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Nextbit has just announced that it is cancelling the CDMA version of the Nextbit Robin Smartphone, meaning, Verizon and Sprint subscribers who had been looking forward to getting their hands on the device, are out of luck. The handset was originally intended for just GSM networks only, but Nextbit decided to make a CDMA variant after unexpected strong demand for the GSM model and innumerable requests for a Verizon-compatible variant had convinced the company that the CDMA model will also find many takers. The company has now blamed an inordinately slow carrier-testing process and spiraling costs as the main reasons behind the decision that will no doubt disappoint many who backed the project when it was originally launched on Kickstarter last year.
Through a post on the official Nextbit website, the company's CEO, Mr. Tom Moss, announced on Thursday that the company is in the process of refunding everybody who had ordered the CDMA model on Kickstarter. Along with the refund, Nextbit is also offering a coupon that will give them a 25 percent discount on any device or accessory sold by Nextbit, including the GSM version of the phone that is currently available for purchase on the company's website. In his apology note to the backers of the Nextbit Robin, Mr. Moss admits that the company's management was "too optimistic, too bullish, and as a result we have to deal with our biggest fear, disappointing you, our supporters". The CDMA model was earlier delayed till April, after Nextbit had originally announced an ETA of February.
For the uninitiated, the Nextbit Robin is a crowdfunded smartphone that was launched on Kickstarter back in September of last year. The project quickly gained momentum, reaching its $500,000 target within just twelve hours of the launch of the campaign, which was slated to run for a month. Within just two weeks, the project had received as much as $1 million from backers worldwide, in the process, attracting significant attention from the global tech media. The major differentiator for the Robin is that it's a 'Cloud First' smartphone, having been conceptualized, designed and developed by Nextbit – a company that originally made a name for itself by offering cloud-based services. That being the case, the Nextbit Robin has cloud-based data and media backup services baked into the operating system itself, unlike any other Android smartphone.


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Red Bull gives you wings … and pretty decent commissions, too
I've never really gotten the point of Red Bull. All the "gives you wings" stuff sounds like just so much advertising hype. Hype or not, one of the first things I noticed when I started working at JKL Sales was that many of the other salespeople consume vast amounts of the stuff. It would be an exaggeration to say that everyone has a can of Red Bull during the morning meetings (in the (in)famous chairless meeting room), but only a slight exaggeration. Certainly I was never going to succumb to the hype.
For reasons I still can't quite explain, after leaving Wednesday's meeting on my way to the day's worksite, I decided to stop at a nearby 7-11 and get some Red Bull. Couldn't hurt, right? I ended up getting a 16-ounce can. It didn't taste half bad, at least not the sugar-free version which I decided to get on account of all the calories in the regular stuff. How did it work? I definitely felt a short-lived but fairly intense rush, which may have been at least partly psychosomatic, though clearly not entirely so. What is clear, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is that I had an excellent day in sales terms, the first time in my month at JKL Sales in which I qualified for a daily "top producer" designation. Did the Red Bull have anything to do with my success? There's no way to know for sure, though I'd like to think so. What may be relevant in this context is that Thursday was an excellent day too … and yes, I had more Red Bull.

subset: commoncrawl


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Microsoft Ditches Drive Extender, Customers Furious
Microsoft recently announced the decision to drop the Drive Extender feature found in several of its server products, including Windows Home Server (code-named "Vail"), Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Server Essentials.
Drive Extender is a storage technology that enables the of use internal and external hard drives for additional storage on a server. Folder Duplication for specific shared folders on servers is one of the capabilities that allow for the maintaining of two copies of a shared folder on separate hard drives to help protect against the failure of a single hard drive.
Microsoft cites several reasons for the decision. Since SBS 2011 and Storage Server are business offerings, those customers will find storage alternatives in hardware RAID, and application compatibility and data portability solutions.
For Home Server users, the justification for dumping Drive Extender is that many "large hard drives of over 1TB are reasonably priced, and freely available. We are also seeing further expansion of hard drive sizes at a fast rate, where 2TB drives and more are becoming easy accessible to small businesses," according to a Microsoft blog post. "Since customers looking to buy Windows Home Server solutions from OEM's will now have the ability to include larger drives, this will reduce the need for Drive Extender functionality."
There has been significant outcry from users, even though Microsoft technical project manager, Michael Leworthy stated in the blog post that "we are 100 percent committed to Vail, and continue to work on all the core features outside of Drive Extender. We fully expect to be able to show some of our new and partnered OEM solutions at CES."
Many commenters on the Windows Home Server blog are denouncing the decision, with some referring to Drive Extender as a "core component" of WHS. Another responder posts that "Microsoft is abandoning the consumer market" and another replies, "this is the worst decision for the home user."
There's a consensus of discontent surrounding specific technical issues. One big gripe is the loss of the ability to dynamically add storage. A wariness of relying on a third-party solution to perform the same functions as DE also permeates the comments area. The ease-of-use and management of DE is causing much lamenting about its removal.
Many blog commenters are threatening to completely ignore Vail once it's released. It is interesting to ponder if Microsoft expected such a vociferous backlash and if any customer feedback contributed to the decision.