Permanent customizations for your iDevice

There are a thousand ways to make your iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad your own on the inside, with apps and music that fit your own style. And there are equally as many ways to do so on the outside with accessories and cases. However, there are some personalizations that last forever.

When it comes to doing anything permanent to your device, the choice is big. You can’t be all wishy-washy when it comes to this. (There is no changing back later.)

Did you know that there’s a service that will colorize your device permanently? Colorware isn’t a new company (it’s been around since 2000), but those who are familiar with it usually think of the service more for colorizing their Alienware laptops for gaming or smaller component pieces. But Colorware does different computers, monitors, ereaders, gaming handhelds and mobile devices — which of course includes the iPhone 3GS and now the iPad.

See that? Customers can even hit the home button and logo. The service slaps a scratch-resistant polymer coating on (in a choice of 46 custom color options). If you’re even thinking about this, know that you’ll need some deep pockets: Customizing an iPad costs $400, and $175 for an iPhone 3GS. That’s practically the cost of the devices brand new!

Click picture for rejected engravings

There’s another less expensive (and subtler) alternative for personalizing an Apple gadget, and it’s available to new customers at the time of purchase. Engraving is free when you buy from Apple’s website. You enter up to two lines of text to be approved by Apple. (“Approved”? So much for freedom of speech. What happened to the First Amendment?)

Not everyone gets their device engraved — actually, there are many people who refuse to do it, since it can limit re-sale value on eBay or Craigslist. But the service has been around for what seems like forever, and it’s still here, so some people must be doing it, right?

So here comes the question (well, actually there are three): Did you engrave yours? If so, with what text? And what’s the funniest engraving you’ve seen yet, whether online or on a pal’s iGadget? (The one pictured here gave me a chuckle.)

Know of other permanent customizations offered by companies? Let us know by commenting below!

 

http://www.todaysiphone.com/2010/05/permanent-customizations-for-your-idevice/

Google TV: The Future of TV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljNsmpkS6uQ

Android 2.2 Froyo Overview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG18y6G_f6E

Android 2.2 Froyo - Adobe Flash and Air demo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-N5GIG3k-s

Android 2.2 Froyo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij-76GVAmgc

Google Now Activating 100,000 Android Devices A Day — 50,000 Android Apps

http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/20/android-numbers/

Today at Google I/O Vic Gundotra made a big revelation. Last year, Google was activating 30,000 Android phones a day. The past February, that number jumped to 60,000. Today, Google is now activating over 100,000 Android phones a day.

Android was the second best-selling smartphone this quarter, Gundotra says. They are only behind RIM — and yes, ahead of that other rival. Gundotra also pointed out the stat from AdMob that Android was first in terms of web and app usage among smartphones.

And that’s not all. Gundotra also announced that there were now over 50,000 apps available for the platform. And there are some 180,000 developers working on the platform.

There are now over 60 compatible Android devices from 21 OEMs in 48 countries. The devices are spread across 59 carriers.

 

HTC: If your phone came out in 2010, it’ll probably get Android 2.2

So you just bought the Android 2.1-powered Droid Incredible, or locked in a pre-order for the HTC EVO 4G.. and now Google’s gone and announced Android 2.2. Great.

Don’t fret; if your phone started shipping in 2010 (read: the Droid Incredible, myTouch Slide, EVO 4G, Desire), it’ll almost certainly get the upgrade treatment, according to HTC.

The gents over at AndroidCentral reached out to HTC for comment, and got the following back:

[...] if your phone was launched this year, we will most likely offer an upgrade for it to the Froyo version. This includes popular models like the Desire and Droid Incredible as well as hotly anticipated phones like the Evo 4G, MyTouch slide and upcoming models. We will announce a full list of phones and dates once we are closer to launching the upgrades. We are working closely with Google and our other partners to ensure we have the earliest access to everything we need to provide a complete and solid Sense experience on Froyo. We expect to release all updates in the second half of this year but can’t be more specific yet.

Of course, that leaves plenty of handsets unspoken for. While it’s reasonable to think that HTC might eventually stop supporting some older handsets, what about those that are just outside of 2009? The Droid Eris was released in November of 2009 — will it get to ride the train to upgradeville with all of its friends? As usual, we’ll have to wait and see.

The best part of all of it: the bit about them expecting “to release all updates in the second half of this year”. Sure, it’s not as specific as the update-hounds might want — but considering that the second half of this year begins in just a little over a month, it could be a whole lot worse.

 

http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/05/20/htc-desire-incredible-android-2-2-froyo/

AT&T to nearly double early termination fees on smart phones

Thinking about snatching up an AT&T iPhone, unlocking it, breaking contract, and selling it on eBay for a small profit?

Yeah, that’s not gonna work anymore.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that AT&T’s planning on doubling the early termination fees for smartphone contracts from $175 up to an oh-so-painful $325, with the fee dropping by $10 for each month the customer stays in the contract. On the upside, the ETF for feature phones is going from $175 to $150 (dropping $4 each month), so your lucrative feature phone unlocking business is a-okay. Those exist, right?

All of the ETF changes are purportedly set to begin on June 1st.

 

http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/05/21/att-iphone-etf-early-termination-smart-phones/

The Next-Gen iPhone shows up in all white – think it’s real?

http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/05/23/the-next-gen-iphone-shows-up-in-all-white-think-its-real/

Once the leaks start, they just don’t stop. After the first (and massive) leaks regarding the fouth-gen iPhone made their way out, more and more shots have been unearthed. As of late, however, a new variation has been poking its head up: a white-faced model.

While a few different shots have made their way out over the past few days, these ones are easily the clearest and most complete we’ve seen so far. Note that the face on the white model doesn’t seem to be pushed on completely. Apple’s been offering black/white options since the iPhone 3G, though the face is black in both models.

What do you think? Real? Not real? All I know: if this is real, I’m going to carry the white model. I’ll carry it hard. (Though I’m not even sure what that would entail.)

[Source: Apple.pro]

 

Google Throws a Wrench Into the Native vs. Mobile Web App Debate

In the battle between mobile web and native mobile applications, access to local hardware like motion sensors and the phone's camera has traditionally been a major advantage held by native apps. One of many announcements made today at Google's I/O developer conference was about a still-forthcoming development in the Android mobile operating system: browser apps will be given access to local hardware capabilities.

Mobile developers have expected this to happen for some time and now await details regarding which of the competing standards in development that Google will support. Hopefully Google will support a standard implementation and not a proprietary system that would fragment the mobile web. Whatever Google does could well end up being baked into the Webkit core and could give hardware access to mobile apps on many more phones, including the iPhone.

Specifically demonstrated today were web apps with access to the motion sensor, camera and to Google's incredible voice recognition. The ability for web apps to use voice recognition and Google's computational ability to interpret a user's "intentions" were put together to demonstrate the kind of mobile virtual assistant feature that Apple got when it acquired Siri. Except Google will be enabling some amount of that kind of functionality to be baked into any web app.

It's not clear when these new capabilities will be opened up to web developers, but this is the kind of feature that could make developing on the Android Web much more appealing. Instant, permission-free, web based deployment and updating of applications with access to local hardware? Look out Apple.

Mobile-Centric Standards

We asked mobile web app developer Jason Grigsby what he thought of the news and this is what he said: "I'm not surprised at all, Nokia's been looking at it, it just makes sense. It seemed like an inevitable thing, but it will be interesting to see what they are implementing: Bondi or JIL, for example. The wholesale application community is trying to standardize access but there are competing standards and efforts. Whatever Google anoints is what will win. Can expect commonality between browsers or will it be fragmented?"

Not surprised, but is Grigsby excited? He believes this will be a major move in the direction of a mobile-specific development platform, unlike all the recent focus on HTML5. "Hell yeah, it's about time," Grigsby said. "We've been focusing so much on HTML5, which was started before mobile took off. With the exception of offline storage and geolocation, the rest [of HTML5] was started before mobile was big. Now Google will build this in Webkit and there's a possibilitiy this stuff will go back into the Webkit core."

Bring on a standards-based, hardware-integrated, mobile web app focused development environment!

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_impact_of_googles_exposure_of_hardware_to_mobile_web_apps.php

Android 2.2 Official Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAZYSVr2Bhc&feature=player_embedded

Google Announces the Next Version of Android

Google just announced Froyo, the next version of its Android mobile operating system. According to Google, this new version will be significantly faster and more enterprise-friendly. Froyo will also offer a backup API, a "cloud-to-device" messaging API and support for tethering and portable hotspots. In addition, Android 2.2 will feature a significantly faster browser and better ways to find Android apps.

Cloud-to-Device Messaging

One of the most exciting new features in Android 2.2 is the addition of a cloud-to-device messaging service that, at first glance, looks a bit like Apple's push notifications service. Taking a swipe at Apple, however, Google's vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra noted that this API is not meant to "make up for the lack of basic features like multitasking." Instead, this new API will allow users to send "Android intent" messages from other services like Google Maps. In the example Google showed during today's keynote, Gundotra sent directions from Google Maps on the Web directly to the phone.

 

Speed

Gundotra also stressed that this new version of Android is significantly faster than current versions. Thanks to a new compiler, various benchmarks show that apps on Android 2.2 are up to five times faster than the same code running on Android 2.1.

Enterprise

Google is clearly going after enterprise users with Android 2.2 as well. The new version of the operating system will feature Exchange capabilities like account atuo-discover and calendar sync. Thanks to a new device policy management API, developers will now also be able to write apps that can perform remote wipes.

Tethering and Mobile Hotspots

Android devices will now be able to function as portable hotspots. Creating a hotspot will be as easy as turning on this feature in the Android settings. This functionality, of course, will have to be enabled by the carriers.

Browser

The browser in Android 2.2 got a major performance boost thanks to the addition of the Chrome V8 JavaScript engine to Android. In today's demo, which featured quite a few direct swipes at Apple, the Android browser clearly outperformed Safari on the iPad. According to Google, the addition of the V8 engine has resulted in an improvement by a factor of three in JavaScript performance.

This version of Android will give developers greater access to the phone's sensors and allow apps to interact with input from a phone's accelerometer and camera.

Voice Input

Google also highlighted Android's voice recognition features. As Gundotra noted, using voice recognition currently works great for long queries. In the next version of Android after 2.2, the software will also be able to understand intentions. While Google only introduced this feature very briefly, it was clearly meant to remind the audience of Siri, a company Apple recently acquired in order to offer a similar feature in the iPhone OS.

External Memory and Auo-Updating for Apps

Android 2.2 will automatically move applications that don't fit into the device's internal memory to an SD card. In addition, you can now update all your apps with one click and even tell Android to update all your apps automatically whenever the developer releases a new version.

Market in the Browser

Google will bring the Android Market to the browser to give users a more iTunes-like experience. Thanks to the new cloud-to-device messaging feature, whenever you buy an app in the new Android Market on the Web that app will now automatically begin downloading on your Android device.

Music

Users will also be able to stream their music from their desktops to their Android devices. To enable these features, Google has quietly acquired Simplify Media.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_announces_the_next_version_of_android.php

Introducing Google TV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diTpeYoqAhc&feature=player_embedded

Google Introduces Google TV

Google showcased Google TV this morning at its Google I/O developer conference, entering what's been a growing arena since this year's Consumer Electronics Show last January.

The most obvious feature brought to television by the company that wants to organize all the world's information is search, but that's far from where Google's innovation to bringing the Web to the TV ends - it's just the beginning.

Google TV will be offered as an Internet and wifi enabled box that can connect to a television using an HDMI connection. It will have a keyboard and a "pointing device", though no more specific information on the hardware was offered.

Much of this morning's demo consisted of showing off the search feature and how users will be able to browse the Web using their television. Searching on Google TV allows users to find content both on the Web and on the TV. From there, they can view web content, view TV content or even set their DVR to record TV shows that air at a later time.

The demo got interesting when the presenters started showing off some of the integration with smartphones and the Android marketplace. Not only can Google TV be controlled using a smartphone and speech recognition, but the Google TV hardware will be able to run any Android app in the market place that doesn't require phone-specific hardware to operate. So Pandora, Twitter, Facebook - anything that's an app for Android - will be available in a simplified form for the television.

Google also previewed a number of integrations and partnerships, such as with the NBA or Netflix. These integrations optimized Web content for the television experience by connecting online schedules with DVR programming in the case of NBA.com or by allowing users to peruse suggested content according to previous Netflix viewings.

As Google notes in its blog about Google TV, much of what it showed today is just the tip of the iceberg, as the company is opening up Google TV to developers with an upcoming SDK and API release. We think this is likely where Google TV will be most exciting - the creations of developers using Google developer tools. Instead of having a more closed system, Google's use of developer tools and integration of the Android market place is going to make Google TV the real rebirth of Web TV.

Google is working together with Sony and Logitech to bring Google TV to televisions, Blu-ray players and companion boxes, and you should expect to see it in Best Buy stores by next fall.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_introduces_google_tv.php

7% of U.S. Consumers "Very Likely" to Buy an iPad

According to some analysts, Apple is now selling more iPads than Macs. Judging from the latest survey data from ChangeWave Research, the demand for Apple's tablets in the U.S. will only continue to grow. About 7% of all respondents to ChangeWave's survey said that they were "very likely" to buy an iPad and another 13% said that they were "somewhat likely" to buy one. The large majority of iPad owners said that they were "very satisfied" with their purchase, though about 11% cited the lack of Flash-support as their biggest gripe against the iPad.

According to ChangeWave, iPad owners mostly use their devices to surf the Web (83%), check email (71%) and use apps from the app store (56%). About a third of iPad owners use their tablets to read e-books.

Focus: E-Books, Newspaper and Magazines

Among those respondents who already owned an e-reader, the Kindle is still the most popular device (62%). After just a few weeks on the market, however, the iPad already registered a 16% share in this survey, which puts it far ahead of the Sony Reader family and Barnes & Noble's Nook.

A lot has been written about how the advent of e-readers, the iPad and similar tablets will change the magazine and newspaper industry. While the exact extent of the iPad's influence on these industries still isn't clear, it's worth noting that iPad owners are far more likely to use their tablets to read newspapers and magazines than those who own any other kind of e-reader.

About half of all iPad owners read newspapers on their tablets and more than a third read magazines. For other e-readers, these numbers hover slightly above 10%. This low number doesn't come as a surprise, as these devices were clearly designed as e-book readers and don't offer a convenient way to read newspapers on the Web. Even on these devices, however, the number of people who use them to read newspaper and magazines has almost doubled in the last few months.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/7_percent_of_us_consumers_very_likely_to_buy_an_ipad.php

Google Hiring 300 Temps to Fix Maps

Google is busy hiring 300 temporary workers at its Kirkland, Washington offices to help it make corrections to its maps. This undertaking is expected to last a year.

Google has gained ground on its competitors, companies like Yahoo and Microsoft, by rolling out a series of map overlays for activities like walking and biking. But it has also registered plenty of exasperation from users encouraged to, for instance, bike through the White House.

A Google spokesperson named Jordan told Seattle tech blog TechFlash that a lot of "the work will be focused on data management, said Newman. That includes keeping current on new business listings and the latest information on things like bike trails."

Google "is working with temporary staffing firms Randstad and Aerotek to find 300 'visual data specialists' to improve the product."

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_hiring_300_to_fix_maps.php

FCC Report Cites "Increasing Concentration" of Mobile Wireless

In its 14th annual report to the United States Congress on wireless competition, the Federal Communications Commission said that far from diversifying, the sector is actually concentrating in fewer hands.

Covering a period including 2008 and into 2009, the report, issued today, found that this concentration had increased 32 percent since 2003 and 6.5 percent in 2008, indicating a significant decrease in competition. Less competition usually means fewer choices and higher prices for both individual and enterprise consumers.

The nature of wireless has also changed, encompassing a great deal more data, such as the "transition to a data-centric marketing" with activities such as text messaging and Web browsing, and a greater emphasis on wireless broadband. This report incorporated these changes.

"Over the past five years, concentration has increased in the provision of mobile wireless services. The two largest providers, AT&T, Inc. (AT&T) and Verizon Wireless, have 60 percent of both subscribers and revenue, and continue to gain share (accounting for 12.3 million net additions in 2008 and 14.1 million during 2009). The two next largest providers, T-Mobile USA (T-Mobile) and Sprint Nextel Corp. (Sprint Nextel), had a combined 1.7 million net loss in subscribers during 2008 and gained 827,000 subscribers during 2009."

In a statement accompanying the report, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps agreed.

"(C)ompetition has been dramatically eroded and is seriously endangered by continuing consolidation and concentration in our wireless markets," he wrote.

The report also found that capital investment in the wireless industry has declined relative to size.

Bottom photography from Geograph

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/fcc_report_cites_increasing_concentration_of_mobil.php

How to Design a Web App for Google TV

Google has released a preliminary developer's guide to aid those interested in porting their Web or mobile applications to Google TV, the newly announced platform built on top of Google Chrome technology. With Google TV, "television is no longer confined to showing just video" explains Salahuddin Choudhary, Google TV product manager, in a blog post. "It can be a photo slideshow viewer, a gaming console, a music player and much more."

But how does one build a working application for Google TV?

Although deeper, technical details are still forthcoming (sign up here for updates), developers interested in this new platform can now follow the guidelines put forth by Google here on the Google TV developer site. These are essentially style suggestions for building TV-enabled Web apps, something that developers should consider if building apps for any TV platform, not just Google's.

They are, as follows:

• Make it Simple: Identify the vital parts of your app before starting work, stick with one visible mode of navigation or one information hierarchy, make the primary action reachable in one click, avoid the temptation to use abstract icons, limit vertical scrolling, and preselect the user's next action when you can.
• Get Navigation Right: Google TV users will often navigate with a directional pad, so the navigation model involves up, down, left, right and enter buttons and action. Make your app navigable with one hand.
• Design for TV screens, not Computer Screens: TVs have wider screens, so you should make UI elements slightly larger. Also, avoid highly saturated and very bright colors, and design for 1280x720 and 1920x1080 resolutions, including at least a 10% margin. Use pure white (#FFFFFF) sparingly.
• Pick the Right Fonts: Avoid lightweight fonts or those with very narrow or broad strokes. Use simply constructed sans serif fonts and apply anti aliasing to increase readability. Google TV currently supports only the Droid Sans and Droid Serif font families. If you want to use font embedding techniques to create a more customized appearance, you can, but this relies on Flash, which will be slower.
• Make Onscreen Text Readable:
• Limit each paragraph to no more than 90 words.
• Break text into small chunks that can be read at a glance.
• Keep line length at about five to seven words per line. Never go shorter than three or longer than 12.
• Remember that light text on a dark background is slightly easier to read on TV (compared to dark text on a light background).
• Target body text to be around 21pt on 720p and 28pt on 1080p.
• Don't use any text smaller than 18pt on 720p and 24pt on 1080p.
• Add more leading (larger line spacing) for onscreen text than print text.
• Don't Use Disruptive Sounds: By default, volume should be low. Make it simple to mute the app. Don't make interactions dependent on audio cues.
• Use Flash Wisely: Google TV can play 720p and 1080p Flash videos. Use h.264 encoding, not h.263 or vp6. Avoid Flash banner or sidebar ads that include video. Only use one instance of the media player at a time. Be conscious of system memory.
• Be Conscious of Performance: Perceived performance is more important than actual performance for TV apps. Make sure the app never executes so much code that the runtime can't frequently update the screen and gather user input. You may need to divide a task into parts to accomplish this.
• Use Bitmaps: Use bitmaps to optimize rendering.
• Watch Out for Tweening: Minimize the use of motion tweens to help content run faster.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_to_design_a_web_app_for_google_tv.php

Mozilla Ponders an "Open" Web App Store (Implying that Google Chrome's Store Isn't?)

A post on the Mozilla blog yesterday has the company, makers of the Firefox Web browser, pondering the creation of an "open" Web application store and imagining what such a store should look like. Although the musings come across as a bit "me-too"-ish considering that Google just announced its own Chrome Web Store earlier this week, it's hard to argue with the principles Mozilla sets forth. An open Web app store should "exclusively host web applications based upon...other widely implemented open standards in modern web browsers," reads the post. It should "be open and accessible" and "set forth...guidelines and processes that are transparent."

Of course it should. But the subtext here is that Mozilla is proposing a Web App Store that's open, as if Google is not doing the same. But is that the truth?

Chrome Web App Store

Granted, we don't know much about the Google Chrome Web App Store beyond what's been officially announced. But what we do know so far is that it doesn't sound like an exclusionary venture on the search giant's part meant to only highlight Google products or those designed just for the Chrome browser.

In fact, on the www.chrome.google.com/webstore page, the top item in the Q&A section clearly reads: "Because web apps listed in the Chrome Web Store are regular web applications, built with standard web tools, they can be used by anyone using a modern browser that supports these web technologies." The second item continues to address this same issue, explaining that Web apps listed in the Chrome Web Store are just "regular applications that are built with standard web tools and technologies."

In other words, Web apps work on the Web. And that means they work in Firefox, too.

Right?

As it turns out, Google does have an extra little trick up its sleeve. Included in the preliminary developer documentation, available here, are instructions on how to make your Web app "installable." This extra functionality comes by way of the Chrome .crx file, a special kind of ZIP file that is also used to package extensions for the Chrome browser. By bundling a Web app into a .crx file, users will have a better experience with the app when using the Chrome browser. This is due to several reasons: It only takes a click to install the app, the app gets a big icon in Google Chrome's app launcher area, and there's some integration with the host OS. Simply put, installable apps are "special."

And that is a Chrome advantage, something that probably concerns Mozilla.

More Suggestions: Check, Check and Check

As to Mozilla's other suggestions?

• Ensure that discovery, distribution and fulfillment works across all modern browsers, wherever they run (including on mobile devices)

- With apps built using standard Web technologies, that should not be an issue.

• Set forth editorial, security and quality review guidelines and processes that are transparent and provide for a level playing field.

- We don't know precisely how Google will manage the Web App store but if the Android Marketplace is any indication, this shouldn't be a problem either. Google is not Apple. The company seems to prefer an open marketplace where any developer can build apps without worry of app store rejection letters. Plus, the company already describes the Chrome Web App store as an "open marketplace" in its documentation, the implication being that it will run this marketplace like it does Android's.

• Respect individual privacy by not profiling and tracking individual user behavior beyond what's strictly necessary for distribution and fulfillment

- Despite all that Google knows and is able to track about its users, it does appear to consider privacy important. The company released a Google Dashboard that allows you easy access to the settings of all Google services, for example. It lets you opt out of advertising and lets you save those settings in your browser. It supports the NAI Opt-out Tool which lets you opt out of behavioral advertising. You can opt out of Google Analytics tracking. It was the only company to say no (out of 34) when the DOJ sent out subpoenas requesting details about users' queries. That's not to say it hasn't stumbled - the Wi-Fi payload data collection for Street View and Google Buzz debacle immediately come to mind. But these appear to be more like miscalculations and mistakes than actual pre-planned malicious endeavors.

• Be open and accessible to all app producers and app consumers

- That's easy enough. All developers are invited to submit apps. The apps are simply Web apps that run in any browser - that's accessible enough for consumers, isn't it? No word yet on whether users from other browsers can actually browse the Chrome Web Store itself, though.

With the above principles in mind, what is Mozilla proposing that Google isn't already attempting to do? And if the company thinks this is something developers want, why isn't it just doing it already?

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mozilla_ponders_an_open_web_app_store.php

Sensor & RFID Apps of the Future, Part 1

At the recent ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit, I convened a session about emerging mobile applications for sensors and other Internet of Things technologies. It ended up being a lively discussion on the possibilities for new types of mobile apps that will take advantage of sensor and RFID data. The raw notes of the session are here, thanks to Pat Burns. In this post I'll flesh out some of the ideas.

This will be a 2-part post. In Part 1, we'll cover food and supply chain apps, social networking, and retail. In Part 2, we'll look at future apps for environment, buildings, and health.

Recap of the Technology

First, let's quickly re-visit the technology. Sensors, barcodes and RFID tags are all emerging methods of connecting real-world objects to the Internet. As I explained in my keynote presentation at the Mobile Summit, modern smart phones are increasingly being used to read and write this data.

Smart phones can be used as both readers (e.g. barcode scanning) and writers (e.g. swiping your phone over an RFID Reader to purchase a subway ticket).

Sensor technology is one of the most intriguing areas of innovation currently in smart phones. Firstly, the phone may read and act on sensor data from real world objects; data like temperature, noise and activity. Secondly, the phone may be used as a sensor itself; for example enabling other phone-toting people to sense your proximity to them.

Sensors in mobile phones is a fast-growing market. According to iSuppli Corp, shipments of mobile phone motion sensors (accelerometers, compasses, gyroscopes and pressure sensors) will increase five-fold over five years: from 435.9 million in 2009 to 2.2 billion units in 2014.

Applications

Food & Supply Chain

This is already a common use of RFID and sensors, for example IBM's shipping container solutions. In the supply chain, sensors and RFID tags may be used to track ingoing and outgoing traffic, which in turn enables applications such as congestion pricing.

Chemical-biological sensors may be used to monitor food supply and food recalls, together with temperature and other sensors.

Overall, sensor data has many uses for the food industry - from tracking whether a building that houses food has vibrated, to knowing exactly when a container of lettuces will go bad.

Retail

A number of interesting retail examples were discussed at the RWW Mobile Summit. RFID and sensors are already being deployed in industries like winemaking. As we recently wrote on ReadWriteWeb, some wineries are using RFID to keep one step ahead of counterfeiters.

Loyalty cards were an early use case for RFID in retail. This activity will only increase as consumers' mobile phones become smarter. Loyalty cards can potentially track your in-store transactions and online browsing experiences, which then enables personalization and recommendations to be sent to your phone. For example: the store knows what you had in your shopping basket on their website, which is data that can be used to upsell in the store. The store also knows what you've tried on in the dressing room! Obviously, there are privacy implications here - but also it could help your shopping experience a lot.

Looking more to the future, stores will probably use RFID for a range of features - such as an 'intelligent cart' that auto scans what's in your shopping cart. While these stores are far from common place yet, due to the current cost and technical issues with RFID, mobile apps that pave the way could be an opportunity for entrepreneurs.

Sensor data may be used to predict future money-spending activities. For example, HP Labs recently used Twitter to predict box office success - tracking such things as sentiment and velocity. While Twitter isn't a sensor as such, it provides very useful social signals (which may, perhaps, be thought of as a type of sensor). Similar tools have been tried with American Idol and stock market predictions.

Social networking

Sensors in phones can track proximity from one person to another. This might be used to screen contacts at a conference, for example showing who are your Facebook friends. It could also show pictorial representation of those people and the social media services they subscribe to.

In summary, sensor or RFID data in mobile apps is an exciting area of opportunity. Let us know in the comments about your app or use case ideas!

In Part 2 of this post, we'll look at future apps for environment, buildings, and health.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/sensor_rfid_apps_of_the_future_part_1.php

New Google Cloud Storage Service Points To Vendor Lock-In Problems

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Google's announcement to offer cloud-based storage is in many respects an exciting development but it also illuminates the lock-in issue and why many an enterprise is reticent about adopting cloud computing.

We heard one of the clearest discussions on the issue today at the Webvisions conference in Portland by two senior engineers from Yahoo! and Facebook.

Google announced this week that it is offering its own storage service. It will compete directly with services from companies such as Amazon.

But the ability to transfer data between cloud services is pretty much nonexistent. It's in most part due to the lack of reciprocal or peering agreements between services.

Vint Cerf says it is much like 1973. We have no standards for moving data around. The vendors need to start working together so customers may easily move information between services. Until then, the market will remain reticent about using cloud computing services.

As Tom Hughes-Croucher of Yahoo! and Carlos Bueno of Facebook explained, the issues comes down to latency and metering. What's needed are peering agreements, compatibility; portability and better infrastructure.

The two compare cloud computing to the earliest days of mail delivery when a network did not exist to get letters from one location to another. From the need to deliver mail came peering in the form of reciprocal agreements and flat rates. Mail began to be charged by weight. Address standards emerged. Enveloped and stamps standards allowed for better portability and the emergence of trains and steamships meant an improvement in infrastructure.

Today, we need cloud peering in the form of reciprocal agreements and flat rates. Compatibility means open API's and formats. Portability is about standard virtual machines and images. And better infrastructure is needed to reduce inter-cloud latency.

It's not tremendously complicated. Peering agreements can be relatively simple. Peering should be simplified as most data centers are clustered in specific geographic regions. Hughes-Croucher and Bueno point to the effects on carriers when SMS messages could freely flow between the networks. SMS message volume increased anywhere from 250% to 900% in the span of a short six months.

The lock-in issue is a major reason why many enterprise are reticent about adopting cloud computing.

Google will most likely do very well with its storage service. But we can only imagine what effects may occur if we remove the lock-in barriers that we now have in place

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2010/05/google-cloud-service-points-to.php

Ohm Studio real time collaborative music workstation

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4eRu7iHR_I&feature=player_embedded

FTC Clears Google's Acquisition of AdMob

The Federal Trade Commission just cleared Google's acquisition of mobile advertising network AdMob. According to the FTC, the acquisition raised "serious antitrust issues," but these were ultimately overshadowed by Apple's move to start its own mobile advertising network and the fact that Google has numerous other competitors in the mobile advertising space. The FTC voted 5-0 to close its investigation of Google's acquisition.

After Google announced its intentions to acquire AdMob for $750 million last November, we noted that Google was definitely trying to dominate advertising on the iPhone and Android. Since then, however, the mobile advertising market has clearly changed. Apple acquired Quattro Wireless in January, and just a few weeks later Opera Mobile acquired AdMarvel. Apple also announced its own iAd network earlier this year, which will provide additional competition to Google.

In its decision (PDF), the FTC acknowledges these changes in the mobile advertising marketplace and notes that it "reached this decision based on important developments in the mobile advertising marketplace, particularly actions by Apple that should mitigate the anticompetitive effects of Google's AdMob acquisition." According to the FTC, the acquisition of AdMob isn't likely to result in a "substantial lessening of competition."

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/ftc_clears_googles_acquisition_of_admob.php

Google Maps Now Makes Getting on the Right Train Easier

Earlier this month, Google announced the addition of biking directions to Google Maps. Today, Google is also enhancing its maps by adding more data about local public transit options. Whenever you search for a train station in Google Maps, you can now see a list of transit lines that service this station. Google Maps will also display the next scheduled departure times for every line.

We have to say, however, that while this feature worked great for the example given in Google's blog post ("Zurich HB") and most of the larger transit stations in big cities like New York, finding the right name for smaller train stations can be rather frustrating.

One More Feature That Sets Google Apart from the Competition

While this is only a small addition to Google's mapping product, the constant drumbeat of new features and partnerships that Google Maps announces on an almost-weekly basis makes it hard for competitors like Bing Maps to keep pace. Even though Bing Maps offers a very competitive set of mapping and directions features that still outperform Google Maps in many ways, Google is currently offering a more comprehensive set of features. Thanks to Google's strong emphasis on getting local businesses to update their own data in Google Maps, the company is also able to offer better results for local searches.

Given Microsoft's renewed focus on Bing - and the Web in general - it would be wrong to count Bing Maps out, but for the time being, it looks like it will be hard for Microsoft to catch up with Google.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_maps_now_makes_getting_on_the_right_train_e.php

How Does the Cloud Affect Podcasting?

I am moderating a discussion about podcasting this morning at the Webvisions conference here in Portland, Oregon. My interest in podcasting these days centers around how cloud computing is affecting the medium, so I thought it would be fun to explore the issue with the podcasters assembled for the event.

But, first, how about you? How is podcasting being affected by the advent of cloud computing? I will be taking questions from the online audience. To ask a question, please comment here or use the tag #wv2010. You may also direct questions to the Twitter account: @podcasthotel.

So, what are the factors in the cloud that affect podcasting? Here are a few top-level views.

Collaboration

Services allow for deeper levels of collaboration on everything from commenting to the actual production of a show. Wikis, distributed social networks and even production tools provide a level of collaboration in the cloud that did not really exist back in the early days.

For example, GarageBand has a number of Web counterparts such as Ohm Studio. Ohm is designed for music production but as Podcasting News points out, it can easily be used to develop podcasts, too.

 

Storage

The cloud provides a number of options for storing media. Cloud services can sync files, keeping them at minimal cost. This serves as one way to keep costs down.

Amazon, for instance, offers, CloudFront. From Amazon:

Amazon CloudFront delivers your static and streaming content using a global network of edge locations. Requests for your objects are automatically routed to the nearest edge location, so content is delivered with the best possible performance. Amazon CloudFront works seamlessly with Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) which durably stores the original, definitive versions of your files. Like other Amazon Web Services, there are no contracts or monthly commitments for using Amazon CloudFront - you pay only for as much or as little content as you actually deliver through the service.

Dynamic Range

As Josh Bancroft says, it's the ability to use media anywhere, any time on any device. And that provides flexibility and a greater dynamic range of hardware capabilities.

That means Josh can justify a 17-inch MacBook Pro he keep at his house but can also access any media from his iPad or iPhone. Where before, in a device-centric world of storage, he would have had to compromise on what gave him more portability.

Podcasting is going through some interesting changes. The business is more viable, which is due in part to the lower costs and greater distribution that social networking provides.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/2010/05/how-does-the-cloud-affect-podc.php?utm_source=ReadWriteCloud&utm_medium=rwchomepage&utm_campaign=ReadWriteCloud_posts&utm_content=How Does the Cloud Affect Podcasting?

Google Rolls Out Encrypted Web Search

Google just announced that it is rolling out a new beta feature that will allow users to enable Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption when using Google's Web search. Currently, whenever you search on Google, your search data is not encrypted and anybody with enough interest in getting this data can do so by listening in on your connection. Now, Google will use the same encryption methods that banks on e-commerce sites use to prevent others from snooping on your searches as your data moves between your browser and Google's servers.

Google's move towards encrypting your data as it moves between your browser and Google's servers means that it will be very hard to hackers and governments to spy on your searches. Google added secure connections to Gmail and Google Docs quite a while ago and made SSL the default setting for all Gmail users earlier this year.

Using Secure Search

To access this new feature, head to https://www.google.com. Google, however, is only rolling this feature out slowly, so it might not be available for you yet. It's also important to point out that this secure connection is only available for the main Google Search page right now. Searches on Google Maps and Image Search are not encrypted at this time and links to these unencrypted services won't appear on the secure Google Search site.

It is worth noting that Google itself just got into hot water by "accidentally" gathering data from on unencrypted Wi-Fi connections while collecting WiFi data for StreetView and its geolocation API. Google itself, of course, will still collect data about your search history and use it to personalize its own ads and services accordingly.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_rolls_out_encrypted_searches.php