Andrew Orlowski

Collected Journalism

Tag: smartphones

  • Windows Metro Maoist cadres reach the desktop, and pound it flat

    Windows Metro Maoist cadres reach the desktop, and pound it flat

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    The revolutionary dogma of Metro is sweeping through the old Windows desktop, too, a new leak of Window 8 confirms. The leaked build, newer than the public release of a fortnight ago, abandons the 3D design elements introduced into Windows in 1990 for a resolutely two-dimensional world. The ‘legacy’ desktop in Windows 8 is denuded of anything that takes advantage of human depth perception, such as window shadows, gradients or sculpted controls.

    It’s a flat, flat world.… Read More

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  • Don’t shoot the Blackberry Messenger

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    BBM does things no web social network can do… it mirrors the flexibility of real life

    RIM’s fortunes have taken a catastrophic, Nokia-style nosedive in the past year – but it has a chance of pulling up. Admittedly, the odds are long, but this week the Canadian company began its fightback.

    It’s certainly right up against it.

    Fewer enterprise customers are dependent on RIM’s email servers. The trend to ‘bring your own’ device to work, one that works well enough … Read More

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  • Five ways to rescue Windows Phone

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Windows Phone might be the most impressive bit of software Microsoft has produced – but it isn’t setting the world on fire. The iPhone and Android go from strength to strength – the latter proliferating so widely even Google doesn’t know how many Android systems are out there. (It can’t count the Chinese forks which don’t use any Google services and don’t phone home.)

    This discrepancy puzzles people. Reviewers like WinPho a lot – it’s clean, fast, functional and … Read More

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  • Perhaps there’s no ‘Third Ecosystem’?

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    There’s a whiff of something – it isn’t desperation, more like earnest exasperation – around Microsoft’s phone business these days

    Humiliatingly, Nokia was forced to deny rumours last week that it was planning to break up and sell its crown jewels to Microsoft. Normally a company can remain impervious to Twitter-born gossip, particularly from a known antagonist.

    Acknowledging the rumour simply gives it a chauffeured ride around the internet. But not this time: the ‘Microsoft buys Nokia’ story fulfils … Read More

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  • Panic in The Chocolate Factory

    Panic in The Chocolate Factory

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Is Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility is good for Android, or an expensive mistake for Google, made in a moment of irrational panic. Columnist Matt Asay thinks it “spells iPhone doom“, and he’s not alone. John C Dvorak thinks it’s “pure genius“. This supposes that Google performed a cost-benefit analysis and calculated that the cost of not buying Motorola’s phone and set-top box division was greater than $12.5bn.

    I beg to differ. Not all business decisions, … Read More

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  • Don’t blame Elop or Microsoft for Nokia’s catastrophic fall from grace

    Don’t blame Elop or Microsoft for Nokia’s catastrophic fall from grace

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Pundits this week are describing Nokia’s fall from grace as one of the greatest corporate car-crashes of all time. But here’s an unfashionable view. Nokia’s problem is not Stephen Elop, or his strategy. Its problem is it didn’t have Stephen Elop, or his strategy, in place two years ago.… Read More

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