Forgotten! But Not Forgotten!

Every now and then, despite a reminder flashing up on my phone in plain sight, I forget that I made a pact with myself to blog on Deadly Revelations at least once a week on a Wednesday – whether I had something to say or not. Every now and again, I forget because I’ve already spent the time typing up a blog post and stored it on my USB keytag, perhaps editing a few times, before posting.

This week, I did not forget to write a post, but I did forget that I didn’t have a blog post already pre edited and ready to upload. Its not like there’s nothing going on either – Facebook have purchased FriendFeed (a Twitter like service, which brings together your Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds and other social networking aspects together in one single place), Twitter themselves have been down and under DoS (Denial of Service) attacks, and Aaron Sorkin has admitted that he’s unsure what compelled him to sign on to write the “Facebook movie” (or rather the movie which tells the story of how the founders came up with the idea, build and become multi-billionaires from the social networking site).

I also could have blogged about the return and then quick change of decision in the F1 comeback of the year as retired seven times world champion Michael Schumacher announced he would be returning to the sport and giving everyone driving lessons on how to win big (I did actually write this blog post, but it somehow doesn’t seem appropriate to post it anymore – considering it is no longer relevant or true – the dangers of writing posts in drafts before they become reality).

I could also have blogged about the HTC Hero phone, running the very latest version of Android and how it looks like it might be a genuine contender to the iPhone and why I’ve been recommending it to others a lot recently (even though I remain adamant that I will be a Palm Pre customer at some point). Check out the review video’s here.

I also could have written about why it’s unwise to argue and upset your network administrator – but the less said about that, probably the better (needless to say, the network administrator *always* wins in case you were ever in any doubt!).

There are endless other things I could chose as this weeks ramblings, but I haven’t chosen any of them – and the only reason why is that I’ve forgotten to write something up and the reason for that is, because I’ve had a whole week of writing things up and handing them off to other people in the hope that they’ll understand my documents and enlighten them further to educate themselves on their various subject matters (unlikely!).

Needless to say, there are plenty of topics of conversation that I could have addressed this week and for one reason or another (but mainly due to my tendency to post “weekly”), I’ve not took the opportunity to do so. As of Friday this week however, I will be off work, on holiday, for a grand total of 24 days and with those 24 days I will be attempting to post at least one blog post per day over on my other site craigbutters.com

Don’t get me wrong, I hope to make the posts comprehensive and to post at least one a day will be a challenge on some days when creativity escapes me, but by jove I’m going to give it a go. I already have a few ideas on some of the subjects and I will be spending some of my holidays taking some “me time”, but blog I shall.

Stay tuned...normal service will resume shortly....

Mobile Foothold Loosened?

As someone who has a keen interest the mobile phone market right now - as I continue to track down my “next handset” - I was astonished to see the amount of backlash that has occurred against Apple’s iPhone and AT&T over the blocking of a “Google Voice” application.

For anyone who’s followed any iPhone related press, you’ll know that the phone’s success is largely attributed to the “Apps Store”, where talented developers are able to submit their creations for the wider population either for free or for a small amount of money. The first thing to remember here is that even though Apple were the first to develop an Apps store, they did so only because their customers demanded it – if you remember back to the first iPhone, it was a closed system that had no built in scope or plans for open APIs, allowing developers to tinker and produce their own applications to create a single device capable of doing more than your basic phone calls.

It’s therefore apparent to anyone who’s ever spent long enough to think it through, that it was not Apple that made the iPhone what it is, but the talented developers that have brought real value to the handset and turned it into a “swiss-army phone” capable of more than the basics. It then becomes apparent that developers and open standards will be the key to capturing the mobile phone market in the future.

This is obviously something Google have come to release – and having a band of talented developers already in their stable, they were able to come up with their own operating system in the form of “Android”, used as the platform for their own mobile handsets. Whilst Google were “thinking mobile”, they came up with a potentially game changing idea – “Google Voice”.

Whilst Google Voice isn’t available in Europe and the UK yet, it’s difficult not to see the service eventually being expanded beyond the US. The premise for Google Voice is simple, you are either issued with a single number or you can port your existing number to Google, and then using an online service, you gain control over which devices this number is able to control. For example, a family member ringing your Google number may cause your mobile phone, your home phone and your work phone to all ring at the same time – allow you to pick up the call where ever you are on whichever device. Equally if a business associate calls you, only your mobile and work phone ring. (There’s a really good video from Google to demonstrate further here).

Once you understand just what Google Voice does for you – and the ability to only ever issue one number – it’s easy to see why such a service would have such a high up take for incoming calls. The confusion starts to come in however when you start to think about outbound calls – if you have one number for people to call and that number does a lookup and makes you mobile phone ring (which has another number already attached to it), what happens when you try to call someone from your mobile phone? The outgoing number won’t be your Google number – which could lead to confusion and defeats the whole purpose of only issuing one number to begin with.

To get around this problem Google created their own dialler applications that you can load onto your phone and then using the telephone line/mobile service, route the call via a Google Voice exchange and make the call appear to come from your Google Voice number – very clever indeed! Apple and AT&T disagreed though and decided to pull the application from the iPhone, citing the reason being the application replicates the iPhones existing core functionality.

In response, it appears that the iPhone development community and some high profile tech bloggers – including Michael Arrington of TechCrunch and Om Malik – to quit their iPhones in favour of rival handsets that don’t impose such strict limitations on what is and isn’t allowed.

Obviously Arrington and TechCrunch have a large readership and most of them techies and developers themselves and it’s therefore not difficult to come to the conclusion that if geeks are upset enough to abandon a device they will no doubt turn their attentions to the “next iPhone” device (the Palm Pre and Google’s Hero being touted as the go-to devices right now), and begin to code their wares there, diminishing Apple’s stronghold on the mobile market.

Whilst that scenario is far from becoming reality just yet, it does mark a significant point in time where Apple’s dominance has reached tipping point and the mobile market might start to even itself out across a larger number of manufacturers and devices.

What Google Voice does however is change the telecoms market – if you can pick up any device and bind it to your number, what will your next mobile device be? Does it need to be able to bind itself to a mobile carrier or does it only need to connect itself to the cloud and have it’s traditional phone services delivered across that data connection just like VoIP? That could really open up the device market –imagine being able to buy any handset (iPhone, Pre, HTC, Nokia, BlackBerry), install your own operating system (WebOS, Mobile 6.5, Symbian, OSX, etc), and then tap into an app store that fulfils your needs – much like the current PC market where you are able to pick your own form factor, operating system and applications are seemingly ported between one another or even ported out to the cloud as a web service. Your mobile carrier would only be required to provide that data connection much like your internet service provider (I previously wrote about mobile operating systems being opened up to allow choices in browser software much like computer operating systems here).

It would open up the market entirely and allow choice to reign supreme throughout; allowing users to select from a multitude of hardware platforms, software platforms and applications that work for them – once that becomes a reality, much like the PC, the combination of possibilities becomes endless and devices become much more personalised to the users unique requirements.

Will it ever happen? Perhaps one day it might – nothing stays the same forever and forcing software onto users in a monopolistic way already has some very clear rulings (see Microsoft vs. the European Commission), I believe mobile phones haven’t been included in these rulings because they haven’t yet been powerful enough or smart enough to warrant true software customisation – smart phones and increases in the power of these devices changes all of that though, which makes open mobile platforms reality only a matter of time.

In the meantime, with Apple’s iPhone seemingly in a little bit of a dip, it seems Google and Palm should play their cards very carefully right now and attract those developers/high profile influencers to their platforms by whatever means necessary – a big shift in the market may just be the way into bringing down Apple’s huge market share.

Watch this space.....a change is coming!

Browser Bundling

I’ll admit it – I don’t understand the European Commission’s (EC) position on just exactly what they want from Microsoft.

As far as I understood; way, way back when Microsoft purposely bundled IE5 into Windows 95 to kill the Netscape browser and thus win the “Browser Wars” of the nineties, Microsoft’s actions effectively killed the competition and gained a monopoly share of users browsers. The actions of Microsoft were highly questionable and they got into a lot of trouble – rightly or wrongly over the whole affair, but please lets move on.

The European Commission’s investigation into this same case has been dragged on and on, requiring Microsoft to pay massive billion dollar fines and make API’s and documentation available to all those who wish to “play nicely” on Microsoft’s Operating System. Initially Microsoft refused to pay the fines and instead tried to fight the actions...eventually they opened up their API’s and provided the documentation that was required of them, but they stead-fast refused to release certain part of the Windows Operating System code (and rightly so in my opinion).

The EC then went on to investigate Microsoft’s decision to bundle Media Player as the default player within Windows. Again after lengthy legal proceedings Microsoft backed down and agreed to play ball with the EC, releasing a version of Windows that didn’t include the Media Player application. Sales of this version of Windows bombed in comparison to those versions which still included the Media Player (I mean, why pay the same amount of money for a version with less features?).

This time around the EC have once again been gunning for Internet Explorer ; only this time Microsoft headed them off at the past, by announcing that in Europe the new Windows 7 Operating System would not be released as an “upgrade” and instead only full versions of the OS would be released without an Operating System (very different to the US where upgrade versions are going to be released and Internet Explorer will be bundled in as standard), this would be known as “Windows 7 E”.

Obviously this meant that anyone in Europe who bought Windows 7 would have to download their own internet browser software prior to installing the new operating system. Microsoft planned to give away free copies of IE7 on separate discs to those who bought in store – also on these discs would be the Windows Live installer (Live Messenger, Live Movie Maker, etc, etc).

The EC though were less than impressed at Microsoft’s apparent showboating antics at unbundling IE before they were asked to (go figure!). This was because the EC was more interested in having a voting engine built into the Windows installer that prompted the user to select which browser they would like to have installed at the time of installation. This meant Microsoft would have to gain authorisation (presumably really easily), from their competitors to include their browsers installers in with the Windows 7 installation routine.

Whilst we’re still a few good months away from Microsoft releasing Windows 7 (October 22nd being the day it ships), it seems that Microsoft are still weighing up the options as whether to include this voting system or not. My question is why should Microsoft include copies of their competitor’s products in the Windows 7 OS for selection or not include their own browser at all?

Most version of Linux are bundled with Firefox, Apple bundle their Safari browser with their Operating System and presumably Google’s Chrome OS will use their Chrome browser as their default internet navigation tool? Why are Microsoft being singled out over which browser does or doesn’t come with Windows 7 – especially when users are still free to install alternative browsers and make the selections on which one is to be the “default browser” on their systems?

To me it makes no sense, Microsoft write the code, so why do other external bodies get to say which features or selections of code make the final release? If consumers were so dead against Internet Explorer being bundled with Windows 7, surely they wouldn’t buy Windows and instead opt for something else? But as I pointed out earlier, switching to Apple would mean a Safari client, Google a Chrome client and Linux a Firefox client – each have the ability to change their default, yet no one is investigating these “monopolies” or coding practices.

Also, which browser you use is not just limited to the desktop anymore – every mobile phone sold these days has their own browser preinstalled. The iPhone uses a version of Safari, Windows Mobile IE5/IE6, Nokia uses their own designed for their Symbian OS, etc. No where has the issue of which browser software that is bundled with your mobile been highlighted and its possibly even more difficult to remove or change a mobile phones browser than is it to change a desktop’s default software – yet I can’t seen the EC switching their attention to handset manufactures any time soon.

It annoys me that Microsoft are singled out and their code has to be tweaked to satisfy each countries governments or legislations – I can understand if Microsoft weren’t bringing support to each country such as including language packs, locale settings, etc, but to tweak the underlying code to each and every whim is surely not the best way forward in creating a generic underlying codebase from which to progress and build upon for future releases and improve security, features, additions.

A great example of this would be Microsoft’s soon to be released Anti-Virus product “System Essentials”. It would be outstanding if Microsoft could bundle this into Windows 7 and everyone, regardless of their computer experience got a product capable of providing some protection over their computers, thus preventing the spread of viruses and malware, etc. Instead, they have to offer this as a separate download – something the user must go out and actively seek, which means it must be something they understand and ultimately want. By the time they have been bitten by a virus or been taken over with adware, it’s often too late – and Microsoft get blamed for not doing more to actively encourage system security and protection.

More technical users would know how to disable/remove any software that is bundled with Windows 7 and replace with their own, perhaps more trusted alternatives – and that’s fine, at least they have the option to step back and customise on their own terms, but there is no way Microsoft could provide voting menus and customisation of each and every application contained with the OS – it just wouldn’t be viable.

As a consumer and buyer of Windows and Microsoft products is exactly what they offer right now – a base system with a number of applications pre-bundled that work, the ability to download additional features (Live Messenger, Live Movie Maker, etc), or updates to existing pre-bundled features and then the option for me to install third-party applications from other vendors and select which applications I want as my defaults. I then know exactly which errors that are generated to blame Microsoft for and which are belonging to those I chose to install myself as alternatives.

Simples!

I don’t need the EC putting pressure on Microsoft to deliver the product I want from them – if I was so dead against something I (and presumably others too), would write to Microsoft and leave feedback on what they wanted instead on the various message boards – if not, I always have the choice to vote with my cash and switch to an alternative Operating System.

Read more here.

A Smart Decision On A Smart Phone

Anyone who’s been following my Twitter feed over the last few weeks will have noticed that I’ve been sorting out my mobile phone contract – as one service came to an end, I moved to another provider for hopefully a better quality of service or at least the minimum (same) amount of hassle – I’ve been very fortunate to never have to call up customer services with issues and problems about my service or my bill. It’s simply been paid monthly and without any worry or hassle.

Why, you may be wondering, have I decided to switch my mobile provider then? Well, the answer is simple and perhaps a little boring – I needed an unlimited web/data package as I’m soon to be without the constant stream of a wireless internet connection nearby for much longer – and I cannot live without being “connected” to the online community of the internet.

What I have not done however, is switch my mobile phone handset – yet! And the reason for this is that I am undecided on which handset to actually switch to. I have therefore decided to stick with my trusty HTC Touch for a little while longer whilst I carefully watch the market and eventually make the mistake of picking the wrong handset for me.

Of course, there is nothing stopping me from sticking with my HTC device, but the device is over a year old now and has adapted to that “worn” look that no body ever wants from their favourite gadgets. The screen has been cracked, scratched and the body of the phone has been bashed and dropped – but more than this, the technology within has become out-dated; the browser is slow, the touch screen seems to be annoying (when compared with newer touch screen phones), the OS is outdated and after so much time spent with the device, its no longer keeping up with expectations and awe at the newer devices being snapped up around me.

It seems just about everyone has or is talking about the Apple iPhone and how it has set the benchmark in mobile phone markets – not me however, I don’t get it at all. For a start, I’m still disillusioned with Apple’s hardware after not one but two of my iPods unfortunately malfunctioned and refused to no longer operate, but that’s not all, (true) stories I’ve read about Apple’s closed off operating habits (such as refusing to let any other device apart from those branded with the Apple logo sync with iTunes – what’s so special about Apple devices only getting access to my music files anyway?), and the doctorial approach they have for selecting applications for their “Apps Store”, making developers jump through hoops to satisfy Apple’s own needs and wants for their beloved device.

I’ve looked seriously (and honestly), at the iPhone – I bought two iPods, so my hatred of Apple devices can’t be that big – but there is just something about it that puts me off every time. Perhaps its the thought that everyone has one, maybe its because I want to differentiate myself from the rest of the pack, perhaps I’d prefer to support the underdog or maybe its that its just not the device for me. I can see the appeal of being able to download applications to my phone, but once I’ve got my top five or so apps, I’m not going to care too much about looking for new ones, which means that the basic premise of the phone needs to be intuitive and to my needs – the iPhone doesn’t seem to tick those boxes for me.

My choice for a long time has been the Palm Pre. Ever since the device was announced I’ve followed its progress – it seemed the ideal underdog which did everything the iPhone did yet did away with the closed minded approach and instead reached out across the web, using it as a platform upon which to populate and operate within. A Palm device would return me full circle to my roots, back when I purchased and used Palm Pilot PDAs as my mobile, sync’d device for writing emails (offline), on the go and writing task lists and keeping calendar appointments.

But it seems now that the device has actually launched, its been blighted with some negative points in reviews that have started to make me question if it is the device I’d be most happy to use for the next two years. Reports that whilst the phone “feels good” in the hand, it also had a plastic feel and has sharp edged around the difficult to use physical keyboard and whilst the WebOS is totally brand new and has received numerous positive reviews, there are still some edges that need smoothing over for the next release/update of the OS software. The Pre isn’t available in the UK yet, so my decision on the device can only be made as a ‘guess’ or with a reliance on other reviews – I’m hoping by the time it gets to the UK, some of the issues have been worked out and resolved.

People tell me that Blackberries are the way to go – and I tend to agree now that I’ve had the chance to play with a couple – however I have an issue here too. The BlackBerry Storm bombed, the Bold is too big and chunky and the Curve lacks 3G connectivity. For a device I’m going to be using for the next 18 to 24 months, in a world dominated by “iPhone 3G (s)”, the lack of 3G is a problem for me. There are rumours a new Curve is just around the corner – but information is all based on rumour and speculation at the moment – not enough to base a solid decision on at this time.

Today I’ve looked at the HTC Hero – an Android based smart phone that can apparently do everything. Yet the downside is, the device is sluggish and unfinished in places with the feel of a Linux distribution – polished and smooth in places, but look under the hood and it’s not so pretty or slick.

So there it is a decision that lacks a conclusion.......or does it? I’ve said for a while that there is a race for my cash and it’s between the new BlackBerry Curve (if it has 3G), and a gamble on the Palm Pre. Whichever one makes it to market first and satisfies those who review them, I will buy first. In the meantime, it may not be the slickest or the sexiest or even the newest phone on the market, but I’m sticking with my good, old, reliable, bashed up HTC Touch.

Punch and Counter Punch

These last few months anyone who has been following along with the technology scene will have noticed an interesting game developing between Google and Microsoft across a number of different business sectors.

First of all, the re-branded Microsoft Live.com search engine as Bing seemed to set the ball rolling. Prior to the re-launch, Google had little to be worried about as they already seemed to have the search market pretty much tied up. Microsoft had its sights set on taking the number 2 spot from Yahoo! however and had reasonable expectations when pitching itself against Google all in one foul swoop (I believe). Whilst Microsoft’s ultimate desire would be to dominate search, search is an ever changing beast and it’s likely that no one company will dominate forever before being replaced by something more appropriate or faster or less advertisement driven, etc. Just being “in the game” is all that matters at this point and Microsoft’s Bing was their pitch to be in the game.

Reporters however made the story far bigger than what it should have been though and pitched the new Bing into comparisons with Google Search from the off – surely the precursor to what was to follow.

Google’s Chrome Browser – an attempt to lure users away from Firefox, not Internet Explorer – was earlier in the year, surrounded by talk of a potential Google Operating System, something Google denied vigorously at the time; entering Microsoft’s territory market seemed like a no go area for the search company. However, it now turns out that Google were plotting their way into this market all along and last week announced their plans to release a “Chrome OS”, initially aimed at netbooks, for next year to compete directly with Microsoft’s new, netbook optimised, Windows 7 product due for release on 22nd October 2009.

Whilst Chrome OS will be based on the Linux kernel, it will be difficult for Google (again, I believe), to launch themselves into a fully blown OS platform that will compete directly with Microsoft Windows. Not only because entering a market full of a wide range of devices (which, lets remember not even Apple can really support – hence their model of doing their own hardware), is difficult and resource intensive, the users will have to be aware of how to manage any new operating system and they will of course still want their favourite applications to work using Chrome just like they would with Windows.

And there in is the battle – are users ready to move everything to the browser or do they still want to live in their current online vs offline, local vs cloud based storage and local vs online processing? I’m not sure computer users are ready to move fully to an online model; I think they are still more likely to want to retain control over their local PC and not have to answer questions around privacy or trust by storing files fully online by a single company and using “only” online applications.

That’s not to say Google’s Chrome OS isn’t going to take some market share – those die-hard Google fans and those less-technical users who know the Google name may buy up netbooks pre-installed with Chrome, but the transition of businesses making the move won’t happen. The reason why? Businesses need to control their machines with things like Active Directory and Group Policies and they need to protect their data and files at a company level, not on some third-party cloud based service.

As the leader in the OS market, Microsoft should easily be able to retain control and leadership over their market space, just like Google will retain leadership of Search. Microsoft’s Singularity OS plans (the cloud based, thinner Windows currently in their Labs) and Gazelle Browser (which sounds complex and rather well developed as a platform in its own right for the future), will keep them out in front in the business space and with the large amount of home users, especially those who use Microsoft products at work and/or have a requirement to play the top games on their PC.

More recently this week, Microsoft have announced that its popular Office applications (Word, Excel, OneNote), will be going online directly available for free within the browser against “Google Docs & Spreadsheets”. Whilst Docs & Spreadsheets isn’t widely used due to MS Office apparent dominance in this market, Microsoft has felt the need to move its Office 2010 offering into the cloud. This could be either to re-enforce its position against Google or it could (more likely), be more to move one of the companies most successful products into the cloud based arena - lets not forget Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie has completely realigned the company towards a cloud based strategy in its products and offerings.

Quite who will move directly from Office application to “online Office application” straight away remains to be seen? I’ve tried Google’s Docs & Spreadsheets online and found myself going straight back to the more traditional Microsoft locally installed application – there’s something about writing and editing documents outside of a browser that makes me feel far more comfortable. Guess my mind hasn’t quite made that paradigm jump yet to working on documents on the web, despite my love of Web 2.0 – yet I’m more than happy to move my email there (Gmail).

It seems its punch-counter punch with Google and Microsoft at the moment. I don’t see either winning outright in any sector (or I would certainly hope that neither wins outright), but what I do hope for is that this competition continues to force both companies to better themselves and create products that customers can intuitively use and continue to define the computing era as an exciting and creative industry.