Google Reader and other free products…

Greg Leave a comment

Recently Google announced the end of Reader and some other services they offer, which is of course their prerogative, but doesn’t it kind of make you wonder what else could suddenly disappear?

Now to be clear, I’ve never used Google Reader, I run my own mail server and wrote my own RSS to IMAP provider so I know I’ll always have it available no matter what others may do (well as long as SMTP, IMAP and RSS are in use anyway).

But doesn’t it bring up a more fundamental question?  A free service like Reader may be popular but over time its usage may wane, then finally be cut off completely.  The user is at the mercy of the vendor and what they consider a priority.  A product like reader could easily enough be implemented at the client side but once you have given up control to the service provider you dead in the water if they decide to shut it down.

Most users have an “always on” broadband connection at home, is it time to start thinking of making software solution that can handle this kind of task for users, maybe even a hardware solution to run it if users don’t like the idea of an always on PC?

Obviously for myself the answer is yes, I don’t use many cloud services unless I have to (like SkyDrive for phone backup) or they are secondary to services I already run at home.

Bill C-56, just say no…

Greg

[sc:internet-category ]OpenMedia.ca is once again running a campaign to stop a bad piece of legislation from becoming law, learn more and sign the petition!

The ongoing fight between big business interests and normal users continues to be an epic struggle that won’t end until the business interests are told clearly that their interests do not trump the rights of the people, period.

Businesses that produce good products and respect customers don’t need the kind of laws that these special interest groups keep pushing for, good business make money by people wanting their products.

Opera and WebKit

Greg Leave a comment

[sc:software-category ]Opera is moving to WebKit but the question is… is it a good thing?

I’ve used Opera for a long time, in fact I actually bought it way back before it was free software.  With the announcement that they will be discontinuing Presto (their HTML engine) and moving to WebKit a basic question comes up… is Opera still Opera without Presto?

Obviously Opera is more than Presto, the UI Opera has created is by far the best out of the box experience of any of the major browsers.  As long as they can maintain the UI when they swap out Presto then I think it will be successful.  However there are lots of pitfalls that may crop up.  Dragonfly, the developers tool built-in to Opera is an amazing tool that’s made my life quite a bit easier over the years.  Will Dragonfly work with the new renderer and JavaScript engine?  We’ll have to wait to see about that.

On a bigger picture kind of view, the loss of Presto is a pretty big thing.  There were really only 4 major rendering engine’s in general use, Trident (IE), WebKit (Chrome, Safari, etc.), Gecko (Firefox) and Presto.  With the loss of Presto that leaves only 3.  The good news is that it doesn’t look like we’ll lose another one for quite a while, Microsoft is firmly behind Trident and is actively moving it forward.  Mozilla simply won’t move from Gecko and they have the money (for now) and developers behind it.  While WebKit is the darling of the industry at the moment.

The next to go will most likely be Gecko, with Firefox loosing market share to Chrome and Mozilla’s reliance on money from Google, it seems unlikely they can hold out for the long-term.  Google will eventually get enough market share with Chrome they don’t need Firefox anymore and will start pulling back their funding.  That would leave just two and it would be Microsoft against EVERYONE else.  Of course, unlike Opera, Mozilla’s will be a slow slide down to oblivion so it won’t happen soon, but maybe within the next 5-10 years (check back then to see if I’m right or not ;).

Of course Microsoft could do a 180 and dump Trident, and they have done weirder things in the past (can anyone say Sidekick?), but that doesn’t seem very likely.

Overall I think it’s a big loss for the Internet but there’s not much we can do about it.  Maybe Opera will open source Presto once they switch over to WebKit, but that doesn’t seem likely, it would just encourage someone to build more competition to Opera.

 

ASUS VivoTab Smart

Greg

[sc:hardware-category ]I’ve been using the Surface RT for a while now and the overall experience of RT is good, but there are some limits that just don’t make it a very good choice for my primary tablet.

On the other hand a whole host of new tablet’s have been hitting the market which features Windows 8.  I had been holding out for the Surface Pro but I’ve realized the 11.6 inch display is just too big to be primarily a tablet.  A friend picked up an HP ENVY x2 which features an Atom processor.  The last Atom based netbook I had was underpowered to say the least.  However the current generation of Atom processors seem much better so I decided to take the plunge and pick up the ASUS VivoTab Smart, a 10.1 inch Atom based tablet.

The hardware is pretty nice, not nearly as well made as the Surface, but pretty solid for a plastic based housing.  Two camera’s, an SD card slot, MicroHDMI and MicroUSB are all in attendance and welcome.  The unit comes with 64g of built in storage and some pre-installed bloatware, but nothing to bad.  2g of ram is good for most tasks.  Windows 8 is there as well of course, but not the Pro version.

One of the weak points of the Atom processors have always been multi-tasking and that continues to even the current generation.  Working on multiple things at the same time brings noticeable lag to the unit, but still continues to function.

A nice feature of having a full copy of Windows is being able to upgrade to pro and then RDP in to the tablet.  Working from my desktop to install all the apps I’ll be using is much nicer than working on the small screen of the tablet even if I had hooked up a keyboard.

After a couple of hours of using there are a few issues with this first generation device:

  • There is a small edge all the way around the device which is uncomfortable to say the least if you are holding it pressed between your hands.
  • The auto dim/brightness feature is a little sporadic, ASUS has released two driver updates since I received the unit and it’s a little better but is still too sensitive.
  • The device goes to sleep after a few minutes of being “off”, which does conserve battery but it apparently ignores the settings in Windows so you cannot avoid it.  This means it takes a few seconds to wake up when you go to use it again.
  • When opening a full screen app, the screen will go black for a second some times, looks like a video driver issue.
  • Even the 10.1 inch display is slightly too large with the 16:9 aspect ratio.  Perhaps a 9″ tablet would be better…

Overall it’s a good start, but it needs some time to mature.

I certainly think that an Atom based tablet with the build quality of the Surface would completely destroy Windows RT, there’s no reason to have RT with this kind of solution available.

 

PS4 First Impressions

Greg Leave a comment

[sc:hardware-category ]Sony announced the PS4 last week and I have been a loyal PlayStation owner since the beginning.  But I think that’s just about done.

Over the last couple of years my gaming has moved from minimal to zero.  I don’t even remember the last time I actually played a game on either my PS3 or Xbox.  I guess it’s time to admit I’m no longer a gamer 🙁

So really, what would I use a PS4 for?  Streaming video and playing BluRay’s.  On that count I can find much cheaper alternatives than the PS4 (even though they haven’t announced a price yet).  Ok, but beyond the fact I probably won’t buy a PS4, what did we find out about it?

Ah, not much really:

  • New controller that looks kind of boxy.
  • 3D camera, AKA Sony admitting Move failed and Connect won.
  • 8 core processor and 8 gig of RAM.
  • BluRay support (as if that wasn’t going to be there, Sony owns the standard after all).
  • Flashy demo’s that won’t turn out to be real games like every other PlayStation announcement.

In the end we didn’t even get to see the hardware.  And why are they announcing it 8 months early?  I know Sony stock is in the tank and they need a big win, but really?  All they’re going to do is demolish their PS3 sales.

Honestly it doesn’t really interest me anymore, it looks to be impressive hardware but not something I’ll be investing in.

Maybe if they put it in to a standard AV chassis instead of some stupid custom form factor I might get one just to play with it, but otherwise I think it’s a pass.