Headworx

The Plantronics Discovery 975 has quietly moved to the top of my most trusted and most often used gadgets.The Discovery is a simple yet perfect device. It is a Bluetooth Earpiece, one that works. It gives the best audio experience of a phone call I have ever had. Especially to the other party. It is enough to say using it I have moved over time to the highest voice plan my operator offers. The reason is simple. I can very comfortably make phone conversations while driving. It has been like talking to a passenger siting beside me. On average I spend about two hours a day in a car and at least half of this time is on calls. 1 hour a day is 30 hours monthly, or almost 2000 minutes. Operators, do you hear that? You should be giving this thing away for free, as it will bring you 1 or 2-months ROI. And last week (yes I have owned the Discovery for almost two years now), I realized I can pair it with my Lenovo Windows laptop too. It is not that I had never tried before, but somehow t...

I mentioned a number of times the #1 reason to upgrade my Galaxy Note to the Android 4 (aka ICS) was the new Google Chrome browser. The Chrome has been a major step forward in mobile browsing. Important enough to keep me on the ICS, despite all the drawbacks of the official Samsung build I upgraded to (including the nasty battery draining kernel bug). But on the same day the Google Chrome went out of beta, Firefox offered the revamped beta version of the Android browser. I had tried the Firefox for Android beta before, and it had never won my heart. But the new Firefox for Android is different. It may sound impossible, but the new Firefox is bigger jump forward from the just released Chrome, than the Chrome has been from the old Gingerbread browser. The Firefox is phenomenal. And to be honest I cannot point to a single feature that makes the new Firefox phenomenal. It is the overall experience. As a matter of fact it is the best mobile app I have seen. Ever. On any platform. I...

I hunted a Chromebox a few days ago. They are not officially available in Poland yet, bit from time to time you can track one down on an Internet auction. The Chromebox is the essence of what a home computer should be. It is not portable, so obviously needs an external monitor and a keyboard. And needs to be plugged to the wall power. The setup is a breeze. Power on (it boots in 5 seconds). Enter your WiFi password. Select a country and a language. Enter your Gmail user name and password. You are done. Provided you have a Google account (which is a must to use the Chromebox), you will be up and running in less than a minute. Everything on the Internet works. Including flash - based games I tested. The Chromebox can handle multiple users. Something neither iOS nor Android can do. Multiple user accounts are important on any computer. There always is a need to share the hardware and why mix data, links and credentials? There is a guest mode too. So anyone visiting your house can use...

A platform switch is probably the most difficult and risky process in the IT industry. At the same time it almost always is inevitable for a company to continue on a growth trajectory. The recent history shows us it can also be lethal. Because in software switching platforms is like crossing a chasm. You may fall. Platforms age. So there comes a time when a company decides to invest in a new one. A project to port the existing code base and user base to the new platform is initiated. There is a budget and a project plan. And there are promises to the market. Because probably the only reason companies decide to switch platforms is the market feels there is no future in the current platform and starts looking at competing products which are more future-proof. Then neither the plan nor the budget nor the promises are fulfilled. At least never in time they were promised. I have been through this process a number of times. In 1991 I wrote an extremely successful software product. It...

The Windows 8 RT Tablet news would have passed almost unnoticed, triggering probably no more than just a shrug my shoulders. Why would I need a Windows tablet? Especially as the Android is getting better every day and for the rest there is the iPad. But there is one (frankly quite popular) scenario where Windows still beats Android and iOS. It is the home tablet. By home tablet I mean a large screen form factor tablet (12-inch +) that is lying on the kitchen table and anybody in the house can use it. Why Windows? Because both iOS and Android are not designed to be used by anybody but the owner. Because both iOS and Android cannot handle multiple user accounts on one device. The Android just has my email, my Twitter, my calendar and my Facebook. Ditto the iPad. There is no simple way the other family members can check their email, post their tweets, check their calendar or their Facebook. Windows is different. Even the RT version handles multiple users as easily as the desktop...