Success isn’t overnight (Or in 3 months either)

Posted on January 31, 2011 by RustyG

I am just ranting here, so if you don’t want to read it, I am warning you now.

Ok, I am just completely tired of these big companies pulling out on their projects so quickly. It’s like if the thing doesn’t make a profit after 3 months or so, pull the plug, we don’t need to waste the time on it. For example, the Windows Phone 7 has now basically been on the market for 3 months, and it seems from the Steve Ballmer speech about revenues, that Xbox Live is killing it, and everything else is just background noise. I have already heard speculation that they may pull the phone from the market, much like their KIN phone that failed last summer. WHAT?? I really hope that this is pure speculation because from the early adopters, I have heard nothing but good news. Even Alex Albrecht had made mention of it on diggnation somewhere after episode #287, but before #291. He said the phone is a great phone, but it is a 1.0 product. There isn’t any multi-tasking built into the phone, and there isn’t enough developers for the platform just yet. I think part of the reason is that Microsoft came way too late in the game in this one. At this point, if you are going to come to the game, you better bring your A game and then some. Android and iOS devices are leading the pack, no matter what Blackberry says.

I would even like to try out a Windows Phone 7, well up until I ran into the Motorola Atrix. That seems to be the phone that will put Motorola back on the map like the V3 did back in early 2000s. Which actually brings me to the 2nd product. The Motorola Xoom. A tablet that is apparently already having issues with retailers. Why is it before the thing even launches, we already have nay sayers?? It isn’t even on the market! All I am hearing is about the sticker shock that people are having about the price of the thing, and the fact that it doesn’t have a wifi version. Which apparently is the way the Galaxy Tab went as well, to help subsidize the price. The only problem is, LOTS OF STUPID people can’t seem to lock themselves into a 2 year contract.

(ranting about commitment)

Are you kidding me?? REALLY? How often do you people change carriers? Like is this a 6 month thing? Do you constantly look for the blog post from INSERT_BLOG_NAME_HERE that tells you how to get out of your contract once the TOS changes, or do you constantly just pay the ETF fees? I don’t get it. You people have turned int to commitment fearing, single mother or father living, spineless pieces of CRAP. I AM SICK OF IT. (I am looking at you most of the tech world) (in my most sarcastic boo hoo voice) Oh, it’s so scary to sign a 2-year contract. I don’t want to be locked in. I’ll just keep paying MORE for my month to month. I can’t commit to that, who knows what will happen in TWO years! That’s just to much pressure. I can’t take this.

SHUT UP! Do you know how fast two years goes by? I’ve been with AT&T since 2001. That’s 0. 1. that’s right, 10 years. Just pick a provider you like and stick with them. I just don’t understand it anymore, I am so sick of hearing even good friends of mine, and NEIGHBORS who say they don’t want to be locked in. You got married didn’t you? How hard was that? I have neighbors who won’t sign a 1-year lease, 1! They say they don’t want to be locked down. REALLY?? REALLY?? You’re married and have an 8 year old kid. Have you seen your porch? It looks like you have been stocking everything out there like you are going to be there for a while. Oh wait, you’ve been there for 7 years. 7!

Now back to my original thought, I guess Microsoft and all these other companies are expecting overnight success. The Xbox 360, the Kinect for Microsoft has done well. The Kinect may have been a slight overnight success, but you have to understand the R&D that went into that and the years that it took to bring to market. I guess everyone is expecting that every product they bring to market, to be a an instant success. It takes time. SERIOUSLY. Don’t give up after three months. Just because it isn’t making sales numbers. Let the public know what it is, let them try it out, let it be blogged about, DANG. Just go back to the drawing board, start all over again, and try to come out with something that blows us all away. Like Apple did with the iPhone.

I am not saying Apple is the end all be all, but they have been very successful with their iOS devices. They started a whole new revolution by staying away from all other crap that was out there, and Steve Jobs said, there is NO WAY I am putting anyone else’s crap on my phone, and I am doing it my way! That’s what he did. Now look at the iPhone. You people have to step back and re-invent. Don’t just copy and expect it to win.

I’m done. I could go on, but at this point, I am 885 words in… I think that’s enough.

Apple, Rants, Technology

AT&T announces unlimited iPhone Data Plans again (kind of)

Posted on January 27, 2011 by RustyG

Well who didn’t see this one coming? It seems since Verizon officially announced the iPhone data plans, earlier this week, at $30 for ‘unlimited’ access, AT&T couldn’t stand by silently. It was last June (2010) that AT&T announced their new data plans for iPhone users, and it came at a price. If you were any new user of the iPhone or upgrading your plan, you could no longer get the ‘unlimited’ 5GB of data, but that you were paying for at most a 2GB data package for $25 instead of the previous $30. Now with the announcement of the iPhone 4 coming to Verizon, AT&T has to come back, but with a hitch. The only people currently allowed to get the ‘unlimited’ back, are the people who had it previously and lost it. WHO are these people??!! I ask because, if you remember when they started this new pricing plan, if you already had the ‘unlimited’, you got to keep it, and you were grandfathered in. So therefore, as long as you didn’t change your voiceplan or upgrade, there was no need to change your data package. Then if you were a new user who bought the iPhone 4 upon release, you never had the ‘unlimited’ in the first place, so that specific of a demographic is a VERY SMALL number. Wow, everyone else keeps talking about how AT&T sucks (Kevin Rose, Brian Tong & countless others), and I have stood by them because they don’t suck here in the southeast, and they have been a reliable provider since I had the original iPhone, but NOW, WOW! AT&T should just keep their traps shut, or go all out and just drop 2GB cap, and allow for every iPhone user to get that ‘unlimited’ plan for $30!

That’s my two cents..

via [CNET]

Rants, Technology

VLC app finally killed off

Posted on January 11, 2011January 11, 2011 by RustyG

Remember me talking about the VLC app and all it’s wonderful glory? Remember how I said we need to contact that guy to shut his trap? Well apparently that didn’t work, and Apple finally pulled the plug:

VLC-iPad-RIP — Image Credit: ObamaPacman.com

It seems after months of complaining, instead of working it out, Apple had to pull the app… Thanks a lot Rémi Denis-Courmont. If I ever see you, I am going to punch you in the face. Read what this guy posted on the site, he is such a prick:

“At last, Apple has removed VLC media player from its application store. Thus the incompatibility between the GNU General Public License and the AppStore terms of use is resolved – the hard way. I am not going to pity the owners of iDevices, and not even the MobileVLC developers who doubtless wasted a lot of their time. This end should not have come to a surprise to anyone.”

I am literally going to kick this guy square in the jewels if I ever find out who he is and where he lives. I cannot believe that he is on this high and mighty horse. I am glad that I heeded the warnings and still able to use this app, and I guess it will soon make it to Cydia, but in the mean time, I am getting a plane ticket and making a visit to this guy.

thanks a lot. douchebag.

UPDATE: read what this guy is saying over at Planet VideoLan, here’s an excerpt:

Why Apple Removed VLC from the App Store?

“I do not know for certain why Apple removed VLC, and Apple will probably never state the truth.”

“All in all, we will probably never know the truth”

BS.

via [ObamaPacman]

Vicious Nokia Employee Gets VLC Removed from Apple App Store

Saturday, January 8, 2011

By OP Editor

Nokia employee and VLC developer Rémi Denis-Courmont goes against mission of VideoLan, gets Apple to remove VLC for iOS from App Store using licensing technicality.

VLC Developer vs. App Store

Few months ago, VLC, the free video player from VideoLAN was released to the App Store. VLC for iPad, and later versions for iPhone and iPod touch, was ported to iOS by Applidium for free, and released for FREE. However, contributing developer and Nokia employee Rémi Denis-Courmont didn’t like it.

Remi argued that open-source GNU General Public License that is tied to VLC conflicts with the terms detailed in Apple’s own App Store licensing, and tried to remove the iOS VLC app based on copyright and licensing claims.

The issue is that Apple iOS Apps contain a standard DRM for security signing purposes. Remi ignores the fact that despite the DRM (there for security purposes), anyone with compatible iOS devices can use the VLC App. Apple also distributes the VLC app for free. Thus, Apple isn’t restricting distribution with the DRM. Not at all.

VideoLAN Mission

Note the VideoLAN mission: “VideoLAN is a project and a non-profit organization, composed of volunteers, developing and promoting free multimedia solutions.”

Apple Removes VLC From App Store on January 7, 2011

The Nokia employee did not attempt to achieve an amicable solution, instead he went straight to getting VLC removed from the Apple App Store. 2 months later, on January 7, Apple finally removed VLC for iOS.

Apple, Rants, Technology

Why I still think the Verizon iPhone will be LTE not CDMA

Posted on January 9, 2011January 10, 2011 by RustyG

It’s just days past CES 2011 and apparently the only rumor that seemed to hog the floor was the Verizon iPhone. It was apparently confirmed by WSJ and “people that are familiar with the matter” (which was repeated several times in the article) that the phone will be announced on Tuesday Jan. 11th and launch next month on February 3rd. The only problem that I have with this is that EVERYONE is still saying CDMA, based upon reports that Qualcomm has been ramping up inventory and is now selling baseband chips to Apple. Qualcomm is apparently the largest provider of the CDMA based chips, so this is why this seems to be the loudest theory out there.

Well, as much as I want to go with this, something tells me that this is just wrong. No matter what my favorite tech blog Engadget has to say. Just based upon the latest “evidence” that we have.. it doesn’t seem to mesh well. I am thinking that the Qualcomm story is something to throw us off the scent. Let’s look at the picture that Engadget posted with their story:

Do you see what I see? There is still a SIM card slot in that ever so slightly “tweaked” iPhone chassis. Oh you want a little more evidence? Let’s take a look at the video that was pulled down by Apple due to copyright issues (then later reposted with a different title & Engadget re-encoded it for their own player):

Did you see that? There is still a SIM card slot on that phone. Now, anyone with any Verizon CDMA 3G phone, please feel free to email me with a picture of your SIM card that you got from Verizon. It just doesn’t add up. I recently just helped a friend install the VZ Access Manager on their new laptop with the new LGv600 USB modem (or whatever that thing is) that supports 4G. You want to know what was inside that modem? It was a SIM card that said Verizon 4G LTE. You want to know why? It is because Verizon is now a GSM carrier! You can read more about the history on that in my previous post.

I just don’t see Apple choosing to go with a dying technology. Same as with the reasons they chose to keep flash out of the iOS enviroment (i think they are just trying to kill flash all together), they want to be on the forefront of technology, and since Verizon is one of the first to launch LTE stateside, why not? iPhone 4… iPhone 4G… it makes better since, then to stick with old 3G technology that we have all grown to hate when there are no towers… Even At&t is finally announcing 4G, even though they are the last on the bandwagon.

I’m calling this one… right now.. even if I’m wrong, thanks for reading this far.

UPDATE: It seems there are some people that are starting to agree with me, but saying it will be a dual mode phone. I just don’t see CDMA being the technology, especially since CDMA doesn’t allow for simultaneous calling and surfing. That was the big thing that AT&T was touting last year in their ads with that Wilson brother. How Verizon can’t do that with CDMA. So why would iPhone 4 be a multitasking phone, that couldn’t multitask under CDMA???

More Evidence: Back in 2009, the CEO Ivan Seidenberg at Verizon said: “Apple will be more willing to work with Verizon in the future on an LTE-equipped version of the iPhone.” According to Seidenberg, Apple never considered building a CDMA version of the iPhone due to CDMA’s more limited distribution footprint.

Apple, Rants, Technology

Why I think the iPhone will be 4g on Verizon by February

Posted on January 2, 2011January 9, 2011 by RustyG

So as the year begins, so starts the rumor mill again, but it seems that this time it has been much more loud than normal. It appears that Apple will be holding some event by Valentines Day and after CES. This is no surprise as they have held their annual MacWorld Expo every year at the end of January. (This year – 26th thru 29th) The rumor is starting up that this WILL BE THE YEAR they announce Verizon as a new provider of the iPhone. The only thing that doesn’t make since, is that AT&T has exclusivity until 2012. It looks as though, be the top selling Jesus Phone that it is, Verizon wants a piece of the iPhone pie and is willing to pay for it. So could 2011 be the year we finally see the iPhone on the Verizon network? Most people seem to stick with the Wall Street Journal report saying that Apple has been preparing CDMA versions of the iPhone (provided by Qualcomm) for quite some time now and will be ready for a 1st quarter launch this year. There is even a crazier rumor that reason why the unicorn white iPhone is being delayed for a Verizon launch. That last one aside, I think this CDMA Verizon rumor is only half true…. and I’ll tell you why.

I’ll bite on the Verizon rumor, AGAIN. Only because it seems viable this time around, but by this time next year, I may be eating my own words on this; but being only one year short of the AT&T contract, and Verizon wants to pay a pretty penny to keep it among the top 2 wireless providers (forgot my source on this one… sorry, but you can look it up), I don’t see why not. So you’ve got me sold on that, but the problem with the CDMA thing I have, is why would Apple put an iPhone on a dying technology? The rest of the world seems to run on GSM of some sort and it has been that way for while. Its almost a world standard at this point. Another reason why I say dying is because since 2001, there have been reports of Verizon wanting to go to GSM, to join the rest of the world. Now the original idea that they were testing was wCDMA (an upgrade from GSM, not CDMA as you might think), but by 2007 it seems they have finally ended up choosing LTE for future proofing their networks. It seems they wanted the crazy fast 100Mbps that was being tested by Nokia to be the next 4G technology. Now Verizon has been switching over to the new LTE technology since 2008, and was finally announced publicly back in October of 2010. By December 1st, Verizon began selling their 4G LTE modems and in the coming weeks, it seems they will begin selling the HTC Thunderbolt and more 4G capable phones.

So you see where I am going with this? Now that they are officially a GSM carrier, and their phones and modems will connect to the network via SIM cards, why would Apple go with CDMA? Especially since Verizon has been preparing for GSM since 2001? I just don’t see it. So I am putting my call out there.. yes we will see a Verizon iPhone by the summer, but I think it will be an LTE “4G” iPhone 4, GSM based instead of CDMA. I think it will be the “Oh and One More Thing…” right after the announcement of the iPad 2.

We shall see…