Archive for the ‘Consumer electronics’ Category

Robots At Our Doorstep

There’s a really, really interesting blog post that talks about robots a little bit. It’s by Paul Miller on IEEE Spectrum and draws a parallel between how the personal computing industry got started and the state of robot development today. Specifically, it talks about hardware hackers. If you want to dig even deeper, there’s another [...]

Blogs are to Books are what TV-Shows are to Movies?

So Penelope Trunk wrote a book. I previously wrote about her here. A commentator on one of blog-posts asks: Penelope, I read your blog regularly. Is there anything in your new book that I wouldn’t have already gotten from your blog? Either way, I’ll probably buy it… but I was just curious. Posted by Kelly [...]

Paradigm Shifts Between Phone, Tablet, Desktop & Web Interfaces

…Or how not to approach development. It’s busy in Vincentland, but I’m still determined to regularly update Tech IT Easy. Today, my question is: What determines the choice for a platform? Is it market, personal taste and talent, or the desire to create something that fits a certain paradigm? In the end, no matter how [...]

Instapaper 3 is out

Best.app.on.my.iPhone. Period. So Instapaper 3 is out on iOS, which makes the app a whole lot more social and collaborative. What Instapaper does is that it allows you to save articles to it, after which it takes out all colours, (most) pictures, and side-bars, so you can focus on what really matters. If it wasn’t [...]

The Anti-Instagram

I have nothing against Instagram, I SWEAR, I have nothing against Instagram. The only inconsistency… I have never used Instagram. This post is an attempt to find out why. Shawn Blanc pointed me to the article “Instagram Founder Kevin Systrom’s 30-Second Rule for App Success,” which, exactly like the title states, is about how you [...]

The Great Divide

I sent off my V-moda headphone for repair. The address was somewhere in Los Angeles, California, and I live in the Netherlands. They checked it and sent me a replacement with no questions asked. The only problem? I sent them off on the 23rd of February and got them back yesterday, 15 days later. Even [...]

Dropkick – Syncable Todo’s Between Your Mac and iOS device

Briefly, as it’s an extremely busy week (but I am getting back into regular techiteasy-blogging, promised!) I’ve been looking for a syncable to-do list for a while. I’m a big BIG fan of SimpleNote, a syncable note-taking app that is free on your iOS device (with a premium service) and syncs with a number of [...]

Radiohead’s King of Limbs Album Review and a new look at Indie Music Distribution

I dig this album, else I wouldn’t review it, both in the context of riding the crap out my bike to make the train this morning, and while starting to write this post on SimpleNote at the station (In English: it works in a sports & and a creative context). There’s a lot of loops [...]

Features & Cost Comparisons between the iPad 2, the iPhone 4, & the MacBook

Most people haven’t read my previous posts on the iPhone, but they started out extremely negative. My main complaint was that touch-typing was inferior to physical keyboards and cost of the mobile subscription fees, also taking into account that I live in Europe and have to add roaming-fees to that equation. Then things happened quite [...]

Platforms, innovation and Nokia

There’s yet again a lot of silliness in the air regarding the future of Nokia. I don’t have any idea what will happen tomorrow, but it probably can be a decisive point on how well I can live when I retire (I guess a lot of my state-run retirement funds are in Nokia). This week Elop’s [...]

Is Apple’s FaceTime (meant to be) Disruptive?

Note from Vincent: Hey guys, sorry for the lack of updates on this blog. I can’t speak for everyone, but I’m very preoccupied with other things (that actually make me money) and really, really miss blogging on Techiteasy.org. If perchance, a random reader thinks he can blog at least 1-7x per week on business, tech, [...]

The Internet does not make much sense… On pricing digital goods and other illogicalities

“From my cold, dead hands…” It’s something that came to mind as I was thinking about writing this post. The part that doesn’t make sense about the Internet, today and perhaps since ever, is that American concept of “Freedom,” of independence and lack of governance. In my post on piracy, my point was not complete. [...]

Can we accept piracy as a necessary evil already? [Cranky Rant]

I have a general philosophy on the evolution of the B2C and B2B relationship, one that is inspired by history. Let’s look at some examples. Money first took the form of barter, then gold, then coins, then paper, and now bits and bytes. Transport: on foot (great shoe-sales), animals (great stable-sales), cars (great garage sales), [...]

Swedes know how to connect with music – or how to stream Spotify to the living room

ABBA, The Cardigans, Ace of Base and Roxette to name just a few – there’s no doubt Swedes have always known how to pump out pop music. So, it should not be a wonder that, once again, it took the Swedes to show how to bring music to the masses in the form of Spotify. [...]

The last retail store on earth—a fantasy story

The door slid open slowly, all that was visible from inside the store was a wide beam of light that slowly expanded into the shape of a door. The automatic triggers kicked in and the other security-panels in front of the windows slide open also, illuminating the last retail store left in the world 2020. [...]