Gazimoff's geekBlog

Centralise

February 18th, 2010

This week saw the announcements of one of the most talked about mobile software releases since Andriod. Windows Phone 7 Series, while sounding clunky, managed to score high acclaim from the various journalists and bloggers who where at the Mobile World Congress to see it. Reasons aren’t hard to find: the interface is the first one I’ve seen that makes the iPhone look dated.

Despite the new mobile OS being heralded as a return to form for Microsoft, the main features of WinPhone 7 aren’t the ones I’m most excited about. Instead, there’s a whole clutch of features that I think are going to be incredibly useful for anyone who uses their phone for social networking. The big one is the way that the phone integrates all your contacts from various networks into one place. While it’s great to see Facebook and Windows Live statuses sitting side by side, I’m hoping to see plugins for Twitter and maybe LinkedIn appear on here as well. I’m also hoping that it’ll play nice with Google’s Mail, Contacts and Calendar push services, although these will probably go through an Exchange-style interface.

The People hub: OS-level social network integration

The great thing for me here is that I can unlock the phone and see what’s going on – I don’t have to treat each service separately by going into it’s individual app. Since I started heavily using Twitter, I’ve almost abandoned Facebook and the huge number of contacts I have there. I’m hoping that centralised services like this will help to bring me back the other way and reconnect with my Facebook friends. More than this though, I’m hoping that it’ll allow for some great cross-pollination of ideas. Being able to forward posts from one service to another would be incredibly useful.

The other great thing for me is the integration of XBox Live. It finally means that the people I hook up with for videogaming don’t get treated as a separate entity but instead get pulled in to my other social networks. The inclusion of multiplayer gaming on the handset is great news as well – I think that turn based games such as Chess, Poker and even Civilization will work well on the platform. Although gaming has taken off in a big way on the iPhone, it still remains very much a single player affair. By introducing social gaming to the platform’s core, more multiplayer titles should start to emerge.

The Game hub: Finally, XBox Live integration

The way that WinPhone 7 draws social networks together and integrates them is a big plus. Microsoft aren’t the only people who have spotted this trend – Google recently launched their Buzz service in order to achieve much the same thing. The key difference though is in the level of integration – Microsoft are unifying the networks together, but not adding anything further on top of it. Google on the other hand are encapsulating all merged content with a Buzz wrapper, allowing comments and ratings to be added on almost anything regardless of where it came from. The key challenge for Google will be to mimic the level of integration into Android in a way that doesn’t upset an established userbase – not a straightforward challenge at all. There’s also a groundswell of opinion that goes against

I’m looking forward to getting some hands-on time with the Windows Phone when it comes out later this year. While it’s unlikely to be an iPhone killer, I think that having an alternative way of doing things and a different product in the market can only be a good thing. I think it will encourage more people to take the smartphone plunge, sitting alongside the iPhone and Android as a viable option. That said, the next smartphone battle isn’t going to be for users. With several directly competing platforms each competing for a developer’s attention, getting them on board and developing apps for one system in favour of another is going to be challenging.

Tags: Microsoft, windows phone 7 series
Posted in Videogame Visions, Web2.0 Topics | 1 Comment »

Disruption

February 10th, 2010

I think every PC gamer has experienced a particular brand of annoyance when they’re engaged in a long or intense session: quitting the game to find an open instant message, a missed skype call or reams of Twitter posts. At the moment solutions are fairly crude – I periodically alt-tab to check for new messages. Others use secondary devices such as smartphones or even laptops in order to keep track of their social network while gaming.

The problem is that as gaming takes on more co-operative multiplayer aspects, it becomes less a discrete or isolated activity and more a part of that player’s social network. Although the underlying technology is different, there’s not much difference between challenging a friend to a game of Scrabble on Facebook or inviting them to play a few rounds with you on Street Fighter 4 on a console.

Uncharted 2: one way Twitter flow.

When you move to MMO or virtual world gaming, a player might build up a list of tens or even hundreds of social contacts based on the various activities that player might take part in. A player might also have a social network on Facebook, Twitter or Bebo that’s completely isolated. Where games do connect with social networks, it’s all one-way.

There are ways around this problem: PC gamers can run their games in a window in order to track their various social networks. Console gamers have it slightly easier – the Xbox 360 for example has integration with Windows Live Messenger but it’s limited to that single service. It’s not an elegant solution, which is why many gamers turn to separate devices to monitor their social networks.

The interesting thing is that this kind of activity, where you’re displaying small snippets of personalised information to a user, has been around for a while in the smartphone and web industries. A widget engine, can create an environment for small applications to run, which can then interface with services running on the internet. All you would need is for the widget engine to be incorporated either into the console or the PC operating system. Developing and publishing widgets is then a fairly simple affair.

There are several challenges that immediately become apparent when trying to encourage widgets as a platform for displaying external information in-game.

Controlling the user experience: Developers are keen to refine and protect the look and feel of a game. System alerts are acceptable, but others are kept to the background. There’s no reason though why developers couldn’t extend the widget API in order to control look and feel, allowing widgets to blend in with the game interface. There are even imaginative ways this could be used, such as projecting messages onto in-game scenery before fading away, or adding Flickr photostream images as poster backdrops.
Gaining mindshare: Persuading developers to take this on might be challenging. There is evidence though from the PC gaming platform that gamers are willing to learn the skills needed to customise their own gaming experience. These customisations can be shared with others, and there are already established networks such as Curse.com available for users to upload, rate and share addons.
Allowing shutoff: Just like when you watch a film at the cinema, sometimes you want to switch off contact from the outside world. Features like whitelisting for important messages or contacts might also be an idea.
Being extensible: New networks and utilities come online all the time, and it’s important for any framework to be flexible enough to cope with new additions. Likewise, being able to control which networks you interface with is pretty crucial.

Games have already started publishing updates to social networks. If these changes come into play, our social networks can start updating our games as well.

Tags: Facebook, Twitter, uncharted 2, widget engine, xbox 360
Posted in Videogame Visions, Web2.0 Topics | 1 Comment »

Sporadic

February 4th, 2010

About a week ago I commented on how Microsoft would fare against the emerging Apple iPad. Microsoft’s mobile platform has declined in recent years, and while it still remains a solid workhorse for embedded applications it’s no longer the favourite amongst business executives. While Apple, Palm, Blackberry and Android are appealing to the data-heavy smartphone user, Windows Mobile seems to cling on in a variety of special niches such as portable ticketing systems and electronic point of sale.

Windows Media Center: Possibly the cleanest Microsoft UI

Microsoft hasn’t always been wedded to the idea of menus that either drop down or scroll up. Back in 2005 they released Windows Media Center, an application that ran on top of Windows XP. WMC was intended for use as a home entertainment hub, with an iTunes style music interface and video capture amongst it’s features. The original release never really caught on in the UK, with capability being replaced by either the Sky or Virgin Media set top boxes, or by videogame consoles like the XBox.

The interface itself was specifically designed for use on a large widescreen TV and would be controlled by a remote. Options were bright and bold, with information sliding into view. In terms of control, it worked as an opposite to regular version of Windows: slick, clean and uncluttered. It still exists today, available in both Windows Vista and as an improved and cleaner version in Windows 7.

Zune HD: Notice something familiar?

It’s clear that Microsoft have taken cues from Media Center and incorporated them into other products. The Zune HD, a portable media player only available in the US, has all the hallmarks of a device styled by the same team. Despite being the same size as an iPod Touch, the unique style and interface make it unique and desirable. Unfortunately the device is unlikely to hit European shores, as the content the supports many of the functions isn’t available outside of North America. That said, it does seem to indicate that Microsoft is willing to develop embedded operating systems that feel completely different to the standard Windows Mobile interface we’ve been used to.

With both these things in place, you can’t help but feel it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch for Microsoft to develop a superb touch-based tablet interface, either by expanding on the Zune HD or the Media Center technology they already have. There are even hints on the direction they’ll move in, with Seesmic Look being a strong example of what an MS tablet based app would feel like. Add to that the rumours that Microsoft will be announcing a Zune Phone later this month and it begins to feel like potential is building up.

My concern out of all of this is the sporadic nature with which development has happened. It’s taken five years to go from a large screen interface to a personal media player. Will it take the same time again to produce a high quality interface, leaving Apple to clean up in the tablet market? Will Microsoft surprise us with a restyled interface to sit inside the HP Slate? Will the stylus finally make it to the dustbin of history? Chanses are, 2010 will hold all the answers.

Tags: Apple, HP Slate, ipad, Microsoft, tablet, Windows Media Center, Zune
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Consolidate

January 28th, 2010

When I was at University, I used to wear a coat in almost all seasons. It wasn’t because I was studying in a cold climate or because I didn’t own a sports jacket, it was because I needed the pockets. You see, back then there wasn’t this idea of multifunction devices, so I tended to carry a bundle of them with me. My mobile phone, MP3 player, dictaphone, USB keys, GameBoy, PalmPilot and more all sat in this coat like some kind of plate armour, just in case I needed then. Some geeky girls that I knew had a similar problem;their handbag would open to reveal some kind of Borg nest, a huge knot of cables and small plastic boxes.

Nowadays life is somewhat simpler. I wear a jacket and carry around an iPhone and a Palm Pre, one in each pocket. My music, photos, games and internet all fit into a single device that pretty much encompasses my personal life, while the other one holds everything I need for my work. Technology is moving from devices that perform a single function to those that are multi-purpose – after all, why buy, carry and maintain several devices when one will do the job?

Yesterday Apple announced the iPad, their new tablet computer. Designed to fill the gap between a smartphone and a laptop computer, their goal was to create a new device with a small set of core strengths. These start off with web browsing and email, but head into directions such as e-books, movies and other forms of entertainment. There’s even a productivity suite in the form of iWork, providing the capability to show and edit presentations, spreadsheets and documents.

There’s also been a lot of early criticism of the device, much as there was with the launch of the original iPhone. It doesn’t handle voice calls, it doesn’t support Flash, it doesn’t have a camera and it doesn’t support multitasking. While some of those are fair, it’s worth cutting beyond the surface and looking at the strategy behind the device and how it’s likely to evolve.

The B&N Nook: Crowding the Kindle?

The easiest one is the comparison to e-book readers like the Amazon Kindle. The latest Kindle DX is priced at $489 and is arguably designed with a primary purpose of showing books. This means that if you want to carry around your book collection, the Kindle needs to be in your bag alongside your laptop and other gadgets. The iPad starts at just ten dollars more, and yet is in full colour. Amazon are already facing competition in the marketplace from a number of competing e-ink readers like the Nook from Barnes & Noble. There’s also a huge number that were announced at CES, all competing on just that single function. From a strategic point of view, it makes more sense to bundle books with other capabilities than it does to compete directly with an established device.

It’s not designed for use as a phone. The Kindle doesn’t support it, while it remains to be seen if the upcoming Android tablets will. Besides, anyone who remembers the Nokia N-gage will recall what it feels like to hold a generously proportioned device to your head. Yes, most of us have headsets these days, but it’s the feel of the thing. Besides, wouldn’t it be annoying if you’re in mid-flow typing out a blogpost or similar, when suddenly the application minimises just because someone’s calling you? There’s already talk of VOIP applications such as Skype making their way from the iPhone to the iPad, but I see this more as a mobile internet (like the Nokia Booklet 3G) than a mobile phone.

The lack of support for Adobe Flash may well be a problem to some. There are concerns that some Flash apps can be a resource hog (Zynga’s Farmville being a typical example of an app that grabs your browser and refuses to let go), while others may represent security risks (Twitter recently disabled some Flash widgets due to a security problem). Developers also now have a range of other creative elements such as Javascript, CSS and HTML5 in order to make websites more dynamic. Don’t forget, Apple also have their own video and audio codecs, and it’s possible that the iPad and iPhone will be used to drive support of these formats.

The inclusion of iWork for just under $10 doesn’t just offer a basic productivity suite, it also doubles up as a statement of intent to developers. By showing that the iPad can be used for business related tasks, developers are encouraged to consider what other work related apps would be suitable. The demo of Brushes at yesterday’s keynote really emphasised this direction of looking at how existing tasks could be redesigned to run on a tablet. I’m hoping for a lot of interesting software to come from this, from advanced blogging software to some creative design and project management tools. Pitched properly, this could become a strong collaborative tool and replace the netbook or laptop for small client meetings. Again, it makes strategic sense – Apple have obtained a chunk of consumer apps, but really want to stimulate growth in more business oriented directions.

Probably the biggest disappointment for mass media was the absence of an out-of-the-box newspaper or magazine subscription service to sit alongside iBooks. I’ve no doubt that it’ll happen – the New York Times demonstration shows as much – but I think they’ll have to work a touch harder to get a solution that works in an integrated way. There may well be demand for subscription based services, but publishing houses may well need to rally together in order to launch a service that consumers will buy in to. The presentation mechanism is mostly there – all that remains is delivery and pricing.

Looking on, what can we expect to see in the iPad’s future? I think that sooner or later some camera management capability will arrive, either in the form of a clip-on camera or by using Bluetooth to pair with a camera and support direct image capture and manipulation. I think we’ll also see advanced collaboration tools to allow owners to cluster together and share content through simple gestures. I also think that iBooks may even open up as a self-publishing mechanism, allowing authors to produce their own books, guides and manuals for sale on the platform.

The HP Slate: Fresh interface needed?

The big losers out of this are the other tablet manufacturers. Google’s Android OS may provide great access to all of their services, but there’s still a gap when it comes to managing and providing access to a large amount of entertainment. That said, by licensing Android out to manufacturers, Google effectively minimises their own risk. Devices like the JooJoo now feel dead in the water, while the HP Slate may struggle due to the Windows 7 interface. Just like with Windows mobile phones, we may see the Slate emerge with an overlay interface to make it easy to use. Netbooks will still survive – as Steve Jobs said they’re just smaller, cheaper laptops.

The other big loser out of this is Adobe’s Flash technology. After being the mainstay of interactive and elegant applications on the Internet for a number of years and providing t he technology behind services like YouTube, it finally seems that the end may be approaching. Google are working on their own streaming video technology that will perform natively in the browser, while tools such as AJAX are encroaching on another front. Security conscious surfers and those with adblocking software routinely block Flash objects. It may well be in a few years time that Flash starts to fade from our screens in the same way that Real Media has.

Tags: android, Apple, HP, ipad, iPhone, joojoo, slate
Posted in Random Rants | 8 Comments »

Maintenance

January 20th, 2010

iPhone: Complex kit

I’ve recently handled a number of queries from friends and family about problems with their iPhones. These issues can be as simple as the battery indicator not updating. They can also be as serious as the phone not waking out of standby to alert you of an incoming call, or refusing to charge or sync when docked. While some problems can be ignored, others can make the phone unusable.

The good news is that in all the cases I’ve seen, the iPhone has been easy to fix without any professional help or even opening the device.

Symptoms that I’ve seen include:

Refusing to charge, either when docked for syncing or plugged directly into the mains
Refusing to sync when docked
Not updating battery/signal strength
Apps not loading, or attempting to load then crashing
Not receiving incoming calls
Not receiving text messages, or the receipt being delayed

Notifications: They all add up

The reason for all these problems is usually straightforward. Almost all phones have two halves – a radio side which manages the network connection and a user interface side which controls how you interact with the phone. As smartphones become increasingly powerful, the software they run grows in complexity. They behave more like mini-computers than simple mobile phones, running a range of apps developed by third parties. They can accept incoming connections and push notifications. All of these require a slice of the phone’s limited resources to use

If a phone runs out of resources it might not be able to handle a request. This request might be an incoming call or message, a push notification, a charging signal or launching an app. You can try to free up resources by pausing the music player or closing some web pages. This isn’t always effective – you might be using an app that has a memory leak, meaning that resources are never freed up when the app is closed.

One advantage the iPhone 3GS has over the 3G and original iPhone is the internal memory available. The 3GS has 256MB of internal memory, compared to 128MB in the 3G and classic iPhone. As a result resource conflicts should in theory occur less often on the newer 3GS.

Power cycling: a hidden trick

The solution is probably what you’d expect if you were dealing with a regular computer – in most cases simply switching it off and on again will do the trick. There are two ways you can do this:

Hold down the power/lock button for about 5 seconds. A “slide to power off” button should appear. Switch the phone off, then switch it back on once it has finished shutting down
If the “slide to power off” button does not appear, hold down the power/lock button and the home button (the one with the square on it) together for about 10 seconds. The phone should shut down instantly. You can then use the power button to restart the phone normally.

There are also some steps that you can take in order to keep your phone running smoothly and should be part of your regular maintenance cycle.

Restart the phone to clear out any memory leaks. You should look to do this at least once a month.
Be ruthless about push notifications and deactivate the ones you don’t really need.
Regularly clean out the emails you have stored on your phone, archiving them offline if you need to.
Remove apps that you’re not using, or tried once but never re-used. You can keep them in iTunes in case you want to use them again.
Track your app usage – if you continue having problems, it might be down to an app you commonly use. Try to narrow it down from your usage patterns and feedback the app has received on iTunes and elsewhere
Try not to have too many web pages open – close down the ones you’re not using.

It’s worth pointing out that these aren’t faults with the iPhone. The issues it faces are the same as with any other complex computing device that runs third-party apps. Recognising it as such, instead of the more simplistic mobile phones we’ve grown up with, helps to shape how we keep the device running smoothly. Just like with a computer, persistent problems may be an indication of needing to restore the phone from a backup or even reformat it completely to factory defaults. You may have a hardware fault, in which case it’s well worth going back to either the store you bought it from or your local Apple store. Hopefully though, these tips above will help you in being able to eliminate most of the common problems.

Tags: Apple, iPhone
Posted in Web2.0 Topics | 4 Comments »

Balance

January 11th, 2010

Ever heard of the phrase “end-to-end”? It’s what service providers use when trying to test out new products that they’re looking to bring to market. They test out every step of the process, be it order fulfilment, streaming entertainment or real-time data services. Part of that process is about catching the weakpoints and improving them, but it’s also about ensuring that adequate customer support mechanisms are there in order to catch things when they go wrong. Your perfectly designed product may start to fall apart when unexpected system behaviour creeps in, especially if the interactions between systems are complex and non-trivial. It’s therefore surprising when a firm seems to have dropped on this.

It became inevitable that Google would release the Nexus One once the period of “dogfooding” was completed. I’ve heard it more eloquently put as “drinking one’s own champagne”, but the process is the same. It may have been that this was little more than a holiday gift to its employees, as there’s little time to test anything between it starting on 12th December and going on sale on 5th January, especially with Christmas in the middle.

On paper the Nexus One has all the makings of a great phone. An OLED touchscreen, noise cancelling microphone and full speech-to-text tick a fair few boxes, along with a 3D capable display and turn by turn navigation. There is the glaring omission of multitouch and the limitation of only 512MB being made available for app storage, but on the whole it’s a solid package. Where things start to come unstuck is in the overall “service wrap”, or how you’re looked after as a customer once you have it.

As Google is selling the phone directly to customers, the margin of responsibility has become blurred. Early indications are that Google, htc (the manufacturer) and T-Mobile aren’t clear on the structure of this relationship themselves, with customers being the ones losing out, both with reception issues and ordering/storefront problems. Unsurprisingly there’s been a bit of a backlash from this, with some consumers feeling bitter about forking out $530 for a device that costs $174 to make.

Google are learning the hard way just what it means to have your name on the hardware, and how having integrated support for that hardware is important.It’s for this reason, above the technical considerations, why going for an iPhone or Palm Pre may be a more sensible choice at present. The bleeding edge is exactly that, with various improvements required before that edge becomes dulled. That said, there’s no reason why this is a bad thing for Google, Apple, or the smartphone market in general.

The competition between Google, Apple, Palm and RIM is certainly a good thing for the smartphone marketplace, and for consumers in general. With it quality should go up, while the price of this advanced technology should go down. Firms like Motorola who plan to use Andriod for all their future devices may feel threatened by Google’s stance. This may provide Microsoft with an opportunity to move back into the game when it releases Windows Mobile 7 later this year.

A gap is also emerging between smartphones such as Apple, Palm and Andriod, and those made by other firms such as Nokia, Samsung and LG. While the low-tech and low end area of the market can be a legitimate place to target, it’s usually where handset margins are squeezed. Traditional phone manufacturers need to be wary about being squeezed into this space by newcomers dominating the smartphone end. Richard Scoble probably has the right idea when he says that there is more likely to be competition between the web-friendly smartphone sector and the boxed-in group in the middle of the market. These phones with Facebook and Twitter apps “built-in” are likely to be squeezed out of the market as smartphones move to the middle-range.

Tags: Apple, customer service, end-to-end, google, iPhone, motorola, nexus one, palm, pre
Posted in Web2.0 Topics | No Comments »

Aspire

December 23rd, 2009

As we reach the close of yet another year, it’s only natural for us to start looking at what the future will bring. Some of us are also incessantly nagged by family about what we would like for Christmas, or what we’re thinking of getting. It’s one of those strange blends of thought – what do we want, what do we hope for, what do we think will happen?

I’ve described below my 5 ideas for 2010. Some are almost certainties, while some are aspirational concepts that may never appear. Either way, I hope that they at least provide food for thought.

New Sky Player

I’ve mentioned this before, but I’d really like an easier way of buying and watching what Sky have to offer. I can’t have a dish due to stringent building controls and don’t really want Virgin Media due to the heavy push they have behind their telephone and broadband offerings, neither of which I want. Sky have recently put together packages for both the iPhone and XBox Live which sound tempting, but once I dug the surface a little deeper I discovered that it just wasn’t what I was after.

So what I’d like to do is give Sky sat £20 a month. This will then allow me to download TV shows from their platform, and keep them for say two weeks after I first watch them. If I download a show, it charges me a quid or so. If I buy a series, it charges me a batch price. If I watch one show, it might offer me a deal to pick up the rest. Operate it on a prepay basis, where I pay for things in advance, then spend money and chip away at the built up credit.

The key thing here is to offer everything – all the channels that Sky broadcast on general release. Not just the Sky branded channels, but other things as well. Build a recommendation engine around it – “If you like this show, why not try this other one”. Get to know what your customer watches on a much more intimate level and make unique targeted promotions around it. Also, let me take it anywhere – make it work with portable handsets. Expand your iPhone client so that it works with this, and so that if I’m halfway through watching something on one machine that it remembers where I am when it starts to play it elsewhere.

More integration

How many times have you seen a new service launch that seems to be an island, stuck in isolation from everything else? I’d really like to see service start to become more integrated and actively seek other tools that they could link to. I’d also like to see developers start asking for APIs and SDKs to be available as a matter of course, not as a special additional feature. As a mirror to that, I’d really like to see the online security problem solved by third parties wanting their authentication mechanism to become standard.

As these new services start springing up, I’d like to see more work going into cataloguing and organising them in order for developers to have a one-stop shop for information and advice. Places like Programmable Web have started to do this, but I’d like to see more focus on it as a meaningful endeavour. I’d also like to see groups recognised for producing useful APIs as much as the teams that go on to produce something innovative off the back of them.

Alternative Crowdsourcing

The phrases “There’s a book in everyone” or “Everyone has their fifteen minutes of fame” are almost commonplace. Less common but no less valid is “Everyone has an idea”. It seems these days that everyone has an idea or concept that they’re desperate to share, but have no clue how to see it evolve or get it to the right people. Some people rightly want to safeguard their idea and nurture it in order to see it to fruition, while others tend to throw ideas out into the open just to see what others think of them and if they’re viable.

Currently crowdsourcing efforts are generally limited to companies looking for a solution to a particular problem – large innovation websites post grand rewards for the individuals or teams that come up with solutions that meet the clients requirements. While this is quite valid, I’d also like to see a way that ideas can be proposed with no client in mind, just to expose them and gain feedback. If the idea gets picked up and becomes an innovation as a result then we all benefit from new technology becoming available.

Charity Innovation

There’s a feel these days that people meet up, share ideas and network with the goal of developing a service to offer. I can’t help but feel though that the various charitable institutions tend to miss out on the innovative ideas that people have to offer. Sometimes I think that while we might donate money to good causes, or hand down our unwanted clothing to charity shops, that the cycle doesn’t change.

But why do we have to donate money? Couldn’t we donate our time, our ideas or our ingenuity in being able to help charities with being able to do whatever it is that they do in a better way? If we could come up with ways for them to generate more funding, or for the funding that they receive to stretch further, surely that would be worth more than a few coins in their bucket as we pass by?

I’d love for charity-focused innovation events to start happening, and I reckon that there are some pretty smart people out there who would love to be able to help them just through doing what they normally do.

Taking the Tablet

I think that 2010 will be the year of the tablet, either from Google using a modified variant of Andriod, or by Apple and a hybrid OSX-iPhone OS. While netbooks have been the surprising runaway device for 2008/09, the smaller form factor of a portable device seems to have an allure of it’s own.

We’ve already seen a couple of shots fired in the form of the Fusion Garage Joojoo, but I don’t think that a pure Internet device is what the market is crying out for. Both Conde Nast and Time Inc are working on a universial standard for placing magazine content on a tablet form factor. Website managers are already starting to provide views of their content tailored for iPhone browsers. Publications like The Guardian and Huffington Post are releasing applications specifically designed to deliver their content to popular devices.

While I’m expecting a number of flat touch-screen devices to emerge next year, I think that the ones that survuve will be those that offer a unique or compelling experience beyond simple web browsing. Anything else will probably be discarded as an irrelevant gadget that fails to attract more than a core of early adopters.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Bundle

December 7th, 2009

I think I’ve fallen out of love with broadcasts.

There. I’ve said it. It’s painful to admit, I know, but it’s the honest truth. My 32 inch HD ready TV sits languishing in the corner of the lounge, gathering dust aside from the occasional visit to the XBox or DVD player. My radio hasn’t been switched on since… well.. come to think of it I don’t even know where it is. I haven’t had premium TV such as Sky or Virgin Media in two years, nor do I feel compelled to get one.

It’s the same story with newspapers. I used to religiously read one during my morning commute. I’d pick up a copy of the Times if I was after something to read on the way in to work, or the Evening standard if I wanted to catch up with news on the way back. I always used to focus on the same three sections: world news, business news and technology. The sports supplement would usually be discarded if there was no mention of Rugby or Formula 1, which was most occasions. Nowadays, I don’t even bother with reading the freebie Metro.

That’s not to say I don’t like the broadcast media industry. I think that there are some incredibly creative people there, who produce some very good quality work and understand their businesses and markets very well. I think that they work hard at what they do and deserve credit – and reward – for it. I’m in no way saying I want something for free – on the contrary, I want to spend money on it. I guess it’s the model of broadcasting itself that I’m no longer a fan of.

It’s tragic in it’s own way – technologies and mediums which once dominated my life now lie dormant, while others have taken their place. I get a collection of podcasts delivered to my iPhone every morning. I pull down the latest news articles, find out what people are chattering about on Twitter and check my email inbox for alerts. I don’t feel any less informed – in fact sometimes I feel that the amount of information I have is still too much – so why should I worry?

The trouble is, there are certain bits of mainstream media that I miss. Some of them are particular shows such as US crime drama, sci-fi series and so on. Some of it is the opinion and comment that I used to listen to, not so much for guidance on how to think but for the chance to examine their argument and try to counter it. I miss the opinion articles from newspapers for much the same reason. I think social media has largely made up for and replaced the 2nd item – the interactivity of it means that people can really engage with your opinions much more meaningfully than before.

So where does that leave me with the mainstream media? I mean, I still want bits of what they have to offer, it’s just that I’m not sure I agree with how they want to charge me for it. I guess it’s to do with the way it’s all packaged together – news is bundled together with comment, sport is bundled together with business, and X Factor is bundled with Top Gear. The stuff I want is lumped together with a large amount of stuff I don’t want, which makes me feel like I don’t get value for money. On top of that I’ve got to make sure I’m there to consume it when it’s being broadcast, otherwise I’m likely to miss out. Yes, I know that there’s iPlayer and Sky Plus, but one doesn’t contain all the content that’s broadcast and the other costs extra on top of a regular subscription (Plus my landlord won’t let me have a dish, but that’s another story).

So far this must have sounded like a full-on wingefest against mainstream media, but I do feel that they still have an important role to play. I’m not afraid of giving them my hard-earned cash as long as I’m getting the kind of service I’d like to have. If I’m taking out a contract with you, I have to feel that all the elements that make up the service you offer me are of value.

I should be clear, I don’t want to turn to torrents. They’re a hassle to set up, there’s risks attached unless you set them up very carefully and the results can be hugely variable. I’d rather have something else that worked for me, but had the breadth of content that I’d really go for. It’s also got to be reasonably priced – as an example iTunes wants £50 for the entire current season of House MD or £2.50 per episode, which makes little sense to me. I’d rather pay something much lower and get a “x number of watches” deal before buying it on Blu-ray later on. I’d also want to watch it on the device of my choosing – something like either my laptop, a DLNA/UPNP box if I splash out on one or similar. Instead of offering me variations on a bundle theme, offer me real pick-n-mix. Bundle in different ways – prepay more, get more show credits, that kind of thing.

I’m left with a question – am I asking too much from all of this, am I being unreasonable here? Is it strange of me to want mainstream media to change from being a broadcaster to a widecaster, helping me discover both popular and niche content in a variety of formats? Am I strange in wanting to pay them money to do this, and should just go for the freebies while I can? Is there another way of doing this, or a service already available that I don’t know about?

All I know is that I have cash in my pocket ready to splash out on the right kind of service. Of course, a market of one is probably no market at all…

Tags: broadcast, DLNA, media, UPNP, widecast
Posted in Web2.0 Topics | 2 Comments »

Trust

December 4th, 2009

I remember reading a tweet recently from someone about how the internet was evolving from standalone websites that function independently from each other, and towards a collection of service and content providers interlinked through shared APIs and XML. It’s already possible to see it in action in various locations across the web – the popular website Mashable contains a good amount of coverage on how new products are emerging that are powered by these new services.

One particular emerging service is open authentication. Groups such as the OpenID Foundation have emerged in order to promote a common set of standards for developers to use, while several decentralised OpenID providers have sprung up. In essence it all sounds like a good thing, with a site visitor benefiting by being able to use an existing username and password combination. The developer also wins by only having to use a set of freely available modules in order to support authentication instead of designing it themselves from scratch. Everything sounds perfect, right?

As you’ve probably guessed, there is a fly in the ointment. That fly is the relentless barrage of security nightmares that we face every time we switch our computer on and connect with the outside world. Everything from phishers to keyloggers are out there to try and find a chink in our virtual armour or our achilles heel. All of them lie in wait, hoping for a whiff of a password or a hint of a credit card number that they can then trade in underground markets. Don’t think that videogames are immune from this as well – indications are that credentials for World of Warcraft accounts can sell for up to twice as much as a set of credit card details.

Of course, the next step is to look at where your open authentication might be used. A collection of social networking sites might not be that big a deal – both Facebook and Twitter are setting themselves up as identity providers. At the moment, all that you’d be likely to lose is your reputation if someone managed to gain access to your Twitter account, particularly if you have a large number of followers. If it becomes possible to access your web-based email through the same service then suddenly all the other websites you use with a “forgotten your password?” function suddenly become vulnerable as well. This might expose things like names and addresses of friends and family members, which other online communities you visit and how you access them, and so on.

Paranoid yet? Potentially you should be, but that doesn’t mean that a solution can’t be implemented. Two-factor authentication has been kicking around for years, with reliance on something you know (a password) combined with something you have (a fingerprint, a retina scan or a key-ring with a digital display that changes every minute) in order to get around keyloggers and phishers sniffing your credentials out of the ether. Trouble is, fingerprint and retinal scanners are expensive, while it’s difficult to make a case for sending out tokens and dongles when a firm is effectively supplying a free service to customers.

There is another option. With the mobile phone becoming an increasing necessity in our lives, it’s becoming safer to assume that anyone using popular online services has one. As a result a number of free apps have emerged in order to support two-factor authentication, most notably from Blizzard Entertainment and Verisign. With these, the only cost is in developing the app itself before uploading it to the handset supplier app stores.

Twitter has also been moving towards OAuth as a way for granting applications access to a user’s account. The trouble with such techniques though is that they still fall back on the standard username and password, except that the user is logging in to Twitter directly instead of the website requesting access. It also grants access permanently until removed, meaning that the third party now has continual access to your details instead of the time required to support the transaction. For occasions where regular access is not required, the use of OAuth tokens is not suitable. That doesn’t mean that OAuth should be scrapped entirely – for apps that regularly need access to our individual identity data, a periodic refresh mechanism is fine. Sitting it alongside a solution that works for those one-off moments, or even to approve regular-access apps/OAuth tokens, would be a good move.

But why bother going to all this expense? At the end of the day, it’s about two things: the damage that someone misusing your credentials can cause, and the amount of time it’ll take to fix them again. Having to fix either of them is unappealing, yet whenever we use open authentication we run the risk of this happening. It’s crucial that this problem is addressed as part of the move towards identification services in order to maintain confidence in the social networking infrastructure as it moves to support them. Without it, all it takes is a couple of large scale compromising incidents for growth in the medium to stall.

As always, comments are welcome. If I’m wide of the mark or spot on, feel free to add your thoughts.

Tags: battle.net, Blizzard, Facebook, instant messaging, iPhone, oauth, openID, social network
Posted in Videogame Visions, Web2.0 Topics | 4 Comments »

Compact

December 2nd, 2009

The world of consumer electronics is in upheaval. Never before have we had so many battery powered gadgets and gizmos competing for our pocket and bag space. Yet with our constant thirst to own more of them and carry them with us wherever we go, this trend seems likely to continue unabated as we climb out of the recent economic downturn.

One interesting trend from all of this is how devices tend to pick up more than one function as a way of adding value and becoming a more appealing product to consumers. A typical example of this is the all-in-one printer, copier and scanner that’s now become popular with home offices across the country. Similar things have occurred elsewhere, with videogame consoles now acting as a DVD player and streaming media hub. In fact, any situation in which you have more than one device in the same location becomes ripe for consolidation. It’s why nowadays we see mobile phones with built in email, internet and music player capability.

Trouble is, what happens when new single-function devices spring onto the market? Gadgets such as Amazon’s Kindle, Peek’s Twitterpeek and even items as simple as the digital photo frame are all items that do what they do very well, but only perform that single function. As a result they have a small window of opportunity until the functions they provide are swallowed up by other devices. The Twitterpeek is already a niche product, with twitter capability already being available on most smartphones. The Kindle is strongly supported by the e-ink technology that it uses, but could well drift aside once portable displays become more advanced.

The only thing that stands in the way of convergence is user experience. If it’s much more compelling to use two separate devices instead of one that does both, it’s likely that the seperate devices will remain. After all, the Apple iPod remained hugely successful even after mobile phones started being able to play music, mainly due to the user experience and ecosystem being much better than that offered by competing multifunctional devices.

So, where’s all this leading to? It’s all about understanding this middle-ground that seems to sit somewhere between a smartphone and a small laptop. Currently a device such as the Apple iPhone, Palm Pre or HTC Hero will provide a solid level of access to most of the web. This includes dedicated apps for hooking into social networks and other web services such as Google Maps, train timetables and so on. What they don’t support is the full splendour of the web such as Flash, Silverlight and other embedded technologies. They are also limited by what is possible to render on the screen – although they can be used for reading books and newspapers it’s far more comfortable to use an e-ink display such as the Kindle’s.

Meanwhile, 10-inch and up mini-laptops are trying to take the challenge from the other direction. By basically miniaturising the laptop concept, the idea is that it remains as multi-purpose as the operating system can support. These devices, typically running Windows XP or some form of Linux, either rely on some form of mouse/touchpad control, or use a touchscreen and stylus. The difficulty is, as soon as the interface gets smaller than a certain point it becomes cumbersome to use. A great example of this is the existing Windows Mobile operating system – the reliance on a stylus to use most of the features makes it unattractive relative to newer touchscreen alternatives.

So what would be the point of a in-the-middle device? Something bigger than a smartphone, but not as big as a laptop? There’s the rich web idea – run a version of linux with a simplified touch interface and provide all the rich web content that’s out there, together with regular updates and wireless networking via 3G, WiFi and so on. Build enough battery power to keep it ticking over for a few days, set it up so that when docked or charging it’ll act as a digital photo frame. Perhaps bundle in some home automation capability, like being able to control streaming media devices such as an Apple TV or XBox 360. Hell, even something as simple as an electronic TV guide would add usefulness to it. The uses for it would be in a similar way to a cordless phone, but where data is needed. Reading in bed, listening to internet radio in the garage or watching iPlayer or Hulu on the can are all things that this would be used for – things that a smartphone just isn’t suitable for, but where a laptop is just sheer overkill.

Does such a thing exist? Viewsonic’s had a rather messy stab at it by producing a 7-inch Mobile Internet Device, but it’s running Windows XP. This idea of being wedded to a full-fledged OS is something that manufacturers need to move away from – multipurpose means being able to support the rich media web and apps tailored for the touch experience, not being able to run Minesweeper and Word. O2 have been looking at it from the other end of things, with the Joggler being a mains-powered device that runs a tailored touchscreen interface and is due to have a Software Development Kit and app store released by the end of the year.

It’s clear that as we come to the end of 2009 there is demand for a device of this size to fulfil these needs. What that device will be, what needs it will fulfil and who it will be supplied by still remain to be seen. What is clear is that there are a number of ways to tackle the problem, and only by really understanding what the device is for and tailoring the experience to match will a clear winner emerge.

Tags: Amazon kindle, MID, mini-laptop, peek tweetpeek, smartphone, UMPC
Posted in Random Rants | 2 Comments »