Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled

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• Is Apple following Palm's footsteps?

  The recent BootCamp announcement is an interesting shift in strategy for Apple, and I think there are two ways to look at this move. On one hand, they have removed a barrier for people buying Apple hardware. People who like the new MacBook Pro but are either afraid or unwilling to give up Windows. If this was the case, they're basically betting that people will be more willing to try the hardware and then decide to stick around. It's similar to the move they made a few years back by making the iPod work on Windows, and we all know how that worked out. On the other, this could signal a decoupling between Apple software and Apple hardware. This would be a major shift - until now, they have sold the entire experience from end to end. The iPod was successful because it combined good industrial design with a simple user interface. I'm sure Apple would love to sell OS X for use on your Dell, but then they realized that it's far easier to get XP working on their limited set of hardware. Microsoft... Posted Apr 14 2006, 04:03 AM by Tim with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Rants, Gadgets, Innovation, Business, Apple

• Webaroo seems so 1999 to me

  At first glance, here's something I don't get: Webaroo . They store the content of Web pages for offline retrieval , apparently keeping it searchable and serving it alongside ads. Acer laptops will come with a 40Gb pre-packaged web pack. I'm sure, or at least I hope, they're doing something more than saving webpages and displaying ads, but I can't help but be reminded of all those products like SurfOffline that saved a local copy of a website. Granted, I'm in one of those "metropolitan areas" that has a 3G network , but the coverage is getting better every day. It's clear that the "online web" is greater than the "offline web" even if it's not broadband speeds. Being connected allows me to do a lot more than just read the "best of the Web", whatever that means. But let's take a step back: Even before I had this always-on connection, I had all the things I really wanted to read already saved in my RSS reader for offline consumption. It just seems like a curious place for a startup. On one... Posted Apr 10 2006, 12:00 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Software Development, Rants, Innovation

• Death by Risk Aversion

  Real innovation and revolutionary thinking necessarily requires an element of risk. Things that are safe and grounded in conventional wisdom are by definition evolutionary, not revolutionary. Risk-aversion is the single biggest innovation killer . Memo to Microsoft: you've got people doing some amazing things over there. If you could just get the hell out of the way , the world might change for the better . Risk-aversion is the single biggest innovation killer, and of course it's not just Microsoft that's been infected. Taking risks is... risky. But if not taking risks is even riskier , then WTF? The article is a great read (and I especially love the graphics!). Posted Apr 04 2006, 05:53 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Rants, Innovation