Displaying items by tag: Google

Has anyone gotten tired hearing about Siri? I mean people are just going on and on about it. People are even interviewing the phone for crying out loud. The funniest thing about it is that some are looking at these interviews with Siri and claiming this is proof that Apple has developed some form of new AI. Ugh… the things some people will believe. Once and for all; Siri is a VERY cool product which can be fun to tinker with, dangerous if you are not careful and an extremely simple concept.

We have said this before, but it bears repeating. Siri is a speech to text engine that takes the input and then searches through a series of commands and responses. These are preprogramed and Siri cannot make decisions of judgment calls. If it cannot find it in its internal database as a command or a pre-programed response it will attempt to find it using an online search engine (Google, Bing, Wolfram Alfa…) Once it has a response it then converts that from text back to speech. The algorithm for this is not that complicated and is not much more than an extension of traditional voice commands. In fact I have a remote control sitting in my lab from Amulet Devices that is capable of understanding my commands and looking for the proper responses. If I want to watch an action movie it will search through my collection or in an online catalog for that genre. It can do the same thing with music. I have had this for over a year now, so really Siri is cool but not ground breaking.

This leads me into a rather ridiculous comment made by one of the principal investors in Siri before Apple bought it. Gary Morgenthaler, has said to Cnet that Siri represents a real danger to Google and Microsoft.  He also goes on to make a claim that Siri is capable of “understanding” that is simply not true. Siri takes the natural speech and converts that to text that it can respond to. It does not understand anything more than the pre-programed responses. If Siri truly understood it would be able interpret what you are saying and then respond with questions for clarity or with real information. When I asked Siri if it liked Doctor Who, it responded to me with a listing of Doctors within 10 miles all pulled from Google.

Even funnier is that Cnet comments that Siri must be popular because it has spawned a popular blog called Sh** that Siri Says. If this is the case then I guess that the auto correct function on Android and iOS is very popular as well. After all there are multiple sites that are dedicated to just how badly these products screw up what we are trying to say and do… oddly enough, just like Siri does sometimes.

In reality, we have someone riding the popularity of a novel API that is truly in its infancy as far as technology and application. Microsoft, Google and others are all working on similar APIs. Apple just did what they do best, they got to market first with a workable product, but if you look closely you can just make out the duct tape holding parts of it together…

Source Cnet

Discuss in our Forum

It looks like that interesting rant from an alleged Google developer might have been premature. We are hearing from multiple sources (all who attended the web 2.0 conference) that Google is looking to make amends with its Google+ social networking site. According to most information the biggest item that will be coming down the road (at least the most complained about) is the ability to create pages and also to log in with a name that is not yours (i.e. a pseudonym). This has been a huge complaint since the also ran networking service first kicked off.

Of course while the ability to be “someone else” is a big deal there are other items that are coming with the promised updates that are just as interesting (and actually more important). You will be able to integrate your Google Apps account with Google+ in the future as well... and that  was about all that they were willing to talk about.  

Now I know that this sounds a little disappointing, but it is interesting to hear that these items are coming so soon after such a widely spread “internal memo” that was posted on Google+. It has gotten me to thinking. I never believe in coincidences; especially not when big media companies are involved. It seems to me that we have two events happening very close together that are related. On the one hand we hear the passionate venting of a developer who while praising 99% of what Google does truly wishes they would go that extra step and create a platform for all of their services.  A day later Google announces integration with one of its existing platforms and manages to slip in a comment about how off the mark Steve Ballmer was when he said Microsoft is killing Google Apps in the enterprise space.   

As taken from the Google Developer’s own rant;

“Any teams that have successfully internalized the notion that they should be externally programmable platforms from the ground up are underdogs -- Maps and Docs come to mind, and I know GMail is making overtures in that direction. But it's hard for them to get funding for it because it's not part of our culture. Maestro's funding is a feeble thing compared to the gargantuan Microsoft Office programming platform: it's a fluffy rabbit versus a T-Rex. The Docs team knows they'll never be competitive with Office until they can match its scripting facilities, but they're not getting any resource love. I mean, I assume they're not, given that Apps Script only works in Spreadsheet right now, and it doesn't even have keyboard shortcuts as part of its API. That team looks pretty unloved to me”

It would seem to me that this is almost flame bait. A Google employee telling it like it is and saying how poor and pitiful Google Docs are compared to Microsoft’s power house of Office. Anyone else think the original rant is for real?  

Now I will say this, even with Google Apps Integration (meaning Maps, Docs, Mail etc) you are still not getting anything close to what Facebook can offer you in terms of Social Networking and as far as Google Docs/Apps goes? I have seen a large number of companies move to Google only to switch back to Exchange and Office within a month or two do to security concerns, lack of integration with basic business platforms (like Blackberry) and just plain being annoyed with trying to get everything working the way they want it.

In the end this is one of those times we the line “The Lady doth protest too much, Methinks” is very appropriate.  After all you get the accusation followed quickly by the “not true, look at all we are doing” sounds a bit dodgy to me.

Discuss in our Forum

Last night was all about Ice Cream Sandwich from Google. We heard all about it from so many sources on the internet that we started getting details mixed up. In the end we highlighted the features that were typically the most complained about or the “coolest” in our opinion. Now this is the stock Google ROM that we saw yesterday so what about those companies that offer more than the stock ROM? Companies like HTC or even Asus with their Transformer flavor of Honeycomb?

While we have a feeling that the minor changes that Asus made to their version of Android will pose no major issues we are not so certain about HTC. The Sense UI that HTC uses is a massive change to the default ROM from Google. In many cases it is better, (like a much better email client and tap to focus on the camera) but now that these items are being included in the stock ROM what will HTC do?

For the time being HTC is stating that they are reviewing the new flavor of Android and will make their decisions at a later date.

“We are excited about the latest update for Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, and are currently reviewing its features and functionality to determine our upgrade plans. Our goal for Android updates is to give every customer an improved user experience, which means balancing each phone's unique hardware, HTC Sense experience and the Android kernel. While our goal is to upgrade as many of our recent devices as possible, we are committed to maintaining every phone's performance and usability first. Please stay tuned for more updates on specific device upgrade plans.”

We are sure that many HTC owners (us included) are a little disappointed to hear this, but when I stop and think about it this is really the best course for HTC. After all I already have many of these features built into the SenseUI. Ok, so I do not have facelock, or the new scalable font Roboto but I really can live without those if it means making sure I do not lose the items that I have come to enjoy in the SenseUI.

Still, I can’t help but check for that new update each time I unlock my EVO 3D and Transformer…

Source Engadget

Discuss in our Forum

Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich has finally been launched. This new version of Android which will officially be Android 4.0 is supposed to not only bring new features to the table, but it also going to address some items that have been lacking on Android. According to many sources this new version of Android will touch every native app in some way. We can only hope they did something to improve the poor email app that currently is in Honeycomb, but we will have to see about that once the update is available for our Transformer.

Aside from the updates to all of the native apps we are hearing that there will be some very cool new features including a facial recognition lock. This will allow you to use the built in front facing camera to interrogate your face and compare it to an image stored on the device. If it matches you can access the device, if not; well you can figure that one out on your own.  Android 4.0 will also feature a new NFC-enabled feature called Android Beam. This will allow you simply tap two phones or devices together to share files, links and other information. Google is saying that this is being designed to work with a number of app that are already in the market so you won’t have to wait long to start bumping phones.

Next up is an overhaul of the camera app. This is also a very welcome feature as the current default one is very immature.  With the new interface you can access the camera right from the lock screen (if you choose to). You also FINALLY get a zero shutter lag in a mobile phone camera, this combines with the continuous focus and face detection. Android is also adding touch to focus and exposure lock. These are features that many phone makers have tacked on (like HTC) but are now showing up in the native app as well. Android did not stop with the Camera though, you also get some nice new features in the gallery including filters and a built in Photo Editing app which allows you to make changes and still maintain the original file for later tinkering.

We are sure there is a lot more to Android 4.0 that we are missing in our roaming around the net, but you can be sure we will be taking it for a test drive and comparing it to what you get with Apple’s new iOS 5 just to see if Android is lagging behind or actually catching up. If it is the latter then we can see the Android Tablet market picking up, especially with the Holidays coming up quickly.

Source All Over the Internet

Discuss in our Forum

Does anyone check Google + anymore? Well if you do you might have come across a very interesting read today. It seems that one of their developers could no longer contain himself and posted a very telling rant about Google and the way it approaches its products. It seems that Google, despite being a rather large company with many years of experience in cataloging what people do on the internet still has not realized why other companies are more successful than they are.

I am not talking about search; although I am not a fan of Google’s search and retention practices I will admit they are one of the best search and ad companies out there. I am talking about their other products. Products like Google Docs, Google Chrome, and Google+. The problem is, according to the rant, that Google made each of these as a knee jerk reaction. They were not planned to integrate into a larger platform, they were not designed with user accessibility in mind. They were just built and shoved out the door.

You simply cannot do that in today’s market. You have to plan everything as an integrated approach. If you want a couple of examples then take a look at Microsoft’s Office or the way Apple integrates their OS.  To put it bluntly neither Google Docs nor Google + has this. Here is a great quote from the rant to tell you what I mean.

“We had no API at all at launch, and last I checked, we had one measly API call. One of the team members marched in and told me about it when they launched, and I asked: "So is it the Stalker API?" She got all glum and said "Yeah." I mean, I was joking, but no... the only API call we offer is to get someone's stream. So I guess the joke was on me.”

This is a great case in point, there is nothing that can work with or talk to Google+. Even the Google+ link on most sites will work about half the time, or requires constant updating to remain functional. This is because there is no service based platform to run these APIs on, the product just IS.  

I have a feeling that this has also extended over into Google’s mobile space and would go a long way to explaining why there are so many issues with Android that seem to remain despite updates. The lack of understanding accessibility and a platform based approach has led Android’s slow acceptance in the tablet market space. The product simply feels like a bigger version of the phone OS and still has many basic apps that are not as sophisticated as the ones that come on the phones (mail is one that comes to mind).  

Google as a company is in no danger of going away or going under, however they could find that many of their products will get swept away by other companies that understand accessibility and the need for a common platform better than Google does.

Discuss in our Forum

It seems that nothing is sacred anymore as someone has hacked Sesame Street’s YouTube channel. The channel was hacked on Sunday and all of the content replaced with Porn. On the profile page was a note from someone claiming responsibility for the attack (See Below). So far one of the people listed has already denied any involvement in the attack. The inappropriate content was visible for about 20 minutes before Google’s own internal mechanisms shut it down for “repeated or severe violations of our Community Guidelines.".


The attackers replaced the profile information with the statement below;
“WHO DOESN'T LOVE PORN KIDS? RIGHT! EVERYONE LOVES IT! IM MREDXWX AND MY PARTNER MRSUICIDER91 ARE HERE TO BRING YOU MANY NICE CONTENT! PLEASE DON'T LET SESAME STREET TO GET THIS ACCOUNT BACK KIDS :( PLEASE...LET ME AND MRSUICIDER91 HAVE IT AND WE GONNA MAKE ALL THE AMERICA HAPPY!”

This latest attack shows just how vulnerable YouTube is and how important it is for companies to maintain security on their sites. It also is a good lesson for parents that forget how bad the Internet can be. There really is no place where you can just let your kids browse freely, even sites like Disney.com can be hijacked and replaced with something bad.

Stunts like this are rather distasteful and while I have supported (to a limited degree) many of the “activist” activities in the hacking community I feel that a single act like this ruins any positive actions that are currently on-going. I do wonder how long it will be before the conspiracy theories about this start popping up though. In the mean time I hope that the community find and “corrects” the people that are responsible whoever they turn out to be.

Discuss this in our Forum

There are two things you can do when you are at the bottom of the pile. One is to work harder and smarter so that you can fight your way to the top. The other is to talk smack hoping that the people above you will believe you are competent and you can BS your way up a few notches. There are complications with both of these but the latter has more dangers. Unfortunately it is this latter course that the folks over at Microsoft’s Windows Phone division are taking.

Andy Lees, President of Microsoft’s Windows Phone Division sat down for a quick talk with the people over at the Seattle Times and some of the things he said were interesting, but also a little laughable. He calls Apple’s one million unit selling iPhone 4S a missed opportunity and Android Chaotic. These are some bold words for a company that only captured less than 2% of the market in 2011 so far.

It is true that Apple might have missed an chance at putting out a better product, both hardware and software wise, but the market is speaking and it is saying that they do not care. Over one million iPhone 4S’ have been sold so far. That does not sound like consumer disappointment no matter how much you dislike Apple. As for Android’s chaotic development, well one of the things that people like about Android is that they can get the version they like. I personally like the SenseUI version of Android that HTC uses and prefer it over the stock version and the same can be said for many Android owners.

No, the comments sound more like someone grasping at straws and asking you to ignore the obvious. This leads us into the next comment Lees called the Mango UI a “flowing, almost singular experience” however others have called it the Jitterbug of touch screens. The tile layout is eye watering and almost obnoxious. The fact that Microsoft is forcing this on the Xbox 360 and Windows 8 is quite annoying. Having tinkered around with a Windows Phone recently I can tell you that there was nothing flowing or singular about the experience and after a week fighting Windows 8 and the MetroUI I could not imagine having to deal with that on a daily basis. I think that the developers at Microsoft do have a good concept and vision, but they are still falling short of what the Market wants. The tile based UI is not it, they like icons and widgets that they can drag around and manipulate. You would think that Microsoft would have learned this by now and maybe tried to find a way to make their UI more fluid because a bunch of square tiles is anything but fluid.

I think that all we are seeing is a PR push from Microsoft hoping that this gets pushed around enough to generate interest. So far, there really has not been any in Windows Phone, and the disappointment in the developer’s release of Windows 8 has probably caused some concern as the Metro UI with its large and ungainly tiles is the way Microsoft wants to go; now they are just hoping they can convince us that is what we want too…

Source Seattle Times

Discuss in our Forum

Google has just released an extension that allows remote control of any system that has the Chrome Web Browser installed. Although still in the Beta stages Google claims that this add-in for their browser will help IT organizations to more easily manage systems in their networks and is completely cross-platform allowing access to Windows, Linux, Macs and even Chromebooks. The interface is probably very similar to other free browser based remote software like join.me, got to my pc, and the plethora of others that are out there. We are also pretty sure that it is just as insecure as these services which have all be compromised in one way or the other. In fact to the best of my knowledge only join.me has not been breached and that is because it does not install a permanent client. It is an on demand service that leaves very little to no trace after you close out the session.

Now, there is a danger that in inherent with any remote control software that resides on a computer as there is always the theoretical chance that someone can gain access to that API and exploit it. In fact it is not the remote control extension that I have a problem with (unless Google embeds it in the browser). Instead I am seeing a pattern that I think it being missed by not only the press but by the mainstream users out there.

Let’s take a look at what we have going on and see if you can spot the issue. Not all that long ago Google released a new API called Chrome Frame that allowed elevated permissions to be granted this API. This meant that users who normally cannot install applications would be allowed to install this API. This maneuver is very underhanded and quite shady.  Forcing elevated privileges is a technique used by more than a few people with malicious intent and it makes me wonder about Google’s motivations here.

Next up on the Google hit list was and “false” positive from Microsoft’s Security Essentials which identified Chrome as the W32/Zbot Trojan Horse. When you combine this with Google’s known habit of data collection of their users (ever track what Chrome, Google Toolbar and Google Desktop are doing?) it was not a shock to see this happen. In fact I am surprised that it has not happened sooner.

Now we see a remote control API being added in. I am becoming more and more concerned with Google’s motives and what their end-state is. Plus let’s not forget that the ChromeOS is based entirely off of the Chrome browser. Some of you may remember that this bundling of browser and OS got Microsoft into serious trouble, not once but twice. Where is the outcry over this operating system? I see none from the public or the Government. I guess it helps to have your CEO as the President’s technology advisor.  

I think it is time for everyone to take a long hard look at that Google is really doing. I have a feeling that if this is done, you might find that you do not like many of the liberties they are taking with your searches, your web habits and even your personal data.

Discuss in our Forum

Remember how we told you not too long ago that Microsoft was being smart by working on a tablet friendly version of Windows 8? (Which they have been trying very hard to screw up) Well, one of the things we said about this was the people want a tablet that can do real production work. We have seen this in our own tinkering with multiple tablets from the iPad, iPad2, Transformer and the Flagship tablet, the Asus EEE Slate EP 121. Out of all of these, the only one that we can actually do full production work on is the EP121. Oddly enough (not really) it is also the only one of the group that runs on Windows 7.

Don’t get me wrong; I love the Transformer (we will have a review of that up soon) for its versatility and ease of use. It is a great little tool and easy to transport. However, there are no real productivity apps available for it. I have tried all of the office suites from Documents to Go, Apple’s Pages, to Quick Office. None of them can compete with Office 2010; even Pages (which comes closest) cannot cut it. The tools and flow are not there, it is as simple as that.

It seems that this is not just my opinion on the subject, but a majority of consumers in both the US and China. According to a poll taken by the Boston Consulting Group and another one by Forrester earlier this year over 40 % of US consumers would like a Windows Based Tablet.  BCG’s numbers came in at 42% while the Forrester report showed a nice 46% wanted a Windows based tablet.  The remaining 50%+ was not all iOS either. Forrester claimed that 9% were interested in Android while 16% wanted iOS. BCG’s study claimed that 20% were interested in Android while 27% were looking into an iOS based tablet.

These numbers are only shocking when you leave out what people really want from their devices. They want a seamless experience. One thing that bugs me about having a desktop, laptop, and two different tablets is that to do anything on the Transformer I have to format it differently (especially videos). On the other Windows based devices, I just move files back and forth or put them in my Asus Cloud Drive account (if they are not important or need security).  Of course it also does not mean they want something like the EP121. While I love my EEE Slate, it can be bulky and is awkward to use with the keyboard at times. No what they want is something like the Tab or the Transformer, but running all of their favorite Windows software (including Office); this is what will finally bring the tablet home for many people.

So it seems that I am not the only one that feels that Windows is making the right (if somewhat late) move to a more tablet based OS and will only increase their potential for profit by coding for ARM (something they should have done with Windows 7).  Of course… that is saying they do not alienate all of their potential customers by failing to grasp what the market really wants in a tablet.

Source All things D

Discuss in our Forum

The day before Apple holds its three ring circus for the next generation of iPhone Adobe shows off a few choice apps for Android’s Honeycomb Tablet Operating system. One of these is their top end Photoshop app with a completely new touch interface. Now, Adobe does have these out for both the iOS and for Android (both free and paid versions), but these new flavors appear to much more specifically designed for the larger screened Android based tablets. It is also worth mentioning Adobe’s partnership with nVidia here as there are a number of tablets based on the Green Teams dual core Tegra 2 SoC.  

Of the six Apps shown off (Photoshop Touch, the other apps are Collage, Debut, Ideas, Kuler, and Proto) one already exists for Apple’s iOS as it is now and one has existing versions (although not as complete as the new Photoshop Touch) for both Android and iOS. The other four are new and from the look of them are aimed squarely at the Android platform.  

The releases are interestingly timed. All of them appear to be developed using Adobe’s AIR platform, which technically is capable of developing across multiple platforms.  However, our guess is that this is a subtle slap in the face of Apple for their former CEO’s obnoxious rejection of Flash based applications and at one point an outright ban on any app that was developed in Flash (even if it was later packaged to operate without the need for Flash). What better way to pull some potential clients away than to announce a group of “professional” applications designed for the competition?  The question is, with the launch of these apps slated for November will this make any difference at all? Our guess is no, after all people that want an iOS device will get one and the people that want an Android Tablet will get that. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. In the long run, a few people may opt for Android over iOS if they are looking for a tablet in that time frame, but if someone already owns an iPad or iPad2 they are unlikely to make that bold of a shift just because of Adobe. Plus Adobe has already alluded to the fact that they plan on versions for the iOS later…

But all the posturing aside it is nice to see some serious productivity apps hit the non-Windows based tablets. Now if they could only come up with a decent office suite it really could pull the tablet out of the “cool toy” category and make them truly useful.

Discuss this in our Forum