TechStew

The Nokia of old is dead! Last year I predicted that this year would mark the demise of Nokia, at one time the biggest cell phone manufacturer in the world. After its disastrous dithering and the resulting market failure Nokia was snatched up by Microsoft for a measly $7.2b, a fraction of its worth from just a couple of years ago (in comparison, Skype was bought for $8.6b). However, I do not think that Microsoft really wanted to buy Nokia, rather it was forced into this move by Nokia’s dismal performance, and the fact that Nokia carried 90 per cent of all Windows Phone sales. Microsoft had no choice but to purchase the flailing smartphone maker in order to save its position in the market.

Have you ever wonder why did the richest man in the world leave the biggest tech company in the world? Bill Gates The answer may be found in an internal memo that Gates sent out on October 30, 2005 to the top engineers and most trusted managers of Microsoft.  The memo stated that there was potentially a very disruptive technological revolution, which was about to sweep over the entire world, forever changing the way we get information and do business. He also warned that this revolution could wipeout the $200 billion business empire that he spent his life building. Windows 8 Will Cost You $120 After Jan. 31 What he was referring to was the mammoth windowless warehouse built by Design LLC, code named Project 2. The International Herald Tribune described the towering monolithic structures as looming like an information age nuclear power plant. While this may sound like something out of a science fiction novel, the results of this undertaking are n...

Today Microsoft introduced Windows Phone 8, its umpteenth attempt at conquering the mobile world arena. All the buzz (or FUD, since no release and pricing information was given) that has been created lately in order to promote this new iteration of MS mobile platform as the something utterly new, something that will ride like a tsunami through iPhone and Android ruled ocean fails to acknowledge that there is in fact not much new here - it is NOT a new operating system. Its first iteration saw the light of day, 2 years ago as a Windows Phone 7 , a successor to clumsy Windows Mobile, which has, in one form or another been on the market since April 2000. Yes, folks, Microsoft has been in the mobile game for over a decade now, way before the onslaught of Apple and Android powered devices. 

How important is mobile phone screen size? iPhone and Galaxy Note In the sea of mobile devices available to consumers the screen size ends up being the deciding factor way too often when purchasing a new mobile phone. I think this is definitely a wrong approach akin to the choice of number of pixels on your next point and shoot camera. Simply put there is a score of characteristics which is far more relevant to your user experience than the mere size of the cell phone screen. Before I go any further I would like start by admitting that I was somewhat of a ‘size queen’ myself; started on HTC HD with 3.7” and ended up with Titan with 4.7” screen. I loved the idea of larger screen thinking of improved web page browsing and movie watching. So I spent hours transcoding my favorite movies to the mobile format hoping that one day I would watch these movies (or my transcoded TV series) when travelling and away from my home TV. Do you know how many times I actually watched them? Zero...

Nokia unveiled its new flagship phone on September 5, this time running Windows Phone 8 platform to a great fanfare of tech enthusiasts. Some would say that Microsoft/Nokia is arriving too late to the mobile party; I would rather like to believe that better late then never. But I may be wrong on this one. Notoriously tardy, Marilyn Monroe would often arrive a couple of hours late to a glitzy Hollywood event but no matter how late she was her appearance would always trigger a big stir. I don’t think that Lumia is Marilyn Monroe. Yes, some stir and commotion was made but given what was announced I reckon no that not too many people will want to touch it, much less purchase it whenever it actually comes out. Which makes this whole event a giant marketing failure; announcing a product without any indication as to its price and availability is nothing short of vaporware. I doubt that a couple of months after iPhone 5 and a score of other WP8 or Android devices hit the market that peopl...

Apple’s decision to ditch Google maps in its new operating system, IOS 6, may come back to haunt it for years to come. The new mapping module known as Apple maps has been met with consumers disappointment and competitor’s derision. The reason being is that Apple’s maps are not as good as Google’s. The new maps lack a lot of details especially outside the United States were many major cities are virtually left blank while several major landmarks are labeled inaccurately or marked in the wrong place. Even Apple’s highly touted 3-D feature is out of sync; it displays distorted images buildings and roads as if they came out of a bad sci-fi movie. Many customers complain about Apple’s decision to remove mentions of public transportation routes or stations from its new map service which is a popular feature on the Google system and which allow users to see bus and train schedules at individual stations. Ironically the system is so bad that it wasn’t even able to pinpoint on Apple sto...