This video previewing Microsoft’s upcoming Phone Companion app for Windows 10 seems to summarize Microsoft’s strategy when it comes to smartphones. At about the 3:10 mark, Joe Belfiore (Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President, Operating Systems Group) says: Today, people have this expectation that they’ll be able to take whatever device they have and have all of their […]
Microsoft Surface 3 Bundle Pre-Order at Costco for $699.99
April 4, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Microsoft recently announced its most recent Surface device, the Surface 3, to a bit of fanfare and generally positive previews. The Surface 3 is the direct replacement for the Surface 2, and serves as a sort of entry-level version of the Surface Pro 3. It uses an Intel Atom processor, can be configured with up […]
LifeCharge iPhone 6 iBatteryCASE Review
March 23, 2015 by Leave a Comment
I like the iPhone 6 quite a bit. Outside of it lacking a decent Amazon Kindle app, I still prefer my Lumia 830 overall, but the iPhone 6 is a very close second. If absolutely necessary, I could live happily with the iPhone 6 as my daily driver. Battery life, however, isn’t a particular strength […]
Google is Abandoning Me, and So I’m Abandoning Google
March 17, 2015 by 4 Comments
Given Google’s willingness to abandoning major projects, with Google+ as potentially the latest victim, I’ve decided to abandon Google. I’m not doing this in a vacuum: since making a concerted effort to go entirely cross-platform, I’ve found that relying on Google properties makes things unecessarily difficulat, particularly on Windows Phone. And so, watching Google doing away […]
Lessons From Going Cross-Platform
March 2, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Here’s the industry’s dirty little secret: each major platform, be it iOS, Android, or Windows/Windows Phone, is good enough to be considered life-changing technology. Yes, users tend to favor one platform over another, to the point of fandom and complete ignorance of the other two, and that’s just fine. These things are intended to enhance […]
Lenovo’s Superfish is Really Bad Marketing, and How to Fix It
February 22, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Good marketing means carefully managing every aspect of product (design, manufacture, etc.), price, promotion (advertising, sales, public relations, etc.), and place (distribution). It’s simply not good marketing to secretly alter a product to generate revenue in ways outside the control of unsuspecting customers. That’s particularly true in a technology industry where privacy and security have […]
Windows (and Microsoft) 30 Years Later
February 19, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Windows 1.0 was released 30 years ago this year (albeit announced two years earlier), marking 2015 as a fairly significant milestone in the history of the technology industry. Love Windows or hate it, nobody can argue its impact on personal computing–and although a few months remain until its official anniversary in November, Microsoft is doing […]
Microsoft’s Strategy in 628 Words
February 18, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Twitter is great for teaching a person to be short and sweet in their writing. Unless you continue tweets, which I never do, you’re stuck with 140 characters or less to convey complete thoughts. That’s a challenge for any writer, and if nothing else Twitter has taught me to be more concise when the need […]
The iPhone 6 from an Apple Hater’s Perspective
February 11, 2015 by 4 Comments
No, I Don’t Really Hate Apple Okay, so I’m not actually an Apple “hater.” I admit that I’ve been pretty harsh towards Apple for the past few years, but I really dislike this use of the word–to me, hate is something reserved for the worst things in the world; merely strong dislike and harsh words […]
Is Apple Growing or Just Upgrading? (Updated)
October 21, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Update 1/28/2015: So, Apple’s Q1 2015 (fiscal) financial results are in, and they had their best quarter ever. Maybe any company’s best quarter ever. They generated $74.6 billion in revenues, $18 billion in net profit (wow), and sold 74.5 million iPhones at a higher average price per unit (thanks to the iPhone 6+, of course). […]