Zune I Get But Windows Phone 7: This Blows. Microsoft Ends Support for Video

Source: The Verge.

If you bought Xbox video, and you use Windows Phone 7 or Zune, you're going to be able to continue using it until Feb of 2014.  After that, nada.

Microsoft gave some crap about how they improved on the video and offerings.  Translation:  if you wanna keep using Xbox content, get a new Windows Phone device, preferrably the Lumia which Microsoft effectively own.

Zune?  I get that.  But Windows Phone 7.  Not so much.  It's still pretty new.  It's the OS that has been delayed over and over until Microsoft managed to ship it against some already entrenched smartphone heavyweights.  It, along with Blackberry, had owned the mobile market.  One theory I've got on why Microsoft is chucking WP7 now.  There were not many takers to begin with.

Kinda like Zune I guess.  

Well, I'm sure there is a lesson in here somewhere.  In this day and age, if you want to make sure your digital content are available for the long-run if not forever, make sure you go with a platform that has legs.  Like iTunes or Amazon. 

I want to add Google but its history of killing off apps and services without warning has me worried about buying media or music from them.  

Social: Waste of the Criminal Minds

I've been watching Sons of Anarchy.  I'll be honest.  Until a week ago, I thought it was a reality show following a motorcyle club.  Well, it's not.  It's a hard hitting, edgy drama about a criminal enterprise. It's a decent show and I'm watching it until all of Breaking Bad, including the last half of the last season is available on Netflix so I can binge-stream the whole thing.

I'm bringing this up now because remember a couple of weeks ago when two convicts escaped their Florida prison?  Well, it appears that the fake documents they used to escape were forged not from outside the prison but from within (CNN).

Watching the SofA show, more than a few times, I've sat there thinking "that's too far-fetched".  Now, I'm gonna have re-evaluate that somewhat.  Apparently, in the Florida prison escape, the two convicts doing hard time,Charles Walker and Joseph Jenkins, had help with creating the fake documents, then they were smuggled out, and those documents filed by someone from the outside.  And so far, there is no evidence that this daring escape involved help from employees.

Now, there is a review underway in Florida about giving prisons too much access to law information and other resources that evidently were used to create fake but legitimate-looking documents that passed for the real thing.

It's sad really.  Imagine what the mind of this prison or prisoners could really do in the real world to better society had they decided to use them that way.  Sure, they were probably stupid for getting into crime in the first place.  Maybe they didn't have a choice.  I'm not here to debate that issue.

It is just unfortunate that these minds are wasted and wasting away.  Personally, I do believe in harsh prison sentences but we also should try to put more resources into helping those move into more promising lives and opportunities.

With the rise of 3D printing, I'm both excited and scared what the criminal minds will come up with.  You can bet that fake documents would be the least of our worries.

Science Versus Applied Science

I read this article from Live Sciences that based on studies of data from the Kepler satellite, one in five sun-like stars have planets that occupy the habitable zone that fits a very liberal set of criteria that can support life as we know it.  As a science and science fiction fan, I think it's pretty exciting.  But I also wonder what the point of the Kepler mission is.

I get that if one day, we have the ability to go explore these planets in a starship or a probe, then it makes sense to do this.  As it is now, we can barely get to the moon.  Actually, we can't get to the moon right now.  There are plans to get to the moon but that's it.  Just plans.

And for me, that's where the science and technology debate comes in.  And how we should distribute our scarce resources today.  With government funding harder and harder to come by, can we afford to keep looking at deep space or should we try to find a way to the moon, mine asteroids for minerals, or even build more space stations.  And we really care about finding the smallest of small particles in the universe or should we try to build a sustainable fusion plant to provide clean, cheap power source?

Maybe I'm getting older.  Maybe it's just the way things are and we have to face some harsh economic and social reality.  But I wouldn't mind seeing more money funneled into fields of science and technology that would have more immediate impact.  Look, don't get me know.  Mapping out our neighborhood of the Milky Way so that one day we can send probes or starships to explore is great but we can just as easily do that one hundred or two hundred years from now.

Today, we have problems that need more immediate attention and issues that has to be addressed.

What do you think?

Social: Most Useless Use of Excel Ever

You'll want to check out this Excel sheet.  Or not.  It's a spreadsheet tells you what color shoes best goes with your pants, depending on its color.

Okay, maybe the Joker might find it useful.

Blackberry: No Takers, Relegated To App Maker Role But Small Chance Of Keeping Hardware Future

Black Monday for Blackberry today. For both the company and its fans.  Apparently, things are so bad there that there are no real takers who believe the company can be turned around and reclaim even part of its former glory.  And that is sad.

And apparently, the patents that Blackberry own do not have the value which many believe should have.  It's surprising because Blackberry is a pioneer in messaging and a trailblazer in smartphones as far as most are concerned.

Today, the CEO of Blackberry, Thorsten Heins, was forced out and it received an injection of $1 billion in investment.  The details aren't that important here.  It's how the investors perceive today's announcement.  Blackberry has apparently taken itself off the market.  And it's uncertain what its turnaround plan is if there is one.  That's the scary part for investors. And this development certain does not inspire confidence among developers and consumers.

There is a possibly a sliver of hope for mobile fans who want Blackberry to stay in the mobile hardware game.  It's new interim CEO, John Chen, believes Blackberry has enough ingredients to continue innovating on the hardware front (http://crackberry.com/blackberry-has-no-plans-shut-down-handset-business).  While that could just be PR talk, I'm also very confident that Blackberry with the right guy at the top could mount some sort of a comeback.  While I don't know if Chen is the right guy or not, certainly the old regime has not produce the results the mobile market had hoped for despite its best efforts.

I think that Blackberry has to change the narrative and get people talk about the future in ways that isn't about its products fighting an uphill battle against mobile juggernauts.  When Steve Jobs returned to Apple, he changed the narrative immediately by declaring the PC war over and it's on to the next phase.  Blackberry has to do the same.  It cannot possibly go up against Apple, Google, and Microsoft with a combined cash of around $250 billion.

State of Mobile Stores: Google Leads In Downloads And Apple In Revenue

Source:  Game Industry.

There's a lot of competition between Apple and Google over the mobile war.  In some limited respect, they're also partners - they're partners in that Google pays Apple for being the default search engine in Safari.  Google has a set of very good apps on the iOS platform - some of the best and innovative apps I might add.  Still, Apple likes to brag about the many billions they've already paid developers.

Right now, Google has surpassed Apple in the number of downloads.  It's to be expected as Google's Android platform owns a greater portion of the mobile market.  It's unclear if this include the non-Google variants.  Google has 1.25 times more downloads than Apple

However, Apple still leads when it comes to monetizing the app market.  The GI post is a very interesting read if you're a mobile developer or a mobile enthusiast keeping scores.  The iOS platform generates 50% more revenue than Google Play.

What's interesting is the placement of China.  We know that the US market will lead in terms of download and monetization for the seeable future.  China has jumped to number two in the US downloads.  Given the size of the market, well, that's expected.  And it should get bigger for Apple when it includes China Mobile as one of its iPhone partners.  What's surprise is the monetization in China.  China jumped two spots to land on number 3.

What's surprise is where Google Play is the biggest.  Japan then followed by South Korea because Samsung and LG are among two of Google's biggest Android partners.  One thing is missing for Play, which is China as Google has no ground game there for its Android devices.

Mobile: What Would Former Blackberry Execs Use When Their Company No Longer Make Phones

We already know that Google CEO Eric Schmitz uses a Blackberry.  It's not really a scandal or anything because he seems likes the type on physical keypads and there are no Android device with physical keys that can compare to what Blackberry makes.  And we also know that in the Gates household, there are no iDevices.  I think for the Gates kids, its probably just Lumias and Surfaces.  The executives for these two respective companies, Google and Microsoft, have choices.

But what happens when Blackberry, in the midst of its bleakest of nights, gets sold off as it is currently trying hard to do, gets broken up and sold off as parts, and stops making Blackberry hardwares?  Right now, with the Playbook really going nowhere, and let's be honest, hardly anyone buying it even with a steep discount, it's dead.

So, what are Blackberry executives, current and former, and employees using as tablets?  Android?  Probably.  iPads?  Yeah, I think it's right up there.  Surface?  Sure, why not?  But maybe they're sticking with their laptops.

But you can pretty much be sure that most of them have smartphones - probably everyone is outfitted with a Blackberry device.  That will remain the case until Blackberry stops making hardware - which could really be any day now.

So, what will the executives and employees lucky or unlucky enough to be around with what's will be left of Blackberry use?  Android devices and iPhones are the top choices.  Heck, maybe even some Windows Phone devices from the Microsoft/Windows BYOD fifth column in Blacbkerry.

Even now, I wonder what the Blackberry founders, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, are using.  Have they defected?  And what will they use post-Blackberry?  Interesting to think about.