Author Archives: Ben Bajarin

As I sat through the WWDC Keynote where Apple announced and demonstrated a plethora of new features to OS X and iOS, the word that kept coming to me was "useful." Much of what they demonstrated appealed to me as a Mac user as useful and practical. They addressed many of the things they needed to in order to keep their software current and competitive as well as launched a new service in the process. Things like notifications and wireless sync as well as the addition of iCloud are all necessary for them to stay relevant and continue to appeal to current and new customers.

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In my predictions column prior to 2011, I predicted the rise of the personal cloud. With Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple all getting into the cloud business its clear that prediction is coming true. Three things are key to adopting these cloud services: Trust, reliability and price.

I for one am ready to begin relying more on cloud services. I remember a time before my company began using Exchange for email. Every time I got a new computer or new handheld PDA, I had to manually export my inbox and then import it on the new device.

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In talking with some some analyst colleagues both in the industry and financial sector, I've come across some interesting perspectives regarding Android tablets. Most of it extremely shortsighted and uninformed, yet these are credible voices with powerful opinions. My goal in this article is to add some perspective about the tablet market but also point out why Android tablets are not doomed to fail.

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Did you know that on average during an hour long television show you are subjected to 22-24 minutes of ads? Now of course many of us have DVRs and we rarely watch TV live, allowing us to skip the ads. Still TV used to be free and the ads supported the network costs. In 10 years we will look back and reflect on how archaic TV was.

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Just after 7 a.m. this morning on its first day of trading, LinkedIn's stocked soared up $47 to 92.99 dollars a share. Currently it is around $90 a share up 45 points. I've spent the bulk of the morning on the phone with reporters and radio hosts explaining why the the success of LinkedIn's IPO is not surprising, and here is why.

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The PC faces stiff competition from things like smartphones, tablets, smart TV's and more. As a consumer you are faced with a plethora of products competing for your dollars. PCs have become less interesting, yet we all need them. What kind of innovations do we need to see with PC's in order to capture our attention again?

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Late last year several of SlashGear’s distinguished columnists wrote a similar column highlighting some of the key technologies that shaped their life. I thought it would be great to bring this series back and write a similar column on my own personal technological pilgrimage. Many of these are more representations of a more fundamental element of computing that has broadened my horizon and got me to where I am today.

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Google's keynote yesterday was all about Chrome and, in essence, all about the future of the web. Despite the creative enhancements they are making to the Chrome browser it was the section on Chromebooks and Chrome OS that stood out most to me. Primarily because of the thought that the Chromebook may represent the future of notebooks.

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Day one of Google IO has come to a close. After sifting through my notes and processing much of what I saw and heard, it's clear the theme of day one was Android's potential. All though Google did highlight some key features and made Ice Cream Sandwich official, they were vague about many of the specifics about future Android releases. What they did do however was tell a broader story about where Android can go.

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The fact that Skype has been in sale mode hasn't been a total secret. When Ebay sold off a massive chunk of the company, and the IPO kept being delayed, it was evident Skype was in need of a suitor. I was quoted quite a bit on the news that Ebay bought Skype in 2005, and many of comments questioned the value of Skype to Ebay. Here we are nearly 6 years later and it seems Skype is now in the right hands.

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HP, in the TouchSmart 610, has created their most compelling all-in-one desktop PC to date. With the TouchSmart line HP has always demonstrated their commitment to touch and multi-touch in PCs, and they have brought a number of enhancements to the TouchSmart 610 that make touch even more convenient.

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With NVIDIA's acquisition of Icera Semiconductor today, they have taken an important step in developing a fully optimized mobile platform with two key technologies. The chipset and the baseband processor are two of the most important decisions a company makes when they are looking to develop a mobile solution. NVIDIA has now positioned themselves to offer a competitive solution with both key technologies.

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