Time Travel...Only Time Will Tell

Nostalgia drove me to dig up one of my favorite movie franchises, Back to the Future. The Robert Zemeckis directed films from the late 1980’s starring the gifted Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd about their pairs’ time travelling exploits. Going back and forth from present to past to future to distant past, creating messes and attempting to fix them. Despite being an old set of movies, the concept is timeless and makes me wonder. Will man be able to someday toss the laws of physics out the DeLorean window and leap forward into the future or hold time and go backwards?

Stephen Hawking wrote that the fact no one has come from the future to visit this or a previous space in time points to the non-existence of time travel. Unless of course, these time tourist carefully conceal their presence so as not to cause a ripple in the space-time continuum. They would have to make sure they do not do a single thing while in the past because even the simple act of leaving a pen where it shouldn’t be, buying a drink in a shop, bumping into a person on the street alters the path of all the objects involved, which in turn affects objects around them…..and the dominos fall, CASUALTY. Maybe even changing the fact that time travel came to being.

Moving forward in time is the most theoretically possible but otherwise improbable due to lack of technology and is mostly to be supported because it is less like to violate causality. You tell a guy in the future that you’re from the past, you’ll have a laugh about it and you can proceed with things. It does change the course of time but that time is yet to be written so to speak. If you asked people which direction in time they would like to travel, most would say backwards. There’s always that one thing you wish you could change, that person you could see one more time, rarely forward. If only one directional travel was possible, back in time would be the answer. Who would want to go and get stuck in the future where things are strange?

Only time will tell if someone does manage to pull it off. As for now,wherever now is, science fiction will be the closest to time travel we'll get.

PS. Teleportation is not even being tried.

New iPhone, New Issues

Every iPhone release comes with its own issues. From Antennagate on the iPhone 4! Where the metallic strip arounnd the device doubled as an antenna resulted in poor network reception depending on how the phone is held. Then the 4S had its brief battery performance flaws related to the OS itself, quickly sorted out with a software update. No phone is ever released problem-less but the iPhone tends to get the biggest attention. Why, they say it's the best smartphone so it's expected. The latest one has had mainly 2 complaints by its owners, being delivered with scuffs on the supposedly unscratchable aluminum back panel and a purple glare from photos taken facing a bright light source. Apple says the scuffs are beyond their control but that makes the metallic finish look bad because they promoted it as scratch resistant and smudge proof. Not a good look Apple. The misfiring camera on some phones is probably a quick fix for Apple, cue iOS 6.1 which will certainly look to also fix the fail which is the in-house maps by Apple. Next big device will bring its own shortcomings and we'll be there.

CONSOLE DESIGN REFRESHES: Gamesmanship or a lack of ideas

I spent a good amount of time looking up the correct spelling of 'console' just to make sure I started off right.

Home video gaming hardware has a come a long way in the last 20 or so years. SEGA & Nintendo held a monopoly till Sony joined the fray with the PlayStation. The gaming space seemingly couldn't take all three at once so one had to make room for Sony. Despite bringing us the Mega Drive, Saturn & Dreamcast, SEGA found itself marketless and went to game development entirely.

SEGA Dreamcast

Then came Microsoft with the Xbox. An odd move by a traditional pc maker, trying to move from desks to living rooms. They withered the lukewarm reception to their first generation hardware and bettered it with the Xbox 360. This was all at at parallel time to the release of Sony's own Playstation 3, released a year later. This has put these two in direct competition ever since and has made picking an overall winner hard.

Nintendo, meanwhile, has steered clear of this somewhat. Focusing on innovations that have made both Sony and Microsoft react with versions of their own i.e. the Wii movement concept spawned Microsoft's Kinect and the Playstation Move. The later not being well received by consumers.

Sony PlaysStation 3 ('12)

2005 & 2006 saw the birth of the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 respectively....Fast forward more than 6 years later, neither Sony nor Microsoft is talking a complete overhaul in the hardware they brought us. Microsoft freshened up the 360 by slimming it down in 2010 and just the other day Sony followed suit, slightly reshaping the PS3. One would then start to wonder, when will we see a whole new console from either?

Xbox 360 ('05) & Xbox 360 Slim ('10)

Are these two companies trying to stick to the winning formula?
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. So far both consoles have sold in hundreds of millions, their manufacturers could be trying to milk out the most from them without having to bother changing how  the hardware looks or feels.

Or maybe they are waiting to see who blinks first. It could be that they are both waiting for that one killer innovation to push them further ahead of the competition. Motion control is yet to be perfected, hard to tell where the next big thing could come from. If I knew, I'd be a billionaire. Microsoft will not venture into the mobile gaming world with PS Vita like xboxes, too risky a market.

I strongly doubt we'll see a PS4 in 2013, more likely a new Xbox but that is debatable. And where is Nintendo in all of this? Quietly prepping the Wii U, possibly with the aim of stealing a march on sales.

Nintendo Wii U

I have owned the same Xbox 360 for a good 4 years, looks good, firmware updates keep me I'm touch. Safe to say I'm only changing to the Xbox 720 if it will be called that.

Sammy, you have no one to blame but yourselves.......

Being seen to be 'anti-apple'/'anti-i-device' , this piece may come as a shock.

Apple vs. Samsung verdict knocked the Korean smartphone maker out of the water. A whopping $1bn, ouch. With a about $8bn a made from 'copied' devices, should Sammy be worried about the payout? In my opinion, they better. And this problem is all of their own making

Of course, Apple isnt the originator of all ideas but on just observation the iPhone 4 and Galaxy S II look like long lost twins. The galaxy designers were a touch too lazy.

Touch Wiz, without the widgets, is an iOS home screen clone. Google has side stepped taking sides in the ruling, saying the core android experience is not part of the infringment made by Samsung.

Samsung say this will deny users of choice and result in more expensive devices, I say they're paying for being short sighted and not being creative.

UPDATED: The Ativ range of Samsung looks pretty slick and now there are reports that Sammy will be looking to cut its dependence on Android and partner more with Microsoft.....Guess that's what happens when your OS provider cant defend you when push comes to shove.

Advice for Samsung, you've made your name, now push the design boundaries.

Follow the Cupertino Leader

Cupertino, CA. must be the scene of laughter as the industry, Apple coughs and the industry jumps. Whether its a 12th or 21th September release/announcement date, market competitors, be it Nokia or HTC are all scrambling to make the public aware of any up coming smartphones from their stables before Apple takes all the media attention.

Nokia blink first with a windows phone 8 event on the 5th of September rumored to be announcing at least one new device. HTC,well, talk of week 3 in September is a bit far compared to Nokia.

The marketing machine run by Apple will steam roll anybody regardless. Samsung took the early initiative, put out the Galaxy S III way ahead to make sure they sell units before the iPhone 5 aka the new iPhone hits sales figures.

September will surely a month of much fun fare.....here's hoping Nokia and HTC get the head starts they so desperately need in these tough days of smartphone making.

The Consequence of Too Much Success.....

The top, they say is a lonely place till of course someone dethrones you. Taiwanese phone maker HTC popped out of nowhere, took the US and world smartphone markets by storm. Their  year on year profits surprised many and the devices themselves were not half bad, the Evo, the Desire, Sensation, Wildfire, made for different prices ranges all got a piece of the lime light.

All the strides made by HTC put Samsung in the shade who were busy still trying to break out of Korea. As with every bubble, the HTC bubble burst and did terribly. Samsung took HTC's weak points and capitalized. Average to poor build quality of HTC smartphones has been one thing that plagued their well selling phones. Most had/have bad battery life and the hardware designers inspired but had/have too many weak points. Camera buttons, headphone jacks, display LCDs and charging inserts all had one or more assorted issues. HTC forgot to do another thing. Develop a device support base outside the carriers selling their phones.

Cue samsung, brought out better phones and better support for them and took the HTC crown on smartphones. Now HTC is struggling to sell phones. The HTC One series has failed to capture the hearts and minds of consumers. The One X is no slouch but put against the Samsug Galaxy S III but it isn't selling as well as the S III despite even having an earlier release date.

What should HTC do? Go back to the drawing board? Most certainly. Their over reliance on Android has left them in the cold, Google seems to throw the bones to them and not the meat. Device build needs to be up'd a notch. They don't have to make the heaviest phones to win. The Samsung range look and feel nice, plastics are not old.

My HTC love affair has stretched from the G1, touch diamond, and 7 Mozart. Loved all of them but all had their issues. My next smartphone shall be something else, maybe change is need to appreciate what you've always enjoyed.

Nokia or Samsung?

R.I.M., sinking ship in search of a lifeboat...To the rescue, Samsung/Sony/Anytakers??

Interesting times over at Research In Motion... The past few quarters have brought about change at the helm. Lazaridis and Balsillie, co-founders/co-CEOs seen as the authors of RIMs downfall, replaced by Thorsten Heins. Heins' task, steady the ship which looks now more destined to sink so choices are imminent on what to save, put in a lifeboat or cast straight into the sea with sharks circling.

The much talked about Blackberry 10 OS, set to save the company, won't see daylight till Q1 2013. This further reduced investor confidence, giving way to poor quarterly results and it's rumored has tasked it's bankers to find suitors for the company's assets. The usual suspects are mentioned with buying power, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, my guess is as good as yours.

RIM is having trouble churning out devices that have people sleeping on the streets or sending preorders through the roof. People in the markets that matter have simply switched their attention elsewhere. Their stranglehold on enterprise is soon to come under threat from Apple, who want to make the iPhone a true business smartphone; Google, continuously improving Android, and of course Microsoft, who have a lot of catch up to do but are seemly focused. RIM must decide which pieces are worth holding on to. Licensing their prized patents is a gamble worth taking and I think they should shed the hardware side of the business. Tough, but true. If they can get it right, BB10 could last the test of time.

Question now is, who would be interested in getting BB10 and putting it on their smartphones. Apple and Motorola, never. The former, cozy with iOS while the later was bought off by Google and is simply off limits. HTC is gun for hire running almost every major mobile OS out there, so maybe. Nokia just might be interested after they see if their marriage to Microsoft bears any profits to put them in the black with Windows Phone 8. Then there's Samsung, another gun for hire of sorts and the difficult Sony.

Samsung has been flirting with the idea of ditching android apparently and promote its Tizen/Bada combination. Much is to be seen of Tizen, many promising OSs have come and gone so it wouldn't be the first nor the last. Bada is no real android killer and google has its hooks deep into Samsung, their Galaxy range is major success because of android. Would ditch a sure winner? Samsung doesn't care much about Windows phone, they aren't as focused as on android so for them to take on a RIM license of BB10, highly unlikely.

Sony, fixated on android despite their devices not being the best out there. They have shunned windows phone all together putting their eggs in the android desert basket but maybe buying RIM all together could be sweeter.

Decision time for Thorsten...job cuts, top execs leaving are all tips of the iceberg. Come Q2 2013, there better be awesome BB10 handsets floating around and more playbooks or that could be the last year of RIM being one piece.

All my opinion, not the gospel truth.

Disclaimer: I'm not a BB basher, I think BB OSs are cool and neat, devices don't make my palms shake when I see em. And the playbook, sweet little thing with arguably the best multitasking I've handled.

So I'm simply an industry observer giving his take on what's what.