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Surface Book i7 (a.k.a Surface Book with Performance) is Microsoft’s answer to users who wished the original Surface Book released last year was a bit more powerful and had a longer-lasting battery. It packs a more robust processor, higher graphics power and over 30% boost in battery life. Where to Buy Microsoft Surface Jumia.com.ngfrom ₦550,000.00
The post Surface Book i7 Specs and Price appeared first on Nigeria Technology Guide.
The Windows 10 Store now supports offline gameplay, but Microsoft has a long way to go to compete with Steam on this front.
The post You can now play Windows Store games offline in Windows 10, but not without jumping through some hoops appeared first on ExtremeTech.
A pardon for Snowden isn’t just good policy, it’s a move to neutralize a looming threat from an ever-more aggressive Moscow state department.
The post It’s time to pardon Edward Snowden, and defuse Putin’s increasingly dangerous weapon appeared first on ExtremeTech.
If you love to learn, check out the outstanding classes at Udemy. Thousands of online courses are being discounted right now, so you can invest in a new skill -- even if you're on a budget. Whether you want to learn how to design a business logo or how to speak Arabic, there's something here for just about every area of interest. And if you're trying to brush up on your development skills, here are some top-notch recommendations.
The post ET deals: Get an online course from Udemy for just $10 appeared first on ExtremeTech.
Microsoft has over-reached with its big-brother policies that inflict the worst parts of Windows Update on every Windows 10 user -- like it or not. Here's how it could fix that.
The post Windows Update is a mess: 3 things Microsoft should do to fix it appeared first on ExtremeTech.
High-res photos from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shed some light on Schiaparelli's last moments, while raising questions at the same time.
The post New images from NASA show the final resting place of Europe’s ExoMars lander appeared first on ExtremeTech.
Alongside the Meizu M5 and the H1 Smart Band, the Chinese firm has launched a new Android TV box. Dubbed the Meizu TV Box, it is a direct competitor to the Xiaomi 4K TV Box and the LeEco TV Box U4, both of which currently retails in US at $69 and $79.99 respectively.
The Meizu TV Box comes in an unorthodox triangular design that features a glossy surface with a M logo located in the centre. The base of the TV box however is made out of matte plastic. It’s worth noting that the M logo located on the top of the TV also bears the power button. Apart from that the Android TV box from Meizu comes with USB, HDMI, Ethernet and a power port for charging the device.
Internally the Meizu TV Box is powered by 64-bit quad core Cortex A53 processor that comes coupled with Mali 450 MP5 GPU. This is clubbed with 1GB RAM and 8GB of internal storage. The Meizu TV Box comes with support for 4K decoding and is based on Android Marshmallow 6.0 with the company’s own Flyme TV interface on top.
Just like the Mi 4K TV Box, the one from Meizu comes with a Bluetooth remote which also supports voice commands. The remote can function from an effective distance of eight meters and has a button that turns on the voice control feature. The Meizu TV Box can also be controlled via a smartphone app, that even allows users to cast their smartphone screen on their TV.
Talking of content, the Meizu TV Box that comes with Dolby Atmos certification supports multiple streaming platforms like Youku, Sohu, PPTV. That said, it’s quite natural for you to unfamiliar with these streaming platforms as they are mainly popular in China. Nevertheless, if and when this 4K TV Box makes its way to global markets we can expect to see Meizu tie up with the likes of Netflix, BBC, HBO etc. Apart from these, the Meizu TV Box supports a number of games from EA sports and offer supports for music streaming platforms in China.
The Meizu TV Box is available in Black and White color variants and will go on sale in China starting November 11 on Lynx at 299 Yuan (Rs 2,947/$45 approx.) This makes it by far the cheapest Android TV Box to come with support for 4K content, beating the likes of Xiaomi and LeEco by a huge margin.
© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2016. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |
The post Meizu TV Box Comes with 4K Support and Voice Controlled Bluetooth Remote at $44 appeared first on Technology Personalized.
One of the major problems with multicore scaling is the communications bottleneck associated with cache coherency. These issues may be addressable -- and if they are, it could significantly improve multi-core scaling in the future.
The post Using hardware queues to break the multi-core CPU bottleneck appeared first on ExtremeTech.
There has been a growing trend for a while in the European telecom and broadband markets where companies have been selling bundles. This phenomenon is known as Triple Play or Quad Play. These bundles generally have home broadband, Pay TV, wireless and landline, all bundled together. The US had long resisted bundles. Although some companies did provide two or more services, very few tried to be an all in one destination. That has all started changing since the past year or so. Now, not only is the US market moving towards a bundle-like structure, but they’re taking this bundle a step forward by involving content in it as well.
It all started with content related acquisitions that two of the largest telecom operators in the US have been making. It’s important to note that there is quite some difference in the intensity of acquisitions of these two telecom operators which are Verizon and AT&T. Verizon started by acquiring AOL and Yahoo. AOL was acquired for its ad tech and Verizon is now in the process of acquiring Yahoo which still gets hundreds of millions of page views every month. For Verizon, it’s the Go90 app which is the main content driver and which it plans to monetize via ads.
Now Verizon has just spent around $9.2 billion in acquiring AOL and Yahoo. As a standalone figure, this seems quite big, but pales in comparison to what its biggest competitor has bid. AT&T has bid around $49 billion for DirecTV and would spend around $80 billion in acquiring Time Warner. While Verizon has spent a total of $10 billion approximately, AT&T will be spending a total of $130 billion. AT&T is spending as much as 13 times more than Verizon on content related assets. Clearly, while AT&T is betting the company itself on content, Verizon is taking a more cautious approach.
This is mostly diversification of revenue streams. AT&T and Verizon are primarily telecom service providers in the US. But America’s telecom market is already saturated. Then there is T-Mobile, that’s been growing its revenue and subscriber base like crazy. For the past few quarters, both AT&T and Verizon have been either losing subscribers or making minimal gains at best. The real problem is that the price war with T-Mobile would make depending on telecom alone a risky proposition. That’s why in order to hedge their bets or differentiate themselves from operators like T-Mobile (and to some extent Sprint), AT&T and Verizon are investing heavily in content.
Both AT&T and Verizon don’t want to remain mere dumb pipes. It is true to say that they own the distribution channels to the end consumer but they now also want to own the content that flows through that channel. The end goal over here is to own the distribution as well as content that flow on it and become a one-stop destination for all the entertainment needs of end users. In my opinion, this will have interesting effects on the American telecom as well media sector going forward and I am going to discuss some of that over here.
There are three companies that I feel are very well placed to enter the convergence of content and distribution. They are Verizon, AT&T and Comcast.
In my opinion, AT&T is best placed to mix content and distribution. Let’s start from the distribution side of things. Distribution is basically the channels through which you are going to spread your content and for AT&T, this is a strong point. In my opinion, as of now, there are three channels available for the distribution of content, these are wireless, Pay TV and fixed broadband. AT&T is well positioned in wireless by virtue of being the second largest telecom operator in America. When it comes to Pay TV, AT&T is once again at an advantage thanks to its DirecTV acquisition. This is actually double sided benefit. Not only does AT&T get Pay TV distribution via DirecTV, but the distribution that DirecTV provides also helps AT&T in content negotiations. When it comes to fixed broadband, AT&T is once again having quite some significant presence with around 15.6 million U-Verse subscribers.
When it comes to the content side of things, AT&T is once again having a very formidable portfolio. The acquisition of DirecTV gave it access to already present content deals with various broadcasters. AT&T has now put this to good use with the launch of their $35/month DirecTV Now streaming app. But the real boost to its content portfolio will be its $80 billion Time Warner acquisition. With Time Warner, AT&T gets access to HBO, Turner, DC and various other content rights. HBO already has its own OTT app in the form of HBO Go. Either AT&T can let HBO Go survive or integrate its content to the $35/month DirecTV Now OTT app.
There are interesting things that AT&T can accomplish now especially on the wireless side of things. Cord cutting is rampant in the US. The TV bundle is entering into a spiraling death. With a wireless network and a roster of premium content at its disposal, AT&T can create a full fledge OTT app that can compete head to head with apps such as Netflix and Youtube. Content wise, AT&T doesn’t have a particular edge. Sure Time Warner will be a great purchase (when completed) but even Netflix is pouring billions on creating content and the number of YouTube creators is almost unmatched. The differentiating factor for AT&T would be its wireless network. AT&T hardly provides unlimited plans except for people who have subscribed to DirecTV and are ready to pay $100/line. In such a scenario, AT&T can easily zero rate DirecTV Now and make it the favorable candidate amongst others like YouTube and Netflix for watching content on the go. Apart from the wireless network, it has U-Verse broadband offering where AT&T can once again zero rate their content offerings.
Although AT&T is solidly positioned with a lot of video content and a dominant distribution strategy across all channels, the same is not true for Verizon. Let’s start with the distribution side of things. Verizon is the number one telecom operator in the US. But despite that, they seem a little bit of laggard when it comes to Pay TV and broadband. Verizon has just 7.03 million broadband and 5.83 Pay TV subscribers which is much smaller than behemoths such as AT&T, Comcast and Charter. But Verizon’s lead in wireless should be of great advantage. As I said, the TV bundle is already facing death and Verizon’s 5.83 million Pay TV subscribers don’t mean much. If I am to look from a distribution perspective alone, then the 7.03 million broadband subscribers are also not a big deal as Comcast provides a 1TB data cap and Charter has no data caps at all. So if in future Verizon needs to push its content over broadband, then it should be a non-issue.
Coming to the content side of things, Verizon nowhere has the prowess that AT&T has. With its acquisition of Time Warner and DirecTV, AT&T is now a giant when it comes to the media space. Verizon acquired AOL mostly for its Ad tech and even Yahoo hardly has much dominance when it comes to video. Verizon rather seems to be betting on Go90 with short snippets of video from a host of content providers. Again, just like AT&T, Verizon has the opportunity to zero-rate the video content of Go90. But Verizon’s advantage ends there and unlike AT&T’s DirecTV Now, I don’t think Verizon has a solid content offering at its hands.
Verizon is also trying its hand at the converging media and communications but its effort in doing so is minuscule when compared to what AT&T is doing.
Comcast is an interesting scenario. It has the content by virtue of its ownership of NBC Universal. But its problem is that of distribution. Comcast is the largest cable TV (Pay TV) provider in the US as well as the largest broadband provider. Cord cutting is both a boon as well as a bane for Comcast. Now cord cutting does mean that fewer Pay TV subscribers for them but cord cutting also means that more and more people are now turning towards OTT apps such as Netflix and Hulu for their entertainment needs. Now these OTT apps require internet and Comcast by virtue of being the biggest broadband provider is a direct beneficiary. As more and more households buy 4K TVs and with 4K content, the demand for faster speeds and larger cap data plans will only increase and Comcast would end up being the beneficiary considering that in many places of America they seem to be having a big monopoly.
But the problem for Comcast that now occurs is AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner. AT&T has already released DirecTV Now which provides close to 100 channels for just $35/month, I expect AT&T to make DirecTV Now even more attractive by adding content from the recent Time Warner acquisition. Now even Comcast has a lot of content since it has NBC Universal but what Comcast doesn’t have is a wireless channel through which they can distribute their content.
AT&T and Verizon will continue to zero rate their own video offerings which are DirecTV Now and Go90 but they won’t be zero rating Comcast’s OTT app and this is a huge barrier to distribution for considering that video on mobile is going to be the future and that AT&T and Verizon account for around two-thirds of cellular subscriptions in the US.
I have already explained the convergence of media and communications with the help of AT&T, Verizon and Comcast. Now there can interesting consequences to what’s happening in the market right now.
First of all, it’s necessary to keep in mind that how much success AT&T gets will be crucial in determining the future steps of Verizon and Comcast. AT&T, as I explained above, is fully loaded with both the content front as well as distribution front for the convergence of media and communication. By comparison, Verizon lacks the content front and Comcast lacks the distribution front. AT&T, as of now, is the only one that has both content as well as distribution nailed down.
AT&T has gambled the entire company betting on the convergence. If this fails, AT&T will have a hard time recovering from it. There are a lot of naysayers to the AT&T and Time Warner deal. Most people are drawing comparisons to the AOL and Time Warner merger that had failed miserably. I’m not going to predict whether this merger will succeed or fail, but in case it does, then I expect the following to take place in the years to come –
Although FCC has approved Net Neutrality rules in America, they largely covered throttling and access. Zero rating was left as a gray area that FCC said it would review on a case by case basis. This has led to the creation of programs such as Binge ON and Music Freedom by T-Mobile. One could make an argument that Binge ON and Music Freedom are actually not all that harmful considering that there’s no monetary exchange between T-Mobile and the content providers and that every content provider is welcomed on board as long as they meet certain technical standards. This is proved to some extent by the fact that even the Go90 app (Verizon’s video app) is a part of T-Mobile’s Binge ON program even though Verizon is a fierce competitor.
Although T-Mobile has taken a neutral approach to zero rating, the same is not the case with Verizon and AT&T. AT&T will only zero rate DirecTV Now for free and Verizon will only zero rate Go90 for free. This obviously creates an anti-competitive behavior and puts companies such as Netflix and YouTube at a disadvantage. How the FCC would tackle this would be interesting to see. I see this ending up in the courts for the most part.
When it comes to the convergence of media and communications, the only thing that’s separating Comcast and AT&T is a wireless network. Comcast has NBC Universal for content, AT&T has Time Warner. Comcast is already the largest broadband provider in America and AT&T is also amongst the top four. Comcast and AT&T are some of the biggest Pay TV providers in America. But while AT&T has the second largest wireless network in America, Comcast has no wireless presence at all.
Comcast is said to opening up an MVNO of its own via Verizon but in the longer term it would always makes sense for it to have its own wireless network because after all even Verizon is planning to enter into the media and communications convergence game and would become a direct threat to Comcast. When running an MVNO, you’re almost always at the mercy of the MNO. T-Mobile is a rising star of the US wireless industry and has neither broadband nor Pay TV business. T-Mobile needs low band spectrum which Comcast is said to be buying in the ongoing 600 MHz auction.
If Comcast acquires T-Mobile, they’ll finally have a wireless distribution channel through which they can distribute their content. Also since T-Mobile and Comcast have almost no overlapping businesses, I expect that the deal would face almost no regulatory hurdle.
Verizon has the distribution side of things pretty good by the virtue of being America’s largest telecom operator. What Verizon doesn’t have is content. Sure they acquired Yahoo and AOL but that hardly gives them much video content and nothing that can rival NBC and Time Warner’s portfolio. Netflix meanwhile has been spending billions both licensing content as well as investing in original programming. But Netflix lacks control over any distribution channel. They don’t have a broadband nor cellular network. As you can see, Verizon by having distribution and Netflix by having content can combine and create a strong rival to AT&T and Comcast.
The convergence of media and communications is a growing trend in the US for the past couple of years. Different companies are adopting different strategies. While some are just testing the water, others are going full throttle. It would be interesting to see how this pans out. If the convergence is indeed successful, then we shall see the rise of superoperators. These would be the one stop entertainment providers.
© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2016. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |
The post Convergence of Content and Distribution in the US appeared first on Technology Personalized.
Meizu has now launched their latest budget smartphone in the form of the Blue Charm M5 in China. It’s the successor to the Meizu m3S that recently went on sale in India for a price of Rs 7,299. The Yun OS powered Meizu M5 smartphone joins the league of the Meizu m3E that currently retails in China at 1,299 Yuan.
Up front, the Meizu M5 packs a 5.2-inch FHD display with a 2.5 Curved Glass on top. The latest budget smartphone sports the characteristic Meizu design with a polycarbonate shell to the back, that curves gently towards the edges. Just like recent generation Meizu smartphones, the M5 doesn’t come with any antenna lines on the rear. The front, however, features an mTouch 2.1 fingerprint sensor that’s integrated with the rectangular home button. This sensor can be used for making mobile payments over expanding network of Alipay. Meizu claims that the latest improvements of their mTouch 2.1 software can help you unlock your smartphone in just 0.2 seconds.
Under the hood, the Meizu M5 rocks a 64 bit Mediatek 6750 octa-core chip with Mali T860 GPU. That said, the Meizu M5 comes in two variants. The cheaper of the two packs 2GB RAM/32GB internal storage while the other variant comes with 3GB RAM/64GB internal storage. In terms of the cameras, the Meizu M5 comes with 13MP f/2.2 rear camera with PDAF sensor thereby resulting in a company stated focusing time of just 0.2 seconds. The rear shooter also comes equipped with a dual tone dual LED flash. Apart from that, there’s a 5MP selfie snapper located upfront.
Powering the Meizu M5 is a 3070mAh which according to the company can last as long as 66 hours during continuous music playback. The dual SIM smartphone runs on Alibaba’s own Yun OS, thus the chance of this making to international markets is slim at the best. Meizu apparently has been selling quite a few Yun OS powered devices ever since its strategic partnership with Alibaba.
Just in case you aren’t aware, Aliyun OS or Yun OS, in short, is a mobile operating system by the e-commerce giant, Alibaba. While the Jack Ma led company claims that the OS is built on Linux, Google begs to differ. Google alleges that Yun OS is nothing but a forked up version of Android. In fact, this conflict between Alibaba and Google has forced many OEMs including Acer to stay clear of launching a Yun OS powered device. Nevertheless, that isn’t the case with Meizu though.
Meizu M5 comes in a series of funky youth-centric colors including Mint Green, Ice White, Champagne Gold, Sapphire Blue and Matte Black. The base model of the Meizu M5 goes on pre-orders via the company’s official website in China starting today at 699 Yuan (Rs 6,891/$103 approx.), while the top end variant is priced at 899 Yuan (Rs 8,865 /$132 approx.). The smartphone will, however, start shipping only on November 11, when it will also go on sale via Lynx, Suning Tesco and other Chinese retailers.
© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2016. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |
The post Meizu M5 is a Yun OS Powered Smartphone that Costs Just $100 appeared first on Technology Personalized.
Meizu H1 Smart Band is the first fitness tracker from the Chinese firm that aims to take on the likes of Xiaomi Mi Band 2. That said, it’s priced quite more than the smart band from Xiaomi at 499 Yuan (Rs 4,920/$75 approx.) It is expected to go on sale via JD.com soon.
The fitness tracker from Meizu comes with a bracelet like design that’s made out of rubberized plastic. Just like, the Mi Band 2, the Meizu H1 Band sports with a display up front. In fact, it’s the same 0.42-inch OLED display that’s found in its arch rival Mi Band 2. However, the Meizu’s fitness tracker display vital information in blue fonts thereby blending with the company’s “Blue Charm” theme. Precisely speaking, the Meizu H1 Smart Band looks like a more premium product wherein the OLED display is beautifully integrated onto the black background of the band. That aside, the Meizu H1 Smart Band comes with an IP certification for waterproof and dustproof capabilities. It also comes with an extra buckle on the strap to keep it safely fastened over your wrists.
Coming to the functionality part, the Meizu H1 Smart Band does almost everything you would expect from a fitness band of its price. It has an integrated pedometer that tracks your movement and also comes with the ability to track the duration and quality of your sleep. Besides, there’s a heart rate sensor located at the back of the smart band, similar to the one seen on the Mi Band 2.
Meizu however, seems to have priced their first fitness band markedly more than its competition. The hugely popular Xiaomi Mi Band 2 retails at just 149 Yuan in China and Rs 1,999 in India. Even if one fails to buy one via the tedious process of flash sales, they can easily get one from third part resellers at around 200 Yuan. Thus with similar functionality, the Meizu H1 Smart Band indeed looks to be overpriced. Nevertheless, the pricing strategies followed by brands vastly vary from one another but the company’s previous record in making smartwatches make us believe that there will be price adjustments in the near future.
© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2016. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |
The post Meizu H1 Smart Band with OLED Display and Heart Rate Sensor Launched at $75 appeared first on Technology Personalized.
Was it a moment of clarity, a disgruntled employee, or a hack? No matter what the answer is, it doesn't bode well for the company.
The post Hello Games tweets No Man’s Sky was a mistake, claims it was hacked appeared first on ExtremeTech.
The past few days have seen a section of an old Steve Jobs interview attain near viral status on the Web. Made in 1995, it features Jobs insisting that it is dangerous for “sales and marketing people” to be in charge of a company that has a near monopoly in its segment. Most tellingly, Jobs says:
When you have a market monopoly, the sales and marketing people end up running the company. The product people get run out of the company. Then the companies forget what it means to make great products. The [researchers] at Xerox PARC used to call the people who ran Xerox ‘toner heads.’ They just had no clue about a computer or what it could do…
It will not take a genius to figure out that the interview’s sudden surge in popularity comes in the wake of Apple’s MacBook event, which as always, has evoked different emotions. Some have hailed the new MacBook Pros with the new OLED Touch Bar (which is driven by the same processor as the Apple Watch Series 2) and Touch ID. But others have seen the upgrades as being more incremental than substantial.
That “incremental rather than substantial” upgrade accusation is one that has been increasingly leveled at Cupertino for a few years now. At most other tech companies, it would have been greeted with a shrug of the shoulders because after all “business is business and you cannot innovate all the time,” but at Apple, a company that has been renowned for its innovation and one which charges a hefty premium for it, that accusation can be scary and scarring. There is a feeling increasingly creeping into tech circles and even among the Apple faithful that the company that gave us the likes of the Macintosh, the iPod, the iPhone and iPad might be losing its innovative edge and becoming just another tech company that rides on its reputation rather than its innovation.
And for a lot of people, the main reason for the perceived (and we say “perceived,” because a lot of our colleagues insist that Apple remains as innovative as ever) lack of innovation is the man at the top – Tim Cook, who is seen as a “sales and marketing” person rather than as a product person, never mind that he was Steve Jobs’ own choice as his successor. “They have just gone into ‘minor update’ mode ever since he took over. The only really innovate product that has come out under his leadership is the Apple Watch, and the jury is out on whether it is a success or not,” a colleague of ours commented after the MacBook Pro event.
Some might consider this unfair. After all, how much can a company innovate? And surely, updating products is important too. Did not Apple products receive “incremental upgrades” during the era of Jobs – remember how the storage of the iPods used to keep creeping upwards with a new edition? True enough. But the fact also is that Jobs last years at Apple saw the company innovate radically like never before. Consider the evidence:
2005 – Mac Mini, the iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano
2007 – iPhone, Apple TV, iPod touch
2008 – MacBook Air, iTunes App Store
2010 – iPad
In short, in the seven years leading up to Jobs demise, Apple released nine products that set off trends and were widely “inspirational” (it is a better word than “copied”) – not all of them were massive hits, but they did reinforce the company’s image of being militantly innovative and setting trends rather than following them.
The five years since have however been relatively quiet. The MacBook, the EarPods, the Air Pods and the iPad Pros have not been seen as “radical” and the Apple Watch also did not exactly set off the wearables era that many had predicted it would (the fact that Google is going easy on Android Wear is just an indication of how popular smartwatches are at the moment). What’s worse, an increasing number of the Apple faithful are beginning to notice how the company that once prided itself on not talking about specs and instead focusing on the “experience” is suddenly referring to the spec sheet. The fact that many of the company’s products are being leaked out with stunning accuracy well in advance of their actual launch is also eroding the aura of exclusivity the brand once had.
But is Tim Cook to blame? In 2014, Yukari Iwatani Kane had shocked a lot of people when she wrote a book called “Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs,” in which she pretty much said that Cook was frittering away Jobs’ legacy of innovation, and that he would not be able to inspire the sort of culture for innovation that Jobs had because he was a very different kind of thinker – a more methodical one, minus the creative insanity that many associated with Jobs. At that time, many had felt that Kane was just trying to cash in on a certain amount of negativity that had surrounded the early days of Cook at Apple – after all, he was very different from Jobs (most people are). And well, who at that stage could say that Cook would not turn out to be a better CEO than Jobs himself? He had worked with him and after all, was supposed to be a wizard of sales and operations.
Two years later, people are not so sure.
For, not even the most die-hard Apple fans can deny the fact that some of the recent products of the company have been a tad underwhelming. The products have not been bad – nay, the iPhone remains one of the best smartphones in the world and a universal benchmark and the Apple Watch is easily the best smartwatch around, just as the iPad and the MacBook Pro are in zones of their own.
But then Apple was not about being the best, was it? No, it was about Thinking Different. About being in a very special niche.
And we strongly suspect that the marked absence of “different” in recent times has led to many wondering if Apple has actually turned its back on the people that made it special – the product people. While no one is doubting Cooks’ leadership or strategic acumen, there is a feeling that unlike Jobs, he tends to chase the market rather than the other way around – something that came to the fore during his trip to India, where many felt he was coming across as being “too needy.” “Jobs came to India seeking spiritual salvation. Cook came looking to build a market,” a colleague put it rather bluntly. It is a rather unfair statement, we think, especially as Apple itself did not exist when Jobs had come to India, but it certainly sums up the sentiment that is becoming increasingly prevalent in some places.
That Apple has turned the Product Priests out of the temple!
Yes, Sir Jony Ive does make appearances in videos and his tone is as measured as always. But what used to pass off as “eccentricity of genius” under the aegis of Jobs is now being seen as sheer “arrogance” and “insensitivity” – witness the brouhaha over the absence of the 3.5 mm audio jack from the new iPhones, the absence of a connector on the Apple Pencil and the absence of traditional USB ports on the new MacBook Pros. Jobs could tell people they were holding a phone wrong and that they did not need memory cards on their phones and tablets because he was seen as the creator, the genius who insisted that consumers did not know what they want. Cook, on the other hand, is seen as someone who actually tracks consumers and wants to expand markets so people tend to judge him more harshly. But then again, would they have been doing so if he had been a “product person”?
There are some who believe that Tim Cook is to Apple after Steve Jobs what Steve Ballmer was to Microsoft after Bill Gates – a person who knows markets better than products. Perhaps that is too simplistic an assumption, but given how radically Microsoft changed course when Satya Nadella took over the reigns and suddenly got back its reputation for mainstream innovation, it would be insane to dismiss it outright. There is a school of thought that also believes that the Nexus 6P and the Pixel devices radically improved over their predecessors, because Sundar Pichai, again a perceived “product person” was in charge.
Of course, for all we know, the new MacBook Pros and iPhones could set record sales and Cook’s defenders would then point to them and claim that the sales prove that he was right. And therein lies the paradox – they would also prove that he is a good “marketing and sales person.” Precisely the sort of person that Jobs had said results in a “company forgetting how to make great products” in that interview. Apple may not have the sort of monopoly that Xerox or IBM had but it has a massively committed fan base and a near-cult following, one that believes it is different from the others. And if the response to the Jobs interview video is any indication, there are cracks appearing in its loyalty.
What is the solution? The knee jerk brigade would advocate making Jony Ive CEO.. We cannot claim to be experts in that regard. But what we can do is end up by echoing the advice Steve Jobs gave to the students at Stanford:
“Stay Hungry
Stay Foolish…”
Tim Cook has shown more than ample signs of being hungry.
Perhaps he needs to show the courage to be recklessly foolish as well.
He is in charge after all of a company that claims to think different.
© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2016. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |
The post Tim Cook: Too Much of a ‘Sales Person’? appeared first on Technology Personalized.
Chuwi Hi10 Pro is a dual-boot 10.i-inch tablet that runs both Android 5.1 (Lollipop) and Windows 10. It is an affordable smooth running tablet for both work and play. You can also buy a keyboard accessory that converts the tablet into a capable laptop for improved capability. Where to Buy Chuwi Hi10 Pro Gearbest.com$165.00 Buy
The post Chuwi Hi10 Pro Windows & Android Tablet appeared first on Nigeria Technology Guide.
The Surface Studio is Microsoft’s first desktop computer seemingly designed to flex muscles rivals such as Apple’s famous iMac computers. The jaw-dropping behemoth is built for professionals, such as artists and other creatives. The all-in-one desktop sports a humongous, crystal-clear display and rocks latest Intel Core i series processors. Design and Display Perhaps, one may
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It is not very often that you find a smartphone that strikes the right balance between performance, quality build, and affordability. UMi Plus is one smartphone that I can boldly say excels in all three fronts. Umi has learnt a lot from its earlier offerings like the Umi Max and Super and the Umi Plus
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Skyrim's new Special Edition promises a graphics overhaul, but how does it compare with the original -- or the original's mods?
The post Comparing Skyrim: Enhanced Edition with the classic version appeared first on ExtremeTech.
China is nearing completion of another major facet in its push for a quantum phone at the capital building: a 2,000-kilometer fiber-optic line for ferrying quantum encryption keys.
The post In bid to achieve quantum encryption, China set to finish 2,000-kilometer ‘quantum link’ appeared first on ExtremeTech.
We still can't explain why KIC 8462852 (aka Tabby's Star) is dimming, but focusing the combined power of Earth's most powerful radio telescopes on the distant star should help us uncover its mysteries.
The post Scientists plan to aim the world’s most powerful telescopes at the ‘alien megastructure star’ appeared first on ExtremeTech.
Samsung's mobile division took a shellacking this past quarter thanks to the Note 7's double-recall, but the Korean company believes the problem is behind it, with no long-term impacts on its mobile divisions market share or popularity.
The post Samsung’s mobile division profits fall by 96% in wake of Note 7 disaster appeared first on ExtremeTech.
This week in space: Juno is back in fighting trim, DARPA is working with Australia to weaponize kangaroos (just kidding, they actually built a space debris telescope), we found a new trans-Neptunian object, and no -- despite how awesome it would be, there probably aren't aliens building a Dyson sphere around Tabby's Star.
The post This week in space: DARPA, Juno, and no aliens appeared first on ExtremeTech.
Ready to go for a swim? The biggest swimming pool in this section of the galaxy could be just 24 trillion miles away.
The post Nearby exoplanet Proxima b could be a habitable ocean world appeared first on ExtremeTech.
Apple refreshed its MacBook Pro products yesterday, shifted the positioning of its older MacBook Pro SKUs, and introduced new hardware featuring AMD's Polaris GPU. The Mac Pro, however, is still stuck on 3.5 year-old chips.
The post Apple unveils new MacBook Pros, but skips the iMac and Mac Pro appeared first on ExtremeTech.
The last two days have been busy ones for both Apple and Microsoft. While Apple launched the much-awaited update for their MacBook Pro Microsoft did the same for its Surface. However, Microsoft has now announced that it will be offering $650 off when trading in a MacBook. Well, the offer couldn’t have come at a much better time as Apple just announced their new MacBook Pro lineup. Microsoft has been trying to battle it out with Apple when it comes to its Surface Book lineup and the offer is one of the instances wherein Microsoft wants users to get a taste of their Surface lineup.
The offer is already up and anyone in the U.S can trade in their MacBook Pro or even a MacBook Air at a Microsoft Store in exchange of rebate up to $650 for a Surface Book. The offer is further detailed as follows “Today, we are announcing a limited-time “trade up” offer to invite more people to experience Surface. If you have a Mac but want to experience the ultimate laptop with on-screen touch, Surface and Microsoft Store are here for you. Starting today, anyone in the U.S. can trade in their MacBook Pro or MacBook Air at a Microsoft Store or online for up to $650 off a Surface Book or Surface Pro.’’ This deal in however valid only till November 10 and in case you are looking out to ditch your good ol’ MacBook then maybe this is the chance you were waiting for.
Microsoft claims that it is “Helping Apple MacBook owners trade up to Pen and on-screen touch.” With this offer Microsoft is advertently bringing down the base price of Surface to $249 considering that one is eligible for a maximum trade in discount of $650 for their current MacBook. Also, observe how Microsoft prefers to call it a Trade Up offer instead of the usual Trade in. The MacBook Pro launch has disappointed some of the potential buyers who were anticipating a full-fledged touch screen, the Touch Bar is indeed a great addition but the touch display is something more utilitarian in nature.
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Apple finally upgraded its MacBook Pro lineup last night at an event in Cupertino. The latest generation notebooks bring several new additions such as the alluring touch bar, a massive trackpad, better internals, a new look Space gray edition and a whole lot more. However, Apple also had to give up a number of features Mac fans have known and loved for years. Additionally, the new MacBook Pro streamlines the I/O section and is betting big on the future of USB Type-C which also led to some unwieldy sacrifices. Hence, in this article, we discuss the five bewildering decisions Apple made with the 2016 MacBook Pro.
There’s no standard USB port on the new MacBook Pro which basically means, you’ll have to buy an adapter for connecting your iOS devices like the iPhone or the iPad. Ironically, you can directly charge most of the high-end Android smartphones from any of the 4 USB Type-C ports! Apple does sell its own adapter but that costs $25 and looks ugly too. Thankfully, though, accessory support for Apple products is wide enough and hopefully, you can soon get a better looking (and better priced) third-party dongle. However, I do think Apple should’ve included one in the box (for the ecosystem sake).
MacBooks have been exceedingly popular among artist community such as photographers and videographers due to its fantastic developer support. The new MacBooks though, drop the beloved SD card slot and yet again, you’ll have to buy another dongle if you’re planning to import your DSLR photos unless there’s WiFi support. But dropping the SD card slot is definitely going to be one of the major inconveniences with these new laptops.
Yes, there’s a headphone jack. Thank God for that. But if you’re invested into the iPhone 7 ecosystem, chances are you’ve learned to live without the headphone jack already. However, Apple has another hurdle for you. As you might have realized, you can’t use your lightning earphones with the new MacBook Pro because there’s no port for it. So yeah, the most valuable company on the planet did miss a lot of things with these new machines. It’s quite obvious Apple wanted to coherent the laptop’s design, however, these inconsistencies will definitely agonize some potential buyers.
Get ready to live the dongle life.
Remember the glowing partially eaten apple logo that complimented every posh coffee shop in the town? That’s gone too. The 2016 MacBook Pro, alike the MacBook they introduced last year, has a standard glossy brand logo on the back which doesn’t glow. Ouch!
If you ever had a friend who owns a MacBook, he or she would’ve surely given you a live demonstration of how the magnetic charger has been designed to withstand accidental bumps. Apple thinks that’s not required anymore as humans have evolved to walk keeping cables in mind. Okay, they didn’t actually say that. But as the latest MacBook doesn’t have a dedicated charging port, Apple also had to let go the intuitive Magsafe connection. It’s surely convenient to use any of the 4 ports to charge the MacBook Pro, but Magsafe did have its own real-world convenience. Alas!
So, those were the five of the most critical flaws with the new MacBook Pro laptops (Did I mention there’s no physical function row that professionals used to keyboard shortcuts will terribly miss?). However, they’re still a significant upgrade over the previous generations. You can read more about them right here.
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Apple has now refreshed their MacBook Pro lineup with three new laptops out which two of them come with the much touted Touch Bar feature. The base 13-inch model that misses out on the Touch Bar starts at $1499 in the US while the top end 15-inch model starts at $2399. That said, Apple is always known to mark up the US pricing to a large extent when launching in regional markets and the same has happened this time around too.
The Cupertino giant has now announced pre-orders for the new MacBooks and had even confirmed the Indian pricing, which has since been revoked for some unknown reasons. But then, the website still mentions the same, so we can assume the final pricing to be similar. And guess what, the price of the top end variant of the Apple MacBook Pro goes over Rs 2,00,00. Precisely speaking the base 13-inch variant of the MacBook Pro with a dual-core Intel core i5 processor with Turbo Boost upto 3.1GHz, 8GB RAM and 256GB of SSD memory will go on sale for Rs 1,29,900. Well, that’s apparently the minimum amount you need to shell out for buying a 2016 MacBook Pro. It is, however, worth noting that the India price of this variant of the MacBook is nearly 30% higher than the $1499 US pricing.
Just for the comparison, the above-mentioned variant of the MacBook Pro is priced at A$2,199 (Rs 1,11,566 approx.), 11,488 Yuan (Rs 1,13,208 approx.), HK$11,588, £1,449 (Rs 1,17,931 approx.) and €1,699 (Rs 1,23,818 approx.) in Australia, China, Hong Kong, US and Germany respectively. Thus it’s safe to infer that the Indian pricing is about 10% percent higher than the average price of the device across the world. A similar pricing graph is followed for all other variants of the MacBook Pro.
2.9GHz Dual Core Intel i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD and a Touch Bar
: 2.6GHz Quad Core Intel i7, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD and a Touch Bar
From our understanding, India is by far the worst place to buy a MacBook in. Hong Kong, on the other hand, is the cheapest place in South East Asia to get your hands on. But neither of this is anything new for those keeping track of Apple pricing in India.
The 13-inch base model is going on sale right away, while the rest will be available for pre-order and shipping in 2-3 weeks in most countries mentioned above except India. For now, Apple has revoked the initial press release mentioning the availability being same as US and Hong Kong, so stay tuned for updated timelines (and pricing if any).
With the launch of the new MacBook Pro models, Apple has given a clear indication that they are set to axe the MacBook Air lineup. In fact, Apple has placed the 13-inch MacBook Pro without the Touch Bar as their MacBook Air like offering for this year. Besides, they have now withdrawn the current 11-inch variant of the MacBook Air while the 13-inch model will still continue to retail. Nevertheless, the impact of MacBook Air discontinuation is expected to have an impact on the pricing of the last year’s 12-inch MacBook.
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The wait is finally over. Apple has unveiled the new MacBook Pro lineup and the biggest upgrade apart from the performance, is the touch bar that resides above the keyboard. As leaked before, it essentially replaces the function keys and lets you perform the available contextually-aware actions based on gestures and taps. Hence, here are ten cool things you can do with it.
While browsing the web on Safari, the touch bar will show previews for the opened tabs. You can quickly switch between them, and there are several other shortcuts such as for going back, forward, bookmark, search, and more.
Yes, the new Macbook has a fingerprint scanner that doubles as a power button. It is located on the right side of the touch bar and does what it should, allows signing in on the touch of a finger. You can also use it to authenticate for Apple Pay and if your laptop has multiple users, it automatically recognizes the finger and logs in or switches workspace accordingly.
On the native Photos app, the touch bar will contain thumbnails for your images and video files which you can scroll through. Additionally, if you’re watching a video, you can forward or rewind it by dragging the timeline on the display. Moreover, buttons for various editing tools such as crop or straighten will also appear on it.
Of course, when you’re not in any specific app, touch bar will display the usual array of functions, physical keys for which have been buried in the past. These include brightness, playback, and volume control, escape, and others.
If you’re chatting on iMessage, text predictions, emojis, stickers will compliment the touch bar. You can tap to insert something directly or keep browsing right in the interface. Additionally, these options are completely user customizable using a drag and drop interface.
While editing photos on the Adobe’s Photoshop, users can also get a color palette for intricate color grading and image manipulation. You have the option for setting the opacity, and dark as well as light shades on the left-hand side. Additionally, you can personalize the touch bar based on your preferences and add any other shortcut such as brush sizes.
On the default navigation maps app on MacOS, the touch bar has been configured to show a series of quick links for attractions like restaurants, gas stations, shops, and a whole lot more.
On Apple’s Final Cut Pro video editing software, users can also browse the timeline. Furthermore, there will be quick controls for functions such as trimming, copy, and more.
The touch bar on new MacBook Pro laptops also have support for FaceTime as one would expect. Hence, if you get a call, it will pop up a dialog with the recipient’s name, image, and buttons for answering and declining.
Algoriddim, a DJ software also announced support for the new touch bar hardware. When using their app, artists will be able to get fx controls, seek bars, equalizers, and more directly on the display.
Apple has yet again decided to skip the touchscreen and is betting big on the radically pitched touch bar. However, they still haven’t clearly stated whether they’re working on an API for third-party involvement. Nevertheless, it’s a long overdue upgrade and customers who were holding off their computer buying decisions, will surely go ahead with this anyway.
© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2016. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |
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