Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: The New Boss

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  • barnaclebarnes,

    Rod Drury reckons Apple's iPhone is a winner. Some useful discussion there too. Interestingly, Sam Morgan chips in with the observation that Safari accounted for only 1.6% of browser visits on Trade Me in December. On Public Address, the figure is consistently ~8%, with another 4% of Firefox users on Macs.

    What I find interesting about this whole browser thing is the take up of IE7 (Around 15-25% already). Also this hasn't affected Firefox with total FF usage averaging in the low teens compared with around 10% in April this year.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 90 posts Report Reply

  • David Ritchie,

    TVNZ are showing Torchwood without mentioning it's a spin-off from Doctor Who? I can envision a lot of confused viewers, especially around Cyberwoman and the finale...

    Since Nov 2006 • 166 posts Report Reply

  • Juha Saarinen,

    "On Public Address, the figure is consistently ~8%, with another 4% of Firefox users on Macs."

    I don't have accurate statistics as such (don't know if anyone has) but this is what Sitemeter has recorded over the past seven or eight months:

    Operating Systems
    Windows XP: 68%
    Windows Vista: 6%
    Windows Server 2003: 3%
    Windows 2000: 7%
    Linux "UNIX": 3%
    Mac OS X: 13%

    Browsers
    Firefox 2.x: 23%
    Firefox 1.x: 18%
    IE7: 15%
    IE6: 34%
    Opera 9.x: 3%
    Safari 2.x: 5%
    Safari 1.x: 2%

    A lot of geeks reading my blog turn off Javascript, reject cookies or even use anonymising proxies. Sigh.

    Since Nov 2006 • 529 posts Report Reply

  • Juha Saarinen,

    IE7 was pushed out through Windows Update recently, so it'll show up in increasing numbers as time goes on. I actually expected it to be far more prominent... guess a lot of people don't bother to update Windows.

    Since Nov 2006 • 529 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    What I find interesting about this whole browser thing is the take up of IE7 (Around 15-25% already).

    Not round here.

    This month, we're running at 11.8 % share for IE 7 vs 40.6% for IE 6

    Last month was 9.6% vs. 45.5%

    For Firefox, across all versions:

    This month: 29.4%

    Last month: 27.3%

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • James Littlewood,

    I remember one of the panellists at the Hopetoun Alpha P.A. Live do: "you call it TVNZ Interactive, but where's the interactivity!?"

    Heartbreaking stuff.

    TV in this country seems likely to go the way of fine arts: an obscure dalliance for the eccentrically bored.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 7 posts Report Reply

  • Don Christie,

    WRT the iphone, what's the excitement about "eliminating a keyboard"? I have a touch sensitive Nokia 770 (which rocks BTW and comes without all the DRM and other software encumbrances) and I am always using the software keyboard with stylus. I could use my fingers but...the idea that you simply use your fingers for everything,especially on small screens, is nuts.

    How often do you did your fingers in a ink well to write your letters? The quill was invented for a reason.

    Mind you, I lack the fascination many share with Apple. I know I am not their target demographic. Way back in the 80s I used to blow the odd one up by plugging the external floppy drives into the motherboard incorrectly, but the fun went out of them shortly after those halcyon days. Rod Drury says Apple have "won". Won what, I ask?

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1645 posts Report Reply

  • Don Christie,

    The browser stats are getting really interesting. Because we do all development on Linux machines testing on Windows/IE is a pretty critical function here. I spent a few weeks last month excusively using Windows and IE before the stuff.co.nz relaunch. It was the first time in ages and god, I missed all those little Firefox and Mozilla hacks that have become part of our internet experience.

    I agree with one comment about Apple made on Rod's site. They are trying to change the way people use things, or at leats better reflect how humans like to operate.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1645 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    I'm stunned TVNZ has Torchwood. It's got rude bits! I'll be even more stunned if they don't play it at eleven at night and stop abruptly halfway through the series. We only started torrenting television after they did that to series three of The West Wing.

    I was staunchly behind Prime's viewing schedule, right up until they stopped play series 2 of Stargate Atlantis halfway through the series...

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    I was staunchly behind Prime's viewing schedule, right up until they stopped play series 2 of Stargate Atlantis halfway through the series...

    The resident TV oracle says Prime are definitely bringing it back, they just broke for the holiday season.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    The resident TV oracle says Prime are definitely bringing it back, they just broke for the holiday season.

    I know they do that in the States, and so US programs often come with a mid-season cliff-hanger, I guess I just don't really grok why we're adopting it here when the networks have the whole series ready to go. Does TV in January really have to be bilge?

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Does TV in January really have to be bilge?

    I recall coming back from London one summer and just being dumbstruck by the utter, utter crapness of January TV. There was <i>a Canadian soap opera</i> on, FFS ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Graeme Edgeler,

    David Ritchie noted:

    "TVNZ are showing Torchwood without mentioning it's a spin-off from Doctor Who? I can envision a lot of confused viewers, especially around Cyberwoman and the finale..."

    No more than the confusion there might have been when Touched by an Angel, and it's spin-off Promised Land were aired out of synch, and at least some time of different channels - not just referencing, but actual cross-over episodes, starting in one series one week (in the US) and finishing in the other later in the week.

    Or Diagnosis Murder (airing most recently on Prime), which had similar crossover episodes with Promised Land, and also Mission Impossible, Mannix and Jake and the Fat Man - none of which (I think) have ever aired on Prime.

    New Zealand has had frequent anomalies in it's schedule, about ten years back, when reality TV series following people's work lives were starting to kick-off TV3 had a minor hit in Airport which TV One had already aired during BBC World. This is a pretty minor one.

    The Herald article certainlt makes good reading for someone like me with only TV1, TV2, and TV3 to watch, statements like this "TVNZ hopes its Primeval will take over from where Prime's Walking with Dinosaurs left off" give me some pause - Walking with Dinosaurs may have repeated on Prime a couple of years back, but it first aired on TV One.

    Wellington, New Zealand • Since Nov 2006 • 3215 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    This after former programmer Annemarie Duff didn't even bid for the revived Doctor Who, because, she once told me, it was "not our audience"

    Though given the way TVNZ thoroughly fucked up with genre-tinged BBC shows like Life On Mars (wasn't that pulled so we could have even more Corrie?), and the sublimely twisted League of Gentlemen (first two series dumped at 11pm with no promotion) how exactly is that a bad thing?

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    And to be fair, someone at TV3 really deserves a good slap in the head for making sure they've probably killed any audience for Battlestar Galactica - which, if you pardon the cliche, is the SF show for people who don't like SF if there ever was one...

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Juha Saarinen,

    "I recall coming back from London one summer and just being dumbstruck by the utter, utter crapness of January TV."

    Did you mean to write New Zealand TV up there?

    Since Nov 2006 • 529 posts Report Reply

  • Robyn Gallagher,

    I remember one of the panellists at the Hopetoun Alpha P.A. Live do: "you call it TVNZ Interactive, but where's the interactivity!?"

    Credit goes to Regan Cunliffe from Idolblog (and now Throng) for that one. He knows a thing or two about television and interactivity.

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report Reply

  • Tom Semmens,

    If T.V. is bilge, what are we dinosaurs to make of NatRad's abysmal (yet again) month of excruiatingly boring January dross?????

    Forget about DRM. Leave the Browser Wars for three hour George Lucas inspired Star Wars like epic. After my 1940's Fleetwood warms up it is valves all I get from NatRad is the exquisitely boring summer report and an afternoon show were two middle aged men have more fun than their audience.

    *rant over*

    Reading all this stuff about DRM and the iPhone leaves me wondering two things: Whither Microsoft in all this? The Empire is being chipped away at every edge. And secondly, how come everyone is so sure Apple is going to storm the ramparts of mobile phone fashion as easily as they did in the PC/Digital player space? Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, Motorola and co. are not going to just roll over and play dead. Expect lots of FUD about the reliability (or otherwise) of Mr. Job's new phone - people expect a much higher standard of robustness and reliability from their telephone than they do from their music player.

    Sevilla, Espana • Since Nov 2006 • 2217 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg,

    Tom,

    And secondly, how come everyone is so sure Apple is going to storm the ramparts of mobile phone fashion as easily as they did in the PC/Digital player space? Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, Motorola and co. are not going to just roll over and play dead.

    I agree with every word. iPhone will be a pretty niche player. It may be a large niche but that's it.

    The people that read columns like this and a moneyed few will be interested but most of the rest of the planet won't even know it exists.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Rowe,

    what are we dinosaurs to make of NatRad's abysmal (yet again) month of excruiatingly boring January dross?????

    My question exactly. There was a discussion here the other day about whether the Herald had its cleaning staff writing copy to save money over Xmas. NatRad is just playing a bunch of long BBC World docos ad nauseu. Fine for a while, but not all the time, please!

    Lake Roxburgh, Central Ot… • Since Nov 2006 • 574 posts Report Reply

  • the E,

    this is a great TVNZ sit rep, from John Barnett at the SPADA conference late last year:

    http://www.tbi.co.nz/article.php?sid=3060

    wellington • Since Jan 2007 • 42 posts Report Reply

  • Jeremy Andrew,

    Reading all this stuff about DRM and the iPhone leaves me wondering two things: Whither Microsoft in all this?

    If they have any sense they wait a week or so til the famous reality distortion field dies down, then point out that thay already have a number of these devices available on the market, for about the same price, and not tied to a specific carrier. The most recent one I had my mitts on was the I-mate JAMin, not quite as much storage space, as SD cards only go up to 4GB, but when I finally have the spare change to replace my aging Ipaq pocket PC, that's where my money's likely to go.

    Hamiltron - City of the F… • Since Nov 2006 • 900 posts Report Reply

  • Sebastian,

    I discussed the Tickling Elmo video in my friends LJ some days ago and found that it mainly appeals to Anglo-American humor - apparently. I think it pulls up a connotation that could make your laughter get stuck in your throat. I can not find it funny - although in very superficial way it might be.

    Berlin, Germany • Since Nov 2006 • 12 posts Report Reply

  • Tom Semmens,

    When people say Germans have no sense of humour, that this is all a big misunderstanding. Other European countries often do not realise that Germans know more jokes than they. In fact, the Germans have more humour than the rest of Europe put together!

    Sevilla, Espana • Since Nov 2006 • 2217 posts Report Reply

  • Matt Barrett,

    And TVNZ should stop saying the episodes can be "downloaded" from its website, because (unless you know a trick or two) they can't. It's in a streaming video format that means it can't be downloaded and saved to disc. Viewers without broadband will find the postage stamp-sized dial-up version a little unsatisfying.

    It's less than a 'trick or two', I think. You can get a directory listing of all their TV shows by looking at the right directory. More details are available here. It's in FLV format, but the 300k files don't look too shabby on a CRT TV, from my experience.

    London, UK • Since Jan 2007 • 4 posts Report Reply

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