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Google, Make Me Happy Again!

The new iPhone has made Android owners feel inferior and not so special anymore. However, Google Labs has just launched a new tool to invent your own applications. What’s more fun than creating your own applications? My Easy-Bake-Oven was my favorite toy when I was little and it seems we never grow out of having fun creating new things.

The App Inventor software is still just in Google labs, but is ready and available for use. It allows a user to create an application for Android powered devices. Released on July 12, the App Inventor makes cell phone owners more involved in the applications. As cell phones become more and more advanced, they become more and more like computers. So, it is important to increase user involvement and user knowledge.

Google is proud of this new tool’s easy to use features for all ages. It has been in development for a year already and tested on students, professionals, non-programmers, even sixth graders. Google believes the tool is a good first experience of computer programming for these children. Exposure to simple and fun computer programming is beneficial to kids in the long run.

Also, Google hopes that by opening up its applications’ invention to more and more creators, it will even up with Apple’s app store and maybe even surpass it. Android phones are definitely a forerunner in the smartphone market, but they are also well behind the iPhone. And while Apple’s app store has strict rules and regulations on the apps they provide, Google does not. They are hoping this access and freedom will attract more users and app inventors.

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Will iTunes be Moving to the Cloud Any Time Soon?

Apple has had a lot on their plate lately. IPad shortages, tons of iPhone 4 problems, and now a lawsuit thanks to the iPhone 4′s awful reception. The last thing Apple should be worrying about is iTunes, and yet there is a rumor that Apple is planning to move the music marketplace to the cloud.

The Boy Genius Report cited some “reliable Apple sources” when reporting a story on iTunes’ plans to move to the cloud. The move would be very beneficial for the service and its users. Being on the cloud would provide easy streaming from Apple’s server to any computer or device. Basically, that just means listening to music or watching movies wouldn’t take up storage space on your computer.

The cloud server would also allow streaming from one home computer to another, and also to any remote devices. Any Apple product with wireless access can be connected to each other for a sort of mini network. The same connection will allow for wireless syncing between computer and device. Think about that one for a minute. Yes, automatic syncing between your iPod Touch and iTunes library on your laptop. Even new apps for your iPhone will automatically transfer to your desktop computer library. Boy Genius says, “Changes to your calendar, or notes, or contacts will automatically update on your computer as well.” Sounds pretty awesome to me.

All the changes sound beneficial to Apple and their customers, and I know I would enjoy iTunes a lot more with that wireless syncing advantage. Too bad Apple has not confirmed this rumor yet. However, some past business decisions may suggest some validity to the rumors. Remember when Apple bought music streaming service Lala back in 2009? Well that service shut down at the end of May. Its shut down made everyone suspect that iTunes would be getting a major improvement or even be moved to the cloud… OH! Sounds like that part might be coming true! We’ll keep you posted on the topic.

Posted by Angela | 0 Comments

Name One of the Greatest Tech Developments in Rece...

Yesterday I asked around the office what each Keystone employee thought was the best technology gadget to change its market in recent years. I got a few off the wall answers and a few I-don’t-know’s. One of our experts on the web development side, Jeremy Scott, suggested the iPhone. I almost rolled my eyes at this response because it seemed like such an obvious and overused answer. But then he expanded on his answer and said, “Everything before the iPhone was basically a phone with email capabilities and some crappy web browsing. Everything after the iPhone is about apps and mobile computing and app stores and so on. It completely changed the marketplace.”

He was right. Until the development of the iPhone and the app store in 2008, smartphones really weren’t that smart and app developers didn’t have any good way to get their product into the hands of consumers. Smartphones in general changed the cell phone market forever, but the iPhone had a particular impact because of its combination of music, phone, and Internet access. Smartphones before the iPhone had extra memory space, a decent camera, video capabilities, Bluetooth, limited WiFi access, and probably Windows Mobile 6 as the OS.  Let’s flashback to some examples… the Motorola Q, the HTC Advantage, (one of the better ones) the Blackberry Curve, etc. Unlike these other smartphones, the iPhone was released with a touch screen, its own operating system, and its own application store.

Apple created a closed market of applications available to all iPhone users when it created the app store. The closed market provided advantages for both Apple and the app developers. Apple got all the credit and the creativity recognition. The app developers got to avoid the cheap carriers they had to settle with before and were able to reach a huge audience directly. Even in 2008 Wired Magazine recognized the potential in the app store when it said:

“Apple’s App Store changed [everything]. It made creating and distributing mobile applications for cell phone users easy — jumpstarting the mobile-app development market and creating clones such as the Android Market. It even forced Research in Motion to offer a BlackBerry Application Storefront. For thousands of programmers, the cell phone is the new PC.”

The iPhone changed phones like the iPod changed music. The iPod and iTunes made the music industry sweat because it allowed listeners to buy individual songs as opposed to an entire album. Music artists started relying more on ticket sales at concerts than record sales for income. So how will the app store affect smartphones? Well we have seen a major growth in applications since the app store gained popularity (there is even an app for skee-ball now!). Others continue to mimic the app store (like Android) but none will ever be as large as Apple’s original.

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Everything That’s Wrong with the iPhone4

On the radio this morning, I listened to a long winded story from one of the 107.5 personalities about long lines to the Apple store in Green Hills Mall yesterday. Out the door and through a main hallway of the mall was a line about six people wide and hundreds deep. Yesterday, June 24^th, was the first day for the iPhone 4 to be available in stores. If the long lines weren’t enough to make me feel bad for these people, the newly discovered iPhone 4 defects will definitely do it.

Like every other Apple product, a seemingly small mistake has turned into a huge annoyance. The arrangement of externalized antennae, which was supposed to be a huge advantage of the iPhone 4, has caused some major aggravation in the Apple following. Holding the iPhone in the natural way, and covering the bottom left corner, drains the network connection and will drop calls almost instantly.

It seems like Apple needs better product testing. Testing in the sheltered Apple office would maybe account for a user’s head, but not for the hand. For right-handed users, the problem may not be as obvious as media is making it out to be, but for left-handed user it is apparent. What’s even better than this inconvenience is Steve Jobs answer to so many people’s complaints… Users should either avoid holding the phone that way or buy a case for their iPhone 4. What? Hold is differently? That’s not a solution. Apple’s own iPhone 4 ads display the phone being held the wrong way! There are even a few pictures of Steve Jobs himself holding the iPhone 4 the wrong way at his WWDC demonstration! Maybe that was the reason behind the mysterious network problems at the conference.

Other mistakes being reported are starting to pile up and make Apple look incompetent. The volume buttons are backwards on many iPhone 4′s, the rear-facing camera refuses to work, and the screen displays yellow spots in corners. Apple has not recommended any solutions to these problems yet.

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iPhone 4 and AT&T’s Struggles

When the iPhone became available for pre-ordering on Wednesday, June 15^th, AT&T’s network failed Apple once again. Surprise, surprise. Starting at midnight both physical Apple store locations and online Apple stores started accumulating long lines and long waits. By 1:00 A.M. the online store started to freeze from overload. AT&T ran out of all pre-order phones by 3:30 A.M., Central Time. But the disasters don’t stop there…

There were reports of numerous pre-orders being canceled by mistake. Unsure of how many were affected, but numerous customers received an email from AT&T saying, “Your recently placed AT&T order was cancelled. If you believe your order was cancelled in error, please call us…” Apple admitted it was a mistake on their end and said people in this situation needed to either go to a physical store the next day or try ordering through a different outlet. Both options would end up with a much later arrival date than initially promised.

Apple did issue a statement apologizing for all the waiting and blamed all the malfunctions on the high demand and its failure to be prepared. How could they blame it on not being prepared? Apple took pre-orders for more than 600,000 iPhones. Sure that is more than ten times the pre-ordering rate for the 3Gs, but you should have anticipated the huge demand.

Once again, AT&T failed to redeem itself from the shadow of doubt hanging over its wireless network. This AT&T/iPhone fiasco shows how AT&T really cannot handle the huge volume of iPhone users like we’ve always thought. Apple, I hope this makes you realize how much more business you could do if you got rid of the exclusivity contract with AT&T and opened up to other wireless providers.