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Author Archive | Harry McCracken
Building an Android-Based iPhone Killer: Doable?
Daring Fireball’s John Gruber has a smart post up exhorting somebody–anybody–to build an Android phone that’s better than the iPhone. As far as I can tell, no manufacturer of Android-based phones has set out to do that–Android phones are getting better, as shown by the significant improvement that T-Mobile’s myTouch 3G represents over the first-generation G1. And some Android phones sport better specs in certain areas than the iPhone, or features that the iPhone doesn’t have. But nobody’s used Android to get to an overall phone experience that’s neck-and-neck with the iPhone yet. (And the overall iPhone experience remains so remarkable that folks are willing to forgive the phone for its many limitations.)
Android has gotten off to a slower start than I expected; even so, I still think it’s likely that it’ll provide the iPhone with its stiffest competition in terms of sheer market share in the years to come. I’m less optimistic about there being lots of Android phones which are just as good as the iPhone, for the same reason that there aren’t lots of Windows PCs that are just as good as Macs–the PC-like business model behind Android encourages manufacturers to build commodity products (albeit potentially good ones), not unique and ambitious ones of the sort Gruber is hoping for.
(Which doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to build something unique on Android; the best Windows laptops, such as Voodoo PC’s Envy 133, use the platform for products of Apple-like refinement and creativity. It’s just that the economics of building products on a common platform encourages those products to be…common.)
As of right now, the iPhone’s most formidable competitor in terms of overall experience is unquestionably Palm’s Pre. It’s anything but a coincidence that it’s also the smartphone that came out of the design process most similar to Apple’s approach, with one company designing the software and hardware from scratch. Very few companies will ever get that ambitious. But I hope that many companies do the next best thing: build Android phones that are so thoughtfully designed and customized that you forget they run an OS that’s available on scads of phones from scads of manufacturers.
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Is Google Too Powerful?
Over at TechFlash, Galen Ward of real-estate search company Estately has blogged about the way that Google integrates results and promotions for its various features (such as Google Maps, YouTube, Google Checkout, and real estate search) into its search results. He says the practice makes it hard for other companies that compete with Google–and which might even offer superior services–to succeed, and that it therefore hurts consumers. He goes so far as to wave an obvious red flag by comparing Google today to Microsoft in the 1990s. (He also says that if the government interfered with Google, it would probably make the situation even worse.)
The question “Is Google too powerful?” is as big and complicated as Google itself. I’ll try to blog some thoughts about it soon. But for the moment, I want to take your pulse in the form of today’s T-Poll:
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Tech Folks to Follow on Twitter
TechRepublic Editor-in-Chief Jason Hiner has published a nice hand-picked list of one hundred tech-related folks who are worth following on Twitter. (Yes, it includes me, but that’s but a minor lapse–and it still leaves ninety-nine worthy candidates.)
Jason points out that Twitter needs a way to follow a group of people with one click–an equivalent to what OPML provides for RSS feeds. (If Twitter doesn’t feel like offering this feature itself, a third-party could presumably do so.) His list is also a reminder that the world could use a definitive directory of Twitterfolk who are worth your time in various major categories. WeFollow is useful, but like too many guides to Twitter users, it sort of devolves into an index of people with large numbers of followers. I know people with a couple of hundred followers who are good reads, and there are multiple people and organizations who prove that having hundreds of thousands of followers is not necessarily a sign of quality…
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What if the Apple Tablet is a Mac?
Over the weekend, a French blog published new “photos” of Apple’s “upcoming” tablet. They looks fishy and pseudo-Appleish at best (and if the tablet isn’t coming until next year, which is now the consensus among the smartest Applewatchers I know, they’re here awfully early). I bring this up here mainly because the image seems to show the device booting into the welcome screen you see when you start a Mac for the first time. In other words, it appears to show…a Mac. Not an oversized iPod Touch.
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Windows XP Users Speak Out
Maybe Windows XP users, on the whole, aren’t hidebound old luddites who stick with an eight-year-old operating system because they fear change. Maybe most of them are smart people who continue to use Windows XP because it does what they need it to do–but who will upgrade to a new version of Windows when they’re impressed by one and are confident it’s ready for prime time.
At least that’s what I’m thinking as I peruse what what nearly 5,000 Windows XP users have to say about their current operating system of choice, why they haven’t moved to Windows Vista, and what they think about Windows 7. They may remain immune to Vista’s, um, charms, but most of them have an open mind about Windows 7–and most of those who have tried 7 really like it.
As part of our research for upcoming coverage of Windows 7. my friends at PC World and I partnered to conduct a survey of Windows XP users. We promoted the survey at PC World, at Technologizer, and via our respective Twitterfeeds, 4994 people took it. We didn’t screen them other than to ask them to confirm that they use Windows XP as their primary operating system. So what they said may or may not reflect the sentiments of the Windows-using world at large–but it’s interesting nonetheless. Here’s a full report.
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Qik Goes Legit on the iPhone
Livestreaming service Qik finally has an app available on the iPhone App Store. (A version for jailbroken iPhones already existed.) It’s good news, but not without a major gotcha: The App Store version of Qik doesn’t permit you to stream live video from your phone to Qik’s site. It does, however, allow you to record video with an iPhone 3GS which is then instantly and automatically uploaded to Qik (along with your GPS location), as well as share it via YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. Which is useful in and of itself, and similar to the tactic taken by competitor Ustream to get into the App Store.
The biggest limitation of this Apple-approved version of Qik is that you can only upload via Wi-Fi, not 3G. Qik says it’s submitted a 3G0-enabled version of the app to Apple, though. That one should be a decent stopgap until the day comes–I’m an optimist and assume it will-that Apple lets developers write apps that stream video on the fly over 3G.
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The Beep is Being Taken Back!
Good news about David Pogue’s Take Back the Beep campaign, which targets the voicemail instructions which explain stuff everybody already knows, thereby wasting massive amounts of time and money. Over at his New York Times blog, David has posted a progress report: AT&T says it’s going to make changes; T-Mobile says it’s thinking about it; Sprint is the one phone company that already lets you disable the instructions; and Verizon is at least paying attention. Kudos to David for rallying an army of frustrated phone owners and to the folks who took the time to contact their phone companies and register their discontent. And to AT&T for being the first company to say it’s not only listening but will take action.
If Take Back the Beep works, we need to figure out what other minor indignities of modern life we might be able to change through coordinated consumer complaints. Me, I’d be a far happier consumer if I never again had to show my receipt when exiting a store so a security guard can pretend to verify that I’m not a shoplifter. I wonder what would happen if large numbers of us simply refused to participate?
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5Words for Friday, August 14th 2009
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Andreessen backs a new browser.
A billion Firefox downloads: meaningless?
Microsoft courts iPhone app developers.
Lenovo recalls faulty ThinkPad batteries.
One comment
When Will Apple Announce a Tablet?
Back in June, I asked you guys to predict what Apple would announce at its WWDC keynote…and you did a better job than some professional Applewatchers. Wanna try your hand at outsmarting the pros when it comes to figuring out when it’ll announce its tablet computer, assuming it is in fact working on one?