Gorog's Guide

iPhone app helps Australians shop ethically

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Thu, 19 May 2011 06:40:00 +0000

One of Outware Mobile's latest apps, Shop Ethical 2011 has been reviewed by Macworld Australia.

Check it out at Outware Mobile.

SEN Sports Radio

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:15:00 +0000

I got to discuss a favourite topic of mine today, Mac or PC. As you'll all know by now I'm strongly of the opinion that if you want a computer for home use (email, web, music, photos) you can't beat a Mac.

Apple's website is easy to follow, and for around $2000 you can't go past an iMac or a MacBook Pro.

If you want a PC, well, good luck.

SEN Sports Radio

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:15:00 +0000

I was on The Run Home on SEN today talking TVs with Franco and Ox. Plasma or LCD. Here's a good link, sponsored by Panasonic to get you started. There's also plenty of other great information on the web.

My advice: If you want a big (bigger than 50") screen and are into sport, go for a Plasma, for everything smaller choose LCD.

We also spoke briefly about set top boxes; The best unit for free-to-air is Tivo or if you've got Foxtel, get IQ.

Outware Mobile Launches Shop Ethical!

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 05:25:00 +0000

The Guide to Ethical Supermarket Shopping goes mobile with launch of Shop Ethical! for
iPhone and iPod touch

Your dollar is your vote - make it count.

The Guide to Ethical Supermarket Shopping 2010 has gone digital with the release of Shop Ethical! for iPhone and iPod touch. With 50,000 copies of the printed guide already in the hands of Australian consumers, the enhanced, mobile and convenient iPhone version is sure to be popular.

The Shop Ethical! app gives consumers the low-down on the environmental and social record of companies behind common brands found in the supermarket. Shop Ethical! is a tool that allows consumers to take action by avoiding companies with a negative track record and supporting companies who make a positive impact.

With Shop Ethical! for iPhone consumers can: - Easily find their favourite products and learn how ethical the companies behind them are. - Discover ethical alternatives that are worthy of their hard earned dollars. - Take action by easily contacting companies via web, email or phone.

The Shop Ethical! app provides consumers instant access to over 2,800 products with related company information and lets them make an informed and ethical decision whenever they shop. This years edition also includes an Alcohol and Office Supplies category.

By shopping ethically consumers can send a strong message for change and help support the practices that make our world a better place to live in.

The Shop Ethical! app uses data from the Ethical Shopping Guide 2010 edition and is based on assessments gathered from over 25 sources including the work of organisations such as Greenpeace, Choose Cruelty Free, Corporate Monitor, Reputex, Responsible Shopper and Friends of the Earth.

Shop Ethical! app is available for $4.99 from the iTunes App Store.

More info here

Shop Ethical! is a collaboration between the Ethical Consumer Group and Outware Mobile.

Smile please: the evolution of the digital camera

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:05:00 +0000

My latest piece on the evolution of the digital camera is live at ABC Science.

Why Did Microsoft License ActiveSync to Apple

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:36:00 +0000

This is something I've been wondering since a) Apple included Exchange support in iPhone 2.0 and b) Apple included Exchange support in Snow Leopard.

It seems to me by doing this Microsoft are shooting themselves in the foot. I know a number of Windows Mobile users who have moved to the iPhone because of Exchange support. These users will likely never go back to Windows Mobile.

On the other hand I know a number of MDs who are now considering upgrading from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 because Snow Leopard supports Exchange 2007 natively, and it means they can move away from Entourage.

Lock-in has always been a big deal for Microsoft, just look at how they pushed IE into the dominant position it is in today. By licensing ActiveSync they completely remove the requirement to use Windows Mobile, and ultimately will lose to Apple and Google in the mobile space.

I wonder whether it's just big company syndrome? The guys in Exchange are trying to increase sales and usage (maybe to curtail the openness that Google provide with Google Apps) but by licensing ActiveSync they're killing Windows Mobile.

How The Mouse Points Us To The Future

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 02:15:00 +0000

From my first piece for the The Age:

The mouse has changed quite dramatically and, paired with advances in operating systems and software, has become more than just a simple pointing device.

Turn Your Handwriting into a Font

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:43:00 +0000

If you've ever wanted to turn your shitty handwriting into a font, now you can.

Just fill out a template and upload it to Font Capture and download your font.

Here's a sample of my handwriting, in case your cared:

God I love the Internet.

iPhone Goes On Sale in China

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:30:00 +0000

The iPhone, already one of the most popular phones in China thanks to the wonders of Jailbreaking has just gone legit.

Added as a paragraph today's China Unicom earnings statement:

On 28 August, the Company and Apple reached a three-year agreement for the Company to sell iPhone in China. The initial launch is expected to be in the fourth calendar quarter of 2009. This will provide users with brand new communication and information experience.

TechCrunch confirmed this is for both the 3G and 3GS phones.

China Unicom is the second largest telco in China with 140 million subscribers, double the size of AT&T.

And guess what, because the iPhone has a soft-keyboard it's ready to go, no retooling, no new keyboard layouts, no new models.
I'm not sure if the financial analysts have worked this out, but it's the end game in the smartphone market, and if Apple can capture China, it's going to be a long, tough slog for other vendors.

Coverage of Snow Leopard

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 04:20:00 +0000

Lots of coverage on Snow Leopard today, most of it positive.

The upshot is this; for $39 you can't go wrong:

David Pogue - Apple's Sleek Upgrade

Walt Mossberg - Apple Changes Leopard’s Spots

Joshua Topolsky - Snow Leopard review

Michael Gartenberg - Will Snow Leopard's Exchange support earn Apple a new entourage?

Exchange Integration in Snow Leopard

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 04:14:00 +0000

In his weekly column for Engadget, Michael Gartenberg reflects on the his experience using Snow Leopard to access his corporate Exchange box:

I've been using Snow Leopard for a few weeks now with our corporate Exchange server and I'm pleased to report: it just works. Simply (far easier to configure Snow Leopard to work with our Exchange server than to set up a new copy of Outlook). Within moments of entering my email address and password, all my calendar items, contacts, email, and to-do lists were integrated into the appropriate Snow Leopard apps. I haven't had a single problem with the configuration.

For me -- as user who's used both platforms for years -- I've been constrained to using Windows mostly because Exchange worked so much better than Entourage did. With the introduction of the latest version of iLife and Snow Leopard, I find I'm not just doing my creative stuff on the Mac, but am able to fully migrate my business use as well

I've also been running Snow Leopard and using it with Exchange and agree with his sentiments. The integration is as good as it is on the iPhone; it just works and in some cases works faster and better than my other MobileMe account.

Before Apple introduced the iPhone…

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:01:00 +0000

Some welcome perspective on the state of the iPhone from Kontra.

But “Apple’s evil” promoters still insist that Apple sever its integrated model; license its OS; tear down the App Store; let anyone load any app on the iPhone; turn a blind eye to competitors leveraging its iTunes platform without compensation; give up the subsidies from AT&T and jump into bed with CDMA that will be sunset in a year or two; and allow any number of slow, ugly and battery-consuming competing runtimes proliferate on the iPhone. Because not doing so would be…evil.

Number of Employees

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 05:17:00 +0000

Check out some of these numbers I got from Google Finance:

Apple made over four times the net income of Dell on a third less revenue, and three quarters of HP's net income on only a third of its revenue.

But net income per employee is where it gets more interesting, and the differences get magnified.

For the most recent quarter, Apple generated over $38,000 of net income per employee versus $5,115 for HP and $3,791 for Dell.

Dell has 76,500 while HP has 321,000, compared to Apple who have 32,000.

I want to know what all these extra employees do at Dell and HP? As far as I can tell, neither Dell or HP run retail stores, make smart phones or media players, make their own OS, and they're clearly not web developers.

So I want to know, what are all these employees doing?

This is the App Stores Competition, Seriously

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:00:00 +0000

GetJar, Appsolutely everything is the App Store for all devices that aren't iPhone's. According to TechCrunch, they've had 450 million apps downloaded to date, with 25 million downloads of Opera Mini.

450 million downloads sounds like a shitload, especially when you click through and see how difficult it is to actually get an App on to your device.

Good luck downloading that JAD file, mum.

Jobs Confirms Existence of Apple Tablet

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 01:39:00 +0000

Steve Jobs is back at the helm and getting involved in the micro details on the new Apple tablet, apparently.

In an article about the forth coming Apple Tablet, Yukari Iwatani Kane teases this from Jobs:

Mr. Jobs, in an email, said "much of your information is incorrect," but didn't provide specifics

Nokia introduces Booklet 3G 'mini laptop'

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:53:00 +0000

Nokia shift from one low-margin business (making low end mobile phones) to another low-margin business, making Netbooks.

It looks to be running Windows 7, which isn't particularly netbooky, and also has integrated A-GPS with a copy of Ovi Maps, HDMI output, a rated 12 hour battery life, and the usual Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, all in a 2cm (.78 inch), 2.7lb aluminum body that's understated, sophisticated, and should make most Nokia fans very happy

Apple Highest Grossing Retailer on Fifth Avenue

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 08:40:00 +0000

From Bloomberg:

Apple, increased revenue at its stores by 2.5 percent in the first six months of the year to $3 billion as the rest of the retail industry suffered. During the same period, sales at all U.S. retailers fell 9.2 percent compared with the first half of 2008, according to the U.S. Commerce Department

Wow.

I bet sales increased more than that for the Australian stores (including third party resellers) due to price cuts across the portables and iPhones and the Rudd stimulus package.

Computer Support Cheat Sheet

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 06:11:00 +0000

This is gold.

Macworld Back-Issues

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 02:40:00 +0000

I didn't realise but Macworld Australia post various back-issues of the magazine here. Big downloads, but lots of great info inside.

More Changes in Snow Leopard

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 22:53:00 +0000

A developer friend of mine sent me another few tidbits about Snow Leopard, rumoured for release next week.

The feature mimics the functionality found in the Windows Taskbar, where application windows get minimised into the application icon, as opposed to OS X (Leopard) where minimised windows occupy space on the right hand side of the dock.

Well, in Snow Leopard, there's a new preference in the Dock settings in System Preferences:

When that box is ticked any window you minimise actually disappears behind the application icon, like this:

A couple of other changes in Snow Leopard that he noticed;

Google Maps integration into the date/time control panel:

and a new security preference for a time delay when entering a password after sleep:

Why Microsoft Will Slaughter Windows Mobile

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 05:39:00 +0000

Another thoughtful, well reasoned and completely biased piece from Daniel Eran Dilger. There have been a flurry of articles since Digitimes released their initial report yesterday that Microsoft was going to compete with Android using Windows Mobile 6.5 and compete with iPhone with Windows Mobile 7.0.

You don't need to be an professor to understand that Windows Mobile is struggling in the market (how many people do you know that use it?) and releasing and maintaining not one, but two mobile OS's is suicide.

But as a fanboy, I love reading Dilger's yarns. A few paragraphs in his latest piece particularly stand out:

How can it possibly afford to piss away another full year with just incremental improvements to its crusty old Windows Mobile platform before delivering its promised vaporware panacea? Oh wait, that’s the company’s normal business plan: deliver crap into the market and then float a toxic cloud of promises that kills off superior products until there’s no options left but to buy Microsoft’s crap.

After several years of this, Microsoft’s crap hardens into something that can be used to make tools or start fires, allowing the company to continue selling its crap without competition. This worked well for Windows on the PC desktop and in the server market, but isn’t working well at all in consumer devices. Windows Mobile and the Zune and the Xbox are all failing to kill off their competitors, outsell them, or even make much of a profit after a decade of trying.

And this:

Since Microsoft’s core competency and basic business model is billowing vaporware smoke, the Zune’s crushing collapse could only clear the air, making the path for rival competitors even easier. The incompetent Zune only made the iPod family look better than it already did.

Revenue from PC's Fall 18% for HP

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:24:00 +0000

Revenue is down 18% while unit sales are up 2%. Sounds like they're selling lots of low cost, low margin Netbooks.

Oh, also, their terrible website can't be helping the situation.

Microsoft to adopt dual-platform strategy to compete with Android and iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:54:00 +0000

According to this piece in the Digitimes, Microsoft will give Windows Mobile 6.5 away for a 'lower' amount once it releases Windows Mobile 7 to effectively compete with Android, which is free.

Good luck with that plan, Microsoft.

iContact

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:32:00 +0000

The iPhone could be the hand-held console gamers have been waiting for, writes Danny Gorog (via Herald Sun).

I'll add the proper link if I can find it.

HP's Website is a Disgrace

noreply@blogger.com (Danny G) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 05:50:00 +0000

How does a company with a market capitalisation of over $100 Billion have such a terrible website.

Say I'm a consumer looking for an entry level laptop and I go to hp.com.au, here's the first screen I see:

So I'll click on HP Home Notebook PCs which gets me to this screen:

Now, I'm a tech journo with over ten years of experience and I'm not really sure what to click from here.

I'll take a punt and click on the 'Compare the models' button at the bottom of the screen. I'm not sure which models I'll compare because I haven't selected anything but I'll take my chance. The next screen looks like this:

and it goes on. There are a total of 9 different models to choose from. I just want a fucking basic laptop. I'll choose the top one, the HP Pavilion dv2-1100 Entertainment Notebook PC series starting from AU$999 including GST.

The next page appears:

So I've already clicked four times and all I've got is a shitty little picture of a laptop with a disclaimer that says 'image is an approximate guide only' in the middle of the screen, a table whose only thing I notice is the text 'Ready to Buy'.

If I click Enlarge Image this is what I get:

There's another button that says 'Product Demo' so I click that next.

It comes up with a buggy Flash presentation, and only after watching it do I realise this notebook doesn't even have a full size keyboard.

I can't be bothered doing any more. If I really was in the market for a PC I'd probably have moved on to another website like Dell or something.

As a comparison, here's the Apple homepage:

Click on Mac and you'll get this:

and click on MacBook and this is the product information page:

Clean, clear, large images, lots of detail and one Buy Now button instead of three on the same page.

The HP website isn't an exception; all the PC websites I've visited are like that; cluttered, hard to navigate and totally confusing. Now it's a fair point to suggest that HP do alot more than laptops, but so do Apple and they've come up with a way of presenting their products in a way that makes sense.

The problem with Apple's competitors like HP, Dell and Toshiba isn't just related to the actual products they ship, but is as far reaching as the way they communicate their offerings to customers. I think they've all got a long way to go.