Headworx

Apple is closing on Microsoft at the operating system race track. Of course this does not mean Mac OS X sales are anywhere near the sales of Microsoft Windows, but there are areas where Microsoft used to race alone, without any competition and that competition starts showing its strengths. One such area is a Tablet PC. Apple was early to the market with the Newton . Way too early, just before the Internet in fact. And they finally dropped the product line. Microsoft tried to approach the Tablet PC a number of times. They had various Windows CE - based designs, like the Vadem Clio (too early and too slow). Then decided Windows CE was not up to the task (that seems strange to me, but well...) building the first generation of Windows XP - based tablets like the Compaq TC1000 (I really liked that one and am thinking of buying its more powerful brother - the TC1100 - back). And then they started persuading us Vista is the way to go... Until last week when they gave up... Allowing users,

I decided to buy a new digital camera. Technology moves fast ahead and my current Minolta A2 is ageing. I have been quite happy with the A2, but it starts showing its wear... And there are some general capabilities of the camera it just does not have. I went through my albums and among things I would like to have improved are white skies. Indeed on most of my pictures the sky is white. This means the dynamic range of the sensor was not high enough. The bright portions of the image saturated the image sensor, most of the time resulting in a white sky. I do not complain about other aspects of the images that much. Resolution of 8 megapixels is fine for the moment. 28-200 lens are OK too. So I started some research to find a camera equipped with a high dynamic range sensor. On one hand there is a cornucopia of new models from the market leaders, namely Canon and Nikon, followed by Panasonic and Sony. On the other hand two designs have attracted my attention: Sigma SD-14 and Fujifilm S5 Pr

Last week was full of speculation of Apple bidding for the 700MHz spectrum in the US. While this may or may not prove right, I have another concept for Steve Jobs. Why not become an MVNO or Mobile Virtual Network Operator? In Europe we are experiencing a tsunami of emerging MVNOs. Some of them are purely virtual, being no more than a brand, a web presence and a calling plan. Some build the entire core network infrastructure, including MSC's (Mobile Switching Centers), HLR's and all the galaxy of components composing a mobile network (less the radio transmitters and antennas). Each of them is targeting its own audience. Looking at this picture it looks pretty natural Apple should become an MVNO. The iPhone buyers are not happy about the AT&T alliance. They can live with AT&T just because they love Apple and they can withstand any torture just to be able to use the Apple product. This is a very loyal audience, feeling superior to anybody else. They are ready to spend a co

I have a basket full of various portable devices, each of them aspiring to be the king of portable Internet. The one I do not have is an iPhone, for several reasons. First and most obvious is we do not have AT&T coverage here in Poland :), but then I think the iPhone is not that great when it comes to mobile Internet. Especially the screen resolution of 320x480 is far from what is needed for decent web browsing. And then there are various reports of incredibly weak Safari performance and its Web 2.0 (AJAX) incompatibility. And while the World was waiting for the holy iPhone, Nokia quietly developed the second version of the Linux - based Internet tablet. The N800 is a successor of the N770 and its specs are really attractive (especially the screen at 800x480, 2.5 times more spacious than Apple's). After reading many very positive opinions on the N800, I finally decided to get one myself, and have to admit it has exceeded all my expectations by a wide margin. Here are the pros

Mobile Internet, wireless data cards, WiFi, UMTS, 3G, HSDPA, WiMax... look how many standards we have developed. I often try to think which way the future will develop. So far we have been thinking of WiFi as more "Internet oriented" and GSM/3G as more "telephony oriented" technologies. But this is going to change... Since the first day of "cellular packet data" known as GPRS we have been using "telephony oriented" networks to access the Internet, and vice versa, by means of Skype et al, Internet networks have been providing us with voice communications. But still a notebook is more of an Internet device and a mobile phone is more of a telephony device. The divide is more and more blurred however... With the commercialization of technologies like GAN - Generic Access Network ( I wrote about UMA a few weeks ago ) the meaning of "carrier" as both the service operator AND the access network is taking a split. Voice telephony operator no lo