• Read more about First headstand with Google Glass

Chris Watchman of mobomo.com doing a first headstand with Google Glass. Many thanks to Antonio Zugaldia, Google Glass pioneer at Silica Labs.

• Read more about Google I/O - Afterthoughts

I arrived at Moscone Center on Wednesday the 29th to a mob of people making their way towards registration. When I finally made it to a registration table I got my badge and was off to the races.

I wandered around for a bit with the crowd until the keynote started upstairs an hour later. I was really looking forward to this, so I headed up to the third floor and found a seat. The music was good and on the screens over the stage were some of the great Google Chrome Experiments.

Vic Gundotra (SVP, Google Engineering) took the stage once everyone was seated. They did a great job of pumping up the crowd and it felt like a really exciting moment when he appeared.

Vic kicked off his presentation by giving a rundown of how great things are going at Google and then turned his attention to Android. While I am not personally the biggest Android fan I was actually pretty amazed at what I saw of Android at the event. He announced a new Android version, 4.1 Jellybean.

He introduced a new UX/UI layer and features, codenamed Project Butter.

Surprisingly, I found myself getting excited by all this cool stuff. While I still feel that there are massive challenges with development for Android, it seems Google is hearing our concerns and addressing them. Their demonstration was responsive, like iOS responsive. The Triple buffering was really quite amazing; smooth, fast and liquid. See the video.

Another feature presented was “Google Now", a tool to assist users with information when they need it most. It was presented as simple visual cards, such as weather, time to home, or time to the office. It constantly learns your common routines and presents solutions and or recommendations that are available whenever you need them. Fortunately it bordered more on the lines of clever than creepy, and I thought it was a really great idea.

Then, what seemed to be a moment many were waiting for, Nexus 7 was unveiled. This is a new Android 7” Tablet created by Asus and Google. From what I could see it looked pretty darn cool and not quite unlike many other 7” tablets out there. In fact my first thought was the Kindle Fire. After a few minutes it became clear Google was betting on this device.

With a price of $299, it is very attractive. The common question for ALL 7” Tablet makers is "will it compete with the iPad?" In my opinion, probably not, but it certainly appeared to be the best 7” Android tablet available. But with no carrier support and WIFI only, I was a little disappointed. I was fortunate enough to get one for myself though, which I will summarize later in this post.

Next up was the Nexus Q. If there ever was a mass WTF moment, this was it. Most of the people around me were wondering what this thing was. Google presented the “BALL” - an aluminum ball with multiple connectors and a LED light around the device. Google was quite proud that this device was their first endeavor with sole Google manufacturing form the ground up. They must have known that people would be asking questions because it was the only part of the keynote that included a reenactment use case of users within a living room.

Basically, this is a streaming device designed to be connected to your home stereo system that will play ONLY music from your Google Play account on standard equipment. It's a way to get music off your phone or desktop and into a more social experience. With the ability to create playlists from your phone or direct account, or your friends' phones or accounts, you can compete for which songs will play when you are all near the device. Honestly, for $299, I am not sure who will buy this. However, it does address the needs of Google Play users who want a simple way to get their purchases onto standard media equipment.

A bit further into the presentation we all hear “Excuse me, cough, hello”... And Sergey Brin appears on stage. This was a great moment. Who could not be impressed by such an influential figure? Most people were trying to figure out what was on his head. He was, in fact, wearing a Google Glass device. He was telling the crowd he really wanted to try something special with Google Glass when on the screens suddenly there were some people in a craft above Moscone Center, each of them wearing a Google Glass device.

Then he explains this is the first time we can actually see “in realtime” what it looks like to jump out of a blimp... The idea here of course was to show that Google Glass is all about realtime and being unobtrusive with activities you may enjoy. He talked to the jumpers briefly and then they were off. Sure enough a live stream of them diving towards the Center’s rooftop was being shown. Once they landed they delivered something to some BMX bikers, a climber, and went down the external walls of the Center to another BMX biker and finally into the event Keynote.

I have to admit it was kind of exciting... Sergey gave the audience time to clap and cheer and then tells everyone at the event they have a chance to get their own Google Glass Explorer for $1500. I think many of us were hoping to receive one as a schwag item, but our collective disappointment faded quickly because Sergey handed the keynote back over to Vic and the 2012 schwag was revealed.

I did notice there was a sense of entitlement from most attendees at the event. Speculation about the schwag was the most talked about topic up until this point. So what did we get?

• Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which I have to admit is a really nice phone. I have already switched over to it from my iPhone.
• Nexus 7 Tablet. After using it for a bit, it really “kills” ALL other Android tablets.
• Nexus Q, which is still in its box.

I spent the rest of the day strolling the second floor, which was the vendor and products floor.

Seeing all the Google products at work and in use by real industries made me feel really good about being there. Everything from Android based brail consoles to Android based flying mini-drones, to Google TV. (I was satisfied they weren’t going to abandon such a GREAT product).

The first day of the event ended with a big party with a few performers including Train. People were excited and enjoyed themselves late in to the night. The overall mood here was really positive.

I spent day 2 and 3 of the event in and out of code labs, product presentations and talking with a lot of developers. Some of the more interesting sessions I attended were:

• For Butter or Worse: Smoothing Out Performance in Android UIs
• Making Good Apps Great: More Advanced Topics for Expert Android Developers
• Data Driven Storytelling
• Advanced Design for Engineers
• Crunching Big Data with BigQuery
• Knowledge-Based Application Design Pattern

Overall, I had a great time at Google I/O. I was fortunate to receive some great schwag, see some interesting presentations, and connect with a lot of great developers to talk about product ideas, strategy, and code.

Visit our Flickr page for some more great photos from the event!

• Read more about The iPad and Other Media Tablets as Productivity Tools

It's the gift-giving season and it's likely some of you are thinking of giving someone or even yourself a mobile media tablet such as Apple's iPad, Samsung's Galaxy Tab or Barnes & Noble's NookColor. You may or may not be inspired by the fact that a growing number of bankers, executives, doctors and other professionals are getting such devices issued to them at work. However, can today's media tablets help such employees be productive, or is there something missing -- such as suitable stylus for those who find finger-based input onerous?

Thumbs Down for the Finger as Input Device

To facilitate enterprise use, I strongly believe that a mobile device needs stylus support, so I suggest waiting to see what 2011 brings. Don't get me wrong. I'm very fond of both my Apple iPad and my NookColor (Android), and find touchscreens addictive. But for some mobile tasks, using a stylus is much more productive than a finger. As a long-time fan of Palm's Vx PDA and the Treo 650, I found the stylus very useful. On the other hand, I'm not so enamored of the Palm Pre Plus due to the small screen and lack of a stylus. I find the device hard to use for my fingers, unfortunately making it a non-productive device at least for me. Now imagine having to either enter a lot of data on a mobile app, or select from a large number of options. Certain professions require this. Now imagine doing it every day. For example, when a colleague asked me to create two medical diagnostics apps for the iPhone and iPad for hospitals, I thought about how onerous these would be for daily use without a stylus. Another colleague discussed a simple image manipulation app for the iPhone, but if you've ever tried cropping a photo with your finger, you know how awkward that can get. Can you imagine the awkwardness of tasks such as signing digital documents, or worse, take notes with your finger? Note-taking, in my opinion, will become a very common activity on media tablets, if stylus support is included.

What's Coming

It's a fact that 2011 will bring a whole slew of media tablets for most or all of the top mobile operating systems, and stylus support would be nice for those who feel the finger is just not an accurate data input tool for the enterprise, or even for personal creative use. Never mind the fact that a stylus can have a finite number of predefined pressure or capacitive settings as necessary, unlike a finger. A stylus also doesn't get tired like a finger, after hours of use, day in and day out. At the moment, there are a number of stylus makers out there. I've personally only researched them for the iPad. What I've found so far might suffice for simple uses, but I haven't seen a for-iPad stylus yet that seems precise (pointy) enough for notetaking or drawing/ diagramming. An informal poll of tech-savvy people I know who have iPads or Android tablets suggests that they'd all like to use the devices for notetaking, and I don't imagine that'd be much different for all the professionals being issued tablets by employers.

Thumbs Up for the Stylus as Productivity Accessory

As a productivity techniques evangelist, I'm a long-time fan of mind maps-based diagramming -- something I just don't relish doing with my finger on media tablet. But as soon as a viable stylus is available, I may never diagram or write on paper again. What's missing, at least in the iPad arena, is a stylus sanctioned by Apple, unless I've taken a Rumpelstiltskin-like snooze and missed some important news. On the other hand, as mentioned in a recent All Things Digital article, a number of stylus makers are trying to persuade Android handset makers into supporting stylus-based touchscreen input. If Apple does not offer their own stylus solution with the next generation of iPads (rumored to be shipping in Feb 2011), or at least sanction a third-party stylus for the iPad before the end of H1 2011, Android tablets could potentially offer a huge advantage for enterprise use. As well, a stylus would open up the possibility of creative tasks on media tablets. For example, photo cropping or drawing, or the aforementioned mind mapping and diagramming. Combined with the popular Swype method of text input (over the virtual mobile keyboard), a stylus could be just the accessory to turn a media tablet from the expensive toy it's sometimes perceived as, collectively, to a high-productivity tool. Expectations of Apple's iPad outselling every other media tablet out there in 2011 may not come to pass if private and business users show that they want precision stylus support. So if you're undecided about which media tablet to purchase, you might want to skip Xmas, skip Boxing Day sales and wait until Q1 or Q2 2011, to see if any of the upcoming mobile devices have serious stylus support. On the other hand, if you just want to play popular games such as Angry Birds or Infinity Blade, there's something to be said for the addictive factor of using your fingers.

• Read more about The Apple/Google Android Mobile Horse Race

Recent reports about Apple and Google mobile market shares might seem a bit contradictory, but the gist of them is fairly simple: both companies are winning in the mobile space.

According to a recent report from Canalys, Apple has taken the U.S. smartphone share lead for Q3 2010 with just over 26% marketshare -- edging out 2nd-place RIM by only 2%. But in terms of mobile OS, Android maintained its previous U.S. lead, with close to 44% for Q3 2010. However, consumer researcher NPG Group's findings show that Google's Android mobile OS's U.S. share jumped considerably (3% to 44%) between Q3 2009 and Q3 2010, whereas Apple and RIM have fallen in that time period -- RIM considerably, by a drop of 24% in that one year period.

On the flipside, both Apple and RIM won with handsets. Apple's iPhone 4 and RIM's BlackBerry Curve 8500 took first and second spots, respectively, in Q3 2010 as top handsets. High-end Android phones such as Motorola Droid X and HTC EVO 4G, which took 4th and 5th places, respectively, are examples of handsets that have helped Android move into and maintain top mobile OS spot.

Of course, since Android has multiple active versions in the wild and is not limited to one manufacturer's handsets, it's not surprising that this mobile OS is in the lead. Also, it doesn't hurt that there are some pretty sexy high-end Android smartphones competing with Apple's iPhones. I recently purchased a Droid X for Android development and I have to say I'm liking the phone about as much as my iPhone 3GS. I also like the Android experience, though that may change once I get an iPhone 4.

Now the question is, can Android maintain its lead as top mobile OS (at least for the U.S.)? Android apps are available in multiple "marketplaces" (including Google's official one), and that number is going to grow. For example, Barnes & Noble is coming out later this month with their Nook Color, an Android-based media tablet that has maybe not the ability to compete with the Apple iPad but to do well if marketed properly. However, taking a page from Apple's strategy, B&N plans to have its own curated marketplace for Nook Color apps. Similarly, wireless carrier Verizon already has its own VCast apps market for Android.

Whether marketplace, OS version and UI fragmentation is good for Android or not remains to be seen; Google is apparently making an effort to unify the Android UI experience for consumers. The fact is that there's a lot of confidence in the OS. According to Millenial Media's State of the App Industry 2010 Report, a survey of app developers and app publishers suggests that the top mobile platforms for 2011 will be, from highest to lowest, iPhone (30%), Android (23%), iPad (21%), RIM (12%), Windows Mobile (6%), Palm (5%), and Symbian (3%) [via ReadWriteWeb and Venture Beat]. Of course, those numbers might change as Android tablets -- which will on average be lower-priced than iPads -- come to market.

Need advice on a mobile apps strategy for your business? Just want to know how you can leverage the mobile platform in general? Feel free to contact us to discuss your app idea or mobile campaign needs.

• Read more about Instant Admin for Google Apps Users

If you're like Intridea, you're using Google Apps for the Domain to handle your e-mail, calendaring, etc. You may also have a good number of web applications out there than have some kind of administrative interface. It's always such a pain dealing with authentication to that interface, isn't it? You can do a few different things:

* Make your own users on the system superusers. This means you have to have some kind of console intervention usually.
* Throw up a simple HTTP Basic gateway with a shared user/password for the admin area. This often gets hardcoded, again not a fantastic way to do it.
* Do some kind of IP restriction or other server configuration magic. This seems tenuous at best.

So what's a developer to do? Well, as it turns out that by using OpenID with Google Apps for the Domain, you can have a secure administrative gateway tied directly into your company's Apps ecosystem!

• Read more about Why Apple's New FaceTime Video Chat is Game-Changing

Apple, Inc., loves to be a game-changer, and the new Apple iPhone 4, announced yesterday, will be one both for some of the hardware aspects as well as for the video chatting feature, FaceTime. In fact, FaceTime might have even more of a social impact than people realize, given that it's intended to be an an open standard. This is a brilliant move by Apple. Why? Well first let's look at the current situation.

Current Usage Situation

When the 4th-generation iPhone becomes available in the first round of countries on Jun 24th (preorders online in those countries starting Jun 15th), FaceTime will work only over WiFi, between two 4th-gen iPhones, only. There are consumers who will get the iPhone 4 for that reason alone. That's a very limited usage scenario and not necessarily enough to win over sales of iPhone 4.

What's Coming

However, there are some other parameters to the usage equation that are not yet taken into account.

1. Cellular networks: Availability over 3G or higher cellular networks. FaceTime over 3G has already been promised by Apple. I honestly don't care about this given AT&T's change in data plan pricing. So unless Apple gives AT&T a stern talking to about the data plans, or gives other U.S. carriers the iPhone, I don't see this as a big deal.
2. Other phones: Usage over any other handset makers' smartphones that are capable of replicating a similar experience.
3. Other mobile devices: Usage over any other mobile device with a front-facing camera, such as an iPad of the future, say in early 2011.

Apple is great a creating market demand where it didn't even exist. Look at the iPod. Did we need iPods, given there were other mobile audio players? Of course we didn't. But they created what became a classic consumer electronics device, and the technology behind the iPod seems to have helped fuel the development on the iPhone/ iPod Touch and iPad mobile devices.

History of Video Calling

FaceTime is not hardware, of course, but video calling has been something that at least North Americans have been promised for decades, and which seems to have stayed in the realm of science fiction, at least for the masses. Until now. We really do need one calling protocol to make it work, with the least technical difficulties, and by being first, Apple has the advantage.

Okay, Apple's not first with video calling. A number of VoIP desktop applications -- e.g., Skype -- have had it for several years now. Also, video calling has been available for conferencing systems -- but such systems are costly and definitely not for the mass market. Apple's not even first with video on calling on smartphones, since a couple of devices were announced within the past few weeks. However, Apple will be perceived as first because of the open standard offering.

Mass Market Video Calling

I have no doubt that Apple can get most or all of the big players such as Microsoft and Google on board to support the FaceTime standard, and in doing so, they stand to further the company's brand. Even if they don't immediately convert non-Apple device FaceTime users to hardware purchasers. How could they get them to convert? By offering additional FaceTime features available only on the iPhone. By offering enterprise integration for FaceTime on the iPad (a future model, with a front-facing camera). By constantly reminding non-Apple app developers and users that 3rd-party apps get access to FaceTime features only with the Apple iPhone SDK.

However, Apple creates the market demand for FaceTime, I'm very certain they'll do it, and video calling will likely be integrated into iPhone OS apps very quickly. Imagine gaming, social network, healthcare, distance education, tech support, service calls and many other niches having next-generation mobile apps with video calling integrated. Even social interaction will be forever changed. (For example, imagine families spread across the globe who will now be able to see each other during those long periods when they cannot meet in person.)

If Apple can convince the right players to join in, FaceTime is going to have a huge impact on mobile application usage and on the way humans interact.

Want to discuss a mobile app with video calling features for your business or projects? Feel free to contact us to discuss your app or mobile campaign needs.

• Read more about Google AdMob Beats Apple iAd to iPad Advertising SDK

Google's newly acquired AdMob has beaten Apple's iAd to market with an SDK that allows iPhone OS mobile apps developers to specifically target the iPad. AdMob's iPad SDK was released on Jun 2nd, whereas iAd SDK is not expected to be announced until Monday's WWDC 2010 keynote address by Steve Jobs.

AdMob's SDK supports two formats: (1) text and tile ads; (2) image ads. Both format types are available in three IAB (Internet Advertising Board) standard sizes: 300x250, 728x90, 468x60. Personally, I'd think that these sizes are inappropriate for the iPad and really more suited to websites and blogs. It'll be interesting to see what Apple's iAd offers.

The two companies are now competing at yet another level. AdMob has the advantage over iAd, being the largest ad network on the iPhone. However, Apple is unlikely to block the AdMob's iPad SDK, possibly because Apple is the target of an antitrust review by the U.S. Justice Dept and FTC. On the other hand, iAd has a development advantage, being able to access iPhone OS features for the iPad that may not be available in public iPhone APIs. Under the Apple App Store's current guidelines, iPhone OS apps must not use "private" iPhone APIs.

Regardless, both companies ad networks stand to gain.

Want to discuss a mobile campaigns or a native mobile app for your business or projects? Feel free to contact us to discuss your mobile platform needs.

• Read more about Mobomo Mobisphere Roundup -- May 24, 2010

There's been yet another "leak" of a possible prototype of the 4th-gen Apple iPhone. A photo (above) shows both a black and a white phone with larger screens. Given all the rumors and SDK evidence, it seems obvious that the OS 4 iPhone will have video calling and the larger screen resolution necessary to pull that off.

Fortunately, in just 2 weeks, all the speculation will be put to rest when Apple's 5-day WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) kicks off on Jun 7th. Steve Jobs will start the event off with a keynote address to over 5,000 developers at the sold-out event. There's an email circulating around the Web that's supposedly from Jobs telling someone that "you won't be disappointed," in reference to what he's probably planning to announce at the conference. I.e., probably the new iPhone, other features of the new SDK, and a mention of the countries where the iPad will by then be available.

What Jobs might not know is the new but celebrated iPad hasn't only been banned in some countries but also in New York's Yankee Stadium of all places. Apparently the stadium's security policy considers the iPad to be in the laptop category, and laptops are not allowed in the stadium.

Has anyone told Yankee Stadium security that even the TSA (Transportation Safety Authority) differentiates between iPads and laptops? That's actually a very disappointing fact. If more venues ban iPads, then carrying a tablet computer around might not become a common practice. I carry my iPad with me wherever I go, almost without fail. Now if I'm driving, I could always leave my iPad hidden somewhere, but if I'm walking or taking public transit -- which is very likely in New York -- then what am I supposed to do with it? Considering London will have full Wi-Fi access for the 20102 Olympics, I'm guessing they won't be banning the iPad at venues there. Well, given that many Apple stores are sold out of the iPad, especially the 3G model, I'm guessing not a lot of people are going to be worried about this sort of ban, at least for now.

Is Apple stealing the market? Google announced last week that they were shutting down their online store and now Nokia is closing their flagship New York store. The Chicago store, on the other hand, is not closing. Wait a minute; doesn't New York have a larger population than Chicago? Wouldn't it make more sense to do the closing the other way around?

AT&T just got the Palm Pre Plus, but they're charging $150 for it despite Verizon's lower price. However, if you're a new AT&T customer, you can get the phone for $50, but without the free Palm Touchstone charging dock. AT&T's Pixi Plus will be available Jun 6th, to join the new AT&T Palm Pre Plus. The free Touchstone charge deal doesn't apply to the Pixi Plus [Engadget]. If you get any smartphone from AT&T, be forewarned that they've increased the early termination fee from $175 to $325, effective Jun 1st -- whether you're a new subscriber or renewing your service.

The U.S. FTC finally approved Google's purchase of mobile ad network AdMob Inc. While it took them six months to approve, the decision was partly to do with Apple's own purchase of ad network Quattro Wireless. If I'm not mistaken, Apple's purchase will result in their iAd network, announced at the same event earlier this year where Steve Jobs revealed some of the features that iPhone OS 4 would have.

The iPad might have a very long lasting battery but most smartphones seem to fizzle out in just a couple of hours of use. For example, the Palm Pre Plus I bought for it's Mobile Hotspot feature (to power my WiFi-only iPad), has a battery that dies long, long before the iPad. But Google's Larry Page recently said that if your Android-powered device isn't lasting a day, there's something wrong with your apps.

• Read more about Mobomo Mobisphere Roundup -- May 21, 2010

This is a stream-of-consciousness roundup of news in the mobile platform space from the past week. It covers Apple, Palm, Android and the mobile platform in general.

iPad sales in 2010 in the U.S. might hit 8M units, up from a previous estimate of 5M units [MacRumors]. Obviously, the international release is going to play a big factor in this, but at least iPad apps are now available internationally [Engadget]. Tablet devices in general could go from 7.6M units in 2010 to 46M units in 2014, according to IDC research [IDC]. To qualify as a "tablet" in IDC's research, a mobile device must have a 7-12 inches in diagonal screen size and have no physical keyboard. IDC compares that figure to the nearly 400M portable PCs that they expect will ship in 2014. Also noteworthy is that while U.S. Mac sales were up nearly 40% [Fortune] in April 2010, iPads are outselling Macs [All Things Digital], are nearing iPhone sales levels, and are taking away iPod sales [Silicon Alley Insider].

iPad and general tablet device sales might be up, but DisplaySearch says that 376M touchscreen phones shipped in 2009 [Mobile Entertainment News]. Gartner Research says that mobile phone sales worldwide grew 17% in just Q1 2010 [Gartner]. With this rapid sales growth, it's a bit refreshing to know that an extensive study does not conclusively tie cell phones to cancer [Bloomberg BusinessWeek]. Though unfortunately that doesn't mean they don't [Mobile Burn]

The number of Android-powered devices that Google is activating daily has increased from 30,000 last year to 100,000 now [TechCrunch]. Other news: there are now over 50K apps in the Android Marketplace, and with Google officially announcing Android 2.2 (Froyo) [MobileCrunch], that will increase. A couple of welcome changes with 2.2 include Internet tethering for carriers that choose to support it, and the ability to install apps on the SD card [PC World]. Google's Android 3, aka Gingerbread, will be released in Q4 2010 [MobileBurn], thought it might actually be numbered as 2.3 or 2.5.

Adobe has revealed Flash 10.1 for Android-based mobile devices [Mashable], with the intent of showing Steve Jobs he's wrong, that Flash can work smoothly on mobile phones [BusinessWeek]. Jobs' issues with Flash is that it's slow, power hungry, not touchscreen-enabled, and would cause mobile apps to crash. Now if they succeed in proving their point, and Jobs' does rescind his ban, it still might be a year before iPhone OS devices get Flash, if ever. (Rumor is that Apple Mac computers will also stop supporting Adobe Flash, which is a serious disappointment to me as an Apple products owner and tech evangelist. While the fact is that Flash does crash regularly on both my PC and Mac, I'd still like the choice to view Flash-enabled Web sites, considering Hulu has yet to adopt the HTML5/ H.264 video format.)

• Read more about Hybrid Smartphones: Android on iPhone Devices?

Sounds crazy, but a couple of mobile developers have managed to successful port the Google Android mobile OS to iPhone devices. One of them even has a dual-booting system, and should be releasing a version for iPod Touch. The only drawback is that you'd have to do something to your mobile device that Apple says is a no no: jailbreak it. But the experiments developers have been doing on iPhone OS devices, including iPad, just goes to show that Apple is dumbing down the capabilities, but for what purpose, I'm not sure. Why have a device with certain features that most owners will never access? Or is it a way for Apple to test what people might want in the future, since jailbreakers tend to be extremely tech savvy power users, whose activities hint at desirable features?

[Via: The Next Web]