October 28, 2011
Unsung HEROes

IT departments all over the World have a reason to mourn. They have been urged by Forrester Research to support Macs.

What Forrester Research purports as a new era of computing has been here for years but they were blinded by their strong Microsoft/PC inclinations.

They seem to take notice. At last. But in their haste to make this old movement look new, they invented yet another term for what has already been coined BYOD (Bring Your Own Device).

Now, we are told, Mac users should be called HEROes:

“HERO,” it turns out, is a Forrester acronym for Highly Empowered and Resourceful Operatives — “the 17% of information workers who use new technologies and find innovative ways to be more productive and serve customers more effectively.”

Stop rubbing your eyes out of utter disbelief. You aren’t dreaming. HEROes. Highly Empowered and Resourceful Operatives.

We will never stop getting surprised at how imaginative marketoids are.

9:04am  |   URL: http://blog.upbeat.fr/post/12025037851/unsung-heroes
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FILED UNDER: byod hero forrester research apple information technology acronyms 
September 13, 2011
Reading The New York Times, The 2.0 Way

I enjoy reading The New York Times on the iPad much more than on any other device or browser. The NYT iPad application is very well designed and offer the much-touted ‘immersive’ experience many iPad users talk about.

‘Immersive’ applications are nothing new. This is what we may call full-screen apps without resorting to Gartner-like buzzwords. And full-screen applications have existed for a long time. However, the iPad takes them to the next level as Windows decoration, scroll bars, notifications coming from other applications like the dreaded “you have a new message” pop-up and everything else that may cross your focus line is taken away.

When I can’t use my iPad and instead sit in front of my ‘traditional’ workhorse of a laptop I’ve been struggling to find a way that would mimic as much as possible the NYT experience on the Apple tablet.

Let me step aside for a moment as I want you to note how the tables are being turned and how I use ‘traditional’ as an adjective when thinking about my almost last generation MacBook Pro laptop. Apple and, possibly, others are creating a whole new way of computing. Look at the upcoming Windows 8 operating system and you won’t fail to notice how serious Microsoft is about the tablet approach (let’s hope they get it right this time). As a result, I am growing unhappy lugging around 3.5 Kg worth of hardware, dealing with window placement, turning off as much notifications as possible and so on. I have to fight for my right to focus on the task at hand. Computing is a means to an end.

Anyway, back to the main track. I’ve been frequently using Google Chrome for more than a year now and I am satisfied with it. Performance is snappy, security is satisfactorily addressed and useful extensions are out there. Which brings me back to the main topic. The NYT have created a wonderful extension for Chrome that does mimic the iPad application as you can see.

Simple, streamlined and efficient. Isn’t that beautiful design? That’s computing at our service and not the other way around. And hopefully we’ll see more of it in the next years.

11:34am  |   URL: http://blog.upbeat.fr/post/10159814198/reading-the-new-york-times-the-2-0-way
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(No. OF NOTES: 26)
  
FILED UNDER: New York Times Computing iPad Apple google chrome Extension Browser immersive 
July 29, 2011
C’mon Apple! Why have you made these boxes checked by default on OS X Lion, even after the iOS tracking mess?

C’mon Apple! Why have you made these boxes checked by default on OS X Lion, even after the iOS tracking mess?

10:49pm  |   URL: http://blog.upbeat.fr/post/8228014422/cmon-apple-why-have-you-made-these-boxes-checked
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(No. OF NOTES: 17)
  
FILED UNDER: Apple Tracking OS X Lion Privacy Settings 
June 2, 2011
"We’ve seen several dozens of malware targeting Android over the last year. We’ve never seen a single malware targeting standard iPhones."

— Mikko H. Hypponnen, Chief Research Officer, F-Secure

(Source: twitter.com)

9:09am  |   URL: http://blog.upbeat.fr/post/6100948152/weve-seen-several-dozens-of-malware-targeting
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(No. OF NOTES: 3)
  
FILED UNDER: Mikko Hypponnen F-Secure Malware iPhone Android Google Apple Infosec 
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