Virtualization, Cloud Computing and Mobile: 07/16/10

2010년 7월 16일 금요일

Before Applegate, There was Gizmododom

At WWDC, Steve Jobs all but begged the audience to take as close of a look as possible at the little notches separating the stainless steel bands that surround the newly announced iPhone 4. Acknowledging Gizmodo’s capture of an iPhone 4 in the wild, Steve made a point of singling out the gaps between the stainless steel bands to which there had been much speculation across the blogosphere as to their function.

iOS 4.0.1 Available Now

Apple today released the much anticipated first update to the fourth iteration of its mobile operating system iOS 4.0.1. iPhone users everywhere have been eagerly awaiting the new update ever since Apple revealed last month that there was a problem with the way the system was calculating the strength of cellular signals from ATT, incorrectly displaying more bars than appropriate.

It’s worth mentioning that this revelation came in the midst of rampant speculation on the part of many new IPhone 4 owners who were noticing unusual behavior whenever they touched “The Spot” on the new phone’s magical external antenna.

iPad RSS Reader Roundup

NetNewsWire first came out in 2002, and back then, it was the only application of its kind. RSS was just beginning to pick up steam, Google Reader wasn’t even conceived of yet, and most people got their news by visiting a series of bookmarks. Fast-forward to 2010, and the once unique NetNewsWire has started an entire genre of applications dedicated to consuming feeds. NetNewsWire now has three versions, the original OS X app, an iPhone app, and now an iPad app.

NetNewsWire is still the best OS X feed reader available for the Mac, but competition on iOS is stiff. Feed reading is arguably one of the primary uses of the iPad, so making a good RSS client for it very important.

Android Market hits 100,000 apps and a billion downloads (Update: not so much)

While Google hasn’t confirmed these numbers, an estimate of total downloads and app numbers maintained by Androlib has ticked over to 100,000 apps and games available, and a full billion downloaded. iPhone comparisons? If we must. Apple’s billionth app download occurred 287 days after the App Store’s debut. It took Android… well, let’s just say significantly longer. But Android is also seeing accelerating growth. I’m guessing 2 billion isn’t too far off, at this rate.

Update: Google just contradicted Androlib’s app numbers in their earnings call. There are only 70,000. Ah well. Now I’m wondering about that billion figure, too.

Google: Android Cost “Isn’t Material” For the Company — Android Search Up 300% In 2010

During Google’s Q2 2010 earnings call today, one of the things Google’s executives were clearly very excited about was the Android platform. They noted that there are now 70,000 apps in the Android Market — up from 30,000 in April. They also reiterated the company line about how important openness is to the platform. But during the Q&A session, an interesting question was raised: how much investment is Google putting into Android for this open platform?

“Android cost isn’t material for the company,” Google CFO Patrick Pichette noted. He said that it’s important to remember that perhaps the key products for Android — the phone hardware — isn’t developed by Google at all. Droid X, for example, was entirely an investment by Motorola to make the device. “The entire ecosystem is exploding,” Pichette said.

Apple, I Mean A “Source”, Confirms There Will Be No iPhone 4 Recall

As we’re now less than a day away from Apple’s surprise iPhone 4 press conference, speculation is at a fever pitch. Depending on what you read, Apple is either going to recall the device, offer users to trade it in for a new version, offer free bumpers, offer gift cards, simply explain the problem — or do something else entirely. But now it seems that we may be able to rule out one of those scenarios: the recall.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple will not be recalling the device. Normally, this type of one-source report may not seem too concrete — except that WSJ has an interesting history with these type of Apple rumors. That is, they often seem as if they come from Apple itself.

The most recent example of this is in January, when speculation was swirling about Apple’s then-unannounced tablet device. WSJ not only confirmed it, but confirmed that it would ship in March (it eventually slipped to April, but close enough). They also had some funny wording in that story,

Apple to Address iPhone 4 Issues at Friday Conference

Apple, the company that has found itself in the limelight over recent weeks for the antenna trouble experienced by some iPhone 4 users, has said that it will hold a news conference this Friday, according to The Wall Street Journal. While the company has kept tight-lipped about the conference, it has acknowledged one thing - that the iPhone 4 will be at the center of attention.

Within hours of the iPhone hitting owners' doorsteps last month, the reports and YouTube videos showing the then-unconfirmed issue began showing up all over the Internet. The issue came to a head this week when Consumer Reports said it wouldn't recommned the phone and the R-word - recall - started being heard. Although Apple has said the issue could be found across various cell phone models and was due toa software error in how the phone reported signal strength, the hoopla over the antenna issues has continued to grow. This week, the iPhone 4 debacle (which some are now calling "antennagate") hit mainstream audiences when it made it on to David Letterman's Top 10 list.

CloudCamp at OSCON: 5 Topics We'd Like to Discuss

We are thinking of how to get the most out of CloudCamp at OSCON on Monday night as the discussions will be exclusively about open-source and the cloud.

So we decided why not write down some topics that we'd like to explore. These are in no particular order but just generally what we are thinking about. A lot of these questions come from trends and topics of discussion we are seeing on the Web.

Let's get started:

The Basics

A simple discussion on the different components of the open cloud.

Questions: What is the anatomy of the open cloud? What are its components at the node and system infrastructure level? What are the dynamics of the current market that is affecting its overall structure?