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Android seen as long-term threat to iPhone? Numbers Don’t Add Up.

From Electronista

The analyst points out that Android phones are already trumping the iPhone on a daily sales basis, moving about 160,000 units versus the iPhone’s 95,000. Around 120,000 of RIM’s BlackBerries are being sold each day.

there’s something about these numbers that don’t add up. Google’s been trumping that number (160,000 per day) for some time now and yet they haven’t overtaken Apple or RIM in terms of sales for the last two quarters, and if these numbers are accurate they should have by now, and yet market share numbers don’t put them any where near Apple yet. So what gives?

Could it be that the 160,000 number is “Activations” and not sales. I don’t know how it works on Android, butI’ve activated my iPhone at least 5 times since I bought it. Something is clearly not right here as those figures just don’t add up.

(Read Android seen as long-term threat to iPhone | Electronista.)

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This weeks Apple “Controversy” is brought to you by….

I bet you thought that the Consumer reports un-reccomending of the iPhone would be this week’s big Apple controversy (which seem to be a regular feature of the technology press these days), but no. It’s that Apple moderators removed discussions of the report from the Apple support discussions. Oh the horror I hear you say. It’s blatant censorship. Or as 9-5 mac puts it:

“Apple appears to be panicking in its reaction to the widely-reported antenna issue plaguing most iPhone 4s — in its latest maneuver to attempt to ‘unthink’ the problem, company moderators appeared to delete threads which referred to yesterday’s Consumer Reports findings — only to change their mind and open these discussions again a few hours later.”

Oh dear. Where to start. Here’s another one of those things that is blown out of all proportion, but of course, it’s such a loaded topic that daring to point this out labels you an instant fanboy, or even worse, an apologist. But what the hell, I’ve been labelled worse. You see, here’s the thing about the Apple support forums. They’re for support. In other words, for solving technical problems. Apple has been pretty clear about this on many many occasions and they regularly remove threads that are not about support issues, or are irrelevant to the thread they are posted in, but instead are discussing some blog post. It’s not because they are trying to cover up some issue, it’s because it is someone’s job and they don’t want to loose it. If you actually read some of them they’re not so explosive that they would have been worth covering up in the first place. Like I said, Apple does this on a regular basis. I suspect the forum moderators did this without thinking. It wasn’t a directive from Jobs or anyone else, it was the guys in some basement somewhere doing what they’re paid to do.

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App Inventor for Android

From Google:

For many people, their mobile phone—and access to the Internet—is always within reach. App Inventor for Android gives everyone, regardless of programming experience, the opportunity to control and reshape their communication experience. We’ve observed people take pride in becoming creators of mobile technology and not just consumers of it.

Or in other words, in a couple of weeks after we release this we can claim that we have more developers and Apps on Android that Apple does on iOs. Even if they are all just glorified widgets. I think John Gruber puts it best:

“So has Google beaten Apple in the race for a HyperCard for mobile, or is this something less?”

(Read Official Google Blog: App Inventor for Android.)

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About that iPhone 4 Reception Problem (And the bigger issues in Technology Journalism)

By now you’ve all heard reports that the iPhone 4 has a “terrible design flaw” that makes it useless for calls once you pick it up. Well, ok, I’m exaggerating a bit but you’d be forgiven for thinking that with the way this story has spread like wild fire. Now, I don’t doubt that some people are having an issue with this, but I’m amazed at the way this story was reported and the way it was picked up by the mainstream news media. First of all, Gizmodo were pushing this big time on Thursday, along with any other story they could find to paint the iPhone in a bad light (including, surprise surprise, you drop it and it breaks). Big surprise. From there other blogs started picking up on it and then it reached the mainstream media. What amazes me about this is that, first of all, most of the people reviewing the phone never noticed an issue with it and that most reviewers had noticed improved reception.

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Porn Free

Apple isn’t the only company that doesn’t want to sell porn. Interesting how it’s not considered a “freedom” or “censorship” issue on the Playstation. I guess it’s ok for companies to decide what they want to sell or not sell so long as they’re not named after fruit.

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Ted Responds, I respond Back

Ted Landau has taken the time to respond. I’ll return the favour.

What struck me most about Fitzgerald’s column is how little of what he said had anything to do with what I actually wrote. He clearly had some arguments he wanted to present and intended to do so, even if what I wrote didn’t apply. What follows are some quotes from his column with my response.

• “I’m sorry, but that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.” [written in reference to a quoted paragraph from my article.]

If this is so, Mr. Fitzgerald must lead a very sheltered life. Perhaps I’m too biased to judge my own writing fairly, but it’s hard to imagine that anyone would have trouble coming up with at least a few things that are more ridiculous. But why quibble? This is a minor point.

You’re absolutely right. It was a bad way to phrase it. But I like to write like I’m talking to someone, and who hasn’t said something like “that was the worst movie I’ve ever seen” or some such thing. I know you know I meant that, but hey, like you said, why quibble. Still, I don’t believe that at any point I made a personal insult to you, so bad form on the “sheltered life” quip when you know that’s just an expression. I was arguing with what you wrote, not with you.

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Google on Android Battery Life

From Gizmodo:

Page was speaking at the Google Zeitgeist forum yesterday in London, when he was asked about battery life. Throwing the blame on third-party developers, he said that apps are the reason people may not be getting a full 24 hours of battery life. Twitter and other social networking sites constantly connecting to draw new tweets or status updates are battery-draining for sure, but even without these apps running there are still problems.

Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt was on hand to chip in that “the primary consumer of the battery life on these phones is the transmit/receive circuit. So tuning that and obviously figuring out a way to not use too much of that extends your battery life…and people bring in applications that are not particularly smart about that, which is what Larry is trying to get at.”

So what you’re saying is that Apple was right then ?

(Read Google: “If You Are Not Getting A Day [of Android Battery], There Is Something Wrong” – Android battery life – Gizmodo.)

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Atlantis’s Final Flight

A sad day as the USS Atlantis sets off on it’s final flight.

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