Google Android Going the Way of Windows Mobile

It is 1:30am and I can’t sleep, and I have had a thought in my head for a long time now that I wanted to type out and see where it goes…

Windows Mobile was Microsoft’s vision of taking the Desktop PC O/S, and putting it in the Small Form Factor (SFF)/phone. It even had a Registry, the Start Menu, and Solitaire. And as such, Microsoft sold the product like a Desktop PC O/S: write the code, then pass onto to hardware manufacturers to build on to their phones.

Epic. Fail.

Microsoft made a pretty ugly-looking O/S, that the hardware manufacturers tried to customise and pretty-up, to try and make it appealing. Like Desktop PCs, they bundled in 3rd party software, customised the Registry, designed an overlaying GUI, installed hardware drivers, etc. Pretty much everything Dell would do, when they design and build Desktop PCs.

The problem with this, was that it fragmented the O/S. No two phones were ever similiar, which meant that any updates to the O/S by Microsoft, would then need to be passed to the hardware manufacturers and then they would decide if it was worth testing and releasing. More often than not, updates were rare. I think it was only HTC that were relatively regular at distributing updates.

This is where phones and Desktop PCs differ: in a world where phones are sold seasonally, and new models come and go, no hardware manufacturer is going to waste time and money allocating resources to update the O/S of a phone that is now 6-12 months old; especially when they have a newer model being released shortly and most network carrier contracts are 12 months.

Isn’t Google going down the same road? I often read articles noting the fragmentation in the Android ecosystem, with a rather of manufacturers like Motorola, Samsung, and HTC pumping out iPhone lookalikes on a daily basis. I am surprised no one seems to have put two and two together yet.

Both RIM and Apple have got it right here, by controlling both the O/S AND the hardware. This means that they aren’t reliant on any 3rd parties that could cause major issues with their devices or prevent updates. I think this is also why Microsoft have (finally) decided to partner up with Nokia, as it allows both companies to get in a room together and design a perfect phone to fit the O/S, and refine a perfect O/S to fit the phone – over Microsoft just shipping out a code base to the hardware manufacturers, and saying “here you go guys, it’s all yours”.

This is also a point I struggle to understand why no one picked up – I didn’t read one article about why Microsoft and Nokia teaming up is such a good idea. They pretty much compliment each other perfectly.

• Microsoft has proven time and time again, it just can’t do hardware seriously – Xbox 360 and Zune are good examples
• Microsoft does know software, and although not a revolutionary company, it does know how to come out guns blazing when under the kosh from competition
• Nokia just has not made Symbian competitive enough in today’s market. It does still have large O/S market share, but that will dwindle very quickly
• Nokia makes top notch hardware with top notch designs

Essentially, we have a great software company that just can’t do hardware and a great hardware company that is failing in software.

Hello?! How is that not good for all parties?

Still No Release for ThinkPad X120e in UK

I am clearly not the only person aggravted by Lenovo deciding not to sell the X120e in Europe – seeing as my original post on the topic is my most popular post so far!

I have been doing a fair amount of reading the Lenovo forum post that I linked to in my previous post, and things just aren’t looking any better. The X120e product page, that I also linked to, has had all information wiped – although the page still exists?! Now I don’t want to get anyones hopes up, but it could be that they are keeping it there but just hiding the information until they are ready to release the laptop – or finally sold off the last of those X100e’s! Perhaps Lenovo will change their mind, as they have been getting a fair amount of stick on this Facebook page of theirs!

What is interesting, is that Lenovo did seem to originally plan to sell the X120e in Europe, so something has made them change their mind. Perhaps the overwhelmingly positive feedback from CES meant that they wouldn’t beable to meet the demand or perhaps it would be a great way to flog off the last off the X100e’s – I mean it is the same chassis so some people might have got confused!

I have been seeing if I can get hold of it in Africa, seeing as that is still a continent that is on the list of authorised selling continents, but unfortunately I have been met with confused looks! Lenovo Partners my ****.

The keyboard on the X120e is the same as the one I have on my ThinkPad Edge at work, and as much as it’s pretty good, I still don’t think it is as easy to type on as my trusty old X41 Tablet. Lenovo have updated the other X series laptops with the same keyboards as what I have, plus they have the solid Intel i Series CPUs. They are slightly wider that what I currently use and I originally thought they may be to wide to use as I lie in bed (….which is what I am currently doing now!).

Perhaps when I head off to New York at the end of April, I will try and find a Walmart that has them all in stock and I can try and get a proper hands-on before purchasing; especially as the X2** range is twice as much as the X120e!

Windows 7 Phone: Why NoDo?

Anyone who takes a regular interest in smartphones, will be well aware of the issues that Microsoft are having with pushing out its first major update to Windows Phone 7.

I subscribe to Daily WinInfo, and Paul Thurrott pretty much keeps me up to date on what is happening.

To quickly summarise what is going on here, Microsoft have a new update for Windows Phone 7 and have been kinda hinting that the network carriers are blocking the update from going out to all the users.

That last fourteen words is what gets me confused. What have the carriers got to do with the update? So what if they block it. Why can’t the update be pushed out via Windows Updates or Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC)? Plug your phone in to a PC with a USB cable, run an EXE and flash your phone like the good old days with Windows Mobile.

UPDATE: While writing my latest post, I just realised that isn’t the above scenario pretty much what Apple does, by using iTunes to distribute iOS updates to iPhones, iPads, and iPods? They don’t seem to have issues with network carriers. I do like you, Microsoft, but I am not sticking up for you this time – yes be all Computing 2.0 and distribute your phone updates “over the air”, but have a plan B and resurect WMDC!

I am slightly naive to the whole mobile phone update deployment world, so the above paragraph may be technically impossible or ludicrous to someone in the know, but I just don’t understand the issue here.

To deviate slightly, when the iPhone first appeared on the market, the ONE thing it had managed to do was take back the control from the network carrier and start calling the shots. I think Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and Sony had pretty much been under the kosh from the network carriers pre-Apple – and I think they just didn’t have the arrogance to give tell them to “shut up and sit down”.

So with this new shift of power back to the hardware manufacturers, why is Microsoft getting such a hard deal from the network carriers? This update has reportedly been finished from quite a few months, so the excuse of testing doesn’t really cut it. From a business point of view, surely, the carriers need the update to go out ASAP so that it improves the product and sells more, thus increasing each carriers user base and/or renewing of contracts…

…unless there is some dirty, underhand work going on here. Perhaps either Apple, Google, and/or RIM have had a quiet word to these network carriers and asked them to “take their time” testing the new NoDo update, thus causing more Microsoft dismay. IDC did release a report today, saying that the Nokia/Microsoft relationship will push Windows Phone to the second major player by 2015, behind Google Android. However, to do organise this on a global scale with all the carriers does make the idea slightly ridiculous, but I love a good conspiracy!

Add Your Own WP-Admin Favicon

I might be taking this to a whole new ridiculous level now – but I am a graduated designer and I want this to look uniform, organised but still different.

My previous post complained about the lack of a favicon for Exchange OWA – well I noticed in my screenshot that WordPress WP-Admin doesn’t have one either. Well, we are in a position to do something about this one.

Follow these basic instructions to set up your own:

• Download the WordPress favicon.ico I created and save it to your computer
• Log in to your own WP-Admin and go to Media to upload the favicon.ico
• Take a copy of the URL of the image
• Open up <Root>\wp-admin\admin-header.php in notepad
• Find the follwoing lines (lines 37 and 38):

<meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”<?php bloginfo(‘html_type’); ?>; charset=<?php echo get_option(‘blog_charset’); ?>” />
<title><?php echo $admin_title; ?></title>

• Insert the following line in between these two:

<link rel=”shortcut icon” href=”Paste-The-URL-To-Your-Uploaded-Favicon-Here” />

• You should have something that now looks like this:

<meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”<?php bloginfo(‘html_type’); ?>; charset=<?php echo get_option(‘blog_charset’); ?>” />
<link rel=”shortcut icon” href=”http://blog.demongreen.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/favicon.ico” />
<title><?php echo $admin_title; ?></title>

All said and done, you end up with a 75% favicon-complete Favorites bar:

You will need to redo this everytime your upgrade WordPress, as each upgrade will overwrite the admin-header.php. A small price to pay for daily beauty.

OWA: Why no Favicon?

I am probably more confused as to whether or not this should be categorised under Tech or Visual, but I just went to check my work email via Outlook Web Access running on Exchange 2007 – and I thought I would add the link to the Favorite’s bar. When the link was added, there was no favicon.ico as per the link to the my blog and Facebook.

In an age of logos and favicons for Internet brands (think RSS, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, etc.), why doesnt OWA have one? It wouldn’t take more than five minutes to shrink the Office logo to 16 px x 16 px and add the following line of code to the Masterpage template:

<link rel=”shortcut icon” href=http://owa.mycompany.com/favicon.ico />

For the record: Yes, I am fully aware that the Exchange team have more important things to fix, like actual mail delivery BUT it is just a small, aesthetical change that would only need doing once.

The Prodigy: World’s on Fire Screening

I have been a fan of the Prodigy since the earlier years of my life – my first recollection was listening to their Experience album on a school trip to Rochester Cathedral when I was 12. Listening to a Michael Fish commentary in the song “Weather” was just enlightening!

I collected all the albums and once I was at an age where my parents could not longer prevent me from going ot Brixton Academy to see them live…well everything change. I actually travelled across the UK to go and see them live whenever I could.

NOTHING prepares you for a Prodigy concert.

Out of the blue, I received an email last night saying that they have made a film from their largest ever concert at The Warrior Dance Festival, at Milton Keynes Bowl in July 2010. From what I read, Liam Howlett has even sound engineered the screening to make an even greater impact! Screenings are happening across the globe, and IT IS SHOWING IN CAPE TOWN!

The screening will take place at SterKinekor at the V&A Waterfront on 14th April. Their are more details on The Prodigy website, with a list of all the other locations.

For an idea of what to expect, check out the trailer below:

Film Posters Inspired by Men’s Style

I came across this post on the Everguyed.com blog. It amazes me how none of these film posters ever make it to the forefront, over the normal, if not slightly dull, film posters we see on a daily basis. I certainly loved the Star Wars posters I blogged about a while back

This collection includes American Psycho, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Dumb and Dumber, Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas, Shaun of the Dead, Superman, The Shining, The Usual Suspects, Top Gun, and Wall Street.

The posters are designed by Moxy Creative, with illustration credits to James Alexander Mathers and Andrew Lau, individual prints are available for purchase at Moxy Creative.

Mercedes F800 Concept Car

I will admit that I am a man of slight hypocrisy – as much as I am not a great fan of Mercedes, I do in fact own a Mercedes E230 123 model from 1984. It is a big, beautiful, blue submarine that is comfortable in its drive and yet at the same time so horribly uncomfortable on the wallet. I can redeem my hypocrisy: where I love the classic designs from the 60s, 70s, 80s, but the past 10 years have seen some very average designs – especially when you compare them to the dynamism of Audi and BMW.

I think I may need to review my opinions, if this concept comes to life!

Because of its engines, it can consume only 2.9L of fuel per 100km’s. That is an exceptionally insane statistic. Design wise, I actually think the front grill and lights make it almost look like a hippo – a good looking on at that. My current Merc should die out on me in the next 5-10 years, so this looks to be the perfect model to upgrade to.

Cufon Update for Internet Explorer 9

OK, I did hastily speak a little too quickly about Internet Explorer 9 breaking my site before doing some full investigation.

Well I have done a little Googling and some proding and probing, and discovered that a JavaScript file that my theme uses, was not IE9 compatible. By looking at the source from within IE9, I could see that the HTML was generating the missing text, then scrolling up to the top of the page, I found the JS file that was used to call the custom fonts.

The JavaScript file in question was by Cufon. All I had to do, was download the latest one, overwriting the existing one, and everything is back to normal!

Attention all Vegans & Star Wars Fans

OK, this is the last of the Star Wars stuff, I promise!