July 2011
2 posts
Kinect's Gesture Interface is Dictation All Over...
After months of mind-bending Kinect hacks, Microsoft made good on their promise last month and released the Kinect for Windows SDK Beta, opening the floodgates for gesture-enabled everything. Which raises the question - do we want this?
Not long ago Microsoft added a Kinect interface for Netflix, Last.fm, and other multimedia apps to the Xbox 360 (after much popular demand). Users can browse...
Google debuts their all-new social offering,...
After rumors filtering in for months, starting MG Siegler’s scoop at TechCrunch, Google has finally taken the wraps off their all-new social offering, dubbed “Google+”. So what’s in the box?
Google+ is a unifying service that will over time combine the social elements of Gmail, Google Talk, Buzz, and Google Profiles into one wrapper. The centerpiece of Google+ is a black...
April 2011
2 posts
Amazon Can Beat the iPad
At the risk of giving away the ending, the Xoom is not going to beat the iPad. It’s not that the Xoom isn’t a compelling device (though I would argue it’s barely a competitive one) - it’s simply that it’s attacking Apple where Apple is strongest.
You don’t beat the iPad by playing to its strengths. The Xoom attempts to copy the iPad but falls short on user experience, polish, price, and even...
Two Things the PC Should Borrow from iOS
Ever since Apple unveiled Lion last year, there has been a fairly predictable range of reactions to the basic concept. Apple’s tagline for the OS is “Back To The Mac,” symbolic of a general philosophy that the best ideas from iOS should come full-circle to the Mac.
Some of these ideas are pretty universally regarded as great. For example, instant-on computing and always-saved documents should...
March 2011
2 posts
The iPad 2
The iPad 2 is a curious device to review. Pure performance numbers are almost meaningless without a context against which to measure them. Ecosystem metrics (600,000 apps? 20,000 good apps? Upset booksellers? Infuriated developers?) provide an indicator, but in a nascent market - and, let there be no mistake, the tablet/slate market is a nascent market - they are subject to rapid change.
The iPad...
