Posts tagged with "marco"

Feb 28

Cellular Macbooks

While I agree with Marco that only some minor changes would be needed to prepare OS X for cellular connections, the only way it would be of interest to me is if they were able to deliver a carrier-neutral device. Locking a substantial capital purchase like a decently configured Macbook Air or Pro to a single carrier just seems incredibly silly and shortsighted to me.

Phones, Tablets and netbooks are all acceptable risks in my eyes, but once you pass the $1000 mark, the idiocy of the carriers’ decisions in just the past year comes into sharp focus.

Posted 2 months ago

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macbooks, macbook, macbook air, macbook pro, apple, cellular macbook, marco, marco.org,

Jul 11

That’s not what [the patent system] is for.

The system is not [there] to protect us.

It’s a system for big companies to fight with each other…

…and for a bunch of ridiculous lawyers to make way too much money leeching off of [software developers’] creativity.

Marco Arment on Patent law on Build and Analyze #82 (~43 minutes in)

The entire segment he did on Patent Law was probably the most succinct and well articulated vocalized summary of the situation for indie developers I’ve heard.

It basically boils down to this (this is me, not Marco):

  • Patents are hideously expensive to acquire.
  • Patents are even more expensive to defend.
  • Patent Law does nothing to protect the singular inventor any more.
  • Software Patents in particular need to be abolished.

Source: 5by5.tv

Posted 10 months ago

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build & analyze, marco arment, marco, quotes, podcasts, 5by5,

Jun 23

Link Microsoft’s developer problem

marco:

What can Microsoft do to encourage developers to create great Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 apps?

Release a WinPhone 8 development kit for OS X?

I can think of more than a few iOS devs who would write a Windows Phone app if they didn’t have to use Windows to do it.

To borrow cliche, Microsoft is always going one step forward and two steps back with their thinking lately.

They come up with an interesting, extremely flexible UI paradigm in Metro and use it with great success on their Xbox platform and their phone platform (success is relative here). Then they half-ass adopt it on their desktop platform, clinging to their previous UI as a lifeboat instead of drawing a line in the sand and telling developers to get on board or get left behind. Then they port that half ass paradigm for a tablet platform.

They effectively ditched the lumia 900 with the announcement of Windows Phone 8, losing what little credibility they had gained as a potential challenger to the iPhone.

They announce an integrated hardware/software approach to tablets, but fail to release critical details, which has created a lot of doubt. In addition, instead of throwing support behind one tablet platform, they split things, yet again, fragmenting things before they even have a price point or battery life figures.

In what is almost a cliche event at this point, a demo Surface crashed during the announcement presentation. I once had a TA tell me before presenting a project, make damned sure everything you show me works. If it doesn’t work, and you can’t fake it and make it appear to work, don’t show it to me.

All of this makes me wonder: how in the fuck has the Xbox been able to consistently kick Sony’s ass? Why aren’t there 4 Xboxes, each offering a tailored feature set including one with an upgradable video card and 12 USB ports and a full qwerty keyboard unit?

Are the mobile and desktop OS guys just that spineless compared to the Xbox guys? Or does Balmer just not give a shit about gaming and is happier to keep running the mobile and desktop sides of the house into the ground?

Reblogged 11 months ago from marco

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Marco, Microsoft, Xbox, Surface, Windows, Windows Phone,

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