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You know what, the idea that corporations are all the same and devoid of personality has been taken a little far. Don’t forget that there are people at the helms of these companies, people who make decisions which projects are worked on and released, people who do the work and remain motivated to do so.

A change in CEO can change (even make or break) a company – see Apple before Steve Jobs rejoined. I think in this respect corporations have the personalities of the decision makers. And when you have people like Larry and sergey at the top, it is entirely possible that they use the massive profits of Google.com to subsidise projects that make more ‘good’ than profit. I think when Larry and/or Sergey leave this might change, but for now let’s just enjoy the new cool things that are being created.

Don’t think I’m just being naïve and don’t understand how business works, I just think a lot of people have taken the ‘organisations are evil’ line too far and are missing the fact that Google are actually using the process to do some good. If you can’t see that then the corporate world has corrupted you.

5 days ago on Google unveils 'Project Loon,' an experiment to bring balloon-powered internet to 'the entire world' 1 reply 7 recommends

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I’d say it’s about what constitutes success. MS is a huge organisation, they have shareholders that expect them to be the best – if they’re not market leaders then they have failed.

Canonical on the other hand – while big in the Linux community are small fry next to the industry giants and their operating costs are significantly lower – their raison d’etre, (as well as to make money) is to get more people using Ubuntu, if they get a few thousand people doing that and cover the development costs they can call it a success.

Mozilla is not-for-profit, and similarly with Canonical, if they can sell a few thousand phones and get the OS out there, it’s a win for them.

10 days ago on If Microsoft Was Late To The Smart Phone Market....

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cool story.

10 days ago on Our WWDC coverage begins on Monday at 1PM ET, E3 coverage starts at 12:30PM ET 2 recommends

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That’s cool, there will always be someone with a launcher/home replacement that can change your look and feel. It’s good to have options.

10 days ago on Our WWDC coverage begins on Monday at 1PM ET, E3 coverage starts at 12:30PM ET 1 recommend

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Just had a thought – is this not similar to the iPod when it was originally released, they had iTunes which could be used on a Windows machine because it was the majority OS and they couldn’t ignore it. If they released an iWatch, they should really support android because it’s like 70% of the smartphone market, but they won’t because they’ve got some massive superiority complex.

10 days ago on Our WWDC coverage begins on Monday at 1PM ET, E3 coverage starts at 12:30PM ET 1 reply

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So why were you excited about a new version of jelly bean? Sure, be interested, but excited? It’s the one thing that’s not going to directly benefit you. Don’t get me wrong, there was plenty for everyone to be excited about with I/O – updates to G+, maps, chrome, drive, etc – stuff that everyone gets access to.

I am interested in the apple conf to see if they bring anything new, but also kind of resigned to the fact that they will probably come out with something pretty cool that I just can’t use/have because I don’t have any other iDevices.

10 days ago on Our WWDC coverage begins on Monday at 1PM ET, E3 coverage starts at 12:30PM ET 2 replies

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Well, that’s kind of the point isn’t it, it probably isn’t going to be compatible with anything else (of it even exists) – that’s not to say that it couldn’t, they just wouldn’t do it.

When Google release glass I fully expect it to be compatible with iPhone. Even Microsoft have companion apps for Xbox that work on iPhone and Android. There’s no technical impediment to making an iWatch that everyone could use, they just wouldn’t do it because of the clique-y nature of the company – “if you don’t have everything Apple, then you’re not worth bothering with” is essentially what they’re saying.

10 days ago on Our WWDC coverage begins on Monday at 1PM ET, E3 coverage starts at 12:30PM ET 3 replies 2 recommends

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That’s because there are announcements that will directly benefit you in the I/O conference, improvements in search, drive, maps, Google plus, etc that are released to the iPhone at the same time. What from apple is going to benefit my life? Don’t get me wrong, I’m still interested, I just find it hard to get excited.

10 days ago on Our WWDC coverage begins on Monday at 1PM ET, E3 coverage starts at 12:30PM ET 1 reply 1 recommend

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That’s if you like the look of an iPhone – aesthetics being subjective, someone could easily be happier with a device you deem to be uglier.

10 days ago on WWDC 2013 preview: Apple prepares to unveil the future of iOS, OS X, and more

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I’m on my N10 right now, and I’ve got to say I’ve not experienced any of that. I copy movies over from my NAS all the time for trips to work on the train, I can kick them off and go and do other stuff without a problem. Everything is butter smooth – literally the only thing for me preventing this tablet from being perfect is the damn noise cancellation on Skype calls – if I’m not using a headset it sucks.

10 days ago on WWDC 2013 preview: Apple prepares to unveil the future of iOS, OS X, and more 1 recommend

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Unless of course, they released an iWatch that was compatible with Android and Windows Phone as well. What do you reckon are the chances of that – it’s a sad state of affairs.

11 days ago on Our WWDC coverage begins on Monday at 1PM ET, E3 coverage starts at 12:30PM ET 1 reply 5 recommends

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An iPhone with live tiles, the worst of both worlds.

11 days ago on Our WWDC coverage begins on Monday at 1PM ET, E3 coverage starts at 12:30PM ET 3 recommends

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As an android user I have nothing to hope for from the Apple conf except mediocrity/failure. If they released something awesome like an iWatch, I wouldn’t be able to get it anyway.

11 days ago on Our WWDC coverage begins on Monday at 1PM ET, E3 coverage starts at 12:30PM ET 4 replies

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Wow, that’s an epically badly written essay, so much repetition. Anyone have a tldr version? ( sorry if you’re the author).

From what I could gather the arguments were ‘privacy for privacy’s sake’ and ‘if I can’t see your data why should you see mine’. Which is only relevant if the data being discussed is publicly available, it’s not it’s only available to security organisations that you as a country have asked to perform those services for you.

The more worrying thing for me is that Obama was so insistent that email content was not scraped from US citizens. Well I’m from the UK, what does that mean for me? Why should I be subject to less privacy from the US government than a US citizen? I don’t care that much, I’m not a terrorist, but I don’t like the Team America – World Police approach, we have our own security and monitoring services.

11 days ago on Director of National Intelligence issues fact sheet on PRISM in response to leaks 2 replies 1 recommend

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Well I think it’s generally optional – I don’t have a personal laptop, don’t really have a need for one. But I have 2 phones and would love to be able to just put my work stuff on my personal mobile.

12 days ago on Netbook 2.0: Microsoft's small tablets with free Office are a recipe for confusion

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So, the guy who wrote the file copy dialogue / time remaining stuff is still working at MS!?

12 days ago on Leaked Windows Phone screenshots reveal notification center, UI changes, and more 29 recommends

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Little hint, if you’re going to question people’s intelligence, sense-check your own post – you have invalidated your own comment.

13 days ago on How stupid are people? 3 recommends

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Well yes, that’s what they want of course, however they’ve come in late to an environment where there is already a tablet leader (by a country mile) and everyone’s already had to work around the biggest stranglehold they had over corporate IT. So where’s the incentive to switch? Also BYOD is hide, I’ve yet to see a modern company that doesn’t have a BYOD policy so MS taking aim at the ‘corporate’ market may be a misfire, why would companies buy all their employees tablets when they can just tell them to use their own?

13 days ago on Netbook 2.0: Microsoft's small tablets with free Office are a recipe for confusion 2 replies 1 recommend

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Are companies really clamouring to keep themselves shackled to MS? The company I’m working for at the moment (a major one) is doing everything it can to ensure that their mobile workers are productive everywhere by making sure they’re not tied to MS Office. There are alternatives to office and only those who haven’t thought about it very carefully regard it as a key purchase decision.

14 days ago on Netbook 2.0: Microsoft's small tablets with free Office are a recipe for confusion 1 reply 1 recommend

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Yes, exactly. I’m a consultant so I see a lot of companies (by the way, “multi-billion dollar” is not impressive unless you own said company) and a lot of ways of working. Every time I see information captured in a spreadsheet (being fired to 20 different people in an email) I design a better way of doing it in my head. The problem is it’s raw data, sure it’s quick and easy – that’s why people use them, but it’s not elegant.

14 days ago on 'Small' Windows 8 tablets will ship with a free version of Office 2013

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The solution I was talking about is an install from the play store – nothing more. If you struggle to do that then you’re going to struggle with any function of the phone.

14 days ago on 'Small' Windows 8 tablets will ship with a free version of Office 2013

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Corporations who rely on spreadsheets for their business have simply failed to find a more elegant solution.

14 days ago on 'Small' Windows 8 tablets will ship with a free version of Office 2013 1 reply

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Perhaps you didn’t manage to read down 1 comment before you started frothing at the mouth – I said it was non-root.

14 days ago on 'Small' Windows 8 tablets will ship with a free version of Office 2013 1 reply

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Haha – spot on!

14 days ago on 'Small' Windows 8 tablets will ship with a free version of Office 2013

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No, but funny and demonstrates a point. I also like your retort… Might use that too. I wonder what Apple would be? Overpriced haute cuisine I guess?

15 days ago on 'Small' Windows 8 tablets will ship with a free version of Office 2013 1 reply