Technology

Motorola to sue Apple

Within the past two years Apple has tried to sue virtually any Android manufacturer that they saw as a threat. Apparently, competition isn’t a belief that Steve Jobs founded his multi-billion dollar behemoth of a company on.

Now, a big name has stepped up to the plate against Cupertino and this means war.  Could we use Motorola and Google interchangeably here?  Possibly.  However, Motorola is still its own entity that operates under Google.  Motorola is a wireless patent goldmine.  Although, Motorola may not own the “illustrious” slide to unlock or pinch to zoom, let’s round up a patent that they believe Apple is infringing upon. For example, Apple devices can sync data between themselves, such as bookmarks, messages, and more. Motorola is big on wireless technologies — not shapes and looks. These are standards that have been set across an industry. Some can even argue that they actually matter more.

I sure do.

Bottom line:. Motorola suing Apple sounds like the perfect idea for a company that wants to sue everyone else out of the marketplace. I call it their just desserts.

Mobile Operating Systems, Technology

Samsung Vs Apple; Why?

Recently, Apple has been more cutthroat in it’s ongoing battle against the Android ecosystem.  Although Apple has never filed an injunction against Google itself, primarily because of the fact that it would lose, it constantly engages OEMs that use the Android operating system on its devices.

No matter who wins this pathetic lawsuit (if anyone wins) the true losers are clear: US.  The consumers will lose because there will be less choice on the marketplace, which is exactly what Apple wants.  Samsung has taken the smartphone market by storm and has really shown the Android world that Samsung is the way to go.  However, although Apple has substantially better margins on the products that it produces it still wants to go after a company who is creating a product that is in the same marketplace as their own.  True technologists believe in competition; it is a shame that Apple is playing the victim when they have dominated for so long.

This entire case centers around the thought that Samsung copied Apple.  Remember this is the same company that told you you were holding your iPhone 4 incorrectly when you lost signal.  This company cannot admit when they are wrong and defeated.  Documents tied to Apple reportedly have the company making the statement, “Apple has identified dozens of examples where Android is using or encouraging others to use Apple patented technology.”  However, Samsung and other key Android OEMs has went to great lengths to differentiate their products to ensure that they do not infringe on any of Apple’s useless patents.  For example, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus was temporarily banned because of a silly patent injunction.  It truly seems that Apple wants to try any underhanded scheme they can to take competition out of the market.  Honestly, at this point Google should step in.

One word: Pathetic.

Bottom line:  For a “computer” company, you would think that they could make money in many ways; however, the savior of Apple is iOS.  Steve Jobs left a selfish attitude at the company; however, Tim Cook doesn’t view the company exactly as his predecessor did.  So, we will see how future trials, if any, turn out.

Social Networking, Software

HootSuite: Social Media Management for Android

HootSuite for Android is an unbelievable Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Foursquare account management tool. This particular client has a seamless UI that is very natural and easy on the eyes of the user.
When compared to other “do it all” clients such as Seesmic or Tweetdeck, just to name a few; HootSuite definitely has them beat. Why?

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Unlike Seesmic, HootSuite has to advertisement window that is consistently in the view of the user.  In addition, loading of tweets and Facebook status updates can lag.  On the other hand, when it comes to TweetDeck, an app that should be removed from Google Play, this application is still supported by its developers.  Twitter bought Tweetdeck with the sole intentions of closing it down and it has been successful.  The thing that boggles my mind is that smartphone users continue to install it and complain about inconsistencies that will never be fixed.

Bottom line: HootSuite is a real competitor in the social media marketplace, give it a deserving try.

Software, Technology

Google Chrome: Lightweight but a RAM hog?

Google Chrome, to the non-technological observer, this may seem like a very lightweight application by it’s looks and performance.  However, once you get in deep and dive under the hood you will be horrified.  Let me start off by saying Chrome is robust in it’s own right; however, with the way that it hogs memory it will not receive my seal of approval just yet.

When it comes down to mobile devices, Chrome is the way to go.  The browser is fast, memory unobtrusive, sleek, and all-around beautifully designed.  On the other hand, on the desktop, this beast is a complete resource hog.  I am totally enthralled in the Google ecosystem, between my Nexus devices and content from Google Play — I am Google to the core.  However, for some reason, I cannot seem to drop Mozilla Firefox, which has been my browser of choice since it was 0.4 Beta (thanks to Kevin Rose).  Why?  The answer is simple, Firefox used to be a memory hog; but, Mozilla realized this and corrected the issue.  This browser is far less bloated that it has ever been, performs exceptionally and renders web pages like non other.

Now, let’s take a look at Chrome.  Being a Google user, I felt the need to give Chrome a true end to end test.  From the outside looking in Chrome looks like it uses no memory at all.  However, when you view your processes on the task manager you will notice that for every tab you create in the browser Chrome is essentially creating another instance of itself.  Why?  Firefox doesn’t do this, it manages all open tabs in one browser instance instead of virtually creating a separate instance for every tab.  This is why Chrome falls to 2nd place in my browser ranking.

Bottom line:  If Chrome fixes its memory issues, there would be no reason for me to stay with Firefox for my desktop browser of choice or at least let them duel it out on my machine.

Mobile Operating Systems, Software, Technology

Nexus 7 first impressions

What an impressive device to say the least.  When it comes to speed this little 7 inch tablet almost cannot be beat.  In addition, after a few hours of use the battery is yet to waiver.  When you look at the reviews of this tablet online and you actually get a chance to use it for yourself — you begin to see why there is such a large uproar surrounding this device.  Google and ASUS have certainly drafted a winner here.  Despite the shipping issues, many preorders have gone to their respective homes and once opened it is a hard device to put down.

I stumbled upon a comment on a blog post where one Apple fan commented incorrectly that the Google Nexus 7 is running a phone operating system.  Ice Cream Sandwich and Jellybean alike are designed to be optimized for tablet or handset use, making one operating system great for all resolutions and screen sizes. 

Bottom line: This is an excellent media consumption device and it gets my full seal of approval.  Honestly, if you go Android there is no other way to go than Nexus.  Also, if you can read this then the Nexus 7 must be decent at handling blog posts. 

Tech for the masses, meant to empower, educate and inform by Dexter Johnson.