Tech Thirst by anuj ahooja
The video linked in the title will take you to a 60-second ad spot for the Samsung Galaxy S3. Don’t worry if you can’t figure that out, though. The phone itself is shown in it’s entirety for a whopping 4 seconds out of 60. Did I mention it says nothing about what the phone actually does?
Hey Samsung – how about you make ads for humans as well?
And, yes, the Samsung Galaxy S3 is a disappointment to me. I might talk about it later, but probably not.
Yesterday I posted about Target wiping it’s shelves clean of Kindles. Turns out that they’re just angry because they feel that those shelves were being used to be a showroom so people could play around with the Kindle and then go home, get on Amazon.com, and buy it there. Cheaper, no sales tax (for most places), and much easier. In their words:
What we aren’t willing to do is let online-only retailers use our brick-and-mortar stores as a showroom for their products and undercut our prices
Fair enough, Target. I’m going to have to agree with you there.
And Amazon – maybe it’s time to open up a B&M showroom yourself. If not a full-blown store, at least pop-up shop where people can play around with your hardware, and then order them straight from there.
Interesting point by Wil Wheaton in the post linked in the title. His issue is that YouTube has dropped the thumbs up/down buttons for a big G+ Like button. And the only time you can use it? You guessed it – if you have a Google+ account. In other words – you need Google+ to have your say in YouTube.
Now, in essence – there’s nothing wrong with this. Kind of like on Facebook where you can only “Like” a video, YouTube is Google’s Facebook Video…but just a lot bigger and better. But what’s wrong with it is that it’s a regression. Google didn’t go forward, they quite literally went backwards with this one. And that sucks. Especially when it’s their way of shoving a service down everyone’s throat.
I love Google+ but I love YouTube as well. And this? This is bad for YouTube, and I can’t agree with it. Bring back the multiple options, Google.
Mr. Wheaton gives his own reasons as well, so I suggest you hit that title and read his thoughts on the situation. He breaks it down really well.
Interesting. Especially considering this gem from an earlier post:
it should be noted that Apple recently partnered with [Target] for a small number of “mini-stores” earlier this year
And another straight out of the post linked in the title:
It’s worth noting that Target’s statement also notes that its continued support of other e-readers and accessories — including, specifically mentioned here, Barnes & Noble’s Nook.
Yes, the Nook that Microsoft recently invested in.
Huh. Hit the title link for Target’s statement.
Adam Fields talks about how OS X Lion has been giving him a little bit of…er…trouble. And the post linked in the title isn’t the only one where he talks about it. He also talks about it here, here, and discusses the linked post further here. Hint: you have to hit the terminal a ton of times. Two thumbs up for intuitiveness!
I’ve had to use OS X for a little while in my old job. Hated it. I was so happy when I was back on Windows it’s not even funny. I know – it sounds crazy. I’ll talk about this a little more in a later blog post, but there’s no way anyone can convince me that OS X is a superior OS in it’s current state. It looks pretty, sure – but I need to get work done, not glaze over slow and sleek animations.
Very, very cool stuff here. The interesting thing is that – based on their tests – the performance using their Mono platform (open source .NET implementation) is significantly faster. I’d love to see some demos and get some more information. The awesome part is that they’re focused on continuously staying up-to-date with the latest version of Android by automating the process of translation and then refining it. In time, they likely won’t even need to change any of the translated code. The cool thing is that if you’ve developed apps for Android in the past, you’ll likely be able to use this translation tool to convert it into C# for Xobot as well. And it’s open source. Yep. Very cool. Hit the title link for more info.
Hit the title link for guidelines that’ll help all you iOS-ers to keep your data when switching computers. In light of this, here’s how you sync your Android phone:
Thanks for link, +Pearl Chen!
Yep, it’s finally coming after months of anticipation. Looks gorgeous, and takes clear cues from Windows Phone and Android. However, it has some great ideas including the sentence-completion touch keyboard. I’ve played with early versions of the OS, and I have to say – quite fluid (much like the Playbook). That being said, there’s a lot of friction RIM will have to endure over the next little while. But no matter what anyone says – there’s no “too late” in mobile right now. People may think that users have made their final choice, but this is just the beginning. Android and iOS may have had a head start, but Windows Phone and BBOS will have their turn. They may not dominate, but the bites they’ll take out of the pie will eventually become considerable. More on this in a later blog post.
The Verge has done a great job getting all the BB10 articles into one stream (as usual). Hit the title link to get some awesome BB10 coverage.
Judge Posner on Apple’s latest lawsuit against Motorola:
I deny the second half of Apple’s motion (seeking prohibition of the deposition) as frivolous and the first half (seeking substitution) as untimely. I’ve had my fill of frivolous filings by Apple. The next such motion, and I shall forbid it to file any motions without first moving for leave to file.
Ouch.
Yes, that Woz. He says he prefers Windows Phone over anything else. That’s pretty amazing, and definitely a nod towards Microsoft’s efforts. He finds Android navigation cumbersome and iOS interactions are more awkward. Click the link the title for full the story.
I have to say, kudos to him for being a honest critique. But on my end, I guess I’m just used to Android navigation so much that it seems natural to me. When I’m on iOS, I’m always lost and have no clue what to do. I’m constantly looking for a back button – especially when one app knocks me to another and there’s no way to come back. Really frustrating experience.
That being said, Windows Phone definitely has a great UI and is really, really easy to use. Both my parents own Windows Phones and they caught onto the whole thing incredibly quick. On the flipside, my dad has an Android tablet (Acer Iconia A100) and it took a week of questions for him to finally get comfortable. My mom used to have an iPod touch and I think she still hasn’t figured out how to use the darn thing. I don’t know what it is, but she never got the hang of it. Until she stopped using it, there would be questions nearly on a daily basis.
Of course, these are just my observances. The case for iOS, Android, and/or Windows Phone will greatly differ depending on the user’s background in technology. Both my parents are more tech-savvy than most others, so I guess that may be a reason for their situation.
With Ice Cream Sandwich, it seems that things have improved greatly. The Android interface is not only a lot more beautiful, but also a bit more intuitive. However, the amount of power Google has shoved into Android still makes it a lot more complicated than any other OS, and that’s just a consequence of the robustness of the OS. As Matias and the team focus more on design, I think we’re going to see things get a lot more simpler for the average user, but even at the state of Android right now, there’s a lot for regular users to grasp right away.
Here’s one thing that stuck out to me, though:
He’s so impressed by it, in fact, that he defines the experience of using a Windows Phone as feeling like you’re “with a friend not a tool.
But here’s the thing – I need my phone to be a tool, not just a friend. I need to do things on my phone and get out. Sure, it takes some setting up, but once that’s done I’m in and out of my phone in seconds to check 3 different inboxes, 3 social networks, a calendar, and the latest headlines. There’s no opening apps, just switching between three screens.
Yes, Windows Phone is simple, but simple doesn’t always get the job done. For me – Android just does. Windows Phone and iOS simply don’t have what it takes for me to switch over. It’s not about Google-integration or anything – it’s just how it works is how I need my devices to do things for me. I can go on for hours about why, but the other platforms just don’t cut it, and they’re far from getting there as well.
Apparently he didn’t like the Android wave. Can someone tell him he doesn’t have to follow the people he doesn’t like? Maybe he forgot about that simple point. Regardless, I gave some thoughts on Google+ about this:
Google+ opens it’s doors – photographers (as in talented artists) are incredibly happy and end up publishing a book with the community’s photos. Instragram opens it’s doors – “photographers” (note the quotes) begin an outcry about losing exclusivity. Just saying.
I may not be a photographer, but I’m so glad I’m in this community. I’ve met amazing people, learned things I could never imagine, and am meeting more new and interesting people on a daily basis. Keep up the great work, Google+ers. This is what the social web is all about.
Get off your high horse, Instagrammers. You’re not better than everyone else.
Today, Twitter introduced a patent assignment format called the Innovator’s Patent Agreement. This is the gist of what it means:
The IPA is a new way to do patent assignment that keeps control in the hands of engineers and designers. It is a commitment from Twitter to our employees that patents can only be used for defensive purposes. We will not use the patents from employees’ inventions in offensive litigation without their permission. What’s more, this control flows with the patents, so if we sold them to others, they could only use them as the inventor intended.
Amazing. This is what technology patents should be. It’s incredible that this is now just happening. Kudos to Twitter for starting this movement. Tech industry: take note. If you really care about technology, the next generation of technologists, and users – this is what you should be using for your patents. Don’t use your IP for offence and gains; that’s what your engineering talent is for.
John Gruber on the Asus Transformer GPS “dongle” fiasco:
File Under ‘Imagine if Apple Did This’: “Free Dongle!”, they proclaim, like it’s a good thing.
Yeah, just imagine. Just imagine if Apple messed up a product – let’s say the iPhone. Just for kicks, let’s imagine that it’s the antenna.
What if the then-CEO first insulted a user’s intelligence for claiming the antenna was not working as intended. Imagine, then, that instead of admitting their faults, they said that there’s nothing wrong with it. On top of that, imagine if they gave away a free case to anyone with the faulty (oops, not faulty) iPhone because it remedies this problem (oops, there is no problem); kind of like Asus is doing with this dongle. Just imagine.
At least Asus is willing to accept a mistake. And moreover, on a feature majority of users don’t even use. I haven’t used my tablet for navigation – ever. That’s what my phone is for. Apple screwed up the most important part of a phone – the phone part. And then they had the audacity to blame the users and point fingers at the rest of the industry.
Yeah, John. Just imagine.
Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder and engineering mastermind, made an interesting point in an interview with the Guardian. Maybe you’ve read it already, but just to reiterate the point I want to discuss:
[Brin] warned that the rise of Facebook and Apple, which have their own proprietary platforms and control access to their users, risked stifling innovation and balkanising the web.
“There’s a lot to be lost,” he said. “For example, all the information in apps – that data is not crawlable by web crawlers. You can’t search it.”
Brin takes hard shots at his biggest rivals in the industry right now. Apple and Facebook are clear threats to what Google wants accomplish, whether it’s world domination, serving ads, or simply indexing the web.
There’s a sad outburst that occurred after this interview. People immediately fled to the point I just made – Brin was probably serving his own company in those statements. But, regardless of Brin’s reasoning, there’s something that’s glaring at us right now. I’m not here to say the perpetrators of a closed, non-searchable web are any or all of Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Twitter, and the like. I’m posting this for another reason.
I’m posting this because he’s right.
Imagine if Wikipedia launched as an app. Even worse, what if it launched as an app on one platform. Not only would we not be able to find the contents of it anywhere except for this particular app, only a certain fraction of privileged users would be able to access it. Take that, all the social content, all the sharing, all the information that we’ve been able to index on numerous search engines, and think about all the information that could be lost.
Brin may have been selfish in his statement – I’m not going to agree or disagree with that, because that’s not the point. The point is that we, as users of the web, are losing the resources we were once selflessly served freely. And that’s a problem we’re going to need to solve. Fast.
Amazing analysis as always by Nilay. However one part of the whole breakdown really sticks out; here’s what Apple said to publishers to solve the “Amazon problem” (or rather, Amazon putting up fair prices for digital content):
you set the price, and we get our 30 percent, and yes, the customer pays a little more, but that’s what you want anyway.
Tell me again how Apple became amazingly profitable because they put customers first. I love that one.
After my Fragmentation is a Bad Excuse post swam to the top of /r/Android, I’m finding others discussing the false claims of fragmentation across the web. One of the best one’s I’ve found is this one. Steven goes deep into the technical details on how to avoid fragmentation without getting to technical about it – something I tried and failed to do in my last post. I actually got rid of two paragraphs that discussed how to avoid it because I wanted it to be more geared towards the non-developer. The best part is that it’s by a developer, and not someone who doesn’t understand what they’re talking about. Fragmentation is a term thrown around by people who don’t even understand it, and that’s incredibly dangerous. Steven does a great job of clearing these wrong notions – definitely worth a read.
Farhad Manjoo of The Slate:
Over the last few months, Microsoft has turned its video-game console into your TV’s best friend. Late last year, the company revamped the Xbox’s interface, adding a wonderful voice-search feature through the Kinect motion-gaming add-on. Microsoft also added dozens of entertainment services to its Xbox Live online plan, including Netflix, Hulu, ESPN, and on-demand video from cable and satellite services around the world. This week, the company is adding access to Comcast’s Xfinity on-demand service, as well as apps for HBO and MLB.TV. [...] the future of entertainment is bound to be fragmented. And in a fragmented world, the Xbox’s magical powers to cut through the clutter may be the best thing to happen to your TV.
Couldn’t agree more. Microsoft has nailed the future of the entertainment system. The question is, however – will the next Xbox continue this trend? We obviously can’t say that just yet, but one thing’s for sure: with Kinect and all of the other amazing entertainment features recently added to the Xbox, Microsoft’s got a huge head-start on the future of connected TVs.
The Google autonomous car drives a man that’s 95% blind. Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is magical. Anyone else tearing up?
Linked above is a video that shares one person’s thoughts on switching from Android to iOS. He goes over basic functions like opening links from his email, getting driving directions, and making the phone work for him the way he wants it to. Something as simple as getting a location from a website and getting navigation is so much easier – and so much more versatile considering he can even choose from multiple apps if he likes – than on iOS.
This video highlights not even a subset of how much cross-application functionality there is, above and beyond the integration any app can do into the OS. From universal gestures, to plugging into the sharing functionality, to even replacing things like SMS, email, and dialer apps, this video hardly scratches the surface of the power of Android and still makes iOS look primitive.
It just works.
Click on the title to check out this fantastic video. Thanks to Hamid Marc Afsharieh for finding this.
The Nexus One is still my favourite phone of all time. My recently bought Galaxy Nexus, although I think it’s amazing and I definitely think it was worth the upgrade, will never match it. I’m not talking about hardware-wise, I’m talking about what it meant for me as an Android user, developer, and enthusiast. It changed the game, regardless of it’s sales. But when the Nexus S came out with Gingerbread, I had to wait pretty long until I got the 2.3 upgrade. This frustrated me, but eventually Google got me what I wanted. I thought it was a one-time thing…but it’s not. The Nexus S still hasn’t gotten it’s official Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade. The Galaxy Nexus came out about 5 months back.
That’s messed up.
Taylor Wimberly writes the following in this post’s linked article:
what’s the point in owning a Nexus device (if you are not a developer)? Maybe as some have suggested, the Nexus series is coming to and end.
What’s the point, indeed. And this stands as a developer as well. The main reason I buy a Nexus device – as a developer – is because (1) I’m getting the vanilla Android experience and (2) being assured updates right away. The second one is the vital one here because I can get vanilla on any phone with a hack or two. It’s all about getting the updates right away, and if that slips away – the Nexus isn’t pure Google.
With this and the rumored Play-pushing tablet, the state of the Nexus may just be nothing more than a gimmick. Nexus meant standard-setting and Google-assured. We can argue about the former, but the latter troubles me. Google – I know (hope) you’re trying, but we Android enthusiasts look for you when we want to point to OEMs whose model they should follow. If you pull this kind of stunt, who will we look to?
That’s right. 500+ photographers on Google+ have gotten together to make a book of their work, and all net proceeds are going to microloan site Kiva. Click the title-link for more.
And this isn’t the first Google+ collaboration book; another was created when Google Plus was just a few days old. It was a handbook for new users by new users who were learning the platform itself. A collaborated handbook so people can learn from others’ understanding.
Google+ is driving at something a lot bigger than most bloggers are understanding. But hey, continue to compare it to Facebook and Twitter; us ghosts will enjoy ourselves in this nice, little town.
Hint: It’s fragmentation. And once you finish reading that, read the comment from Jean-Baptiste Queru, because it’s filled with so much win.
If we really want to place smartphones and tablets under the scope of PCs, we should treat them the same way as well.
Android on Nokia could have been one of the greatest collaborations in today’s mobile scenery. Gorgeous & robust hardware; gorgeous & robust software. Excuse me while I cry, crouched down in a corner while you watch the video.
Who would’ve thunk it? The companies that should want smartphones to power through and become a necessity that belongs in each and every citizen’s hands are the exact ones that are slowing down the technology.
Carriers suck. Whether you’re in Canada or the US – carriers are one of the main reasons our mobile technology isn’t lightyears ahead. You want an example? Rogers One Number – one single phone number for all your devices including your computer, tablet etc. Sounds a lot like Google Voice, doesn’t it? Guess what – it’s exactly that with lesser functionality. It’s also exactly why Google Voice doesn’t exist in Canada. This is one in a list of too many evil doings by carriers to horribly throttle tech companies that want to change our lives. The power these companies hold is disgusting. Hate is a strong word, and that’s exactly why I’ll use it – I. Hate. Carriers.
Now let’s chalk up another one for these demons that control our airwaves, whether it be our smartphones, TVs, or internet. Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile have been blocking Google Wallet since it’s inception because they’re banding together to build their own Google Wallet clone – Isis. To stop Google Wallet from penetrating the market any further, they’ve taken every single action they can to stop it including Verizon not allowing Wallet on their horribly branded version of the Galaxy Nexus. As if their ugly logo plastered along the back wasn’t dirty enough. Verizon said it wasn’t “blocking” it, but rather in “commercial discussions”. In other words – pay up, sucker.
Google is now getting to the point where they’re willing to pay carriers a cut of each transaction just so that it has the benefits carriers get out of Isis. Excuse me while I puke. NFC payments are hands-down the most important next step in mobile and carriers are stopping it just so they can get a cut? I literally have no safe words to say for this situation, so I’m going to stop right there.
Hollywood, the music industry, and carriers – the three pillars that are ruining the movement of technology on a daily basis.
I don’t even want to say any more.
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by anuj ahooja
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