Thursday News: Fire phone, spying increases demand for cloud services, Daniel Keyes dies, and hilarious First Moon Party video
Amazon’s Fire phone has average looks and high aspirations (hands-on) – Well, some of the reviews are in, and they’re not exactly glowing. If the Amazon Fire phone were a serious contender to overthrow the iPhone, I might consider it. But a phone that doesn’t even have Bluetooth (It has Bluetooth 3.0 wireless technology) but does manage six cameras doesn’t really seem like it’s going to do much to the smart phone market. Dynamic Perspective, Firefly, and a gesture-driven three-panel design are some of the selling points. Assuming you want to buy.
Excepting the five cameras on the front, the Fire phone looks like an average device. In many ways, the build reminds me of the Nexus 4: Gorilla Glass adorns the front and rear, and the plastic sides reach slightly around the back. With a 4.7-inch display, I had no problem handling the phone — Bezos was adamant that this size is optimal for one-handed use, and although I prefer slightly larger devices, Amazon believes that this size is the “sweet spot” for its users; not too large, but not too small. Its 8.9mm thickness doesn’t make it too bulky, and the back is narrower than the front, so my hand wrapped around it pretty easily. –Engadget
VMware: NSA revelations have been the single biggest issue for cloud clients – So this is interesting. According to VMWare’s SVP of hybrid cloud services, the whole NSA/Snowden scandal, and the revelations about the government’s broad-based surveillance have actually increased the demand for public cloud services, which, while counter-intuitive, may also signal the extent to which people are willing to accept the risks inherent in such integrated technologies.
Initially the spying revelations created a very short-term, knee-jerk reaction that the privacy breach would mean the death of public cloud adoption, Fathers said. But months later, there’s now a general acknowledgement that public clouds can actually deliver better security, as well as performance and economics, compared to enterprises’ own infrastructure and private clouds, –Gigaom
Daniel Keyes, a Novelist of the Mind, Dies at 86 – When I first came across this story, SFWA was the only site to have extended coverage, and it wasn’t super-informative. I’ve been scanning obituaries for Daniel Keyes since, and I haven’t yet found one that wowed me. But this piece from the NYT did contain an interesting tidbit related to Keyes most famous book, Flowers For Algernon, and its inspiration:
The premise underlying Mr. Keyes’s best-known novel struck him while he waited for an elevated train to take him from Brooklyn to New York University in 1945.
“I thought: My education is driving a wedge between me and the people I love,” he wrote in his memoir, “Algernon, Charlie and I” (1999). “And then I wondered: What would happen if it were possible to increase a person’s intelligence?” –New York Times
First Moon Party – Jane tweeted this video earlier today, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a hilarious and de-mystifying treatment of a girl’s first period (and menstruation more generally). Yes, it’s advertising for the Hello Flo “care package” service, but as far as I’m concerned they’ve earned any business they get from this. May not be safe for work, although I watched it in my office, cackling hysterically, with no problem. –YouTube
I LOVED that first moon party video, laughed my fool head off!! Hours later, I’m still smiling about it.
Daniel Keyes was my first creative writing teacher. He gave his time, encouraging my writing and made me “see” and, thus, write better. He was a great teacher. Thank you, Prof. Keyes.