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Posted by Triston McIntyre on July 13th, 2008
There's a lot to be said for simplicity. Simplicity can mean focused and directed, but it can also mean lacking. Reaching a balance of features and complexity while maintaining clarity and simplicity is a difficult task for any mobile social platform developer. Though I feel like I'm beating a dead horse, I think the best mobile social platforms will be ones that aggregate the most popular computer-based platforms natively as full-time applications run over the data networks of mobile handsets.
As I tend to cover mobile platforms around these parts, I was intrigued when I was emailed about Bluepulse, a mobile social platform that functions in many ways like Friendfeed. Bluepulse is a social platform designed to be largely exclusive to handsets (with support for computers available), on which users can share media files, post status updates, send messages, and more of the same you're most likely used to by now.
So, if this is just another mobile social platform, what makes it stick out so much that I was compelled to raise it as a potentially highly-successful mobile social platform? First of all, Bluepulse is no SMS-based service, something that I appreciate greatly. SMS-based messaging is quickly becoming antiquated as a means of sending social messages, something that Facebook intends to make obsolete in the near future. I give marks automatically for mobile social platforms that run over data and eliminates the reliance on SMS-messaging.
But Bluepulse isn't the first mobile social platform to do that either. The real selling point to me is the overall design simplicity and attractiveness. Aesthetically designed much like Twitter (with traces of Friendfeed), the program provides a steady stream of clear and concise updates from your friends. There's a lot that can be said for simplicity.
That isn't to say I'm sold. When visiting the website, there's only one page that discusses what the platform is capable of, with only one graphic of the platform in action. That tells me Bluepulse feels its strongest asset is a Twitter-like feed or that changes are being made to improve the platform from a rather lack-luster first showing. I would like to see exactly what I'm getting myself into before downloading any platforms, especially platforms that don't have well-established web presences like Twitter, Friendfeed, or Facebook.
However, my impressions (from the little I can see) is that the platform's simplicity and design elements could help it become a leader in a growing pack of mobile social platforms. It will be hard for any mobile-based social network with no well-established computer community to gain a following right now; however, in the very near future, I forsee many more users switching to mobile-based social networks with computer support. We're becoming a society that's constantly on the run — why lock yourself to a mouse and keyboard in your house with mobile support when you can have a mobile platform with at-home support? Don't forget — simplicity and functionality in balance is key.
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Posted by Cyndy Aleo-Carreira on July 13th, 2008
One thing I quickly noticed when browsing the App Store, both in iTunes and on the iPhone, was that there seemed to be some bizarre method of listing the apps. I like finding things in neat categories and alphabetical order within the categories, but there seemed some anomalies in the sorting that placed apps out of order.
Apparently, some of the developers feel the same way that I do about success or failure being presence in the App Store, and also feel that getting to the top of stuffed categories (like Games, for instance, with 203 listings at the time I'm writing this) will ensure even more success, and are gaming their application names in order to get to the top.
Jirbo appears to be the worst offender, placing spaces before their game names on every game. Others like Digital Smoke, Phase2 Media, and TeemSoft have done the same thing, and others have added apostrophes to bump their apps to the top. It seems like this should have been anticipated by Apple, and the code for the App Store written to strip any leading characters to ensure a fair shot to all the apps.
Loopt, however, is a company making full use of the iPhone App Store and platform just using hard work, and may be overtaking other popular location-based services like Brightkite in the process. I've been a Brightkite fan for months, but in order to use it on my iPhone, I have to use Mobile Safari, hit the web site, and enter all my information just like I was on my laptop. Loopt takes advantage of the GPS capabilities of the iPhone 3G, simplifying the process by utilizing the phone's features and built-in audience. It's ad-supported, which makes it a free download, and Loopt's dedication to the platform has paid off, with a mention by Jobs himself at this year's WWDC, as well as a feature in the New York Times on launch day.
Were it not in the App Store, I'd most likely never have given Loopt a second glance, since I was happy with Brightkite. But now it's become my location sharing app of choice, and many companies who didn't put the focus on the iPhone early may find themselves racing to catch up, with worldwide sales figures estimated between one and three million for this weekend alone.
Thanks to Rob Felberbaum at Gaming Shenanigans for the screenshot help!
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Posted by Cyndy Aleo-Carreira on July 13th, 2008
Anyone else tired of "breaking" Yahoo/Microsoft news? The New York Times is reporting that Yahoo has issued yet another infamous statement rejecting another offer from Steve Ballmer and his new best friend Carl Icahn. As usual, Yahoo held an emergency board meeting, "evaluated" the offer, and issued a statement to the media.
Don't they teach Negotiations 101 in business school anymore?
Even the youngest child knows that when you get an offer you don't like, you offer something else in response. It's called bargaining, and most people manage to do it without using the media to communicate. Yahoo knows they aren't going to see the $33 per share offer that Microsoft offered originally. They've ended up where they are now because they've overestimated their worth every step of the way, and are trashing the stock in the process. The only bumps they've seen in their stock price have been due to repeated rumors that Microsoft was coming back to the table.
There is a back-and-forth art to negotiating that seems lost on these two companies, who see much more fond of talking to the press than they do at actually doing any sort of real business. While there are some predicting that a deal will finally be reached by the end of summer, watching this just looks like two aging fighters locked in the ring. Both are getting so tired they can barely throw punches anymore, yet there's no one stepping in to declare a winner.
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Posted by Cyndy Aleo-Carreira on July 12th, 2008
I think the very first icon I clicked on my iPhone was the one for the App Store. After all the hype for the App Store, I wanted to know exactly what ELSE I could be doing with the phone besides what Apple intended.
Available through both the iPhone as well as the iTunes Store, the apps are sorted into categories for easier browsing, as well as other lists such as most recently added and most downloaded. Prices are clearly marked, and each app is shown with a brief description and screenshot. Unfortunately, there are no video demos, which would be more useful for making a purchase decision. I don't mind making a mistake with a free app, but I find myself unwilling to pay for something without a video demo or trial period (something the App Store might want to think about implementing).
There are some familiar web apps in the App Store, and some of them even got added to my phone. One that I never expected to download was Pandora, but I did so at my husband's suggestion, and find I'm now using it more than last.fm, which has been my all-time favorite for finding music online. However, Pandora has an iPhone app in the store. last.fm does not.
Both apps do something of the same thing, helping me find music based on my interests. Pandora lacks all the social aspects of last.fm that I love, yet it does just as good, if not better, a job of suggesting music that I like. The simple fact that I can run it on my iPhone natively, however, has quickly made it my default suggestion app, even though if I were asked to choose between the two, I'd have chosen last.fm every time. The iPhone version is a very simple app: set up your "stations" by entering artists that you like, and Pandora will select songs it thinks you might like and stream them. Add more than one artist and you can do a "Quick Mix" that varies the genres more. Once you are streaming, the controls are as simple as possible: thumbs up or thumbs down, an arrow to bookmark the song or artist, or purchase the song on iTunes, a pause button, and a fast-forward button. You get a back button to return to you station list and an info button that tells you why the song was selected for you, and a volume control. The rest of the screen is filled with either an album image or a note image if Pandora doesn't have an album image. It doesn't get much more basic than this.
And yet, while I can't speak for the millions of iPhone users, I do have to wonder how much of an impact the App Store is going to have on the many Web 2.0 apps that are out there. People are generally lazy, and will opt for the easiest and most convenient choice, as I did with Pandora. And Twitteriffic for my Twitter client. And Evernote for information storage. Will the App store ultimately help to decide which apps survive?
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Posted by Cyndy Aleo-Carreira on July 12th, 2008
Do you consider your interactions on social networking sites to be private?
Amanda Hudson is suing six U.K. newspapers based on the assumption that whatever happens on Bebo (or, by extension, other social networks) should stay on Bebo after a story her 15-year-old concocted and posted to the site was picked up by several newspapers. The big problem? Hudson's daughter's story involved underaged drinking, a visit from the police, and her mother punching her, which Hudson claims never happened. That didn't stop those who read the article from phoning Hudson with abusive comments, most likely about her parenting skills.
In the suit, Hudson charges the newspapers with defamation and "breach of privacy." Can Hudson really claim it's an invasion of privacy to pick up on a story published to a web site that anyone can access?
I don't know very much about how fair use is applied in dealing with UK copyright issues, but from general discussions online, it seems to look much the same as US copyright, and applies to anything made publicly available. Hudson may not like that the papers picked up her daughter's tale of teenaged debauchery, but suing the newspapers assumes that anything posted online is somehow private.
With the increasing amounts of information people share online, privacy is rapidly becoming a cherished commodity. Younger generations who are growing up online. often share far too much personal information without thinking of the ramifications. With web archiving and viral distribution, anything posted online should be assumed to be there forever, something that many never think about when they post it.
News agencies may now think twice before running a story before verifying whether it's factual or not, but the person Hudson should really be blaming here is her daughter for making up the story in the first place and posting it. She may also want to season that with a little bit of faulty parenting in not making sure her daughter completely understood that the Internet is public, and anything posted can take on a life of its own.
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