Showing 11-20 of 170 results
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Farewell to two decades of navigating the currents
Database, James Hein, Published on 05/01/2011
» I had written and submitted this article before I heard the news. The Bangkok Post is reorganising its publication and Post Database is all but vanishing in the new format. So as far as I know this will be my last article as 'Currents' is one of those that will vanish in the reorganisation.
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Don't beam me up just yet, Scotty
Life, James Hein, Published on 05/12/2012
» Ever since I saw the movie Minority Report I wondered when we'd be getting similar technology in the real world. We're already seeing the large touch screens being used in TV shows like N.C.I.S. and Hawaii Five-O. The Microsoft Kinect, and similar platforms, gave us our first glimpse of such capabilities and since its introduction, two years ago, people have hacked and modified the technology to do all kinds of things beyond the simple scope of gaming. Examples include: controlling a quadrocopter; triggering a marketing display as people walk past; and using two of them to create 3D images for 3D printing.
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Paid applications market growing at healthy rate
Life, James Hein, Published on 12/12/2012
» Your app store needs more developers. According to the analysis firm Canalys about half of the money paid out is to about 25 developers both in the Apple and Google worlds. Given that there are over 700,000 apps to choose from this means that most people miss out. Most of the top earners are game developers like Rovio, Electronic Arts and the like. The stand out non-game developer was Pandora selling the obviously popular Pandora radio app that supports the personalised music experience. So as usual it is the developers with the brand name behind them that get the money and it is difficult for a new player to break into the market. Not unexpected from the survey is that the demand and associated market for paid apps is growing at a very healthy rate so give it a go, you have a chance of making something for yourself in the future.
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Ink and incremental change as Apple continues to fall
Life, James Hein, Published on 26/12/2012
» This year will be an interesting one and a little like 1998 because the world marketplace will be struggling, there will be little disposable income to go around, sales figures will be down and as a consequence there will not be a strong push to move computer technology very far. In the smartphone arena I predict that the Samsung Galaxy S4 will eclipse the iPhone 5S for two reasons. The 5S will be a catch-up model to the S3 with nothing special about it and at the same time the S4 will be well ahead of the 5S in functionality. Up until the iPhone 4, Apple dominated the market. With the release of the 4S and the passing of Steve Jobs things started to go downhill as Apple started to become reactive to the marketplace instead of a market driver. It moved to litigation and protectionism over inventiveness and innovation. So the downward slide of Apple will continue through 2013.
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Apple's dominance pegged by Samsung
Life, James Hein, Published on 02/01/2013
» For those that remember I like to use this issue to summarise what happened in 2012. Last year was finally the year of the tablet PC, and at the same time the smartphone wars. Coming into the year Apple was the dominant player in both the smartphone and the tablet arena with the iPad and the iPhone. It looked like Apple was unstoppable and at the end of the year they were still the biggest computer company beating out Microsoft in total sales. Apple also took a bit of a hit with the loss of Steve Jobs, the main driving force and the individual responsible for putting the company in the strong position it was.
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Sorry Redmond, I'm just not feeling it
Life, James Hein, Published on 09/01/2013
» My parents bought a new ultrabook and it was my job to set it up for them. Since all new home computers now come with Windows 8 it was a chance to take the PC version of the operating system for a test drive. So far I am not impressed. One of the first things I did was install an aftermarket Start button to keep it closer to their previous Windows experience. There are a number of these available, most of them are free and not only return the Start button but some of the original Windows 7 functionality you may like. Take a look at a few of them and decide what things you want or need to have.
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Get intellectual about your property rights
Life, James Hein, Published on 23/01/2013
» Some businesses still think they can dominate their customers. A good case in point is the recent Instagram initiative to change the terms of use on the Facebook-owned social network so it could use member's photos and sell them for profit, without any compensation. The response from members was instant, and not a very nice one. Facebook made a fairly quick about face on the issue but they never should have tried it in the first place.
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Office 2013 is now ready for lift-off, but will it soar?
Life, James Hein, Published on 30/01/2013
» I got my hands on Office 2013 a.k.a. Office 15 or even Office 365. The last one is the online subscription model, being the ideal version for Microsoft because you are essentially hooked forever. This comes in two versions with access to different features you can look up and starts at $100 (about 3,000 baht) per month. The advantage is you get access to the latest version at all times and you can access it from anywhere.
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Household names that just can't keep a secret
Life, James Hein, Published on 06/02/2013
» So which companies do you trust? Every year for the past seven, independent research group the Ponemon Institute has published a report on the Most Trusted Companies for Privacy. This US-based survey asks 100,000 adults to rate the larger organisations out there. This year, AmEx, HP, Amazon and IBM made the top four. Microsoft and eBay also got into the top 20, but Apple and Google didn't _ for the first time in several years. The problem is that people these days no longer trust IT organisations, believing that they have precious little regard for users' privacy. In fact, the prevailing opinion is that these firms collect users' personal info and profit from it, either by using it themselves or by selling the data to others.
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Apple's slide points to its fading allure
Life, James Hein, Published on 27/02/2013
» I was walking past the Apple store recently and wondering if as a heretic I was going to burst into flames as I walked in. After no signs of combustion I wandered round looking at the goodies.
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