I’ve been a hard core Android fan since the beginning. Having owned a G1, HTC Magic, Original Droid and now the Galaxy Nexus you could consider me a “believer”. But there was always something lurking in my experience with Android. No matter how much I overclocked my CPU, no matter how many apps I uninstalled, no matter how many “optimized” ROMs I installed – I could NEVER achieve the buttery smooth experience of an iPhone. There are many theories out there as to why this might be the case but the fact of the matter is it didn’t matter. Having previously owned an iPhone – I knew exactly what I was missing out on and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about going back to iOS once or twice.
*flashback* to the release of the Zune HD. Microsoft released the latest iteration of it’s line of (now dead) Zune media players. It was beautiful and it sported Microsoft’s Metro UI (of which I’m a big fan). I am quite partial to minimal design (perhaps because I suck at design so the fewer elements there are to deal with, the less likely I am to screw up) so Metro is right up my ally. I decided to spring for the device and have not been disappointed. It’s a great media player that does exactly what I need, looks great and the battery life is incredible.
*timewarp* back to the present(-ish)…a couple months ago. My original droid was on it’s last leg – battery not holding a charge, apps crashing left and right but I needed a reliable device YESTERDAY. My plan was to indeed get the Galaxy Nexus (then rumored to be called the Nexus Prime – which is a much better name IMHO) but the phone was a little more than a rumor at the time with no release date in sight. I certainly wasn’t about to grab the MotoBlur infested Droid Razr or anything like it. I’m a purist when it comes to Android. If it doesn’t have stock android keep it away (that’s an entirely different rant). Anyway, with no viable Android alternatives I decided to be adventurous and go for the only Windows Phone 7 device on Verizon – the HTC Trophy. After all, I have a Zune HD so I could expect similar satisfaction right?
I have no serious complaints about the device. It had the responsiveness of an iPhone coupled with the beauty of my beloved Zune HD. However, as the weeks progressed I felt something missing from my life. That thing was pure, unadulterated geekness. WP7 was not only minimal in design but in functionality as well. The damn thing just didn’t DO much. I imagine for the average user, this isn’t a big deal but I take pride in controlling every single aspect of my device. The fact that I only had two theme options (light or dark) says a lot. The lack of apps wasn’t as big of a deal as one might think – the major players were there (Spotify, banking apps, angry birds etc). But still, having those “extra” apps available if I wanted them provided a sense of comfort one would be hard pressed to explained to the unenlightened. After weeks of deliberation (and the release of the Galaxy Nexus FINALLY on the horizon – I mean really Verizon, what the hell type of product launch was that anyway?) I decided that the grass really isn’t all that greener on the other side and so I ended my love affair with WP7 and purchase the Galaxy Nexus.
Let it be said that I have much admiration for WP7 as a platform it just has a lot of maturing to do before I can consider it and alternative to the experience I get with Android. Sure, my nexus isn’t QUITE as responsive as WP7 or iOS but dammit I can effortlessly overhaul the UI at my leisure and that counts for a LOT.
As I stood in the airport, waiting for my bags to emerge from the abyss (better known as the baggage claim belt), I just so happened to glance at my phone to see that I had a new e-mail. Upon further reading I learned I was one of the lucky ones chosen to receive a free Logitech branded Google TV device. This, is of course Google’s way of “stimulating” the development of applications and optimization of web sites for the device. Up until I learned of the news I hadn’t given much thought to developing anything for Google TV simply because I wasn’t sure if it was going to catch on or not. I’d hate to see it go the way of Google Wave. I won’t be selfish, though. I won’t take this device and keep it all to myself and contribute nothing to the community. After all, the device IS retailing for $300 and I’ll be getting one for free so, out of sheer appreciation I do plan to give back in some form or fashion.
The first thing I’ll do is simply optimize my current website for Google TV. This may seem like a fairly trivial task, and to a certain extent, it is – technically. Only thing is, I’m no UI designer. I have trouble ascertaining what looks good. And when I do decide something looks good, most times it looks good to me and not necessarily anyone else. I’ll probably go through several iterations of layouts and navigation techniques before I finally settle on a design; and will then probably change that final design two more times. In the end, I’ll most likely deliver a clean cut, fairly ‘plane jane’ layout which will suffice.
As far as applications are concerned, I have no idea. The things you expect to be in Google TV are almost all there out of the box (Netflix, YouTube, Pandora etc) albeit missing some features but it’s a good start. The challenge I’m facing is, besides streaming video and music, what would the average consumer want to do with a truly internet abled television? This is a challenge simply because no one has succeeded in this niche area so, there is no industry leader – no example to follow. This is sort of a good thing because there is no arbitrary box; which opens the door to some truly creative ideas. Think YouTube – remember all of the video streaming sites that came AFTER that? Most of them sort of took YouTube as their model and built from that baseline. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it’s difficult to discriminate yourself that way. With Google TV, as of the time of this writing, there are no established models.
I’ll probably spend a good amount of time trying to figure out the best way to approach this challenge. Perhaps I’m over thinking this a bit. Maybe I should just start with the obvious things such as social network integration and just sort of work my way from there.
Ladies & gentlemen, Hell has officially frozen over. Apple has released a statement today indicating that it will be “relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps…” Yep, you read that correctly. For those of us who follow this closely remember when these restrictions were first put into place. It was an obvious jab at Adobe. Adobe developed a tool which cross-compiled flash based applications to native iOS applications. In a direct response, Apple restricted the development of iOS applications using third party tools. Now, Apple seems to be completely reversing that decision. This is great news for the development community as it gives developers the freedom to develop iPhone applications using any set of tools with which they feel comfortable. Apple cited the voice of the development community as the reason for the change of heart. Say what you like about Mr. Jobs but, he’s certainly no fool. If Apple wants to remain competitive in the long term, things are going to have to change. This is yet another example of how healthy competition is good for the consumer.
Spent some time the other day working on a new intro for the ‘Jray’ logo you see embedded all over my domain…you know, the one at the bottom of my blog posts. Anyway it’s still a work and progress but I wanted to share it anyway. I stitched together some epic music, some clips from ‘Gladiator’, ’300′ and ‘The Dark Knight’. Finally I overlayed that audio on top of some pretty simple flash animation and well there you have it! Have a look here and let me know what you think. It can also be viewed in the media section of my site.
So Consumer Reports has declared that it cannot recommend the iPhone 4 product until the antenna issues are resolved. What’s Apple’s response to this? They have begun deleting comments pointing to the Consumer Reports article from its forums. I very much enjoy Apple products – I really do. I just don’t care for the company itself. This is in true Apple form though; I can’t really say I’m surprised. All the same, I think Apple could have handled this situation much better. They have a pretty good reputation for delivering great products – and I’ve even heard great things about customer support. No one is perfect. If they would have come out in the beginning, acknowledged the problem and presented reasonable solutions as opposed to never really admitting the existence of the problem and telling people to get a case, we wouldn’t still be talking about it. I guess it all boils down to PR. Remember when Apple was the little guy going up against big, bad Microsoft? When did Apple become “The Man”?
