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Have a Happy New Year Eve and a great 2013

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Happy Holidays Everyone with the best of wishes from your friend Avatar X

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Just a mere day apart from the release of IE10 W7 Preview, Microsoft has now already released the Internet Explorer Administration Kit 10. Otherwise known simply as IEAK 10.

The kind of thing that if you have to ask what it is, then it is not for you.  But if you still want to know, It is for the creation, deployment and management of customized Internet Explorer packages. Meaning what IT departments use for when they are going to trail or just push IE upgrades for all the computers in any given company.

The fact it is available already is a good sign and does proves that IE10 is pretty much ready to go in Windows 7 too. Even if marked as preview. After being using it myself in Windows 7 for the past 24hrs. I can say that the only bug/glitch I found had to do with some elements or actions in a web page that happen to be activated by hovering or hover and click. And I have already filed a bug report to Microsoft about it. As have some others.

If you are an IT Admin and you can do a trail run because you are lucky enough to being able to make that call on your own, then get  the IEAK 10 and get going. Why wait? Just do it, you know you want to.

All documentation, guidelines and download are also available.

Linkage

IEAK 10

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Or you could also call it IE10 W7 RC1 if you want to cut out the marketing speak.

IE10 for Windows 7 Preview is now out and it is a very very good update already. I was of the lucky ones to get it a few hours early and I must say am quite happy with it. And comparing it with the W8 Desktop IE10 proved to be hard as so far they feel pretty much identical. Which is a good thing, an impressive thing even since IE10 W8 is very smooth and very fast.

How fast it is IE10 W7 Preview? Just as fast as its IE10 W8 Desktop twin.  Which is faster as you can possibly get right now. That in turns means it is the fastest browser around. It feels faster than Chrome 23.

The same goes for just how smooth it feels. 

Beyond the smoothness and speediness of it. IE10 W7 Preview is almost identical to IE9 UI wise since there is no Metro Mode. What I did noticed is that the elements of the browser respond and react better for when touch is present.  Something that Microsoft really didn’t had to carry over. Which makes me think that IE10 W7 Preview is a straight port down from IE10 W8 Desktop Version. And they just thought better than try to remove stuff from it needlessly. And straight up, that is a good thing.

IE10 in W7 is just a faster,  smoother and probably an even stronger security wise IE9.  Making it a must have upgrade right out of the gate for everyone. And it also enables auto updating for you by default.  I have tried it out in two W7 machines and while in both the update took like 10  minutes from download, to install, to restart. The result is all worth it.

Linkage

IE10 W7 Gateway Website

IE10 W7 Preview 32bits       <—Direct Downloads Page

IE10 W7 Preview 64bits      <—Direct Downloads Page

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I have been holding on a collection of rumors on the Microsoft Surface Line for over a month now.  And it has been so long that I thought I would not be using them because others would out them first or because they were not solid enough. But days ago I saw the same rumors going around AGAIN. And after reading that horrible rumors from Europe a while ago and the last one being about Surface RT being out for $199. I thought that I should post this one.

And here is the deal. According to rumors that come out from people that do should have access to that kind of info. This is the pricing for the Microsoft Surface Line:

Surface RT for $599 or $699

Surface Pro for $899 or $999

Prices that at first look may seem expensive, but that got some good reasoning to them as in both cases it is said they do come with a keyboard cover. You choose which one you want. And they also are Microsoft Signature machines with extended guarantees as they are going to be sold first from Microsoft Stores. The physical ones, pop-up ones and the online ones.  Also remembering that the Surface RT version comes with Free Office included with it.  Also, there is the chance that the Surface RT will come with a Capacitive Stylus or that such a item will also be available for those that could want one.

Some people will still argue that they are expensive. But it think that given the hardware they come with, it is a good pricing. Not great. But good.  Also remembering that an iPad 32gb starts at $599 and do not comes with a cover/keyboard and iwork  last time I checked.

Rumor still being rumor, I do not know if that is the certain price. A lot can happen from when they conceptualized this strategy, probably back around when they first showed them, to when they get to debut. 

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I expected the Internet Explorer Team to fight back on certain statcounter data that shows Chrome as having more share than IE. Data that got a big problem. It is not geoweighted. Subject that the IE Team goes on to explain in detail. And then shows on how that affects the actual result on that data significantly.

Understanding Browser Share Data  via Windows Team Blog

Which is why NetApplications even with all its faults is still a better source of data than statcounter. And if you look at the coverage for this story, it also shows how some blogs love to report data as fact even if it is wrong and there is no second source to back up the result or without at least averaging out two sources into one data result.

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The Browser You Loved To Hate is a IE9 Image Makeover Campaign using self-deprecating humor and at the same time mocking those users that hate IE with an irrational passion. The campaign consist of a tumblelog using some hipster motifs and a set of videos. With the main video being the one embedded in this post.

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The obvious motive behind this campaign is to create awareness about IE9 from those have not tried it out of past spites. Spites that usually go all the way back to IE6 or IE7 and since then they have not tried out IE9

It is an interest campaign and regardless of how effective it can be. It makes for good PR fodder and it is also funny.

Linkage

The Browser You Loved To Hate

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On March 15 of 2012, PayPal officially announced PayPal Here as way to be able to easily receive PayPal payments by cards from a Smartphone.

Introducing PayPal Here: The Future of Commerce for Small Business

PayPal Here Demo

It took what? Two years or so? But here it is at last. A one-to-one answer to Jack Dorsey's Square. And it comes from the only company that can beat it. PayPal.

Up until now i have not had a horror PayPal experience. And i have been using it since well before it was supported here in Mexico. Meaning, since it was introduced. Completely changing the way to buy and pay stuff online for me and 100 million people that have got to use it.

With this entry of PayPal Here. I already have read lots of negative and spiteful remarks about it. Because there is this vocal group of users that have had bad PayPal experiences. Things like "The Software is not going to be as good as the one of Square", “Their dongle looks like crap” or "The experience will be crap compared to Square" and similar remarks in-between those. 

How wrong is to see it that way. That is a small picture way of seeing it. When the big picture is that PayPal can win over Square simply because they are able to do something that Square has proven it cannot or don't want to do right now. PayPal can take PayPal Here to be a Worldwide solution. As they have already said so and started to do so. PayPal Here will be launching in 4 countries right away. And from what someone working at PayPal told me. They plan to support 12 to 16 countries within the first 12 months. And that is the reason why PayPal Here can and probably will win over Square. I mean, two years plus and Square is not even available in Canada and Mexico? C'mon. What a joke.

Cannot wait for PayPal Here to be available in Mexico. I hope it is one of the countries to get it in the first year. I also think the name is pretty Clever, annoyingly clever perhaps. 

Finally, I also think this chart from their unveiling event speaks out better why the look of the PayPal Here dongle or the software is not as important in the scheme of things as features and availability. Certainly not when it comes to Money making or spending.

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This is one Windows 8 rumor that started as a sole whisper a week ago and that now has gone into whispering. But since it totally makes sense, why not start the day that way.

So, just like Microsoft proposed themselves to launch with a minimum of listed apps in the Windows Phone 7 launch. And at the time i remember having heard months before they were going for at least 1k and at the end they launched with 1500+, it looks like they are raising the bar considerably for Windows 8. And they want a minimum of 8000 apps listed at launch. 

Some may consider this to be impossible or too much of a tall order. But not really considering this is Windows we are talking about. And simply because while only Metro UIX Apps will be hosted by Microsoft. Desktop apps can still get listed on the Windows 8 App Marketplace with the download hosted and managed by the developer.

With that in mind. I think it is a perfectly fine goal and they could easily yet again be surpassing it if they want to and go with lets say 10,0000 instead of just 8,000.

The pressure is not that much in the launch but in the first year as it would then be fully expected that they get to reach 100,000 list apps within the first year of availability.

Anyway, like always, have in mind it is a rumor and that is why i marked it as such. This post was also published first at my Google Plus Page

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I finally watched the iPad 3 keynote video and after thinking about the wording that Apple used and what they did not said apart from what they said. these are my impressions about it.

iPad 3 now being just iPad

It is all about two principles

1.-Managing future perceptions and expectations about the iPad. Because there is really no way in hell that there will be huge spec jumps from one generation of iPad to the another. hops are now only to be expected. 

2.-Apple positioning and accepting in full they are all about the iPad and the iPhone. The next iPhone could very well be just The New iPhone too. This means treating the iDevices in the same way they previously treated the Mac lines, same that just 2 years ago were their main income and what they still were mostly about.

Apple pushing the whole "Post-PC" term forcibly hard

It struck me as odd just how hard they were boasting and rubbing it in to the world. But it didn't surprised me, because as Apple admitted in the keynote. They are no longer a Computer company. Something that their Company name reflected first than they actually admitting it out loud. They are now an iOS and iDevice company. But it is obvious they were not going to say it like that. 

"We are now an iDevice company" would had been too much of a miss for they being able to be total douches without regret. And even be applauded by being so by -- dare i say -- the iFaithful now. 

Also helpful to push the term and rubbing it in now and not after Windows 8 and what it will start bringing comes.

Apple bitch-slapping Android publicly

Surprising how Apple went on such attack of Android by calling it out directly and even doing show and tells about how much Apps on Android Slates suck. 

Apple starts distancing from google services and pushes to boost Google competitors

Like in OS X Mountain Lion, in iLife for iOS you share video to Vimeo and not YouTube, post messages to Twitter and Facebook. Google Maps are not all the maps being offered.

A5X having quad core graphics omitting reiterating it is still a double core CPU

Not an accident. Just forcing an association of quad-core with the A5X. Never mind that a Tegra 3 Quad-Core CPU got a Dozen GPU cores for example. 

A5X offering four times better graphics than the Tegra 3

Note the wording. That is a perfect example of slanting. It gives you the notion that the A5X is 4 times more powerful than the Tegra 3. Something reinforced when you add charts that appears showing just that.

Even if that is not true at all. Anandtech got a check on the Tegra 3 versus the A5 and it didn't was twice as powerful or efficient or better than the Tegra 3 in anyway.

If you averaged out the finding from Anandtech, you would end with the A5 being 30% better than the Tegra 3. If you do the same with several reviews. you could possibly average out a 50% if you want to make the A5 look the best possible. 

That sure is not twice as good. And even without a proper benchmarking existing for the A5X vs Tegra 3. You can already calculate that if the A5X got 4 times the graphical power of the A5. That would mean the A5X is only really twice as powerful as the Tegra 3. But even if it managed to be even better than that. I don't see how it could get to be 4 times as powerful overall.

And that is when the evil douchey genius from Apple wording comes. Apple can easily say or not say anything because they know that they didn't actually lied. just that they made the media believe so. As Apple never said how exactly THEY considered A5X having 4 times better graphics. 

Nvidia correctly said that Apple only had a Generic Statement without offering proof. That is because that was the only thing they needed if it gets a blogosphere parroting it. 

Post Keynote tirades about the iPad 3 not being that impressive

Well, i was very impressed only because they managed to sustain the same price and battery life. I actually think this is the iPad that had me the most impressed and the only single case where Apple pushed lots of specs into it that cannot be found anywhere in an slate model. 

And that is where the point relies on why the iPad 3 is very impressive. This coming from someone that don't owns anything Apple and hopefully never will. Out of my own choice of course.

Tim Cook ending remarks about Apple having the golden touch and proclaiming that they are the way. While assuring that this year will follow with the same kind of innovation they showed in this iPad keynote

How odd was that? Have not seen many articles analyzing it that are not from the iFaithful. 

The way i heard and interpret it is that it was something Tim Cook wanted to do as a homage to jobs and as his way of saying that he will keep the course of what jobs did. It almost was an inauguration speech for the Post Steve Jobs Apple.

Maybe Tim Cook is subconsciously nervous about the long term future of Apple and how well he will transition the company into an iDevice Only company. 

iLife, iWork and iCloud

iOS software and services fully matured is my impression. They are now very well as good as their OS X counterparts, just meant to be used and approached with a different mindset. 

The new version of the software are the most impressive iOS software Apple has delivered yet. And it also helps explain why Microsoft would want to deliver Office to the iPad.

They are also the sign that Apple does want to start selling more software and services themselves for iOS to underline the experiences even more. And also because they know that the iPad 3 and more than likely the next iPhone will not have the same margins than before. Not if they plan to maintain them at the same price structure and not because we are only a months from Foxconn being forced to raise the costs for Apple. As China Workers start demanding more and organizing for they getting it. Or as component maker suppliers start raising the prices too. Or as international regulators, governments and so on start to be more vigilant of Apple. Etc. etc. Which brings me to the next point.

Apple super good profit margins are about to become just very good

The competition is heating. Costs are raising. Making it a real surprise to see that the iPad 3 stood at the same price structure. Making my first thought about it:

"No way in hell is going to give out the same profit margins for Apple. Are they at last been forced to lower them?"

Electronista seems to agree already

So more reason for Apple to make their iOS software more attractive and push it more. More reason to push iCloud (Brought to you partly by Microsoft and Amazon). and more reason to push out more content. 

And finally it is the main reason why when they introduced the iPhone 4S, they kept around the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 3GS. And they are now doing the same with the iPad 2 by keeping it around. There is really no other better way to keep Android Slates and Smartphones at bay than that.

About the last part of Tim Cook ending remarks

Mostly trolling. Just Tim messing with the heads and hearts of the tech industry. Without Jobs, i doubt Apple will get to have another iPhone One or iPad One level of unveilings ahead. An iTV would certainly not have such a wow factor. but that is just me.

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