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Thomson Reuters Names ‘Top 100 Global Innovators’ – Now Guess Who’s Missing

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 10:43:59 +0000

Thomson Reuters this morning announced that it has identified “the world’s 100 most innovative organizations today” through a proprietary program. I wouldn’t normally give such a list much attention, but when I was glancing at the top 100 list , I recognized many of the usual suspects on there, such as Apple, Intel, HP, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Sony, Xerox and Alcatel-Lucent. One notable name that I think everyone in this business would expect on the list was missing, though. Did good old Google really lose that much of its edge of late? Here’s the thing. According to Thomson Reuters, its program analyzes patent data and related metrics to identify the world leaders innovation activity. Allow me to quote David Brown, president of the IP Solutions business of Thomson Reuters: “We salute these companies and their leaders for the innovative spirit they foster and their commitment to protecting intellectual assets.” Thomson Reuters looked at all organizations with 100 or more “innovative” patents, and how many of them were granted, over the past three years, and also how often they get cited in other patent filings. They also looked at how many ‘major world markets’ their patents were protected in, ruling out a bunch of innovative companies that don’t have the resources to do this on a global scale (yet). Now, I’m not an expert, but I daresay patent-related metrics should only be part of the methodology one should use to determine who is innovating or not. Put differently, if a company like Google – despite its flaws, easily one of the hallmark hotbeds of innovation the world knows today – is not worthy of this list, then my assumption is the criteria used to get other companies ranked on there are pretty much worthless. Interestingly, Thomson Reuters ranks ‘Motorola Inc.’ as a top 100 global innovator, even if there’s no such company anymore. That company was divided into two separate entities, Motorola Solutions and Motorola Mobility, so it’s worth questioning the quality of Thomson Reuters’ program some more. Coincidentally, Motorola Mobility is in the process of being swallowed by Google .

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Thomson Reuters Names ‘Top 100 Global Innovators’ – Now Guess Who’s Missing

iTunes Match Has Us on Cloud Nine [REVIEW]

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 23:30:21 +0000

iTunes Match is now available and ready for sign-ups. Apple introduced the service back at WWDC 2011; it’s a way to access all your iTunes music via the cloud, for a fee. Similar to Amazon’s Cloud Player and Google Music , iTunes Match offers users the ability to access their music libraries — whether tracks were purchased via iTunes or not — from iTunes on a Mac or PC and from iOS 5 devices, including the Apple TV 2. The service is $24.99 a year. For that $25, users can upload up to 25,000 tracks to the iTunes Cloud (past iTunes purchases do not count against that total) and access their tunes on up to 10 devices. We’ve been playing with the service since it first hit beta and have watched it evolve from a promising — if buggy — tool into a well executed consumer-centric music solution. After downloading iTunes 10.5.1, users can opt to enable iTunes Match. After paying the annual fee, iTunes will scan a user’s iTunes library and upload or match the songs that it finds to its servers. Apple has a catalog of more than 20 million songs, which means most users’ existing albums and tracks will already be in Apple’s database, drastically reducing the amount of time it takes to upload a library to the cloud. This is a major advantage over both Amazon Cloud Player and Google Music. Another major advantage is that unlike Amazon, which requires pre-Cloud Player purchases to be uploaded to its servers retroactively, all of your iTunes purchases are accessible, thanks to iTunes in the Cloud . iTunes Match and iTunes in the Cloud: Perfect Harmony iTunes Match and iTunes in the Cloud work hand-in-hand. You can use iTunes in the Cloud without iTunes Match, but when the two are working together, the entire process is utterly seamless. Over the course of nearly eight years, I have downloaded several thousand songs from iTunes. Most of them are downloaded onto my iMac or stored on an aging hard-drive based iPod. With iTunes Match/iTunes in the Cloud, I have access to all of my past purchases in my library. Even if I haven’t downloaded those songs to my MacBook Pro, the songs are still viewable and playable. Playing back these songs can take place in two ways. First, I can just stream the song from the web, a la Spotify , MOG or Rdio . I can also opt to download a track to my hard drive. I can also create playlists or smart playlists using tracks from my existing iTunes purchase library. On secondary machines, local uploads are accessible in the same way that my iTunes purchases are. The experience is similar to what subscribers to services like Spotify have long enjoyed, but the difference is that now the songs I actually own (or have acquired in other ways) are included. Playlist Synchronization The iTunes Match/iTunes in the Cloud harmony really comes together with playlist synchronization. You no longer need to manually sync playlists with your iOS device via iTunes — instead it all takes place over the cloud. That means my iPhone can see playlists I’ve created on my laptop or desktop. The process works in reverse too. I can create playlists on my iPad or iPhone and then access those playlists from within iTunes on the desktop or from another iOS device. Matching Songs with iTunes After signing up for iTunes Match, the service will assess your library and upload tracks from your personal library into the iTunes cloud. If Apple can find a song in its own repository, it just matches the song in place. For songs not available in Apple’s servers, your own files are uploaded directly to the cloud. Click here to view this gallery. High Quality Matched Tracks Although most of my personal compressed musical files are stored in LAME V0 (~225-278 bitrate, depending on the file), I have accumulated some lesser quality tracks over the years. By default, if iTunes Match finds a song in its library, it will replace that track with a 256-kbps AAC version. These files are DRM free when downloaded from the cloud — and appear to be the same files users purchase directly from iTunes. For some users, having improved sound quality will be a big deal, though more discerning fans might not hear much of a difference. Keep in mind Amazon also encodes its MP3s at at least 256kbps, so tracks purchased on Amazon.com, uploaded to iTunes, really just wind up changing from one format for another. That’s an important distinction; although the iTunes Match tracks are stored by iTunes, they are in the AAC or *.m4a format. Most MP3 players will play this format, but be sure to check if you want to sideload those tracks to another device. Listening on the Go If you want to listen to tracks from iTunes or an Apple TV 2 device, you can stream songs without local downloads. Listening to songs on the iPad or iPhone, however, will download a track (though it plays it during the download process). It would be nice if there was a way to indicate if you want to save a track for offline listening or if you just want to stream tunes. The advantage of this download upon play method, however, is that if you are suddenly offline (like on the subway), you can still listen to tracks you’ve recently played on your device. Agains the Competition iTunes Match competes directly with Google Music and Amazon Cloud Player. On the whole, iTunes Match stacks up well against the other services. Although Google Music is free during the beta process, we expect the company will charge $20 to $25 a year, just like Amazon and Apple. Amazon charges $20 a year for a 20GB Cloud Drive, but promises unlimited song storage. Google limits users to 20,000 songs and iTunes Match is limited to 25,000 songs, not counting your existing iTunes purchases. Unlike Amazon and Google, Apple does not have a browser-based music player. For some, this may be a deal breaker. For me, it’s actually an advantage. I find web-based music apps to be clunky in execution. It’s why I prefer the designated desktop apps for subscription streaming services. It’s also why I loathe using Amazon Cloud Player, because the process of getting songs into or out of my account is so tedious. iTunes isn’t perfect, but it handles track playback, upload and download with much less friction than a web interface. Of course, the biggest difference between the services is mobile device support. Amazon Cloud Player and Google Music are both available via unofficial iOS apps , but there are native solutions available for Android. iTunes Match is only accessible from iTunes or iOS devices. That means Android users are out of luck when it comes to cloud-based bliss. You can still offload songs to your phone, using programs like DoubleTwist, but the cloud-based options are iOS only. Still, for a person invested in the iTunes ecosystem, iTunes Match is the mature execution of the music cloud concept. For me, paying $24.99 a year was worth it just to have seamless playlist access as well as the ability to upload parts of my collection from multiple machines. What do you think of iTunes Match? Let us know. More About: apple , Cloud Music , Feature , icloud , itunes-match , redesign

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iTunes Match Has Us on Cloud Nine [REVIEW]

The Death Of The Spec

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:14:37 +0000

Earlier today, my colleague Matt Burns wrote a post noting that most tablet makers may be largely failing because they’ve sold their soul to Android and are now just in the middle of a spec war, which no one can win. I’m gonna go one step further in that line of thinking: the spec is dead. There have been a few key stories from the past couple of weeks that highlight this new reality. Barnes & Noble unveiled the new Nook Tablet . Consumer Reports looked at the iPhone 4S . And the first reviews came in about the Kindle Fire. On paper, the Nook Tablet is the Android-based reading tablet to buy. It has twice the RAM of the Kindle Fire, twice the built-in storage space, a better battery, and it’s lighter to boot. Yes, it’s $50 more expensive, but come on, the RAM difference alone is worth well more than that. Clearly, this is the better value for your money. And yet, the Nook Tablet will not outsell the Kindle Fire. That’s the thing: “on paper” doesn’t matter anymore. What matters is that the Kindle Fire comes with Amazon’s content ecosystem attached to it. Perhaps more importantly, it will be peddled like no other on the all-important Amazon.com homepage. The specs are secondary in this race at best. The reality is that they will be an afterthought. Or again, the Nook would win. Next up, Consumer Reports’ take on the iPhone 4S. Hey, this time, they actually like it! And thank god , because as everyone saw the last time around, their damning report really hurt iPhone 4 sales — to the tune of all-time record sales of the device, leading Apple to their most profitable year ever. More on that in a second. First, it’s important to note that while Consumer Reports liked the device, they didn’t like it as much as a few other Android devices. Why? Specs. Marco Arment ripped this apart last week already, but the thing reads like a bad joke. For example, they love the LG Thrill’s ability to capture stills and videos in 3D. This is one step short of knocking the iPhone 4S because it doesn’t have frickin’ laser beams mounted on the top of the device. And such comparisons show just how clueless Consumer Reports has become. Last year, they milked “Antennagate” for the pageviews, not realizing that it could actually undermine their own credibility if the device still sold well. “Sold well” ended up being a major understatement. So in effect, they themselves highlighted that no one cares about Consumer Reports anymore. And why not? Because they Consumer Reports largely cares about specs. And consumers do not anymore. The NPD Group just released their latest numbers . The number one selling smartphone last quarter was the iPhone 4. The over-a-year-old phone which Consumer Reports refused to endorse over a year ago, remember. Meanwhile, the number two phone for the quarter? The two-year-old iPhone 3GS. Does anyone really think that the LG Thrill is going to outsell the iPhone 4S this quarter? What about the Motorola Droid Bionic? Maybe the Samsung Galaxy S II? Consumer Reports now matters just as much as specs do. Which is to say, not at all. Finally, we have the Kindle Fire. This is likely to be the final nail in the coffin for the spec. By pretty much all accounts, this is a cheaply-built device. Spec-wise, it’s pretty ho-hum. But it’s a cheaply-built device that comes at a cheap price. That matters more — especially when paired with Amazon.com, as I previously mentioned. The Kindle Fire outselling the Nook Tablet, even though the latter wins the spec argument, will be one thing. But if sales compete with the gold standard of tablets, the iPad, that will really be something. So far, no other tablet device has come close to remotely competing with the iPad. The Kindle Fire should. They’re clearly different devices — the iPad is a much larger form factor and a price that is more than double the Kindle Fire — but I have no doubt that for many people, the Kindle Fire will be a good enough tablet that they’ll at least wait on an iPad 3 (or iPad 2 HD, or whatever it will be called). That’s a key thought: “good enough”. None of the initial reviews say that the Kindle Fire is better than the iPad — because it isn’t. It can’t match Apple’s product in either specs or polish. But it is $199 versus $499. That matters far more than any spec. You’re paying for something that’s perhaps half as good as the iPad, but it’s less than half of the cost. There’s at least perceived value there. And “good enough” also speaks to where we’re at in the broader computing world. I used to get excited for Sunday inserts in the local paper so I could see what new machines were available at Best Buy, Circuit City, or CompUSA. The only thing I cared about were the specs. Which Intel chip did it have? What was the clock speed? How much RAM? How big was the hard drive? How fast was the CD burner? How much cache? Those things mattered. Then three things happened. First, computers kept going more mainstream — the above listed specs look like gibberish to most people. Second, the web took over and most computers quickly became more than fast enough for the majority of users. Specs became a thing that PC gamers cared about. This contributed to the rebirth of the Mac, because it was never much of a gaming machine throughout the years — especially in the PowerPC years when it was getting smoked by Intel chips (which Apple, of course, eventually adopted). And third, buoyed by the first two things, new platforms arose. During the PC years, specs also mattered because there was one common dominant force in computing: Microsoft. Because Windows was everywhere, you could fairly reliably gauge the performance of one machine against another. But with the rise of the Mac and more importantly, smartphones and tablets, you can’t as easily stack machines up against one another performance-wise. My MacBook Air doesn’t have the specs of a brand new HP PC laptop — but it still feels faster. Maybe it’s OS X, or maybe it’s the solid state drive. Point is, consumers don’t and shouldn’t care. They care about which machine will boot faster and which will be easier to navigate. Time to web matters. And now connected ecosystems matter more than specs. This again helps Apple and Amazon. Does the machine seamlessly integrate with the iTunes ecosystem? Does it have access to the App Store? Can it access the Kindle Bookstore or Amazon’s streaming video service? We’re starting to see backlash against reviews of products that just do spec-by-spec rundown. Because really, who cares how the device sounds on paper? It’s how it feels that matters. Is the Kindle Fire smooth? Is the Nook Tablet fast? Is the iPad a joy to use? Drew Breunig spoke to these things last week in a post entitled “ Device Specs have Become Meaningless “. Dustin Curtis put this more succinctly in two tweets last night: Follow @dcurtis @dcurtis dustin curtis The section headings for a Kindle Fire review should not be "battery, internals, screen;" they should be "reading, surfing the web," etc. about 14 hours ago via Twitter for Mac Reply Retweet Favorite I agree. Why base reviews around specs when specs don’t matter? You could certainly argue that Apple is the company which has ushered in this post-spec era. They’ve flourished in recent years despite (and maybe because of) being cagey with most spec information on their newer devices. Does the iPhone 4S have 512 MB or RAM or 1 GB? Apple refuses to say. But who cares? It’s the fastest iPhone yet. (It’s 512 MB, for the record.) Apple is more traditional with the Mac when it comes to specs (undoubtedly due to legacy), but they still mostly bury that information. Whereas PC sites often trumpet the processor and other specs on the main landing page for their products ( HP laptops, for example ), Apple instead focuses on natural language descriptions: “The new, faster Macbook Air”. But the post-spec era works both ways. If the iPad specs don’t matter when going up against the Motorola Xoom, they also don’t matter when going up against the Kindle Fire. What matters is how the device performs, the ecosystem, and the price. In other words, the way you compete in computing now is to do so by focusing on things that human beings understand. On things that matter.

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The Death Of The Spec

Bang & Olufsen’s BeoLit 12 will feature Apple Airplay capabilities

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:18:21 +0000

Bang & Olufsen are known for their ultra high-end speaker systems, and it looks like they will adding to their list an Apple Airplay speaker with the BeoLit 12, pictured above, which by all accounts does not appear to be of the same design and elegance that one might expect from Bang & Olufsen, but we will reserve our judgement when more photos emerge. (more…) Bang & Olufsen’s BeoLit 12 will feature Apple Airplay capabilities , By Ubergizmo . Top Stories : Epic 4G Touch Review ,

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Bang & Olufsen’s BeoLit 12 will feature Apple Airplay capabilities

Project Black Mirror could turn out to be a hoax

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:04:06 +0000

Just last week we reported on how a group of hackers supposedly figured out a way to control the Siri function on the iPhone 4S by using their brainwaves. It was the stuff out of science fiction, and to be honest giving the pace that we are advancing in terms of technology, it wasn’t really a stretch of the imagination to picture that something like this could be possible “one day”. Unfortunately it turns out the Project Black Mirror might be nothing more than an elaborate hoax according to many scientists familiar with such technology. (more…) Project Black Mirror could turn out to be a hoax , By Ubergizmo . Top Stories : iPhone 4S Review ,

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Project Black Mirror could turn out to be a hoax

iTunes Match Now Available via iTunes Update

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:59:20 +0000

Apple’s long-touted iTunes Match is finally available. Users can access it by downloading the iTunes 10.5.1 update. iTunes Match was announced alongside iCloud at WWDC in June. The service allows users to upload up to 25,000 non-iTunes songs to Apple’s servers for easy access from up to 10 computers and iOS devices. The service is $24.99 a year. To access iTunes Match, click on the new “iTunes Match” icon in the “Store” sidebar. If you don’t see iTunes Match, select, “Store” and “Turn On iTunes Match” from the main iTunes menu. Right now, Apple’s servers are reporting overwhelming demand for the service and the company advises users try again in an hour. We’ve been beta-testing iTunes Match for the past few months and will have a more detailed hands-on with the service later in the day. More About: apple , icloud , itunes , itunes-match , trending

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iTunes Match Now Available via iTunes Update

iTunes Match Is Live, At Long Last [Apple]

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:47:47 +0000

At last, at long last, iTunes Match has gone live, giving you access to your music, in the cloud, without you ever having to upload a thing. All download, no upload sounds like a formula for success. More »

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iTunes Match Is Live, At Long Last [Apple]

iTunes Match Launches Today

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:45:48 +0000

As expected , the launch of iTunes Match is now upon us, with today’s release of iTunes 10.5.1, available from the iTunes website here . For those living under the proverbial rock, iTunes Match is the new service from Apple that gives you legal access to store all your music in iCloud – even those songs you didn’t originally purchase from iTunes. For $25 per year, iTunes Match will match tracks in your music collection to those in the iTunes catalog – a catalog that now includes over 20 million songs. In theory, iTunes Match is meant to pair up the songs in your library you ripped from CDs, but in reality, it means your pirated tunes can now be made legal for a mere $25/year. And if you have an extensive collection of indie artists, local bands or DJs that live outside the i-Universe, iTunes Match will upload those MP3′s to iCloud, too. Once in iCloud, music can be streamed to any device and stored at 256-Kbps AAC DRM-free quality – even if the original song was pirated purchased at lower quality. The new service is just one of the features in iTunes 10.5.1, which also includes baked-in iCloud support, enabling you to access your songs, apps and books across all your Apple devices, without having to manually re-download the purchases on each additional device you own. The iCloud service lets you access and download past purchases, too, on whichever device you want. The update to iTunes is out now, but iTunes Match is available only for U.S. users (sorry, world). To enable the service, you’ll need to switch it on after iTunes is installed. P.S. For those of you who remember the debate about whether or not what iTunes Match is doing can be called “streaming,” you may be interested to see that Apple now uses the word “streaming” on its website to describe the service: “Once your music is in iCloud, you can stream and store it to any of your devices…”

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iTunes Match Launches Today

Bag Week Review: The Chrome Yalta Backpack

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:15:40 +0000

What is it? If you’re planning on taking a semester off and fly to Europe just to clear your head and get over “her” (or “him”), you’re going to need a backpack. That’s why Chrome made the Yalta, a backpack that looks like a cross between an Weimar-Era bondage truss and something the Good Soldier Švejk would carry through the trenches of World War I. This is not to say that the Yalta is only for those who browse army surplus shops. This “duffel” style backpack has a large top opening and a rear pocket designed to allow for a laptop (no bigger than the Macbook Air) and/or a tablet. There is also a front pocket. To close it, you simply roll up the lip at the top and connect the chromed metal hook into one of the loops sewn to the back of the backpack. The hook, it should be noted, can double as a bottle opener. The Chrome Yalta Type: Backpack Dimensions: 14x21x6 inches/29 liters Pockets: Main body, rear laptop/tablet pocket/front accessory pocket Features: Weather proof shell, clasp doubles as a bottle opener MSRP: $120 Product Page Style-wise the Yalta is stark and utilitarian. I was able to fit quite a bit of kit into this thing, however, and it’s roomy enough for an weekend trip, along with all the electronics necessary for said trip. The laptop pocket is set low against the back should be protected in various situations it was quite secure even when I threw the bag around on the plane. The only complaint is how deep the thing is. Once you fill it up, getting to the bottom takes a while and you can feasibly lose things in its deepest recesses. Who is this for? Folks going on semester abroad. Businessmen with an edge going to Scranton for a three-day assignment. Karl Ruprecht Kroenen. Folks on a train who only have 24 hours to fall in and out of love. Do I want it? If you need a weekend bag, you could do worse. Many of the online reviews talked up the waterproof fabric and I think that’s the Yalta’s real draw – the sense that you can have a heck of an adventure with this thing without your laptop getting wet. While I think it’s a bit small for a longer trip, it’s more than sufficient for a bit of urban exploring and at $120 it’s a well-priced, roomy bag for folks who want a bit of rubber clad excitement. Click to view slideshow.

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Bag Week Review: The Chrome Yalta Backpack

Welcome To Bag Week 2011

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:15:33 +0000

We pay a lot of lip service to high-tech gadgetry and gizmos on TechCrunch, focusing on only the latest and greatest for your edification. But what abou the stuff that barely gets any notice? What about the straps, bags, and sacs that carry our devices hither and yon with nary a scratch. That’s why we’re holding our annual Bag Week this week and that’s why we’re going to be reviewing a cavalcade of bags, from photo bags to laptop bags to backpacks. Why, you ask? Because it’s Bag Week, people. Bag Week will be the big run up to our annual Holiday Gift Guide series and, since Thanksgiving is a little over a week away, it’s high time we start thinking about gifts for the loved ones and not so loved ones. Until then, we’ll be running through two or three bags a day this week, so you can follow the entire thread here and watch for great giveaways as well. If you’ve come for bags this week, you’ve come to the right place. I guess you can say… we’ve got it in the bag.

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Welcome To Bag Week 2011