The history of the smart watch, part 1 – calculation and entertainment

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With the recent development of so-called “smart watches”, designed to communicate with modern smartphones to display notifications, and in many cases run various applications on the watch, I felt that it would be a good idea to document the history of the smart watch.

After all, the modern smart watch is far from a new idea – watches that could run user-installed software have existed since Seiko’s Wrist Information System in 1984, and notifications have been pushed to watches since Seiko’s Receptor in 1990, and Swatch’s the Beep in 1991.

I’m going to stretch the definition of smart watch a bit for this history – the definition I’m operating under is something like this: “A watch that has functions in addition to timekeeping-related functions, such as calculation, data storage, scheduling beyond an alarm, ability to load arbitrary code, music (beyond alarm tones) and/or video playback, or reception and/or transmission of radio signals for functions other than setting time.”

Also, due to the existence of various devices that have watch-like form factors, but are not meant to be worn as watches, I’m going to restrict this discussion to wrist watches. Continue reading “The history of the smart watch, part 1 – calculation and entertainment”

What’s going on with the HP TouchPad?

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So, most likely, you’ve heard by now that HP announced on Thursday that they are discontinuing all of their webOS hardware. (I’m gonna single-source most of this, simply because it’s easier, and I generally like This Is My Next’s reporting. They link to their sources, so…)

Friday, reports began coming in that the TouchPad was being fire-saled at $99 and $149. At this price, they’re already sold out almost everywhere… except they keep popping back up in stock. And, HP’s site has a notifier for when they come back in stock – and it’s clearly aware of the fire sale.

What’s going on here?

So, when I heard that HP was discontinuing their webOS hardware, I first thought that webOS was doomed – after all, if the hardware was discontinued, nobody will want to touch the ecosystem, even any potential licensees (which HP has claimed they’re trying to do).

But, I think this is something different entirely.

I think one of two things has happened:

  1. HP was lying about discontinuing their webOS hardware. What’s interesting is that they’re coming back in and out of stock, here. Why would that be, if the hardware isn’t being made any more? And, they just updated things the day before shitcanning all of their hardware to say that the TouchPad 4G was coming out…
  2. HP already has a licensee lined up.

If they’re lying about discontinuing their webOS hardware, this was one hell of a way to build a huge install base quickly – and now developers can’t say “nobody has webOS devices”. The fact that a product that HP is taking a massive loss on is being “found in warehouses” tells me this might be the case.

If they already have a licensee lined up, they need to keep the platform alive until that licensee is churning out hardware. So, the same strategy works – loss-leader TouchPads for everyone!

Only time will tell what’s actually right, though…

Mac OS is the new Apple II, iOS is the new Mac OS

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This is a thought that I’ve actually had for a while now, but I thought I’d put it in a blog entry.

There’s plenty of signs, in my opinion, that within 5 years, there will be no more Mac OS, or it will be a niche OS for developers and such. Instead, iOS will be Apple’s main platform. And, Apple’s target market will embrace this change.

So, you’re asking, what evidence do I have for this happening? Read after the break, and you’ll see my evidence. Some of this is sourced from rumors, but some isn’t. It’s not in any particular order, either – just because I have it listed earlier doesn’t mean it’s more important. Continue reading “Mac OS is the new Apple II, iOS is the new Mac OS”

Why tablets suck, and have set us back over a century

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Tablet computers are being marketed as one of the most innovative computing devices yet, but, in my opinion, there are some fatal flaws with the concept, as a mainstream computing device.

There are applications where such devices are useful, but the trend towards tablets as potentially replacing desktop and laptop personal computers, or “tabletification” of those platforms (see what’s going on with Windows 8 for an example of that) is, in my opinion, hazardous.

So, I’d like to discuss why this is such a bad idea. I won’t bring up any specific tablet OS, other than as examples to illustrate my point, however – this isn’t meant to be a slam against specific OSes, but rather against the trend of tabletification itself. Jump past the break for a breakdown of what I see wrong with the tablet concept. Continue reading “Why tablets suck, and have set us back over a century”

How to fix cellular networks, and put control back in the hands of the customer

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Right now, in the US, the cellular marketplace consists of an oligopoly (one that’s shrinking, even, with AT&T’s attempted purchase of T-Mobile) that colludes against customers, and small carriers that can’t get a foothold due to their weak coverage.

I’d like to propose a solution to that problem.

I feel that utilities should be provided by customer-owned cooperatives. This way, customers are in control of their own utility service, rather than having to take what some corporation gives them.

However, with cellular telephony, you need a strong national network to be truly successful, and the oligopoly will fight tooth and nail to screw you over with roaming fees, if you don’t have your own national network. And, at a national level, a co-op loses effectiveness as far as effectively representing its customers – not to mention the costs of building out a national co-op cell network.

So, rather than try to build out one large national network, here’s the idea that I’ve had.

Have individual local co-ops that provide service only to the local area. This won’t be very effective on its own, except…

The next step is to have a national organization that all of the co-ops can join. When a co-op becomes a member, their subscribers get fairly priced roaming access on all of the member co-ops. This way, for a relatively low investment, a co-op can start up, join the network, and instantly have national access, and the entire co-op gains even more network coverage.

Obviously, the big challenge would be starting up, although that’s not impossible – small carriers have been known to start up before, after all. And, until the national network is in place, roaming agreements can be made with other carriers.

Other challenges would be selecting network standards, setting roaming rate policies that are fair to all parties, and promotion.

So, does anyone want to see this happen? Especially people who have the knowledge and connections to make it happen?

Communications networks, Tunisia, Egypt, Lieberman, UBB, and you.

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Recently, revolts in Tunisia and Egypt have caused the governments of those nations to shut off access to the Internet, to try to prevent protest groups from communicating.

Also, various politicians in the US have been proposing an “Internet kill switch” that would disable access to the Internet, if our infrastructure is threatened. Of course, there’s no checks and balances on that…

In addition, major ISPs in Canada are forcing smaller ISPs into a nasty “usage based billing” scheme that threatens to ruin the Internet for Canada. Of course, US ISPs are seeing if they can get away with it.

So, in light of that, I think it’d be a good idea to set up infrastructure to work around any potential shutdowns or restrictions – both by the government and by ISPs. Continue reading “Communications networks, Tunisia, Egypt, Lieberman, UBB, and you.”

Why Apple is evil: Blocking the sale of SSD upgrades for the MacBook Air

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Haven’t done one of these for a while…

So, Apple is apparently blocking the sale of a 256 GB SSD upgrade for the MacBook Air, by threatening a Mac accessory manufacturer’s license to Apple’s technologies.

This one sets a nasty precedent… apparently Apple doesn’t want people upgrading their machines? And if you don’t like 128 gigs in an 11.6″ machine, you have to go to a 13.3″ machine? I don’t like this one at all.

Source: Engadget

What do you like about your favorite OS, and what do you dislike about it?

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So, I’ve had some ideas on what I’d like to see in my ideal OS, but I’d like to see what others think.

Now, I could just say, “what do you want in your dream OS,” and someone would certainly suggest various things that haven’t been done – which is a good thing. But, we live in the real world, and we use OSes that exist, and have been proven to work (or not work, as the case may be.) So, what’s your favorite OS, what do you like about it, and what do you dislike about it? In other words, if someone were to make a new OS inspired by your favorite OS, characteristics would you want them to keep, and what would you want them to change (and how would you have them change it?)

Please refrain from flaming others for their OS choices, or their reasons for liking or disliking an OS. Offending comments will be edited out. 🙂

More fun with retrocomputing

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Added some retrocomputing stuff to my “collection,” so thought I’d post about it.

We’ll start with the smallest machine and work our way up. I bought a replacement eMate 300 (mine died in a fall, and I literally cannot find where the component came off the motherboard to replace it,) but this one has the RAM/flash upgrade – faster, and has a useful amount of storage.

Next up is an upgrade to my IIGS – a ZipGSX, this one with all of the card upgrades, and running at 10 MHz with 32 kiB cache. I’ve got parts on the way to make that either 12 or 12.5 MHz and 64 kiB cache, though. Having an accelerator makes a world of difference with performance – things happen on the desktop almost instantly, GNO/ME works significantly faster, Spectrum becomes much more practical for telnet use, etc., etc., etc.

Finally, something I’ve been thinking about getting for a while, and has been in the works for a couple months… I posted a request on P370-L asking if anyone would be willing to sell a Personal/370 Adapter/A, which was IBM’s first “mainframe-on-a-card” for PCs. Pretty quickly, I got an e-mail offering a PC Server 500 System/390 8641-MYC, which runs a much more modern version of that card (compatible with ESA/390 software, whereas the Personal/370 is only compatible with 370/XA,) for cost of shipping.

It arrived yesterday, and it looks like I’ve got a project on my hands, bringing it up. Some of the MCA cards came loose in shipping, and need to be reseated. Here’s the specs on what I’ve got, though:

Pentium 90 (all PC Server 500s have this,) 32 MiB of RAM
Dual SCSI RAID controllers (each with two channels)
Dual LANStreamer (not gonna be that useful, I don’t have Token Ring)
Two ethernet cards (that will be useful)
Some XGA card, I think
System/390 processor card
96 MiB S/390 RAM card (the most for this configuration)
14 hard drives totalling 159.3 GB

Yeah, this will be a fun one to set up. I plan on running VM on it, and maybe playing with the other IBM mainframe OSes as well.