Last week Apple unveiled the next iteration of their iPhone, which had the usual fanfare. Most of us, even those of us that are iPhone users, weren’t terribly blown away by the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus features. It was all pretty standard (bigger screen, faster processor, better camera, etc). I think the best feature of the new iPhone is the addition of NFC technology (which apparently Samsung already had in their phones). I guess that’s the first sign that Apple is looking a lot like Microsoft this year, playing catch up. If you are not familiar with NFC, it stands for “near-field communication”, which means it basically allows you to use your phone to interact with other systems simply by its proximity (or waving in front of a reader of some sort).
Apple added NFC for its new ApplePay system that only the iPhone 6/6 Plus will have. However, I think the big blunder here is that only POS systems (that’s point-of-sale, not the other acronym) which have the proper upgraded firmware will be able to utilize Apple’s NFC features. So, basically they have created a proprietary feature that if POS manufacturers don’t pay to upgrade their equipment, won’t be able to take advantage of it. My understanding is that Samsung uses a more universal NFC technology. I don’t know why Apple made ApplePay proprietary, seems pretty myopic to me. I mean, that didn’t work out so well for Microsoft!
Many people are screaming for Apple’s head over the whole U2 album. I’m not sure I really understand why people are nerd raging. I understand if the album had been something awful, like Eminem or Kanye West, but U2 is a highly respectable and classic rock band. The album was not downloaded directly to my device, it was in my iCloud. I had to explicitly tell iTunes to download the album so unless it was somehow forced onto folks devices, I’m not sure how people could have unknowingly downloaded the album. If, however, the album really was pushed out to everyone’s phones/iPads, well that is a pretty uncouth thing to do. Also, such a power play (i.e. forcing technology onto their users) is another common Microsoft move.
I’ve had a Barnes & Noble nook e-reader since the first year they came out and today I probably have more books on it than I own in printed format. I always knew, however, that Barnes & Noble was struggling with the sales of their nook devices. Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iBook app are just too strong for Barnes & Noble to fight. It sucks because I really like my nook.
I doubt anyone really noticed but my website went offline Saturday morning. My uber-fuzzy site admin contacted me to tell me that my wordpress site had been compromised and I was unknowingly sending spam. Apparently about 12,000 a minute. My entire site had to be taken down and destroyed; thankfully the database was unharmed. I downloaded a fresh install of wordpress and using a few magical tricks, completely restored my site (granted there are a few minor casualties).
It’s not a secret that I predominately prefer Apple mobile devices. I’ve been using an iPhone since the 4 and prior to that I’ve been using an iPod since the first version. I’m not an Apple fanboy, though many have teased me that I am. I do not think the iPhone is a superior product over any comparable Android device. If I had to absolutely stop using the iPhone I would have no qualms about picking up an Android.
I read an article on CNET recently where the author claims that Apple is in bigger trouble than Microsoft. Granted he was speaking from a mobile perspective and perhaps from that point of view there might be some credence, but overall, I think Microsoft is in a deeper hole. Be that as it may, I do think he has a point (among many other people who have said similar things) that the iPhone is declining in popularity.
Almost daily I read CNET, ZDnet and several other news feeds regarding technology trends. I do this so I can keep up with how the technology and the industry is changing. I’ve noticed that there have been several articles claiming that the PC is dying. These claims are based on the declining number of desktop sales. I do wonder though if these statistics are only taking into account mass-manufactured computers (i.e. HP, Dell, etc). Personally, I have never bought a premade computer, I’ve always built all my computers.