I love infographics (information graphics), data visualisations and otherwise visual forms of displaying data. I think it’s an extremely admirable skill, to be able to take large amounts of raw data, and transform that into something beautiful.
Here is a small selection of some of my favourite information graphics. Click on title to go to the original. Enjoy.
Lately there have been a lot of lawsuits surrounding the tech community and recently Apple decided to contribute one more to the mix. Read on to find out more and the possible implications it may have.
Summary: Apple’s patent lawsuit against HTC is a carefully planned manoeuvre, that some speculate is in fact a proxy attack on Google.
However, with the rivalries and lawsuits aside it could have a more drastic effect on the consumers. If the courts rule in favour of Apple it could well kill a huge range of HTC produced handsets, and send a drastic blow in the face of Google and the Android platform.
Introduction
On Tuesday 2nd March, Apple announced that they have filed, with the US District Court and the International Trade Commission (ITC), to sue HTC for infringing 20 patents.
The patents involved range from somewhat straight forward (‘Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image’), to seemingly complicated (Automated Response To And Sensing Of User Activity In Portable Devices), and incoherent (Object-Oriented Event Notification System With Listener Registration Of Both Interests And Methods). Thankfully Nilay Patel, over at Engadget, takes a walk through each of the 20 patents and explains them in ways understandable to all.
As Patel notes, Apple has been very careful in planning their attack – filing for the more rooted and stronger patents with the ITC and the new, weaker ones with the District court.
The more important question is what the effect of these patents, whether the courts agree with Apple or not, is on HTC and perhaps more importantly on the consumers.
Diving deeper
It’s been speculated that Apple’s feud against HTC, is in fact more to do with Google, and the Android platform, than it does with HTC.
Understandably Apple aren’t happy with Google encroaching on their territory, as the NY Times reported Mr. Jobs saying “We did not enter the search business. They entered the phone business”.
However, we can argue that Apple has to embrace competition rather than just sue. On the other side Apple is a largely creative and innovative company and if they aren’t able to protect their creations, then they maybe lose the essence of their business. With the latest 74 day sales figures showing the flagship Android phone (the Motorola Milestone – I’m not counting the nexus one as it wasn’t advertised at the same level as, say, the iPhone) selling more than the iPhone; and, the Android platform gaining platform quickly, it’s certainly would be enough to concern Apple.
Google, of course, is not a company that is easily intimidated (if its even possible), and they will certainly not back down from a fight. So far, of course, they are not party to the lawsuit, but this is more of a question of time then anything else. In any case Google at least support HTC. A Google spokesman confirmed Google’s support to Techcrunch, “We are not a party to this lawsuit. However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it”.
Two sides of the coin
All the “healthy” competition and rivalry aside, an important question arises – so what does this all mean for consumers?
On one side, by Apple aggressively protecting their patents, this should (theoretically) lead to more innovative technologies.
So instead of the utilising ‘swipe to unlock’ mechanism, it forces manufactures to develop a new method. From that perspective, better innovation means better technology, and happier consumers.
On the other side, using the same example of ‘slide to unlock’ – what if the steering wheel was patented or the handlebars on a bike, and manufactures were forced to come up with something different? I can see the point of fighting for a unique patent for an operating system or microprocessor but it doesn’t make sense to argue for something so versatile.
This has the opposite effect, where consumers are denied choice – why can’t we have the best features from one phone also available on another. Not to say that we shouldn’t have unique products, but instead to have the common best features available to masses.
Of course only time will tell what will happen, a ruling in favour of Apple could mean that HTC may have to kill certain phones. For now though, we just have to wait – as it’s become almost customary in these cases – it’s most likely that HTC, or even Google, will file a countersuit.
Summary: The iPad sounds like another great product from Apple. The price is reasonable; and the form factor and functionality is enough to put other similar products (Kindle) to shame. Though, there are still a few features to be desired and some questioned still left unanswered.
The rumor mill has been churning out rumors of an Apple table for many years now, working especially hard since the latter half of 2009. Now the rumors have a physical form, yup that’s right, Apple has officially announced the iPad.
What’s the big deal, you ask? Read on to find out.
What I’m excited about?
All images from Apple.com/ipad
Though on first look it may not be very obvious, the iPad looks amazing. It’s got the slick, trendy and slim design we’re used to from the current range of Apple products. Here are some of the best features of the iPad.
The form factor is perfect: The 9.7inch LED-backlit screen (with IPS technology – yeah I don’t know what this is either!) looks stunning, add to that a slim (0.5inch thickness) and a lightweight body (only 1.5 pounds, that 680g) and kickass product
It runs ever so smoothly: from all the hands-on I’ve read and seen everyone has complemented how well the 1GHz Apple A4 processor performs. Websites render quickly, viewing/zooming in and out of pictures and videos is super snappy, and well basically there is no lag.
There is no single orientation: as Jony Ive (Senior vice president, Design) puts it “I don’t have to change myself to fit the product, it fits me”. Want to show what the person opposite you what you’re looking at simply flip the device, and the iPad will modify the screen and orientation to suit.
User friendliness: This is perhaps where Apple’s greatest strength lies. With millions of loyal fans and happy iPhone users, a lot of the target audience will already be familiar with devices’ UI before they even get their hand on it. For those that don’t the iPhone OS user interface is extremely easy to pick up and become efficient at. Did I mention that most of the 140,000 apps available [for the iPhone] will work on the iPad
Price and portability: I have the say a $499 price tag is pretty appealing (we’ll have to wait and see how Apple will price the device in the UK and Europe), and of course it’s extremely portable. Of course the obvious question is “would you rather carry a netbook or the iPad?”
Does this mean the end of eBook readers?
I would think so, why buy a eBook reader (like the Amazon Kindle) when you can purchase something ten-times better (looks and functionality) for an extra $100 dollars. The problem Apple may encounter will probably be the same as Amazon – the availability of content.
It’s also important to note that although there is a Kindle app available for the iPhone and iPod Touch, this will likely not work on the iPad.
Does it mean the end of Netbooks
I think the iPad will change the notebook scene in the same way the Nexus one changed the smartphone scene – simply create a new category of unique devices. Will it replace the netbook? Quite simply, not anytime soon. There are still too many features missing, for example the ability to run more than one app at a time (see below).
Putting that aside, Apple has always had a very closed system and it will probably become more and more closed as time goes on. For those that want something a bit more open ended a Windows or Linux system will provide the answer.
What’s missing?
If I am to pick up an iPad to replace my trusty netbook then at the very least I want to be able to run more than one program at a time. The lack of multitasking has to be the biggest disappointment I have from the iPad. It’s not too farfetched to imagine the scenario where I’m working on a document and want to listen to music whilst I do so, and want to check my email. I should be able to do all those things at the same time! Come one Apple, this is pretty basic stuff.
To add to this there is no webcam, again this seems like a simple implementation Apple has overlooked. This isn’t really a big deal for me, but for those users who teleconference frequently this would certainly be a major issue. I can’t understand why Apple has overlooked this very basic feature!?
There is also a cloud of uncertainty that still surrounds the Apple tablet, hopefully these will be become clearer before the worldwide launch, a few of the highlights include:
Will there be flash support? Whilst HTML 5 video is great it’s nowhere near as widespread as flash content; most sites still rely on flash for content and for revenue (via ads)
How much for the extras? This is quite a real concern and for many this could become a deciding factor. A lot of accessories were demonstrated on release, but there is no word on the pricing for these. Personally I would really like to know how much the keyboard dock will cost?
What’s the “real” battery life? It wouldn’t be the first time that phone manufactures exaggerate the battery life. Apple claims the iPad can run for 10hours or last up to one month in standby. I wonder if this is with the system running the absolute minimum or under some pressure.
What’s the typing like? The onscreen keyboard looks great in the photos, but from the promotional video typing doesn’t come across as a comfortable experience (which would make the pricing of the keyboard dock even more critical).
Which apps won’t work? During the event Steve Jobs mentioned that “almost all” of the iPhone apps will be supported on the iPad, it’ll be interesting to know which one’s won’t be supported. (Though I’m sure a replacement will pop-up soon for any popular app that is not supported).
[Aside: I don’t how rest of the tech community feels about the name, but I’m not particurlaly digging iPad. Putting aside the obvious jokes, I was hoping for Apple to rid of product name with “i” prefix. iPad just doesn’t sound right; maybe I’ll get used to it over time, but it just doesn’t sound natural]
Pricing and availabity
The iPad will be available in three different capacities:
16GB – $499
32GB – $599
64GB – $699
And two different flavors Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi + 3G (with the second option incurring extra per monthly chargers). You can find out more here. Again we’ll have to wait for the international pricing, hopefully to be released in a couple of weeks.
Wrapping up
As with Apple’s recent releases the iPad is highly polished, looks amazing and just captures you the first time you see it (and probably even more when you hold it in your hands).
I’m obviously a little biased in that all this techy stuff really excites me. Will your everyday Joe go out and buy the iPad? I think so, there are plenty of useful features offered to lend the tablet to become an everyday item.
Although it may not become as big a success as the iPod or the iPhone it will most certainly sell well. Then again I’ve been known to get these things wrong!
What do you think of the iPad? Will you be picking one up? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
A Google phone has been a long time coming, for years many enthusiasts have been hoping for the search giant to develop a handset – and finally our wishes have been answered.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you would have heard of the recently and much hyped Nexus One.
I was eager to get my hands on the phone and to find out where the phone lives up to the hype, or is it just another over-hyped empty shell. I’ve now had a little time to play around with the phone, and I can tell you that itcompletely dominates the field.
Read on to find out more.
[All the images for the post are at the bottom of the post in the image gallery]
Initial impressions
Before you get even lay your eyes on the phone the box instantly grabs your attention (at least it did for me). Google have opted to go for an extremely minimalistic approach (see image below). There are no specifications, no product images or anything.
Personally, I welcome this approach – I’ve already bought the phone why does it need to resold to me to again?
In the box: Once inside you will the handset, battery, sync cable, a soft case, and charger.
On the surface
The first time you hold the phone in your hands, you realise just how sleek and light the device is. It really is a pleasure to just hold it in your hands.
It’s got a beautiful and bright 3.7-inch AMOLED screen, running at a resolution of 800×480 pixels. It has the only four buttons on the front (back, menu, home and search (of course!)), plus a trackball, which by the way is able to display multiple colours.
Other than that there is the usual volume buttons on the side, the power and 3.5mm headphone jack on the top and usb port and dock connectors at the bottom.
All of this is house in a gorgeous and thin chassis (it’s thinner than a #2 pencil!), and with the battery attached weighs only 130g.
I should mention that setting up the phone is extremely easy to do. When you first turn the phone-on you simply sign-in or sign-up to a Google account and within minutes your phone is populated with your emails, contacts and calendars.
N.b. You can also get the phone custom engraved, I chose not to, but from the examples I’ve seen it looks pretty cool.
Under the hood
Under the hood the phone is running a 1GHz ‘Snapdragon’ Qualcomm QSD 8250 processor – which basically means a really fast processor – and it is exactly that.
The processor handles the the visual enhancement that come included with Android 2.1 (live wallpapers, 3D effects on menu, and other animations) extremely well. During general use I’ve not noticed any lag.
Although there was occasional lag if I had Twidroid (twiter app), music player and browser running at the same time but this only seem to be apparent if I chose to go to the home screen – and even then only occasionally.
Elsewhere the phone has the usual GPS, stereo Bluetooth, digital compass, light and proximity sensors and accelerometer onboard. It also features two mics for active noise cancelling, which I’ve found to work like a charm.
Wi-Fi is provided in B and G variety also I have read at several instances that the phone is capable of wireless N, though whether this is true or not remains to be seen.
Camera
The camera’s 5 megapixel with an LED flash, and the quality compared with my previous phones (HTC Touch Pro 2 & HTC Hero) is great. There is 2x digital zoom, with autofocus from 6cm to infinity.
Of course, the camera is also able to capture video at 720×480 pixels at 20fps (or higher), and you are able to upload the videos directly to YouTube (this works very well, though due to the size of the video files you are only able to upload videos via Wi-Fi).
The single LED flash seems to work well enough, but perhaps it may have been better to have two. The only real complain I have with the camera is that sometimes it can take a little too long!
Have a look at the sample images and video below to gauge the quality for yourself.
Battery
Of course being a cell phone, the battery life is quite an important factor, Google promises:
Up to 7 hours talk time on 3G (up to 10 on 2G)
Up to 250 hours standby time on 3G (up to 290 on 2G)
Up to 5 hours of Internet use on 3G (up to 6.5 on Wi-Fi)
Up to 7 hours of video playback, and
Up to 20 hours of audio playback
These seem to be more or less on par with what I found during my time with the phone. However, I would emphasise that if you use the phone on a regular basis, then likely you will need to charge the phone on a daily basis.
The good news is that the battery is removable which means that you can purchase and keep a spare with you for emergency use.
Software
The nexus one boasts the latest build of Google’s mobile OS, Android 2.1 (Eclair).
If you’ve used an android device before (one that isn’t running a custom skin like HTC Sense), is that it packs a lot of eye candy – from the home screen, to the menus, to certain applications and widgets.
There are certain features that there purely for cosmetic value, such as the live wallpapers (theses are wallpapers that you can interact with), and others that make the device much more fun to interact with.
Here are some of features that I thought were particularly neat:
The home screen: the home screen now boasts five tabs or pages to place your apps, up from the previous three. The screen you’re on is shown by dots on button corners of the screen, and if you long press on these you get a card like overview of all your pages.
The menu as well as the icons have also been given an overhaul. The icons look great and the menu has a 3D rolodex thing going on.
One of the best features is voice search (though this was also available in Android 2.0), and the brand new speech-to-text ability. The most impressive thing is that this works for almost all text field (except fields for things like username and passwords for obvious reasons!). This is an extremely useful feature, for things like texting whilst driving etc. It is accurate (as long as you speak as if to a little child), but the only problem is that it seems to require the use of an active data connection so it doesn’t work a 100% of times.
There are also a couple of very useful widgets – first is a “Power control” widget which allows for one-click toggle of your wireless, Bluetooth and other settings. Secondly, there is the “news and weather” widget which gives you minute-by-minute history of the weather at your location as well as the top headlines.
Being an Google phone obliviously it works wonderfully well with Google Apps. Gmail is quite simply amazing, providing push-email as well as other features such as labels and a handy “undo” feature.
On the software side my only gripe with Google is that there is still no dedicated Google Docs app. You can view your documents and edit spreadsheets via your browser but that simply isn’t enough.
All-in-all the OS is excellent, which looks beautiful and runs smoothly. It’s easy to learn and navigate your way around as the OS is quite intuitive, though perhaps not as much as on the iPhone.
What’s missing
The phone is not perfect, there are a few features that are certainly missing here.
First, and perhaps the most important omission is multi-touch support. If you’re switching from an iPhone to this, this will become apparent and annoying very quickly.
Being able to pinch and zoom in an out of pictures, web pages, etc., as trivial as it may seem, is quite an important one. However, this feature is enabled in the hardware just not implement in the OS itself.
For example if you install the free Dolphin browser you are able to use multi-touch there. I’m guessing Google didn’t enable multi-touch as to not infringe on any patents that Apple may hold – or else there would simply be no reason to do it.
Secondly, the virtual keyboard is crappy. I think I might be a little harsh here as I’m used to an actual qwerty keyboard. Though the keyboard is certainly better than on the HTC hero (the only other Android device I’ve used), it’s not as good as on the iPhone. Again, this may be due to the lack of multi-touch, as you can only press one key at at time!
The only other major complain I have is the connectivity with my computer. Currently there are too many steps involved, this process needs to be more streamlines and efficient.
More specifically for non-US users the Google Maps Navigation is not available (you can learn more here), and the same goes for Google Voice (learn more here). Both of these services seem absolutely amazing and have been received very well in the US – so why not make them available in the UK?
The good news is that, these all seem to be software problems – so hopefully Google will take some of the feedback onboard and improve these features in the next update for Android.
The competition
Obviously a lot of people will be asking the ,supposedly, all important question – “is this an iPhone killer?”. Whilst at the same time it’s not unreasonable to draw a comparison between the nexus one and the Palm Pre and Motorola Droid (aka Milestone).
Thankfully BillShrink [via] have come up with a very handy chart to help us out here:
How much and where can I get one
The phone can be bought directly from google.com/phone; unlocked it will cost you $529 unlocked, or£374 or us UK folks (this includes a UK adapter and delivery).
If were thinking of getting the phone on contract then unfortunately you’ll have to wait until spring, when it should be available through Vodafone. [US customers can get it on contract now for $80 p/m on T-mobile, and from spring also from Verizon and Vodafone).
[Aside: I have to take my hat off to DHL (the carrier Google ships the phone through, at least to the UK). I ordered my phone on the early morning of 6th and I had the phone in my hands on the morning of the 8th – considering the handset is coming from the states, this is great service.]
Conclusion
At the present, I would say this is one of the best phones around, even more so if your life revolves around Google apps like Gmail and Google calendar. The phone is not perfect, though it does very close, and certainly a lot closer than any other model out there.
The bottom line: The nexus one is sleek, sexy, functional and fun to use and have. If you are looking for a new phone (especially an Android variety), this is the one to get.
Besides, who knows maybe with the next update of Android we might be able to access features like multi-touch, better music app and better synchronisation. Here’s hoping…
Do you own or plan on getting a nexus one? Or do you feel repulsed by the idea of owning one? Share in the comments
Image Gallery
Click thumbnail to see higher resolution image (this may be a little slow with slower internet connections).
Facebook has over 350million users, and as a long time and heavy user of the service I’m always looking for ways to improve my experience.
It seems that my prayers have been answered, one of my favourite blogs – Mashable – has published a Facebook Guidebook full of tips, tricks and guide explaining how to do just about anything on facebook.
From managing information overload in your feed to finding worthy Facebook applications to best practices for brand-building, the Facebook Guide Book is chock full of tips and tricks to help improve your Facebook experience. We hope everyone from beginner to advanced users will find something of value in the resources we’ve collected; and we’ll continue to cultivate and maintain this space as Facebook itself continues to grow and change.
The guide is perfect for users of all experience level, and if you find it useful please pass on the link to someone might enjoy it as well.
I was reading Family Lore blog’s review of the year and it reminded me of some interesting stories that made it to press during 2009. I decided to do highlight a few that I found remarkable.
If you are a drunk driver in Montgomery County, Texas then it may prove to be risky business. Apparently (via), the Montgomery County district attorney’s office has decided to tweet the names of all those that are driving whilst intoxicated between Christmas and New Year’s eve. Is it just me or is this a really stupid idea?
On face value it doesn’t seem like that bad a idea that might in fact deter people from drunk driving – you don’t really want your family, friend and neighbours to know that you got busted do you?
I’m not an expert in US law (or Texan law). but apparently the information is already publicly available, so what’s the problem?
On the other hand I can see two problems straight away. First, the tests aren’t a 100% correct, false positives aren’t exactly uncommon, and secondly, it rains all over the maxim “innocent until proven guilty”.
The names of the guilty will be posted on the Montgomery County DA’s twitter page (@MontgomeryTXDAO), and they want to do this during other holiday seasons as well. Good luck to them.
The end of the year seems to be the perfect excuse to create lists. Sure you can look back at the highlight reel for the year gone (but you know what the big moments were, you were there), instead I’ve decided to look ahead at the tech wonders we can [hopefully] expect in 2010.
So join me in pondering over the tech marvels that await us in the year ahead (in absolutely no oder whatsoever).
Cloud computing will explode: Cloud computing is basically the process of doing what you do on your desktop, online. Whilst many services are already in place (Google Docs), it requires users to trust their data with 3rd Party companies. The benefit is obvious: you’re able to access the information anywhere, providing there is a internet connection. With release of Office 2010 later on the year, and Microsoft allowing free access to a lightweight online office suite, more people will be doing more things on the cloud.
Facebook and twitter will take over the world: killing all other services in the process. And, and all th while people will keep publishing more and more personal information then complaining that others saw it.
Netbooks will take a back seat to smartphones: netbooks are great, to many they provide a virtual home away from home, but in the end it’s a separate piece of equipment to carry. With the smartphones getting more powerful and more capable (I’m rooting Google Android), and of course more portable I think netbooks will have pretty stringent competition.
Android will be accepted by the masses: I think maybe 2010 will be the year when people realize that the the platform matters a lot more than then number of apps available. Don’t get me wrong I’m not hoping for an iPhone killer but a harmonious world where the two can live happily together. Wishful thinking,
Apple will breath new life into tablet PCs: If the rumours are correct, and lets hope that they are, then Apple will be releasing a tablet PC later this year rumoured to be called ‘iSlate’. Looking at Apple’s past success this could finally breath new life into tablet PCs. Additionally, as supposedly the iSlate is suppose to be an excellent eBook reader, this could mean some healthy competition to the Amazon Kindle and co.
The web becomes even more influential: With the growth of twitter and facebook (see above) and the inclusion of real-time search results by Bing and Google, people will have instant access to each others opinions.
Television grows up: with 3D movies becoming a common sight, it should help carry the 3D market to out living room with affordable 3DTV’s. Couple this with integrated internet and we have on-demand TV like never before.
Of course these are all what I’m hoping for to happen in 2010, but with technology and more so the tech companies being as spontaneous and unpredictable as they are, anything is possible.
Is there anything I missed out, or do you just completely disagree with me? Let me know in the comments below.
Note: this is not a review, just a discussion of some ideas raised by the book and others that occurred as a result!
Though I am sure the thoughts that came to my mind reading this book weren’t the kind the authored (probably) intended. The book “explores the technical, social, legal, and economic aspects of the kind of infrastructure that we should be building for scholarly research in the twenty-first century.” You may be thinking – why should I care?
That’s a perfectly good question. The truth is I don’t care about that. I do care about some other issues that came to mind as a result of the book. For example, consider the original use of the internet – it was to communicate research finding amongst scholars. Obviously, over time the internet has developed to much more than that, and as a result the internet has become full of both verifiable and unverifiable data.
The problem for most people is in distinguishing between that verifiable and unverifiable data. This is something that, I believe, we should all care about. And it is something that pops up each time I research an article or topic. Is the information I’m reading concrete or just based on loose opinion?
Of course, there is nothing wrong with opinion, but opinion labelled as factual data can do great harm.
As Bergman argues, with the ever increasing complexities of the modern society we need equally advanced infrastructures that are able to support and manage this vast amount of data.
The second interesting point that is brought up is whether printed publications will remain practical. Though the author is specifically talking about scholarly publications this is something that is affecting pretty much all printed media.
More and more printed material is being digitized. The burning question here is – will printed publications go extinct in the next few years?
As someone who loves technology, I still love to hold a book in my hand and read it. The physical appeal is too strong for me. I believe this is the case for many others. However with the release of devices such as the Amazon Kindle, the tide may soon turn.
Overall the book, though primarily aimed at policy makers and information scientist, was a interesting read that bring forth many thought provoking topics. It is clearly a well researched book that will become a good reference point for future developments and debates.
