Author Archives: omo

Reacting to WWDC 2011 Keynote

Disclaimer: Android bias. RealNetworks bias.

With that out of the way:

1. iCloud is great. I think this is excellent, the right approach, and to me it combines the best from Google Music, Amazon’s cloud drive, and Unifi. What’s Unifi you ask? Heh, it launches very soon with Vodafone Germany. It’s probably going to go through a phase of normal integration testing, in the comfort of a carrier’s closed garden. Google Music and iCloud are both public betas. Only Amazon’s cloud drive is gold. I mention these things rather than like most every other internet tech people who would drop “dropbox” in this comparison because that’s what those things are gunning for: ecosystem. Dropbox is not an ecosystem.

The cloud idea is old hat. It’s been around. But it is very difficult to execute the ideas Jobs told us today in the sense beyond a drag-drop file system (ie., all those dropbox clones). I actually think Google is the first company who was able to do it in any real sense in terms of their office suite on the web, but they were never able to rope in Picasa, contrary to my expectations.

More pertinently, Microsoft’s inability to get into the cloud despite its spending is another point to consider why this really hasn’t happened. Over at E3, they talked about cloud a bit at around the same time as WWDC’s keynote. But did we know how long it took them to build up MS Live this way? How much effort did Google put into their cloud app suite? (Some would consider it a moat for Goog rather than a genuine market opportunity, in that case.)

I think true multi-device cloud computing is still a wide-open field that is free-for-all. I think Google is by far the closest, but at this stage there’s no “neutral” way to go about it except with something like Unifi. Too bad Unifi develops like a slowass snail 🙁

2. I never noticed it so much with it at this WWDC keynote than any previous one, but iOS has a lot of shortcomings that were fixed by this iOS 5 update. I don’t even know about these things, because I never used iOS in earnest. In fact I think except the music match stuff and maybe 1 or 2 more features, every one of the features were present already on the Android ecosystem. I mean, sharing to Twitter requires a deep OS API? Are you kidding me? Today’s keynote is more like a list of bug fixes, where most of those bugs were already fixed in Android 1.6x. That’s besides the fact that every one of these “feature” is an app somewhere. Or a free app, if you’re on Android.

To drive this home, read this silly bullshit on Giz. Because if the dude’s dad bought a Honeycomb device, he would have none of those problems. None! It’s retarded. A list of bug fixes! That Android had for years! Oh joy now you can go back to your mediocre, non-competitive and low-value software ecosystem! Good job.

As for iOS vs Android, it’s nice to see the keynote start out with a bunch of “hey iOS is ahead” stats. I guess a lot of people do buy iPod touch and iPads, because it’s clearly all Android in the phone market. Seems kind of meaningless since with iPads you’re encroaching on PC territories. But I’m definitely being unfair here. The status quo as king of the hill is a difficult place, and Apple does innovate better than most, to maintain that lead.

3. Before the Keynote, we got a leak about iMessage that it would integrate SMS. That got me in defensive mode for a minute (because SMS is what pays the bill, for me and my team). After thinking about it, it made sense that they would just go for something more mundane; considering what Apple has accomplished via Facetime, iMessage is child’s play. It does open up an in for SMS integration in a way Google voice has been pioneering, but that would require the blessing of carriers, or alternatively, people like me. And that’s a much trickier game.

4. Lastly, it’s about timing. People were too busy being elated about $29 Lion than to note that iOS 5 is due this Fall. In iterative development terms, that’s almost on par with Unifi (actually Unifi is slightly ahead even), and maybe enough time for Google music to turn over a new leaf. Time will tell.

Random Google Doodles

On Gingerbread and OS Frag

It’s easy to whine and cry about not having the latest and best Android OS on your smartphone. Google’s approach to their first-party wares is to service devs, which naturally meaning offering the newest thing on the block. It’s pretty awesome consumers can get to use them too, especially now that the Nexus S is slated for several carriers beyond the N1.

But what is the real incentive? People want the latest OS, it’s part of the shopping criteria. Naturally it becomes something of a marketing item. I mean, they can get away with sticking Froyo on a mid-range smartphone now. It’s like saying “oh hey it’s ok that my $400 15″ desktop replacement only runs Windows Vista but my $2000 Alienware runs Windows 7.” Makes no sense.

Of course the nature of RISC and platform specific platforms that are today’s smartphones means you can’t easily do this kind of PnP, but given how fast the ROM community work on the latest Android kernels, I find it a little incredulous. I understand that rolling out a kernel on this stuff, in carrier terms, is not trivial. But I also think people are being played for the Android Sweets upgrade game. I hope people realizes this.

Which is to say I doubt OS version frag is not likely going to be a problem now that we’ve hopped into the 2.1+ bucket. Device frag, though…I guess if you’re still rocking a G1, more power to you.

On privacy and security of personal data

So there’s that Google ad going around. Yea, it’s selling things that are precious. More so than phone hardware or computers, at least. But Goog makes its pay on ads, so ultimately they’re just selling us ads by leveraging all that user data.

If I’m going to make available my personal info (anonymized) for commercial purposes, I should get something in return? I guess at the very least I get better ads, and I think that’s a core goal of Google. But that’s more or less true for everyone doing the same thing. Compare them to Facebook though, Google seems just a safer, less prone-to-what-happened-to-Sony kind of alternative. Despite people still get their Gmail accounts compromised, at least I have a 2-step auth option, and with Android, a very powerful cloud personal computing environment that is basically free to use. Nobody is offering this, at least for free.

So, yeah, I get something for giving up privacy and personal info if I stick to El Goog. And from a trust/security perspective, they’re probably more secure than most! And more scrutinized than most. In light of the ongoing Sony PSN problem, I think it’s safe to say that security is probably a lot more important than the fact that they have your personal info to begin with. I mean, think about it, do I trust Facebook? Probably less than PSN…

You can see that ad here.

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2011/05/google-chromes-emotional-ad.html

Lastly, I pick on FB only because I can’t think of any other honeypot for hackers that is going to ruin more lives. Short of high security/military kind of thing, which are probably a lot more secure on the basis of being less trusting and much more restricted.

Core Dump

Just to get some stuff out of my head and on paper–

A coworker passed away this Tuesday. He was young and healthy, and what took him was a bacterial infection. It struck him relatively suddenly; he was still at work last Friday and left early to go home, and then was carted off to the ICU later that day.

It’s tragic beyond these petty words, and my prayers go out to his family and friends, and the affected coworkers here. The whole start-up-ish mentality we have at work necessarily means those who’ve been with the company from the beginning or early on are really close to each other, and this guy was one of the more generically likable guys we have on the team. Plus the stuff he was doing at work is relatively irreplaceable!

Anyways, with that out of the way:

It was a lot of fun going out and drinking away at a yakiniku place. Too much fun perhaps. Definitely more fun than spending more money at Book-off. The only thing to make it better is to go at it @ karaoke.

Really busy these days. We really need to hire more people. If you want an exciting job working in QA working with some pretty cool folks (ie., me) let me know? I’d even give you a cut on the referral bonus lol. Because we really need more people. Probably 2 more headcounts. Basically looking for people with some software QA experience, who can get around in an unix environment. 2-3 years experience minimum, unless you are awesome. Well, at least for the first position. The second one can probably be an entry level thing, for new grads, etc.

Still making good use of V’s single dig, I hope he doesn’t mind (at all).

I probably would be less busy if I didn’t catch shows like Explosion in the Sky @ Radio City Music Hall. That place is pimp, and the acoustics is awesome. In fact I think it makes them sound like better than ever.

Time flies. It’s almost con season already. Paranda’s got his lined up. Danie is going to up to 9 shows in May. I’m just going to chill a little. Still up in the air in terms of Japan trip, and what have you. Sigh.

EVE addiction robbing my blog time, and I’ve made no progress on the blog migration. That will come soon enough.

Remixing Comics, Two Post Two Days

From the depths of PA forums, we find a cross-mix.

I find this particular one very striking and generally worth your time. Remixed webcomics are common, but few are this funny even to casuals. Unfortunately it bears marks similar to others in requiring understanding the context behind this and that.