Jose's Cerebro

iAd, Google and the reason the iPhone is coming to Verizon

While looking for evidence that Froyo is not the only one with wireless app syncing (iPhone OS 4 has the same capability for Enterprise users), I started to pay more attention to iAd - the iPhone OS's "7th Pole".  But it wasn't 'til yesterday that I read John Batelle's post that everything started to make sense.  

I was really baffled by Google's blatant attack at IO last week and I really didn't understand why.  Now I do.  See, the way that Google has managed to get 60+ devices on 59 different carriers is simple: they split search revenue with the carrier.  Now, instead of just "selling" just another smartphone, they can sell an Android phone that brings in income as long as the user is searching.  Brilliant, right?

Yesterday, Google started talking about their revenue share on Adsense.  And at IO they gave a good portion of the second keynote on mobile ads and even gave developers $100 in adsense credits.  Financial transparency and ad advocacy.  From Google?  King of online advertising?  How odd, I thought.

And then it hit me... they're concerned about iAd.  Not that iAds will be technically better than what Admob has to offer, but what iAds can do to Android.  See, from where I'm standing, I can see Apple offering Verizon, T-Mobile or any other carrier for that matter, a cut of iAd's revenue in the same way that Google is doing with Android.  Not only can Apple give a split of the revenue generated by an iPhone's iAds, but they can also beat Google on the percentage they currently get.

From Apple's perspective, even if the iPhone's business was to completely dissapear, they still have the Mac, iPod, iTunes, iBooks and iPads.  Besides some Google Business users, the largest and most significant contributor to Google's business is mainly advertising.  And now with iAd, Apple is attacking the jugular in the most promising upcoming market - mobile.

I can see why Vic had his panties in a bind at IO the other day.  I can also see why Apple is doing a lot of the creative work for iAd itself for the first round of clients.  Apple wants to make sure iAd is an absolute success so it can slow down Google and Microsoft, but also to get on additional carriers without the need for an exclusive contract.  

Is a Verizon iPhone coming out?  As much as Verizon loves Android, they love easy money even more.  With an iPhone, Verizon will add an additional stream of income and one of the most sought out smartphones in the market.  A win-win as far as I'm concerned.

If Froyo and Google TV is the best Google has to offer, they're in trouble

I watched both days of Google IO keynotes in their entirety (yeah I know, I have no life).  Due to my interest in mobile I paid particular attention to yesterday's announcements and demos.  After the dust settled, I finally came to my own conclusions and while I'm a big fan of Google's work, what they showed yesterday may just be a case of "too little, too late"  or a mediocre approach.  Overall, we as users win.  It gives Apple some artificial competition while Microsoft gets its act together and wakes up.  Don't count MS out yet!  My thoughts on IO, Froyo and Google TV below:

See, with iPhone 4 and the new iPhone coming out next month there's nothing (or should I say, not much) that Google showed yesterday that Apple users won't be able to use.  On top of that, Apple's usability still tromps Google in its worst day (has Google ever used the keyboard on an iPhone, the Android one blows and the one by HTC is nothing to brag home about).

So let's see... where do we start:

1. Oh yes, the "Internet" pun Google emphatically kept up bringing yesterday.  Well, it turns out that with Apple's purchase of Lala (which has the patents for much of what Googled "demoed" yesterday), iTunes will do the same and a bit more. On top of that, a good portion of iPhone users can just buy music as well as video, over the air, or as Google refers to it... the Internet, right from iTunes on the phone.  Apple already has a half-assed version of the App Store online.  With Lala, they'll complete the circle.

2. Tethering has been available in just about every other carrier for the exception of AT&T for almost a year.

3. Wifi hotspot.  This feature is not available on the iPhone and I know why.  It kills the battery and the phone gets super hot.  Trust me on this, I have MyWi on my iPhone and while it's great to have as a feature, you'll only use it if you can plug the phone and have the AC on.

4. Seamless web While this feature will probably arrive first via an app, I won't be surprised if a lot of the functionality Apple ends up implementing gets split between iTunes (sending music and videos from the iTunes Live site), Safari (for sending web pages) and the online version of iWorks (docs, presentations, etc.).  What Google didn't mention is Mozilla's implementation, Weave, which will probably get integrated as a Firefox plugin in the not too distant future.

5. Advertising Google sarcastically said that "they know a thing or two about advertising" and showed some demos of things one can do today with their services as well as some they'll release in the future.  Indeed, to doubt their proficiency in advertising would be foolish.  However, while Google has written the book on advertising, Apple wrote it as an advertiser.  I think that's the big difference here.  Apple with iAds is creating a platform they would self use.  And when it comes down to it, Google has a lot to learn from Apple on how to advertise (as in influencing people's perception).  A lot of Apple's DNA in advertising is going into iAd and the patents showing up make a lot of what we know today look like last century's interpretation.

6. Cloud messaging vs. push notification Is there much of a difference here, really?  I'd love to get Jonathan George's impression.  He's the creator behind the very popular Boxcar. I need to learn more about Google's implementation from a developer point of view to get a better sense of it all.

7. Flash While I'm not a flash hater and don't mind flash on the desktop, all the flash lite implementations I've used in the past with Nokia phones for the browser sucked.  It still takes too long, the video is choppy and the interaction tends to be mediocre at best.  Given the 5+ years that Adobe has been working at this (yes, it's been that long, ask Nokia) they should have a decent offering by now.  They're still a year away from something that really "just works".  Moreover, HTML5 keeps getting better and better.  If Apple offers an HTML5 IDE for iAds and apps soon, Adobe could be in real trouble given their dependence on tools as their cash cow.

8. Voice recognition Google here has a fantastic offering, but the crown jewels behind voice recognition (and patents) were just bought by Apple with their acquisition of Siri.  DARPA paid a lot of money to those guys to make something that works and it does.  It won't take long before it gets integrated in the iPhone and the rest of the OSs.  Besides, with Google's strategy, an app for the iPhone has to be in the works.  I can already use the voice search features in the Google app for iPhone.

9. Google TV I'm loving what Google is offering here.  With iPad and iPhone OS it won't take long before Apple's hobby - Apple TV - gets a revamp.  With Jobs other hat as an entertainment head, I won't count Apple out on this one.  Additionally, I'll bet that an Atom version of Apple TV will be cheaper than what Logitech and Sony will release this fall.  I would bet that an Apple TV offering with iPhone apps would be more enticing than Android, Google TV and Android apps.  If the world was to freeze today, I'll take iPhone apps over Android apps without a doubt.

10. Nickelodeon Anyone with an iPad can go to www.nick.com and enjoy the site.  The example that Vic showed yesterday was picked like a needle in a haystack from that site.  I wonder why he didn't show the rest of the site?  Could it be because the rest of it (because it's not Flash based) mainly works.

11. Apple bashing This was fun, but at times embarrassing.  A lot of the comments looked at times, uncalled for.  The worst that Apple has said, AFAIK about Google is that Android is "porn friendly".  Yesterday, between Google and Sony, they had a field day.  Personally, I wouldn't want to badmouth the most innovative and followed company of our times.  Did these guys forget that Apple spends more on advertising than just about any other company on the planet.  In a fight for mindshare, I think Apple would make Google and also-ran Sony a spank.  Not a good move Google, not a good move.  If anything, we're probably going to see Apple in competitive mode.  Microsoft wasn't really competition for Apple.  This time, Apple may start to put its billions of dollars in the bank (most than any other company, including MS) and portfolio of never used patents on display.  This will be the best time to be an Apple fanboy.  At least, it'll be justified. Lol

I think that's enough for now. Oh but wait, I almost forgot the best one.  What Google showed with Froyo and embarrassingly demoed with Google TV won't be available to anyone for another 4-7 months.  In about 20 days Apple will not only show most of it working, but will release it with the next generation of the iPhone and iTunes and all the other "there's one more thing" curtains.

Before Google starts to poke at Job's world, they should, as DAS EFX used to say: "check yourself, before you reck yourself".  For example:  Why is it that the Incredible and EVO users (next Android flagship phones) will have to wait 8 months to be able to use more than 300Mb-1G to install apps even when the device has gigs of storage available? Why is the on-screen keyboard so bad?  Why can't an Android phone last more than 18hrs of regular use without charging?  Why, if they believe in freedom so much, not create a pentaband Nexus One as Nokia is doing with the N8 (the N8 will run on T-Mobile and AT&T with full 3G support allowing anyone to switch GSM carriers at will)?  Why can't they think about users privacy before desperately releasing Buzz? Why are they deceivingly making people think that just because  Android had decent market share in one quarter (the quarter no one is buying iPhones because they know the new one is coming) that Android is going to overtake iPhone any day now (the iPad is selling over 246,000 units per week and last thing I checked that runs iPhone apps)?  I'm just saying...

Australian scientist changes his mind on global warming

As most of you know, I don't believe Al Gore nor in his "Inconvenient Truth".  His argument to make us believe that we - humans - are responsible for global warming is weak and full of fallacies.  Moreover, I really can't respect a man that's willing to make such allegations and not make himself available for an open, public debate on the matter.  Sigh.

Despite of all the global warming disinformation going on, there are a few souls that are willing to put their neck on the line on our behalf.  Take for example Dr. Davis Evans and his confession on The Australian newspaper:

"I DEVOTED six years to carbon accounting, building models for the Australian Greenhouse Office. I am the rocket scientist who wrote the carbon accounting model (FullCAM) that measures Australia's compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, in the land use change and forestry sector.

FullCAM models carbon flows in plants, mulch, debris, soils and agricultural products, using inputs such as climate data, plant physiology and satellite data. I've been following the global warming debate closely for years.

When I started that job in 1999 the evidence that carbon emissions caused global warming seemed pretty good: CO2 is a greenhouse gas, the old ice core data, no other suspects.

The evidence was not conclusive, but why wait until we were certain when it appeared we needed to act quickly? Soon government and the scientific community were working together and lots of science research jobs were created. We scientists had political support, the ear of government, big budgets, and we felt fairly important and useful (well, I did anyway). It was great. We were working to save the planet.

But since 1999 new evidence has seriously weakened the case that carbon emissions are the main cause of global warming, and by 2007 the evidence was pretty conclusive that carbon played only a minor role and was not the main cause of the recent global warming. As Lord Keynes famously said, "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?""

Dr. Evans proceeds by giving a primer on the facts about global warming and the reason for his change in mind.  A must read for those interested in the topic and those that want to stop the current biofuel's based genocide.

My research and how-to work on Nokia's Nseries Workshop

I've been writing a series of posts for Nokia's Nseries Workshop based on my research.  The rest are mainly how-to's - for those newbies that want to do more with their mobiles than make calls and send text messages - and coverage of current events in the mobile world.

Here's a list of the last 20 articles I've written:

How to use Mobile Web Server: Part 3

How to use Mobile Web Server: Part 2

How to use Mobile Web Server: Part 1

Maps On Ovi at Where 2.0

Internet Tablet Video Converter

How to use Skype Mobile Beta on your N95

The noBounds Project

Q&A with David Wood, EVP Research, Symbian

Silverlight News from MIX '08

How to send SMS from OS X with AT commands and Ruby

How to send SMS and make calls from OS X with AT commands

How to geotag your photos with Location Tagger

How to transfer your iTunes library to your Nseries device

New Nseries devices debut at MWC 2008

How to sync your Nseries device with Mac OS X

Stream videos online with Qik

How to flash an N800 image from OS X

How to run Ruby on your N800/N810

How to set up multiple email accounts on your Nseries device

How to use your N95 as an external GPS device

How to glog and more with WayMarkr

Mercurio 2.1 - aka "Poor Man's SMS Gateway"

After last week's update I realized that Mercurio's dependency on UltraSMS was unnecessary. Originally, Mercurio used UltraSMS to send and the mercurio.py script to receive. UltraSMS can send and receive, but it has issues with certain characters when receiving, so I recommend it only for sending. Additionally, UltraSMS hasn't been updated in quite a while. In Mercurio 2.1, a ruby script I wrote replaces UltraSMS for sending. So basically, Mercurio now uses mercurio.py to receive and Mercurio Web - via this new ruby script to communicate via bluetooth - it's possible to use a wire too - to send. 

 

Past: 

Mercurio Web -> UltraSMS -> SonyEricsson phone -> send 

Present: 

Mercurio Web with new ruby script -> S60 Nokia phone (perhaps the same phone running mercurio.py) -> send 

The way this works is by embedding a script into Mercurio Web - in the /lib directory - that opens a bluetooth connection to the phone and sends it commands to send any messages that come via the web interface - check mercurio2.heroku.com/outboxes for an example of the UI. The outgoing messages get automatically saved in the database, but not in the phone. You may want to check the outboxes_controller.rb file to see how SendSMS.rb is used. 

If you want to try the new functionality with your computer, you'll need to have your paired phone set up with a serial interface via System Preferences -> Bluetooth -> Your phone -> Edit Serial ports. Take a look at the SendSMS.rb file to see my settings or you can read this other post I wrote in Nokia's Nseries Workshop on how to do just that. 

Changes in Mercurio 2.1: 

Tosses UltraSMS - uses the new SendSMS functionality with ruby-serialport. 

No need for a Sony Ericsson phone, the same S60 phone used with Mercurio S60 can also send. 

Uses SQLite as the database repository - you can use MySQL if you like. 

Runs equally on Macs and Linux. Supersedes Mercurio 2.0. Small UI changes. 

Download from here or my Nokia MOSH collection.

New version of Mercurio - aka "Poor Man's SMS Gateway" is out

Update: Mercurio 2.1 is now available - read post here.

Last weekend I received an email from Michael Roterman about the status of Mercurio. A few days earlier I wanted to update Mercurio anyway so it could be used in Myanmar. I'm happy to say that the project has been updated.

Changes:
It is now fully compatible with the latest Python S60 version 1.4.3.
It supports foreign characters for incoming messages.
Incoming messages are now deleted automatically from the phone to prevent the memory from getting full.
Mercurio S60 comes configured to send test messages to a running version of Mercurio Web on mercurio2.heroku.com.

You can download it here.

Please let me know if you have any questions or how you're using Mercurio so I may highlight it in the blog.

How does Apple "beat" everyone else? - Attention to detail

As a designer I've been witnessing how Apple has been kicking its competitor's asses via design. I've been using their products as well as their competitor's and now I think I'm pretty sure I've nailed down what Apple does, that no one else seems to understand/do - Great Design is only achieved when one pays really, really good... ATTENTION TO DETAIL. Let me show you what I'm talking about:

This is a little shortcut - I read about it in MacFormat - that let's British iPhone users easily type in ".co.uk" - instead of just ".com" as most US based sites - in the URLs. It works based on your language/keyboard settings. Not a big deal, right? Try writing a URL in any other phone/browser and you'll notice the difference.

And some "experts" wonder why iPhone data consumption is higher with it than with any other similar or more "feature rich" phone!

Skip the iPhone SDK and give me 3G

The latest attempt to sacrifice Steve Jobs and Co. seems to be the "apparent" lack of a native SDK. What a crock of shit. Call me crazy, but I don't really want or need a native iPhone SDK. That's right, no stinking SDK.

Don't give in Steve Jobs, don't give in.

What I really want is a few more "web hooks" to local data and hardware via a sandbox - Javascript would do - and a real 3G data connection.

You see, I come from an old school systems design philosophy - build and design not for the world you're in, but for the world you will be in. And from where I'm standing the mobile world we'll all be in is inundated with bandwidth and data everywhere. You heard me right - death, taxes and an always-on data connection. In fact, I see so much connectivity that if I was designing a phone today it would just be a terminal - no native OS or apps. Everything, including the UI, would "stream" from the server. In such a world, the data pipe is the hardware bus and applications are never installed, they're all there.

It's this pre-conceived notion that makes be believe that a native iPhone SDK is a waste of time, a security risk or just plainly... as archaic of an idea as the floppy drive - which Apple removed with similar criticism. Don't give in Steve Jobs, don't give in.

Apple: We still like Flash! Releases My iTunes Widgets

Is the iPhone getting a Flash player?

iTunes is giving you an effortless way to keep your friends up-to-date with your favorite music, TV shows, movies, and more. My iTunes widgets are simple, self-updating add-ons for your web page, social-networking profile, or blog.

Check it out.

NASA: Data backing up Inconvenient Truth documentary was faked

Continuing the systemic thinking theme...

I've never seen a revolution that was overtly started from the top. That's why I've been so skeptical about Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth-backed environmental movement. Have you seen all the publicity that documentary has received? How about the Live Earth concerts? I'm sorry, I don't buy it. As much as I'd like to think that Gore and Co. care, I just can't hack it. Same goes for most of us Americans. I don't believe for a moment that all of a sudden we really truly care about the environment. If we - the most selfish nation on Earth - really cared, we'd be doing something about Darfur. Those people are dying today. We are too busy watching sports, American Idol, movies, working, shopping, dieting, and wondering what's going to happen with the recent collapse of the stock market to give a damn. Environment? Darfur? Please. Give me a break.

That's why when I read that Canadian Economist Steve McIntyre has exposed the fact that the global temperature data produced by James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has been faked I'm not surprised. This is the same data that was used by Gore in Inconvinient Truth.

NASA is siliently trying to clean up its act and has re-released the correct data. This is not the first sign pointing to all the faults found in Gore's documentary. Maybe the only "Inconvenient Truth" Gore has to deal with now is how his climate-change based hedge fund Generation Investment Management is going to convince investors.

Don't believe the hype, question it!