BlaBeat

theairspace: Dapper Disputes: The Declaration of Internet...

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 21:32:40 -0400

Dapper Disputes: The Declaration of Internet Freedom

Dapper Disputes is a feature where editors at The Airspace debate the merits and purpose of relevant issues in culture, technology, and scholarship.

theairspace: Tapes Didn’t Go Away, You Did: Pitchfork Music...

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 00:51:19 -0400

theairspace:

Tapes Didn’t Go Away, You Did: Pitchfork Music Festival and Challenging Independent Identity

'Like' Your Way To The New iPad

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:30:30 -0400

What the hell, everybody likes a good promotion and a new iPad.

Here’s the deal, If the Airspace receives 5000 new likes on Facebook in the next 5 days, we will give away a new iPad to one of our Facebook fans.

Window closes on Tuesday, March 27th. So, what have you got to lose.

Check out the Airspace and our review of the new iPad.

The Airspace Facebook Page

Giveaway: Win Your Favorite TV Show — The Airspace

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 01:13:32 -0500

Giveaway: Win Your Favorite TV Show — The Airspace

“A Letter From Mark” — 0 to 1193 in 60 minutes The...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:04:00 -0500

“A Letter From Mark” — 0 to 1193 in 60 minutes

The Airspace is still a very young site, so each spike in traffic is noticeable and exciting. Due to our small footprint, a change from 5 concurrents to 50 concurrents is a huge deal.

Today, Facebook filed their S-1 registration. I took all of 5 minutes to scan the document, found an inspiring letter from Mark Zuckerberg to investors (it wasn’t hiding, it’s clearly labeled in the table of contents) and pasted the full text into an Airspace Ticker article. I added a short intro (which mainly exists so there is an excerpt in the Ticker feed) and published the article. The whole process took about 7 minutes.

The web was buzzing with news around the Facebook filing so I dropped off the link at some appropriate places and one hour later, the page had registered 1193 pageviews from our on site popularity monitor.*

Page views are good. There’s nothing like getting the brand out to the public but pageviews that only exist because the current of the Internet is flowing a certain way feels cheap. I’m grateful for the pageviews but not entirely proud. We put articles on The Airspace that are the culmination of days of research, edits, and rewrites. I’d prefer that those pieces—the ones of real and calculable substance—receive the spotlight.

*The on screen page monitor lowballs views by about 40%

Ideas are Cheap

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:19:04 -0500

Lest I come off as petulant, I want to let it be clear that nobody else can do what The Airspace does and plans to do in the future. I am confident of this for a couple of reasons.

Ideas are ultimately awe-inspiring and worthless. There are buildings filled with people who have ideas—and I mean great ideas that could change the course of human kind forever. But, these ideas will likely never come to fruition because the originators of such ideas lack the gumption, resources, or mindset to call them into action. Just the same, there are warehouses filled with godawful ideas. The power in creating something like The Airspace does not come from the concept of wanting to start something. The power lies in the ability to address or create a need that people need satisfied and that only The Airspace can do. On the Colophon page, we list all the technology put into the system. Just because I say the website runs on a LAMP stack on cloud servers doesn’t mean everybody can implement the same and to the same success.

Online publications and media ports represent a community. Communities create platforms. And, platforms command power and influence like non-other. Our target group of people we want on The Airspace isn’t a group of people who think a certain way, but rather a community of people within similar context. A blog on organic dog food is limited in scope because it relies on trends in dog-owners, health consciousness, organic branding, etc. The Airspace presents stories. Not BS presentations of facts but stories that conjure anecdote and reflection. Those are the stories incident to the human heart that will never go out of style.

Our frugality and limited resources are the mandate for our inventiveness. In the past 40 days alone we have repurposed all sorts of technology and process to create premium material with limited expenses. It helps that the editorial board is made of rich individuals with experience across the board. But that tendency for innovation is in our DNA.

We have a lot of momentum and requests from new writers and contributors every day. When we launched, we presented a minimum viable product. It’s good enough to convey what we are doing without revealing too many of our secrets. While I may bitch about sacrifices in content quality in return for SEO benefits that only represents me. I am a part of the organization, and I have a title that assumes authority, but on the whole, that means very little. It’ll be soon when I can step back and allow The Airspace to function on its own while I begin to work on version 2.0.

So to any in doubt of The Airspace, or who assumed my words to imply doubt, I stand by the fact that this will be the best publication I have yet to work for.

Building the Airspace

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 21:18:00 -0500

As of late, I have been doing an obscene amount of writing and reading with little reflection or contemplation in between. It has been a bit over a month since the idea of a podcast turned into a website called The Airspace. That span of time, roughly 40 days has contained some of the most confusing and doubtful periods I’ve experienced yet.

The modern and social Internet is still a young beast but there already are giants that exist. AOL properties like Huffington Post, Tech Crunch and Engadget compete other modern towers like Gawker. Old media beasts like The New York Times, and Wall Street Journal are constantly capturing the most vibrant and professionally vetted stories. New players with massive funding, like the Verge and PandoDaily, also have a place. But, for the little guys with no real training in journalism, no genuine expertise in web development, essentially no funding, and very few contacts to boot, entering into media is a daunting thing.

An online publication thrives on the fact that it constantly injects new content into the web ecosystem. A new online publication has to the same at an obscenely fast rate. Why? Because establishment has its costs. If a site doesn’t update frequently enough it won’t gain and retain an audience. People won’t visit of their own volition unless they can assume something new will be there when they arrive. Once you establish a relationship where they trust a site’s (or brand’s) reliability, they then will enter in a contract where the brand’s new content gets pushed to them (i.e. liking on Facebook, following on Twitter). The Airspace has to emerge from complete darkness and start generating content so people will buy into the vision we have. But attaining an audience can detract from that vision.

This week alone I spent more time with development on the site and working with advertising issues than I did actually writing anything. I told myself, and the rest of the Airspace staff that I would write at least one new thing every day. I created four articles of original material and six pieces for the Ticker (I also made the Ticker itself). Three of the four articles ended up being hits for the week, the other was a bust, and the ticker articles managed to bring in enough viewers to justify the time spent on them.

Problem is, none of the things I wrote this week were planned in advance. I still have six half-completed articles—ones that could be super hits—sitting in draft form in iA Writer files. Those are the pieces I really want to work on, the ones where the facts are just roiling around in my head waiting to spill out, but I don’t have the time to afford them the attention they need.

If I could take the time and only write one piece per week, I know they would be hits, but I also know if I neglect the site for 6 of 7 days, I will have no audience to read my work. Consistency is essential in blogging. Try as I might to refer to The Airspace’s material as writing and practicing journalism, we’re competing for readers from blogs and content aggregation networks.

I would love to sit back and take the real Editor-in-Chief role where I would peruse my army of writer’s words looking for dangling propositions, logical fallacies, and unchecked facts. I would be able to really focus on my work and produce one masterwork of content to publish on Monday and still bring in the most views on Friday. Or just dare to write that piece and see if it flops or not. And if it does flop, it’s okay. I have a staff of great writers producing daily content.

But, that’s not where I’m at yet and that’s not where The Airspace is at yet. Accepting that writing the popular but slightly offhandish article is essential to keeping a website alive. When we have an audience, and funding, and full staff, I will be afforded the aforementioned luxuries. For now it’s write first and ask questions later.

Image Credit: Cuba Gallery

The Airspace

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:46:17 -0500

The Airspace:

I’ve been negligent to all readers of BlaBeat for about a month now. But, there is a reason why.

I’ve been developing The Airspace, an up-and-coming site-of-reference for the best in culture.

From the About page…

Founded in 2011, The Airspace is an independent online publication staffed with relentless editors, thoughtful contributors, and vagabond managers from colleges and universities across the United States. The Airspace represents scholarship for the sake of culture and intends to uphold that promise in all content we produce.

Our mission is to bring our readers the most comprehensive narratives around emerging trends and ideas in culture. The articles on The Airspace incorporate rich media like video, audio, photography, to bring the stories to life.

The Airspace is vetted, highly edited, and entirely transparent. Culture is the medium through which we see ourselves and the people and things we interact with. But, culture itself is ever-morphing, reiterating and evolving. We approach everything we write, record, and produce as an ongoing conversation between our readers and our writers. Every content page is outfitted with advanced real-time commenting systems to encourage all our visitors to join the dialogue.

Instagram bets Facebook in search of more Likes Just yesterday,...

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 10:52:00 -0500

Instagram bets Facebook in search of more Likes

Just yesterday, the popular iOS only photo sharing network, Instagram, announced they were updating how Instagram shares images with Facebook. Alexia Tsotsis reported on this for TechCrunch as well.

Under the new features, Instagram will create a Instagram Photos album on your Facebook and upload full size images there as well as a link to the public Instagram URL—all advertised to look “beautiful” on timeline, and it does. The goal of this? To tag onto Facebook’s viral network effects. Tsotsis puts it well when she surmises, “it’s almost like Facebook is functioning here as an ad hoc web interface, no?” Yes, an ad hoc web interface with 800+ million users and a storied history of taking big services and inflating them rapidly (read: Spotify).

Thing is, I’m a fan of my relatively small Instagram network built of amateur photographers. Occasionally I will tweet out an image, but the reason I don’t post any photos to Facebook is because my network there is too bulky, clumsy, awkward and renegade.

Instagram is full of people interested in photography and who are willing to look at my amateur attempts at capturing the world and offer me feedback. It’s safe and comforting because, for the most part, we’re all doing the same thing.

Facebook is the social networking wasteland—a saturated landscape of outlaws and villains—full of people clicking, sharing, liking and propagating content without real insight or understanding (slight dramatization). Sometimes it is best to take a step back into a colony where culture, thought, and trends have a focused center.

Small network enclaves win out right now. That’s why Path and Instagram—my networks with the smallest numbers but most legitimate interaction—win out right now. I don’t want Facebook to pollute that, no matter how many more likes my photos might receive or how beautiful my timeline can look.

Code Year -or- Mending my Mistakes

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:12:00 -0500

Code Year, your concept is great for the casual user of technology and your lessons substantial for the k-8 level. But, let’s face it, the people who are attracted to your weekly lessons, the makers of New Years Resolutions, are not the budding class of coders we need. That’s not to say the one’s who keep opening the emails come April won’t learn from what Codecademy has to offer, but that they won’t be building the next generation of applications, protocols and standards by learning at a glacial week-by-week pace. If people really want to code, they should sit down with the holy grail of python learning and work (read: work) their way through. They, then, should consider exploring more tutorials and resources on the Internet—perhaps even paying for some—but most importantly start building their first programs.

The first applications from any developer (yes, if you’re building something, you’re a developer) are crooked, confusing, mostly broken, and serve minimal functionality. But, that crippled struggle separates learning to code from learning the language of coding. Code Year will put the language at one’s disposal so they can recognize snippets and partially deduce what lines mean—equate it to listening to Latino radio and picking out “me llamo…langosta…piragua,” (They call me…lobster…snow cone)—telltale nonsense. Unless you’re building, you’re not synthesizing knowledge with practice—and sorry, the writing one does on Codecademy isn’t building, it’s crafting. I admittedly sing praises of the service but one must recognize it’s a starting point—great for building momentum, but it takes curiosity and restlessness to follow through.

I also take issue with how tech writers are reacting to Code Year with such inappropriate glee. It’s as if there is suddenly a godsend and they can now learn to code. They can now, mid-career mind you, learn what actually makes the systems, applications, companies, and standards they discuss, criticize, and wage thermonuclear war against, work. It’s infuriating to hear stories of tech writers who intended to learn but were overwhelmed by writing to explore what lies beneath the surface.

It comes down to degrees of relationship. When one hasn’t experienced what another has, they are capable of sympathy; when equals interact, empathy emerges. Sure you’re bathed in technological substance—you “live and breathe” it day in, day out—but if you can’t code, you’re not qualified.

Those praising Code Year as their tool toward understanding should hush-up and hide out. By accepting their gumption-less careers with grace, they essentially say, “I’ve had you hoodwinked all along. I have minimal authority, maximal opinion, and no footing beneath me”

Writers in the industry, I’m calling you out. Don’t try to sell it as a positive turn of events. Code Year isn’t going to cure years of disrespecting, via ignorance, your readers. Address it head on. Admit that you’ve been wearing your hubris on your shoulders and it’s time to come down. 2012 is the year you intend to get your act together, not because Code Year is handing it to you on a platter but because your readers deserve it. Ensure your trusting, obedient, and loyal readership that the six days of the week a Code Year email doesn’t grace your inbox, you’ll be working endlessly to command the language you neglected to obtain so long ago.

Keep hungry, not greedy.

Image Source: Code Year

Canary exclusive I’ve been using Google Chrome Canary and...

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 14:22:00 -0500

Canary exclusive

I’ve been using Google Chrome Canary and Safari as parallel browsers for a while now. But, I’ve finally decided to cut the cord on Safari.

Sure, Canary isn’t the most stable build of Chrome, but it always seems to be the most advanced, and fastest iteration. It’s also amazing to see how often updates for the browser are made.

To make Canary the default browser you have to work in reverse. If you go to app preferences within Canary, it will alert you that you cannot make it the default browser. However, if you go to the general app preferences in Safari, you can select which browser is default. Click Canary, and the transformation is complete.

A good smartphone comes but once a year

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:42:00 -0500

A good smartphone comes but once a year:

Chris Ziegler:

It’s simple: make a large high-end device, a smaller value device, and a QWERTY device. Maybe one or two other specialty form factors, tops. That’s it. Update them once a year, and keep the names the same.

That’s all mobile needs. Each OS needs a flagship line that runs on the top tier carriers. iPhone is Apple’s, “Nexus” is quickly becoming Android’s. These lines provide the most authentic experience, the rest just represents filler.

Motorola, HTC and others don’t want to get out of the game, though. So, they will continue to pump out dozens of half-baked Android iterations each year—each being an incremental stepping stone toward a finished product.

Ziegler:

There are many forces at play here, none more powerful than the American carrier bloc. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and the largest regionals all want their individual whims and design concerns catered to — and more often than not, they want their own model names attached to the devices. It’s a practice that robs manufacturers of their identity and their ability to control the product cycle. It’s a malaise that only Apple has been able to shake off thus far.

It’s Xeno’s paradox of the arrow; they are never going to make it.

GoDaddy No Longer Supports SOPA

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:05:00 -0500

GoDaddy No Longer Supports SOPA:

What lunacy.

Fighting online piracy is of the utmost importance, which is why Go Daddy has been working to help craft revisions to this legislation — but we can clearly do better,” Warren Adelman, Go Daddy’s newly appointed CEO, said. “It’s very important that all Internet stakeholders work together on this. Getting it right is worth the wait. Go Daddy will support it when and if the Internet community supports it.

They took a stance supporting SOPA, the Internet revolted a planned massive exodus to other domain registrars. GoDaddy.com got weak in the knees and flip-flopped.

The curious part is the inclusion of “Go Daddy will support it when and if the Internet community supports it.” It, of course, being governmental control over the Internet.

The PR nightmare was a flop and now their integrity is nullified. It’d be hard to find an tech savvy user who still respects their company.

I’m still pulling my domain.

Synchronology

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 13:21:00 -0500

Despite our megametrically detailed, optimized and sophisticated data infrastructure, sharing files from one device to another remains a colossal and messy disaster.

After reading Rachel Swaby’s intricate article outlining the past present and future of the “it just works” data sharing pioneer Dropbox, it became impossible not to think about how far we have come, and how far we still have to go.

Founders Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi had a monumental task to deconstruct when they set out to recreate private network solutions for the average consumer.

As Swaby writes:

Until recently, distributed computer clusters have huddled around a central server managed by an organization. Companies and universities maintained their own server space and dedicated IT team to manage it. That works well internally, but getting files to a machine outside the network turned basic computing into a key-fob initiated, slow-motion train wreck.

We are all universally connected to the Internet but our means of data transfer are so crippled.

I take many photos and screenshots using my iPhone, yet most of the work I do with those images is performed on my MacBook Air. There is no surefire, effortless way to get the data from point A to B. I have three potential workflows: I could sync my iPhone with my computer and offload my images to bloated programs like iPhoto, Aperture, or Lightroom, or use Image Capture to put them into a directory of my choosing; I could email myself the image, open the email on my computer and save the attachment to the appropriate file directory; I could use the mobile Dropbox application and upload each image to a folder in my Dropbox directory. Now, Apple has created (as part of iCloud) Photostream to ameliorate such issues. But, the Photostream implementation is godawful and requires me to open iPhoto or Aperture anyways.

Essentially all these options are bad—not in that they don’t get the job done, but that they are needlessly effortful and clunky. As someone who uses a multi-device workflow to get anything done, data ubiquity is essential. I need the files, or at least one major directory, on my MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iPad, and iPhone to match at all times. Dropbox is almost a good solution but for three issues: space is limited, our network pipelines are too small, complete ubiquity has yet to be found.

While recently shooting video for an upcoming podcast—that will blow your mind—we produced around 40 GB of video data, and about 1GB of raw audio files. The 41GB was spread around the multiple devices used to capture it. The most time efficient way to move all the data from the devices to the editing computer was to download the raw footage from the cameras to individual laptops via USB cable, then transfer the files to an external drive, then back from the external drive to the editing computer. Were we all on a fast private network with server backing, we could have easily uploaded directly from the devices to the data hub then the editing computer could have jacked into the server and accessed the files, essentially, natively.

Dropbox only works small scale—though they have introduced Dropbox for teams which start at $795/year—because our internet connections have such small pipes.

The goal of companies like Dropbox and competitors Bitcasa, iCloud, etc., is to eventually provide complete data ubiquity.

Swaby notes:

[Dropbox] hope[s] to expand the pool of devices that can talk to each other — basically eliminating your computer as the middle man. A point-and-shoot, they think, could ship pictures directly to your television and family for big-screen viewing — even before you board the flight back home. “Soon you’ll walk into a Best Buy or Fry’s and you’ll see that little box everywhere,” says Houston. “This is the first time I will see my photos or play my music in my living room and it’s not going to be a science project.”

This vision aligns with ideal private network solution and may even bring about my dream of a robust universal pasteboard—copy an item on your iPad, paste on your MacBook—which is the most intuitive way to actively transfer data.

We are retreating to the original model of computation—we are turning our devices into terminals to access our server stored data. The only difference is now we’ve cut all the wires.

Image Credit: xkcd

Wearing Your Computer on Your Sleeve

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:59:00 -0500

Wearing Your Computer on Your Sleeve:

Nick Bilton:

The brain that brings all these things together is the smartphone, which after all is really the first wearable computer. Researchers note that the smartphone is almost never more than three feet away from its user. It is often just inches from the bed during the night as well, and has replaced the alarm clock for many people.

As a result, the smartphone is going to be the hub for our information sharing and gathering. Think of it as a force field that will engulf us wherever we are, transmitting power and Internet access to sensors and screens that are tacked to our clothing.

“Years ago, researchers envisioned these tiny computers transmitting information to the Internet,” said Yael Maguire, a visiting scientist at M.I.T.and Harvard . “It wasn’t what we envisioned, but it happened. It’s called the smartphone.”

Our devices exist with absolute proximity to our person. We don’t need sensors on our clothes—they’re already part of the fabric of our lives. For the generation growing up with Facebook from age 13 with smartphones by 14, the smartphone is becoming the primary access point to technology and the internet.

Apple Plots Its TV Assault

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:32:01 -0500

Apple Plots Its TV Assault:

…nothing new here.

Just further confirmation that Apple TV could be coming.

Dear Congress, It's No Longer OK To Not Know How The Internet Works

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 23:45:00 -0500

Dear Congress, It's No Longer OK To Not Know How The Internet Works:

Joshua Kopstein:

It’s of course perfectly standard for members of Congress to not be exceptionally proficient in technological matters. But for some committee members, the issue did not stop at mere ignorance. Rather, it seemed there was in many cases an outright refusal to understand what is undoubtedly a complex issue dealing with highly-sensitive technologies.

When the security issue was brought up, Rep. Mel Watt of North Carolina seemed particularly comfortable about his own lack of understanding. Grinningly admitting “I’m not a nerd” before the committee, he nevertheless went on to dismiss without facts or justification the very evidence he didn’t understand and then downplay the need for a panel of experts. Rep. Maxine Waters of California followed up by saying that any discussion of security concerns is “wasting time” and that the bill should move forward without question, busted internets be damned.

“Nerds” built the internet so many Americans are dependent upon.

The ignorance is staggering; it’s downright negligent.

The internet giants seem to have a lack of proper lobbying in DC. Lobbying being the only way to get anything point to stick with the members of the monstrous, slouching congress. Taking out a full page ad in the Times neglects the power the internet itself has.

Wikipedia, by the people, for the people, blackout your content.

Shut down the internet to show the illiterate and derelict congress how much they rely upon its preserved integrity and freedom.

Apple to launch 7.85-inch iPad in 2012

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 23:22:00 -0500

Apple to launch 7.85-inch iPad in 2012:

DigiTimes:

In order to cope with increasing market competition including the 7-inch Kindle Fire from Amazon and the launch of large-size smartphones from handset vendors, Apple has been persuaded into the development of 7.85-inch iPads

Nope.

Increasing market competition? I don’t buy it. Sure, the Kindle Fire is selling well. In fact it’s selling better than any other Android based tablet has. But, its users aren’t elated.

The Kindle Fire is the netbook of tablets—underpowered, oversimplified, and clunky. $200 is a nice price, but it doesn’t touch the iPad in terms of features.

The wave of tablets running Android 4.0 bound to appear at CES do have a chance to provide “increasing market competition,” and I really hope they do.

We saw the same thing last year though. January came and so did an onslaught of “iPad Killers.” Then the iPad 2 launched and everybody forgot about Apple’s competition.

The Kindle Fire and the iPad 2 really compete for different markets. Just because both happen to have large touchscreens doesn’t mean they are comparable products.

For now, the iPad remains in its own class. The Kindle Fire is just an addition to increasing Android fragmentation.

Apple make a 7.85 inch tablet? Apple persuaded? Doesn’t add up.

Just Shit

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 21:26:00 -0500

To appropriately disclose, I respect both MG Siegler and Joshua Topolsky. Siegler for his shrewd thoughts, strong positions, and exceptional foresight; Topolsky for his undying commitment to gadgetry, and role as a leader in independent media. But, this Galaxy Nexus, ICS, iOS, iPhone 4S, class-warfare, german automaker, occupational, bourgeois hoopla is just shit.

To contextualize, Topolsky took offense to this chunk of MG Siegler’s review of the Galaxy Nexus from an iPhone lover’s perspective

Unfortunately, the system still lacks much of the fine polish that iOS users enjoy. The majority of Android users will probably think such criticism is bullshit, but that has always been the case. I imagine it’s probably hard for a Mercedes owner to describe to a Honda owner how attention to detail makes their driving experience better when both machines get them from point A to point B. As a Honda owner myself, I’m not sure I would buy it — I’d have to experience it to understand it, I imagine. And most Android lovers are not going to spend enough time with iOS to fully appreciate the differences.

He contests that Siegler’s metaphor generates a “pompous, privileged, insulting, and myopic viewpoint which reeks of class warfare — and it is indicative of a growing sentiment I see amongst people in the tech community.”

Siegler fired back on his personal blog where he brings up some good points, but it’s slightly irrelevant.

What Topolsky argues has nothing to do with phones, or software or anything to such a point—it has to do with the assumed entitlement packaged with purchases. In the Verge’s video podcast today, Josh tried to make the point clear that what he was trying to explicate upon is the concept that people couldn’t and shouldn’t be lumped into one of two categories. He cited republican vs. democrat, iOS vs Android, 99% vs 1%, etc. While these do pose excellent questions of political theory; sociology; economics; and, perhaps, anthropology, they hardly have to do with the issue at the foundation level: which phone, between the iPhone 4S and the Galaxy Nexus—at this point in time—is best.

So, let’s say Siegler’s metaphor is shit—I don’t believe it is, but metaphors only go so far, sometimes you have to address the issues on their own ground. If the metaphor is gone, then what’s left is his final statement from that exerpt of the text: “most Android lovers are not going to spend enough time with iOS to fully appreciate the differences.”

This makes sense not because Android users are ignorant people who live in enclaved society scorning passersby, but because the general population of the electrically inclined world doesn’t switch phones more than once every two years. Simple. Precise.

The reason people don’t switch isn’t due to steadfast two-year contracts with iOS or Android (WIndows Phone, Blackberry, Symbian, etc.) but because that is how the carriers in the US operate. Why? Because they make money this way.

The importance of carrier debunks both of their points that one phone over the other could be a luxury item. Whether it’s $199 for a base iPhone 4S or $299 for a Galaxy Nexus, the mass quantity of currency is spent on the plan provided by the tele-giant. A $100 difference is nothing. It’s $4.17 per month over the life of the contract. That is not a luxury distinction.

What is so beautiful about the smartphone market today, is that, for a relatively affordable price, people can choose what type of experience they want. There is no better iPhone privileged people have access to—the president picks up the same iPhone that you, the regular ol’ consumer, do. Just because one might feel entitled walking into the über bauhaus Apple stores to chat with elitist “geniuses” doesn’t mean they are suddenly dealing in luxury goods inaccessible to “normal” people.

What I believe Siegler was trying to get at with his metaphor deals with the fluency of experience within the products. The vertical integration, from concept to product, that Apple has creates a seamless, tight, and closed product like the iPhone. Google’s role as a suave yet efficient software company interacting with hardware manufacturers creates a robust, but fragmented, product like the Galaxy Nexus.

When you address the products for what they are, all the background shit-flinging fades away. It’s a matter of comparing the continuum of experience—the fluency of use—between the phones. Right now, Apple provides a better experience.

Calling all computer geniuses, I love the idea of open. Many great technologies exist today because people had the wit and fervor to create what they wanted using the tools they had. I encourage more people to develop for android and show that in spite of fragmentation, they can embrace the platform’s strengths and create applications and APIs that make people’s lives more fluent. It’s just not the case not. ICS might entice devs, but those arguing that the open platform is better aren’t backing their yells up with exquisite products.

Android developers, buckle down and kick some ass. For now, viva la iPhone.

Intel Sees Opportunity in Shortage of Drives

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:12:00 -0500

Intel Sees Opportunity in Shortage of Drives:

Surprise!

Intel is taking the bet on SSDs in the face of looming HDD shortage. Good thing consumers are sold on the ultrabook as the ideal portable computer.

“Lots of people buy tablets, find they can’t do as much, and switch over to a MacBook Air,” Mr. Enderle said. More ultrabook producers will increase the alternatives to tablets, he said, as will the absence of hard disk drive producers for regular laptops. “It helps if the lower-priced product isn’t around,” he said.

Ultrabooks aren’t cheap but they prove speed, efficiency, and robustness can exist in one really small, really sexy package. SSDs are at the heart of it all.

Original Post on HDD shortages.

Source: The New York Times