Mereja

Author: Sarah Perez

  • Prepare for an iPad App Explosion: Developer Activity Up 185%

    Recent data from mobile analytics firm Flurry shows iPhone OS developer activity has increased by 185% since Apple announced their upcoming slate computing device known as the iPad earlier this year. By measuring new application starts within the Flurry community, the firm was able to determine significant increases in developer activity, including the largest spike ever in their recorded history during the month of January after the announcement occurred. The growth continued in February and now the company reports that a large proportion of the new applications they are seeing are custom version of existing applications tailored specifically for use on the iPad.

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    When Apple began taking pre-orders for the iPad on Friday, March 12th, the Apple.com website was updated with new information about the device. One of the most significant reveals was that iPad applications would soon have their own dedicated section within the iTunes App Store. The website text reads:

    Browse a section of the store that features apps designed specifically for iPad. You’ll find hundreds that make the most of its large display, responsive performance, and Multi-Touch interface.

    Although current iPhone applications will work on the new Apple device without modifications, developers who want to take advantage of the larger screen could use the updated iPhone SDK (software development kit) to modify their apps in order to release custom iPad-only versions. Now it appears that those who chose to do so will be rewarded for their efforts by having their apps made more visible via this new section of the iTunes Store. Considering that the number of  iPhone apps now in existence is somewhere near 140,000, being able to achieve this increased visibility will allow developers “the opportunity to establish an early presence on this new device and drive more downloads,” says Flurry.

    iPad_ProjectStartIncreases1.png

    Last week, we took a look at some of the iPad applications we’re looking forward to, including things like comic books, magazines and games, but there’s clearly a lot of others we haven’t even anticipated yet. We’re only days away from knowing what those will be: Apple’s iPad will be available for sale starting April 3rd, and along with its launch, the new iPad App Store will go live as well.

    Discuss


  • Battery Breakthrough Could Revolutionize Mobile Computing

    Researchers at Stanford University have just made a major breakthrough that may impact the technology industry for years to come: they’ve built a better battery. The project, an attempt to use lithium-sulfur in place of the lithium-ion technology that is used in batteries today, has been in development since 2007. Recently, the scientists’ efforts were rewarded when they created a battery that lasts four times as long as its lithium-ion counterparts while also having the benefit of being “significantly safer” than today’s batteries which occasionally explode after short-circuiting.

    Although still a ways off from commercial viability (and availability), the lithium-sulfur batteries promise advances like 80% more capacity, 10 times the power density and, theoretically, the ability to last four times as long as modern batteries.

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    The new battery technology represents the final step in our quest for always-on connectivity to the mobile web. We already have Wi-Fi hotspots, 3G and 4G networks for Internet everywhere and a host of mobile gadgets from netbooks to iPads and mobile phones to notebook computers. But what we haven’t had yet is a way to keep our gadgets powered up for more than a day or so without a charge. That may be soon about to change.

    An Always-On Mobile Web

    With these sorts of improvements, lithium-sulfur batteries could lead the way in the next phase of the mobile revolution. They could allow us to fully enjoy the web from anywhere in the world, without having to worry about dying batteries, access to power outlets or having to carry around battery replacements when planning long-lasting mobile computing sessions.

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    Far more than just a convenience, better battery technology would impact how our mobile devices are designed and how they behave. For example, Apple currently imposes numerous restrictions on members of their mobile device lineup for the sake of battery performance. On Apple iPhones, iPod Touches and the forthcoming iPad, applications aren’t permitted to run in the background and Adobe Flash technology has been banned altogether, supposedly for its CPU usage which rapidly drains battery juice. Other mobile smartphone makers, while not necessarily as restrictive as Apple, still have to weigh the benefits of providing these same types of features with the performance hit their gadgets will take if they do so. And as anyone who regularly fires up their smartphone web browser knows, too much Internet surfing during the day means a phone that dies out before nightfall.

    Another example of the technology’s potential impact: e-Readers. Today, if you want to pack your Kindle or Nook device to take with you on vacation, you still have to go through the thought process: how long will I be gone? Will my battery last? Should I pack the cord? Now imagine that you could just throw your e-Reader into your bag without a second thought, just as if you were packing the paperback novel or newspaper these sorts of gadgets aim to replace. Would that encourage more people to make the switch from the analog formats to digital?

    The Impacts of Better Batteries

    What if, in the future, concerns like these were no longer a worry? What if phones, netbooks, e-Readers and other mobile devices could be used for days on end without the need for a charge? That would radically impact the way we think about and use our mobile devices.

    There are a million other use cases that could benefit from this technology change, too, including sensor networks, computing from remote areas, faster news dissemination from areas impacted by disasters (either natural or man-made) where power outages have occurred, gadgets for hikers, campers and other explorers who spend weeks away from civilization and, therefore, away from electricity, mobile location-based services that run in the background on smartphones and other personal mobile gadgets and – OK, we’ll admit it – the ability to Twitter all day long without a recharge.

    For the nitty gritty technical details about this new battery technology, MIT’s Technology Review explains everything from the cathodes to the conductivity as well as the challenges still ahead for this breakthrough technology. Most notably, the scientists still need to figure out how to maintain capacity. After five discharge/recharge cycles, the batteries lost one-third of their initial storage capacity and after 40 to 50 cycles, they ceased to function altogether. However, if the researchers can overcome that final hurdle and a few others, the new technology could one day become commercially viable. It’s too soon to know if that will actually occur, but as gadget lovers ourselves, we’re hopeful.

    Discuss


  • How Did MySpace Become Number One on Android?

    When MySpace announced earlier this week that they had now established themselves as the number one social networking application on the Android platform and the number three download overall, needless to say, we were a bit shocked. After all, (with no offense to MySpace intended), there are more Facebook users than MySpace users in the world. It’s just a simple fact.

    So how did this happen? Is the MySpace Android app that much better than Facebook’s? Are Android users more interested in MySpace for some reason? Are they younger than other mobile users and therefore choosing MySpace over Facebook?

    As it turns out, the truth is that measuring the mobile downloads of official applications may not be mean anything when it comes to measuring the success of social networking sites.

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    After scratching our heads for a good ten minutes, we decided to reach out to a mobile expert for help. Peter Farago of mobile analytics firm Flurry had a few ideas, all of which seem more than plausible.

    Theory #1: Third-Party Apps

    On the Android platform, there are over ten third-party applications which allow social networking users access to Facebook outside of the Facebook official app or mobile website. This means that thousands upon thousands of Facebook users are downloading other Facebook applications which are not being counted towards the official app’s total.

    Meanwhile, there is only one third-party MySpace application, so most of the downloads from MySpace users are going to the official app.

    Theory #2: Facebook Pre-Installs

    The Facebook application is pre-installed on the Droid, the most popular Android handset. It’s highly likely that those pre-installed copies of the Facebook app are not being counted as downloads on the Android marketplace.

    In addition, the Facebook application is included on the Android 2.0 mobile platform, alongside other popular apps like Amazon and Pandora. So again, that’s another potential area where Facebook application downloads are not being counted.

    Theory #3: Mobile Web Use

    Another theory, (this one ours not Farago’s), is that some Facebook and MySpace users don’t access the sites via apps – they do so via the customized mobile websites. Facebook, for example, has two mobile alternatives to the official app – m.facebook.com and touch.facebook.com. For personal reasons, some Android owners may actually prefer accessing Facebook via these sites instead of by way of the app itself – an app which, unlike its iPhone counterpart, points to the mobile website when you interact with some of its functions, a regular complaint among Android users. In fact, many users actually consider the MySpace app to be the more polished of the two.

    Theory #4: All of the Above

    MySpace claims that its popularity on the Android is due to “deep integration with the Android platform” and, in their press release, the company mentions the multiple MySpace homescreen widgets for things like voice-enabled updates and photo uploads. The release also notes that the MySpace user base is highly engaged, with 70% of the mobile app users checking in three or more times per day.

    However, these are probably not the major reasons contributing to the app’s popularity on the charts, where it now ranks #3 overall. It’s more likely that the combination of factors described above have more to do with where MySpace stands today on Android. Mystery solved.

    Discuss


  • Google Wave Extensions Gallery Launches

    This morning, Google launched an “extensions” gallery for their real-time communications product, Google Wave. Within the new gallery, you’ll find the tools and add-ons that have been created by the developer community to add additional functionality to the Wave service. Among the extensions are those some Wave users have probably seen before – like the popular “yes/no” voting gadget, for example, which lets you create polls via Wave. However, there are others that you may not have seen yet – like the “iFrame Gadget” that lets you embed webpages into a Wave or the “Likey Gadget” that provides a “like” (and “dislike!”) button for showing support for a particular topic, similar to those found on Facebook or Google Buzz.

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    According to the Google blog post, developers interested in submitting their extensions for inclusion in this gallery can do so by first submitting them for approval here. Google has also released a new Google Wave robots API (v2) for developers to try.

    The complete list of extensions includes the following:

    • Wave Sudoku (play Sodoku with friends in a Wave)
    • Extension Installer (for developers only)
    • Colcrop (game)
    • Yellow highlighter (highlight text)
    • Napkin gadget (for doodles)
    • Waffle (date-picker)
    • Iframe gadget (embed webpages in a Wave)
    • Yes/No/Maybe gadget (for polls)
    • Map gadget (insert maps)
    • Video Chat Experience (chat in Waves)
    • Phone Conference (call your friends)
    • Mind Map gadget (collaborate on diagrams)
    • Likey gadget (like/dislike a topic)
    • Pollo gadget (for surveys)
    • Take-out gadget (for ordering out)
    • AccuWeather (weather forecasts)

    Will Extensions Bring You Back to Wave?

    With Google Wave soon becoming a member of the Google Apps family of products sometime this year, it’s good to see development work continue on this innovative, if somewhat confusing, real-time tool. Although members of the tech community have expressed mixed feelings about the product in its current state, what Google has presented is definitely a unique service and one that may still be useful in several niche scenarios, if not as the email replacement some hoped it would be. For example, small teams in the workplace needing to collaborate with one another may find Wave a better option than sending multiple emails back and forth.

    That being said, traffic to Google Wave has been declining sharply since November or December of 2009, depending which analytics service you use. Looking at the numbers, it’s clear that Wave has been abandoned by many of its earliest adopters – users who were once clamoring for invites in ways that haven’t been seen since Google first launched Gmail. (On that note, we actually have several spare invites sitting around – if you want one, comment and ask.)

    Will extensions actually bring those one-time Wavers back? Probably not – at least, not for longer than a quick look at most. On the flip side, however, Wave advocates feel that there’s great potential in this experimental project. Still, even most of those folks have to admit there’s a lot of work that needs to be done before Wave could attract a mainstream audience.

    So will Wave ever replace email? Perhaps not. But we wouldn’t be surprised if some of the innovations developed in the Wave playground ended up in our Gmail inboxes one day. And for that, we’ll keep one eye on Wave…even if we’re not entirely embracing it just yet.

    Discuss


  • Is the iPhone Still More Personal than Professional?

    According to recent data analysis from mobile analytics firm Localytics, iPhone application usage peaks in the evenings and on weekends and is much lower during the hours of a typical business day. From this, the firm concludes that the iPhone is still primarily a personal gadget as opposed to one that’s used for business purposes.

    But is app usage the true measure of the device’s success at making corporate inroads? Or does it just show that people don’t play with their iPhone apps while at work?

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    In the Localytics study, which mined U.S. and Canadian app usage data for a period of two months, iPhone applications peaked at 9 PM EST during the week and maintained peak usage throughout the weekends. Also on weekends, they found that iPhone users generate 7% more traffic than on weekdays. On Saturdays in particular, app usage traffic starts at a morning low around 6 AM and then hits over 90% of peak usage by 11 AM. On weekdays, however, app usage is more concentrated in the evenings, slowly ramping up during the workday to reach peak usage by 9 PM EST.

    Localytics-iPhone-hourly-chart.png

    Localytics: iPhone is Still More of a Personal Device

    In reviewing the results, Localytics believes that the iPhone “continues to be a personal device most heavily used outside of working hours.” While we’ll agree with their conclusion that these results offer developers insights which can impact their marketing, advertising and promotional strategies, we’re not so sure that app usage offers a direct correlation to how much iPhones are used in the workplace. After all, like the Blackberry devices before them, the iPhone’s primary work-related task may not be app-related at all – it’s probably email and phone calls. And neither of those items, obviously, were tracked in the Localytics study.

    iPhones in the Corporate World

    Ever since Apple licensed Microsoft’s ActiveSync technology for full Microsoft Exchange support back in spring 2008, the Apple smartphone has been slowly gaining ground in the corporate world. In April of last year, for example, Forrester Research presented case studies on three major corporations that had deployed thousands of devices to their customers. The three companies -  Kraft Foods Inc., Oracle Corp. and Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. – said that “the benefits of iPhone over other mobile devices include a happier, more productive workforce and lower support costs,” noted Forrester analyst Ted Schadler in the report.

    A later report, this one by Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore published in November, said that the iPhone “is making inroads into the Enterprise.” Specifically, he estimated that 2 million iPhones would be sold to big businesses by year-end for a total Enterprise market share of 7%, up from 2% in 2008. Whitmore attributed the surging popularity to a combination of four factors: user satisfaction, the onscreen virtual keyboard, enterprise-ready applications and sluggish competition in terms of developer support on other platforms.

    Conclusion? iPhones Live in Both Worlds

    Although it’s probable that iPhones are still used more as personal devices as Localytics suggests, it’s clear that business usage is trending upwards.

    In order to determine the iPhone’s true “business usage,” though, we would need to see recent numbers of iPhone deployments in the corporate world in addition to numbers that show how many people use the iPhone’s email application for business-related communication purposes. Combined, that data would paint a clearer picture of how little or how much the iPhone is used as a work-related tool. Application usage alone cannot show this.

    Discuss


  • Chatroulette Being Used for Marketing? Say It Ain’t So!

    That didn’t take long. Leave it to marketers to find a way to use any innovative new web service to promote their own ends. The latest example? A Chatroulette contest launched by international clothing brand French Connection. According to contest rules, participants are asked if they can “conquer the sinister world of Chatroulette” by charming a member of the opposite sex. (Initially, the contest was for men only, but due to protests, the rules were adjusted to permit women the opportunity to try and seduce men, too. Oh joy.)

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    According to the initial company blog post about the contest, “if you rise above the seas of failing men and charm a woman on Chatroulette,” the company promises to give you a voucher worth 250 pounds which you can spend at the company’s retail stores. The blog post then provides an example of what they mean by a “seduction attempt” by way of a screenshot of a Chatroulette chat session – and be warned, it’s not what we would consider safe for work. Instead, what French Connection is promoting is essentially a nod to the often perverse nature of the popular webcam-surfing site.

    Chatroulette for Marketing: Risky or Brilliant?

    Although the French Connection brand may pride themselves on their youthful, hip nature, it’s an arguably risky move to promote themselves via a service as odd, off-the-wall, and yes, occasionally very disturbing as Chatroulette. Like Casey Neistat recently explained in a charming video demo of this latest Internet craze, on any given day, Chatroulette is 71% male, 15% female and 14% pervert.

    In fact, it’s the possibility of running into something odd – or rather someone odd doing something odd- that makes Chatroulette so exciting for its users. Like the game of Russian Roulette from which its name is derived, most of the time nothing remarkable happens – you run into another bored voyeur looking back and you and maybe even have a casual conversation. But every now and then…bang!

    And it’s the bang that seems to appeal to French Connection. They want to send out their customers into the wild, wild west of Chatroulette to become the very sort of creepy perverts that make the site so darned intriguing. So now, dear Chatroulette users, you’ll have to wonder whether that freaky guy/gal hitting on you is doing so because they’re actually a weirdo or if they’re just trying to win a few bucks to spend at a clothing store.

    chatroulette_chats.png

    Thanks to French Connection’s bravery, they have the honor of being the first brand to attempt using Chatroulette for marketing purposes. However, if the contest goes well (i.e., it generates a lot of press), other marketers will likely soon follow suit.

    Is that a good thing? We’re not so sure. At least, it’s not good for us, the Chatroulette surfers. Marketers, though, may think it’s a downright brilliant move. And maybe it is – after all, who would have thought that anyone could have figured out how to promote a brand on a service like this? Still, we sort of wish the marketers would leave this one alone. Stick to Facebook and Twitter and the other straight-laced social sites of the Internet – leave Chatroulette and all its unrestricted debauchery alone.

    Discuss


  • Hulu on the iPad? Not as Easy as it Sounds

    In a recent interview, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar told technology reporter Om Malik that his company was “very bullish” on mobile, even going so far as to say “we will embrace every device.” That’s a funny statement, considering that the company has been touting that same sentiment for years but has yet to launch anything for mobile, be it an app or simply a mobile-ready streaming site.

    Now, with the launch of the iPad just around the corner, the rumors of an iPhone/iPad Hulu app are rising up again. But there’s a bigger mobile web than just the one accessible via Apple products, and that may be what Hulu has its eye on now. “We don’t think about one device only,” Kilar said.

    However, going mobile is going to be a challenge for Hulu. And it’s not as simple as re-encoding a few videos, no matter what you may have heard.

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    Problem A: Hulu’s Business Model Needs Work

    The fact that Hulu exists at all is somewhat of an amazement. Through tenuous connections with major studios, the collaborative, experimental effort to bring streaming TV to web (and make it profitable) has managed to attract a number of users in the U.S. Although the audience size varies widely depending on who’s counting, the company has managed to become a household name thanks to eye-catching commercials on NBC featuring actors from the network’s top shows.

    But there’s a problem facing Hulu: in-video advertising is, apparently, not as profitable as once hoped. In fact, it’s just too expensive, says Marc Ruxin, the Chief Innovation Officer for ad agency network McCann Worldgroup. Hulu has been aware of this problem, though, and has been hinting towards the launch of a subscription service, with News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch telling an investor conference last fall that the company, was looking at “adding subscription services and pay per view” options. Through the subscription model, Hulu could potentially generate enough revenue to keep the studios happy and maybe even encourage them to offer up more programming.

    Unfortunately, the subscription model has yet to launch and the profits from video ads have been far too lean for some Hulu participants. Recently, for example, Viacom pulled two of the top shows – The Daily Show and the Colbert Report – from the site, claiming that they simply weren’t earning enough money via the advertising model currently in place. Viacom Inc. Chief Executive Officer Philippe Dauman said that “on the current economic model for Hulu, there’s just not much in it for us to continue at this time.”

    And so the situation degrades.

    So what is Hulu doing now? It’s trying to attract more viewers to its site with the launch of “If I Can Dream,” an original series that premiered earlier this month. The fact that they’re now making the foray into this sort of online programming is somewhat worrying. After all, if hit video webisodes alone made for a profitable service, then YouTube would have achieved profitability ages ago, instead of (maybe) getting there this year, five years post-launch. Let’s face it, original programming is a bonus for Hulu users, but it’s not going to take the place of hot shows like the now-departed Comedy Central fare.

    Problem B: Will Apple Allow a Hulu App on the iPhone/iPad?

    Another problem? Hulu has been planning to delay its iPhone app launch until a subscription model was in place, according to earlier reports. But with the biggest names pulling out, subscriptions could be a harder sell. Still, even if Hulu was able to make subscriptions happen, there are no guarantees that Apple would ever allow them into the iTunes store, especially considering they’re offering a competing product. (See: Google Voice banishment from the iPhone, for example).

    Meanwhile, Hulu’s online site doesn’t work in the iPhone’s web browser because it was built in Flash. If Apple rejects the Hulu app from iTunes, the company’s other option is encoding all their site’s content in H.264 and make that available via HTML5, the new web language that offers streaming video sans plugin. Since this has already been done, a Hulu app could launch a player on the iPhone or iPad, if, of course, Apple allowed them to do so. If not, then a mobile site would have to be built in HTML5 – video controls, overall UI, advertisements and all. That’s no simple process.

    What’s Hulu Doing Now?

    So is this the plan Hulu has decided on now? It’s hard to know for sure. Like Apple, the company is incredibly secretive about their plans and product roadmap, often refusing to respond to calls and emails entirely, even to say “no comment.”

    And yet, the Hulu iPhone app exists. We’ve spoken to someone who’s seen it…but that was ages ago. For all we know, iPhone/iPad app plans have since been scrapped to work on a new solution that works around any potential Apple restrictions. But sources inside Hulu have clammed up lately, meaning they’re either building something top, top secret…or perhaps nothing at all.

    We hope it’s the former, because frankly, an iPad without Hulu is a sad, sad affair. But will we ever see a real app? At this point, we’re not holding our breath.

    Discuss


  • Does HTML5 Really Beat Flash? The Surprising Results of New Tests

    With the impending launch of the Apple iPad, the Cupertino-based company’s shunning of Adobe Flash technology has been brought to the forefront of technological discussions. While it was one thing to forgo Flash on a small, mobile device such as the iPhone or iPod Touch, some are questioning whether lack of Flash support is going to be a make-it-or-break it feature for the new slate devices arriving next month – devices which, if you believe Apple CEO Steve Jobs – are “better than netbooks.”

    On the flip side, Apple supporters echo the company’s sentiments that “Flash is a CPU hog” and including support for the technology in Apple’s mobile line-up would negatively impact battery life.

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    However, recent tests have put Flash up against HTML5, the new web markup language that eliminates the need for the Adobe plugin. The results of these tests show that this is not a simple black-and-white issue. Is Flash really a CPU hog? Yes, in some cases. But, surprisingly, not all the time. In fact, sometimes HTML5 actually performed worse.

    Testing Flash and HTML5

    Jan Ozer is an expert in video encoding technologies, has worked in digital video since 1990 and is the author of 13 books related to the subject. Recently, he put HTML5 up against Flash in a series of tests that pitted the two technologies against each other on both the Mac and PC and in different web browsers including Internet Explorer 8, Google Chrome, Apple Safari and Mozilla Firefox.

    The results of the tests in their entirety are published here on StreamingLearningCenter.com. The summary in a nutshell? Flash isn’t always a CPU hog, sometimes that honor goes to HTML5.

    Some of the highlights of Ozer’s findings are below, broken up into both Mac and Windows test results.

    Mac Tests

    • With Safari, HTML5 was the most efficient and consumed less CPU than Flash using only 12.39% CPU. With Flash 10.0, CPU utilization was at 37.41% and with Flash 10.1, it dropped to 32.07%
    • With Google Chrome, Flash and HTML5 were both equally inefficient (both are around 50%)
    • With Firefox, Flash was only slightly less efficient than in Safari, but better than in Chrome

    Windows Tests

    • Safari wouldn’t play HTML5 videos, so there was no way to test that. However, Flash 10.0 used 23.22% CPU but Flash 10.1 only used 7.43% CPU
    • Google Chrome was more efficient on Windows than Mac. Playback with Flash Player 10.0 was about 24% more efficient than HTML5, while Flash Player 10.1 was 58% more efficient than HTML5.
    • On Firefox, Flash 10.1 dropped CPU utilization to 6% from 22% in Flash 10.0
    • In IE8, Flash 10.0 used 22.41% CPU and Flash 10.1 used 14.62% CPU

    Hardware Acceleration Key to Flash Performance

    In analyzing the results of the tests, Ozer determined that the key to better Flash performance was dependent upon whether or not it could access hardware acceleration. This feature, launched in Flash 10.1, allows the plugin to use the graphics processing unit (GPU) on some computers to decode video. Depending on the video card and drivers, (NVIDIA, AMD/ATI and Intel offer products that support this), the video decoding process in Flash 10.1 can now work for all video playback, not just full-screen playback as was available in Flash 10.0.

    According to Adobe, hardware acceleration is not supported under either Linux or Mac OS X, the latter because Mac OS X does not expose access to the required APIs. Adobe goes on to say “The Flash Player team will continue to evaluate adding hardware acceleration to Linux and Mac OS X in future releases.”

    Here’s what this all means in layman’s terms: Apple isn’t allowing Flash to become more efficient on their Mac OS X/Safari platform (or their iPod/iPhone/iPad one, either) by not providing the access to the hardware it needs to reduce its CPU load. Adobe is waiting and watching to see if they do, but, as Ozer says “the ball is in Apple’s court.”

    Will Apple budge? At this point, it’s unlikely. In blocking Flash on Apple devices, the company can easily claim that it’s simply not an efficient technology…and that’s true for now, considering how it’s set up. But if the company wanted to allow it and make it work, it seems reasonable to believe that they could. This is what leads some insiders to believe that the decision to block Flash is less of a technological one and more of a business-minded one. After all, if you could easily visit Hulu.com to stream TV shows and movies, then why would you need to buy them from the iTunes Store?

    So while Flash’s “CPU hogging” may be a contributing factor in Apple’s decision to not support the technology on their mobile devices, that’s probably not the only reason behind the block.

    Thank you to Dan Rayburn, who pointed us to Jan Ozer’s article.

    Discuss


  • Miso: A Foursquare-Like App for Homebodies

    If your Foursquare check-ins could be limited to backyard outings and trips to the mailbox, you may be interested in a new mobile application called Miso. With this service, a startup from Bazaar Labs, also the makers of a social network called Flixup! for movie chatter, you can perform Foursquare-like “check-ins” when watching a particular TV show or movie. Homebodies, this app is for you.

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    With Miso, instead of checking in to locations outside of your home, like bars, restaurants and events as you do with popular mobile applications like Foursquare, Brightkite, Loopt and Gowalla, the Miso app takes the “check-in” model and uses it to connect people enjoying TV shows and movies. Although you could check-in when watching a movie at a local theater, the app is just as useful to those who tend to stay at home.

    Foursquare for the Boring?

    For those with the heyday of youth behind them, social outings to bars and restaurants and other “fun” events are slowly replaced with more boring trips to the grocery store, playgroup meetups and other errands unworthy of sharing with a mobile social network. In addition, tighter household budgets forced upon families by the down economy has many trading weekly evenings out for low-cost movie nights at home, cuddled up with the latest Netflix DVD – or even just good ol’ fashioned cable TV.

    Thanks to Miso, even homebodies like this can participate in the check-in craze. Although you can still share what you see at the theater, if desired, the beauty of this app is that you don’t need a social life to socialize via your mobile. Instead, you can just chat it up with other fans of home entertainment, where you discuss the latest episode of “Lost” or the newest HBO original movie, for example.

    Using Miso

    To use the app, you “check in” by sharing what you’re watching. And as with Foursquare, you can unlock badges the more use participate on the network. (At last – couch potatoes can have badges too!) These badges help you show off your interests to other Miso users so you can connect with similarly like-minded folks.

    According to news from MobileBeat, a new version of the app is set to go live this week during the South by Southwest conference. In the updated release, you’ll have the ability to add location along with your check-in – in case you ever make it out to the local cinemaplex after all. You can grab your copy of Miso from here (iTunes link).

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  • Springpad Takes on Evernote with Semantic Technology, Barcode Scanner

    Springpad, a rival to Evernote’s popular cross-platform note-taking service, has just bumped the competition up a notch with a new release that integrates semantic technology to automatically enhance the notes you save with relevant info. What this means is that if you save a movie, Springpad is smart enough to know it’s a movie and it will offer you showtimes. If you save a product, Springpad displays price comparisons and links to shopping sites. Save a recipe and you get menu suggestions. And the list goes on. In other words, Springpad doesn’t want to just be a note-taking app, it wants to be a fully realized digital assistant.

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    Evernote vs Springpad: the iPhone App

    While Evernote is, at this point, still the more robust product when it comes to supported platforms -the company offers Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android and Blackberry versions in addition to a platform-agnostic “web clipper” – Springpad is starting to catch up. Along with the numerous enhancements launching today, the company now offers their own “web clipper” browser bookmarklet (previously in beta) along with an iPhone application for mobile note-taking and reminders.

    Like Evernote’s iPhone app, Springpad’s app (iTunes link) lets you input text or snap a photo, but it also integrates a barcode scanner which takes advantage of the phone’s camera in order to record and save a specific product. In addition, the iPhone app lets you browse items by type in case there’s something you want to remember, but don’t have it right in front of you. This is ideal for adding things like restaurants or movies – the sort of things that come up in conversation (“You really should rent this movie – it’s great!”) but are later forgotten as we return to our busy lives.

    The Smart Web Clipper Knows What You’re Bookmarking

    Also new today is the web clipper. Now out of beta, this bookmarking tool lets you save anything you see on the Internet to your notes. This can be a product, a restaurant, a book, a movie, a recipe, a wine, a business or just a simple bookmark of a page which you can choose to annotate if desired.

    What’s different about this tool is the way it uses semantic technology to understand what it is that you’re saving and offer relevant links to other information when you view it again in Springpad. For example, after adding a recipe, you’ll be provided with “quick links” for actions like “add to shopping list,” “search for coupons,” “send to me” (an email option) and “print recipe.” You can also add your own notes or personal tags (e.g., “March dinner party”) if desired.

    The App Store: Do Something with your Notes

    Springpad users also have an included app store that helps you do things with the items you save. Although not listed among today’s updates, this is arguably one of the company’s standout features which should appeal both to new users or those switching from Evernote. Instead of just providing a searchable repository of notes and saved items, Springpad lets you add apps that help you actually do something with the items you collected. There’s a wine notebook for those who want to record wine reviews and selections, a weekly meal planner for recipe snippers, a movie tracker for film aficionados, a travel checklist for vacation planning and even a blog post planner for scribes like us. And there are dozens more, too. Additionally, later this year, Springpad will launch an API for developers who want to build their own apps for this directory.

    More of What’s New: Sharing Tools & a Smart Quick-Add Bar

    Other new features today include social sharing option which lets you post to Facebook and Twitter, a personalized email address for sending in thoughts, notes, itineraries and confirmation numbers, and a smart “quick-add bar.” This bar lets you type in anything into Springpad’s web interface to receive a list of suggestions from across a number of web services and the publicly shared notes from other Springpad users. If you find yourself always coming across suggestions from particular users, you may want to “friend” them on Springpad. The friending model used here is one that mimics Twitter’s involving one-way connections betweens followers and “followees.” This makes Springpad more social than Evernote without the pressures of having to accept or reject requests like on Facebook.

    As of now, Springpad has a lot to offer those interested in a web-based and mobile note-taking application. However, you may find Evernote to be a slightly more stable service. We ran into a couple of slowdowns when using Springpad’s website today. In addition, the suggestions displayed in the quick-add bar aren’t as speedy as your typical search engine’s autosuggest feature is. However, if you’re looking to do more with your notes than simply collect them, Springpad is shaping up to be a viable alternative to Evernote. It’s no longer a mere note-taking app – it’s more of a digital assistant…and who couldn’t use one of those?

    Discuss


  • Who Wants an iPad? The Young, the Social & the Pop-Culture Addicts

    Social media data company Rapleaf recently investigated the profiles of users who “fanned” the iPad on Facebook in order to get a better sense of the type of users who are interested in Apple’s upcoming slate device. After analyzing the top three Facebook pages and their respective fanbases, Rapleaf discovered that there were some common themes among these users. The prospective iPad buyers on Facebook are young – much younger than the overall Facebook population, in fact.

    They’re also fairly social, with nearly a third of the fans having over 300 friends. And finally, iPad fans are also very interested in other pop culture activities and themes including various celebs, brands and internet memes.

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    To make these determinations, Rapleaf looked at the top three iPad fan pages on Facebook. At the time of their study, these were: The iPad (#1) (69,293 fans), The iPad (#2) (23,637 fans) and The iPad (#3)  (5,009 fans).

    There weren’t any major variations in gender differences among the iPad fans. Although the second page skewed more female and the third page skewed more male, the overall numbers balanced out to a fairly even split.

    However, when Rapleaf delved into the ages of the fans, they discovered that iPad fans were a lot younger than your typical Facebook user. While 61% of the U.S. Facebook market is under 35, nearly 50% of the iPad fans were between 18 and 25. You can see the differences between the pages and Facebook in general (U.S. only) plotted on the chart here.

    facebook fans of ipad.png

    Apple iPad fans are also rather social, with 33% having over 300 friends on Facebook and 8% with more than 500 friends. Additionally, perhaps due to their age, a lot of the iPad fans were fans of other pop culture themes like favorite celebs, brands and memes. By analyzing the top 100 other fan pages of these users, Rapleaf discovered interests like Starbucks, Megan Fox, Coca-Cola, Michael Jackson, YouTube, Will Smith, Twilight, Lady Gaga, pizza, and other various Facebook “memes” like “Pants on the Ground,” random laughter, “I need a vacation” and “I really hate slow computers,” (the last being a problem the iPad hopes to solve, incidentally).

    iPad for the Young?

    What does this tell us about the market for Apple’s new device? Mainly that it has a lot of youth appeal, apparently. While some have predicted the iPad is the sort of computer that your “mom” will use – implying that the iPad is a sort of computer for non-computer users – it appears that “mom” isn’t actually a top demographic among the iPad’s Facebook fans. But then again, you can’t read too much into that finding – after all, “mom” (the older Facebook user) may not even know how to fan things on Facebook yet or she may simply not be interested in doing so. But the study does at least solidify that there is quite a bit of iPad interest out there among the youngest tech users, something that bodes well for the device’s adoption.

    Discuss


  • Titanium 1.0 Launches: Build Native Apps for Desktop, Mobile & iPad

    Today Appcelerator is launching version 1.0 of their Titanium app-building system which allows developers to build mobile and desktop applications using standard web technologies like HTML, JavaScript and CSS. In addition to supporting desktop platforms like PC, Mac, and Linux, the new version of Titanium now supports both iPhone and Android with RIM Blackberry and Apple iPad support just around the corner.

    Unlike other DIY toolkits that promise mobile apps without needing to know code, Titanium lets web developers leverage their existing skills to build native mobile applications that do anything any app built using that platform’s specific technologies could, like access the phone’s camera or stream video, for example.

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    What’s New

    Titanium’s code base has been improved over the past few months resulting in a number of upgrades to performance. Notes the company, “load times are under 3 seconds, down from 10-20 seconds, transitions between pages are instantaneous and processing speed has improved five-fold.” They’ve additionally added more features to offer over 100 native UI controls, native 2D/3D animation capabilities and data and media presentation capabilities. With these new improvements, developers can now build branded apps, casual games and augmented reality applications that run on any of the supported platforms.

    Why Titanium?

    When asked to explain what really made Titanium different than the other app-building services out there, the company’s VP of Marketing, Scott Schwarzhoff explained that many of its competitors were simply offering web apps disguised as native apps as opposed to offering the real deal. Every other offering is not even close, he says. “Native user interface (over *100* native APIs)? We’re the only provider. Push notifications? We’re it. Native maps? Same thing. Facebook Connect? We’re the only one. Application analytics? That’s us. Augmented reality? Ditto. The list goes on and on.”

    Since June of last year, the Titanium platform has attracted over 27,000 developers thanks to what the company has dubbed their “native advantage.” Described here on the company’s website, this includes support for things like native controls, location-based services, social sharing, HTML5, online or on-device databases, integrated analytics, rich multimedia and more.

    With the launch of the iPad only weeks away, Appcelerator is promising support for Apple’s new slate device by the third week of March. Blackberry support will follow in May/June. Titanium’s Community edition will be completely free while a pro version offers premium support, analytics and beta access to new versions.

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  • iPad Arrives April 3rd: 8 Apps We Can’t Wait to Try

    News from Cupertino, California this morning has Apple fans in a tizzy: the “magical and revolutionary” (yes, that’s really how Apple describes it) iPad now has a confirmed launch date. According to an Apple press release, the iPad will be available in the U.S. on Saturday, April 3rd in Wi-Fi only models and later that month in 3G. Also by month-end, all editions of the iPad will become available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the U.K. Pre-orders will start March 12th on www.apple.com.

    Although we know that many people are already confirmed buyers, there are a lot of fence-sitters out there still wondering why they need an iPad when they already have an iPhone (or iPod Touch, or netbook, or laptop, etc.). If that’s you, we’ve come up with a list of confirmed iPad apps that may convince you otherwise.

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    1) The New York Times

    No surprise here. The NY Times was actually one of the applications demonstrated during the iPad announcement in January. Their native application lets you save stories, watch video, zoom in and out on photos and virtually “flip” through the paper without dirtying up your fingers with newsprint. The news stories are updated whenever the device has an internet connection.

    2) The Wall St. Journal

    We haven’t seen it in action yet, but News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch has apparently been telling people that there’s an iPad under lock-and-key in the WSJ’s building. “We’ve been allowed to work on one,” he told members of the Real Estate Board of New York during a luncheon this past week. We imagine its features will be very much on par with those in the NY Times app, as described above.

    3) Need for Speed Shift (Game)

    The iPad represents a whole new gaming platform. It’s a handheld device like the iPhone, but one with a much larger screen. That means video games will look great – more like games you play on your TV via game consoles like the Xbox 360, PS3 or Wii. Electronic Arts is one of the first to develop for the iPad and their “Need for Speed Shift” racing game, also demoed during Apple’s announcement, has been redesigned from the iPhone version into one just for the iPad. They’ve scaled up the images to fit the larger screen and the results, from what we’ve seen so far, look great.

    4) Penguin Books

    Penguin CEO John Makinson spoke to a London audience this past week about his company’s plans to build iPad-ready books. Instead of releasing text-only publications, Penguin books will be more like apps including embedded video, audio and streaming. “The .ePub format, which is the standard for ebooks at the present, is designed to support traditional narrative text,” said Makinson, “but not this cool stuff that we’re now talking about. So for the time being at least we’ll be creating a lot of our content as applications, for sale on app stores and HTML, rather than in ebooks. The definition of the book itself is up for grabs.”

    5) Condé Nast Magazines: Wired, GQ, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Glamour

    Enjoy magazines but hate how they clutter up your house? That will never be a problem again thanks to the iPad. According to the NY Times, the large publishing firm has big plans for their periodicals. GQ will have a tablet version of its April issue ready. Vanity Fair and Wired will follow with their June issues, and The New Yorker and Glamour will have issues in the summer. Already, the company’s iPhone application for GQ that proves Condé Nast gets how to develop for new platforms. The GQ app is not a simple digitized magazine, but includes features that embrace the mobile web. For example, you can tap through on an ad to go to a company’s website or tap a song in a music review to download it.

    Wired, specifically, gave us all a look at their iPad app earlier this month and it’s incredible. Although they actually called it their “tablet” app – Wired isn’t limiting themselves to one platform – we know one of the first places we’ll see it is Apple’s new slate device.

    6) Your Student Newspaper

    In addition to the big names like the NY Times and WSJ, colleges will also begin to use the iPad for distributing their highly localized news. One college, Abilene Christian University, has already confirmed they’ve developed an app for their paper, “The Optimist.” “We want to be up and running and there when they’re ready for us,” said Professor Kenneth Pybus. You can bet they won’t be the last college to launch for iPad, either.

    7) Disney iPad Apps

    Walt Disney’s Robert Iger recently informed investors that Disney will develop all sorts of iPad applications that will range from games to digital books and who knows what else? “We find that the iPad has a lot of potential. We think it’s a really compelling device,” he said. Iger also predicts that the iPad will be “a game-changer in terms of enabling us to create essentially new forms of content.” We can’t wait to see what the creatives at Disney come up with.

    Also of note: Disney owns Marvel Comics and that has some speculating that comic book apps are on the list of soon-to-arrive Disney iPad apps.

    8) iPhone Apps, Transformed

    Although iPhone apps will work on the iPad without any updates required, developers who want to redesign their iPhone apps specifically for the iPad can do so.

    For an example of how great these will look when they do this, check out 1Password. Already available as an iPhone app, this app helps you create strong passwords for web services and accounts, remembers them for you and stores them right in your browser. Their iPad app, shown off on their blog here, shows just how attractive – oh, we’ll say it – just downright gorgeous – iPad apps will be.

    1password.jpg

    Discuss


  • 2 Services for DIY Mobile Social Networks

    Forget building your own iPhone app, you can now build your own mobile social network! Two companies – Shoutem and Socialight – are offering platforms that allow anyone to design, develop and launch their very own social networks for mobile devices. Although neither service will likely lead to the next creation of the next Twitter or Foursquare, the tools they offer are perfect for design a niche site for a select group of users. Whether it’s a closed network for you and your friends, a fan-based network for celebrating a favorite TV show, a one-time use network for a particular conference or event or even something designed for use within a particular company, these services have you covered.

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    We’ve already seen social network DIY services take off on the desktop, mainly due to Ning and their niche network building tools. That same concept can now be reproduced on the mobile platform thanks to Shoutem and Socialight.

    Shoutem: Niche Networks for Communities

    Having recently exited its beta testing phase, Shoutem’s globally available service lets users easily create private mobile social networks without needing programming and development skills. With their platform, anyone can control the access and the design of their network and launch it as a mobile application for the iPhone, Blackberry and soon, Android.

    Shoutem recommends using their product to build specialist niche sites for sports fans, clubs and events. Already, some companies have launched their own small networks using the service. NFL Shouts, for example, lets game fans communicate with each other during football season. Ranch and Rodeo, meanwhile, connects an international audience to a destination site where fans can interact.

    shoutem_example.png

    Socialight: Better for Brands, Businesses…and Mom?

    The other company to recently launch something in this space is Socialight. With their new Socialight Community Platform, anyone can create networks which are accessible via the web, a WAP site or an iPhone app. The company seems to have more of an enterprise focus than Shoutem, noting how their tools have helped “companies and brands” create their own apps. However, the tools Socialight provides can be used by anyone, even individuals…even your mom as explained in this video on Vimeo.

    Not Just Mobile, Location-Based

    What’s interesting about both launches is their focus on location-based services. In Socialight’s case, they offer tools for sharing geo-tagged photos and other location-based community content, all of which can be viewed on a map interface. From the mobile application, users can upload and share anything – whether that’s a photo, video or text – and have it posted to the network.

    Shoutem does much of the same thing with tools that enable file and photo uploads. They also target their app to local communities like colleges, cities, restaurants, bars and clubs.

    Why Niche Networks for Mobile?

    Considering that there are already several popular mobile social networks out there, including Brightkite, Loopt, Gowalla and Foursquare to name a few, you may wonder why people would need to join yet another. The answer to that question is two-fold. One difference is access. These niche networks can be closed communities for just a select group of people working on an invite-only system. The second difference between those publicly available services and the ones designed with these new toolkits is that they are laser-focused on a single purpose. You may not want to spam up your Twitter account where you promote your business to discuss things related to your local book club for example, but you could easily do so via a niche network.

    But perhaps an even better example involves how local businesses could use these tools in building apps for their customers. On Socialight’s homepage, they’re currently featuring “Socialight Concierge,” a toolkit for the hotel and tourism industry which lets companies create “curated concierge experiences” where “guests access location-based information about restaurants, shops, and places to visit, together with city tours and historical points of interest, all in a branded environment.” The richness of this mobile application goes far beyond anything we’ve seen with the simplified DIY mobile app building tools. These are no mere informational apps, they’re comprehensive networks where some content is managed by the business, but the real value comes from the customers socializing within the community.

    You can start building your own network today on Shoutem here or Socialight here.

    Discuss


  • The Future of Firefox Personas: Dynamically Changing and Filled with Ambient Info

    Firefox Personas, the designer skins that let web surfers dress up their browser, are now being rebranded “Personas Plus” and are being moved over to Mozilla’s add-on gallery to join the other plugins. With the move, Mozilla has also announced that development work on this popular personalization program is continuing with the addition of new features that will transform Personas from static background images to dynamically updating themes that could even include ambient information.

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    Personas, if you’re unaware, are special web browser skins designed for Firefox that let you style your browser with colorful backgrounds and imagery. Slightly different than Firefox themes, which typically change browser buttons and toolbars too, Personas just let you update the browser’s background without making dramatic changes to other Firefox features. Also, unlike themes, Personas don’t require a browser restart to apply.

    Until now, Firefox Personas have been a sort of cute, but somewhat unnecessary feature, and one that seems to appeal more to the “junior” set of web surfers. With Personas for things like Lady Gaga, Twilight, Avatar, musicians, popular TV shows and celebs, older web surfers may have felt a little out-of-place when visiting the Gallery’s homepage. However, the future of Personas may have have all Firefox users taking a second look.

    Future Plans for Personas

    On the development roadmap, Mozilla is considering a number of new ideas for these add-on skins, including dynamic Personas, window and/or tab-specific Personas, page specific Personas and self hosted Personas, among other things. There are definitely some intriguing ideas here, although, on the other hand, Personas that changed too often during web surfing could end up being more distracting than useful.

    One of the more interesting ideas under consideration is the addition of ambient information into a Persona. Years ago, we looked at an ambient news reader plugin for Firefox which displayed headlines from articles you would be interested in reading. These headlines, determined by an analysis of your web surfing habits, appeared in a beautifully fading list every time you opened a new tab in Firefox. That sort of low-impact information delivery mechanism is a perfect example of what it means to provide “ambient information.”

    So what sort of ambient information could be embedded into a Persona, we wonder? Could Personas provide statistics on tweets, Diggs and other social actions the way Feedly’s toolbar does? Or could they, too, offer up links to related web pages or news stories? What would you want to see?

    With Personas, the Focus is on the Browser, not the Web

    Another thing to consider is whether or not this planned development means Mozilla is charting a different course for Firefox than rival Google is with their new Chrome browser. Where Chrome makes the browser “go away” with an emphasis on the web and not the tabs, buttons or toolbars, Personas do just the opposite: they return the focus to the browser itself. This would contradict other plans Mozilla was supposedly considering for Firefox’s future not too long ago, most notably a design that would put tabs at the top of the browser just like in Chrome. Last summer, Mozilla requested user feedback about this potential revamp, but feedback was mixed.

    What do you think about the plans for Personas? Are they interesting enough that you would give them a try? Or do you like a more minimal look for your browser?

    Discuss


  • Boomers Slowly Joining the Mobile Web

    New statistics about baby boomers’ usage of the mobile web are here, and the news, sadly, is not surprising. This generation of users (ages 45 and older) has been slow to adopt mobile Internet technology. However, that’s not to say they aren’t getting on board with the mobile web revolution – they’re just taking a little more time to get here than the other demographic groups surveyed.

    Today, only 55% of boomers consider their mobile phone a necessity, a number which likely shocks younger generations whose attachment to their handheld device is so strong, they claim to “feel naked without it.”

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    Boomers: Slow to Adopt New Technology

    The delay with which baby boomers embrace new technologies isn’t limited to the mobile web – this is just the next item in a series of technology trends where boomers seem to lag behind. Outside of the pro-social media analyst group Forrester (whose reports we desperately want to believe), most studies show boomers have been slow to adopt new technology, be it social networks or smartphones.  

    Although as of summer 2009, older users were joining Facebook in record numbers, even outnumbering high school students on the site, it took a long time for them to get there. This group of technology users is definitely not filled with early adopters. Instead, boomers need to wait and see the benefits of a new technology before signing on, or so says eMarketer, the analyst firm who released this latest mobile web report. On Facebook, that benefit was likely the “network effect” – enough of their friends urged them to join at the same time as their younger family members were busy posting photos and videos of the boomers’ grandchildren, something boomers didn’t want to miss out on.

    Stats on Boomers and the Mobile Web

    As for the mobile web, although the technology in question is different, the desire (or lack thereof) to participate is the same. Until the boomers see a real need for the mobile web, smartphones and the accompanying mobile apps, they’ll get by just fine without it, thank you very much.

    A few key stats from eMarketer’s report:

    • 85% of baby boomers own a mobile phone, but the majority own feature phones (non-smartphones)
    • 55% consider their mobile phone a necessity
    • Boomers make up only 19.6% of touchscreen phone users
    • Boomers make up only 21.1% of smartscreen phone users
    • Younger boomers (ages 45-54) are more likely to own a smartphone or touchscreen phone than older boomers

    Things are Changing

    As Lisa E. Phillips, eMarketer senior analyst, kindly puts it, “boomers are underrepresented among smartphone users.” The good news is that’s starting to change. Slowly but surely, boomers are becoming more interested in smartphone devices. Phillips notes that their interest is influenced by the prevalence of smartphones in the marketplace combined with a down economy which is forcing boomers to forgo retirement. Because many smartphones have a business aspect to them, boomers are starting to see the appeal of these devices.

    However, the most important factor slowing their adoption is price. As carriers reduce prices for both phones and data plans, many more boomers will join their younger counterparts to become mobile web users themselves.

    Discuss


  • Google Chrome Gains as Firefox, IE Lose

    The growth of the Firefox web browser is one that’s been spurred on by word-of-mouth referrals, volunteerism and community-funded advertising campaigns to raise awareness. Over the years, the alternative web browser slowly chipped away at dominant Internet Explorer’s market share, despite its competitor’s advantage of coming bundled with the Windows operating system. By January of last year, Firefox topped 20% market share and by December, it reached 22%. But now, that growth has stalled. Actually, it has declined a slight 0.18 percentage points over the past month. Meanwhile, IE declined by 0.60 points.

    And what’s to blame for these drops?

    None other than Google Chrome, the speedy WebKit-based browser from the Internet search giant which will soon be the basis of a new netbook operating system by the same name.

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    Chrome Gains While Others Drop

    Between January and February, Google Chrome was the only browser to gain market share, reports Ars Technica, who gathered their data from Net Applications. By month-end, Chrome reached a 5.61% market share, a decent slice of the pie and more than other browsers like Apple’s Safari (4.45%) and Opera (2.35%), both of which have been around far longer.

    You could argue that Chrome’s growth has to do primarily with who makes it: Google, of course. Thanks to advertisements for the new browser right on the Google.com homepage, Google has a platform for getting word out to an audience of millions quickly. However, those ads have been gone for some time now and Chrome still climbs. Why is that?

    Interestingly enough, it’s not due to an advanced feature set. Chrome has been notorious for lacking even the most basic browser features, having initially launched without support for RSS feeds, extensions or a Mac version (all of which have been added now, RSS support via an optional extension, though). Yet despite these missing features, Chrome managed to capture 1% of the browser market within the first day of its release back in September 2008.

    Chrome is Fast, but Not the Fastest

    One factor that may make the browser so appealing is its speed. Based on the open source Webkit engine, which also powers Apple’s Safari browser, Chrome easily beats out Firefox and IE in a number of browser speed tests. However, speed can’t be only reason for its climb – independent browser Opera beat Chrome in several categories including browser boot-up and Javascript performance, for example. And with the latest Opera release, the company claims they’ve created “the world’s fastest browser for Windows.” And our own Frederic Lardinois confirmed this by doing speed tests.

    Chrome’s Rise Due to Extensions and Mac Version?

    So if it’s not speed alone, what else may be driving Chrome’s growth? Besides the release of a long-awaited Mac version in December, another factor could be the launch of extensions for Chrome. These add-on software applications put the Google browser more firmly on the same playing field as the others in the market. Many heavy web surfers rely on particular extensions, having grown comfortable with their favorites over the years. Some would even say they require them in order to work effectively on the web.

    Or Is It Bookmark Sync?

    In addition, Chrome recently released a handy “bookmark sync” feature last month. This lets Chrome users keep their favorite saved websites synced in between multiple computers just by associating a Chrome installation with their Google account.

    Still, no single Chrome feature can account entirely for its rapid growth. Opera is faster, Safari is speedy as well, all offer extensions and Safari supports Mac and PC, too. So perhaps what’s really appealing about Chrome is its simplicity. With a design that eschews search boxes and heavy toolbars in favor of one big combo search/address box, only four navigation/action buttons and just two menu buttons which are labeled with icons, not names, Chrome keeps the focus on the web, not the browser. And that may be its best selling point of all.

    Discuss


  • Netflix on the iPhone? Yes, Please!

    Recently, Netflix sent out a survey to select subscribers in order to determine interest in an iPhone application for streaming movies via mobile phones. According to the survey’s wording, the proposed app would be Wi-Fi only and would offer the same content that the Netflix “Watch Instantly” service provides. Currently, subscribers are able to stream movies and TV shows to their PCs and Macs as well as to game consoles like the Xbox 360 and certain set-top boxes like the Roku. However, plans for an iPhone application were far out on the company’s roadmap last anyone heard.

    This past September, for example, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings told Reuters that an iPhone application would “come over time, but nothing in the short term.” Now insiders are wondering if something has changed the company’s mind. And could that something be the iPad?

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    Netflix Asks Customers: How Do You Feel About the iPhone?

    A blog post on the Netflix news-tracking resource Hacking Netflix offers up the full text of the survey, which reads:

    Imagine that Netflix offers its subscribers the ability to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on their iPhone. The selection availability to instantly watch includes some new releases, lots of classics and TV episodes. There are no advertisements or trailers, and movies start in as little as 30 seconds. You can fast-forward, rewind, and pause or watch again. The movies & TV episodes you instantly watch are included in your Netflix membership for no additional fee.

    Whenever you want to instantly watch content on your iPhone, your iPhone must be connected to a Wi-Fi network (such as one you might have at home or at work, or in public places like coffee shops, book stores, hotels, airports, etc.)

    If this functionality were available, how likely would you or someone in your household be to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on your iPhone via a Wi-Fi network?"

    Although this is an unofficial source for the news, the official Netflix blog links to the Hacking Netflix site in their blog’s sidebar, which at least somewhat speaks to the legitimacy of the content posted there.

    If Netflix Supports iPhone, it Supports iPad Too

    So why is Netflix considering an iPhone application now? This renewed interest is intriguing, especially when it comes only six months after CEO Hastings told reporters that “we will get to mobile eventually, including the iPhone.” At the time, he stated the company’s interest was more focused on getting Netflix content onto video game consoles and TVs. With the new crop of Internet-connected television sets, there has been plenty to keep the company busy in that regard.

    A likely reason for the new direction may have to do with the impending launch of the Apple iPad. The thin, slate-like computer, sometimes described as “a big iPod Touch,” is predicted to do well according to numerous technology analysts. Already, major media publications are looking into iPad versions of their print and web content, with the hope that the device will help them tap into a new audience of content consumers. Perhaps Netflix wants to do the same.

    It’s worth noting that the iPad will run the same mobile operating system as Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch, so although the survey doesn’t specify this, an iPhone app could run on the iPad just as easily as it does on the iPhone.

    What’s Required to Make this Work

    The only question now is how will the company build it? The iPhone doesn’t support Adobe Flash, the technology that’s typically used on the web for streaming video. However, that’s no matter to Netflix. They opted to go with Microsoft’s Flash competitor, Silverlight, when they launched their web streaming “Watch Instantly” service for Mac and Linux users back in October 2008.

    An interesting side note about Silverlight? It already works on the iPhone. In fact, in November 2009, Microsoft User Experience Platform Manager Brian Goldfarb demonstrated Silverlight streaming on the iPhone during a live presentation at Microsoft’s Professional Developer Conference. Reports quoted him as saying that Microsoft “worked with Apple” to create this iPhone-ready server-side solution, much to the surprise of Apple-watchers everywhere. Goldfarb later clarified his statement, saying that he meant Microsoft did all the work on the technology, but he did add that they “made sure Apple was comfortable with it.”

    However, Silverlight is not yet enabled on the iPhone, so the true level of comfort Apple may or may not have is still undetermined. But then again, one never knows what Apple has in store for the future. Assuming Apple was to give the green light to Silverlight, Netflix wouldn’t have many code changes to make in order to transform their database of movies and TV shows into iPhone-ready content.

    Of course, without official acknowledgement from Netflix itself, their future plans for the iPhone are just speculation at this point. We’ve reached out to multiple company representatives but have yet to hear back by press time. If we receive word, we’ll update this post with details.

    Update: CEO Hastings did have this to say about the company’s plans for an iPhone/iPad app on January’s earnings call, which makes it sound like the company’s plans have not changed since September:

    “We haven’t yet done or submitted an iPhone application. We are optimistic that…it would be approved…Of course that application if it works on the iPhone, it would work on the iPad. It is not a huge priority for us because we are so focused on the larger screen. Until we get our TV ubiquity and our Blue-Ray ubiquity…we would next turn to the small screen…It is something we will get around to but it is not in the near-term.”


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  • Glow: Location-Based “Feelings” for iPhone

    Ever wonder how the people in your neighborhood are feeling? How about those that work downtown? Are people really happier on a Friday than a Monday? A new mobile application called Glow will tell you. Designed for the iPhone, this app lets you share your feelings using a simple star-based rating system that you manipulate using a swiping gesture. Once you’ve added your “feeling,” it’s displayed a map so you can see how those around you feel, too. The feelings on the map are represented by glowing colored orbs that range from blue (happy) to red (unhappy). In addition, an augmented reality street view lets you see those same feelings layered on top of real-world photos.

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    How to Glow

    When you first launch the app, five stars appear on the screen. Drag your finger across the stars to rate how you’re feeling at the moment. As you move from one star to five, the colors change from a darker red to a bright blue. Five stars represents you at your happiest while one star means you’re unhappy. Your feeling is then geo-located and tagged to a map. You can zoom in and out and around on the map to see how others in your area are feeling, too. If available, you can switch over to street view to see a sort of augmented reality view which superimposes feelings on top of the actual photos from that location.

    For now, the application is limited to the iPhone. And because it was only released a couple of weeks ago, it suffers from the same problem that plagues most newly-launched social media websites: not enough users. That’s unfortunate because the concept, though simple, is definitely intriguing.

    But Where’s the Sentiment Analysis?

    That said, we wish the app would do even more. A sentiment analysis engine, for example, could analyze tweets and/or public Facebook updates to depict the overall feelings in a particular locale without having to rely on manual updates from iPhone users. These sorts of “feeling” algorithms are already in use on a number of services, including real-time Twitter search engines Tweetfeel and Tweet Sentiments, social media search platform SocialMention, Waggener Edstrom’s trend-tracker Twendz and several others. While it’s nifty that Glow lets you add real-time feeling updates to a map, not including an optional social layer that extracts feelings from social sites and services is an unfortunate (and potentially dooming) omission for what is otherwise a fairly clever concept and implementation.

    However, despite its flaws, Glow is a great example of the new and unique types of applications that mobile phones and their location-awareness features make possible. We hope that future updates to the app will take this concept further and provide us with a true analysis of the feelings around us…even from those who don’t use Glow.

    If you’re interested in trying Glow on your iPhone, you can download the app here. (Note that if you try to locate the app via the iPhone’s search, you should use the company name “Heckacopter” as the keyword – there are just too many apps with “glow” in the title!)

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  • U.S. Department of Defense Goes Social…Yes, Really!

    military facebookOn Friday, the U.S. Department of Defense announced a new policy which allows all users of unclassified computers in the .mil domain access to popular social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube among others. This change in policy effectively reverses the previous ban on accessing these types of sites – a ban that had been in place for nearly three years. In embracing the new policy, the department also launched its own social media hub, a blog-like site complete with live Twitter feeds, Tweetmeme buttons and “share on Facebook” links.

    And in case you thought they weren’t serious, it’s also worth noting (as spotted by the New York Times) that news of this announcement broke on the Twitter feed of Price Floyd, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, and not via a traditional press release.

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    Reversing the Ban

    In May 2007, the Pentagon blocked access to 12 popular social media sites from .mil computers citing “bandwidth concerns,” reports the Navy Times. In August 2009, the Marine Corps banned the same sites, this time citing security issues. Other services also began blocking social media sites at the direction of various commanders in certain locations. Sometimes those bans even led to the shutdown of personal blogs.

    Unfortunately for military personnel, these blocking measures forced troops to use their own personal computers in order to communicate with friends and family via Facebook, Twitter and other social media services while stationed in the U.S. When deployed, they had to visit Internet cafes in order to gain access to these sites.

    New Policy States: No More Blacklist

    The new policy, announced Friday, seeks to balance the needs of troops to connect with their loved ones via social media while also maintaining an appropriate level of security. As the policy goes into effect, the DoD will require all military units to remove the social sites from their internal “blacklist.” According to the Times, Lindy Kyzer, an advisor to the Army’s Chief of Public Affairs on social media issues, said that all the units will be now be required to open access to social networking sites initially. Afterwards, if any commander does need to block sites for security purposes, those blocks can only be temporary. She continues, saying that the “DoD is moving away from the silly notion of having ‘blacklisted’ social media sites and saying, ‘We’re not going to lay down the hammer and tell you where you can and cannot go, we’re going to mitigate risk as it comes.”

    In the blog post on the DoD’s social media hub, service members are reminded that while the new policy opens up access to Facebook and the like, other sites like those containing gambling, pornography and hate-crime, are still banned. Also, personnel are advised that “everyone has a responsibility to protect themselves and their information online, and existing regulations on ethics, operational security, and privacy still apply.”

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    The Social Sites of the DoD

    Elsewhere on the DoD Social Media Hub, are links to other DoD social media sites including Twitter feeds for Price Floyd and the department itself, its Facebook page, Flickr account, YouTube account, uStream account and more. Blog posts on the site focus on how the department uses new media and one even points to a free iPhone app that combines Army technology news, social media and job postings in one location.

    Those interested in reading the new policy in its entirety can do so here. In addition, the Department of Defense has also launched a SlideShare channel where they’ve posted several presentations about the new policy.

    Update: Facebook just emailed us with the complete list of official DoD pages on their site:


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