Copying Leads To Competition, Competition Leads To Innovation

Marco Arment, the creator of the popular read-it-later tool Instapaper, has an excellent blog post discussing copying, innovation, and the best ways to react to competition. Arment discusses a new Instapaper competitor called Readability, which launched last week and received a lot of praise for including custom fonts, something Instapaper lacks:I could have interpreted this defensively and complacently: “Georgia and Verdana are great, versatile, highly screen-readable fonts! I don’t need to do what competitors do! Newer isn’t always better! My crusty old fonts have some technical advantage that you don’t care about!” And so on. That would have just made me look stubborn and out of touch, failing to understand (in fact, trying very hard not to understand) why newer fonts could be attractive...

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Posted in: Competition,Copying,Innovation,Leads

Police Academy actor explores the history of video game SFX

From Pong to Portal, actor/comedian Michael Winslow looks back on the history of sound effects in video games as only he can. Actor Michael Winslow is probably best-known as the guy who made all of those crazy sounds in the Police Academy movies, but he recently contributed his noise-making talents to a short video looking back on the evolution of video-game sound effects.Produced by G4TV, the two-minute video has Winslow beep-bop-booping his way from Pong to Portal, and offering a timeline of sorts for some popular games’ use of SFX. There’s an extremely short list of games represented (only six?!), so the video is clearly aimed at providing...

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Posted in: Academy,actor,explores,history,Police,video

Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Apple Because Siri Doesn't Always Work Right

Technology doesn't always work quite as well as the advertisements claim. But is that any reason to sue? Apparently, yes. Some guy is trying to kick off a class action lawsuit against Apple because Siri doesn't work quite as well as it does in the TV ads. I imagine this lawsuit is going nowhere fast. Perhaps next time the guy should try asking Siri for legal advice...View the original article h...

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Posted in: Action,Against,Always,Apple,Because,Class,Doesnt,Filed,Lawsuit,Right

The new iPad has CIOs quaking in their cubicles

Apple’s newest iPad has some new elements that could make it a (bigger) hit in the enterprise, such as a higher-resolution screen for video conferencing and presentations as well as taking dictation. But it has become increasingly clear to corporations that their networks can’t handle the iPad or, really, most of the devices employees are bringing into their walls. We have done a lot of coverage on how iPads have made inroads into the enterprise, with 64 percent of mobile workers now carrying a tablet, and that will rise to nearly 80 percent within the next six months, according the Mobile Workforce Report (you can see the iPad breakdown below)....

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Don't Buy Antivirus Software, Vendor Says

By Howard Dahdah, computerworld.com.au Trend Micro's consumer security product manager has recommend people not to buy antivirus products, including his own. But there is a method to his madness, he assures. David Peterson, consumer segment director for Trend Micro's ANZ business, said only a handful of the top 10 security threats these days are viruses, with downloaders, Trojans, keyloggers and phishing scams filling up the list. As such, he believes standalone antivirus software is best suited for infrequent users of the Internet such as dial up users, or those who want protection from nasties on USB keys. "There is a niche for it but there are also people outside that niche who are buying it." He said standalone AV products are there because the market demands it. "I wish they...

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