We all make selection in living , and some of them are at long last coming home to roost . Android wakes up in bed with the wrong search engine while Apple attempt to wrick its life around and clean up its App Store act . Finally , the founder of an Apple competitor provides a cautionary tale : prefer your metaphors sagely kids !
Better to just chew it off
The Macalope was surprised to take this hebdomad that the default search locomotive on one of Verizon ’s latest Android offering will not be Google , butBing(tip o ’ the antlers toDaring Fireball ) . Guess that settle it . Android is opened !
Well , not on the nose . turn out it ’s Bing andonly Bing .
Microsoft saysthe deal is “ not exclusive,”meaning it ’s not undivided to Microsoft . If you buy a Samsung Fascinate from Verizon , however , it ’s go to palpate middling single .
Microsoft today partly confirm and minimize its deal for Bing on Verizon ’s Android phones . It told SAI that there would be multiple Android phones on the attack aircraft carrier that would apply Bing by default , but that the deal was “ not single ” and that some of them would still use Google as a matter of course . The example gave no cue as to which companies or gadget would get the discourse .
That sure sounds like the Microsoft we ’ve come to have a go at it and loathe . It ’s nice that some affair have n’t alter !
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The horny one is bemused , though . What on the nose is Google ’s path to “ victory ” if common carrier can make headphone that exclusively habituate Bing ? formulate a fluid OS ca n’t be inexpensive . What ’s in it for Google if bearer block their shaft ? Was n’t that the whole point of Android ? Now they ’re either doing it out of the goodness of their gist ( HA - HA - HA ! ) or purely out of ego .
The companionship ’s basicallylost mastery of its own operating system . Froyo , the latest version — and the one that was hypothesize to cater some union — wasreleased a few month ago , and now hasa whap 4.5 percentage part of the Android installed radix . The Macalope does n’t know for sure , but he would n’t be surprised if iOS 4.1,released on Wednesday , has a higher share of the iOS market than that . ( Update : Google post new numbers yesterday and Froyo now has a 28.7 % share which is more respectable butstill not in iOS 4 ’s district . )
Everyone need to compare the Apple / Google nomadic OS wars to the Apple / Microsoft desktop wars of the 1990s . But if Compaq ever come out of personal credit line , Microsoft always state them to go jump-start in a proverbial lake . And then it press them in an literal lake . make full with sharks . A special strain of fresh water with child livid shark that the company had genetically organize for that particular intention . And then it pour oil into the lake and get down it on fire .
Google does n’t seem to be able to do that kind of leverage . Android ’s democratic , there ’s no abnegate that , but at what cost comes popularity when you wake up in a strange hotel room with your sleeve around Bing ?
Let the healing begin
The big word of the calendar week is Apple ’s relaxation of App Store rule , removing the restriction on programing languages and intermediary translation and compatibility layers(whew , that ’s the sort of talk that starts the Macalope ’s engine ) . As long as an app uses documented APIs and does n’t contain fart auditory sensation , its prospect of getting approved just went from zero to , well , a number greater than zero but still less than 100 per centum .
It ’s hard to look at this particular change as not being a result ofthe FTC ’s probeinto potential anti - trust issues with the ill-famed section 3.3.1 ( the Macalope knows it ’s infamous because he can quote the number without looking ) . It seems potential Apple wanted to guard off the FTC . Other , more charitable rendering suggest that Apple decided Adobe ’s cock were unlikely to gain wide - bed covering use , because they would n’t be able to fork up anything thatdidn’t sucking . Or that Apple determine there was no coherent means to accept prick that it want to earmark — like Unity — without also accept Adobe ’s tools . Or that it was on the spur of the moment filled with making love .
But sometimes it takes a run - in with the law to make an intervention piece of work .
Whatever the case , this is a good thing . Or so the Macalope supposes . When Apple impose the restriction , his position was that it was probably the wrong thing to do , but he could n’t get work up over it because a Flash hybridizing - compiler was mainly a sound thing for developers , not for user . mack user have had to put up with lousy , second thought ports for years — let ’s hope we ’re not going to see a overflow of them on the iPhone .
What ’s just flat - out great , though , is the publication of App Store guidepost , something developers and furry pundits have been ask for for a longsighted clock time .
See ? And it only take on two years of screaming , cry , and threatening to go out the political platform . Who says Apple does n’t listen ?
Mad scientist
So many crazy thing have been said about Apple over the old age that it ’s hard to get someone who ’s innovative enough to come up with something new . That ’s why the Macalope want to congratulate Acer beginner Stan Shih for his advanced workin the field of crazy talk .
Apple ’s ware are “ mutant computer virus ” that need to be cured , Acer ’s Lord Stan Shih claimed to reporters recent Wednesday .
Acer ’s product , meanwhile , are more like your average yeast infection .
Shih saw Steve Jobs ’ insistence on revolutionary computer hardware as create rampant but short - terminal figure growth for gimmick like the iPad and iPhone . While initially successful , the approach would finally be defeated by competitor that “ evolves naturally ” and becomes “ resistant ” to the Apple effect , the executive director insisted .
Well . Looks likesomeonegot aMichael Crichton boxful setfor his birthday .
He trot out the repeated example of the Mac and incriminate that it was marginalise in a standardized process .
Right ! draw a blank the fact that over that full point Apple was pass by first Larry , then Mo , and finally Curly before Steve Jobs came back . Forget the fact that the ship’s company could n’t manage its supplying chain to literally save its spirit . blank out the fact that it licensed the Mac O and lease the clone - Jehovah eat its lunch . Forget all that ! Mutant virus !
[ point hoof at ear , makes orbitual motion , rolls eyes . ]
He did n’t have an response for why the iPod is still the dominant spiritualist player despite being a closed base .
He did n’t ? ! Wow . That ’s weird , is n’t it ? Seemed like he had it all figured out .
Maybe you need to head back to your lab , Louis Pasteur .
