* Posts by Mikel

2643 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Oct 2008

Why Teflon Ballmer had to go: He couldn't shift crud from Windows 8, Surface

Mikel

In the cusp

After trying to prevent the transition to mobile for a decade, it is now happening without them. The next 24 months are utterly critical: one more mobile generation should make the transition permanant, leaving them no place in technology at all. To guarantee the transition it is essential the company be immobilized.

Nothing brings things to a halt faster than announcing a sweeping reorganization during a CEO transition. From high to low every member of the tribe not only doesn't know what to do, anything they do might be at cross purposes to the new leader's vision. It is brilliant, and could not come at a better time.

My only hope is that a year from now they announce the hunt for a replacement unsuccessful and start naming interim CEOs.

Google cripples Chromecast third party replay

Mikel
Devil

Overreact much?

Looks like Google has already come out in support of streaming local content. I am sure nobody is going to apologize for freaking out.

Oh noes! New 'CRISIS DISASTER' at Fukushima! Oh wait, it's nothing. Again

Mikel

$112B?

That wouldn't even compensate the displaced for their lost possessions, let alone their real estate - do you have any idea what 150 square kilometers (37,000 acres or 10 square miles) of Japan costs? It's not going to cover their medical treatments for the next 80 years either.

Folks here think you're an alarmist, and you are WAY too conservative.

Mikel

Stand near this puddle for 50 hours, die.

That is what it takes to kill 50% of humans - the LD50 is 5,000 millisieverts. 100 hours would be invariably fatal at 10,000 millisieverts.

Now living in a world where 8 inches of sea level rise by the end of the century and those inherent risks to life and property are reason enough to scuttle the entire world economy, that 100 millisieverts per hour looks like a pretty big deal. Do you have any idea how hard it is to drown in 8 inches of water?

Microsoft fights Google for kids' attention with ad-free Bing for Schools

Mikel

Los Angeles

Must have nothing to do with the plans to put an iPad in the hands of every one of Los Angeles School District's 640,000 students.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/26/los-angeles-school-district-ipad-scheme/

YouTube app returns to Windows Phone

Mikel

Re: And then it is blocked

I suppose the wizard who thumbed me down for delivering breaking news isn't going to come back and reverse it. Sigh.

Mikel

And then it is blocked

The app stopped working shortly after this article was published. Their Youtube API key is blocked.

Lawsuit claims Microsoft misled investors in Surface RT fiasco

Mikel

They knew and didn't say

Microsoft knew their Surface RT wasn't selling ( and wasn't staying sold), and didn't say. That's misleading investors. The Surface Pro isn't doiing much better, so more writedowns and lawsuits to come.

PEAK Apple: Cupertino's hopes died with Steve Jobs, says Larry Ellison

Mikel

Larry is charity buds with Bill Gates

He's still steaming about that whole Android/Java lawsuit he took the short end of too.

Larry Ellison is going to hate on Android and Apple for reasons having nothing to do with the quality of their efforts. In this regard he's best ignored. Sour grapes.

BlackBerry pie sliced up: Nuke-plant OS, BBM chat app, etc sale mulled

Mikel

Waiting by the deathbed? Story time.

I remember 'RIM when he was hale and well. And I remember when he began to turn pale. This day though, I remember it well; this was when we first knew 'e was a goner: http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2011/04/17/sell-research-in-motion-now/

Xbox 180: Microsoft scraps mandatory Kinect policy

Mikel

Preorders

Must be selling like crazy.

Google to snub Samsung, hand Nexus 10 to Asus – report

Mikel

Asus gets the next Nexus 10

But not the next Nexus 7. They're not building that one.

Despite Microsoft Surface RT debacle, second-gen model in the works

Mikel

The second one is gonna be great

They should probably make a launch batch of 20 million this time. No, 30 million. They will sell like hotcakes. They should probably make 40 million on the first run just to make sure they don't miss any potential sales over the holidays.Yeah, that's the ticket.

DON'T PANIC: Amazon's Chromecast late-ship email was a blunder

Mikel

Let me give a use case, real world example

Today we moved my 6 year old daughter into her own room from sharing a room with her older brother. They had Roku in their room, and Netflix. Mom gave us an old tube TV that went straight to trash because we don't have anything compatible with its solo cable TV input.

We got her a cheap Android Tab last Christmas. We had a spare 24" LED monitor with HDMI input and headphone output, and a spare PC amplified speaker set. We had a spare Chromecast to plug into it. It took three minutes to teach her how to get what she want on Netflix. She has TV in her new room now, as she understands TV to be, controlled by her Android tablet. I can hear her watching it now (Phineas and Ferb?). I don't think she is going to grow up understanding something like waiting for an episode to air at a certain time of day. We don't even have that.

Mikel

Actually try it

Then let's talk. I have four of them. They're only $35. Give it a go, and then engage with what you think of it.

Mikel
Angel

It's cool beans

Once I tried it I had to have one for every TV. The attraction is not what you seem to think it is. Plenty of folks buying it to keep every Best Buy shipment sold out in minutes still though, so it isn't like you are going to talk anybody out of buying it before everybody knows how amazing it is. Nice try though. Keep up the good fight.

Acer to downplay Windows in favor of Android, Chrome OS

Mikel

PCs are not profitable

Obviously the way to win profits is not to make more of them.

US feds: 'Let's make streaming copyrighted content a FELONY'

Mikel

Why not just abolish copyright altogether?

The prisons are full enough.

Microsoft cuts Surface Pro price by $100

Mikel

The next one will be good

We promise(*)

* - Some conditions apply.

Qualcomm exec on eight-core mobile chips: They're 'dumb'

Mikel

8 cores is dumb

The phones and tablets will have them though, so I guess we can write off Qualcomm.

Microsoft Surface sales numbers revealed as SHOCKINGLY HIDEOUS

Mikel
Windows

Re: The purpose of Surface

Ah, there's the link I've been looking for.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-06-19/why-microsofts-surface-tablet-should-shame-the-pc-industry

"Why Microsoft's Surface Tablet Shames the PC Industry" indeed.

Ashlee Vance, are you out there? Are you ashamed of yourself?

Mikel
Happy

Re: The purpose of Surface

Lenovo is the number one PC manufacturer by volume. Their profits for the last fiscal year were less than $700M - and it was a record year. They don't have $900M to write down on inventory, and $863M to spend on advertising for a product - Windows tablets - that is not only unproven, but actually has an 18 year history of failure. HP and Dell do, if they wanted to scrape profits off their successful server and services divisions and past profits to float Microsoft's mobile boat - but they don't and have no reason to. We don't even know the true horror of Surface failure yet and won't until this time next year because Microsoft only only commits to assess inventory writedowns once a year. They mention this several times in their 10-K, as if prepare to say "we told you this" when they report next year.

Hopefully those OEMs are taking this as a lesson learned that for once they didn't have to pay tuition for. What's clear is that none of the OEMs who made Windows RT tablets are going to run out of stock any time soon. All but Dell have begged off of the next spin, and Dell only hasn't admitted they can't afford the fare on this fun train because Michael Dell needs a $2B Microsoft loan to float his try to take the company private. He's not stupid enough to actually make any more of these, but he can't afford to admit it either.

It's kind of like Windows Phone. Nokia is the only brand still making Windows Phones. The rest have plenty of inventory to serve the demand until they discontinue the line. At this point I'm sure even Nokia would like to stop, but they're contractually obligated in a specific way - they are fully in the trap.

Mikel

Re: Soon to be the butt of another Simpsons Treehouse of Horror joke.....

You will be thrilled to know that the queen of Metro has been made boss of Windows Devices, and the Windows Phone guy has been promoted to oversee all of Windows in the last reorg. Make your own conclusions about the objective goal of that.

Mikel

Re: Why is this still considered newsworthy?

Some people aren't following the plot so closely.

Mikel
Facepalm

Re: Too bad

@ceebee "You just hit the core issue Don Jefe... WindowsRT is NOT Windows.. in the same way iOS is not OSX. Microsoft never quite got that message."

I'm afraid you're the one that didn't get the message. Application compatibility with legacy software HAS to go if Microsoft is to move forward. That is what Windows RT, WinRT, and TIFKAM are about. There is just too much legacy cruft in there to carry forward. 15 years of breaking their own stuff to ensure that their own apps have a leg up against WordPerfect and others results in an incoherent mess that even they can't work with any more. To effect this change they have to make their apps store viable, and then shift the OS under it. It seems to not be working.

Mikel
Windows

The purpose of Surface

OEMS lacked the necessary commitment to put Windows tablets over, so Microsoft had to show them how it's done. I guess they showed 'em.

Rumor has it they still have an obscene amount of inventory. Are more writedowns to come?

Asus has given up on Windows RT, leaving only Dell in the partner pool. Mikey Dell needs a $2B loan to take his company private so he at least can be counted on.

A new version launched into the firesale of the old version might see some headwinds. If you're thinking of buying the discounted kit be advised that Secure Boot means you can't change out the software.

You mean it's not perfect? Google to ship first Chromecast software fix

Mikel
Pint

Re: How does the user experience stack-up versus plain old HDMI / VGA cables?

Buffering... buffering... no.

My old kit had buffering problems, and had lower rez. Haven't seen the Chromecast go buffer crazy yet and it is definitely FullHD. If I had problems I could get a long HDMI cable and put the Chromecast somewhere that was better - or just put an access point in the room. We have wired gigabit Ethernet in every room. Did that myself some years ago when I had some leftover Cat5E from a job.

Mikel

Re: Logitech Revue

My Australian friend confirms that he has cast Youtube from his first-gen Nexus 7 after the recent Android 4.3 update to his Logitech Revue. Not might or will - has. I'm seeking independent confirmation.

Mikel

Logitech Revue

I have read a report that the Logitech Revue (GoogleTV) device works as a Chromecast device. Can anyone confirm this?

Typical! Google's wonder-dongle is a solution looking for a problem

Mikel
WTF?

Re: Why own two devices?

Predicting a flop of a new consumer electronics product that in its first version sold out the entire supply in the whole US, and all of the next month's production capacity as well in only a few hours is pretty bold. Especially when it only costs $35.

You can buy the thing right now on Amazon.com for over twice the list price, on eBay for thrice from resellers who bought retail, or wait the 3-4 weeks in the Play store because not one retail outlet in America still has them in stock. There are tales of a BestBuy location that lost ONE and couldn't clear it from their inventory database - they were inundated with calls because the website said they still had it. This is Apple levels of freakout product launch, lacking only people waiting on line in the rain.

Marvell, the maker of the chip, is bragging the design win now and offering the solution to third parties. A flood of similars is predicted.

I got two - and both with the Netflix deal. They are amazing now, and I can't wait to see what they'll become. Will be buying more for me and as gifts. Somewhere in Asia is a factory ramping up. I hope Google sent somebody out there to make sure the employees aren't suffering during the crush. As small and integrated as the thing is though, it's hard to imagine a lot of manual labor being involved. It's a question whether enough can be made to satisfy demand.

Success though? Made n units, sold n units the first couple days. Didn't even have time to deploy advertising and the related costs. Hard to call that a flop.

Mikel

Miracast

Just today my SGS3 phone got an update to its "allshare play" which is samsung's branded miracast. I have two Samsung TV's that support this. The purpose of the update is probably to remind me it has this feature now that Chromecast has so much attention. Can my phone see these TV's? No.

Mikel
Go

Re: DRM

Chromecast supports two UltraViolet DRM technologies: Google's Widevine and Microsoft's PlayReady. So it's built in. Just needs implementation in the digital lockers.

Mikel

ElReg must bash everything

If $35 to try something new and potentially useful is going to ruin your life then this is not the thing for you.

Microsoft haters: You gotta lop off a lot of legs to slay Ballmer's monster

Mikel

Re: The Xbox One ..

The terrific outlay for a new console may be their undoing. It will rob them of the cash flows they need to support their mobile and online efforts.

Mikel

"Branded"

This is a movie out recently (2012) that covers this delightfully well. Available on Netflix. IMDB only gives it 2 stars as a sci-fi drama, but as a documentary it is worth more.

Mikel

Why slay his monster?

As long as he is leading it in circles neither is any danger.

Apple KILLER decloaked? Google lovingly unboxes Nexus 7 Android 4.3 slablette

Mikel
Facepalm

Re: Nice but...

If you put an SD slot you have to pay Microsoft $8 - $25 per unit for the FAT/exFAT patent license, or be incompatible with most of the devices so formatted that will be inserted therein and suffer returns thereby, and/or suffer injunctions against the import of your product at the FTC. The hardware itself is $0.02, and the silicon and OS natively support it. Microsoft will use that license money to continue to try to kill Google in mobile, as that is what Microsoft allocates those revenues to. Therefore one of the conditions of Nexus devices is that they not have that slot hardware, because paying a competitor money to kill you is not an optimal strategy, and not delivering customer expectation that their camera or phone formatted exFAT uSDHC card will work in their Nexus tablet destroys brand value. SD is for Google a no-win scenario because Microsoft got in early and made their crappy disk format ubiquitous.

Nexus devices are not ever going to have SD slots. They don't need them. Google has worked around that. It's not about Google forcing you into their cloud as a proprietary strategy, it's about Google not paying to have themselves killed because they are not stupid. Get over it.

Mikel

Re: It only just clicked

"PC is still a far more popular platform, it's just that fewer people..."

Are buying PCs. People adore their PCs the most. They just BUY them less than tablets now. So PCs are fine. They're loved. They are not abandoned wretches. They'll sit there in the corner, turning grey with dust mostly unused, as we buy and embrace and use our new tablet and smartphone and converged devices. But they were our first love and we still hold them so dear that years from now we won't unplug them from the wall, drag them to the stoop and put them in the yard sale for $5 just in case we MIGHT have to pull up the quickbooks accounts from days gone by.

Purely logic.

Mikel
Thumb Up

Re: Nice but...

Fortunately for you they announced the Chromecast too. So you can browse your NAS with chrome browser and then stream to the tv in FullHD. $35 and includes 3 months Netflix. And supports 1080p netflix too.

Google Chromecast: Here's why it's the most important smart TV tech ever

Mikel

Re: El Reg is starting to understand

I don't have the whole picture yet either, but it's starting to come into focus.

They actually turn a profit at $35 and it's a slamming deal and impulse buy for what it already is, so they can sell a billion of these and not get hurt. It's theirs and it's open, so it doesn't have licensing fees and/or lock out their services and Android devices like Miracast and Airplay do (*), so they get the end-user to pay for breaking that barrier. So that's 1) Get millions of people to plug this in and use it. People will watch more Youtube so... immediate profit.

Bluetooth suggests 2) cloud gaming and desktop to me. That's more cloud services, more Google Office, more new things that wouldn't work with the proprietary wireless display options. Emerging markets are about to be forced off of XP and are falling in love with cheap Android tablets and phones as a first/only; this turns that and a TV or monitor and bluetooth KB/Mouse into a proper PC. There are a lot more applications for this as well - unlimited quantity of HighDef wireless displays for a Chromebook for example make that $200 product even more appealing.

And 2 suggests 3) People are going to need more high-bandwidth low latency broadband Internet. i.e. Google Fiber.

4) It uses their WebM codec, breaking down the barriers to that as well. Getting CE manufacturers to include this in their products should be dead simple - thereby making every TV, monitor, BlueRay player a WebM player, every digital cam, web cam and video cam a WebM recorder. This eliminates that obnoxious MPEG-LA who think they own all things video.

5) There's a Motorola connection in here somewhere but I can't find it yet. They'll probably announce later that it's Moto made and has special affinity to Moto Phones in some way. Direct streaming from the camera? Dedicated cameras?

6) Google Hangouts on your HDTV should pretty much close the deal for Google+, winning social.

7) It already starts at the ultimate limit 1080p: a faster, higher resolution device is not possible or needed until we get to higher resolutions on our mainstream HDTVs so any competing device is going to have quite the challenge beating it. There is no premium feature to make a superior competitor with, and 1080p+HDMI has a wide acceptance and a vast installed base. Introducing a competitor on price against an established $35 device is sheer suicide. Perfect timing to run away with the whole market.

(*) Yes, Android 4.2 can support Miracast. There are other issues here which are quite complex - particularly the point-to-point nature and the H.264 requirement, and legacy device incompatibilities. This is not a formal paper on the subject.

There is a lot more. But that's already a lot of freight to carry for a 2-day old $35 device.

Mikel
Meh

Re: I only regret that I have but one...

@Jerome Apple AirPlay is not compatible with Windows or Android as a sender. So it's great if you're an Apple person. If you're not, it's not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirPlay

Mikel
Gimp

Re: Damn - it's a trap

Look, every time Google drags one of these things out from top-secret development it's locked down in this way and you guys trot out the Google boogie man. And then a little while later Google opens it up because that's the Googley thing to do and you guys complain about that too.

Apple has a similar called AirPlay. It doesn't work with non-Apple stuff. Intel's been trying to get their Windows-only WiDi (Miracast, etc etc) to take off for a while now. Both of them cost a lot more and have compatibility issues with existing kit, doesn't work with legacy OS versions, has drivers to install or other such nonsense.

So on launch day Google publishes the software development kit for this gear and it's still wearing the "no sharing our secret sauce" badge from when it was Top Secret. Boo hoo. It works with iOS, OS X, Windows back to XP as well as our Android kit. The code is out there and they can't take it back. Google knows better than to try and make this a DeCSS issue. It will be open source with a permissive license soon enough. The darned thing is only two days old.

Mikel

El Reg is starting to understand

You don't have the whole picture yet. It is very, very big. But let's focus on the immediate. It is a very good deal as it is.

Chromecast: We get our SWEATY PAWS on Google's tiny telly pipe

Mikel

I have this thing

Bought it at Best Buy today and got the Netflix discount code. Set it up in 3 minutes using my phone. It does Netflix in FullHD, and YouTube (also FullHD) which my other devices didn't do in my living room. My kids are serious YouTube/Netflix junkies and have their own Android tablets to use as remotes and/or watch Netflix or YouTube. Naturally we have the 4 streams account so I can relax with a little TV too.

Just the FullHD Netflix is worth it to me. It's sad watching low rez video on a 1080p bigscreen. Also ordered one on Google Play (before the Netflix cutoff) for my TV and will get that in a couple weeks. Both my TVs are Samsung LED SmartTVs of recent vintage. We have Roku, Equizo Android stick, a pair of Smart Blu-Ray players, a home theatre, Wii, and a bunch of other ways to play media content but this beats them all for ease of use and quality of picture.

It's a decent little device and no doubt somebody will have XBMC and Ubuntu running on it shortly. I'll be casting various Websites onto the TV from my laptop to check that out. I expect all the online streaming services will be projecting to this display rather soon, and a whole industry to spring up around using this utility. This is going to change everything about the division between web and TV I think.

I'll be buying a few more as Christmas gifts and maybe a couple to lend out for friends to try so they can see what it is too. This is too cool.

Mikel

Shut down apps

I am pretty sure that Google is smart enough to not try to shut down the Chromecast version of deCSS.

Mikel
Windows

So Webify your local content

You do know that your Windows PC can provide a website that dishes your content over the Web to your local network (and not the rest of the world), right? No download - it's built right in. And then it isn't local, it's Internet that this thing can work with directly, and all your other devices too. Apps can webify your library too, with nice index pages. Almost all recent model network attached storage devices do this. If you're an Apple or Linux guy things are a little different to set up, but no big deal.

Chromecast: You'll pop me in for HOT STREAMS of JOY, hopes Google

Mikel

Re: But Can They Fix NetFlix?

The Netflix interface for this device is the Google Chrome browser and the Netflix website. It doesn't have an interface of its own. In fact, you can also just browse the various recommendation websites and click to the streams and then send them to the device. Or use Google.

Everybody else will be sending their streams to this thing too so it's not just for Netflix, Google Play, Amazon and such. They published the developer kit today too.

Mikel
Pint

Re: "Available now" ???

There were some beta testers who have actual product already to review. And there are reviewers paid to trash products they've never seen too.

Hope your stay is extended because stores won't have them until next week. Maybe trust somebody to buy you one and mail it?

Online stores are now sold out a month or more. Seems it is a hit. Crystal ball says: hit products launched in July _just might_ still be sold out for Chrimbo.

Yahoooo! - Activist! investor! leaps! overboard! jingling! with! cash!

Mikel

Re: Hey...

Microsoft is too big a fish for him. Warren Buffet might tackle it, but he's not one to meddle in tech and hasn't got the energy left to win. Besides, he plays in Bill's charitable efforts so would shy away for that reason if no other.

Ballmer will be well away in four years, when his daughter graduates college. Patience.

Mikel

other news sites.

Well, bye.