Articles by Alexander Falk

iPhone SDK and Apple Finally Listening

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 11:45:00 EDT

Apple Computer's Steve Jobs just announced that Apple would (finally!) provide an iPhone SDK to 3rd party developers in order to enable them to create native applications for the iPhone (and, incidentally, also for the iPod touch). While the actual SDK won't ship until February 2008, this announcement is a monumental shift in strategy for Apple, who has thus far tried to control the applications available for the iPhone and limit 3rd party developers to Web 2.0 apps running in the Safari browser.

Yahoo! Mail Beta Spamming All My Contacts?!?!

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 16:15:00 EDT

While trying out the Yahoo Mail Beta (in combination with the new Yahoo Mash Beta), I imported my address book from GMail into Yahoo Mail today - and was HORRIFIED when Yahoo proclaimed that it was now going to spam all my contacts and tell them about my 'new' Yahoo e-mail address. What on earth do they think they are doing? The system never asked me for permission to notify my contacts!!! And why would it do such a thing in the first place, when all I wanted to do was import my address book?! If you got a message from Yahoo today that asks you to update your address book because I switched e-mail addresses from gmail.com to yahoo.com - please accept my sincerest apologies and ignore that message!

Yahoo! Mash People Can Edit My Profile? I Don't Like That Idea

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 20:15:00 EDT

Yahoo has launched Mash as a beta version (by invitation only) this weekend. It's (yet another) social networkig site that appears to be aimed at unseating Facebook, and their biggest differentiator is a wiki-like approach where people can edit each other's profiles. More importantly, you can create a new profile for somebody else and then inite them to 'claim' that profile and make it theirs. Hmmmm, I'm not sure that I really like that idea. Friends writing on my wall in Facebook is one thing, but having them edit my profile?!

Which One Is Better, iPhone or the Windows Smartphone?

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:45:00 EDT

I've been a big proponent of smartphone technology for a long time, and have been chasing the 'perfect smartphone' for a while. Specifically, I've been hooked on using Windows Smartphone devices, because of the seamless integration with Outlook and the resulting automatic synchronization of all my contacts, calendar entries, tasks, notes, and e-mail over the air. And my favorite Smartphone so far was the Cingular/AT&T 8525. To meet a new business partner on the road, enter their contact details into the smartphone, and find the same person automatically in Outlook when you get back to the office is simply great - same goes for calendar entries.

Facebook Isn't Just For Kids Anymore

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 22:15:00 EDT

Social networking sites have taken off over the last few years, and for a long time there seemed to be a clear divide: Doostang, Ecademy, LinkedIn, and Xing for business networking vs. Facebook, Friendster, and MySpace for kids (be it high-school or college). Plus every network had their own particular and sometimes even unique focus (e.g. Musicians on MySpace, Harvard and MIT grads on Doostang, and lots of Europeans on Xing).

Microsoft Fails to Win ISO Approval for the Office Open XML (OOXML) Standard

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 18:30:00 EDT

Last week Microsoft failed to win ISO approval for the Office Open XML (OOXML) standard in the 2nd round of the ISO standardization process. While the Wall Street Journal published a critical article about this, this is by no means the end of the road, nor is it even a major setback - the ISO process commonly requires multiple rounds, and the 3rd round (expected for early 2008) will very likely see Office Open XML becoming an ISO standard.

Sony Announces a Dancing iPod Killer-Wannabe?

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 17:15:00 EDT

Sony officially announced a new cross-breed between robot and MP3 player (so far in Japan only). The Rolly is a hand-sized device that not only plays your tracks but also dances to the music. In other words, it's a dancing iPod killer-wannabe...

XML IDEs vs Classic IDEs: Competition or Synergy

Mon, 25 Mar 2002 00:00:00 EST

During the past few months I've seen several discussions on the validity of the term XML developer. Does this breed of developer exist in today's computing industry? Has XML matured to a stage that it warrants job descriptions for developers who specialize in XML programming? Is there an independent category of programming that relates primarily to XML?