Tag Archives: android

First Thoughts on Google+, the Social Network

Posted on by
Reply

Google has revealed some information about its latest try to get into the social game and be a worthy competitor for Facebook. Even though Google is a much larger company with a lot more profit than Facebook, its main fear should be that all activity of users will take place behind the closed walls of Facebook. This way all this activity will not be visible to Google search users.

There’s a lot that can be said about Google and its efforts to set up social media services or features. From Orkut to Wave and Buzz the results have varied from mediocre to miserable failure. Now Google has presented Google+, a place where multiple social features come together. Some highlights:

  • Circles: smaller groups of people (family, friends, work, etc.) so you can just share information with this list.
  • Activity stream: which supposedly looks very much like Facebook
  • Sparks: Search the social activities
  • Instant Upload: have your photos on your Android or iPhone sent to Google+, ready to share with people
  • Hangout: video chatting for up to 10 people. Set up a chat and have other people drop in and watch Youtube videos

You can find more details on the Google+ website: http://www.google.com/+/ Wired has an excellent piece by Steven Levy who has walked around the + project for the past year an has more about the motivation of the project. The next quote is from this piece.

Vic Gundotra, Social VP of Google:“We’re transforming Google itself into a social destination at a level and scale that we’ve never attempted — orders of magnitude more investment, in terms of people, than any previous project.”

My thoughts

  • I have been waiting for a central hub for Google’s social tools. It’s nice that you try to bake in some social components in other services such as Gmail and Reader, but I think it is very confusing if you don’t have a central overview.
  • The circles are very smart. This is something Facebook really lacks. It makes it very easy to be in control of what you share and with whom. Big lesson learned from Buzz I think.
  • What is the connection with other social tools and Google services? Will the photo part integrate with Picasa? How does Buzz fit into this? Will they stop development of it or will it be incorporated (I say incorporate for people who want that). Hangout looks a lot like Gtalk, what’s the connection there? How will Reader Shared items and the +1 button work with Google+? It would be a real strong point if Google would use + to create some order in the chaos and have a clear social proposition for users.
  • Some services in + have a lot of potential to replace current success stories, especially with mobile integration (which is a big part in + I think). Send updates to people in a circle from your phone. Check in when you are visiting a location or ask your friends for recommendations (using the sparks). If Hangout works on your phone, no need to call regularly any more.

As always it’s now about execution and getting users. I have signed up to get a beta account so I’m very curious how this will continue. It looks like a more serious and better executed effort than the previous attempts and I expect it will get the support an effort it deserves.

Source: Wired Marketingfacts

I Have an HTC Desire

Posted on by
Reply

HTC DesireI’ve been walking around with two devices for a while now. Not all the time but often I would have my Nokia N95 8GB with me, together with an iPod Touch. But now I have an HTC Desire.

I’d use the Nokia for phone calls, but also some mobile web browsing such as Google Reader or a mobile web Twitter client. I’ve never installed many applications on it. It almost seemed Nokia didn’t want you to install anything on it, that’s how hard they made it. And the launch of their Ovi app store only made it a little better. I still really like the company Nokia, they are the complete opposite of Apple with their openness and anti-hype way of communicating (which may be part of their Scandinavian nature but perhaps also a little damaging to their PR). In the end I was not a big fan of their products anymore. Even the N97 which looked like Nokia’s answer to the iPhone failed to deliver with a certain confusing difficulty to it’s menus and unfortunate trade offs such as the resistive screen.

I carried around the iPod Touch for consuming news via newspaper apps or watching video podcasts. It’s obviously very user friendly, but sometimes a little frustrating in what Steve Jobs doesn’t allow you to do (and that’s how it feels when you can’t do things like multitasking or installing another media player). I just read Apple did allow the Opera browser to the app store, but just the fact that everyone was holding their breath for that and the arbitrariness because other browser have been disallowed says it all.

The Android logoNow the Android operating system which is inside my new phone (think of it as the Windows or Mac OS inside the phone, while it’s actually based on Linux) is like a marriage of the Nokia and the iPod Touch. It’s versatile, but user friendly. There are more things to figure out than with an iPhone which makes it more customizable, but also less easy to use. When you give it to someone less computer savvy (I call this the girlfriend test) she will pick up and figure out the iPhone a lot faster than the Android phone.

HTC Desire keyboard installed on a Nexus One

HTC Desire keyboard installed on a Nexus One

The hardware of the HTC Desire is practically the best there is with a fast processor and amazing screen. Only the camera could be a little better (I’ve never been blown away by a camera phone, although the camera in the Nokia was very good) and the internal memory could have been more especially since that is the only place to store apps. Music, photos and videos can be placed on a memory card. I also think the on screen keyboard is the best I’ve used. I’m typing this on it right now.

One major difference between the iPhone and Android phones is the app store of course. Apple has a huge advantage with their ever increasing collection of apps. Usually this causes so called network effects (the more apps there are, the more interesting the product becomes, the more users it will get, the more apps there will be developed, etc) which at a certain moment are very hard to duplicate or substitute for a competitor. The fact that the same app store can be used on many different Android models is a very smart way to overcome this problem, I think. This causes the user base to grow, which stimulates aforementioned cycle. Already almost 80% of iPhone developers have stated they are planning an Android app.

So I’m very optimistic about the Android platform and can’t wait to see what to future hold for these two rivals, because I think it’s clear these will become the two dominant players.

iPad: A New Hope or The Empire Strikes Back?

Posted on by
Reply

After have followed the keynote this week, the real insight and information about the new Apple iPad comes in the couple of days afterwards. Almost any blogger and her uncle have made a post with their thoughts on the iPad so why shouldn’t I.

Technological Perspective

There are two ways of looking at this new product. From a technical perspective it really is just a large iPhone or iPod Touch. It really doesn’t have any technical features over the iPhone. David Pogue, technology writer for the New York Times, introduced the three phases of a new Apple product category.

Phase 1 of the standard Apple new-category roll-out: months of feverish speculation and hype online, without any official indication by Apple that the product even exists.

Now Phase 2 can begin: the bashing by the bloggers who’ve never even tried it: “No physical keyboard!” “No removable battery!” “Way too expensive!” “Doesn’t multitask!” “No memory-card slot!”

That will last until the iPad actually goes on sale in April. Then, if history is any guide, Phase 3 will begin: positive reviews, people lining up to buy the thing, and the mysterious disappearance of the basher-bloggers.

Summing up all the technological shortcomings is part of the current phase two. Most bloggers and people on twitter were “underwhelmed” and “disappointed” during or right after the keynote speech. In the first day afterwards articles appeared such as Ten Things Missing From The iPad – Wired Gadget Lab The Anti-Hype: Why Apple’s iPad Disappoints – Mashable and What’s Missing from the Apple iPad? – Mashable. These articles are focusing mostly on the missing camera, usb ports, SD card, flash support, HD playback or HDMI connectivity and multitasking.

Possibilities of Use

The second way of looking at the iPad is not from a technical perspective but by looking at the possibilities of use. When I thought of a web tablet before the product launch, such as this Apple tablet or perhaps the CrunchPad (similar to the iPad but with only a browser) I couldn’t think of any reason the buy one when you already have a smartphone and laptop. Then I realized I own and love an iPod Touch and use that a lot. I use it for surfing, reading e-books and articles, twittering and games and of course use some other apps. I use it quite a lot at home, because it’s connected online via wifi and about the only place with available wifi that you can use is at home. So the only thing missing from my iTouch actually is 3G connectivity.

If you look at possibilities instead of shortcomings you see what Apple has created is really a clean “slate”. An empty vessel for developers of apps and websites to create content on. As heard quite often from tech pundits and journalists it’s the ideal content consumption device. E-books, e-magazines, videos, websites, music, it can all be consumed while comfortably sitting on a couch holding the sleek 700 gram device. Just look at what Sports Illustrated envisioned before the launch of iPad:

Comedian Stephen Fry, who was present at the keynote said the iPad had to be experienced to be judged fairly and that you’d be amazed by the speed and simplicity of the interface (link – it’s a long but good read, you can always spot the real writers between the bloggers). Below is a video of a demo where you can really see how beautiful it looks and how fast and responsive the graphical user interface is.

So if iPad is supposed to be a consumption device, an open playground for developers, then it’s especially disappointing it’s still a closed system. As Alex Payne writes the iPhone can get away with having a closed system where you can only install Apple approved apps and are not able to tinker with most of the settings, because it’s quite a step ahead from the older “smartphones” where it’s really difficult to install apps. A device between a smartphone and a laptop however can be much more open and “Apple’s decision to make the iPad a closed device is an artificial one”.

So I think Apple has shown us the future. I’m very interested to see if will be massively adopted like the iPhone or that for the average consumer there’s just no point in having an extra device. As @breun said: “It would be great if your iPhone turned into an iPad when you get home”. Regarding the openness, I’m waiting for the other device manufacturers to launch their tablets. Would be great to see a similar device with Android or even Chrome OS where you can install android apps and have the freedom of these operating systems.

The iPad does stimulate ones imagination about possibilities and the future of connectivity to the web and media consumption. Now let’s hope it also stimulates the imagination of the competitors. Are you already saving money for the first iPad or would you rather wait for a later version? Or don’t you feel the need for such a device or are you looking at other devices?