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Smart(er)phones mean affective consumer trends

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Remember your first cell-phone? It was likely not the *original* cellphone,

In my case, it was a kyocera green-screen on my parents verizon network. It DID have mobile-web (remember those WHTML/WAP-sites?) when I went to Chicago. My next was a color-screened nokia until both myself and the web got serious and my sony-erickson was the fastest GPRS connected phone (which I infrared-connected to my HP WinMo device quite requently!)

Enough about my history, on to my point: I’m a geek, so I loved the capabilities of the phone, no matter how tedious it was. Most consumers aren’t willing to go through the tedium for the glory, and *finally* we have a crop of large-screened phones which allow something aside from left-down-right-up-left-left-down-ok magic of the early Nintendo days!

WinMo tried to be this player years back. Wow! An interface that was colorful, full and wasn’t ridiculously hidden behind 19 menus. It had a Today screen which told me more than the TIME! But Windows/M$ got lazy, were happy to ignore emerging tech while raking in the cash, and Apple took over, overnight.

Now, in the wake of the iPhone, LG & Samsung have created their own semi-smart interaces. I’ve been running the Samsung TouchWiz for awhile now, and I like it. I’ve played with LG’s, and it seems quite on-par.

But just look at this:

Facebook. There. Touch it!

Compared to 4 yrs ago:

Right-Down, Right, ok, Right?

Compared to 10 yrs ago:

There's an interface? Where?

This last sort of phone has no affective association (consumer gratitude for being simple, easy, beautiful) as much as the newer phones. Perhaps this is evidence of over-indulgence of luxury, but if I’m going to use this device, then I want it easier. I’m going to switch each time to another brand, trying to find a better edition. But worse off, the companies back then never stopped changing their interfaces, making it more and more confusing to consumers looking to latch-on. I’d be willing to bet Nokia owns the world-market simply on the history of a consistent Symbian interface.

Posted in Tech, hardware, interaction design, life-of-a-geek, review | 1 Comment »

Comcast’s math

Monday, March 8th, 2010

Just got a notice in the mail from Comcast:

“You recently received a message from Comast that stated that we offer ‘unlimited’ high speed internet usage. The message you recieved was in error on this point. Comcast has a usage threshold of 250 Gigabyes per month.. We deliver a high value Internet service that gives you .. the fastest download speeds available – up to 50 Mbps.”

Let’s do the math:

250 GB = 2000000 Mbits
2000000 Mbits/50 Mbits = 40000 seconds
40000 seconds / 3600 seconds = 11.11 hours.

Seriously? I can only use your service for 11 hours out of the 30 days (720hrs)?? That’s 1.5% of the time. That’s worse than pulling a play from a doctor’s office: 10 minutes after waiting 1 hour.

I can’t believe there’s no competitor in my neighborhood.

Posted in Tech, review | 3 Comments »

Recipe Manager of my Dreams

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

There’s got to be a million crappy software recipe managers out there. My major concern is that each website now has it’s own version (from foodnetwork & epicurious to kraft!) –how UNinteroperable are these?! The best I get is to physically print-out the recipies. How helpful / futuristic is that? Not at all.

Gourmet to the rescue! This wonderful piece of software is only available for Linux right now, but with a little linux server in the house, what’s the problem?! Somewhere between running VNC to running an X-windows app over ssh (yes, in Mac!) I aim to have this app at the heart of my kitchen-future.. especially with this years promise of cheap android tablets!), as well as Gourmet’s ability to IMPORT webpages (with images!) and export them to a standard format, be it PDF to recipe-XML. (XML would then allow a web-app to be built, btw!)

Today, there’s a happy Mark.

Posted in Food, Futurism, Gnome, Home, Tech, review | No Comments »

When a URL is not url (death to flash)

Friday, February 12th, 2010

Media center/libraries are a joke. They require files to view, yet the present state of the web is pushing towards renting a stream. Across the landscape, your media distribution channels are too varied to allow for any progress on the part of the people/users. File-ownership is where it started.. but ownership somehow didn’t equal distrution rights. When “rights” aren’t in line with behavior, it’s legally called “infringment”. When you flip it upside down, and the law is too heavy-handed for behavior, it’s call totalitarianism. While I won’t get sucked into that never-ending debate, how can a user ever access all his media outlets in a sane manner?

Let’s skip ahead for a minute to the future. When I see something on a blog or otherwise, and I wish to *share* it with someone, I’d like to be able to do that. No one doubts this is a crime. If the person is in the living room with me, I’d like to be able to swipe,circle,copy-paste,drag-n-drop,etc. the item of interest onto my TV or projector, instead of handing over my laptop. After all, that’s what a larger-than-13″-screen is for. How can this be accomplished today when the object of interest is a file? (be it a pdf, image, song or video) This is the easiest: you copy the file to the server, and have the server config’d to display what is newest in a folder.

But what are we to do when the object of interest is a stream, and the stream is not “open”, but bound-in by flash? Examples: youtube, hulu, last.fm, pandora. These things I cannot drag-and-drop. They may have a URL, but the data is not separate from the view: navigating with a mouse through a website/flash start-stop-pause control is still required. I can’t exactly do that with a remote, unless I go hi-tech with a wii-mote; even then navigating the web is clunky.

All I’m asking for is a pure data-feed-URL. One which is Universal.. for all things trying to Locate a Resource, y’know? Until then, it’s either a boycott of Flash, or giving up on the dream of simple resource-sharing. Flash killed the internet. But who’s going to boycott hulu, except Apple & Comcast (who’s trying to buy Hulu’s #1 content provider, NBC!). Wow– now there’s a mess for ya.

Posted in 'net, Futurism, Tech, life-of-a-geek | No Comments »

Computers, netbooks & smartphone products table

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

For all those who were or are now confused about the computer/netbook/smartphone market, here’s a bit to help clear one the techy bits:

Product	Hardware	Software
Product	Hardware	Open	Microsoft	Apple
Computer	Intel (x86)	Linux (Desktop)	Windows	OSX
Netbook	Intel (x86)	Linux (Desktop)	Windows	hack-only
Netbook (Gen2010)	(ARM)	Linux (Variants)	WinMo
iPad	Apple A4 (ARM)			iPhone
Phone	(ARM)	Linux (Variants)	WinMo	iPhone

Notice that there’s another column I forgot: Android. They’re a variant of Linux, and running on both desktop & netbooks (sort of). Oddly enough, Android on netbooks took all the fire/criticism up front about being too limited. Apple then stepping into the void and filled it with something just. usable. enough.

The only commentary on Apple’s latest device is two-fold: (1) No multitasking? I’m a fan of what I’ve called ‘limited computing‘, but this is a tad too constricting. (2) Likewise constricting is the iPhone AppStore: only those approved by Apple will do.

For the price, I’d rather have AlwaysInnovating’s Tablet/Netbook. It’s effectively the same thing, just with the software I already use. Trouble-spot: all linux software is old-school & menu-driven. Neither linux application communities (KDE nor Gnome) seem to be concerned with this forward motion UI’s.

Posted in Gnome, KDE, Linux, OSS, Tech, hardware, interaction design, life-of-a-geek, limited computing | No Comments »

Design, materiality and trustworthiness

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Designers like to make prototypes: something the “people” can never use. A recent Gizmodo article explains this well. But I will continue on a sub-set of this idea.

From Consumers willing to throw their money to the next best-thing, or the more rational, planned among us, we all do not care what a company “can” do. What they “could” do is like a carrot hanging in front of us. We all want the product or relationship which does-as-promised:one which is trustworthy.

Within today’s tech market I see 2 significant, praactical problems behind trustworthiness (aside from “theorhetical” or philosophic distrust in Capitalism or Modernism..)

Trouble #1: What we treat as mere Commodity, is actually an incredibly powerful (all too powerful!) system for the promise to be fulfilled. Systems fail, especially when insufficient sub-ground (peat!) level knowledge and information is not accounted for. The correlate: What most people “take for granted” (read: take as solid ground, trustworthy) is only trustworthy under certain conditions, not under ALL conditions. The lack of info, concern & detail at this level is why things break for some people and not for others.

Trouble #2: Design/designers face/have created this problem. Designers, working in immaterial wonder-lands have all free-reign to imagine, imagine, imagine. We all wish time and space for this freedom for ourselves. As children, perhaps some of us had such time. Designers need feedback, and they need to take parameters early & seriously. If they cannot work within boundaries, they are not responsible designers, but children. If they cannot see the that they cannot see, harsh reality will exact their fate. But if no feedback is ever given to them, if they are protected from the “production” (materiality) phase, how can they learn?

Posted in Futurism, Project Management, Tech, life-of-a-geek | No Comments »

Busy little computers

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

How many times have I needed to (not just switch between windows) but to have 4-6 things running at once. I’m not convinced a ‘netbook’ or ‘eReader’ or ‘Courier’ could handle them all. If so, that would be wonderful, but something like the MSI’s dual-screen might be the bare-minimum for me.

Today, I was:
* buying a book on amazon
* queuing a video on youtube
* notes w/ 5 tabs
* calendar
* rss reader
* mail being sent from rss (granted, its my fault for not automating this one)

I suppose this is a matter of “density” of life. And these activities can be placed into sets which co-operate. I rotate between them, balancing them:
1) as they get finished along with
2) the amount of time I have before the next finishes
3) the amount of time to complete it
4) before I forget something

Taking these 4 measures, what can a computer tell me? Only #1, Maybe #2.
Not #3, #4. That’s much less than half, and more like 30% at best. Usually only 20%. I’d like software which helps me order these activities. I want feedback in the titlebar at least: this program can run at 90% efficiency at present state. Or “it will take 30seconds before a new browser window will open.”

Note, in Windows7, Microsoft skipped this kind of feedback & tried to guess for the user, based on lots of user statistics, generally and per user. I’m -sorta-ok- with that. I think that’s one possible branch to start solving this “the human mind & will still out performs computer” dilemma we’re often stuck in.

To get back on track, once a user would have the my suggested information of how much time they have, or what programs are operating fastest, they could start to have a more efficient workflow.

The next step of working from the 30% to the 50% would be the hardest, since none of us will be accurate estimators of our time, nor would any of us be interested in typing in priority numbers for how long we think a process would take. This is a bad idea, and who would want the computer switching focus from app to app, only to chide us, “You aren’t fulfilling your goals!” Perhaps a softened version of this is the ‘personal agent’ who, once the numbers are in, would in a genuine voice ~ask~ us, “What do you think about this topic? What should be done with so-and-so? (You have 15 minutes).” That’s a little pressured and test-taking-like. Flexibility in workflow & process is paramount. The human factor would require “a feel free to take a break, you’ve been working hard.” or, as the Wii Fit instructor says, “Great Job!”

Nonetheless, we have a potential future, where computing is optimized by simple numbers & habits, where email are composed with voice-to-text. One could say that right now, we have the inverse of this: I’m stuck window-managing my computer (which is slower) & typing (which is faster).

Posted in Tech | No Comments »

Wordpress Skills (How to hire a WP guy!)

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

My job just asked me to make a list of what a sister agency should look for in WP ppl. Googling left me with nothing (as all search results seem to have been taken over by SEO ppl lately), so here’s my addition to the mix:

Basic (unquestioned assumptions):
* XHTML syntax, CSS2,
* Browser testing-abilities: IE6-8, FF1-3,Saf3-4, Chrome1-2

WP Basics:
* Upgrading (and fixing when broken!)
* Knowledge of a set of plugins for these common problems:
* “I want a contact form (with these 9 fields)”
* “I want backups”
* “I want a photo gallery (with lightbox)”
* “I want twitter/facebook integration”
* “I want a podcast”
* “I want google maps on my contact page”

WP Intermediate:
* Build/mod a template
* Build/mod a plugin
* jQuery instead of simple, good-ol’-fashioned javascript

Technical/Back-end:
* Can fix ‘broken’ DB’s
* Clean MySQL WP DB from hackers
* phpmyadmin
* MySQL command-line

Users (Teaching skills):
* Guide clients/staff through changing templates, adding special parameters for templates, plugins, upgrades.
* Explain the difference between the 2 editing modes of WP, as well as how a post, page, excerpt are all used.

WP Access controls:
* Should users sign up?
* How to handle editors, admin, readers?
* Public/private posts/pages
* How are comments filtered & what signups required?

SEO:
* What the different HTTP Response numbers mean (#200, 301,302)
* .htaccess mod_rewrite for Apache/Linux servers
* forwarding old sites to WP pages
* forwarding old posts to a archive page
* making ‘pretty urls’ 301 (and why WP default doesn’t do it)
* maing ‘www.’ 301 (and why WP default doesn’t do it)
* The troubles with WP on MS/IIS Servers
* Why XML Sitemaps are good
* Why Google Analytics & Webmaster tools are worth it (and how to interp ‘em to clients)

Anything else out there?

Posted in LAMP, PHP, Project Management, Software, Tech, coding, wordpress | No Comments »

Why do scrollbars still exist?

Monday, October 12th, 2009

Scrollbars are kinda, sorta, useful. I remember teaching my mom how to use a computer & she would consistently use the scrollbar backwards. And it makes sense: moving it down is moving the page up.. wha?? What the rest of us take for standard (scrollbar-as-document-representational) is backwards to how we read any other book or piece of paper.

While writing a paper recently on a portrait-view screen, I found myself able to see the full page I was writing, AND bits of the prior & next page. This gave such a HUGE advantage for context-analysis and paper flow. I bet most prof’s suffer through poor student papers, simply because the student doesn’t realize what is missing writing in landscape (and even worse, widescreen). In contrast, this is the joy of minority report: a HUGE surface area to hold windows-of-sufficient-size that can be placed with sufficient margins instead of being in an overlapping pile, thanks to the portability requirement. I’m still waiting for short-throw, cheap, hi-def projectors that I can have overhead, to project onto my white, tilted, large physical desktop.

Our eyes are tuned (in the real world) to spatiality. There is a layout, flow, and gradual perceptive fall-off from our field of vision. Computer UI designers are kind enough to give us EVERYTHING. This is required for use, and for the most part, our eyes ignore this extra. Yet, we never have any ‘real’ awareness of what is off-screen. Some window-managers use ‘pagers’, but that isn’t for window content, as much as window layout. I’m a content-layout fan– keeps me focused on my task of creating, instead of doing the window manager’s window-layout job.

So I propose 2 options (especially for pen-computing), both using the mouse-pointer as a grab-and-drag hand, a la Adobe Acrobat, or FF’s plugin.

Gradients

Remaining content 'edged' by gradient

Gradients are naturally-existing creatures around any real-world document. Shadows are handy, and they can tell us (representationally) how much of the document is remaining to view. Sure it’s not a mathematically precise as a scrollbar, but ’scrolling’ through a newspaper is hardly mathematical.

Magnifing Glass

Similar (actually inverse) to the gradient, I’ve also considered having the margins of a window, where there is still more content, grow in proportion to the content remaining. This would give a ’squished’ version of the remaining pages.

Likely scrollbars will exist forever, and likely I’ll be happy with grab-and-drag for all apps. Scrollbars do have the goodness of being able to scroll faster than anything else- instantaneous access to the top or bottom of the page. But isn’t that what the ‘home’ and ‘end’ keys do? Oh, wait, most keyboards don’t have those..

Posted in Tech, desktop theory, interaction design | Comments Off

Courier’s Potential Issues

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

The bits missing from the Courier Video-demos:
First off, it is very, very limited:

Left:
- Calendar
- Contacts
- Web
- Photos
Right:
- Maps (associated with contacts)
- Journal (dual-pane)
- web also (wait, which side do I view webpages on.. both?)
Middle:
- Clipboard-Pocket

This is it? Doesn’t sound like much. So what do I use my laptop for these days?

Libraries of media, for which iTunes & Amazon are trying to be the end-all. For this, I likely will run a streaming media source, or keep my library on a home server, so the laptop neWed not have a multi-terabyte drive.
Basic file editing/viewing, for which Google Documents is trying to be the end-all. And so long as your online (or whenever local caching of GDocs hits) this might work. But Google doesn’t support various Journal formats at present.

Web viewing

There doesn’t seem to be any web-organization, just a list of tabs/Safari-like window-images. My use of the web falls into the 2 categories previously mentioned: the daily views of interest & responsibility (like reading the news & checking the bank) and researching the latest idea & interest I had, or for classes.

File-Viewing

I wanna make sure this has full office & PDF file editing & annotation, otherwise, it’s not a laptop replacement. Clearly this thing won’t be creating the office-heavy/design-heavy files.. but it should have full-view of them.

Filetypes supported are likely OneNote->PDF instead of the millions of incongruent filetypes presently on any one system. Others’ ability to edit & comment on PDFs at present is limited. This is an early-collaboration tool, not a late-collaboration, final-product kind of tool.

Pocket

There is a heavy amount of visual drag-and-dropping, specifically of web/PNG images. But I deal with excel and photoshop files too. Will previews be auto-generated for these as well? How will I know which spreadsheet is which when I place it in the pocket? Sometimes filenames *are* handy.

Minor

We didn’t see any online chat-abilities with the contacts, something my nokia N800 did well.

The 2 biggest hurdles for development:

Metadata heavy
Handwriting heavy

Posted in Microsoft Courier, Tech, desktop theory, interaction design, life-of-a-geek, limited computing, review | Comments Off

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