I found this article about the recent Apple vs. Samsung patent lawsuit hearing quite comical. This part for instance is just pure comedy gold:

Apple sued Samsung in the United States in April, saying the South Korean company’s Galaxy line of mobile phones and tablets “slavishly” copies the iPhone and iPad.

…

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh frequently remarked on the similarity between each company’s tablets. At one point during the hearing, she held one black glass tablet in each hand above her head, and asked Sullivan (Samsung’s attorney) if she could identify which company produced which.

“Not at this distance your honor,” said Sullivan, who stood at a podium roughly ten feet away.

“Can any of Samsung’s lawyers tell me which one is Samsung and which one is Apple?” Koh asked. A moment later, one of the lawyers supplied the right answer.

I’m dying to see a reenactment of this hearing.

Google announced its third quarter 2011 financial results today and after giving it a look-see this section in particular got my attention:

“We had a great quarter,” said Larry Page, CEO of Google. “Revenue was up 33% year on year and our quarterly revenue was just short of $10 billion. Google+ is now open to everyone and we just passed the 40 million user mark. People are flocking into Google+ at an incredible rate and we are just getting started!“

Passing the 40 million user mark in such a short period of time is indeed quite an achievement. But how many of those 40 million users are active users? I have more friends on Google+ for the novelty factor than for the functionality itself. Nobody I know uses Google+ as their primary social network; Facebook took that spot and it will keep reigning for the upcoming years. Don’t get me wrong though, I find Google+ to be nice and all. But people like me are lazy. Lazy to start all over again. What years and years of social networking has accumulated it is all on Facebook. People like me are not ready to start on a blank canvas yet. Perhaps we don’t have to yet; Facebook is totally fine at the moment and people seem to agree with me on this.

As if Research in Motion (RIM) needed more bad press..

It seems now that their service outages have spread to the US. The one feature that had it going for RIM yet they still managed to screw up. You are almost making things too easy now..

It seems that those Apple servers are taking quite a hit once again due to the recent rollout of iOS 5 and Apple’s cloud services. I personally have been dealing with some pretty problematic issues ever since the rollout earlier today. Back in the beta and subsequently the GM, I had no problem(s) whatsoever. But now, I can’t even turn on iCloud backups on my iPhone 4 or access mail. Sound familiar? It should. If you remember a product called MobileMe which Apple launched not too long ago and suffered similar startup issues.

During Steve’s last WWDC he admitted that while MobileMe’s rollout was not Apple’s finest hour; they did learn a lot from it. I have no doubt in my mind that they did prepare better this time around but it still seems that it wasn’t enough. Apple even took better safer measures by releasing features and services in different stages. But still, it seems that we managed to set those servers on fire somehow.

Disclaimer: Bear with me, this is just a random thought I had ¹.

When you take into account all these VOIP apps available and messaging services such as Whatsapp and iMessage, who needs minutes and texts anymore? Considering that all major cellular networks already offer data plans why isn’t there a carrier that offers data exclusively? Making minutes and texts a thing from the past.

This scenario might already sound familiar to some. Familiar in the sense that this is already happening in the tablet market; more specifically in devices such as the Apple iPad. It has also been rumored that Apple has a 3G enabled iPod Touch in the works. With this in mind, who needs a phone to make phone calls anymore? The days of the present day phone are numbered. Soon we will be dropping the phone part off the term smartphone.

 It seems that iOS 5′s official launch is on schedule¹. Awesome!

This is perhaps the best recap story of everything Apple I have seen this week ever. I wholeheartedly agree with every single thing said by Mr. Gruber. Huge kudos to you.

Now, maybe you would prefer a 4-inch screen. Or maybe a 4.5-inch screen. And maybe someone else would prefer a slightly smaller 3.25-inch screen. That’s not how Apple rolls, especially with iOS devices. There is no doubt that some people would prefer a bigger screen. But nor is there any doubt that many other people would not. I wouldn’t. I like to see things get smaller, not bigger. Bigger is not necessarily better. Apple decided on the optimal size for an iPhone display back in 2006. If they thought 4-inches was better, overall, as the one true size for the iPhone display, then the original iPhone would have had a 4-inch display. It’s not like 4-inch screens are harder to make, or use some sort of new technology. If anything they’re surely easier to make, as the pixels are less dense.

One big advantage of a 3.5-inch display: with average-size hands, your thumb can reach any pixel on screen more comfortably while holding the phone one-handed. Judging from my email, many proponents of bigger screens — those who are disappointed that the iPhone 4S doesn’t sport a 4-inch display — see no such trade-off. Bigger is better, period, they say, and anyone who says otherwise is in denial that Apple is falling behind its competition. But by that logic, 5-inch screens would be better than 4-inch ones, and 6-inch screens better still. That’s silly. Bigger is not necessarily better for handheld/pocket devices.

Couldn’t have said it better myself. I have been addressing the exact same point(s) for quite some time now. Really awesome stuff here, please give it a read.

Today at around eight in the morning, I was woken up by a text message from a friend of mine. His text read: “Noooooo steveeeee”. I immediately feared the worst. I quickly checked some of my favorite tech blogs and my biggest fear was confirmed: Steve Jobs had passed away. Not only was Steve Jobs one of my role models, a great mentor but also someone who inspired me to do the things that I did everyday.

One of my life long goals was to meet Steve Jobs before I died. I didn’t necessarily had to meet him, but watching him present a keynote or even being in the same room that he was in would have been enough. Sadly for me, that moment will never come.

I have not been an Apple fan my entire life. Back in my days of high school, when the original iPod was released. I didn’t see what was so special about it. Later on, I also started seeing people use PowerBooks. I used to despise these people. I despised them because they seemed to brag about what made their MP3 player and laptop so much better than anything else. Finally, right before I left for college. I did it. I ordered my first Apple product: the 2007 MacBook Pro. I wanted to see what the fuss was all about. I had very high expectations. But as soon as I received it and got the box opened I knew from that moment on that this was different. Very different.

The attention to detail in both the box and the MacBook, the build quality, the greeting I got when I first booted on my brand new gizmo, everything was absolutely stunning. I have never in my life seen or even felt that satisfied and excited about a product. This was something truly different and special. Apple had successfully fused art and technology into an elegant yet breathtaking package. I was in love.

Fast forward a handful of years and I am the proud owner of five iPhones, three iPads, two iPod Touches, an iMac, two MacBook Pros and a MacBook Air. I converted some of my closest friends and family members to use Macs, I even lined up for Hong Kong’s first Apple Store opening. I am clearly a fanboy; but for the right reasons.

Although I have never met Steve Jobs in person, he has always been someone I looked up to. He inspired me to do things differently, think differently and most importantly to love whatever I was doing. There are so many other things that I could say about how Steve Jobs influenced my life but I fear that I wouldn’t be able to find words strong enough to express my sentiment. People praise Steve Jobs for being a great inventor, an amazing businessman, a revolutionary marketer and a beloved father. But to me he was more than that. He was my personal hero, a hero that actually existed and that I looked up to.

A garage-started company that ended up revolutionizing the music industry, the phone industry and the personal computer industry? I would have never believed it if someone had told me. All I am going to say is that I feel very lucky and proud to have lived in the same era as Steve Jobs. Granted, Apple is not just one person. But Steve’s way of thinking, personality and charisma are what truly define Apple. He might not be with us now, but he will always keep inspiring us for now and future generations. He will always be with us one way or another.

Here is to you Steve,

Here’s to the Crazy Ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes.The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo.You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see themas the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world – are the ones who do

Rest in peace Steve and thank you for everything.
We will miss you dearly.
Jason Wun

Chinese scalpers in China. Oh the irony.

Here, Eric Jackson at Forbes wrote up a list of questions to ask Research in Motion’s (RIMM) co-CEO Jim Balsillie after its cut earnings guidance call to investors. Here is my favorite one:

10. Can you name any company where a dual-CEO structure has worked?

Oh RIM, you are so silly.

I should make an iOS game in which players get to slice birds with a katana for fun or one in which you catapult fruit to hungry birds. I bet they would sell well.

Interesting read about the pricing and available number of mobile applications across the different mobile platforms.

Interestingly, Distimo expects Android Market to become the largest store in terms of number of applications in about five months from now, provided current grow rates across all different application stores are somewhat maintained.When that happens – not if – Android Market will trump the App Store for iPhone and iPad, Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, BlackBerry App World and Nokia Ovi Store in size (in that order).

You might have to most. But that doesn’t mean that you have the best.

Interesting study by Retrevo:

Manufacturers are flooding the market with new phones at a very fast rate. Retrevo counted more than 120 new smartphones from major vendors over the course of about a year. The problem is that most carriers require you to hold onto a phone for two years before you can upgrade which has created a condition where new phones appear much faster than consumers are allowed to buy them.

This is called progress. Nothing we can do about that. Although I think that smartphone manufacturers for Android such as HTC are the ones to blame for said situation. I think that competition is good, but there are certainly way too many Android phones flooding the market as the update cycle for these devices is quite aggressive. New revisions of the same device are released even if the specs bump seem to be minimal. And since a lot of these smartphone manufacturers depend on different hardware to differentiate themselves (unlike the iPhone); there is pretty much no other way than to release different looking handsets or with an extra layer of unecessary software.

The report continues:

The Retrevo study found that almost two thirds of U.S. smartphone owners perceived their phone to be obsolete now or will be obsolete before their contract runs out. The problem is the phone carriers don’t want your old phone and don’t want to subsidize a new one sooner than every two years. When the Retrevo study asked smartphone owners whether they would consider changing smartphones before their contract was up, 48% said they would if the terms were favorable while only 20% said a two year contract on their device was fine with them. Others were not sure or might buy an unlocked phone.

Interesting stuff. Once again it seems that carriers are the ones to blame.

Privacy issues, web services going down, online multiplayer service being attacked by hackers.. Oh boy what a month. But hey, the white iPhone 4 is finally launching. That makes everything better right?

Congratulations Sony. You are officially joining the tablet market with your two brand new tablets (the s1 and the s2). But you do realize that by the time its fall, the market for tablets will have changed dramatically right? Let’s just hope that by then people will still be interested in your offerings. I’m not saying Sony will fail; all I’m saying is that I wish them the best. On a side note, am I the only one who thinks that the Sony S1 looks an awful lot like the Notion Ink Adam? (lookie here and here).

Wired reported earlier last week that the U.S. Army has officially picked Google’s mobile operating system Android to power its first smartphone. Good for them (the army that is). They can even install one of these awesome looking army inspired themes for their devices. (1, 2, 3, 4)..

I really have a hard time believing Joshua Topolsky’s newest “rumor” (which you can see here) about the upcoming iPhone 5. It seems to me that his sources are either not real sources or they are speculating about it to begin with. I will tell you what I do believe will happen with the iPhone 5 though: it will be a “Global” device, have the same form factor, an improved antenna design, a better camera (sporting Sony’s eight megapixel sensor), a slightly bigger screen (some calling it edge-to-edge) and of course, improved innards (both the A5 and better RAM). Let’s not forget that when Josh was working back at Engadget as the editor in chief, he made a pretty big “prediction” about the iPad 2 (here); in which he “pinpointed” several things the not-yet-announced iPad 2 was going to have. None of it became true. Except for the shape and form factor of the device; which was leaked weeks in advance thanks to chinese case manufacturers anyways).

What I’m trying to say here is that.. Josh.. I like you and all.. but.. really? I always thought that you had better judgement about these things. I’m not saying that he is always wrong. I’m just saying be careful.

While the art we’ve seen shows some form of inductive or touch charging, our sources can’t confirm whether or not Apple’s working on its own version of cable-free juicing. There’s also a “swipe area” shown in the drawing which appears to be on the bottom and / or top of the device — that could very well be an NFC point, but that’s pure speculation on our part.

Remember, anybody can speculate. This is your reputation at stake not ours.

With part of Amazon’s web services down¹ and Sony’s PlayStation online gaming service down as well this weekend… I can’t help but to wonder.. what’s going on up there?. This is certainly no coincidence. Something must have happened. This does bring us to another point though.. can we really depend on the cloud? It really started frightening me once it affected AWS.