Not Invented Here

Starting today, Nexus One users will begin to receive an over-the-air software update on their phones. This update provides some great new features, and fixes a few problems that some users might have experienced, including:

Google Goggles: Use your Nexus One camera to start searching the web

Google Maps: the Maps application with be updated to a new version, Google Maps 3.4

3G connectivity: we will provide a general fix to help improve 3G connectivity on some Nexus One phones

Pinch-to-zoom functionality: devices will now include a new pinch-to-zoom mechanism in the phone's Browser, Gallery and Maps applications

Are the gloves off?

O, the gd old checklist - http://bit.ly/bUUAZv - ths is exactly the kind of thnkg that gets PC mkrs in trouble. ppl dont buy that way.

On the iPad

For years, me and thousands of other techies have been wondering what comes after the Personal Computer as we’ve known it. Yesterday, in Apple’s iPad, we caught a glimpse. If I had to pick one predominant emotion in reaction, it would be “disturbed”.

The iPad is an attractive, thoughtfully designed, deeply cynical thing. It is a digital consumption machine. As Tim Bray and Peter Kirn have pointed out, it’s a device that does little to enable creativity. As just one component of several in a person’s digital life, perhaps that’s acceptable. It seems clear, though, that the ambitions for the iPad are far greater than being a full-color Kindle.

The tragedy of the iPad is that it truly seems to offer a better model of computing for many people – perhaps the majority of people. Gone are the confusing concepts and metaphors of the last thirty years of computing. Gone is the ability to endlessly tweak and twiddle towards no particular gain. The iPad is simple, straightforward, maintenance-free; everything that’s been proven with the success of the iPhone, but more so.

Guilty.

So, in the end, what it comes down to is that iPad offers new metaphors that will let users engage with their computers with dramatically less friction. That gives me, as a developer, a sense of power and potency and creativity like no other. It makes the software market feel wide open again, like no one's hegemony is safe. How anyone can feel underwhelmed by that is beyond me.

Good news for those looking to replace the stock Android browser on your device. The first beta version of Firefox for Android (Fennec) will be released in February 2010. Currently, Firefox is among the most popular PC browsers, and my personal favorite. We have seen Fennec operating on the Nokia N900, but now with Firefox for Android the company’s plans go even further.

Mozilla’s Fennec browser for Android OS has been in the works for awhile but with its imminent release (beta version), its time to get psyched!

[via AndroidSpin]

I have been using Dolphin off and on over the last month and I finally reverted back to the stock browser after the most recent update. I will be excited to try out Fennec as the stock Android browser (on Droid and Nexus One, at any rate) leave a lot to be desired.

If I had to pick one particular thing that disappointed me the most with the iPad launch today, it would be the fact that it looks like the first release will not have an exciting new multitouch interface to play with.

I realize that it's not a magic box but I really had expected something major on this front today to get me as excited about the iPad as I initially was about the iPhone.

I expect that we will see advancement in the multitouch interface sometime after launch, but how long will we have to wait?

It's not a magic box. It never could be. And yet we all made it so by talking about front-facing cameras, flash, multitasking, and every other dream feature we thought it needed. Now the naysayers are rightfully picking a part the flaws and talking about what's missing. Fair enough. I would argue, however, that Jobs sincerely believes that nothing is missing. It's just his way. He likes to push the envelope. So for every perceived "lack" there is a reason.

The reality is that the iPad cannot be as robust as a MacBook, it is that middle device he promised. There's really no need for HDMI Out, a USB Port, an SD slot, or even flash in my opinion (HTML5 is the future). It will be the entertainment and lifestyle device that Apple envisions, and just as is the case with the iPhone, no competitor will ever come close to emulating the user experience, until Apple bests themselves of course.

I think this bit here sums up my thoughts on the iPad launch today quite nicely.