The Future According to Microsoft

A look at the future of intelligent systems and technology at large courtesy of Microsoft.

Nexus: Ice Cream Sandwiched

ICS, Android has a good chance of overtaking iOS in terms of UI, feature set, fluidity and Google's focus on speed. I love the camera features (the panoramic shot is dope!), new look and feel of the apps, additional homescreen capabilities, face recognition on unlock (despite the failed first attempt, allegedly because of too much make-up) and beaming capabilities which was very trekky btw. Good stuff!

Jeff Bezos and his weird Amazonian patents

Amazon is known for its astounding service and disruptive success but did you know that it’s founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is known for filing weird to borderline absurd patents for his site’s features? Here are some of them:

1-Click Ordering Patent

1-Click ordering—whose notorious patent was called by one law journal "probably the most memorable example of an unoriginal software patent." It forbids any other online retailer from using a one-click purchasing option without paying a royalty to Amazon.

Who will regulate the web?

Reading this article got me thinking. After the Arab spring, UK riots and worldwide massive corporate and government hacking and massive privacy violations, is it high time that there be a regulation of the entire internet infrastructure? If so then how? And who?

Given the publicized, fast changing character of the web, will it be government lead, with a top down hierarchical approach? Or a collaborative slant ala open source will be more appropriate, giving the people equal footing in internet regulatory resolutions.

Sandwiched

Kid of the future

Watch this toddler as it tries to pinch and swype his way to an old, paper magazine ala iPad. Welcome to the future.

Farewell Dennis

#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
    printf("Farewell, Dennis\n");
    return 0;
}

The Black Mock Turtleneck – Steve Jobs Convergence

This is an excerpt from Mr. Isaacson's upcoming Steve Jobs bio:

On a trip to Japan in the early 1980s, Jobs asked Sony's chairman Akio Morita why everyone in the company's factories wore uniforms. He told Jobs that after the war, no one had any clothes, and companies like Sony had to give their workers something to wear each day.Over the years, the uniforms developed their own signatures styles, especially at companies such as Sony, and it became a way of bonding workers to the company. "I decided that I wanted that type of bonding for Apple,"

Photoshop Unblur Wows Audience

Photoshop teased an unblur fix for blurry images @ the recently concluded MAXcon.

Why the new facebook app makes me want an iPad

For what seems like an eternity already, the official facebook app for the iPad has finally arrived and looks really good. Of course, the very first thing you’ll notice is the heavy integration of the swype and pinch feature that is inherent to all touch devices. Then the photos, which looks really good in an iPad, the interface is pretty clean with the various menus located on the left side, messages and notifications fixed on top, a welcome change compared to the cluttered, disorganized style of the desktop version.

Celebrate Steve

Last night I went to a friend’s party together with a bunch of engineering, computer science and IT students and had a couple of drinks (I forgot how many, were pretty much heavy but infrequent drinkers).

One thing led to another and we were talking about Steve Jobs (and I‘m sure it’s not the alcohol talking), how he moved industries with his disruptive innovations, inspired people (including ourselves) with his philosophy and amazing, even borderline obsessive work ethic. The fact that he passed away, just a day after the 4S’ unveil, tells us what kind of man Mr. Jobs really was. A couple of shots and reminiscing and tears welled up eventually.

SF Disrupt champ shakes to the tune of $15 million

This is one lucky startup. Shaker, the winner of TC’s recent disrupt battle just closed a financing round for a whooping $15 million. Now that’s a lot of money for a facebook app, but considering the startup’s potential, the funding is pretty reasonable. I just hope that they put the money to good use.

Toy Story Writers talks Farmville Movie

It’s not even a week after Steve’s departure from this world and the writers of Steve’s first Pixar movie, Toy Story are off doing some really interesting stuff that you may love or hate but one thing’s for sure though, they really are thinking different.

In an interview, writers’ Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen mentioned that they’re in talks with Zynga for a movie spinoff of the popular facebook game, Farmville. Yes, you heard me right, a farmville movie. Not much has been publicly known yet but this is certainly interesting. Given the popularity of the game and the caliber of the writers, this could be a blockbuster in the making. Any who, a Mafia Wars movie will not get the same amount of buzz I think.

Google+ 2.0: A thing of beauty

Played with the leaked Google+ App (version 2.0) and loved what I saw. The minimalism and sleek interface is fascinating. Obviously, they learned a thing or two from Steve and Apple as to what constitutes a great app design. The app was supposed to be a part of the cancelled Ice Cream Sandwich announcement and was leaked to the interwebz today. (I got mine via Google+ from one of my circles).

Btw, I will not take up all the changes, just the ones that I find really fascinating so here we go. The first thing that you’ll notice after firing up the app is the new and quite improved home screen, I still don’t get why did they renamed the messaging platform when Huddle was supposed to be good enough. Now Chord just makes it worse. I hate it.

Remote Desktop Functionality for Chrome Browsers

Time to jump ship guys, Chrome is the future.

The guys @Chromium, Chrome’s open source brother which targets developers, recently released a really nifty chrome extension that allows users to access other computers through a chrome browser and/or chromebook.

GLaDOSiri

What do you get when you mash-up a sure-to-be hit product’s commercial and fat jokes from a nasty AI? Nerdgasm and a good laugh. More reason to by the new iPhone (too late anyway since it’s already sold-out).

The best lines(The bold line is GLaDOSiri talking):

0:18 What's the traffic like around here?

0:19 The traffic will be slow and meaningless. Just like your sad little life.

0:24 Text my wife, I'm going to be 30 minutes late.

0:26 She won't mind. She doesn't really love you anyway.

0:30 Is it going to be chilly in San Francisco this weekend?

0:33 Not too cold. Your few extra pounds should be suitable insulation to keep you warm.

0:38 What about Napa Valley?

0:39 I hear it's beautiful there. Unlike you.

0:49 Set my timer for 30 minutes.

0:51 OK, 30 minutes and counting. Until I end your sad attempt at a life.

1:09 Reply. Sure. I'll be there.

1:11 Here's your reply to Sandy Cheng. Sure. I will be there. Me and my extra 20 pounds.

Cool huh? Now tell me you don’t want the new iPhone.

Your first dose of Ice Cream Sandwich

Sure the event was cancelled (in honor of Steve of course), but who cares anyway? We’ve got a glimpse of the early (not quite sure if it’s the final) build of Android’s latest version, Ice Cream Sandwich. What caught my eye you ask? The new version of Music Beta, Google+ and the honecombey look of the new OS. And based from what I’m seeing, ICS looks really delicious but still no iPhone killer.

Source: TC

Sony to make a Steve Jobs movie

That was fast. Sony pictures just acquired the rights to create a movie out of the highly anticipated Steve Jobs bio by Walter Isaacson. With blockbusters like The Social Network and Money Ball, Sony seems the ideal fit to make the film.

Steve’s funeral is on friday

Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, will be laid to rest this friday, two days after is passing. In the spirit of privacy and solemnity, the funeral will be a gathering among family and close friends, in an undisclosed location. Apple employees is planning a celebration of Steve’s life and legacy soon after. No other information was made public.

Source: WSJ

Nuance goes Swyping

Swype just got acquired.

In another Arrington exclusive, Swype, the startup who made our lives easier by providing an alternative, super speedy way to typing with our annoying Android keyboards (based on personal experience) through swyping, was acquired by Nuance (the makers of voice recognition technology, which is the talk of the tech town after Siri’s announcement) to the tune of possibly more than $100 million.

Swype, now available in millions of devices, premiered at a TechCrunch conference back in 2008, didn’t win but certainly got people’s attention. And it still does today, and maybe tomorrow. It’s fate is now on Nuance’s hands.

Colbert pays tribute to Steve

Funny man Stephen Colbert cuts the bull and thanks’ Steve Jobs in his own way.

Steve Jobs Pranks Starbucks

Classic Steve Jobs poking a little fun with the recently announced iPhone.

From iWoz to iSteve

Teary-eyed Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple on his start-up days with Steve Jobs.

Steve’s official bio pushed sooner

 

Steve Jobs’ official biography written by Walter Isaacson which was previously scheduled early 2012, moved November, weeks before Steve leaving the CEO position is finally moved to the 24th of October, just two and a half weeks from now.

Given what just happened, this is welcome change given the spike in interest for the bio after Steve’s passing just yesterday. Can’t wait to get my hands on a copy. I prefer the digital format though, which Steve I’m sure would prefer so I have to wait until November for the Kindle format.

Lamenting Steve’s death, celebrating his life and legacy

 

We've lost something we won't get back.

– Steve Wozniak

The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come.

– Bill Gates, Microsoft

Michelle and I are saddened to learn of the passing of Steve Jobs. Steve was among the greatest of American innovators - brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.

– Barack Obama, US President

Long live Steve Jobs

Woke up to a very sad news today. Steve is dead. Just like I can’t imagine a world without an iPod, iPhone and the iPad, I can’t imagine a world without Steve Jobs. No one can replace him. My condolences to the loved ones, friends and the entire Apple community. Steve was an inspiration that pushed so many people to pursue the impossible, think different, to always try something new. This is truly the end of an era, an era of wondrous innovations, customer satisfaction through beautiful products, but hopefully, not the Apple magic. 

Long live Steve Jobs. Without you, the tech world, hell, the whole world will never be the same. You will continue to live on in our hearts, our minds, an inspiration to the current and future generations.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

- Steve Jobs

Free for life

Wow, up until now I still can’t believe how lucky I was. Just last week, I just had an unlimited storage for life, for free, courtesy of Bitcasa.

Never heard of them? If so and you’re a self-proclaimed tech geek then your missing out on a lot. Bitcasa is a startup who debuted @TC Disrupt Battlefield, made it all the way to the finals but was defeated by shaker (another startup company), and has prospects to disrupt the cloud computing landscape by providing infinite storage for life. This company has a lot of potential that even Mike Arrington’s Crunchfund bet their money in it.

They’re giving out free unlimited storage for life, in the cloud, everyday, to two very lucky beta testers until the 30th of October. More info @blog.bitcasa.com.

Disclosure

I’m doing some tests, add-ons and developments in my blog to make it more user-friendly. I’m having some difficulty since bloggers’ html rules are pretty stricts and I’m getting a lot of errors though I’m managing to fix them asap.

Bear with me. Once I finish this, my site will be better than ever.

Update: You know what? Curse it. The Open Graph is finally working! Hell yeah!

Let's talk Siri

Alright, no iPhone 5, no facebook. What we have though is an iPhone 4S (which looks exactly like the iPhone 4), better camera, better processor, drooling fanboys, a constantly crashing website, not so satisfied tech nerds (drenched with the iPhone 5 rumors and all that) and unhappy investors. There’s just one thing that made the conference worth the wait, Siri.
Apple has that uncanny ability to acquire nerd-centric tech, dumb it down a little, make it elegant, make it work, take it mainstream, turn it into a total hit and make tons of money along the way. That's what they did with Siri.

Why the relationship between Airbnb and Mr. Palihapitiya will never be the same

It's make up time for Palihapitiya and Airbnb. After the email leak where the former facebook exec turned investor denounced the funding practices of the founders, the two entities settled their differences after making slight changes in the requirements of the funding. By reducing the cash received by the founders and including early employees in the dividend sharing, Palihapitiya is back in the Airbnb-ship, looking forward to a more prosperous partnership in the coming years.

MG Siegler Goes Crunching, Still Writing for TechCrunch

@sparker

Sean Parker is now on Twitter. About time.

Time to talk iPhone

Tomorrow, Apple will take center stage for another big unveil that will either be another sensation or a big flop. Front and center will be Apple’s Tim Cook, the connoisseur who once handled the company’s operations and is now CEO after Steve Jobs’ resignation last August. Cook is hopefully leading the keynote for the highly anticipated unveiling of the newest iteration of its blockbuster smartphone, the iPhone 5.

There’s just one problem however. How will they make it so that the soon-to-be-unveiled smartphone will surpass its predecessor? Apple, if not now then soon enough, will be facing a classic example of the innovators dilemma, the curse of Silicon Valley.

Zuckdawg.

And just like that, Mark Zuckerberg vindicated himself as one of the most awesome tech CEO, perhaps second only to Steve Jobs.

Premiumly Absurd

Yes, I made up a new word just for this. Web geeks buzzed with excitement after Google announced real-time data along with a premium offer in its Google Analytics product. How much for a premium account you ask? A whooping $150,000 per annum.

It’s all stated in a “confidential” email posted @Uncrunched, here’s the full transcript:

Former Facebook Exec Chamath Palihapitiya Backs Out of Airbnb Funding

On a leaked email first posted by Kara Swisher @AllThingsD, Chamath Palihapitiya cried foul on AirBnB’s recent attempts to get funded. He’s having problems with the voting control on the new investor’s preferred shares and the $22.5 million cash out where $21 million goes to the founders themselves.

Apparently, this is too much for the former facebook exec, inferring that still wanting that amount of control is slightly unreasonable since the founders are already vested for about 90% and the bankrolling is at $1.2B, where their dilution is quite minimal. Mr. Palihapitiya is also implying that handing out huge amount of dividends early in the game is a bad practice for a company as young as Airbnb, sampling the fact that tech giant Apple haven’t issued a single amount of dividend despite the company having more than $75 billion in cash.

Nick Bilton: Desirable number one

What would you do if you were offered a hosting and writing position to the tune of 1.5 million dollars, a book deal of at least 1 million dollars and more than 300k annual compensation? Apparently, you go your own way and you turn it down. Mr. Nick Bilton, an NYtimes tech writer was handed this generous offer by CNET, along with its parent company, CBS but humbly turned it down.

Facebook: Outright lies or pure misunderstanding?

Mike Arrington took the facebook cookie-tracking-while-logged-out issue to the next level when he compiled a set of links on his blog with a title "Facebook: Brutal Dishonesty", a twist to his previous blog post, "Brutal Honesty."

Just days after facebook's big f8 conference, resident hacker Nik Cubric dished the dirt on the 800+ million strong social network, asserting that facebook keeps track of its users even when logged out with a little cookie magic.

Symbian may be dead but Nokia is still alive and kicking

Well, trying to kick anyway. Nokia was pretty much a victim of creative destruction due to the the rise of smartphones, which I believe took the company off guard that. Things got so dirty that even came to a point where the technorati officially declared Symbian to be dead. Now the obvious solution to this matter is to come up with a new product that has a competitive advantage against Apple's iOS and Google's Android or partner up with any of those two mobile giants. Not surprisingly, none of this deals happened and Nokia partnered with Microsoft instead.

What comes after the iPhone 4?...Whatever.

With Apple Inc.'s big Tuesday unveil featuring Tim Cook, and hopefully, fingers crossed, Steve Jobs is looming, speculations abound. Turns there's a lot of confusion across the rumor mill as to what will come after the iPhone 4. Here are the most prominent according to MacRumors:

The necessity of brutal honesty

Direct, brutal, no frills, awesome, wonderful, honesty. Versus being smile fucked by someone who’s hypocritically polite. I’ll take the honesty any day for the win. – Mike Arrington

Before anything else, I would like to commend Mr. Arrington’s mode of writing post-techcrunch era, he’s back to the real world apparently, blogging the same way pre and quasi-techcrunch.

Bitcasa build up

Looks like we'll have to wait a little longer to get a taste of TC disrupt finalist, Bitcasa. In an email to its prospective beta testers, Gauda and the rest said that they are still working hard on incorporating Bitcasa to Windows and Linux machines while Mac users can expect to have a run at it a bit sooner, depending on your place at the queue.

And here we go

Everyone’s starting anew, notably Michael Arrington and Paul Carr, even the infamous Sean Parker is launching a blog soon, I realized it was high time that I thrashed my old Blogger posts, which served as my training camp of some sorts for a few months while sacrificing some precious programming time and take blogging seriously. Taking it a couple of notches, I will be blogging about silicon issues, sprinkled with some random stuff that I find interesting. Ok, enough chatter, let’s do some blogging.