Daily Archives: February 16, 2015


AndroidCentral chief +Phil Nickinson shares some thoughts on "bloatware"…

AndroidCentral chief +Phil Nickinson shares some thoughts on "bloatware" on new phones

As Phil says, the definition of "bloatware" is ultimately subjective since everyone has their own preferences about what apps to use. However, it's not really pre-loading that's the problem. It's the inability to unload the apps that you opt not to use. All apps that aren't part of the core operating system should be loaded into the user partition where they can be uninstalled. I would be ok with having one non-uninstallable app containing links to re-download the pre-loaded apps if a user dumps one by accident. However, as manufacturers increasingly release phones without MicroSD support, they should provide users with a way to maximize the available storage. ?

There’s bloatware, and then there’s bloatware
There’s been a lot of talk about “bloatware” of late. Some of our doing, some not. And the latest round has started to reach inconceivable proportions. But just like Wallace Shawn’s Vizzini, we keep using that word. Bloatware. And perhaps it does not mean what we think it means. So what is “bloatware,” exactly? Here’s how I defined it some time ago in our long-in-need-of-an-update…

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I spent part of the the weekend thinking about the prospects for an Apple car

I spent part of the the weekend thinking about the prospects for an Apple car

It seems everyone is thrilled about the prospect of bringing Apple's reputation for great user experience to the road. However, if we do eventually get to a world of self-driving cars, will that UX matter at all? Whether we get to self-driving cars or not, if Apple comes into the car business, +Tesla Motors may be screwed.?

Can an Apple User Experience Be Enough to Succeed in Cars? | Sam’s Thoughts

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Can an Apple User Experience Be Enough to Succeed in Cars?

carplay

In recent days, the speculation that Apple, Inc. has embarked on an effort to develop and produce cars has blown up all over the internet. If indeed Apple is doing this, they come at this market segment as the industry may be entering the most transformational period in its near 130 year history. I believe Apple can do some very interesting things in this field in the near term, but it’s not at all clear if the company behind the Mac and iPhone has the traits to succeed in the long run. Even if Apple does succeed in the near-term, Tesla is likely to be the first automaker to feel the pain.

The auto industry is scrambling right now to develop future cars capable of driving themselves, taking the humans completely out of the loop. As I’ve discussed previously, there are still a great many technical issues to resolve before we can turn over full control of our mobility needs to sensors, actuators and algorithms. It may in fact be decades before we have fully autonomous general purpose vehicles that can go anywhere.

The era of personal vehicle ownership may be coming to an end

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