TechWire

Dear BlackBerry, Bubble Bash 2 isn't compensation for a week's email disruption

 

That’s it? You cut off our email and our web-browsing for three days and you offer us Angry Birds (or Bubble Bash 2, pictured) as compensation?
There must be some mistake here, Rim.
Offering a few BlackBerry apps for a day’s lost email is like offering me a ferry ticket to Swansea in exchange for a cancelled flight to Paris. I just don’t want the freebie.
Neither, I suspect, will many of the other millions of annoyed customers, whose email and internet business were seriously disrupted last week.
But don’t just take my word for it about the undesirability of your crappy offer. A BlackBerry owner is about ten times less likely to download an app to their device than an iPhone or Android owner is.
And it’s no mystery why. You, Rim, have a fraction of the number of apps that either Apple or Google have in their App Store and Market store, respectively. Those that are there often cost at least €5 each, way more than the 80 cents you spend on thousands of usable iPhone apps.
Even when you find something that looks interesting, the best you have to use it on is a small screen with a fiddly keyboard.
So you’ll forgive us, Rim, if we can’t help suspecting that you’re trying to kill two birds with one stone, here. You’re ‘apologising’ by trying to subsidise an unarguably lame part of your business.
Seriously? This is not a great way to win back friends. Especially seeing as many of your customers are on the cusp of leaving you anyway.
In the last six months alone, your BlackBerry market share in the US smartphone market has dropped from 24 per cent to 19 per cent (with Android market share going in almost exactly the opposite direction).
The same trend can be detected here in Ireland. Androids and iPhones are now becoming the default smartphones, even in conservative companies.
So spare us your mediocre apps offer, Rim. Give us a week’s free credit with our operator, instead. Better still, give us a month’s credit. It’s about the only shot you have of retaining business in the long run.

 

 

Why Steve Jobs doesn't have the same right to privacy as the rest of us

Steve Jobs, the corporate world's most important chief executive, has taken medical leave from Apple for the second time in two years.

Today, he circulated this email:

Team,

At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for all of Apple’s day to day operations. I have great confidence that Tim and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans we have in place for 2011.

I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy.

Steve

So that's that, yes? Just leave the man alone and let him get on with whatever is ailing him, right?

Wrong. Apple is the second biggest company in the world. Expecting investors not to enquire as to the nature of Jobs' health concerns is like asking an audience to overlook David Letterman's absence from the David Letterman Show.

Is Jobs out for a month? For 3 months? For good?

Sure, Apple has Tim Cook and Jonathan Ive, but no-one is under any illusions: Apple is the success it is because of Steve Jobs. And him alone.

A counter-argument might be: "why should investors have a right to know? If they're so worried, just sell the stock."

But Jobs uses the press ruthlessly to suit Apple's purposes. So asking it not to enquire as to the cause of his absence of the world's most important chief executive is just nuts.

Tech bits 'n' pieces, Monday January 17th

Check out this extensive list of tweeting Irish journalists (arranged by publication/broadcaster) by @Ondaboos. Very handy for PR and marketing folks, I'd imagine. Also worth checking out @garethoconnor's media lists.

Looking for a deal on an iPhone 4? The 3 Store in Dun Laoghaire (no link, as offer not online) has em for €100. But it's a 2-year contract at €40 per month.

There's a couple of good Irish law blogs out there. Like Rossa McMahon's A Clatter Of Law and TJ McIntyre's IT Law In Ireland.

Want to start a fight on Twitter or a blog? Here are the rules (says TechCrunch).

Facebook apps can now obtain your phone number and home address. (But only if you consent.)

Bloggers: sick of writing 'for free'? Seeking Alpha "pays $10 per 1,000 views".  (WSJ link)

8 Must-Have Apps For New iPad Owners

So you got an iPad for Christmas.  Nice, isn't it? Now comes the fun bit: looking for apps to use on the tablet.

There are over 300,000 of them out there: everything from spycams (currently the top-selling app) to fertility advice clinics. The App Store's charts will give you a good idea of some quality apps. But here are 8 apps that I've found to be truly excellent at various stages over the last six months.

When you're finished reading through them, why not take a look at my review of 15 quality business apps for the iPad?

1. Google Earth
The iPad was made for Google Earth. And vice versa. No other device shows off the application in as stunning a way. For the novice, it is an amazing thing to see the program zoom in from space to the driveway outside the house you are standing in. The application now incorporates Street View too, a brilliant way of researching other cities.
Price: free


2. Flipboard
Flipboard is a beautiful app that turns website feeds into magazine-style pages. Instead of scrolling, you 'flip' the page. You can customise it to suit whatever content tastes you have (its optional tech feeds include All Things Digital, TechCrunch and Engadget, for example). It'll take a little while to get the hang of customising it and will mainly appeal to frequent iPad users. But it's one of the loveliest, most creative apps out there.
Price: free


3. Angry Birds HD
It is the most successful game on either the iPhone or the iPad in the last 12 months. It's easy to see why: there are no high-octane laser cannons or RPG quests. Just a a few pissed-off birds looking for revenge on some cheeky pigs that have stolen their eggs. They get it by hurling themselves against the pigs' flimsy structures, using a giant catapult. What could be more fun? Very little, it would seem. The iPad version costs more than the iPhone version, but is worth it.
Price: €4


4. Facepad / Friendly
Bizarrely, Facebook has not yet made an app for the iPad. That has left the job of keeping you updated on Facebook to a number of alternative apps. While we've already mentioned Flipboard, either Facepad or Friendly would be the two best options for a standalone Facebook app. The Facepad, which has just launched is the simplest, cleanest-looking app. However, it's not optimised for the iPad's specs, so the screen is a tad blurry. Friendly is very nice app, giving you its own user-interface on your Facebook news, photos and friends.
Price: both free


5. Twitterrific
If you have a Twitter account -- and it seems very many of you do -- you've got to have a Twitter client for your iPad. There are some very nice paid Twitter apps. Osfoora HD has outstanding functionality and used to be a firm favorite of mine. But it kept crashing. And freezing. And crashing again. So it's back to (perfectly usable, efficient) basics with Twitterrific. Whatever you do, don't rely on Twitter's iPad app. It stinks.
Price: free


6. Pages
The iPad comes with Notes, a basic note-taking applications. It's fine. If you're looking for something with a little more power and flexibility, Pages is my choice. Based on Apple's word-processing program of the same name, it lets you easily incorporate images and other rich features into documents. And you can easily upload or email the pages out.
Price: €8


7. Documents To Go Premium
This is one I featured in the business apps roundup, but it's worth mentioning here, also. While Pages is a great standalone word-processing app, it doesn't incorporate Microsoft Word documents into it to work on. You can with Docs2Go. Not only Word, but Excel and Powerpoint, too. Not only that, you can synchronize the whole thing with your desktop computer's Microsoft Office suite.
Price: €14


8. Google
Yes, Google has its own iPad app. Granted, there's a (small) Google search panel in the default Safari web-browser app. But the Google app allows you to stay signed in using your Gmail or Google Docs account and keeps you updated if new communication comes in.

Touchscreen gloves for the big freeze

Cold weather and touchscreen smartphones do not go together hand in glove.

Every time you need to take a call, you have to take a glove off. Why? Because wool just doesn't work on a touchscreen. Luckily, one canny manufacturer has stitched special conductive lining into the thumb, forefinger and middle finger of this pair of 'faux wool' (acrylic) gloves. The result is a fully functional phone and non-frozen fingers. They cost €15 including delivery from Firebox.com.

Alternatively, if you're still not getting a purchase on your touchscreen, you can try these forefinger-less gloves from Etre. They cost €35 (including delivery).

15 decent business apps for the iPad

The iPad is really starting to get down to business. There are loads of genuinely handy day-to-day work apps available for it, now. Here are 15 really decent work and productivity apps that I have found useful. (I've listed them alphabetically.)

1. Airsharing HD
It's all very well having a Dropbox, Evernote or Gmail account. But wouldn't it be great to be able to simply access your home or work computer remotely on your iPad? Then you could open, edit or copy over any of the documents or files you have on your stationary computer. That's more or less what Airsharing HD does. It allows you to wirelessly ‘mount' your iPad as an external drive to your main machine.
Price: €8

2. Bloomberg
If you like to keep an eye on the markets, this is the best iPad app out there. It provides instant access to every major stock market around the globe, including the Irish Stock Exchange. You can look any stock up to see its current and historical performance, as well as check any news headlines relating to it. The app also offers podcasts, currency information and a general news feed.
Price: free

3. Box.net
Along with Dropbox and Evernote, this is among the best cloud storage apps available for the iPad. Because it's accepted as a mainstream service, many other apps and services now synchronise with Box.net files and accounts.
Price: free for 1GB of storage, premium subscriptions available

4. Desktop Connect
One of the biggest productivity applications for the iPad is remote desktop sharing.That means being able to switch on your iPad and view the contents of your home or office computer. There are dozens of such apps for this task in the App Store. It's quite easy to set up and can prove very useful.
Price: €12

5. Documents To Go Premium
As good as Apple's iWork suite is, Microsoft Word and Excel are still the dominant currency in office productivity software. This fact makes Documents To Go a very useful app. It allows you to create, view and edit documents in Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint. It also allows you to synchronise these iPad files with your desktop's Microsoft Office suite and a range of popular online storage services, such as Google Docs, Dropbox and Box.net. This vies with Quick office Connect Mobile Suite for the accolade as the best Microsoft Office synchronisation app available for the iPad.
Price: €14

6. Evernote
The most popular online note-taking application works just as well on the iPad edition as it does on your computer or your smartphone. It also means you can access all of your notes, memos and documents (from years back, too).
Price: free

7. Financial Times
Europe's largest business publication has launched a special iPad edition of its newspaper. Access to the news content is based upon the same principle as its website. Those who register (supply a name and e-mail address) get access to most of the news sections. To read in-depth features, columnists and special reports, there are varying subscription rates, but the app itself is free.
Price: free


8. Instapaper
Getting on a plane? That means you won't be able to catch up on your online reading. What this app does is to record and save web pages you visit in a nice, readable format. You can open them up again offline later. It is very useful for getting access to your online newspaper subscription.
Price: €4

9. Keynote
Keynote completes the trio of iWork applications (alongside Pages and Numbers). It is the Mac version of PowerPoint. Its strength is in the templates it provides for multimedia presentations. These beautifully incorporate images and videos, as well as the usual bullet point slides.
Price: €8

10. LogMeIn Ignition
This is another, more straightforward, take on controlling a remote PC using your iPad. It basically allows you to take complete control of a PC somewhere else. You can create and edit documents, and even print from it. Instead of using a mouse, you can either point to where you want the mouse to click or leave it in the centre of the screen and move items onto it. This is probably the most user-friendly remote desktop apps you can get.
Price: €24

11. Numbers
Numbers is Apple's answer to Excel. As is the norm, it is a lot more user-friendly and pleasant to look at than Microsoft's popular spreadsheet application. It synchronises nicely with a host of web-sharing and print options.
Price: €8

12. Pages
Apple's answer to Microsoft Office is its iWork suite of applications. This is made up of Pages (Word),Keynote (Powerpoint, OneNote) and Numbers (Excel, Access).Apple is selling a modified version of each for €8. As a word processing program, Pages is a cinch to use and makes great use of images and online sharing.
Price: €8

13. PrintCentral For iPad
One of the iPad's acknowledged weaknesses has been its lack of external connectivity to peripherals such as printers (even though this has been improved a bit with 4.2's Airprint). If your printer is wi-fi connected, this is a brilliant way to get around the iPad's printing restriction. You can connect your iPad to any wi-fi printer, anywhere in the world. You can print virtually any type of document, including high resolution photos. A brilliant, indispensable app for those with a need to print off documents.
Price: €8

14. Side By Side
Another iPad weakness is the lack of real multi-tasking ability. For example, if you want to write documents or take notes while researching something online, you must exit the browser or app to open the word processing app. Side By Side is a very useful way around this issue. Aimed at multi-tasking when online, it divides the screen in two so you can browse on one side and open a productivity app (such as Google Docs or Evernote) on the other. Really handy.
Price: 80 cents

15. Webex
Cisco's online meeting tool is widely used among multinationals and corporates. It shows participants (via webcams) and allows them to talk, type and share documents live on air. The free iPad app allows you to be invited into a meeting that is scheduled or organised by someone else (who has forked out for a pricey Webex subscription). It will not put you into the picture of the meeting, however, as the iPad has no camera.
Price: free