NPR music podcast All Songs Considered just released a show about breaking up with your favorite bands. It got me thinking about favorite web apps or services that I've broken up with. So in the tradition of Internet era music, I'm going to directly rip NPR's idea and breakup categories.
In this post I tearfully discuss past relationships with MySpace, Last.fm and Soup.io. I finish with a love story that has a happier ending: Flickr. I'd love to hear your own tales of web app woe in the comments.
There's an interesting trend happening in mobile these days. Companies - major companies like Samsung, Motorola, Kyocera, RIM and Microsoft - are launching unfinished, unpolished products and then asking us, the consumers, to buy them based on their "potential." Despite the fact that the new BlackBerry tablet computer has no email client or wide selection of apps, or that Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 can't even multi-task, or that Android Honeycomb is only a few months old and, frankly, still a little buggy, we're expected to place our hard-earned dollars, and, in some cases, even sign multi-year mobile contracts for these gadgets, based on "what could be."
Not biting? Well, you're not alone.
Mobile carriers in the U.S. will soon have expanded Family Locator solutions in place that offer far more controls than simply tracking family members' whereabouts. Instead, these services will offer tools that allow parents to stop teens from texting while driving, stop "sexting" from occurring and stop kids from communicating with unwanted parties. Parents will also be able to read the content of text messages, preview mobile photos before being posted publicly on the Internet or sent to friends and will be able to specify what types of applications can be downloaded to kids' phones and when those apps can be used.
One of the enduring themes of technology is convergence, when different products evolve to do similar tasks. The smartphone is the prime example of convergence in this era, bringing together voice and data (web) applications. Plus, in recent times, high quality photography and video.
However, we've entered an age where we have multiple Internet-connected devices within our grasp. Many of these are specialist devices, such as the Kindle and Xbox. We'll see many more examples soon, as specialist household objects such as toasters and fridges get connected to the Internet. So, does that mean specialization will win out over convergence? That's what Kevin Kelly argues in his latest book What Technology Wants. But many technologists still believe in convergence.
After having analyzed over a million conversations taking place in social media channels, market research firm SocialNuggests says that consumers are currently more interested in talking about HTC devices than iPhones. According to the firm's March smartphone index, the iPhone 4 was ranked 10th, while the HTC Thunderbolt came in at number one. Two other HTC phones rounded out the top three.
While it's always interesting to parse the current social media chatter, does this report have any deeper implications other than being a reflection of the ephemeral and immediate nature of Twitter posts and Facebook updates?
First it was smartphones integrating cameras. Could we be about to see the inverse - cameras integrating smartphone technology? That's the concept being explored by Seattle design company Artefact. They've come up with an intriguing prototype for a camera that incorporates smartphone technology - a.k.a. a SmartCam. Artefact claims that innovation has stalled in the camera industry, that there hasn't been much new in camera devices over the past 10 years. They're aiming to shake up the camera industry and are already talking to camera companies (and others) about implementing their vision. I spoke to Artefact's founders to learn more.
This is the fifth post in our series looking at how the user experience (UX) of consuming - and producing - media is changing with the increasing popularity of devices other than the PC. So far we've looked at music on smartphones, news apps on the iPad, RSS Readers on smartphones and online radio in cars.
Over the past week I read Kevin Kelly's latest book, What Technology Wants. It's a highly ambitious and expansive book, which looks at technology from an evolutionary perspective. Over 350 pages, Kelly outlines and explores technology as a living system, akin to humanity's biological evolution. The title alludes to this - 'What Technology Wants,' as if technology is a living, breathing thing.
Kelly's book is a must read for technologists and anybody interested in the future of the Web. In this post I'll explore a few of the main themes of the book, in particular as they relate to the evolving Web. (there won't be any spoilers, for those of you in the middle of reading it or if you haven't yet read it!) Two of the main themes are how technology will evolve and how we - humanity - can guide it and make the best use of it.
Google is moving away from barcodes and towards NFC (near field communication) if a pair of stories about the search company are tied together. Yesterday, news broke out about Google's decision to officially end support for the use of QR codes, the 2D barcodes readable by camera-equipped mobile phones, in its business listings service Google Places. Today, non-profit industry association NFC Forum announced that Google has joined its ranks as a new member with voting privileges.
If you've been waiting to see momentum surrounding NFC, here it is.
Even if you're only casually following the developments in the tablet ecosystem, you've probably heard a little something about the HTC Flyer. It's the tablet that works with a pen. Not a stylus, mind you, but a pen. "A stylus is just a dead stick," HTC PR guy Keith Nowak told me during a briefing today. A stylus is used for navigation, he explained, but you don't need the pen to navigate the Flyer. In fact, you don't use it to navigate at all. You draw. You write. You scribble. Well, only if you want to, that is. The pen is an optional accessory.
The new pen has a pressure-sensitive tip and can be used with the tablet's built-in apps like Sketchbook and Notes, both of which offer the ability to draw directly on the tablet's screen using pen-based input. But the really exciting thing about the pen? The technology, which HTC calls Scribe, will be opened up to third-party development.
