Author Archive | David Worthington

Could Web Apps Help Save Nokia?

Posted by David Worthington on August 11, 2009 at 8:29 pm

Nokia logoCertain pundits have opined that Nokia may be doomed, because its Symbian operating system and Ovi Store application store provide a far poorer user experience than Apple’s iPhone. I’m not one of the doom-and-gloomers. Nokia is betting that Web applications will catch on in the long run, and it could be right.

The long history of Nokia’s Symbian OS and the diversity of devices that Nokia sells have left it in catch-up mode, Web applications provide the company with a second chance to get ahead of the curve. Steve Jobs may have been right when he initially said that developers should write Web apps for the iPhone –he may just have been premature.

Nokia has laid the groundwork for a new crop of Web applications that will run on over two dozen of its Symbian S60 devices with a set of plugins called Nokia Web Runtime Extensions (WRT). It’s a pragmatic strategy, and probably the company’s only solution. Apple, by contrast, has had the luxury of dealing with one mobile platform.

The WRT plug-ins allow application developers to create standards-based Web applications with commonly-used development tools without requiring any specialized knowledge of Nokia technologies.

Nokia’s ultimate goal is to make it possible for end users to create their own widgets, said Craig Cumberland, director of Web tools and technologies at Nokia. The company is partnering with content providers to make that happen. In the meantime, it is betting that its flexibility will lure application makers.

WRT was built using the open source WebKit browser layout engine, which Apple and Google use as the engine for their Web browsers. WRT joins Qt, an open source GUI toolkit, as the two  core technology platforms that Nokia will use across all of its devices. The company has also localized WRT into eight languages, including Chinese (tradition and simplified), English, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Spanish. “The international market is our bread and butter,” said Cumberland.

It’s becoming a meme, but those technologies give developers greater openness–and since these apps run on the Web in the browser, there’s no App Store-like approval process to complicate matters. Web applications also cut down on application delivery time, and offer faster return on investment for developers, Cumberland added.

That means (at least in theory) there should be a variety of Web applications for end users to pick from within a short period of time. The applications will also blur the lines between the Web and device itself, which many iPhone applications already do.

To give the appearance of native functionality, WRT can integrate with device data and core services like address books. More advanced devices support more advanced applications that can access the touchscreen functionality of the 5800 XpresMmusic and N97, in addition to Nokia’s “home screen” user interface.

Nokia has laid out a clear vision, but its execution relies upon the ability of carrier to deliver fast, reliable data services. The applications will also be simple widgets, not deep, rich pieces of software–at least at first. Web applications won’t level the playing field overnight, but the long-term strategy makes sense to me.

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Apple to Fix MacBook Pro Drive Flaw. With Software?

Posted by David Worthington on August 10, 2009 at 6:20 pm

Apple said today that an upcoming software update will correct a problem that Apple MacBook Pro notebooks owners are experiencing with malfunctioning hard drives. I’m not entirely convinced that would fix the problem, and would like Apple to shine some light on the issue.

MacBooks equipped with 7200rpm 500GB hard drives have experienced clicking sounds that are frequently followed by stalling, and customers have been complaining about the issue for months. Apple is working on a software update in response to the complaints, but has not said when the patch will be delivered.

There could very well be a low-level problem that Apple could remedy with a patch. Its systems are very well designed, and usually have high quality drivers and firmware. It’s just hard for me to fathom that the problem is just a software issue.

Call me a cynic, but when hard drives click, it oftentimes means that the drive has bad sectors and is failing. Apple could very well be dealing with a bad batch of hard drives, and all a software update would do is to glaze over the underlying problem to make the delays less noticeable.

If Apple reduces the number of customer returns by even 10 percent, it will save itself a lot of money. I hope that it is not simply putting off dealing with the full scope of the problem. I would like to hear from customers after they install the patch.

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Google Acquisition Could Move HTML 5 Ahead

Posted by David Worthington on August 5, 2009 at 8:36 pm

Google and On2Google’s $106.5 million acquisition of video technology maker On2 Technologies today could signal that it intends to make technology freely available for the next version of HTML, someday eliminating the need for plug-ins such as Flash for video playback on the Web.

On2 Technologies is best known for its VP7 and VP8 video codecs. The codecs could be used to enable seamless video playback within HTML 5 compatible Web browsers such as Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3.5, Opera, and Safari.

HTML 5 is an upcoming version of the HTML standard that has support for audio, graphics and video, as well as interactive document editing. It is incomplete, and has been implemented in browsers in a piecemeal fashion.

HTML is the lingua franca of the Web, but the Web had changed a great deal since HTML 4 was published in December 1997. Industry powerhouses have been plugging away at the HTML 5 draft specification ever since.

The scope of the next-generation Web protocol is very ambitious, and not surprisingly, it has not been without controversy. HTML 5 includes a video element to enable playback without requiring any additional plug-ins or software, and the HTML 5 working group has been split over what uniform video codec should be used.

The working group’s inability to move beyond the impasse has threatened the inclusion of the video element in HTML 5. One camp (that includes Apple and Google) has supported H.264, a codec that requires implementers to pay patent licensing royalties. Others, including Mozilla and Opera, favor Ogg Theora, an open source solution.

Google has already incorporated elements of HTML 5 into its Chrome Web browser, and has begun to utilize it in its Web applications. It has also been experimenting with an HTML 5 edition of YoutTube—sans Flash.

“Today video is an essential part of the Web experience, and we believe high-quality video compression technology should be a part of the Web platform,” said Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management at Google, in a prepared statement. “We are committed to innovation in video quality on the Web, and we believe that On2’s team and technology will help us further that goal.”

HTML is obviously a part of the company’s long term technology plan, and ushering it along by releasing the On2 codecs into the public domain would be compatible with that goal.

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Google Ties Chrome to Cloud Services

Posted by David Worthington on August 3, 2009 at 6:07 pm

chromelogo5Today, Google fired a new salvo in the browser wars, announcing an upcoming synchronization service for its Chrome browser. A preliminary mockup of the service will be released to developers later this week, with general availability possible later this month, according to reports.

The service will first deliver bookmark synchronization –something that’s already possible with Firefox via plug-ins as well as Opera. Google will add other types of browser data incrementally. If Google carries out its plans effectively, Chrome will provide users with a seamless user experience across many devices. Other browser makers will have to follow.

Netbooks, which have the focus of Google’s most ambitious development efforts, will be an obvious beneficiary. The synchronization service will also give a boost to OpenID, which Google users to authenticate digital identities (with its own proprietary twist).

All in all, Google is continuing to blur the line between desktop software and the cloud. It is not alone in its thinking–I’m convinced that Microsoft, which is often perceived as its biggest competitor, will eventually follow suit.

Last year, I detailed Microsoft’s Midori operating system development plans. While Google has not announced anything as ambitious as Midori, it is going down the path that Microsoft laid out in the memos that I reviewed.

One of Microsoft’s principal  design motivations is to support the ability of users to share resources remotely, and for applications that are a composite of local and remote components and services. The Web browser is just beginning to enable the application side of that vision.

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Revealed: The Costs of Microsoft’s Yahoo Deal

Posted by David Worthington on July 31, 2009 at 5:43 pm

BinghooRumor has it that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, flummoxed over press leaks, decreed that password protection be added to Office 2003. Ironically, Ballmer inadvertently detailed the transition costs of the company’s ten year search deal with Yahoo during his presentation at the Microsoft’s Financial Analyst Meeting (FAM) yesterday.

A slide marked “not for disclosure” found its way into the CEO’s PowerPoint deck. The slide itemized $675 million in transition costs, and revealed that Microsoft expects to absorb a $300 million loss during the first two years of the deal. Over time, the company expects to begin earning a “decent return” of “$400 million steady-state.”

The cost breakdown is: $90 million in retention costs, $170 million in R&D costs for paid search, $145 million for Cost of Goods Sold (hosting costs), $150 million in sign-on costs, $70 million for search algorithm R&D, and $50 million for advertiser migration.

The costs could conceivably have been disclosed in annual reports as a footnote or rolled up into other costs, but under SEC rules, Microsoft is allowed to be vague in its forecasts. I also don’t see why revenue would have to be reported separately for the partnership. Ballmer might be big on passwords, but there is no accounting for human error.

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Analysts call for Microsoft to drop the Zune

Posted by David Worthington on July 30, 2009 at 9:49 pm

Zune GraveyardMarketWatch published a story today that could light a fire under Microsoft’s shareholders: it all but wrote an obituary for the company’s Zune portable media player. However, I do not think that the Zune is on the chopping block–yet.

Sales for the Zune dropped 42% over the last quarter to $211 million, according to Microsoft’s Q4 financial reports. In comparison, Apple iPod sales declined just 11%, for total sales of $1.5 billion, MarketWatch reports.

In terms of market share, the best-case scenario cited in the report was an IDC survey from last fall that found that the Zune holds 4.8% of the market. Recent numbers for the NPD group lower that estimate to a dismal 2%, compared to 70% for the iPod.

Microsoft is expected to ship the Zune HD, a touch screen interface device that offers high-def video output and radio, in the fall. Sales will likely continue to falter until then.

Continue Reading →

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New Twitter Frontpage Resembles Search Engine

Posted by David Worthington on July 29, 2009 at 6:08 pm

twitterlogoTwitter’s new home page, which went live yesterday, resembles a search engine, with trending topics taking the place of categories. Twitter is a useful way to learn what is happening now, but it is also a way to become quickly misinformed.

Social media is a nontraditional, but effective means to keep up with the day’s news and events. Event feeds, where friends share information with one another, are a much better way to stay on top of what people are talking about than e-mail ever was. I regularly check my feeds on Facebook, and to a less extent, Twitter, to stay looped in.

People that I add to my social mesh are typically people whose opinions I respect, and I find it useful to read their take on what’s happening. There is a certain amount of trust required, because status updates and tweets are not vetted sources or information (at least upfront).

Therein lies the rub. Twitter has a history of security problems and exploits, and it can be a hotbed of misinformation. In May, a rogue tweet was responsible for causing a civil rights panic, and rumors about other celebrities dying were propagated on Twitter after Michael Jackson passed away last month. The effect was viral.

Twitter is also the target of hackers. The accounts of public figures, including ABC News broadcast journalist George Stephanopoulos have been phished, and taken over by unknown persons.

The site also relies on outmoded, and easily compromised, security questions for account password retrieval.

In short, while Twitter is useful to tune into the day’s buzz, it is not a news organization. A certain degree of skepticism is required when controversial or shocking information surfaces from social media. I’m not saying that people shouldn’t use Twitter, but I am urging people to validate what they read before sharing it with others.

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Finding Sexual Predators? There’s an App for That.

Posted by David Worthington on July 27, 2009 at 3:45 pm

Sex Offender iPhone AppFor ninety-nine cents, iPhone users can download an app called Offender Locator to locate sexual offenders in their vicinity. You might be surprised what you learn, even if you’re not personally worried about sex offenders at the moment.

Offender Locator was reviewed on TechCrunch today. The app has become one of the top ten paid offerings in iPhone store despite the fact that the same information has already been available on the Web for some time.

Offender Locator leverages the iPhone’s built-in GPS to locate local U.S. sex offenders, or alternatively, users can input an address manually. I installed it out of curiosity about how many offenders were listed around me in Manhattan. The GPS function did not work, so I entered in my mother’s address.

Lo and behold, the first result was someone that I knew. It was a neighborhood man who used to idle his car and chat with me at the corner while I waited for the bus to come and take me to my junior high (I had seen him around while I was jogging after school). My mother always told me not to take him up on his offer to “learn how to play pool” at his house, and her instincts were prescient.

With this app, she could have validated her concern, and altered other neighbors about the man’s unusually attentive behavior toward a minor.

My take is that making it easier for a parent or guardian to access information that can protect a child is a good thing–even if a nominal fee is included. It is worth nothing that selling people’s personal information can run afoul of some state laws.

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Microsoft’s Netbook Problem

Posted by David Worthington on July 24, 2009 at 2:15 pm

The persisting popularity of netbooks has been a major drain on Microsoft’s Windows client licensing revenue. The worldwide economic downturn has driven many people to purchase cheaper machines, but I believe that the netbook’s ascension also reflects changing consumer tastes.

Windows client licensing revenue fell $1 billion from last year, and Microsoft’s unearned revenue from multi-year license agreements has flatlined.

Unless Windows 7 proves wildly popular, the company’s prospects for restoring its Windows business to its past luster appear to be grim. I expect that the company will experience a cyclical earnings bump that will crest near where previous Windows releases have in the past, but growth will be less substantial.

That is because there are simply too many alternatives, with the Web acting as the great equalizer. I access Gmail just as quickly on a netbook running Linux as I would on a higher end laptop powered by Windows. And even though netbook hardware is wimpy by current standards, netbooks are as powerful as high-end machines were on the not-too-distant past

Not everyone is a developer or a gamer. I believe that the netbook meets the “good enough’ threshold for most people, and there is a decent assortment to choose from on the market.

Many of those people may have been compelled to purchase a netbook by financial reasons, but it is highly possible that many will be satisfied enough  to purchase another netbook in the future. It could mean a permanent change in consumer buying behavior.

Microsoft seems to understand that, because it is downplaying netbooks at every chance it can get, and is attempting to direct customers toward more expensive alternatives. But the industry has failed to create really compelling products that would “wow’ me into paying more–so far.

I am reminded of my late grandmother, who was a child of the Great Depression. She wouldn’t spend money needlessly, and would reuse what she had (including tinfoil). People are experiencing varying degrees of hardship during this recession, and it is not unreasonable to expect that their spending habits will be permanently altered.

Consequently, if Microsoft does not see its market share slide, it will see its revenues fall. It cannot charge as much for a copy of Windows on a $400 machine than it would have traditionally done on more expensive systems. The Windows cash cow is slowly beginning to dry up.

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Microsoft to Offer Choice of Browsers–In Europe

Posted by David Worthington on July 24, 2009 at 1:15 pm

Today, the European Commission (EC) announced that Microsoft will permit Windows 7 users in European countries to select their default browser from a ballot screen when they configure their machines.

The news comes as a bit of a surprise, because, last month, the company said it was going to strip Internet Explorer from European versions of the operating system, and was originally strongly opposed to idea of providing a ballot screen.

Microsoft was compelled to make the change as a remedy for the EC’s Microsoft vs. Opera antitrust case that began in 2007. The company had a contingency plan to ship Windows 7 in January if it was unable to reach an agreement with the EC.

The settlement will no doubt keep Windows 7 on schedule for its fall debut. Windows 7 was released to manufacturing on Wednesday.

The EC has clearly learned from the failure of previous mandates. There was no demand for the Windows Media Center free edition of the OS that the EC mandated Microsoft sell in Europe. I’m glad that the ballot option was chosen over no browser at all.

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