Archive for October 30, 2014

BlackBerry Outs BlackBerry Classic Handset In Open Letter

Posted in Commentary with tags on October 30, 2014 by itnerd

If anyone was wondering if BlackBerry was still going to make handsets, wonder no more. BlackBerry CEO John Chen has cleared that up in an open letter posted online that outs a new BlackBerry handset called the BlackBerry Classic:

It’s tempting in a rapidly changing, rapidly growing mobile market to change for the sake of change – to mimic what’s trendy and match the industry-standard, kitchen-sink approach of trying to be all things to all people.

But there’s also something to be said for the classic adage, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

BlackBerry Classic reflects that. It is classic BlackBerry – complete with a top row of navigation keys and a trackpad. It’s the device that has always felt right in your hands and always felt right in your busy day.

Of course, we’ve made quite a few enhancements around the edges and on the inside. The screen is bigger and sharper. Our application catalogue is growing. The BlackBerry 10 operating system incorporates all the best productivity and collaboration features on any mobile device, including the BlackBerry Hub and our all-new BlackBerry Blend.

So it looks like on the heels of the Passport he’s doubling down on handsets. That’s a risky strategy. But by coming out with something that is (pardon the phrase) classic BlackBerry, perhaps it will work. Of course I’ll have to see one first to confirm if that’s true or not.

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Lenovo Purchase Of Motorola Now Official

Posted in Commentary with tags , on October 30, 2014 by itnerd

Though I had my doubts at the time that this deal was announced, it now seems that Motorola’s handset business is now owned by Lenovo. Here’s a snippet from an announcement that was posted today:

In Lenovo we have a partner that shares our mission and that brings global scale, a diverse product portfolio and a track record of seizing strategic opportunities and making the most of them. Together we will go farther, faster. With an impressive portfolio of smartphones, wearables and PCs, our two companies will be uniquely positioned to push the boundaries of choice and value, and bring exciting new experiences to people everywhere.

That may be true. Consider the following:

  • Lenovo also gains access to the North American smartphone market. That’s good for them. Though it also means that they will have a ton of competition to deal with.
  •  Motorola gets access to Asia. That will help to sell more phones.

Here’s the problem. Google never made a dime with Motorola. Thus I wonder if Lenovo can do better. I guess we’ll see.

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Motorola Announces Droid Turbo…. And It’s The Droid You’ve Been Looking For

Posted in Commentary with tags on October 30, 2014 by itnerd

The title sounds like hyperbole, but it isn’t. Motorola’s new Droid Turbo is going to get a lot of attention from smartphone buyers for a variety of reasons:

  • The Droid Turbo claims to have an astonishing 48 hours of battery life. Plus you get a rapid (“Turbo”) charger that promises to give you eight hours of battery life after just 15 minutes of charging. It also has wireless charging.
  • The 5.2″ screen has 565 pixels per inch. That’s 31% more than the similarly sized Galaxy S5 and 41% sharper than the bigger iPhone 6 Plus.
  • 32GB or 64GB of storage out of the box.
  • 21 Megapixel Camera
  • The fastest Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor in existence.

Right now it’s on Verizon in the US exclusively. But one can hope that it makes an appearance in other countries as this is clearly the Droid that you’ve been looking for.

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Microsoft Announces “Band” As Their Entry Into The Health & Fitness Market

Posted in Commentary with tags on October 30, 2014 by itnerd

Apple has HealthKit and now Microsoft has an entry in the growing health and fitness market.

First there’s the Microsoft Band. It’s worn on your wrist and it tracks both physical activity and sleep. It includes 10 sensors that track standard health statistics like heart rate as well as unique points of data that other fitness bands do not track, like a UV sensor to measure sun exposure and galvanic skin response, which can identify stress. Like smart watches, the Band can also receive notifications from a user’s smartphone and allegedly lasts up to 2 days on a charge.

Tied into this is a cloud-based health service called Microsoft Health, which can gather data from both the Microsoft Band and other fitness data gathering devices, like smartphones and other fitness bands. The service spans the web and multiple mobile platforms including iOS, Android and Windows Phone.

The band is on sale today for $199 USD. It should be interesting to see how well it is or isn’t received. I think the fact that it supports multiple platforms might gain Microsoft some appeal. Thus, this is worth keeping an eye on.

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Tim Cook Comes Out As Being Gay In Support Of Equality

Posted in Commentary with tags on October 30, 2014 by itnerd

I can’t believe that I am writing this in 2014, but I am. Tim Cook in a Bloomberg Businessweek article had this to say:

For years, I’ve been open with many people about my sexual orientation. Plenty of colleagues at Apple know I’m gay, and it doesn’t seem to make a difference in the way they treat me. Of course, I’ve had the good fortune to work at a company that loves creativity and innovation and knows it can only flourish when you embrace people’s differences. Not everyone is so lucky.

And he also had this to say:

The company I am so fortunate to lead has long advocated for human rights and equality for all. We’ve taken a strong stand in support of a workplace equality bill before Congress, just as we stood for marriage equality in our home state of California. And we spoke up in Arizona when that state’s legislature passed a discriminatory bill targeting the gay community. We’ll continue to fight for our values, and I believe that any CEO of this incredible company, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation, would do the same. And I will personally continue to advocate for equality for all people until my toes point up.

So, Tim Cook has confirmed that he’s gay and that he supports equality in all its forms. Now I wrote in 2011 that Cook being gay is non-issue. The fact that we’re still talking about it three years later shows what little progress we’ve made as humans. If humans can make a smartphone that is more powerful than the computers that took man to the moon by many orders of magnitude, surely we can simply treat each other with respect and dignity no matter whom we are?

Is that too much to ask?

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