
I think Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space. I think we’ll lose some of the top-tier PC/OEMs, who will exit the market. I think margins will be destroyed for a bunch of people.
What did he mean exactly? He denigrates touch control, which he says is “short-term”, so I would guess he is not enthusiastic about the touch-centric Metro-style UI in Windows 8. However, he also talks about open platforms:
"Valve wouldn’t exist today without the PC, or Epic, or Zynga, or Google. They all wouldn’t have existed without the openness of the platform … We are looking at the platform and saying, ‘We’ve been a free rider, and we’ve been able to benefit from everything that went into PCs and the Internet, and we have to continue to figure out how there will be open platforms.’
The point: Valve runs its own Windows app store, called Steam, and will lose out if an increasing proportion of game downloads go through Microsoft’s Windows store instead.
Of course Steam will work fine on Windows 8, provided you have the x86 version. The x86 Windows 8 desktop operating system is just as open as Windows 7. The Windows Store also allows entries that link directly to a vendor’s web site, like the one for Winzip:
The immediate threat to Steam then is indirect. If Windows 8 fails in the market, it will not be too bad for Steam since it runs on Windows 7 and on the Mac, the most likely beneficiaries. Steam will suffer if Windows 8 users are drawn towards the Windows Store in preference, though note that the Store does not offer desktop app downloads except via links as for Winzip above. Steam will also suffer if the ARM version of Windows, Windows RT, eats into Windows x86 sales.
You have to follow the lines on the graph though, and this is where it does not look so good for Steam. Look first at Apple’s platform. The mobile variant, iOS, is entirely locked down so most users can only acquire apps from the Apple app store, unless they are developers or enterprise customers. Apps are also sandboxed so that you cannot break your iOS device by making bad install decisions. Partly as a side-effect of the sandboxing, apps are trivially easy to install and remove provided you have an internet connection. Far from limiting sales, this has encouraged users to experiment with apps they might not otherwise have found or wanted to risk installing, and users love the iOS platform overall.
On the Mac, Apple has introduced another app store. Unlike the iOS store, use of this is optional, though some apps cannot be obtained elsewhere. There is some not-so-subtle pressure to use the store though, partly because of how it is surfaced in the user interface, and partly because of the advantages for the user. Apps are easier to install and update themselves, in the same way as on iOS. They are vetted by Apple so should be safe to use. They have to conform to Apple’s application guidelines which form a kind of sandbox. Apps may not request root privileges, may not download additional code, may not use non-public APIs, cannot install code in shared locations, and so on. They also have to conform to certain ethical guidelines.
Whether this is altogether good for users is up for debate. It is a trade-off between freedom on the one hand, and convenience and safety on the other. On the whole though, users like it, which is great news for Apple which also takes a slice of any payments that go through the store.
Not all software vendors are happy. Sherman Dickman at Postbox is abandoning the Mac App Store. He gives these reasons:
- No free trials
- No discounted upgrades
- No free upgrades if the prior version was purchased after a specific date
- No way to provide license keys that could be used on Windows (many of our customers use both platforms)
- No volume discounts or site licensing
- No access to customer information, which prevented us from validating orders, offering discounts, running promotions, newsletter signups, etc.
- Unclear refund policies
- Most importantly, we had to create another version of Postbox for the Mac App Store that removed features such as iCal support, iPhoto integration, and Add-Ons in order to comply with Apple’s Application Guidelines
Postbox 3 is sold only direct from the vendor’s site. Dickman says he will reconsider if Apple loosens the restrictions on the App Store; but the real question will be whether his company can afford not to be in the official store, especially if future versions of Mac OS X further tighten the screws.
Returning to Windows 8, Microsoft is undoubtedly suffering from Apple envy. There are multiple reasons:
- Users like the app store model, its convenience and safety
- Apple has found a solution to a problem that plagues Windows: damage from third-party software installs
- Microsoft would like a cut of the revenue from software transactions
Windows 8 therefore has an iOS-like store and policy for its Metro side. The net result is similar to that for iOS and Mac OS X. On the ARM Metro-only systems (ignoring for a moment the locked-down desktop which runs Office and a few utilities), apps can only be installed through the store. On the open x86 systems, use of the store is optional, except that Metro-style apps must be installed through the store unless you are a developer or an enterprise.
Microsoft has a harder job than Apple to make its store successful, because of the way it is combining the Metro-style platform and the old desktop into a single operating system. If users turn their backs on Metro, the store will fail too. Still, Microsoft is aiming for a platform that is equally as locked down as Apple’s.
Instinctively I dislike these lockdowns, yet I also see their merit. Recently I found myself helping a user clean up their Windows 8 Release Preview system, which already had unwanted software on it, put there by installers that foist unrelated software on users who forget to uncheck a box, including toolbars and security software. Vendors have abused the freedom that Windows gives them.
The evidence though is that users will happily give up some freedom in return for a secure and convenient operating system. The business model favours it too. The Windows 8 upgrade is cheaper than for earlier versions, maybe because Microsoft will earn more later if users buy lots of apps. It pays Google to sell the Nexus tablet with low margins, if it drives users to the Play Store.
The convergence of all these factors means one thing only: that open platforms are in decline. They are not gone yet, but that is the firm trend. The implications are profound and I doubt they will be fully appreciated until the line on the graph has progressed a little further. The internet is a huge mitigating factor of course, and perhaps the combination of an open internet with a locked-down client is one that we will be able to live with.
Tablets, laptops, smartphones: which form factors will win?
There have been several thoughtful pieces recently on device form factors and what you can and cannot easily do with tablets versus laptops versus smartphones.
Richard Gaywood says the iPad (it’s an Apple site) is “heavily skewed towards, but not entirely about, consumption” rather than creation. His observation is based partly on app statistics, partly on the lack of a keyboard (if you add a Bluetooth keyboard, he argues, an iPad becomes as bulky as a laptop), and partly on weak multitasking and the lack of an accessible file system.
Tim Bray currently carries a laptop, a small tablet (a Nexus 7 I guess) and a phone. He does not seem to be considering abandoning the laptop, but suggests that he might be able to manage without a phone:
I spent several months back in 2010-11 carrying around the original Samsung Galaxy Tab, which may have only been Gingerbread, but included a first-rate phone, and my handset rarely left my pocket.
John Gruber writes at unusual length about why Apple might or might not do a smaller iPad.
On the eve of the Windows 8 launch this is an interesting discussion. Windows 8 will renew the debate: is a tablet all I need, at least when travelling? And where will Google’s 7” Nexus fit in? I foresee this selling well simply because it is great value, but will it be packed in the flight case alongside a laptop and a phone, or left at home, or could it even replace laptops and bigger tablets?
We in the the great unknown; but I will make a few predictions.
First, laptops and indeed desktop applications (that is, not apps) are in permanent decline. That does not mean they will disappear soon, just that they will be used less and less.
The implication is that tablets will be used for content creation as well as consumption, and for work as well as for play. Will developers and designers still want huge multi-display setups? Yes, of course; but most people will get most of their work done with tablets.
Second, that unadorned tablets will win over complicated solutions like laptops with twisty screens (the old Tablet PC concept), styluses, transformers, and the like. My guess is that we will see lots of clever and expensive Windows 8 x86 devices that will only achieve niche sales. The ones that succeed will be the slates, and the traditional laptops.
Third, there may be merit in the keyboard case concept, particularly when the keyboard is very thin, as in Microsoft’s Surface with Touch Cover. On the other hand, keyboard cases that make tablets into laptops, like one I tried for the iPad, also tend to give tablets the same disadvantages as laptops: clam shell design, difficult to use without a desk, and so on. I have found that I prefer a loose keyboard in my bag. It does not take much space, and does not get in the way when not needed.
What about mid-sized devices like the Nexus? I am not convinced. They are too small for all your work, and too big to be phones. The large-size Smartphones like Samsung’s 5.2-inch Galaxy Note sort-of work: they sell to people who do not mind having a large phone. But most of us will end up with two devices in constant use, a phone and a tablet. In the office or study, add a large screen and keyboard to taste.
Microsoft to make its own tablet called Surface, puts Windows RT centre stage
Microsoft has announced its own tablet, called Surface, for “work and play”, said CEO Steve Ballmer at an event in Los Angeles yesterday.
The first of what will be a family of devices has a 10.6” Corning Gorilla Glass screen, is just 9.3mm thick, and has a magnesium “VaporMg” case with a built-in stand/magnetic cover which doubles as a multitouch keyboard.
Surface comes in two forms. One runs Windows RT with an NVidia processor, which means it is the ARM version of Windows 8. There is a desktop UI alongside Metro, but the desktop is there only to run Microsoft Office (which is bundled), Explorer, and whatever other utilities Microsoft chooses to include. It is not possible to install new desktop applications. Users can only install Metro-style apps from the Windows Store.
The other runs Windows 8 Professional. Note that this x86 version is heavier (903g vs 676g), thicker (13.5mm vs 9.3mm) and more power-hungry (42 W-h vs 31.5 W-h). However, it does benefit from USB 3.0 rather than USB 2.0.
Why has Microsoft done this, and risked alienating the hardware partners on which it depends for the success of Windows?
I posted on this subject a few days ago. Yes, Microsoft’s hardware partners have driven the success of Windows, but they have also been part of the problem as Apple has captured a gradually increasing proportion of the personal computer market. Problems include foistware(unwanted software) bundled with PCs and rushed designs that have too many annoyances.
With Windows Phone 7, it was not until Nokia entered the market a year after the launch that we saw hardware and design quality that does justice to the operating system. Distracted by Android, partners like HTC and Samsung brought out drab, unimaginative phones that contributed to a poor start for Microsoft’s smartphone OS.
Now with Windows 8, the danger is that the same may happen again. We have seen few Windows RT designs, and evidence that vendors are having difficulty in reimagining Windows.
Until today, that is. The announcement ensures that Windows RT will win plenty of attention at launch, alongside the x86 editions, and that Microsoft has a measure of control over its own destiny, in how Windows 8 is realised in hardware.
Microsoft says that the Windows RT Surface will launch at the same time as Windows 8, but that the Intel edition will follow a few months later.
How much for a Surface? The press release says:
Suggested retail pricing will be announced closer to availability and is expected to be competitive with a comparable ARM tablet or Intel Ultrabook-class PC. OEMs will have cost and feature parity on Windows 8 and Windows RT.
