Working on something bigger on The Surface, but heres some quick hits:

- Love the hardware design.  Obviously its hard to judge without any hands on, but the thing looks slick.  I don’t mind the edges, ports, or kickstand.  Its not trying to be a slick, seemless slab like the iPad.  And thats a good thing.

- Keyboard cases are cool.  I am assuming the trackpad means it’ll have mouse input, which is huge for productivity.  

-Microsoft is going all in here.  The have been a software licensing company, and they just starting competing with all thier customers on that front.  They must have no faith in those hardware manufacurers to make something that really takes advantage of Windows 8.  Its riskey, but if they go down, it’ll be swinging.

- No pricing worries me.  The fact that they will only say it’ll be “competitive” worries me more.  The RT version has to be cheaper then the iPad.  I don’t care if you can make an argument that its got more features, ports, etc; you are not as cool as Apple right now, Microsoft.  And that is more important then you may think.

- Your late to the game, but you better work your ass off to get apps.  Especially for the RT version.

-The naming sucks.  Why call it “Microsoft Sufrace for Windows RT” when you could just call it “Surface RT”?  Simplify.

I keep saying it; Microsoft could be on the verge of becoming cool.  There is a lot to shake out still, but Surface could be a real turning point.

Source: boxinggnome.com

Napster founders launch Airtime, a web based video chat service:

Fanning and Parker decided to chart their own course. They believe they’ve created a video chat service that takes what was compelling about Chatroulette but makes it safe, fun, and potentially profitable. “Chatroulette pushed the boundaries, and a lot of people missed that or didn’t care because they just saw the negative outcomes,” says Parker. Adds Fanning: “A lot of people just couldn’t look past the c—-.”

Bingo

via BloombergBusinessweek 

Source: businessweek.com

whitneymcn: rickwebb: thenextweb: (via Millennial: Tablets Now Account For 20% Of Mobile Ad Impressions) I always find these lists interesting on a subliminal level. They’ll differentiate between a Samsung Galaxy S and an Epic Galaxy S, but with Apple, the iPhones 1, 2, 3, 3gs, 4 and 4s or whatever, are all lumped together? Why? I suspect it’s simply subconscious thought about how all the iPhones basically all work the same and you can code (more or less) the same on them? Why else? I think Apple actively encourages this mindset. With the obvious exception of the iPod, Apple has one instance of each thing. They don’t release “a new phone,” they release “the new iPhone.” The new MacBook Air. The new iMac. Putting the most cynical spin on it, this suggests that your iPhone 3GS isn’t a different model, it’s just an old phone. And perhaps you should think about buying a new one. From a more positive marketing perspective, I think that Apple took the lesson of the Quadra/Centris/Performa era very seriously, and goes far out of its way to keep its product lines simple and make sure that they’re presented as such. 
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whitneymcn:

rickwebb:

thenextweb:

(via Millennial: Tablets Now Account For 20% Of Mobile Ad Impressions)

I always find these lists interesting on a subliminal level. They’ll differentiate between a Samsung Galaxy S and an Epic Galaxy S, but with Apple, the iPhones 1, 2, 3, 3gs, 4 and 4s or whatever, are all lumped together? Why?

I suspect it’s simply subconscious thought about how all the iPhones basically all work the same and you can code (more or less) the same on them? Why else?

I think Apple actively encourages this mindset. With the obvious exception of the iPod, Apple has one instance of each thing. They don’t release “a new phone,” they release “the new iPhone.” The new MacBook Air. The new iMac.

Putting the most cynical spin on it, this suggests that your iPhone 3GS isn’t a different model, it’s just an old phone. And perhaps you should think about buying a new one.

From a more positive marketing perspective, I think that Apple took the lesson of the Quadra/Centris/Performa era very seriously, and goes far out of its way to keep its product lines simple and make sure that they’re presented as such. 

(via dpstyles)

Source: thenextweb.com

via TechCrunch:

Google got the chance to buy Twitter, but the search giant passed, says Michael Arrington. “Google hasn’t been interested in buying Twitter since they committed themselves to Google+” says Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures founder and former Twitter board member, in his fireside chat this morning with Arrington at the TechCrunch Disrupt New York conference. Now Google+ is widely seen as a ghost town, and not buying Twitter could be a mistake that haunts Mountain View for years to come.

Dodged a major bullet there.  

Twitter users, not Google.  Google fucked up.

Source: TechCrunch

Paul Miller from The Verge is quitting the internet:

In my wild fantasies, leaving the internet will make me better with my time, vastly more creative, a better friend, a better son and brother… a better Paul. In reality, I’ll still be the same person, just with a huge professional and personal handicap. The things I’ll miss most, like playing StarCraft with my friend from high school who lives in another state, or sharing Rdio and long read links with a co-worker at the next desk over, I hope to replace with more direct interactions, and more “meaningful” activities - whatever that means. The worst case scenario is that a year from now I’ll be found wandering in the woods somewhere, muttering URLs to myself.

It has a bit of a ‘bazooka to kill a bee’ feel to it.  It seems that much of what he claims to be trying to achieve could be done with a bit of focus and self-control, but I suspect he is doing it as an interesting conversation point as much as anything.  It’ll be an interesting experiment, at the very least.  

Source: theverge.com

Google selling unlocked Galaxy Nexus for $400 directly.  Via Google Mobile Blog

First available in the U.S., Galaxy Nexus costs $399 and arrives at your door unlocked, without a carrier commitment or contract. You can use it on the GSM network of your choice, including T-Mobile and AT&T. It also comes pre-installed with the Google Wallet app which lets you easily make purchases and redeem offers with a tap of your phone. Best of all, we’ll give you a $10 credit to get you started with your new mobile wallet.

Love the unlock.  Love the price.  Like the hardware.  Runs Android?  Eh I’m good.

Source: googlemobile.blogspot.com

The 8%, “Whats a Smartphone?”

Lots of great data in this article from GigaOm (literally, the article is a statistic fan’s wet dream), but a few stats really stick out.  

Pew found that smartphone ownership in February 2012 has jumped to 46 percent of all adults from 35 percent in May of 2011 while feature phone ownership has slipped from 48 percent to 41 percent over the same period. A slim 12 percent of adults said they still don’t own any phone at all.

Pew reported that 45 percent of cell phone owners said their phone is a smartphone while 49 percent said their phone runs on a common smartphone operating system. When combined, Pew said that 53 percent of all cell phone users claim to own smartphones.

Seems to me that the way carriers are treating data needs to change.  People are moving to data at a pretty good rate, despite how awful and frustrating mobile data can be in many areas.  No one is getting smartphones because its a better talking experience, they want the web and apps.  Imagine if a carries actually rethought their plan structures.  Currently, every plan starts with a chunk of minutes no one gets close to using.  Then they tack on the features people actually want to use (messaging and data).  Seems back asswards to me.

Oh an in case that stat made you think we were making progress and getting smarter as a society, there is this.

 

The results still leave a little room for doubt because consumers are not all completely clear on what the term smartphone means. Eight percent of  cell owners said they are are still not sure if their phone is a smartphone, down from 14 percent in May of 2011.

They surveyed 2,253 people, which means (hard math time) around 180 people didn’t know if they had a smartphone or not.  Having sold phones at a consumer level in the past, I am actually surprised that number isn’t higher.

Source: gigaom.com

We Are The 0.6%

parislemon:

Hard to pick the most ridiculous element of these updated numbers.

Is it that just 0.6% of Android users have Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) two months after it launched?

Is it that of the remaining 99.4%, only 55% are upgraded to Gingerbread (2.3), which came out over a year ago?

Is it that over 30% are stuck on Froyo (2.2) which is 20 months old?

Is it that 8.5% (something like 10 million devices) are stuck on Eclair (2.1), which came out two years ago?

Is it that only 3.3% are using Honeycomb (3.0), which means that all those highly-touted tablets last year are clearly huge flops?

I can’t decide. You choose.

I don’t really think you have to pick just one.  Probably the same reason app developers choose iOS despite Android’s growth.