When you go to bed at night, you probably have a wire mess going on next to your bed with your cell phone, MP3 player, bluetooth headset, and possibly even your laptop contributing to the mess. E-ZCharge is an inexpensive and simple way to solve the clutter.
No more tangles. No more trips. Just neatly compacted wires and devices. The U-shaped cradle docking station is a budget buster too, coming in at under $10. [E-ZCHARGE]
NewTeeVee reports that a 19-year-old male committed suicide while broadcasting himself on video site Justin.tv on Wednesday night.
On the Justin.tv blog, a message titled, "A Moment of Silence," from CEO Michael Seibel reads:
"Justin.tv staff would like to take a moment to recognize and reflect upon the tragedy that occurred within our community today. We respect the privacy of the broadcaster and his family during this challenging time."
According to reports, the teen was driven by commenters on both Justin.tv and the forum bodybuilding.com, after detailing on the forums -- and later leaving a suicide note -- that he was going to kill himself. Viewers didn't take him seriously, even after he began taking pills. Eventually viewers became concerned with his lack of activity and alerted authorities. The Broward County medical examiner has confirmed the youth's death.
The act, according to reports from Mashable, was not a reaction to cyberbullying, but instead the teen's personal dissatisfaction with life. And because he was known as a forum troll, few people watching his livecast took his threats seriously.
Though this event doesn't put the onus on the live broadcasting network, it does raise an issue of responsibility. What role should networks, such as Justin.tv, play in responding quickly to live streaming of inappropriate content? Is there anyway a community-based site could be expected to prevent such content from streaming without the community reporting it?
Since first writing about, "A Week Inside T-Mobile's G1," I've had a fun time setting up apps from Android's Market on my phone. In fact, that's that best part of the phone, having the ability to access apps that enable you to actually do something other than make a call.
MySpace Mobile was available on the device pretty much out the gate. And initially, its functionality was somewhat awful. Still, the good folks over in the Android community praised it for at least being first out the gate and allowing you to do some of what you can do on the Web.
imeem Music for Android wasn't far behind, and though clunky at first, it was the first full-fledged music application available for the device. Not all of the social networking features are available as they are on the site, but at least the application ties in with the Amazon store avaialbe on the device allowing users to purchase music with just a click.
Another early social media entrant on Market was iSkoot for Skype, an application that works just like Skype does on your computer. You can IM and call people directly from your mobile phone.
The next social media app on the Android Market that I noticed was twidroid, the first Twitter application available for Android powered phones. Like the rest, it was clunky at first, but it has improved greatly in its latest release. It's getting to the point that it works well enough to not have to use the mobile Web version of Twitter any longer. Other Twitter apps followed, but they weren't nearly as good. So it's probably a waste of time to even name them.
Then there's aLastFM player that provides integration with last.fm, enabling you to stream music from your favorites, tags, or via artist search. Everything you play on your phone automatically scrobbles to your last.fm profile and you can even love tracks. The bad: it often hangs, but otherwise it makes for great radio. Of course it only works well if you're on the 3G network or WiFi, but unfortunately either of those settings will soon choke the life out of your battery charge.
meebo IM for Android launched recently, and it hasn't been all that impressive. Former Sidekick users have complained about it signing them out of IM services and timing out. They've also complained about not being able to sign into multiple services all at once. Considering the IM app that came with the phone -- at least the ones for AIM, MSN, and Yahoo -- suck pretty badly, perhaps meebo can step its game up here and become the ultimate solution. Fortunately, the GTalk app that came with the G1 works pretty well, and it should considering the device is tied to your Google account.
It's great that all of this social media has come to Android, but after the release of MySpace, the anticipation was high for a Facebook app. Facebook hasn't made any moves to develop an app, so Next Mobile Web has created fBook instead.
I just downloaded fBook, and I have to say that I'm quite pleased with its overall design and funtionality, even more than any of the other apps that I've been using on the phone since its release.
After logging in, you're taken to a page on which you see the same tabs that you see on Facebook on the Web (as you can see in the image above). It loads smoothly, and so far I've been able to reply to message in my "Inbox," read my "News Feed," look at my "Requests," update my "Status."
There's been a lot of talk about the Netbook being the gotta-have-it gift for Christmas, but I'm thinking that a smartphone just might do the trick. We'll just have to forget that the battery life on most of these devices suck, especially the G1. But that's another blog post for a later date.
Opera, as a Web browser on your computer, has been in existence since 1994, back when the desktop browser wars were between Netscape vs. Internet Explorer. Sure, there's no Netscape today, but the browser war is moving to the mobile Web, with Safari on the iPhone, IE on Windows Mobile, BlackBerry's Web Browser, and Chrome on Android. Not to mention, Firefox (aka Fennec) is coming to the mobile Web soon. And some would even like to argue that the experience on the Symbian OS on Nokia phones is real Web browsing, but it's not -- and that's where mobile browsers like Skyfire and Opera come in. Opera first developed a mobile browser in 1998, and Opera Mini first launched in January 2006
Unfortunately, the American cellphone market didn't truly realize what the real Web experience could be like -- or care about it -- on a phone until Apple released its iPhone. "Steve Jobs makes it sound like this is the first time we have real Web browsing on the phone," Opera CEO Jon von Tetzcher said when I met with him a few weeks ago. "The Internet is too important to only be available to some people."
The fact is, Opera Mini is free and it is available for any phone that has the system to support downloading and using it. That's why its use in Africa took off this year. The, "Opera: State of the Mobile Web Report," states, "The use of Opera Mini in Africa increased by 180 percent from January 2008 - September 2008." Being ahead of the curve helped the mobile browser become number one internationally, but what about the U.S.?
Simply, Opera hasn't had the marketing push here that it's had elsewhere. While the U.S. ranks fourth in terms of Opera mobile usage, more people in Russia, Indonesia, and China use the browser. Also, its symbiotic relationship with Nokia doesn't help it much either. Nokia may dominate cell phone sales, but not in the U.S. So it's a challenge of globalization more than anything else. According to von Tetzcher, Opera products are sound. "Once you spend a week with Opera, then you're stuck," he says, citing that its a better product overall with more power and greater access to the sites that matter most -- social networking.
But even the company's mobile innovations haven't fully caught on here. Opera Mobile 9.5, the paid version of Opera's mobile Web was released as a free beta a couple of weeks ago. As a plus, it comes with widgets and a widgets SDK to empower both users and developers. Yet, while all of these innovations where happening at Oslow, Norway-based company, in the U.S. we were busy talking about the news surrounding the Android phone and the Android Market, as well as the upcoming release of Fennec.
You're probably used to the site that dresses up its logo for a holiday, and Election Day, quite frankly, often receives that very same treatment. A visit to Google, Yahoo!, or AOL's home pages today are testaments of that fact. AOL's is even animated. But more interesting than that logo wearing makeup, or even the 24-hour news and blogging coverage on media sites, is how social media uses, well, social media, to get out the vote. For example, expert blogger Allyson Kapin reported on the Twitter Voter Report, enabling voters to share their experiences via text message, Twitter tweet, calling in, or using an application built for use on the iPhone or Android phone.
Here are a few more examples:
imeem - The social media sharing site, with a focus on music, created the Obama vs. McCain Presidential Playlist Showdown. Members can join The Presidential Playlist Group and vote on which candidate has the better playlist. Wonder how close the votes will come to the actual polling results.
MySpace - The online community site introduced MySpace Impact, an election home of sorts with entry to live election night blogging, NBC's Decision '08 videos and voter info, and "I Voted" badge to add to your profile, and celebrity videos and blogs about voting. As an extra bonus, there's also an election playlist, put together by The Roots drummer DJ Questlove.
YouTube - The largest online destination for watching and sharing video launched YouTube Video Your Vote, enabling site members to send in a video of their voting experiences. The top rated, in terms of views and discussions surface to the top where even non-members can watch.
Facebook - The social media and networking site greeted its visitors with a reminder to vote today. Upon logging in and visiting your home page, members were welcomed with a "Today is Election Day in America" banner and invited to add themselves to the tally of people who have voted today. The Facebook Election 2008 page offers voter info and Obama or McCain buttons to send to your friends as gifts. Also, by using the Causes application, Facebook members were encouraged to donate their status updates to get out the vote.
BlackPlanet - The leading online niche social-networking site welcomes visitors with a "Vote for Obama" banner that upon clicking redirects to VoteForChange.com, where they can find out where to vote.
What other instances of social media getting out the vote out can you cite?
Wednesday was the official sale date of T-Mobile's G1 powered by Google's Android Operating System. With the product's release came the launch of the Android Market, a marketplace for open source applications and games built by developers, and available to consumers without charge for download -- at least for now.
Three main observations:
1. The average application has 7,800+ downloads
2. Nine apps made it to the 10,000 - 50,000 downloads range
3. iPhone and Android users have the same interests, or at least the developers of the apps for both platforms do.
In the first 24 hours of launch of both stores, the observations would suggest that application distribution is relatively equal. And by extenstion, bets are on that iPhone users -- demographically -- resemble G1 users, at least the early adopters.
The e-mail from the account director at Waggener Edstrom Worldwide that arrived last Tuesday, began: "I wanted to give you a heads up that I have a T-Mobile G1 review unit for you. I plan to send it out for Friday delivery." After agreeing to an NDA not to share any information about the device until the 16th, and drawing straws with my co-worker for which one of us would get it first, I realized that I'd be spending the entire weekend with the new love of my life. That weekend eventually became a week, and here's what happened.
When I first received the T-Mobile G1 last Friday, I immediately started playing with it. It's lightweight and soft-touch matte finish, as well as the ability to open and close its keyboard while holding it in the palm of only one hand, made it feel a lot like a toy. Not like a toy in the way that it doesn't feel sturdy or solid, but in a way that just makes it feel like an object you desire -- and well, that you want to play with. In fact, some of my co-workers felt it looked a little too much like a toy, saying that it appeared plastic and cheap. Well, I get how these iPhone users don't get its simple design. But surely, it isn't ghastly. It's just a little bit on the plain side. And for what Taiwanese mobile phone maker HTC didn't put into designing its body, Google made up for in developing what's under its hood.
Physically, the only thing that's really wrong with it, is the little hook or "chin" located at the bottom of the device, that somewhat resembles the bottom half (mouthpiece) of a land-line phone. After flipping up the QWERTY keyboard, the little hook gets in the way of typing, making the device feel a little awkward while typing. Hopefully on the next model they'll flatten it out, and make the experience of typing smoother. What could be the reason for this peculiar shape in the first place? Perhaps the product team was set on making a design differentiation from both the iPhone and other HTC devices. But it isn't like that area of the device is entirely useless. It serves as home to operational buttons for making calls, jumping directly to the home screen, using the trackball for directional tasks and selecting, and then a rewinding button for going back a page (or step), and the final button ends a call (as well as serves as the power on/off switch). But even with this little obstruction on the right hand side of the device, typing isn't quite as bad as it could be considering the position of the keys. Many have criticized that they keys aren't raised are there's no virtual keyboard like an iPhone. For those who argue against flat keys, they probably aren't accustomed to using a Sidekick or other HTC devices. If they were, they'd understand clearly that that's exactly what this experience is like. And for those who complain about the lack of virtual keyboard, well, I'd expect a developer to make that happen as they have on other HTC devices before.
When it comes to taking photos, the camera, at 3 megapixels isn't half bad, but it isn't that great either. At least it's better than previous HTC devices, or even the iPhone for that mater, but if you've ever used a Nokia N95, this camera is a real step down. It doesn't even have flash. And forget about zoom. It does have autofocus though, but if you're natural lighting sucks don't expect stellar quality images. Another drawback to the camera, at least on its default settings, comes about when trying to take a photo. You're automatically prompted to insert an SD card. This is a direct reminder of the lack of storage space on the phone (it comes pre-installed with a 1GB Micro SD card and can support up to 8GB). The good: you can geotag images with locations and there are built in share options for emailing the photo to friends, or any photo service, such as Flickr or Picasa, that enables email uploads. The bad: you can't automatically sync or upload them to Google's Picasa. (Though in the camera's settings, there's a notification that the app enables interaction with Picasa and even YouTube. Perhaps that's coming in a later firmware update. Fingers crossed.)
Last night, at the G1 launch party in New York, Randy Meyerson, senior product manager, T-Mobile USA, showed me an Android Market app by Shinycore Software, called PicSay, that enables you to add text, graphics, effects, and share it via e-mail, your blog, or photo sharing sites like Picasa, Flickr, and even Facebook, which has quickly become the top photo-sharing site. Even better than Picsay though, Meyerson was excited to show me Android Photostream, a browser and viewer for Flickr, that enables you to put in a username to view a photostream and save the photos to your device, and even use them as your wallpaper.
And while other HTC devices offer video recording abilities, the G1 doesn't. It doesn't really make sense that a groundbreaking smartphone wouldn't enable video recording, especially when the smartphone in question comes loaded with a YouTube application. I have to admit, with this phone moving us closer to mobile devices having better and fuller integration with Web services, I had higher expectations for this capability.
Listening to music, or using the speakerphone was a pleasant surprise. After listening to the stereo-like quality of the Nokia N95 or an iPhone, it's hard to imagine that any phone could really sound any good. But the G1's audio quality is, well, actually, pretty good. At least there's no ear straining involved. The music player supports MP3, M4A, AMR, WMA, MIDI, WAV, and even OGG Vorbis, and its simple to manage tracks, with sortings by artists, albums, songs, and playlists. In that regard, it's really no different than an iPod or iPhone. But interestingly, for all the comparisons to the iPhone, using Tmobile's G1 is a lot more like using a Windows Mobile enabled phone, only better. It's better because it actually connects you to computing services that you use every day. And the only thing that makes it anything like an iPhone, other than its music management system, is its touchscreen capabilities. At the same time, the touchscreen is entirely different because there is no multitouch capabilities. Yet, the touchscreen is extremely fast and responsive to even the slightest finger fling.
More on overall phone operations and an introduction to applications in the video below:
Working with Applications
Using Gmail, Google calendar and IM isn't much different than using the same applications on your computer. Once you've set up your account, the phone will automatically sync the information from these services for you. Settings can be adjusted to select how and when these applications sync. As well, your address book from your Gmail account automatically becomes your phone's contacts. If you're like me, and have 100s or even 1000s of people you've emailed over the years, your address book is going to be mammoth in size. This means you'll end up using search a lot, but it's a snap with the one-touch search key on the bottom row of the QWERTY keyboard. To save time further, it's even better to set up groups in your Gmail Address Book so that they'll be available to you on your phone. As a Mac user, I also use Spanning Sync to make sure all of my Mac Address Book contacts and iCal events are syncing with Google's services and thereby syncing with the G1 as well.
One problem I encountered with e-mail was when I received documents. The system opens everything in HTML view, unless of course the attachment is an image. HTML view worked fine for a Word doc, but not for many other types of attachments. Rating for not being able to save to Google Docs: FAIL. The omission of mobile versions of Google Docs on this phone is definitely going to be a problem for many. That one addition would make it the consummate device, optimal for both work and play. But the product folks I met at the G1 launch party didn't seem to think it would be long before a developer created an OpenOffice type of application for the Android Market, since both OpenOffice and Android are open source.
Google calendar works seamlessly, syncing to your Gcal Web calendar. Google Talk works seamlessly also, and there are also clients for logging into your Aim, MSN, and Yahoo IM accounts. Of course it would be simpler to have just one app to run them all simultaneously as you can with Adium on the Mac and Pidgin on both Windows and Linux. There'll be a developer fix for that little flaw in no time, I'm sure. All of these IM apps run similarly to how you're used to them running on your computer, but Google adds threaded conversation views here and even in Text Messaging. Overall, all of these services run pretty fast, though there were some hiccups on non-Google IM apps. Everything on the phone runs a lot faster when connected to a 3G or Wi-Fi network instead of Tmobile's EDGE. In that regard, YouTube was a bit clunky at first, but once I hit a 3G or Wi-Fi network it was operating at top speed. I found it a little annoying that the YouTube account doesn't automatically sync with your YouTube account on the Web. There's no real value to selecting favorites on the phone if you can't have them transfer to your main account.
Setting up Microsoft Exchange on the phone's Email application required no extra technical skill or knowledge. The only information required to set up a non-Google email account is login info and the mail server. In the case of Exchange on the G1, you'll have to use IMAP, and there are POP capabilities as well.
The G1's Web browser, for some reason, feels a lot more like a Mozilla browser than it does Google's Chrome. When on the 3G network browsing is lighting fast. Google search is the default home page and it includes links to Gmail, Calendar, Reader, and More. You have access to Docs, News, Photos, Blogger, Notebook, GOOG-411, and Translate, but all only as Web services and not as usable applications available on the phone.
One of the most impressive pre-loaded apps on the phone has got to be Google Maps. The Map offers Map, Satellite, Traffic, and Street Views. With the phone's GPS turned on, it acts just like a navigation device, eliminating the need to purchase one just for your car or extra software or hardware for your smartphone for use in your car. This is going to be a major breakthrough for the market. The best: using the touchscreen for panoramic views. Watch the video below for a demonstration of street view:
I've got the sense that this phone could be a little more fully featured, but I'm not exactly sure what's missing yet. Sure it's missing Google Docs and Picasa, and even YouTube synchronization. The beauty of Android though is that developers will come up with solutions to most of these pet peeves that I have. And considering that it's an open system, fitted to another device other than the G1, we can only dream about what Android could potentially become. Still it feels like something isn't quite there. On this phone though, it looks and feels a lot like an upgraded Sidekick, Tmobile Wing, or even an HTC Touch. For now, that might be enough. It doesn't really have to be an iPhone killer, or even a BlackBerry killer, all it has to do is make the experience of mobile computing a lot easier -- and that, it does.
Scoble will host a discussion covering architectural choices, growth hurdles and how the panelists overcame them. The first half-hour will be devoted to the panel discussion, while the second half-hour will be open to live questions from registered webinar attendees.
Guests include:
Dorion Carroll: VP of engineering at Technorati.
Paul Bucheit: One of the founders of FriendFeed and the creator of Gmail.
Nat Brown: CTO of iLike, a music community service that had one of the first Facebook apps.
Click here to register for this free event, which takes place Thursday, October 9th - 1:00 PM (Eastern) / 10:00 AM (Pacific).
Business lessons in adversity. Yesterday was a day that should have driven me up the wall. I watched every photo I had taken from the fall of 2005 through the fall of 2007 permanently disappear in a computer failure, while I was trying to copy them to an external drive. A squabble on a discussion list turned ugly in a way that could have serious repercussions for the future of my business. I left yet another voicemail with the editor at a big NY publishing house who should have had a revised contract on my desk in June and has not been answering phone calls or e-mails. Oh yes, and I not only got to walk my dog in the pouring rain (it was only raining at the hiking trail, not at my house half a mile away) and get attacked by mosquitoes, but actually got stung by a bee--in my own kitchen--when I returned.
And yet, somehow, I found the Zen of it all, and stayed remarkably calm while my life appeared to be falling apart. A few years ago, I don't think I could have handled that so smoothly. The loss of the photos alone (including our whole trip to Mexico) would have made me insane.
I thought about the time a few years ago when i was driving a rental car in San Francisco, didn't have the mirror adjusted properly, and accidentally cut off another driver. With true California class, he leaned out his window and called out, "It's all good!" I apologized and explained that because it was an unfamiliar car, I had misaligned the mirror, and he was cool with it.
But I've often reflected on that. And on the way my friend and mentor Bob Burg is able to deflect conflict, defuse angry people, and accomplish his agenda. He has a newsletter and book called Winning Without Intimidation. I finally got to meet Bob last week when he came to this area for a speech; we've been friends online for maybe eight years, and I include a section on him in my award-winning sixth book, <a href="http://www.principledprofit.com">Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First</a>.
Applying it to the day I had yesterday, I won't try to analyze how I stayed so calm. But I <em>will</em> try to draw some business lessons from it.
First of all, back up your files offsite. Duh! I'll be exploring the best places to do this.
Second, showing anger in public is <em>always</em> counterproductive, no matter how "right" you think you are. I have to go re-read that chapter I wrote about Bob Burg. I played a part in turning that list discussion ugly, and I regret it. And I'll have to deal with the consequences. I will of course try to do better next time.
And third, be patient because you don't now what the world has in store for you. If I'm feeling frustrated because the editor isn't returning my call, or because the <a href="http://www.business-ethics-pledge.org">Business Ethics Pledge</a> is not getting signatures as quickly as I'd like, or because the six-legged critters are apparently out to get me, I just have to remember the guy in California. "It's all good," even if I don't know exactly how, yet.
I am interested in knowing what people think about consumer research who are part of an innovation and design communities. Please tell me a little about what you find that has worked for you or has not worked for you in building relationships with consumer research companies. Do you currently use research? Why or why not?
I ask these things as the owner of a consumer research firm that wants to reach out to more creatives and inovators. This is not your parents research company if you know what I mean.
