Category Archives: Tech News

Jonathan Ive – The Man behind Apple

The Sunday Times published a 5 page article on Sir Jonathan Ive.

“Jonathan Ive designs tomorrow. He has transformed computing, phones and music with his iMac, iBook, iPad, iPhone and iPod. Apple’s secrecy and his modesty means he has never given an in-depth interview — until now.

Only one country has made the modern world twice. Britain. We industrialised first and paved the way for the mass production of everything from cogs to togs. Two centuries later, two rather shy blokes from London have defined the 21st century as the technology century. Sir Tim Berners-Lee from East Sheen invented the world wide web, then a chap from Chingford put it in our hands, our pockets and our ears. We’ve been taking it — him — with us ever since.

We use Jonathan Ive’s products to help us to eat, drink and sleep, to work, travel, relax, read, listen and watch, to shop, chat, date and have sex. Many of us spend more time with his screens than with our families. Some of us like his screens more than our families.”

I actually subscribed to read the rest. But annoyingly to buy the single episode you needed a Kindle device.

Apple passes Samsung in emerging markets – why?

People want what they can’t have. For many of those living in emerging markets, that’s an iPhone.

Apple is the most desirable mobile-phone brand among inhabitants of emerging markets, according to a report from marketing firm Upstream and researcher Ovum. In the study conducted this year, Apple edged out Samsung Electronics, which was the leader in a separate survey by Upstream last year.

Samsung saw a slight decline in its share of developing-market consumers who favour its phones from 32 percent to 29 percent, according to Upstream. Apple’s share jumped dramatically from 21 percent to where Samsung was last year. More at Bloomberg.

With market research like this, Apple is very unlikely ever to lower its prices.

Nokia X – One Million pre-orders in China – not so fast

It turns out Nokia’s Weibo announcement of 1 million pre-orders for the Android Nokia X is potentially misleading according to wmpoweruser.

LiveSide.net reported that the number was generated at retailer JD.com, and that the pre-orders, which unusually for China did not require any registration or money down, was part of a contest to win the handset with instant wins ie. Click the pre-order button and you can win a Nokia X.

Entrants were also able to “pre-order” for each of the 4 colours, suggesting much less than 1 million Chinese were interested in the handset.

On the other hand LiveSide does note that at around $100 the handset is pretty cheap, even for an Android handset, so it may still do pretty well in the end. However for now we should withhold judgement until much more information is available.

Nokia won’t be the first company nor the last to manipulate sales figures. Let’s hope they can sell a lot more than this figure in any event.

Chromecast is coming officially to the UK – very soon

Techradar reported that months of waiting and procrastinating, the long-awaited Google Chromecast streaming dongle will finally go on sale in the UK this coming Wednesday 19 March, according to leaked Dixons retail inventory revealed on Twitter.

My only concern is it’s limited use at the moment. So who wants one or has obtained one already? And if you have one, what did you use it for?

Why is Sony crippling Sony Centres?

I was shopping in Plymouth and popped into my local Sony Centre enquiring about the Sony SBH-80 Bluetooth headset. It’s a new headset but because it was advertised on the Sonymobile website as opposed to the Sony.co.uk website the Sony Centre shop advised they may not be able to order item for me.

What on earth is Sony trying to do? Consumers will just see Sony on the branding and be bemused by this situation. Meanwhile, this could impact the survival of a really good store.

Major UK Supermarket gets hacked with sensitive data stolen

Morrisons says the vast majority of its staff have been affected by the theft of payroll data.

BBC business correspondent Emma Simpson has been told that details of around 100,000 employees have been stolen.

The information, which includes bank account details, has been published online and sent on a disc to a newspaper, according to the firm.

Morrisons said its initial investigation does not point to the work of an outside hacker.

The Bradford-based chain sought to allay shoppers’ fears by saying there had been no loss of customer data.

Morrisons says that staff will be not be “financially disadvantaged” by the data theft.

The company’s response is being led by Chief Executive, Dalton Philips.

He is working with the police and cyber crime authorities to track down the source.

More at BBC News.

Haunted Empire – Apple After Steve Jobs

I bought the above book after hearing about it on the Cultcasts podcast. I got it from Amazon Kindle Store as a digital download.

I have now finished reading the book and it really does offer a no holds bar look at Apple. In fact if you are an Apple Fan Boy you might even take offence. But you shouldn’t. Nothing in the book is revolutionary but it is very well written.

And it does make me think hard at some of the devices I have owned and the dangerous tortuous conditions workers endured.

Well worth a read in my opinion.

Rakuten CEO aiming for 2 billion Viber users – details

Hiroshi Mikitani, chief executive officer of the Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten Inc. (4755), aims to expand to 2 billion users with his acquisition of messaging service Viber Media Inc.

Growth for Viber’s free messaging and Internet calling app is already accelerating. It’s adding 600,000 users daily, up by about 50,000 from Feb. 14 when the deal was announced, and that can rise to a million a day, Mikitani said in an interview. Viber had about 300 million users at the time of the deal.

Mikitani, 48, is plowing cash into technologies such as mobile applications and online video as he seeks to expand Rakuten beyond its core business as an online marketplace. The strategy has led to rising competition with companies such as SoftBank Corp. (9984), Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc. (FB), which agreed to pay $19 billion for the messaging service WhatsApp just five days after Rakuten unveiled its deal.

Viber is a good messaging service but competition in very tough in this arena so it will be interesting to see how this unfolds.

More at Bloomberg.