Wake Up. Be Bold.
You're either in business or you're not.
Indeed, RIM. Indeed.
mLogic Thunderbolt to PCIe now shipping
The mLink Chassis turns half-length PCI Express cards into external Thunderbolt-connected devices, but it comes at a serious price.Announced back in september. It took a while, but now it's shipping. A bit pricey at $400, but for those that want HD capture cards, 10GbE network interfaces and things like that, it may be worth it.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has been seen at the Valve head quarters, the makers of Steam, the hugely popular digital distribution store for games on PC and Mac.
The rumors are wild about what this means. Are they going to bring Steam in a more complete form to iOS with more games? Not likely, iOS doesn't really suffer from lack of games.
The Mac does, however. Steam was released for the Mac a year ago and Valve committed to releasing most of their main titles for the Mac, but there are still a huge market out there that is totally absent on the Mac.
Another interesting possibility is for Apple and Valve working together to create a new game console. Now, that's real interesting! Rumors about Valve wanting to build a game console has been around for a while but they don't have the hardware guys to work with. Well, Apple are pretty good hardware guys, and imagine the Apple TV maturing into a full-on game console with a huge game library along with the other media it supports today.
But this may be a clash of titans in the end. Steam predates the App Store (and iPhone) by a long leap and is currently the single largest digital game distributor in the world - would they really work well with Apple, who isn't really known for letting an outsider run any part of their end user communication chain? Doubtful. So, if Apple would bring the hardware to the table, what does Valve bring - other than years and years of experience?
It's hard to see how this could work out to anything substantial. The vast majority of the Steam catalog runs on Windows only so isn't applicable to any Apple product, and the few that are would make a paltry game selection for an Apple initiative.
And if Apple TV 4 runs games like it runs movies and tv-shows, surely they would be distributed via the App Store, coded by developers using the same tools available for the iPhone/iPad. I can't see where Steam or Valve fits in there.
Video from Foxconn
It's not quite as horrendous as some people make it seem like, is it? I've been saying it for a long time, western morals and high horses have no place here. These people are happy to get the work and the income, even if it appears paltry to us.
And as they say, it's not merely a factory, it's a whole city.
And as they say, it's not merely a factory, it's a whole city.
Pebble, the watch that connects to your iPhone
Not sure about this at all. It uses Bluetooth, but does an app need to be running on the iPhone? In the background? Also, the e-ink display seems to be of strangely low resolution. Most of the videos seems to be fluid mockups and the few shots of the actual display seems just downright bad. I wish the iPod nano did some of these things though.
U.S. Files antitrust lawsuit against Apple over E-book pricing
We knew this was likely, from the threats a month ago, and now they've sued.
Apple Could Achieve a 4-Inch iPhone Display by Increasing Height Only
Doubtful if this would be a wise choice by Apple. I don't think a lot of iPhone users are requesting a larger screen, nor choosing not to buy iPhone due to the screen being too small.
Saunders said the reason was to prevent piracy, citing figures from an unknown source saying that over a quarter of Android apps are downloaded illegally, and calling Google Play a "chaotic cesspool."
Did the number of legit Android apps just drop by 25%?
Saunders claims that there are developers who refuse to work with RIM until sideloading support is removed.
It's not like RIM has enough devices in use for this to make any impact at all on Google Play or Android, but it's still interesting to see one handset maker citing Google App Policy as a reason for excluding it, rather than just a mere profit move.
Apple isn't the only one using Foxconn services.
In the last week I have asked Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, Microsoft and others about their reports on labor conditions. Most responded with a boilerplate public relations message. Some didn’t even respond.
The answer from Barnes & Noble, the maker of the Nook e-reader, was typical.
Mary Ellen Keating, a senior vice president, said only, “We don’t comment on our supply chain vendors.”
Lenovo e-mailed a general report on sustainability. Samsung, which sells more cellphones than Apple, gave no response.
It's odd that companies that usually are very vocal about their strengths against Apples products suddenly falls silent when asked about the very thing Apple has been very open about since 2006. Why can't Samsung release information about their supply chain labor conditions?
Amazon declined to comment specifically about worker conditions in the factories of its suppliers, which include Foxconn, but pointed to a section of its site that mentions audits by a third party, which are not made public.
We're looking into it, but it's a secret, so you can't know.
I've always said that it's silly for Apple to be held to a different standard than all these companies, yet still I would like to applaud their openness in this respect.
Apple Releases Update to Java for OS X
Presumably to fix the security hole, although their info doesn't mention it specifically
New Flashback Trojan Variant Doesn't Need A Password to Infect Your Mac
Apple needs to fix this immediately.
It seems to require Java to be installed, which isn't installed with the system, but is easily installed (albeit prompted) when needed.
It seems to require Java to be installed, which isn't installed with the system, but is easily installed (albeit prompted) when needed.
Foxconn Workers Express Concern Over Reduced Overtime
Workers express dissatisfaction with western morals
I tell you, a lot of us are unhappy with this. We think that 60 hours of overtime a month would be reasonableSome people are never satisfied. But it goes to show that sometimes our western values don't always mix with eastern culture, and that morals isn't a worldwide concept.
Apple forced to give two years warranty for consumers in the European Union
It's about time. It's odd how long they have managed to escape that.
Apple Increases iAd Payout to Developers to 70%
Good form!
RIM's fourth quarter financial train wreck
Looks like a winner
Copyright Sandman 
1996-2012
1996-2012