Nick Bergus Thoughts on what media do, and can do better, and other things

Marco Arment’s response to Boris at ReadWriteWeb’s question “Is it time to say goodbye to Siri?” prompts me to add more to my chronicle of chronic Siri struggle. First, Siri’s response when I tried to use my wife’s phone to call my own. Yes, I tapped the phone number Siri offered and labeled “mobile” and [...]

At least right now. Really. I can’t figure out how to get her to reliably e-mail my wife. I’ll ask her to e-mail “my wife” or “Laura” and she’ll start reading off the addresses I have for her, which itself is a long and involved process as she carefully enunciates every letter and every piece [...]

Marco Arment, I assume snarkily: Developers target iOS first, and often exclusively, because we’re fanboys. Fanboy isn’t a helpful term when discussing or arguing anything. But isn’t one part of the success of iOS, and the App Store, that developers build quality software for iOS because they themselves like to use — one might even [...]

After using the original Motorola Droid for two years, I just ordered a new phone. I snickered for those couple of years about the limits of iOS and the many purposeful ones Apple imposed. But I ordered an iPhone 4S. I never would have considered the move if I hadn’t won an iPad. (Thanks, Patch [...]

The general consensus is that Amazon will, in the relatively near future, sell an Android-based tablet computer. There’s no way Amazon brands it with Android, even if it clearly runs Android apps from Amazon’s Appstore for Android.

The Daily is an iPad-only news source. The iPad runs iOS exclusively. iOS has never and likely will never run Flash. So why does The Daily have Flash-only video anywhere? (Is video uploaded directly to Tumblr — as opposed to a YouTube embed — played back in Flash instead of something mobile-friendly?)

I’ve been using an iPad for a few weeks and it has replaced my laptop PC for a lot of things: web surfing, Twitter, reading RSS feeds, watching video. For these, it’s better than anything else I’ve ever used: my workhorse desktop at work, my personal laptop, my “Internet tablet,” my Android phone. It’s comfortable [...]

I’ve been reading The Daily, the iPad-native magazine, for the last few weeks, at least flipping through it almost daily. I find it a nice take on tablet news reading, though not without frustrations or room for improvement—it is still version one after all. Others have shared their thoughts on The Daily. Here are mine. [...]

There is yet another Android device saying the advertised Flash support won’t be available until “after launch.” This is embarrassing. I like Android. I don’t hate Flash. But both Adobe and mobile hardware makers need to come to terms with the fact that Flash and mobile devices are not friends and may not be friends [...]

The media world is on fire with news that Apple is finally allowing subscriptions in iOS apps! I want in, too, so here’s Apple’s press release and my blow-by-blow commentary. CUPERTINO, California—February 15, 2011—Apple® today announced a new subscription service available to all publishers of content-based apps on the App Store℠, including magazines, newspapers, video, [...]