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Apr
07
2012

Apple Is Not Like Sony: What Does the US Do Really Really Well? (keep creativity in education in America)

Screen Shot 2012 04 07 at 8.11.09 AM Apple Is Not Like Sony: What Does the US Do Really Really Well? (keep creativity in education in America)

UPDATE 4-15-12: This in from ZDNet: Sony revival plan: Cut 10,000 jobs; refocus on phones, TV, gaming

When I got my first generation Sony Walkman(tm) as a Christmas gift from my older sister from New York, it cost $200. "Everyone has them, in New York," she said. She was quite pleased that she’d pulled off such an amazing surprise. Of course she had no idea how transformative her gift would be for me and for the world.

I walked around the next 10 years, through high school and straight into college, working to make my Walkman(tm) experience better and better. Thinner versions, versions that used fewer batteries, utilitarian plastic versions. And I bought a new pair of hi-fidelity headphones about every six months. There was a huge market in high-end headphones.

And Sony was sitting on top of the global electronics industry. Everything Sony touched was "the best" engineered and designed product made. TV’s, chordless digital phones, cell phones… Uh, wait, let’s come back to that one.

Then came the MP3 format, unleashing on the world a simple and fairly good compression scheme to get digital music CDs from the unfriendly 300 mb to more manageable 70 mb. And all hell broke loose. Napster arrived and the world of music was forever changed. The only problem was… SONY MISSED THE MEMO.

Rather than embracing the new format that was creating new companies overnight trying to meet demand for the players and the web services, SONY did something very corporate, very uncreative, very stupid. SONY bet against the MP3 format, in favor of their own proprietary digitally-protected format. A removable media format called Mini-disc. Ever heard of it? If you have you probably remember the Beta-Max.

Jump cut to today, SONY is floundering. They’ve hired and fired CMOs, CEOs, CFOs, and no one can seem to unlock the formula for success that SONY used to thrive by. And they continue to bet against the rest of the world with their "proprietary" technologies. I am not sure if it’s the SONY-PRIDE "made here" mentality that keeps them pressing things the global consumer doesn’t want, like memory sticks rather than the smaller and more inexpensive micro-ram cards. Heck they were even caught with their hands still in the DRM cult when a local Austin developer discovered SONY’s audio CDs were installing some kind of virus on his hard drive when he played them. (Welcome to SONY 2008!)

And here’s the rub. SONY still makes some of the best-designed and best-engineered products in the world. While they have lost some of their dominance in the TV and Laptop business, their products are some of the most Apple-like, cult-inspiring products on the market. So why don’t we care? Why did I steer my friend away from the Sony VIAO laptop she liked and advised her to buy the Toshiba?

Okay, back to the music fiasco in the making. SONY SIMPLY OWNS THE PORTABLE MUSIC PLAYER until the MP3 format began to catch on. Rather than create some innovative MP3 products, SONY fought for their "superior" product. And they even launched aggressive anti-MP3 campaigns, being that they own one of the largest music catalogs in the world. So to protect their corporate profits both with the portable music player and the licensing and distribution of music, SONY did a historic face plant.

If you look at Apple and the iPod and contrast that with SONY and the Walkman you begin to see how the two companies approach EVERYTHING differently. (Other tech companies that are more SONY-like: HP, Dell, Motorola)

While SONY was protecting their device format and their music business in the name of their shareholders, APPLE went in the opposite direction. Steve Jobs return to Apple signaled a new era in innovation and forward thinking. And the iMac was the first HIT. Overnight Apple changed the industry again, with a beautifully simple, brightly colored, computer. Nobody saw it coming. Nobody was able to copy them quick enough, though many tried.

Next, perhaps the technology that sold more iMacs than even the cool design and the cool colors, MUSIC. Of course Apple and the Mac had always been computers for Designers, Artists, Musicians, and the "rest of us." But the Christmas of 2001 Apple launched a full-out assault on plain the beige box desktops and black laptops of EVERYONE ELSE. The campaign slogan. RIP. BURN. PLAY.

The Apple iMac was exponentially leapfrogging everyone else in design, yes, but it was jumping into bed with the Napsters and Open Anarchists of the world. The corporate world was not impressed. The consumer market ignited and the sales of blank recordable media skyrocketed. Apple had produced the first, affordable music authoring, MP3 ripping, and music CD burning device on the market.

And the world did not see what was coming next. Even Steve Jobs himself, was a bit surprised by the smash hit that arrived next. The iMac re-established Apple as a profitable computer company. Jobs was the returning champion, the prodigal son, the idiot savant that had solved both the cool computer design problem and distributed the RIP. BURN. PLAY. software on the iMac for FREE.

The next act: iPod.

So why didn’t SONY create an iPod? Why was the SONY Digital Walkman such a flop? And even when the SONY Digital MP3 Walkman(tm) launched, SONY was practically out of the game all together. Again, when was the last time you heard the name "walkman?"

And with the iPod selling in the millions almost over night, Apple again had created a problem for the music business. Even though the iPod entered the market as the highest priced MP3 player, they had solved the User Interface Problem with the amazing click-wheel. (See Dell’s Digital Jukebox, or Microsoft’s Zune for failed copy attempts. And probably SONY’s MP3 interface was awesome, but nobody outside of Japan or SONY-fanatics wanted a Walkman. It was a dead brand.)

Okay, so you’ve just bought a device that will hold 20 gigabytes of music in the palm of your hand. And you’ve got a lot of cds, maybe even records and cassettes. What are you going to do? Are you going to digitize all of your music from your CD’s, if you have CDs? Are you going to hammer Napster and other pirate services and build up your collection again? What are your options at this point, for filling the other 18 gigs of storage space on your shiny new iPod?

Enter the iTunes Online Music Store.

For people willing to fork out $200+ on a portable music player, the idea of buying a song for ¢99 was a no-brainer. And Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd and Thriller by Michael Jackson are STILL the #1 selling digital albums of all time. Suddenly the music business was back in business, sort of, because people needed to renew their libraries in digital format to get them on their devices. And Napster and Kazaa and other peer-to-peer systems exploded. The world suddenly had an even bigger appetite and room on their iPods for thousands of songs. And guess what, we wanted our music.

But the music business was not experiencing the great rush of cash that Apple was. In fact, just the opposite, sites like Napster had taken a huge toll on the buying public and the demand for their physical CDs. (Today, I bet you can count the number of record stores in your town on one hand.) And SONY, being a leader, and stakeholder in all things technological, innovative, and musical, put their foot down with their DRM formats, their PLAYNOW music site, and even cell phones that did a pretty descent job of emulating an iPod, long before the iPhone was even a glimmer in Apple’s eye.

Within a year, Apple had the entire music industry over a barrel with a stunning accomplishment. The iTunes store was the largest music retailer in the world. (Still is.) And the ¢99 song was born. SONY’s PLAYNOW was charging $3.50 per track at the same time.

How is SONY doing now?

They’ve still got some great products and brands

  • VAIO – laptops
  • Playstation 3
  • And a bunch of other stuff: tvs (trinitron is dead enter WEGA), phones, and the AIBO robot dog.

But SONY as a force in the universe had aligned itself with corporate interests and not the demands and creative interests of the general public. Much like Microsoft with Windows and Internet Explorer, dynasties change and fail.

What’s the component that SONY is missing that APPLE cultivates?

Creative Thinking.

Last part: As innovative and amazing as Steve Jobs was, one of the things you’ll see a little bit of if you read the Issacson biography is this. He missed a lot of things as well. He is surrounded by Jonthan Ivys and Tim Cooks. Initially as iTunes and the iPod first came out, long before the huge success and long before the online music store, Steve Jobs voted vehemently against a WINDOWS version of the iTunes to allow PC-users Apple-owned access their iPods. (The hacks for the PC were already available for the iPod music management.) He was bitter. He didn’t really want to give Bill Gates access to his greatest invention.

Mythology (and the non-Issacson-telling) has it, that when Bill Gates was shown his first working iPod he said, "Holy Shit, we’re fkd." He was kind of right. But the slide and de-evolution of Microsoft had already begun at that point. And immediately Bill Gates wanted an iPod for the PC. And of course Michael Dell wanted an iPod for the Dell. (Hm, Dell’s plan sounds a bit like SONY’s Walkman(tm) strategy.)

Where are they now? Dell, HP and SONY have all entered and exited the Music Player business. They are all scrambling to catch the iPad with Android and the very-late Windows 8, called METRO.

But we don’t really want everyone else to fail. We need Microsoft, Google, and Sony to keep pushing the envelope. And as Steve Jobs was dying he vowed to go Nuclear with every resource at his disposal to kill Android. Once again he’d been ripped off, first by MICROSOFT WINDOWS, and now by GOOGLE’s ANDROID OS, which often looks and functions like a crappy iOS clone. We need these other innovators to push Apple and Dell and Acer to greater things.

And we need global winners like Apple. We need David and Goliath stories, we need the triumph of good (design and morals), and we all need a great rival who pushes us to work harder, to do more, to be better.

Again, Steve Jobs voted against allowing iTunes to be ported to Windows. He was overruled and he was wrong and Apples star rose even higher as a guide star for the industry. And the iPod enabled the iPhone and the iPad and ultimately… the iTV rumored to be on the way for next Christmas.

So even geniuses miss the mark. But they keep at it. And if we teach ONE THING IN THE US, we need to teach creativity. Sure math, science, and language arts are important. But if we kill PLAY and the ARTS from the curriculum we’re gonna end up being a country that’s a lot more like SONY than APPLE. We need to fight to make sure that does not happen.

@jmacofearth (also seen on Google+: jmacofearth)

permalink: https://uber.la/2012/04/apple-is-not-sony/

References:

Other posts to help you kick ass in social media:

Most people don’t really enjoy being mean; they do it because they can’t help it. (from Graham’s Hierarchy of Disagreement)

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The last SONY Walkman(tm) I ever bought. It probably still works.

Screen Shot 2012 04 07 at 8.04.52 AM Apple Is Not Like Sony: What Does the US Do Really Really Well? (keep creativity in education in America)

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iSteve Jobs (my tribute page)

jobs ding mcelhenney Apple Is Not Like Sony: What Does the US Do Really Really Well? (keep creativity in education in America)

 

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Mar
15
2011

4 Most Valuable Apple iPad Apps; Top Critical Tasks Managed

Category: apple,social media,tech reviews,toolsjmacofearth @ 2:40 pm

Making the switch to the iPad has been less than perfect. In fact, for most tasks I still pull out the heavy and powerful MacBook Pro. But as I have evolved so have the apps and so have my expectations of the Apple iPad. At the dawn of the iPad2 here are my top 4 critical apps for the iPad.

#1 Video Air Server

At this moment, my son is streaming Mythbusters off my MacBook Pro while I am working on other things. I don’t even notice anything is happening or slowing my connection down. You don’t need to convert or move movies and tv shows to your iPad, you can stream them directly with the Video Air Server.

#2 GMail via Safari

White I was a big fan of Apple’s MAIL program, I have recently given in to GMail as the primary portal for all of my email needs. The first step was beginning to check my gmail-only mail via Gmail’s web interface. But a few weeks ago I set GMail to poll my POP3 server that was the core of my Apple Mail universe. While I am not quite used to managing using labels in GMail (I prefer folders in Mail) I am happy to have everything consolidated in ONE ACCOUNT. And checking in on the iPad is exactly the same as using it on my MacBook Pro.

#3 Tweetdeck

Doing Twitter from the iPad is a finicky business. I’m still not 100% in love with Tweetdeck on the iPad (I a Tweetdeck addict on the PC and Mac) I have to say it’s better than the other apps for the iPad. I like the first blush at an iPad app from Twitter, but it’s still a bit hard to navigate around all the opening and layering windows. So today, Tweetdeck holds the app slot for my Twitter participation.

#4 Friendly for iPad

If you do any Facebooking you will love Friendly. It’s how Facebook should work on an iPad. Everything is easier on Friendly. I almost wish there was a desktop version for my MBP. It’s like an active control and response panel for Facebook.

A few categories I’m still looking to fill.

TXT/IM: currently I use Skype on the iPad, but I need an Adium equivalent. VIRTUAL SCREENSHARE: currently using SplashTopRemote but I’m not quite getting the hang of it.

@jmacofearth

permalink: https://uber.la/2011/03/apple-ipad-apps/

 

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May
17
2010

Just Click It Links for Monday 5-17-10: Microsoft IE, Facebook Privacy, Apple iPad

Category: just click it (hot links),microsoft,social mediajmacofearth @ 2:08 pm



Mayors of Starbucks Now Get Discounts Nationwide with Foursquare

It had to happen. Foursquare is tying into Foursquare promotions. I saw this coming, but now I might have to join the movement… Nah… I’ll check in on my own, thanks very much.

Check Your Facebook Privacy Settings With ReclaimPrivacy

Fighting privacy battles with Facebook, is like trying to protect your online data from Google. All I can say is, "Good luck." The rest of my advice is, "Be informed, and turn the shit off if you are worried about it. And if it *really* freaks you out, just quit using Facebook. And then get over it." But all my rants aside, there are some issues with Facebook’s rampant use of your images, your "likes" and other information that they want to use and sell to third party vendors. I’d say these are worth opting out of.

How Facebook’s ‘Community Pages’ and Privacy Changes Impact Brands by Jeremiah Owyang

When JO speaks you need to listen. One of the smartest guys in social media and business metrics. Here’s the nut:

Facebook has launched  several new policies and features since the F8 Conference ‘Crusade of Colonization’ which has resulted in a large backlash from media around user privacy.  It’s not clear if beyond the vocal media if users will leave the site in droves.  Perhaps more importantly,  Facebook launched “Facebook Community Pages” (read the official post) a feature that aggregates content from wikipedia and Facebook wall posts.  Think of it as a cross between Wikipedia with user comments –sometimes unwittingly.  These changes cause confusion for users, diminishing control for brands, and strains on the already torrid relationship between Facebook and brands.

What if FDR’s Ideas Ran the C-Suite and Your Social Media?

I can’t help to think his words and wisdom might serve us all now as we look for leaders — not dreamers — to change the world and get growing again.

Federated Media goes all Facebook for this Monday’s SIGNAL.

Microsoft Needs to Stop Trash-talking IE6 and Just Trash It

Microsoft Australia has launched an online campaign to try to persuade people to stop using Internet Explorer 6. The campaign likens the browser to a carton of milk: you wouldn’t drink nine-year old milk, so why would you use a browser of a similar vintage?

The iPad: Beautiful product demos, rich presentations & seamless syncing between HQ and travel

We’re not waiting. As soon as the iPad was unveiled, my team saw its potential and ordered a few. For $31 worth of apps, total, we’ve turned the device into a powerful way to show off our products and keep our travelers in sync with each other and our Austin HQ. Our Sales Directors, Client Success Directors and Market Developers attend around 30 total events per quarter, from the Bay Area to London and beyond. When they bring along fully-equipped iPads to each conference, show, meeting and client dinner, they’re bringing with them a way to enrich each interaction.

How To Get Verified on Twitter

Twitter verifies a limited number of accounts. There’s no guarantee that your verification request will be processed by Twitter. I know of several celebrities whose verification request was turned down by Twitter. Therefore, Twitter advises users to apply for a verified account only if they are under the threat of impersonation account.

And if you can’t get Verified, you can go to an earlier post of mine

So If I Can’t Get Twitter-Verified, I’ll Just Create An Elite Club Of My Own

@jmacofearth

permalink:

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Apr
23
2010

iQuest Day Prep: What’s the Apple iPad Survival Package? I’m Going Cold Turkey Today

ipad quest image iQuest Day Prep: Whats the Apple iPad Survival Package? Im Going Cold Turkey Today 

UPDATE 4-24-10: Whew! Some good and some bad. Overall, my experience with the iPad alone was positive. An 8 on a scale of 1 – 10. The good: didn’t miss PPT one bit, was happy to not create any content for 24-hours; enjoyed negotiating with my daughter and son for the iPad through the course of Friday afternoon and evening. The BAD: email really sucks (if you have more than one account to check, the back and forth in MAIL is awful); and I tried several ways to edit this post using Safari and then even the WordPress iPad app, but something kept getting messed up. And I really hate the way the App Store basically closes out every time you select an app to download. If you’ve tabbed in on a category, you are set back to square one. But I survived.

UPDATE 4-23-10: I just completed my last PPT for the day. And once I hook up my email accounts so I can check them on the iPad, I will turn off the MacBook Pro for 24-hours. Starting at 9AM. Oh the wonders we will learn, the frustrations we might find, and the discovery of just how far can a heavy-user, writer, and tech worker get from a full-powered computer, in the course of one day. A Friday, yes, but a full day nonetheless. Wish me luck. [MBP over and out.] The last keystrokes will be "update" on this post and "shutdown" on the Mac. wOOt!

My iQuest to discover myself and my iPad in 24-hours alone together.

[Er… I have PowerPoint work to do today, so the iPad Vision Quest is off. My daughter nailed me on it. “DAD!” she yelled as she got home this afternoon. “You were supposed to be on the iPad today.” I’m not trying to pin this on Microsoft, but…]

We’ve now had our iPads for a week or so. And many have expressed the ennui that comes with any computer purchase. "What now?" or "So what." And I do count myself among the, "So What," group. However, I do believe the revolution has begun.

So here’s my plan: On Friday, 4-23-10, I will go cold turkey to live with the iPad for 24-hours with nothing else. (Wait, can I make or take calls on the iPad with Google Voice or something?) Or to be more clear, I will give up my MacBook Pro for 24 hours. And other than my "phone" needs that will be satisfied with my Blackberry, I will use only the iPad to do my work.

Now the caveat is, I don’t have any critical path business meetings that day, YET. And I don’t have any key deliverables that day, as far as my client’s needs. So it’s not like I’m going to jump off my workflow process into a crash and burn drama that could happen were I to need the iPad to do "actual work." (grin)

Okay, so here’s what I’ve got so far.

  1. Today I purchased Keynote, Pages, and Numbers for the iPad. ($10 each)
  2. I also purchased Alias Sketch (a professional grade drawing program) and NOVA (a full-motion iPad-optimized game, the one that was presented in the iPad launch presentation).
  3. I’ve begun weeding my mp3 collection for what will fit in a working amount of space on the iPad. (Try that alone as an exercise. Wow, quite fun. Take your entire music collection and choose 10% of it to take with you.)

I opted for the 32 gig iPad. And I’m nearly full. But I’m not expecting to put all my music on it. My 120 gig iPod could be filled several times with the collection I have amassed over the years.

Screen shot 2010 04 11 at 4.07.17 PM iQuest Day Prep: Whats the Apple iPad Survival Package? Im Going Cold Turkey Today

That’s as far as I’ve gotten. I have a few other tasks to complete before I go iPad-centric.

  1. Email accounts to iPad. (IMAP only, of course)
  2. A full charge and good sync of contacts and calendar data the morning of Wednesday 4-14-10.
  3. Look into the movie streaming from other machines software that I heard about on Thursday. (Air Video Server works fantastic. I’m watching Generation Kill on my iPad from raw AVI files. The MBP is cranking the conversion as I’m watching in real time on the iPad. Amazing!)

I think that’s it. Of course I’ll need food, shelter and water. And WIFI!

My signal is strong, my expectations are high and my iPad is looking more and more like home.

@jmacofearth

permalink: http://bit.ly/iQuest

Note: I’d love to hear about YOUR iPad survival software. And if anyone wants to join my iQuest please let me know. I’d be happy to co-blog it with some iFriends. Even if you’re only virtually connected to me and living in Portland Oregon. (grin)

Update 4-15-10: I spent a good bit of time last night with the iPad getting more parts ready for iQuest day. And I AM beginning to think the iPad will actually be enough computer for many people. If email, browsing and entertainment are your primary computing tasks, the iPad is almost everything you need. I was watching a movie last night, using Air Video Server the content was streaming off my MBP. My experience was, "Wow, this is fantastic!" The video was sharp, bright, and even over wireless, glitch free.

Today I’ll be setting up my email accounts to do a test-run on that functionality.

And finally, if you like first-person-shooters, you really need to buy and play NOVA. Unreal immersion.

I wonder if I did go the 24-hours without food or sleep if I’d start having visions? Maybe not this coming week, but it’s a thought.

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Update 4-14-10: I’m almost positive this app is NOT part of the iPad Survival Kit. Um, Team iTehu, which is it the "Health Pad" or the "Health Calc XL?" And are you planning on offering S, M, L versions of the Health Calc Pad thingy? I hope so.

Screen shot 2010 04 11 at 7.58.05 PM iQuest Day Prep: Whats the Apple iPad Survival Package? Im Going Cold Turkey Today

Screen shot 2010 04 11 at 7.57.55 PM iQuest Day Prep: Whats the Apple iPad Survival Package? Im Going Cold Turkey Today

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The iQuest for the iPad illustration was based on the VisionQuesting Indian from this site.

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Apr
07
2010

The Trouble w/ Browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Safari & Oh-So-Maligned IE (maybe Opera mobile)

browser cartoon The Trouble w/ Browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Safari & Oh So Maligned IE (maybe Opera mobile)

UPDATE 3-20-12: After a year of Chrome, I’ve opened FF and am enjoying some of the features I missed in Chrome. (mostly plug-ins) The only reason I’m even considering the permanent move back to FF is performance. I have a number of Chrome/Google+ plug-ins that are amazing, but I’ve been frustrated by chrome’s "Waiting on cache" message. I don’t like to wait for the browser. AT. ALL.

So I’m FFin right now. BUT… I seem to be seeing the pinwheel of death in FF. And the keyboard seems much more lag prone. (not good when I’m writing at top speed) I’m going to go look at all my FF plugins and see if I can streamline it back into the fast dev-friendly engine that it used to be. Or I’m back to Chrome. (I can see that this post needs a new write up.)

+++ the original post +++

This graphic sort of captures some of the fun we are having these days with "browsers." If you call it fun…

In the course of a day I launch two browsers over and over again. I used to launch three, but I’ve killed Safari, for now. So I am fluidly moving between Google’s Chrome and Firefox all the time. What I like better about one of them I don’t like something else about the other. I can cache my WordPress site with Google Gears on Firefox but I can’t on Google Chrome (figure that one out for me) and I am starting to get frustrated with the limits of each one.

Let’s take a quick peek at the big 4 browsers. (Sorry Opera, love ya on my Blackberry, but not much else is happening for me in your browser.)

1. Internet Explorer. Ah the dead horse metaphor is a good fit. Except it goes deeper than the browser. Windows is actually the dead horse, IE just happens to be Windows browser of choice. Every innovation Microsoft has proposed with IE has been bad for web developers and web viewers since the early days when they KILLED Netscape. (Okay, maybe AOL killed Netscape, but IE did it’s best to destabilize the playing field at every turn.) So today, if we are looking at developing a website we have to install and browse (meaning troubleshoot) IE 6, IE 7 and IE 8. And guess what? The bugs are different and awkward for each one. And while the cry has gone up for the masses to put the dreadful IE 6 out to pasture, it simply isn’t happening. Even today, on this blog, the majority of windows web browsing is coming in via IE 6. I hate it, I don’t want to admit it, but we still have to deal with each version of the dead horse Microsoft cares to roll out. Cause much like Windows XP to Vista to Windows 7, with IE browsing, if I ain’t broke don’t upgrade it.

2. Safari. Apple was pretty innovative initially with Safari. It seemed a lot faster than Firefox when it arrived. But this perceptual speed increase could have been due to all of the wonderful extensions I was (am) running with Firefox. But each time I have allowed the Mac OS to default to Safari, I have found myself cursing aloud when I would find something it didn’t do *right.* So for now Safari is tucked away, offline.

3. Google Chrome. There is so much I really love about Chrome. The promise for a better browsing experience is there. But the details often have me clicking over to Firefox again to use my faithful dev tools like Firebug and WhySlow. But some of what Chrome does is neat. The way it displays and updates you on downloading items is very nice. It’s tabbed interface feels like an advance over the other browsers. And I am just now beginning to play with some extensions, but overall Chrome is probably my number one choice for a browser. BUT… I can’t do everything I want to do in Chrome. Some things simply don’t work. There’s a java site that uses something that Chrome does not like. And I am puzzled by the NO GEARS hole in Chrome. I know HTML5 and all that. But GEARS is awesome. And a browser without it, doesn’t feel as fast. And perhaps in WordPress Firefox with GEARS is actually better.

4. Firefox. The mother of all that is good with open source and developer led projects. Mozilla-to-Firefox is a great story by itself. And though I type this in Chrome at the moment, my Firefox app is almost always launched as well. Often it’s because I have the Mac OS to default to Firefox when I click on something that the system perceives to be of HTML heritage. And the extensions for Firefox can do truly amazing things. And here’s the BUT… in Firefox. Do all of the add-ons in Firefox make it slow and buggy? When the activity icon is going and nothing is popping up on my web screen I twich with the need to open the site in Chrome. I know that perhaps Chrome will have a problem with some exotic page, but I always perceive Chrome as faster. But I’ve only got 3 chrome extensions running. So is my problem with Firefox that I use it for too much?

So here’s the trouble. I want it all. I want speed and I want maximum flexibility. One of my early gripes with my Apple iPad is I only have Safari for a browser. (Make a note to check and see of Opera is up for the iPad.) BUT that flexibility and expandability comes at a price. What I am frustrated with more than that is when I look over at my dock and see that I have Chrome, Firefox and Safari open. (I brought that potential down to two last week, but still…)

I want one browser to rule them all.

One of the main roadblocks on this front however is the old dead horse. While I worked at Dell, everything we had internally was based on Sharepoint, IIS or some other Microsoft technology, and guess what? Sharepoint does not play well with non-IE browsers. I did try running IE Tab inside Firefox, and I see that Chrome has an IE Tab as well, but my goodness, could we make a system any more screwy than to make it NOT work on other browsers. Now Microsoft maybe wanting to play nice these days as they try and leap into the LIVE model of online apps. But their products and technologies still write code that is only viewable on other Microsoft products.

So let’s do kill IE and Microsoft’s unfair bullying of the online world, but first we’d better get all those Sharepoint sites ported over to something more OPEN. And that’s a lot of Sharepoint sites, folks. A LOT!

@jmacofearth (also seen on Google+: jmacofearth)

permalink: https://uber.la/2010/04/web-browsers/
Browser graphics from College Humor.

Other posts about kicking ass in social media:

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