On webOS and Failure

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Dieter Bohn:

Given the stiff competition webOS faced in the marketplace, it’s tempting to just say that webOS has failed. The truth is that we don’t really know if webOS could have succeeded given HP’s utter inability to execute on the basics of making smartphones and tablets.

I think it’s better to say this: HP failed webOS.

I agree. HP didn’t push the webOS team to build anything besides a mediocre tablet, really. By pushing to get it out the door in a year, HP showed as little concern about the product as I think some Android tablet builders show.

HP could have thrown its weight behind a slab-like device, like the iPhone or any other handset out there that sells well. The Veer and Pre 3 are just variations on the same design and the same phone Palm tried selling for years. It could have gotten developers on board with incentives. It could have gotten its phones on more carriers.

But it didn’t. It let the Palm group do what it always did — which hasn’t ever worked. Bohn is right, webOS didn’t fail — HP failed it by letting it languish, after such great promises.

I really hope HTC picks it up. With the Google/Motorola Mobility thing hanging over its head, I’d imagine HTC is looking for other options besides Android. Maybe the third time is the charm?

Wither webOS

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Chris Ziegler:

In the company’s earnings call today, HP CEO Leo Apotheker just announced that its shutdown of the webOS hardware business — covering the Veer, TouchPad, and Pre series — will wind down in the fourth quarter of the year.

I’m offline for one day and HP goes and does something crazy. This move really bums me out.

Why Did my Harddrive Fail?

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Glenn Brensinger at Small Dog Electronics:

The most common reason drives fail is a cheap component. Hard drive makers are constantly trying to lower their prices, and the sad fact is that the drive components don’t care whose brand name is on the drive. Whoever made it, the drive was made with components from the lowest bidder. It doesn’t matter who sold the system—HP, Dell, Apple, Sony—they all use hard drives manufactured by another company who had to cut costs in order to get the contract. Apple makes every attempt to use only the highest quality components in their systems, but to say that a hard drive will never fail simply because it’s in an Apple computer is wishful thinking.

Searching for Real News

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John Brownlee at Cult of Mac:

For the past several hours, the Apple Store has been down, but unlike when we usually say that, Apple’s seemingly not doing just maintenance… instead, store.apple.com seems to have totally crashed.

Making things stranger, the Apple Online Store fell over on a Wednesday, as opposed to the traditional Tuesday maintenance period. Some users have reported in the last hour the usual ‘We’re Updating The Store” message… so could a new product be imminent?

If so, the best guess floating around out there right now is new Apple TVs boasting A5 CPUS and 1080p. Best Buy Mexico has been dumping its stock of Apple TV units for no apparent reason.

This is why I hardly subscribe to any Apple news sites these days.

Verbs Adds Facebook Chat

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Verbs, the excellent IM app for the iPhone and iPod touch has been updated to include Facebook chat support.

While I don’t have a Facebook account, I do know that Verbs is the best looking (and best-functioning) IM app I’ve tried for iOS.

To help celebrate this release, the lovely people over at #include tech. have given me a handful of promo codes for the app, which I’ll be giving away over on the site’s Twitter account later today.

‘Right up to the Creepy Line’

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Eric Schmidt, back in 2010:

Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it… We don’t need you to type at all. We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less know what you’re thinking about.

Seems like Google’s already crossed it.

10.7.1

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It’s here, and tiny for most users — clocking in at 17 MB for most. Changes include:

  • Address an issue that may cause the system to become unresponsive when playing a video in Safari.
  • Resolve an issue that may cause system audio to stop working when using HDMI or optical audio out.
  • Improve the reliability of Wi-Fi connections.
  • Resolve an issue that prevents transfer of your data, settings, and compatible applications to a new Mac running OS X Lion.
  • Resolve an issue in which an admin user account could be missing after upgrading to OS X Lion.

The full version is 79 MB, and there is a special build for Mac minis and MacBook Airs.

Tweetbot 1.5

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Cody Fink:

Well, it’s finally here. You asked for it — you wagged your finger about it — you hate the people you follow on Twitter so much that you don’t want to hear another peep out of them, yet deep down you don’t really want to get in one of those uncomfortable, “Why did you unfollow me!?” moments. Or maybe someone’s had a little too much caffeine and you just need a break. With Tweetbot 1.5, you can mute those pesky over-tweeters and keep meme-esque hashtags from cluttering your #pantsfree timeline. Although I hear there’s a self destruction mechanism built in if you ever mute #tweetbot.

My favorite Twitter client — on any platform — keeps getting better.

Lion More Painful than Vista?

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Adrian Kingsley-Hughes:

Having lived with the pain of Vista pre-SP1, I can tell you that the problems currently facing Apple with Lion are worse. Much worse. In fact, it’s such a nuisance that I’ve decided to install Snow Leopard into a different partition and switch to the old OS for the time being, keeping Lion so I can keep an eye on future updates to see if they fix these issues.

I don’t think many would say 10.7.0 is without bugs, but this really just seems like link bait.[1. Crap, I fell for it, didn’t I?] Vista was a serious piece of crap out of the gate, and honestly, still is in many respects.

Update: Ben Brooks chimes in:

With Vista my computer was barely useable, and honestly wasn’t useable for what I wanted to do on it for months.

Lion is not worse than Vista and saying so is a flat out lie.

‘Enhanced for OS X Lion’

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Screen Shot 2011 08 15 at 9 08 03 PM

On the front page of the Mac App Store, Apple is highlighting three apps that have been “Enhanced for OS X Lion.”

In the featured app section at the top of the page, two more apps show off their newly-learned tricks like Versions and more.

As Lion’s install base continues to grow, apps without these types of features will feel more and more dated. Clearly, Apple recognizes this, and is pushing Mac developers toward including these new features in their applications. Doing so is good for Apple and its customers.

Warren Buffet for President

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One of the world’s richest men, in a guest column for the New York Times:

I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976–77 — shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain. People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation.

Wait, it didn’t trickle down?

[via Daring Fireball]