The Power of Facebook Mobile: Making Your Phonebook Personal

Last week Facebook rolled out a new version of their very popular iPhone app. Aside from finally enabling push notifications, it also provided a new option to sync your address book with Facebook. At first I was skeptical of how well this would actually work, but count me impressed. Facebook's ability to match your phone contacts with personal Facebook information is very impressive.

Consider my experience this weekend. I received a phone call yesterday from a new business contact who I hadn't spoken to before. I missed the call, but I saved the number in my phonebook. This morning when he called back Facebook had automatically located his profile based on his phone number and name, inserted his picture into my contact listing, and linked me to his profile. I could see his company, and put a face to a name. This was especially impressive because I wasn't even connected to this person on Facebook- it was don't only through matching public information. Facebook facilitated my experience in a way that made the power of its personal information so very clear.

Now all of the sudden most of my contacts on my iPhone have faces on them, and each listing has a link to a Facebook profile. And you can imagine this is just the beginning- why shouldn't Facebook fill in the person's work information or home address, if the person has opted in for it? Then when friends move or change which company they work for I don't have to worry about updating my address book- they've likely updated their Facebook profile, and Facebook will update me.

The syncing doesn't work perfectly, but it's a lot more powerful than I expected. And now I feel like the listings in my phonebook are actually my friends, and my new contacts are real people. I can't wait to see where Facebook takes this next.

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Review: The Android G1 vs. the iPhone 3GS

It’s been a month since I switched to the iPhone 3GS from the Android G1 and it seems worth giving my reflections. When I had the G1 I loved it. The Android operating system is awesome- Google’s effort in opening up the mobile phone is very impressive, and they’ve proven over the last year they’re committed for the long haul. Here’s what it does well: The interface is great, much more like a computer operating system. Simple things like an information bar, which makes it more like Windows, may seem unnecessary to Apple but the reality is status updates like new email & text message alerts are important and often lost on the iPhone. Also, the Google apps integration is fantastic, and for the world outside of work (i.e. Microsoft Exchange) that’s much more exciting. You can sync Gmail and Google Calendar to iPhone, but it’s not native and it kills some of the reasons I joined Gmail in the first place, like threading. Also Android lets 3rd party apps plug in to the OS, which is important for things like taking a picture with the camera and then having your choice of where to upload to, rather than on the iPhone where you have to pre-select which program you are going to use to upload even before you take the picture (or after you exit the camera all together).

Other features of Android like desktop widgets are cool but I don’t really find them necessary. iPhone lets apps do small updates through the icons, and leaving widgets on the G1 had two huge side-effects- it killed the battery life, and slowed the OS significantly. This is also my feeling on multitasking; in most cases, you really don’t need it. If iPhone apps were a little better at holding your place when exiting and re-opening them, and there was a normal info bar for push notification & other message alerts, I can’t see many reasons I’d need multitasking, especially considering the likely trade-off between that and battery life.

So what the iPhone 3GS in the face of this? Well as much as I loved the G1, I really haven’t turned it on since getting the new iPhone. There’s a lot to love about Android, but the 3GS is by far and away a better phone. First a caveat, it would definitely be fairer to compare the new iPhone to a more modern Android phone, but I don’t have that luxury. So after a month of using an phone that is all together faster in every way, from using applications to browsing the web, I can’t imagine having it any other way. Also for all of the suckiness of OS lockdown, it’s amazing how beautifully consistent every experience is on the 3GS. Every time you open an app loads just as quickly, and the usability of many applications is also comforting. What I really miss the most about the G1 is the keyboard, which in all honesty I’d take on the iPhone in exchange for a bit thicker phone. But the iPhone’s typing auto-correction is actually pretty impressive, making onscreen touch-typing much more functional than on Android.

So in the end it comes down to this. From my experience, the iPhone 3GS does the things I care about the most significantly better than the G1. That probably means that Android needs to be installed on a phone that’s worthy of its breadth of functionality, which it looks like the upcoming Verizon Droid will do. If that happens, then Apple needs to take the iPhone OS to the next level to compete. If not, then I’m sad to say I’ll take less functionality for an overall better experience, as much as I didn’t want to come to that realization.

Why I like the new Microsoft ads

The new Microsoft ad campaign has been unfolding over the last few weeks, and it's seen its share of criticism. The campaign has come in two waves. The first set, a few odd early commercials showing Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates hanging out together, lasted only a week or so.



The second wave swapped Jerry Seinfeld out for a series of short snippets of a broad collection of people stating "I'm a PC" - everyone from a random teacher in a 3rd world country, to Eva Longoria.



The Gates / Seinfeld commercials were a bad start - for the most part, they weren't funny (although the last line when Seinfeld asks for a sign from Gates that there's something new coming to Windows could maybe have been funny packaged differently). Worse, though, they almost made it seem like Windows was for rich people that don't get the real world. They even said that they need to spend time with regular families to understand them. It's not that they are elitist, they're just out of touch.

The new commercials, however, to be me accomplish exactly what I think they need to - they take back ownership of the now common phrases that Apple coined "I'm a PC", and they position Apple as the company that has thinks too highly of itself. And that in a subtle sort of way hits home because I desperately want a Mac, every time I see someone at Starbucks that seems to have a cooler computer and looks like they're enjoying it more.
If it really is because they are better computers, that's one thing. But if it's because I am jealous of the image, the cool factor, the elite, the step up from the regular people who use PC's, then I've bought into the "I'm a Mac" image, the Apple culture, and I'm getting ready to pay a 50% mark up on a laptop just to have it.
If the new Windows commercials can make me feel like it's not wrong to be the every day person, if they start to make me turn a more critical eye towards the elitist Mac cult, then I'll start to second guess paying a premium for Mac products (which I am as of late). Breaking down this yearning for a Mac, reminding us that it's ok to be a PC user, is exactly waht the new Microsoft ads need to achieve.

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A lot of Windows 7 Eye Candy but is it enough?

This week saw the unveiling of a handful of early screenshots of Windows 7, the next-gen Microsoft Windows that should replace Windows Vista by 2010. My first reaction is that the new Windows looks beautiful, a significant jump towards an operating system that is actually enjoyable to use. But I'm sure that my initial reaction to Vista was the same thing, and a lot of what what was meant to be in Vista never happened. Additionally, much of Vista that exists is slow and unfriendly, so in the end it didn't turn out to be much of a revolutionary step for Microsoft Windows. At this point, another potentially false promise of a powerful Windows operating system probably won't keep me from finally purchasing a Mac as my next computer.

Reading Inside Steve's Brain - a book about Steve Jobs' product design brilliance

Yesterday I started reading “Inside Steve’s Brain” – a book about Steve Jobs, but more importantly about how he is a master of consumer product design. I’m over a third of the way in and I feel like I’m learning something on almost every page – about him, about successful business practices, about consumer foresight, or about user experience insight. These topics, among others, are rounding out a biographical story not only about what makes Steve Jobs so brilliant and successful, but why Apple is such an intelligent and successful company overall (which is really a reflection of him overall). As I read it, I am also more and more certain that I will finally cave in and buy a Mac laptop come the holidays (I need to sure up my apartment situation first). Among the many things I didn’t know about Steve Jobs…

Starting with his personal life:

• Steve Jobs was adopted (his birth parents must think they gave away a winning lottery ticket
• He’s a college drop out who survived by collecting bottles for pocket change
• He once tried an all apple diet because he thought it would keep him from needing to shower

His business savvy:

• After he was ousted from Apple back in the mid 80’s, he was determined to crush Apple by developing two companies
• He found NeXT, a cutting age computer company meant to compete against Apple head on. He later sold NeXT to Apple for nearly half a billion dollars and indirectly the seat back on top of Apple as CEO
• He bought a computer graphics company for $10 million George Lucas when Lucas needed cash for a divorce, and then sold it to Disney years later for $7.4 billion dollars after a string of hits including Toy Story
• As once-again CEO for Apple, he cut a deal with Bill Gates to drop his lawsuit against Microsoft for copyright infringement in exchange for a 5 year commitment to building Microsoft software for Apple, including Microsoft office, the key software that almost every consumer uses
• When he took over Apple the company had an estimated 6 months left of falling profits before bankruptcy
• His core talent was recognizing the need for simplicity in business and design, which is apparent in many of Apple’s successes
• Along with his predecessor, he cut Apple’s product line down from hundreds to only 4, in order to focus the company towards what it could do best and where it could make money; these products, a consumer desktop and laptop, a professional desktop and laptop, were Apple’s only focus for years to come
• Pixar employees are strongly encouraged to take 4 hours per week of continuing education in film, animation, etc, in an on-campus university, regardless if their discipline, to help ensure that employees continue to develop and rank at the top of their game; this has a feel to the much more highly publicized 80/20 rule that Google has pushing employees to continue to experiment on their own projects

His influence on simplicity within Apples products:

• When the Mac Air came out and lacked a CD-Rom it was widely controversial, but this wasn’t the first time Jobs made such a decision; the iMac was the first computer to come without a floppy drive; Jobs recognized this as a fading importance that just added unnecessary bulk to his computer
• The first iPod had the capability for FM radio and voice recording, but Jobs wanted to maintain focus on the ease and functionality of the core purpose of the product, music listening
• Packaging was a critical component – he designs each product packaging so that unpacking the box introduces the consumer to the product in a clear and conceptual way
• Packaging around products like the iPod is meant to showcase the product as if you are buying art

CES Trend #2: Blu-ray Wins over HD-DVD (and Both Lose...)

This is second of my posts on trends that were illustrated by announcements at CES 2008:

1. Blu-ray Wins over HD-DVD - Blu-ray takes a substantial lead over HD-DVD, but it becomes clear that both will lose eventually to streaming media.

The day before CES began, Warner studies made the unexpected announcement that they will be moving exclusively to Sony's Blu-ray format over HD-DVD. With Warner moving, most of the movie studies will be selling their movies either exclusively or jointly on Blu-ray, and Blu-ray has over 70% of the content expected to hit market (irregardless of Blu-ray player market share). This is enough that most experts believe HD-DVD will disappear, as few people will buy players that have no content.

The big news, however, wasn't the Blu-ray over HD-DVD announcement, but rather the tech announcements that hinted to how quickly the physical disc movie market may become obsolete. Within a few short weeks, several big moves into on-demand movie downloads were made by major companies:

1. Netflix is now offering unlimited movie downloads on the PC
2. Apple is now offering HD movie download rentals directly to the TV via AppleTV
3. Sony announced they will offer downloads of movies via Divx to PS3 or PC
4. Tivo announced additional deals beyond Amazon unbox to download movies to the TV

All of these announcements lead to it being easier and easier for home movie watchers to get a movie on-demand without even a cable service. The Apple announcement in particular is important a) because it's as mainstream and media download companies get right now and b) it's HD quality capable, which means as far as most people can tell the quality will nearly match their DVD potential. All in all, in-and-around CES the theme was Blu-ray may be Sony's first format win after they lost betamax and minidisc, but it may all be for naught in the near future.

Steve Jobs Macworld 2008 Keynote leaked ?

This is potentially big news - Apple is usually a locked vault when it comes to information leaks - what gets launched at Apple press conferences is completely secret until the moment Steve Jobs gets up on stage. It looks like a real version of Steve Jobs' keynote has been leaked to the web, though. The leak is being given increased scrutiny because it landed on Wikipedia first, a site that protects anonymity. The details all seem to fit with early rumors as well. If this is true then I'm sure Steve Jobs will be screaming his head off at fear that his age of secrecy is over, and will be hunting hard for the source of the leak (he is known to go after rumor mills, including suing for the shutdown of rumor websites). Assuming these are the facts, then we can expect to see launched tomorrow:

• 16 GB iPhone
• support for 3rd party apps
• launch-day apps from Twitter and Last.FM
• a new MacBook that is only 0.8'' thick
• YouTube support inside iTunes (download files)

Even if the keynote leak isn't real, a lot of these things might show up anyway. One thing that wasn't mentioned was iTunes movie rentals, which is widely expected.
[read original here]

Apple Should Expand on Music On-The-Go After the Starbucks iTunes Partnership

I didn't think I'd care, but after standing in line for 10 minutes this morning at Starbucks this morning and hearing a few songs that I'd love to listen to later but probably won't remember to download when I get home, I was jealous of the people who have iPhones or iTouch iPods and could download and enjoy the music on the fly. Still, it's so specific - only 1 million people with iPhones, and how many of them will use it at Starbucks? There really needs to be an open standard that stores can implement to allow their actively playing music to notify mp3 players of what song is playing and give the offer to purchase it. More than Starbucks I hear songs I like all of the time in clothing stores (GAP, American Eagle, etc), and often its impossible to even find out what the song is. The more places this music discovery and purchase feature is offered the more valuable and attractive as a sale point it will be. Also, if this was an open standard for all wi-fi enabled players, maybe we'd see wi-fi become a standard feature in product build moving forward.

Technorati Tags: apple, music, mp3, ipod, itunes, starbucks, download, gap, american eagle

Do I care about the iPod Touch ?

Apple released three new iPods yesterday - a widescreen video iPod Nano, a gigantic iPod Classic, and an iPod Touch.  The iPod Touch is essentially an iPhone without a phone/data network, and with the newly added functionality of wireless iTunes when a wireless network is available.

At first glance I was extremely excited about the iPod Touch.  It is an iPhone with a bigger hard drive, a slimmer (under a third of an inch), lighter figure (4.2 ounces is lighter than my camera), full screen video, and wireless browsing via Safari web browser.  Do I run out and buy one as soon as its on the shelves?

But then I started to think.  $399 plus tax and insurance, will probably run close to $600 all said and done.  I don't buy music from iTunes though, so wireless iTunes means nothing to me.  I don't even have new mp3's anymore since I am hooked on Rhapsody,  so 16gb isn't that important to me.  And wireless browsing without guaranteed access due to lack of wi-fi in many areas means I can't keep up on RSS feeds the way I want to throughout the day.  So what am I really getting out of this?

If I buy the iPod Touch it will be the smallest version, probably without a rebate, and I will mostly use it as a mobile computer whenever I'm on a trip. And it will be because I can't resist playing with the browser.  Otherwise I'll buy  the Creative Zen 16 GB which lets me play divx files and use Rhapsody, and a Backberry Pearl 2 when it comes out for Verizon in November.

Technorati Tags: apple , ipod , ipod touch , ipod nano , ipod classic , nano , iphone , creative zen , blackberry pearl , blackberry , wi-fi , wifi , safari

Rumor (or Confirmed): New iPod will be like the iPhone

ThinkSecret has supposedly confirmed that the new iPod tomorrow will be a completely different than what's been out in market, resembling the iPhone with full touch screen, mac OS, wireless, and more.  There will also be a refresh of the nano, giving it video, and a revamped interface, as shown by the screenshots.  My big 3 wishes are divx, wireless browsing, and Rhapsody compatibility - that would guarantee me buying one immediately.

Technorati Tags: ipod, rumors, thinksecret, wireless, pvp, mac os

It's a great time to be shopping for mp3 and portable video players

September looks to be offering a ridiculous amount of impressive new mp3 & portable video players - rumors are all over the place that a new iPod will come out September 5th that has wide screen video, touch screen, and/or wireless. In the mean time, check out the new wide screen Creative Zen that plays divx files,



The new widescreen and touch sensitive Samsung's



the new iRiver with tv reception, or the new Archos players that act as a full media center, including wireless browsing, and more.

Technorati Tags: ipod, archos, creative zen, mp3, pvp, mp3 players, portable video players, ipod rumors, samsung

What would stop you from buying the Apple iPhone?

This graph represents a survey of people who have already stated that they would buy an Apple iPhone. That said, what factors weigh in on the quickness of executing that decision? 60% say that switching carriers isn't an issue; 6% say they would pay over $400. So it will take some time, and it will take a price drop, for Cingular to capture the approximately 20% of iPod shoppers that said they'd buy an Apple iPhone.

Technorati Tags: apple, ipod, mobile, iphone, cingular, music phone

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