Category: general

Apple announced a lot today as WWDC began. Chief among the announcements is a long-overdue redesign for iOS, which looks essentially the same in iOS 6 as it did in iPhone OS 1, or whatever they versioned it back in 2007. The redesign is very slick, and as expected by many, focuses on reducing design… Read More

Editor’s note: Read Anthony’s (@anthonyslai) full Glass adventure starting with the prologue, the week before, and Day 1 posts. I met with Jake and Noel the next day I got the Glass.  To anyone who tried it, everyone seemed to be pleasantly surprised with  the current features.  At that time, no Twitter and Facebook integration even existed.  Just… Read More

Anthony (@anthonyslai) has been using his Chromebook lately, by necessity, and a combination of recent speculation and my own gut tells me that I should try to work my Chromebook back into the regular rotation. Actually, the speculation isn’t recent. Anton Wahlmann predicted a Chrome OS smartphone two years ago; he’s just updated his prediction… Read More

Editor’s note: For the full Glass experience, check out Anthony’s (@anthonyslai) prologue and week before Glass posts. I was finally able to pick up the Glass the day right before Jake and Noel came to the Bay Area. It was also the Sunday before Google IO. I got out of the Glass garage at Google in 10… Read More

Anthony (@anthonyslai) has been on a roll lately, and his latest post reminded me to put words behind a hunch I have. When the Chromebook Pixel was announced, a lot of head-scratching ensued. What’s the point of a fantastic piece of expensive, high-end hardware that runs an internet-tethered OS like Chrome OS? After all, Chromebooks… Read More

Diverting away from Glass a bit. I will update more soon. I became a Mac OS fan when I started using my MBP since 2006. Windows never worked for me, as I am a developer. Microsoft, Just give me a terminal. Cygwin to me is just something used to alleviate the issue, but that does… Read More

Editor’s note: FYI, here’s another post by Anthony (@anthonyslai). If you’re interested in his Glass odyssey, make sure to read the prologue. Day -7 My friend got the invitation to pick up her Glass.  At that time, I have not got any updates for mine yet.  All Glass Explorers can bring a guest to the… Read More

Editor’s note: FYI, this post is by Anthony (@anthonyslai). I have decided to write up some posts for my first couple days’ experience with Glass.  I am not planning to go deep into the technical details regarding Glass in these posts, but may do so if there are enough interests. Prologue When Google first announced… Read More

We ran into Floyd (@fteter) last night. His cyborg transformation is complete. Note the serious demeanor, with Glass power comes great responsibility, or something. Backstory, Anthony (@anthonyslai) finally got his Explorer Series Glass unit on Sunday. Funny story, its display had a few dead pixels, three actually. He counted. Google replaced the unit, so all’s… Read More

I don’t normally pay much attention to games, but after GeoGuessr showed up in both the Verge and Kottke.org, I took notice. It’s a very simple, but difficult game. GeoGuessr drops you into a random place that Google has mapped with Street View, but without any metadata, just the images Google captured. You can navigate around, using… Read More

This blog has been around for six years, and given how varied and banal a lot of what I write is, I’m stunned it’s lasted that long. While at Collaborate in April, John (@jpiwowar) mentioned something about the blog that resonated with me. He said he appreciated that I replied to his comments. That struck… Read More

One of the aspects I like about my newish team, Applications User Experience, is access to real research. Through eye-tracking, the usability labs, ethnographic research, focus groups and a host of other tools, AUX collects data from real users to help us understand how to build better software. This is perfect for me, since I’ve… Read More

I’ve been doing more tinkering with my development toy, the Nexus 7, and kudos to Anthony (@anthonyslai) for finding this gem. WebKey is an Android app and accompanying service that allows you to manage your device from a browser. WebKey (Play Store link) isn’t new. I found coverage from the Android Police and Lifehacker from a… Read More

PBS Off Book has a short and interesting look into wearable computing. Check it out, h/t MAKE and Geekosystem: Aside from the recent, top-of-mind examples (Google Glass, Pebble), I’m amazed at how functional smart garments have become. Innovation has been happening in both the fashion and DIY circles, but since I don’t pay very close attention to those… Read More

When Facebook launched Home earlier this month, it marked the first time in quite a while that I was excited to use Facebook. What excited me wasn’t using Facebook per se, but exploring the possibilities of moving beyond the app. Despite only being officially supported for a handful of phones, the Samsung Galaxy S III, Galaxy… Read More

My trip to Guadalajara a month ago was dual-purpose. First, we’re hiring there, so we had interviews. Second, we were assisting with a hackathon. Since running the Oracle Social Network Developer Challenge at OpenWorld last Fall, Noel (@noelportugal) and I have become “the hackathon guys,” which makes me think of this movie for some reason.… Read More

I have a new toy, a Nexus 7, which is why I ran across the device offline issue in Android 4.2.2. The N7 ships locked, which seems a bit odd, but no biggie. This will be a development device for me, and once I got it unlocked, the fun began with MultiROM, which allows the… Read More

Here’s another installment in the never-ending documentation of stuff for posterity. This chapter concerns a change made to Android 4.2.2 that could cause you some headaches if you’re an Android developer, modder or hobbyist. Google added a whitelist for USB debugging in 4.2.2 which adds another layer of security to your phone, so now you… Read More

As of last week, Anthony (@anthonyslai) didn’t mention that he had received a note yet from Google about the Glass Explorer program unit he had preordered. Even so, he was excited at the prospect of receiving it soon. He’ll be even more stoked now that details of the Glass API and device specs are hitting… Read More

Last week while I was traveling, I was reading a story from Wired about Firepad, a collaborative text editor that can be easily added to any web page to allow, well, collaboration. Think pair programming meets Google Docs. A couple sentences in, I notice a quote from none other than ‘Lab alumnus, old friend and… Read More