Vomit + IE8 = Cool commercial?
Yes, Internet Explorer 8 has it share of detractors. Even Microsoft has been hard pressed to market it, resorting to all sorts of interesting marketing practices…including a vomiting woman commercial already dubbed “one of the worst ever” by some tech followers.
It espouses the Private Browsing feature of IE8 in a very interesting way, by having a wife throwing up from viewing what her husband had been looking at previously on a sunny, quiet morning at breakfast. It features Dean Cain as the host, and its….well, gross to be honest.
The official version on the site is now gone (shows you how much the public liked it), but this version is still available on YouTube: Link
Sad how low MS has had to go to promote IE8.
Apple Loves Patents: Three new patents point to big developments for the iPhone
Thursday, we discovered Apple loves patents. And cool, outside the box thinking too. They filed three new patents, one involving fingerprinting usage with devices, one with feedback when using a touchscreen (known as haptic feedback), and another involving RFID circuitry that could communicate various things to a device (or outside devices) just by using a touchscreen.
It was a field day for Apple with cool sounding technologies and possible future features that could be built into not just iPhones, but some of their other devices too.
Here’s some fun stuff: the official patent filings and full details for each patent.
Haptic feedback: Link
Fingerprint patent: Link
RFID reader patent: Link
Partners: Yahoo, Twitter and Flickr?
Here’s a new twist: Yahoo is allowing photos on Flickr to be posted on Twitter. It could be the first of many ‘crossovers’ with social sites and other kinds of sites.
Here’s the scoop via CNET:
Yahoo has released a feature that lets people post Flickr photos to their Twitter accounts.
The Twitter2Flickr feature requires that you enable Flickr as an approved application that can tweet under your username.
Then, when you click the “blog this” link above a photo at Flickr, you’re presented with the option to twitter it. The tweet will come with a “flic.kr” shortened URL.
Flickr has a large number of users, and its use is amplified by the fact that other sites can make use of Flickr data through an API (application programming interface). The Twitter integration is a modest example of Yahoo’s attempt to make its sites less of a walled garden by working better with other Web properties.
We applaud the crossover, as it will make sharing photos and experiences much easier.
Speaking of Firefox: Firefox 3.5 launches
The new version of Firefox, 3.5, launched today after much testing and ballyhooing, and so far, things are quicker, more flexible and with a private browsing mode and the ability to delete parts of your History selectively within certain timeframes, much more private.
It also adds lots of plumbing to standardize the web and the ability to play videos of many types without plugins, an important feature for both now and the future. Embeddable fonts, HTML video and other page spruce-up optimizations should add spice to web pages without the need for a bunch of add-ons, which in turn should make web designers excited about this new version.
The recently reported user share of IE plummeted 8% at last count, which is a huge drop indeed, and Microsoft needs to sit up and take notice of Firefox (and its other competitors, Opera and Safari for Windows) if it intends to fix things and reverse the trend.
Change is Good: A history of Firefox, visually
It should be noted that this writer uses and prefers Firefox over IE or any other browser, and for good reason. It’s fast, solid, usable, expandable and just plain good. IE is large, slow and buggy still (with a “default search engine choice corrupted” error that pops up, whose only solution I can find corrupts Firefox so it can’t run, something I don’t find a coincidence).
Firefox has changed quite a bit over the years, and the changes are profiled in this article I found. They’ve been mostly good changes, more elegance in the design and bug fixes and security holes plugged.
The 3.5 major release is nearly here, and I personally can’t wait to see what they have in store for us.
Can you say “desperate”, boys and girls?: Sony considers adding a phone to the PSP
Yes, sales of the PSP have slid, as has interest, and now Sony is looking forward to perhaps making a PSP…with a phone built in? Talk about trying anything and everything to prop up interest.
This was posted on CNET as a recent news story:
The newest version of Sony’s PlayStation Portable isn’t even on sale yet, but the company is already looking ahead to what’s next, according to Reuters.
The electronics giant is looking into making a combination gadget that would meld its PSP gaming system with the cell phones made by Sony Ericsson, its joint venture Swedish electronics maker Ericsson, according to Reuters, which cited the Nikkei business daily.
Sony reportedly plans to put together a team as early as July to begin development of the new gadget. Sony no doubt has its eye on Apple’s iPhone, which is already popular with consumers and is now getting more serious attention from game developers as a platform for their games.
We’re not too sure of this tactic, but at this point, Sony is sorta grasping at straws if they’re going after the iPhone market in any way, shape or form.
The Big Gamble: Will the Pre save Palm?
Palm has better hope the Pre smartphone does really well, or they may not be around in their current form much longer: the company posted a huge loss for last quarter, and their revenue dropped 71%.
The sad numbers: a loss of $91.5 million, or 78 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $41.1 million, or 40 cents a share. Revenue fell 71 percent to $86.8 million. That’s not good, folks.
Palm is now banking on the Pre to revive their sagging smartphone/device business, which has been struggling for years prior. Reviews overall have been pretty good for the Pre (though many have criticized the device for feeling “cheap” hardware wise and not making enough to meet demand – purposely), so it could help Palm out. How much it helps them remains to be seen.
We’re rooting for Palm, a company that could have went quietly and sunk beneath the waves, for standing up to Apple and the iPhone and trying to beat them at their own game. Time will tell if it works out for them or not.
Wordplay intentional: Apple going “Soft”?
Yesterday was a little confusing. It almost looked like the App Store was about to go adult on us.
Thursday saw the first softcore porn app arrive for the iPhone, only to disappear hours later. Many thought Apple had approved and then banned the app, but a note on the developer’s Web site indicated that he asked for the app to be removed. But…
The developer’s note originally read:
“The Hottest Girls app is temporarily sold out. The server usage is extremely high because of the popularity of this app. Thus, by not distributing the app, we can prevent our servers from crashing. Customer satisfaction is more important to us than profits. Those who already have the app will still be able to use our app. To answer the question on everyone’s mind: Yes, the topless images will still be there when it is sold again.”
That left a lot of people backpedaling after yelling at Apple for pulling the app. As it turns out Apple did pull the app–the company confirmed the move in a statement.
“Apple will not distribute applications that contain inappropriate content,” Apple’s statement reads. “The developer of this application added inappropriate content directly from their server after the application had been approved and distributed, and after the developer had subsequently been asked to remove some offensive content. This was a direct violation of the terms of the iPhone Developer Program. The application is no longer available on the App Store.”
Resume yelling. On the other hand, do we really want a flood of soft-core apps in the App Store for young kids to get ahold of? Perhaps in this case, Apple did us a favor.
Plans: What will Yahoo do next?
New Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has done a lot of retooling of Yahoo over the past few months: new board members, cost cutting, and putting the fear of the Lord into the engineers. But what’s next? Perhaps a total rebranding of the name, if reports are accurate.
Yahoo plans on unveiling a brand new web design soon, and are said to be working with a new ad agency to retool Yahoo! brand image. It might be the only thing to do, besides sell to Microsoft, because despite all of these changes, the company profit-loss statement hasn’t gotten much better really.
Yahoo earned only $101M total profits last quarter, and Google by comparison earned $1.88 Billion in income. It isn’t even remotely a close race, and Yahoo has to take big time action to avoid becoming yet another corporate statistic in the bankruptcy pile.
Her proposed stratgies include: a total rebranding of their search portal, making more attempts to court big time advertisers, and a slimmer more modern search page as part of their arsenal.
Time will tell if her strategies are successful, but recent history is definitely against Bartz.
Free, Free!: Windows 7 free upgrade program to start June 26th
It appears MS will offer a free upgrade of Win7 Standard to new PC purchasers that have systems with Vista, starting June 26th. So if you’re considering a new system with Vista, you may want to wait a few more days.
This website also points out the date and place where more details about the program will be available. This means nothing but good for the users of Windows who are holding off on a new system, not wanting Vista as their main OS (and they are legion, folks). The new Vista SP2 helps somewhat, but its too little, too late.
Best Buy memos leaked also indicate a low priced Premium upgrade for these customers too, with Premium being available for $49 and Windows 7 Professional for $99.
Test reports we’ve heard about Win7 (the beta versions anyway) have mostly good things to say, noting it improves on Vista in many ways and eliminates many of its annoyances, which is music to our ears. We’ll wait and see, though.
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Recent Posts
- Vomit + IE8 = Cool commercial?
- Apple Loves Patents: Three new patents point to big developments for the iPhone
- Partners: Yahoo, Twitter and Flickr?
- Speaking of Firefox: Firefox 3.5 launches
- Change is Good: A history of Firefox, visually
- Can you say “desperate”, boys and girls?: Sony considers adding a phone to the PSP
- The Big Gamble: Will the Pre save Palm?
- Wordplay intentional: Apple going “Soft”?
- Plans: What will Yahoo do next?
- Free, Free!: Windows 7 free upgrade program to start June 26th