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QWERTY Keyboard History - Invention of the QWERTY Keyboard on 2009-08-01
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But Sholes had a problem. On his first model, his "ABC" key arrangement
caused the keys to jam when the typist worked quickly. Sholes didn't know how to keep the
keys from sticking, so his solution was to keep the typist from typing too fast.
He did this using a study of letter-pair frequency prepared by
educator Amos Densmore, brother of James Densmore, who was Sholes' chief
financial backer. The QWERTY keyboard itself was determined by the existing
mechanical linkages of the typebars inside the machine to the keys on the
outside. Sholes' solution did not eliminate the problem completely, but it
was greatly reduced.
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The keyboard arrangement was considered important enough to be included on
Sholes' patent granted in 1878, some years after the machine was into
production. QWERTY's effect, by reducing those annoying clashes, was to
speed up typing rather than slow it down.
The new arrangement was the "QWERTY" arrangement that typists use today. Of
course, Sholes claimed that the new arrangement was scientific and would add speed and
efficiency. The only efficiency it added was to slow the typist down, since almost any
word in the English language required the typist's fingers to cover more distance on the
keyboard.
The advantages of the typewriter outweighed the disadvantages of the
keyboard. Typists memorized the crazy letter arrangement, and the
typewriter became a huge success.
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The Official Palm Blog: Palm webOS 1.1 enhances support for enterprise -- and beyond on 2009-08-01
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“Pre” and “business” just got a lot friendlier! Today we released Palm webOS 1.1, which brings several additions to our support for Exchange ActiveSync (EAS), including remote wipe, PIN/password requirements, inactivity timeout, improved certificate handling, and more. You can find more details about how Palm webOS fits into your business environment here.
In addition to these treats for business users, Version 1.1 also includes a few other goodies for everyone -- like support for emoticons in the messaging app, and the ability to set “person reminders” in the contacts app (next time you get a message or phone call from that person, a message pops up showing you a reminder to ask them about their vacation in Maui -- cool, huh?). Oh, and one more thing: Palm webOS 1.1 re-enables Palm media sync. That’s right -- you once again can have seamless access to your music, photos and videos from the current version of iTunes (8.2.1).
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Karl Townsend - Patents on 2009-07-31
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Palm Pre Takes on the iPhone, to Launch on Sprint - Mobiledia on 2009-07-31
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Palm today unveiled the
Pre smartphone, a touch screen phone that it hopes will win back customers from rivals like Nokia and Apple.
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Overhauling its mobile operating system, Palm also debuted its new WebOS operating system, created under the watch of former Apple executive Jon Rubenstein, who helped create the iPod.
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Palm has been staking its future on the launch of the new operating system and device, which it has been developing since 2007.
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The Pre will be exclusively offered by Sprint in the first half of 2009, and will be followed by a world-ready UMTS version for other regions.
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Palm Seeks Applications for Pre Smartphone - Mobiledia on 2009-07-31
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Sun Apr 05, 2009 11:13 am
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Smartphone maker Palm is inviting developers to create applications for its eagerly-awaited
Pre touch screen handheld that will be taking on heavyweights such as Apple's
iPhone and Research in Motion's BlackBerry devices.
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Once a pioneer in handheld devices, Palm has been suffering hard times lately.
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Palm Pre to Launch in Europe, Canada by Christmas - Mobiledia on 2009-07-31
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ue Jul 07, 2009 10:23 pm Palm said its Pre smartphone will be available on the O2 network in the U.K., Ireland and Germany and Movistar in Spain in time for the Christmas holiday season.
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The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company said the Pre will also launch in Canada on Bell Mobility, a unit of Montreal-based BCE, in the second half of the year.
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Palm is hoping the Pre will take on newer smartphones like the
iPhone and BlackBerry and reverse the company's long slide in the mobile computing market.
The Pre launched to positive reviews in the U.S. last month with
Sprint as the exclusive carrier.
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Palm Pre Reconnects with iTunes, Escalates Apple Battle - Mobiledia on 2009-07-31
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The iTunes battle is part of a larger rivalry between the two companies. Palm's Chief Executive, Jon Rubinstein, was once was an executive at Apple -- overseeing the development of the iPod.
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Faster Forward - Palm, Apple Continue iTunes-Syncing Battle on 2009-07-31
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So once again, Pre users can plug in their phones to a Mac or Windows computer, have their copy of iTunes recognize the Pre as an iPod, and synchronize multimedia as if it were an iPod. But to defeat the countermeasures Apple added when it shipped iTunes 8.2.1 (blandly described in Apple's minimal release notes as a fix for "an issue with verification of Apple devices"), Palm had to engage in a more thorough form of identity theft.
Earlier versions of WebOS would, essentially, identify the Pre as an iPod when you plugged it into a Mac or PC and selected the "Media Sync" option on the Pre's screen; the Pre would then show up in iTunes as an iPod manufactured by Palm, Inc., with a serial number like "XXXXXX." Now, apparently, it appears as an iPod made by Apple -- because Palm is appropriating Apple's USB vendor-ID code, something companies aren't supposed to do as a good USB citizen.
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So now what? Apple will probably try to add some extra screening to the next version of iTunes to watch for this, after which Palm will respond by doing an even better job of impersonating an iPod. I'm not sure how Apple can win this competition -- as long as there are millions of older iPods in the market that the Pre can attempt to mimic, Apple risks causing compatibility problems for its paying customers if it gets too strict in its scrutiny of media players
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Meanwhile, Apple has a bit of a hypocrisy problem: The Mac version of iTunes explicitly supports some old, non-Apple music players, although none have been added to that list in years. Apple also allows third-party programs to synchronize other devices by reading your own iTunes files. Its stance appears to boil down to "you can sync any other player to iTunes as long as it's not too new or too easy to set up."
But that's Apple's right as a developer. I can also see how this company could feel threatened. The Pre doesn't amount to an iPod equivalent -- it doesn't show the one- to five-star ratings you can assign to songs in iTunes, doesn't offer as many ways to sort through a music collection and doesn't offer the elegant click-wheel controls of most iPods--but it can be a good-enough iPod alternative. Do those potentially lost sales outweigh the costs of playing a possibly infinite round of whack-a-mole with Palm's developers? Only Apple's accountants know for sure.
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Google: The Web, Not App Stores, is the Future Of Mobile Development - Mac Rumors on 2009-07-31
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Google: The Web, Not App Stores, is the Future Of Mobile Development
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Speaking to attendees of the MobileBeat 2009 conference in San Francisco yesterday, Google Engineering vice president Vic Gundotra predicted that the
Web would prevail as the dominant mobile application development platform despite the huge success of Apple's App Store (via
Financial Times). According to Gundotra the harsh economics of maintaining multiple platform-specific copies of applications is pushing development to the Web.
"We believe the web has won and over the next several years, the browser, for economic reasons almost, will become the platform that matters and certainly thats where Google is investing."
At least partially supporting Gundotra's viewpoint were fellow panelists from Palm and Nokia.
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Interestingly, both Google (
Chrome OS) and Palm (
WebOS), and
previously even Nokia, have taken advantage of Apple-backed WebKit as the basis of their latest Web-centric operating systems.
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MacRumors' iPhone Blog: iPhone Apps, News, Rumors, and More... on 2009-07-31
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posted by Eric Slivka on Monday July 27, 2009 10:12 AM
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BBC News reports that Swedish music subscription service Spotify has submitted its iPhone application to Apple for App Store approval. The free application would allow users of Spotify's premium service, which currently costs £9.99 per month in the UK, to stream millions of tracks to their iPhones and even allow users to cache streams for offline listening.
Spotify has been called an "iTunes killer" because of its ease of use and its comprehensive, free library of millions of songs.
It is also looked on as a possible saviour for the music industry, in its bid to offer alternatives to piracy.
The application is designed to search for new music and will allow users to temporarily store playlists to their phone for use when there is no connection.
It will also allow users to stream playlists.
Spotify has also posted a video preview of its new iPhone application.
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TechCrunch addresses the issue of whether Apple is likely to approve Spotify's iPhone application, given its apparent direct competition with Apple's iTunes Store music offerings. The report notes that the iTunes Store is not designed to be a significant money-making enterprise on its own, and the paid nature of Spotify's service offers some limits to the degree of competition.
Keen observers will note that since Spotify allows access to millions of music tracks, why would Apple allow this app to go into the store and potentially compete with iTunes? Apple has allowed the Last.FM app into the store but this is more like a radio station - Spotify behaves like a jukebox, bringing up exactly the song and artist you want with one click.
However, it's common tech industry knowledge that Apple makes fairly meagre profits from iTunes, as it's largely a honeypot to get consumers to buy Apple hardware, sales from which form the bulk of their profits. So Spotify would not compete nearly as much as you might think - plus, making it a subscriber-only application on the iPhone further creates a barrier to competition with the iTunes store.
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Google: The Web, Not App Stores, is the Future Of Mobile Development
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Speaking to attendees of the MobileBeat 2009 conference in San Francisco yesterday, Google Engineering vice president Vic Gundotra predicted that the
Web would prevail as the dominant mobile application development platform despite the huge success of Apple's App Store (via
Financial Times). According to Gundotra the harsh economics of maintaining multiple platform-specific copies of applications is pushing development to the Web.
"We believe the web has won and over the next several years, the browser, for economic reasons almost, will become the platform that matters and certainly thats where Google is investing."
At least partially supporting Gundotra's viewpoint were fellow panelists from Palm and Nokia.
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Interestingly, both Google (
Chrome OS) and Palm (
WebOS), and
previously even Nokia, have taken advantage of Apple-backed WebKit as the basis of their latest Web-centric operating systems.
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