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    Sunday
    03Jan2010

    Surprise for Android?

    DateSunday, January 3, 2010 at 9:30PM

    After years of mildly successful MP3 devices someone finally stepped up and did things right. Of coarse I'm talking about Apple, and they continued this winning strategy with the iPhone.  While the user interface on the iPod was nice it wasn't great until the iPhone. What made it such as success was iTunes, it wasn't the store itself at first, it was the inclusion of a easy to use software that provides a simple way to sync your digital media library to your device.

    History is littered with device makers and software companies that tried to tackle this market with long to no success. I'm not talking about start-up's with great idea's and no marketing dollars, companies like Sony, Dell, Napster, and Real are just a few who tried and failed to succeed. Why did all of the companies fail, when it seemed so easy for Apple to succeed? Well in my opinion it was because they made the software to work with the hardware, not just one or the other it is a complete solution. Apple is the only company until Microsoft released the Zune bundled with the Zune software that was a complete solution for managing and syncing digital content to it's hardware. 

    I know we don't need a history lesson so why am I writing about this? I have been very vocal about the smartphone market and the great devices that have been released in the past year or so from Google and Palm. These devices have so much potential as both platforms are great at playing multimedia. While the music player on both Android and WebOS are let's just say early versions. The real problem is the same as it's been with all the other devices that tried and failed at this, no sync software included. I just can't understand why Palm or Google hasn't realized this and addressed it. It seems like such a simple thing to address to help your company succeed in this growth market segment.

    Well, Google may have something under their selves to address this if the rumors are to be believed. I read a report today on Gizmondo see the reference link below, that indicate that the NexusOne may be designed to work with a dock. I maybe the only person in the world who buys dock's but I would choose a phone with one over one without if they both meet my requirements. As I wrote above the ability for a phone to also work within a dock is a key requirement that should be added along with the sync'ing of media in a easy to use interface.

    With Google rumored to have been looking at Lala.com, it makes sense for them to be looking at adding media as a priority to the Android platform. So I for one would love to see them address this in short order.

     

    AuthorCorey McLaughlin | CommentPost a Comment |
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    Tuesday
    29Dec2009

    Is the iPhone still the clear leader?

    DateTuesday, December 29, 2009 at 3:38PM

    With all the buzz around Google and Palm releasing new devices and updates to their smartphone OS's I thought I would take this opportunity to encourage Apple to address a couple of the iPhone's short comings.

    Facebook Integration

    First, Apple needs to at least integrate Facebook contacts into the contacts application, allowing syncing of my Facebook contacts to my phone wirelessly like what Google and Palm already do with their smartphone OS's. I would also love to see additional enhancements such as txt's I receive from Facebook launching the Facebook app instead of launch the web browser. Calendar integration should also be addressed so I can see events I have stated I'm going to inline in my calendar app. This could be expanded to included location information that would launch Google Maps so I know exactly where we will be meeting our friends. The last piece Apple should address just to stay on par is to integrate the Photos app to allow viewing on my Facebook photo's without having to launch the Facebook app.

    Twitter Integration

    Again it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that added Twitter integration is an area that the iPhone needs to address. While some people may be happy with 3rd party app providing the interface into Twitter, I for one want to see at least Twitter usernames included in my contact records and with Twitter adding Geo-Location information to it's service having the ability to store and post all of this information directly within my messaging app could be a great addition. Again, the ability for the iPhone to handle txt messages from services like Twitter is an area Apple could differentiate the iPhone. 

    Background Apps

    After using Android and WebOS for the past few months, it's becoming clear there are many times it is useful to have apps running in the background. Grated it's not every app that needs to run in the background and the addition of push notifications has helped but does not completely meet all situations where I need to access data from several apps. Should Apple address how notifications are displayed and how I can review them after I unlock my phone would go along way to addressing this.

    Clearly Apple's iPhone is still the market leader that every other smartphone is compared too. However if Apple doesn't address some of these shortcomings Google's Android or Palm's WebOS will become more attractive alternatives to the iPhone. This is not to say that Google and Palm don't have work to do on their end, which they both clearly do.

    AuthorCorey McLaughlin | CommentPost a Comment |
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    Tuesday
    29Dec2009

    Palm updates WebOS to 1.3.5

    DateTuesday, December 29, 2009 at 3:27PM

    Yesterday Palm and Sprint released WebOS 1.3.5 for the Palm Pre and Pixi. My testing so far shows this update has helped to increase the battery life and over all speed of my Palm Pre. Below is the information on all of the published fixes and enhancements included in WebOS 1.3.5

    SOURCE: Palm's Support Website

    App Catalog

    • App Catalog significantly improves the application download experience.
    • A user can now download multiple applications simultaneously.
    • Downloads continue in the background if the user moves away from the download screen.
    • A user can manually pause, resume, and cancel downloads.
    • A user can also download all available updates for the user’s downloaded applications with a single tap.
    • App Catalog automatically resumes downloads in cases where a download was paused because it was interrupted—for example, if a user moves out of network coverage and then moves back into coverage.
    • Users can now take advantage of the full storage capacity of the phone for downloading applications. This gives the user more control over how to allocate the phone’s storage space across applications, music, photos, and other media. Downloaded applications are now stored on the phone’s USB drive.
    • App Catalog lists search results based on an improved search algorithm.
    • Locations from which users can purchase paid apps from App Catalog now include U.S. territories.

    Calendar

    • In Day view, switching between days happens more quickly.

    Date & Time

    • When the user has network time zone enabled, a city and country are no longer displayed.

    Device Info

    • A user can perform a full erase by pressing and holding Sym + the orange/Option key + power for 10 seconds.

    Email

    • A user can now edit forwarded text for all email account types.
    • When the user sets up more than one Yahoo! email account, the account names displayed in Account List view include the associated email address so that the user can distinguish them.
    • If an account mailbox is too full to send messages, after the user frees up space in the mailbox on the server, the user can send the messages successfully.
    • The default email signature no longer includes the macron over the “e” in “Pre,” so that the product name shows correctly on a recipient’s phone.

    Messaging

    • If a user deletes a conversation with a contact, new conversations with that contact are now correctly displayed in Conversations view.

    Screen & Lock

    • When the screen is locked, the time displays in a new font.

    Sprint Navigation

    • A user can launch Sprint Navigation from an address in an open contact entry in Contacts.

    System

    • Users can now take advantage of the full storage capacity of the phone for downloading applications. This gives the user more control over how to allocate the phone’s storage space across applications, music, photos, and other media. Downloaded applications are now stored on the phone’s USB drive.
    • This update improves battery life in areas of poor wireless network coverage.
    • If the user is working in an application that supports landscape mode (such as Web or Videos), notifications now appear at the bottom of the landscape screen.
    • After a user signs in to an existing Palm profile, applications the user installed from App Catalog are restored in the background. The user can use other features of the phone while the apps are being restored.
    • Swiping to delete a list item that contains a link no longer causes the link to open in the web browser.

    Updates

    • After taking the 1.3.5 update, users can download future updates over a 2G (1xRTT 1x title bar icon, GPRS 1x title bar icon, EDGE1x title bar icon) data connection by opening Updates and tapping Download Now.

    Web

    • The web browser now supports the display of animated GIFs.
    • Audio files with a .3g2 extension play correctly as audio files, not video files.

    Security

    This release includes a security fix to the dev portal. Credit to Kris Siegal for reporting the issue

    AuthorCorey McLaughlin | CommentPost a Comment | Reference1 Reference |
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    Tuesday
    29Dec2009

    Google hosting Android event Jan. 5th

    DateTuesday, December 29, 2009 at 3:09PM

    Well, news is spreading like a wildfire over the net that Google has sent out invitations to a Android event on Jan 5th, 2010. The initial reports have the so called "Google Phone" only supporting T-Mobile USA wireless 3G bands, which is disappointing as I don't need another wireless carrier and would love to have this phone at least to try for a while. I for one am hoping Google releases a version that includes AT&T Wireless 3G bands, not only to not have to get a new carrier but to take a shot at AT&T as well. Seeing that AT&T is the only major US wireless carrier not carrying a Android based phone this could be a way to get around AT&T control over the devices it's customers has access too. Clearly AT&T Wireless and Apple relationship has blocked Android based phones from AT&T network so far. 

    AuthorCorey McLaughlin | CommentPost a Comment | Reference1 Reference |
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    Monday
    28Dec2009

    NexusOne a game changer?

    DateMonday, December 28, 2009 at 1:23PM

    I must first let you have I have a iPhone 3Gs 32GB, Palm Pre, and a Sprint HTC Hero. The weakness in the Android go to market strategy are very similar to others that have tried and failed in this market before. This is not to say I don't like Android phones, I really do and am hopeful for what the future holds for us. Let me start with a few area that concern me on Google's strategy thus far.

     

    1. Allowing OEM's to develop on top of the base Android build introduces challenges on getting the latest and greatest builds to the smartphone owners in a timely manner. I'm not arguing in the case of the HTC Hero, that HTC has added tremendous value to the platform. However, Microsoft should be used an example of how badly this model has failed. In market pitches we regularly use the total number of devices in the market. However only a very small percentage can actually use the new apps tat are built and designed to work with the latest released OS. Take Google Googles which does not run on my Sprint HTC Here yet. Both HTC and Sprint have publicly stated they hope to have the Hero upgraded to android 2.1 by mid-2010. By the time Google would probably have released 3.0 to the market. then were back in the same boat again waiting for the next update, and wondering if it will ever come? As companies have to look at the investment of making the required changes to work with the new OS, time to test these changes and decide is it true worth the time and capital in doing this?
    2. I believe from what I've read the NexusOne would allow us to stay up-to-date with OS upgrades. Allowing us as consumers to have full access to all the apps developed for the platform. This approach is very important to me and should be to all the companies developing smartphones these days. I can not stress how this one aspect would be one of my purchase criteria.
    3. Next Google either needs to partner with another company (Amazon) or develop an in-house full featured media sync'ing desktop/cloud  based application for management and sync'ing my digital content to my smartphone. I for one believe if Android and for that matter Palm's WebOS had this type of application to make the management and sync'ing of content easy for the everyday consumer that would win more long time costumers that any other feature they could add. As several people I know who came from the iPhone that has iTunes missed that ease of use and plan to return as soon as possible.  These devices are multimedia power houses and aren't being allowed to live up to there full potential. This item for me is what is keeping me from using either my HTC Hero or Palm Pre on a regular basis replacing my iPhone as my primary device.

    So for me I need to hear from Google what their plans on to address this major shortcoming in my opinion, but if they announced many of the items listed below I could switch full time to using a device like the NexusOne and I wouldn't have a problem paying the full price of the phone to get these things. No matter of the short comings I am very excited about the NexusOne and hope I can get my hands on one very soon.

     

     

     

    AuthorCorey McLaughlin | CommentPost a Comment |
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