CEO Bans Email, Wins at PR
This smacks of a PR play, albeit a successful one.
CEO bans email, encourages social networking — Engadget
Even so, I wonder if the results of the experiment will ever see the same level of transparency. I’ve been among those who proclaim email dead, but over the years, email has become more pervasive, not less. I can’t help but think that complaints about too much email are not a function of the tool, but of the user. Hate the player, not the game.
Anyway, Jerry (@b3gl) made another key observation about this proclamation:
And don’t even get me started on the audit trail requirements and legal and statutory compliance.
This doesn’t mean that social (and other) channels are useless and can’t replace email. It just means they should work in concert with email, not against it.
Find the comments.
Developeronomics
Presented without comment, I give you The Rise of Developeronomics, please forgive the damn interstitial.
It’s six pages without a full-page version; the tl;dr version is invest in developers, ideally the 10x ones because this is the only investment that will hold value over the next few years.
An interesting read for sure. I have some quibbles, but there are certainly valid points like:
. . . software skills are the most portable high-end skills on the planet.
And this one on ecosystems:
The software talent is so valuable that you pretty much have to set up open ecosystems (based on APIs, access to valuable data resources like mapping data, and open source elements) so you can keep them hooked to your broader technology ecosystem even after they leave. An ex-Microsoft engineer is valuable anywhere in the economy if he voices support for buying Microsoft wherever he goes.
And in related news, apparently the half-life of a tech worker is 15 years.
Interested to hear thoughts about the concept of developeronomics, so I’m not sharing mine just yet in order to get unbiased feedback. Find the comments.
AppsLab News
2011 has been a year of change for the ‘Lab.
We welcomed a new member in May, Noel Portugal (@noelportugal), but then lost Rich (@rmanalan) to Atlassian in August and Anthony (@anthonyslai) to Taleo in September. Uncertainty played a role in each of their departures. For quite some time, the future of this team has been up in the air, and I’ve been scrambling to find the best fit for us, which has been challenging.
So, I’m pleased to announce that we’ve found a new home, not far from the old one, WebCenter Evangelism.
We’ll be led by Christian Finn (@cfinn), who introduced himself and the new team over on the official WebCenter blog. Christian came from Microsoft where he ran product management for SharePoint.
No other product at Oracle has a dedicated team of evangelists, which is a relatively new role in the software world, so this will be all new. The term evangelism doesn’t necessarily translate well into other languages or even other disciplines, so here’s what Christian is calling it:
Our mission is to raise the profile of Oracle in all of the markets/conversations in which WebCenter competes—social business, collaboration, portals, Internet sites, and customer/audience engagement.
For our part, the audience will be developers, which fits pretty well with what we’ve been doing here for the past (nearly) five years. We’ll be tinkering with the products that comprise the WebCenter brand, including Oracle Social Network and recently acquired Fatwire, as well as getting the word out on the intertubes and in person at conferences and such.
So, who else is on the team? In addition to Christian, Noel P. and me, Peter Reiser (@peterreiser) and Noël Jaffré (@noeljaffre) round out this small team.
Peter came to Oracle via the Sun acquisition, and his long-time experience with social at Sun makes him the perfect guy to talk about a successful social enterprise. Noël J. came to Oracle via the Fatwire acquisition, and he’s been doing web forever, building e-commerce and web content management software since the mid-90s.
You may be wondering what happens to the AppsLab. Well, nothing really. I’ll keep musing here, ideally with some periodic help from the other guys. That’s really no change. The content may change slightly to include more about WebCenter and what we’re doing as a team, conferences we’re attending, etc. Given our focus on developers, you could call AppsLab the technical arm of WebCenter Evangelism.
At some point, we hope to spin up a new home for WebCenter Evangelism that will link to here and vice versa, but that’s TBD for now.
I spent last week hanging out with the new team in Colorado and at HQ, and they’re a great bunch of guys, much like the old AppsLab. I’m stoked to work with such an experienced team on something brand new. It’s a bit scary, but exciting, like your first time on a roller coaster.
I’m realizing this is the second consecutive new job I’ve taken that is brand-new to Oracle. I’m not sure that’s a good thing, but it does make my work life interesting.
Welcome to Christian, Peter and Noël J. I need to send out some stickers and change the About page soon; it’s just lazy at this point.
As always, your input is appreciated. If you know conferences we should attend, places online we should be, ideas on how to reach out to potential WebCenter developers, really anything useful, let us know in comments.
Three Small and Useful Development Tools for a Monday
Last week, I came across a few development tools that I wanted to share.
The first is Mobilizer, recommended to me by a new friend, Noël Jaffré (@noeljaffre) from the Fatwire acquisition. Mobilizer is an Adobe AIR app that lets you preview mobile content from your desktop. Currently, it can render the iPhone 4, HTC EVO, Palm Pre and BlackBerry Storm. So, it offers a representative version for iOS, Android, webOS and BBOS.
There’s also a disabled “Create new” option, teasing future functionality perhaps. Obviously missing is WP 7, but given that the Palm Pre is an option, I’m guessing there will be updates soon.
Anyway, Mobilizer offers a quick way to check out what different mobile web sites and apps look like without launching the cumbersome simulators from each mobile SDK. Of course, Mobilizer only works for mobile web, not for native apps.
Next is the User-Agent Switcher Chrome extension. I accidentally discovered that Safari 5 has just such a feature built into its developer tools, but since Chrome is my main browser, I went looking for an extension.
This extension uses Chrome’s Experimental Extension APIs to modify the HTTP headers to fool the destination site into thinking you’re using a different browser. While user-agent detection isn’t necessarily the preferred way to do web development anymore, given the rise of mobile browsers, there are still a ton of places out there that will behave differently based on the user-agent reported.
Plus, from a development perspective, this extension allows you a quick and easy way to see what your users see if they’re not using your browser. OK, it’s for seeing the world through Internet Explorer. There, I said it.
Of course, user-agents change quickly, so the extension’s list of browsers is already somewhat out of date.
Finally, I give you the “What’s the font?” Chrome extension, an essential tool if you care about typography. This extension adds an option to the right/ctrl click menu. Select some text, right/ctrl click, pick What’s the font? and you’ll get a pop-up with that information.
I’ve found this to be a very useful tool, but then again, I’m a borderline font nerd. It’s useful if you find a font either pleasing or annoying; simply knowing what font it was adds some mental meta to that font for future reference, not a bad thing.
Enjoy these tools and feel free to add any of your favorite (and similar) development tools in comments.
This USB Stick is a Dual-Core Computer
Check out Cotton Candy:
Cotton Candy: FXI technologies’ USB stick-size portable computer prototype with a dual-core 1.2-GHz Samsung Exynos ARM CPU. That’s the same processor in a Samsung Galaxy S II, by the way. Also, it has 802.11n Wi-Fi capability, Bluetooth, HDMI-out and a microSD memory slot.
This USB Stick is a Dual-Core Computer | Geekosystem
Wow. Imagine the uses for this type of super portable computing, support and ops would love this. Of course, there are also pitfalls. Physical security types will know how easy it is to infiltrate a network by leaving a random USB stick in the parking lot. We humans are a curious bunch, and people can’t help themselves when presented with a USB stick.
Computer disks and USB sticks were dropped in parking lots of government buildings and private contractors, and 60% of the people who picked them up plugged the devices into office computers. And if the drive or CD had an official logo on it, 90% were installed.
Imagine if that stick had a fully-functional OS on it.
Anyway, very cool stuff.
Interesting Take on the New Google App for iPad
Google dropped a new version of its search app for iPad recently, and TNW has an interesting take, i.e. this new app is a Chrome OS Trojan Horse.
I rarely use the Google Search iPad app, although past versions have showcased some very cool design patterns for iPad development. Not exactly sure why, but it just wasn’t top of mind.
This is exactly why the new version added in-app access to ton of Google’s other services (Gmail, Calendar, Docs, News, Google+, Reader, Photos, Maps, YouTube, Translate, Voice, Offers, Finance, Books and Blogger) in addition to search all within a native app.
And the app is slick. It uses animation thoughtfully and combines web views with just enough native controls to avoid feeling like just a wrapper for Safari. Including G+ is a nice to have for iPad too, given that there is no iPad-friendly version of G+ yet.
Plus, they call it Google now, dropping the Search, so that tells you a lot.
Love the intrigue. Your thoughts belong in the comments.
Twine Advances the Internet of Things
I do love the internet of things, and Twine looks like a simple way to add connectivity to everyday objects without too much fuss.
‘Twine’ Foreshadows A Future Where All Objects Talk To The Internet | TechCrunch
Twine reminds me of stripped down Sun SPOTs. Anyway, they’re on Kickstarter now, raising money to make these rubber squares in bulk.
And once every object in your home has internet connectivity, you’ll soon be able to use Siri to command them all. Check out this sweet car hack for Siri if you want proof of concept.
Update: Still wading through news, looks like SiriProxy can enable lots of cool hacks. Check this recap.
The future’s so bright, your shades will feature a heads up display that shows you Facebook and a proximity sensor to prevent you from walking into anything, like a fountain.
Sweet.
We Have a Google+ Page
Now that Google+ pages are open to anyone, I had to create one for us. Find it here.
This blog and my Google Reader shares are the center of my universe, and I use dlvr.it to push content to Twitter (@theappslab) and our Facebook page. The only reason I do this is because unlike years ago, people don’t visit blogs to comment. They discuss stuff on Twitter, Facebook and now G+.
So far, I’ve only dipped my toe into G+, mostly because there’s no way to push content I publish here automatically. It’s actually a bit odd to me that G+ launched with no feed import and no publishing API.
I have found some pretty good conversations on G+ so far, and it looks to be settling into a place between Twitter, where people mostly retweet posts but don’t discuss, and Facebook, where nothing happens. I still think conversation should happen here, but I like to be flexible.
Anyway, I’ll try to include G+ now, so if that’s your choice, enjoy. G+ is the one ring now for Google, given that they just sunset Google Friend Connect. Remember that? So, I’m getting with the new program.
In semi-related news, Google Reader Shares continue to work, even though the feature has been removed from the web app. I have older versions of Reeder on both OS X and iOS from which I’ve been sharing items, even after the redesign. Unfortunately, I think I may lose the thousands of shares I’ve amassed over the years when Google finally shuts off shares. This will be a huge bummer, since I’ve been using shares as a bookmarking tool for years. I hope they provide an export; ahem Louis Gray (@louisgray) are you listening?
Anyway, it’s extra work for me to include G+, but hey, you’re worth it.
Find the comments.
Focus Your Time
I’ve been missing for a while, spending some quality time away from this space, but now, I’m back and better than ever. Or something.
Anyway, a few weeks ago, this post about how Jack Dorsey spends eight hours every day working at both Twitter and Square revealed something interesting that everyone can use. Not the 16 hour day, which is impressive, but not for everyone, but the topical segmentation of his schedule. From the post:
Rather than spreading himself thinly across all aspects of both businesses, he zones in on one key area of corporate development, pushing everything else out of sight and, well, out of mind. Here’s what his weekly calendar looks like:
Monday: Management meetings and “running the company” work
Tuesday: Product development
Wednesday: Marketing, communications and growth
Thursday: Developers and partnerships
Friday: The company and its culture
This works in others disciplines too apparently, if you believe this Lifehacker post about elite-level violinists.
This is probably a lesson I need to learn, given that working from home tends to blur the lines and time spent exclusively on one or the other activity.
Anyway, food for thought. More to come as I wade through thousands of unread posts.
Change and Inattentional Blindness, I Love This Stuff
I don’t recall how I discovered You Are Not So Smart, but it’s definitely worth reading.
Today’s posts were about inattentional blindness and change blindness. I’m tempted to include the visual material here, but then you wouldn’t click through and the link love might be lost and my admiration of the blog would be useless.
Click though and take the challenges, especially if you think you’ll pass with flying colors. I’ll wait.
Tougher than you thought right, or did you ace them?
I like to be challenged, and I also have an affinity for psychology. Aside from personal growth, understand how the mind works leads to building better products. If nothing else, it helps create empathy, a critical design value.
Find the comments.
Musings on IT, Side Projects and Users
When a side project takes on a life of its own, you feel both intensely gratified and frightened all at once.
This has been my experience with all the side projects I’ve been involved with anyway. On the one hand, the reason you build product at all is to solve a problem users have, ideally in an enjoyable way.
On the other hand, you’re faced with support concerns. Before you know it, your users come to depend on your product, and when it’s not working, they want answers.
Connect, OraTweet and the iOS People app have all gone this route.
Most of the time, they run untouched. People happily get work done, and you pat yourself on the back for building something people actually want to use. Every once in a while, something breaks and people freak, and even if it’s not something you can control, it’s your fault. Because to the end user, your stuff isn’t working.
This happened to Connect and OraTweet recently. They went down due to some database issues, and due to time zone constraints, they stayed down for about 12 hours. Noel (@noelportugal) and I were off grid at the time, but over in APAC and EMEA, people were frustrated because they couldn’t do work.
When we realized the problem, we had to track down the right people in the datacenter to fix it because even side projects need IT sometimes.
The People app hit something similar last week. IT made a change that broke it, but because the app is Clayton’s (@cdonley) side project, no one thought to notify him.
All these projects have spread well beyond the small group who realize they aren’t fully supported by IT, so users were understandably frustrated because they couldn’t get answers from the usual IT channels. IT was also frustrated since they couldn’t find the right contacts.
This is a classic startup problem, but it’s a different breed when you’re spinning up projects within a company that has standard IT practices. Users expect the support they’ve come to expect from IT, but they also want useful products, which sometimes don’t come from IT. Not judging, just saying.
There’s a reason. IT is designed to support users, not for users. I’ll explain.
In the mid-90s, I did PC, server and printer support for a few hundred people, mostly in person, but sometimes over the phone. When something broke, I fixed it. I managed my own queue of requests, which essentially means I tried to help everyone as quickly as possible. Niceness was appreciated, bribes were accepted, hierarchy took precedence, etc.
Other people in other offices did the same, and we were loosely affiliated but not officially a team. At some point, someone realized this model didn’t scale very well, and that IT needed to be fully centralized and automated to do its job best. So, we started carrying pagers, logging tickets, automating the request queue, accounting for time, etc.
Users hated it. If someone stopped me in the halls with a problem, I has to have them file a ticket with the helpdesk first, which would route to me or to another person locally. This was highly inefficient compared to the old model, especially for quick fixes, but it helped the larger IT organization track its resources and costs and provide faster, more efficient support.
Users eventually got used to the system, and they got better at self-service support. IT controlled its costs and improved its support metrics.
Win-win, right?
Maybe, maybe not, but my point is about what IT’s purpose is, i.e. support.
Let’s use home support as an example. Many of you support your family and possibly friends. When they ask for recommendations, you suggest what you know, and admit it, you factor in how difficult it might be to support. I know I do.
So, your recommendations aren’t always based on what the user wants, but rather what you can support.
Therefore, IT is not for users; it’s for supporting them.
This sometimes creates a gap between what the user wants and what IT provides, a gap that has allowed social and mobile to flood into enterprises like a tidal wave.
To be clear, I’m not arguing for or against IT. I’m just musing on the ramifications and reasons behind what I’ve noticed with side projects and how they fit into enterprise IT.
I’m sure you have thoughts. Hit the comments.
Siri Will Be Huge, If It Can Scale
The thing that sold my wife on the iPhone 4S was Siri, and she spent the evening after we finally got one seeing what Siri could do.
Since then, a mere two days, Siri’s had several outages. Going through the coverage, it seems Siri is a beta service, which was suprising to read, given how much Apple is pushing the new assistant in its latest commercials.
I guess the ads are working, since Siri is reported to be driving the huge demand for the otherwise meh iPhone 4S.
I can’t imagine that the outages have made a favorable impression on those people jonesing to use Siri. If they’re anything like my wife, they’re pretty disappointed.
When it was working a few days ago, I was impressed with what Siri could do. Siri can answer natural language questions, making it supposedly smarter and better than other voice systems that predate it.
It’s funny though. I defy you to talk to Siri like you would a person; even if you start out trying, you lapse back into robot speak pretty quickly. We’ve been programmed I guess, mostly by automated telephone voice systems.
Voice systems obviously aren’t new, and the big technology players already have investments e.g. Android’s voice features, Google Voice’s transcription service, Microsoft’s Tellme, etc.
One thing that’s different about Siri is marketing, at least for now, i.e. Apple is pitching Siri as an assistant that can summon information and do tasks for you. Siri creates a completely new way to interact with your phone, a new interface, just like the original iPhone showed a new way to interact with your device, by touch.
To be clear, by new, I mean new to most, not new as first.
Of course, high demand has exposed a big problem, i.e. it’s overwhelming the server side, as evidenced by the outages. Siri can’t do much of anything without an internet connection; check out the first part of this post for details about how Siri works.
In theory, Siri should get better as more people use it, since it’s constantly learning. This piece in Forbes makes some good points, although it does neglect to mention Siri only speaks a limited number of languages as Gary points out on G+.
Forbes does mention emotion though, which I also noticed immediately. Unlike its contemporaries, Siri has a personality that delights users. I saw it first-hand. Apple has made its living delighting users, and Siri does that well. At least, when it’s able to connect to the internet.
So, what do you think about Siri? Find the comments.
Yes, AOL Still Has 3.5 Million Dialup Subscribers
Who are these people? Seriously, do you know anyone who still has AOL dialup?
Amazingly, AOL still has 3.5 million dialup subscribers – SplatF
I’m truly stunned. I guess it makes sense, given the steady cost AOL has maintained over many years and the recent downturn prompting people to cut back on expenses.
Still. I can’t begin to imagine how something like Facebook performs over a 56 bps connection, assuming they can even get that speed. And YouTube, unusable.
Who are these people? I’m guessing they’re not using the modern intertubes very much, and they’re a mighty patient bunch with no other expectation for how fast the intertubes *should* be.
Thoughts?
Mobile Apps Taking Aim at Parking Tickets
Another app that I’d totally buy is one that helped me find street parking and let me know if I could park there or not.
In some cities, you need a legal degree to decipher all the parking restrictions. In LA, I recall seeing as many as four signs on a post, with directions about when you couldn’t park there. Obviously, the parking authority has no incentive to make it easy to understand, so people are building apps for that.
How Mobile App Developers Are Taking Aim at Parking Tickets
While there are issues with identifying and pointing people to open spots, if you’re lucky enough to find one, it’s good to know right away if you can actually park there or not.
Would you use an app like this?
Dark Sky – Weather Prediction Reinvented
I’ve lived in several climates where the prevailing wisdom was if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes. That’s why I love the idea behind Dark Sky, i.e. accurate, short-term prediction.
Dark Sky – Weather Prediction, Reinvented by Adam Grossman
Dark Sky is a Kickstarter project, but it looks like they have real, working code already. I would totally buy this app, if only to avoid leaving the house without a hoody, again.
Does Technology Make You Happier?
That’s the point right? Technology either makes life easier, which presumably creates more free time, or it provides new ways to entertain us.
Are new technologies making us happier? – The Next Web
This isn’t as easy a question to answer. On the one hand, technology obviously does what you’d expect. My wife loves Facebook because she can keep in touch with out-of-town family; she also played joyfully with Siri on her new iPhone 4S (yes, I finally got one) last night.
But today, she’s annoyed at Siri. “I think it’s broken.” Doh.
I’ve ranted here a lot about how technology should be easier, so yeah, it makes me happy, until it doesn’t.
I guess it’s a big picture question. In macro, technology makes me happier, but not always in micro.
Thoughts?
Reader and GMail Get Facelifts
Google dropped redesigns of both Reader and GMail this week, and the general reaction has been very negative.
So, like any good blogger, I’m going to pile on while the iron is hot, or something.
I use Reader all day, every day. It’s an essential tool for me. So, I was actually happy when Google announced it would be integrated with Google Plus. This makes a lot of sense, especially given how few people use Reader, and its history of head-scratching social features.
I’ve feared the worst for Reader, given the demise of other feed readers, and each time Google announces a cut list of products, I cringe a bit, expecting the worst.
I figured piping Reader activity into Google Plus might help it extend its life.
While this may be true, the integration needs work. The old Reader Shared Items, which I use extensively, have been replaced with +1s. This sounds fine, but my +1s don’t show up in my stream of posts. I think they’re supposed to, according to what I’ve read, but they don’t. This is a bummer.
It turns out you can post directly to your G+ stream by using the Share box in the black Google toolbar, top right-hand corner. This isn’t documented anywhere though, and the description included in the post, which is an excerpt from the page, looks like it’s your commentary.
And don’t get me started on the UI. It’s so stark and unwelcoming, not very good for scanning or sustained reading. Plus, like the GMail redesign, it’s a touch-friendly design, with lots of space for tapping. This creates a lot of whitespace and dramatically reduces the amount of content you can see above the fold. Again, bad for reading.
It’s not just me. I have yet to see any positive feedback, with Brian Shih, ex-PM for Reader, producing an appropriately scathing review that everyone is citing. I’m even more worried about the future of Reader after reading Brian’s points about how much it has departed from the original goals.
Oh, and the performance has been atrocious for me.
Unsurprisingly, I have the same issues with GMail. UI consistency is good, but Reader and GMail are so much alike that I found myself in GMail frustrated that I couldn’t find a post I’d shared in Reader. They’re that much alike.
I’m not usually a fan of installed feed readers, mostly because Reader has always been just fine. However, yesterday, I ponied up $9.99 to buy Silvio Rizzi’s (@silviorizzi) Reeder. I’ve used his iPad app for a long time now, and I liked what I saw in his OS X beta version a few months ago.
In Reeder, you can still share items, although I don’t know how long this will last. So, for now, I’m sharing items still, and they’re getting pushed to Twitter by dlvr.it. If I feel like it, I’m also sharing them to G+. It’s a bit clunky, but I expect this will normalize soon.
By now, you’ve probably run into the new Google designs somewhere.
What do you think?
Find the comments.
Very Subtle Updates to iOS Visual Design
Some of you will click through on this link and shake your head. Others will understand.
Users Illusions – Apple has made some very subtle updates to the…
One great thing about the intertubes is that it proves once and for all that you are not alone in the world. There’s someone out there who shares your compulsion. Noticing single pixel differences in UI or font changes in a block of text is one of my compulsions. I can’t help it.
I’ve been lucky enough to find kindred spirits (e.g. Rich @rmanalan), and I’m glad we’re not alone.
Not sweating the details makes you average.
Miscellaneous iPhone Musings
I’m finally upgraded my wife’s original iPhone last week. Despite her protestations that the old one was just fine, she’s in love with the new one, a 4 not 4S.
The reason I got an iPhone 4 is, well, they’re easy to find, and I wanted this to be a surprise with instant gratification. The 4S, on the other hand, is scarce. You can order it online, but if you want to go to a physical store, you’re stuck with the reservation system, which feels like playing the lottery.
I thought this would be fine, but now Siri sounds like a useful feature for her.
Now, I’m in a weird limbo between AT&T and Apple.
AT&T says I just upgraded, so Apple can’t sell me the 4S at the subsidized rate. Full bid is $649. I would go directly to AT&T to get the 4S, but they have no stock and no idea of when any will be arriving.
Apple has stock online, but I’d have to downgrade the phone, hoping the old one would work at all while we waited for the new 4S to arrive. Bit of a bummer. The best bet now is to try the reservation system for the physical stores, but that’s dicey.
Why can’t these things be easy?
And with Black Friday looming, does Apple plan to let this shortage continue?
Anyway, beyond that pickle, this is first time I’ve seen an iPhone 4 up close and used one, and I have to say it’s a great device. I haven’t used an iPhone much since I went Android last year, and the iPhone I left behind was an original one which I’d carried since they were introduced in Summer 2007.
The 4 is a beautiful device, fast, responsive and fun to use. So, pretty much what you’d expect from Apple, and that last bit gets lost for me on Android at times. I love Android and don’t plan to switch any time soon, but it can be a chore at times.
Plus, the wife loves the new phone, which is good.
Probably the biggest difference I’ve noticed is the camera. We take lots of pictures and video of our infant daughter, and the colors from the iPhone camera are so much richer. Plus, there’s very little shutter lag in the camera app, whereas my Nexus S constantly misses cute moments due to a bad lag.
This is set to change any day now, I hope, with Android 4.0.
Moving on to semi-related musings, one thing trend has become clear. Apple has been releasing an incrementally better iPhone in odd years, the 3G S in 2009, now the 4S in 2011. I assume this helps their supply chain empty some components, since outwardly, the S iPhones are identical to the predecessors.
If it holds, this cycle screws the people who buy in the S year because they are forever tied to a two-year contract, meaning to get the awesome new hotness released in the even years, they’ll either have to buy out or pay to upgrade after only a year or wait an extra year after their contracts expire.
Will that matter? Will it encourage carrier competition?
Back to camera apps, one thing my wife wanted was an app that did rapid shots, another great way to catch a cute moment by delaying the processing. This will be in Android 4.0′s camera app, but it’s not in iOS.
After asking Twitter, Hipstamatic was recommended. So, I ponied up the $1.99 to try it.
After last week’s discussion of skeuomorphism, I was surprised to find such a terrible example. Hipstamatic is one of the many retro-filter-adding apps like Instagram, but they’ve taken a slavish approach to retro, copying the tiny view finder and faux mottled plastic.
The view finder has to be 30% of the screen, which makes it very tough to see your subject.
Plus, the interface is so retro, the controls to swap filters and flashes are hidden behind an icon you can barely see that has no affordance for its function. I’m a very experienced user, and it took me 15 minutes to find it. As for the rapid fire, no affordances at all, just poke the giant yellow take-picture button repeatedly.
Unfortunately, like Instragram, Hipstamatic saves your filtered image, but not its original, unfiltered version. I wonder how many people who are gaga for filtered pictures today will be sad in ten years when they can’t recover the actual images as they were.
I’m not sure if they strip the EXIF, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
Anyway, Twitter also recommended Camera+, which does a much better job at everything for only $0.99. No filters, no auto-saving images, usable UI.
I told you in the title these were musings. Find the comments with your own.
A View of Android Fragmentation
Michael DeGusta (@degusta) has an exhaustive chart depicting Android fragmentation. Maybe someone can visualize the data in a slightly easier to consume way, but it paints a good picture.
the understatement: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support h/t TechCrunch
Aside from a minor quibble with the original iPhone’s green status (iOS 4 launched a few days prior to the OG iPhone’s third birthday), the picture is clear and accurate. Android users are rarely on the most recent version.
I’m not convinced that’s a bad thing, having run Android on a phone exclusively for more than a year. I’d argue that the majority of Android users rock mid and low-range phones, which has bolstered Android’s overall share. These people are content with a good-enough experience that allows them to do Facebook on their phones.
New OS features are for media, for technophiles and for people coming out of contract or looking to upgrade devices on their current carrier.
The latter group almost exclusively wants new phones, not OS upgrades. Hence the trade-in programs run by Best Buy and others.
Apple does right by its users, who have paid more by-and-large, keeping their devices delightful and magical to amortize the initial outlay.
So, yeah, Android is fragmented, but it doesn’t matter as much as this chart leads you to believe, with the exception of ongoing support and security releases. That’s a big deal that Google, carriers and device manufacturers need to address.
Interestingly, high-end Android devices like the HTC EVO 4G do follow the Apple model and are still being updated.
Anyway, food for thought.
