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.

Metro UI - live tiles in 'action' Live tiles? Not so lively So the as whole array of various new iterations of MS Windows hit your screens, be it your desktop, cell phone, or laptop you may be wondering what live tiles are. Essentially, live tiles are just graphically simplified widgets. There sn nothing ‘live’ about them; the fact that different tiles display a number of newly arrived text messages, emails, and missed calls is nothing new, better looking widgets on iOS or Android do the same thing. The so-called ‘People’ tile keeps flipping pictures of your contacts incessantly without a single purpose; no relevant information is being displayed. Microsoft wants you to think that picture flipping is somehow ‘live’ whatever that may mean. The weather hub on HTC Windows phones does not update the weather information so the ‘live’ status here is a mute one. In Windows phone 8 you can resize the tiles and move them around anyway you wish which results in your screen beco...

Nexus vs. iPhone A U.S. appeals court overturned a preliminary injunction on the sale of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone today, dealing a setback to Apple in its legal battle against Google’s increasingly popular mobile software. In August, Apple scored a sweeping legal victory over Samsung when a U.S. jury found Samsung had copied critical features of the iPhone and awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages. In this case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit was considering an injunction ordered before the trial began but which was quickly stayed. The appeals court reversed the injunction entirely on Thursday, saying that the "district court abused its discretion." Apple failed to prove, the court said, that consumers purchased the Samsung product because of the infringing technology. The appeals court has sent the case back to a lower California court for reconsideration. The Nexus is an aging product in Samsung's lineup, with a ...

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...