Stephen J Burke

At the end of last week Google Latitude became available for the iPhone, sort of.

If you don’t know what Google Latitude is, it is the developmental service from Google which will update your physical location and tie it back to your Google account. From there you can imagine you can share your location with others and adversely they can share their location. The end vision being that you will be able to see when you are physically close to your friends at any given moment and even port that information to other applications you may use. The concept is not new and there were already a handful of applications doing this already on the iPhone. However, this is Google, so the world stops to listen.

Google released applications for many other mobile platforms earlier this year, but the anticipated release of the iPhone app is what is needed to propel the service itself forward. I say that it is only “somewhat” released, because Google has released a web application for Google Latitude and not an actual application for the iPhone.  Just as I was about to complain that they didn’t even update the Google iPhone application with the link, it appeared in the list.

I actually went in and looked for latitude when I first heard the rumor, and blew off the fact that I could only find the web version.  Well it turns out that WAS the released version and that my quick encounter was probably accurate enough to depict how this will not take over the world… just yet.

Problem 1 - It doesn’t actually know where I am.  It knows the area, based off cell towers, but fails to dial in that GPS location. After going out on the deck to look for a better signal, it found me within a few miles of the house, but still didn’t find my exact location.  For listing purposes however, it still marks me down in Fairport, when I am actually in Penfield (the adjacent town to the North).

Just in case, I went into the Maps application and the little blue dot indicating my actual location showed up just fine.

Problem 2 – The push isn’t there.  The reason this needs to be an actual application is because after writing quick blog post, I doubt I will remember to go into latitude on a regular basis.  This needs to become an actual application, because what I want out of this, is a notification whenever I get within actual range of somebody and leave it as something I specify.  Left to my own devices, I won’t check in with Latitude.

Supposedly, it will actually keep updating your location if you leave it as the main page in Safari.  Something I have not tested or verified yet. I do however have one friend in there, and it keeps updating, so either he is really proactive, or the service might actually work in a hidden safari window.

Reading through the ARStechnica article and a few others out there, you get the impression that Apple really didn’t want Google to write an app, noting that it may conflict with Maps, already on the phone.  You have to hope that what they really said is “Let’s build this into Maps on the iPhone”, and this web version is only something to appease the masses until that is ready.

So here is my “Dear Google” wrap up.

Dear Google,

Please work on integrating Google Latitude directly into my Maps application on my iPhone, so I can see my friends whenever I am in a map. Please set it up so I can schedule my location updates whenever I want and set it up so I can setup individual warning notifications based off of my distance from other people in my list.  Oh, and thanks for keeping everything free, while still allowing me to bitch about something I paid absolutely nothing to obtain.

Thanks, Stephen

PS – Open a co-location in Rochester, NY, mainly because I want to work at Google, but can’t move to California just yet in my life.

At the Worldwide Partner Conference this week, Microsoft’s chief operating officer, Kevin Turner, announced that they would be opening retail stores in the fall.  This isn’t a surprise, as it follows their actions in February when they hired David Porter, who previously led worldwide product distribution at DreamWorks Animation SKG, and has spent 25 years at Wal-Mart. Rumors have actually been around since April 2008 of Microsoft opening up stores.

There may be some positive reasons for Microsoft going this direction, however with Turner’s statements indicating that they would be opening up “right next to Apple Stores”, it is hard to perceive this as anything but an attempt to reproduce the market that Apple has a firm grasp on.  Regardless of their intentions, I find it hard to understand how Microsoft expects this to work.

Source: appleinsider.com

Microsoft doesn’t make all of the hardware that their systems run on, where as Apple does.  While this causes a complication for the sale of hardware, it causes a larger complication when you think about the service of Microsoft based systems. The value of the Apple store is that I can bring my failing machine in, knowing that Apple is responsible for everything I am handing them.  Start mixing hardware vendors with a combination of installation examples and you create a model that can not be supported by a team of Microsoft Geniuses.

So now Microsoft can sell all of their software on the shelf.  That is fine, but the retail cost of software from Microsoft has always been high. Nobody buys a piece of Microsoft software at MSRP, so you now have a model where you are paying more at the Microsoft store than you normally would online.  Microsoft can’t lower the cost, because every reseller out there would be put out of business.

In the product lineup, we forget that Microsoft does have some hardware platforms to push.  You have the Zune, which will never catch where Apple has placed the iPod, no matter what cost scheme you try to attack with.  You have the Xbox gaming platform, but unless you want the store full of kids all day who don’t buy anything, you will have to just sell the equipment without demo stations setup.

I do believe there may be a small opportunity to make these stores profit, but it is far from the actual product sales.  I think Microsoft could gain some revenue by bringing a training program to the storefront. With a new operating system coming, and with many companies still behind in the current generations of Office suites, having a place for formalized one on one or even group training could be the added value they would need.  Perhaps they could add the layers of certification training and act as centralized hubs for their Partners in the areas, but alas that is not what a retail storefront is meant for.

Microsoft, I look forward to seeing your storefront, but I have yet to understand how you expect it to be successful. It will take too long to build up the internal structure of the stores for them operate smoothly.  Knowing you will be met with harsh criticism from the day it opens, you have a hard road ahead of you.  You have also placed yourself next to the model to catch up to and I hope you have more conceptualized than I do at this point.

More Information

During the dot com boom of 1999 Microsoft had a retail store at the Metreon in San Francisco called “microsoftSF”.

Apple Insider

ArsTechnica

I started to write this up for my brother in law, and realized it would be useful for anybody being brought into the open exposure world of Facebook.

Welcome to Facebook.  The place where everybody talks about everybody else in the open, pictures of you are posted whether you like it or not, and those awkward conversations with those people you have been avoiding your entire life are now on public display.

For the modern day introvert, entering into the world of Facebook is horrible.  I have always been an introvert, and the idea of sharing what is going on at any given moment in my own life absolutely sucks.  Once you realize however that this is an audience you can control, with content that you can choose, it turns from overwhelming to empowering.

If implemented properly, Facebook is the perfect medium for delivering just enough content to the friends and family, that there will be a significant reduction in other communications.  Mom’s just want to know you are safe and that you are doing well, everybody wants to know about the children in the family, so feeding small updates regularly can satisfy all of those needs at once, on your own time.

I have two posts on Securing your Facebook information which you should review.  The premise is that you do not have to, want to, or need to share all of your information to the people on Facebook.  You should however be prepared to filter what people can or can’t see on your own profile, and setting up some “lists” can make that easier for you.  Mastering this technique will turn your Facebook experience into one of complete control.

Facebook Protection – Part 1

Facebook Protection – Part 2

Profile Setup

Setup the basics on the profile.  People can contact you on Facebook, so don’t put all of your contact information in there.  If they want to know what your cell phone number is, they can send you a Facebook message and ask.  Get the basic information in there, with some history that will help people identify you.  Get a real picture setup of YOU, realizing it is not the last picture that people will post.  Don’t get caught into my Top 10 useless Facebook Profile Pictures list.

Click Ignore

Ignore the bullshit requests for everything you will be sent.  Outside of the standard friend requests, there are 9 million (no idea if that is the number) applications out there, built into Facebook.  There is an application to track the movies you like.  There is an application to test your knowledge on cooking, and I am sure there is even an application to keep track of how many time your dog goes for a walk.  For the first few months, just click ignore.  If you feel obligated to click accept out of guilt, don’t.  The applications all seem to be designed to spam you entire friends list, so don’t take it as a personal invitation that you are turning down.  Once you have a grasp on the concepts, you can consider entering into a few applications.

Wall Posts versus Direct Messages

I am not sure why people don’t understand that a wall post is a public message to the entire Facebook audience.  Posting on a persons wall is not the ideal way to have a conversation about one topic between two people.  If you want to ask somebody something directly, send them a message by going to their profile or from your own inbox.

Notifications

Get a grasp on what you want Facebook to notify you about.  Turn it all off, then add the ones you really want to be notified about.  Otherwise you will spend the majority of the day getting notified about every little thing.

Settings > Account Settings > Notifications

Once you stop getting notified about every time somebody scratches their nose, consider lessening your impact on Facebook by removing your activities as being posted on other peoples status pages.  This is the area where if you add a friend, you really don’t need to broadcast it to everybody. I have everything disabled in here, but certainly turn something on if you want to.  I just like being able to change my settings without inadvertently telling everybody what I am doing.

Settings > Privacy Settings > News and Wall Feed > Actions within Facebook

World Audience

My final advice is to not say anything on here you would not say in public or in person, both to your friends, family, or employer.  Being politically correct is a challenge, but the harsh reality is that Facebook is a social networking site that has a broad audience.

Everybody seems to come up with a wish list for Apple after a new release of iPhone software comes out. Like writing the letter to Santa, I am not sure it matters in the end, but it gives a good insight as to where Apple may have missed the mark on peoples expectations.  To keep Santa (Apple) focused, I will keep my list short.  In fact the only real area I want the elves to work on is the calendar.

Admittedly, I never used the calendar app until it was able to sync with my Gmail calendar.  I use Gmail to send out text messages and email notifications, which has always kept me in schedule.  After the sync was setup, I found it much more useful to add the meeting in the application itself, because of the speed.

Now there are only a few more pieces to make it really useful, so here is my wish list for the next update of the calendar app on the iPhone.

• Make a persistent notification. Don’t pop up something on the screen, never to be seen again once I click on it. Even something as simple as a number next to the calendar icon, as you do with every other notification system. Force me to dismiss the notification before allowing it to stop bugging me.
• Send the location to link to the maps application.  Of all of the slow pitched softballs coming your way, this was the largest no brainier.  When I currently click on the details of the event, there is nothing I can do to click on the location address, to link it to the maps application. I don’t need complete integration with the maps, just tell that field to dump the text into the maps application.
• If you can’t get the map app integration fixed, think about updating the notification fields, so that my Email notification will tip off in Gmail.  Currently I have to have it send me the email notification, so that I will get a link back to the map.  Of course I can’t add that notification from the phone, and I need to do it from the Gmail website.

I realize my wish list quickly turned into a rant about how I would have already expected the Cal application to function.  Certainly when it does come to fruition, it will be touted as some new improved feature and not something that should have been there all along.  Luckily Google took care of putting the pieces in place that I really need to keep organized while I wait for Apple to catch up.

Today, Google announced changes to the way you see and use labels in Gmail along with tips in the official Google Blog on how to us them.  The intention is to make the labels act and function more like folders.

For many GMail users out there, you probably didn’t even know there were labels.  You would not be alone, as most people never used the feature. I tried to use the labels in Gmail, and I quickly found that they added no value to the Gmail experience for me. Why would I label my messages, when I knew I could just type in my search term to retrieve the message?  If I wanted to see my messages from my wife Julie, I would just type her name in and not create a label for all of her messages. Now the labels are evolving to appear like folders.

The best thing I liked about Gmail is that I don’t have folders.  I archive every message, and when I want to see it again, i type in my search string.  I have actually gotten so used to not working in folders, that I created one dumb folder in my Yahoo mail, in a lame attempt to recreate the Gmail experience.

So is Google completely off base with their move to make labels appear more like folders?  Though Google will miss the target when trying to appease my own desires, they probably will capture the larger portion of the populous who NEED to see folders.

In my previous life and many moons ago, I was involved in leading the project for a corporate Content Management System.  The story itself is a long tale of confusion and resistance with an ending I care not to reveal for those who have not experienced it.  One important lesson I learned on this project is the users need to conceptualize folders.  Despite my best efforts to explain that there really weren’t any folders, and that it was all just a database field, the user interface needed to have a graphical view of a folder structure tree.  While a handful in the group grasped the concept that each file was tagged or labeled in a database, the rest would not survive the process if it was not for the visualization of folders.

I think these updates will help a lot of people transition into using Gmail.  The new functionality of drag and drop is something people expect when using folders and I think it will be effective at capturing a large portion of the populous.

The only downside is that folder driven individuals may never know a better way of working.  While it is a step forward in increasing adoption rates, it is a step backwards for evolving users into more efficient ways of working.

Focal Selection from the iPhone 3GS

Nikon D200

There is no huge advantage when jumping from the iPhone 3G to the 3GS. The fact that you can get a subsidized 3G iPhone for $99 is very attractive for most people and I would have no hesitation recommending people explore that direction when considering an iPhone.  While the advantages may be slight to the average user, they still mark a healthy improvement in areas that needed attention.

The camera is something I use every day, for a multitude of reasons. For myself has become one of the most important features of this device. Given the choice I would carry the SLR around everywhere, as there is no replacement for it’s quality. I can’t have the SLR all of the time so I fall back onto the iPhone to at least capture the moment.

Being able to take close up pictures,  under 12 inches away, was a huge disadvantage until this new phone. I found myself trying to take pictures of device serial numbers, peoples business cards and anything else I just wanted to remember. The pictures were out of focus and typically illegible.
The new iPhone 3GS addresses this challenge and then some.
Having the ability to choose the focal region in the shot and have it not only focus, but also adjust white balance and light settings, makes a world of difference. When the entire area is in the same focal length the camera automatically focuses. Perfect for capture business cards and documents and I

plan on using it to record my receipts. When the area covers a larger focal region, choosing that focal area ensures the picture is focused on what you intend.

Not only does the focus changes to the selected region, but it also adjusts white balance and aperture.  Previously taking pictures at dusk, I would have to point the phone down to adjust for the darkness in

White Balance at Dusk

the yard, then pull up abruptly to take the picture of the sky.  Otherwise the entire silhouette of the yard would be black as the brightness of the sky took over.  With the iPhone 3GS, selecting the area of the yard as the focal area, it handles this automatically, without having to trick the lens into what is happening.

The camera upgrades for myself were worth the expense, but I average 10-15 pictures on the phone a day.  If you are a casual user, this expense may not be worth the extra cost of the 3GS.

Golisano Building at Rochester Institute of Technology

My decision to buy the iPhone 3GS was weighed out heavily over the last week. It wasn’t until this morning, that my mind made the commitment to make it happen. Typically I am a late adopter of new technology, but this is not really new. After all I knew it would do everything the iPhone 3G did, with an expectation that it would only improve that experience.

Buying the new phone was easy. Not getting any help from AT&T on the price was another stab in the back. I convert as many people as I can into iPhone users. I have a corporate contract with AT&T at work, putting 30k a month into their pockets and I can’t get an ounce of thanks from AT&T for the effort. Yes, I will jump to any other carrier when the time comes. However despite how terrible the customer experience is with AT&T, the iPhone trumps the desire need to have this setup.
I still contend that having an iPhone is no comparison to the Blackberry market, the windows mobile market, or any other mobile platform…yet. I find it difficult to hear people happy that they have their new BlackBerry because they wanted to stay on Verizon. This is so much more than your email and web browser, that I can no longer sit through the conversation. Your arguments on monthly costs and calling in the same network are dissolved within seconds and the only bastian of validity in your argument will still hold is that AT&T customer service sucks.

I received an email last week from the Google Local Business Center, letting me know about the updates they had to their interface listings. I put the email aside until today, as I was on the road and really didn’t have a chance to sit down and soak in what it was telling me.

Google released some tools on June 2nd, which created a dashboard for local businesses. The tools allow business owners to dig into the traffic patterns that people follow when locating businesses using Google Search and Google Maps. The report doesn’t get as granular as to provide the interface people were using to perform these searches, but expect the expansive growth of the iPhone and other mobile platforms has created a new demographic for businesses to focus upon.  I know open up my Maps applications to search nearby whenever I look to find something.

This glimpse into the profiles of localized searches would have gone un-noticed, except for the fact that I have two local businesses registered under my account. It is interesting to see how a business with local customers and clients matches up against a global company with a local footprint.

I mentioned I had two listings in the system, which are The Country Party House and Rotork Controls, the company I actually work for.  The owners of The Country Party House have been friends of the family for years, so I have always tried to help with some of their web presence needs.  It is a small family run business which is a local resource for hosting parties and large events like weddings.  Rotork on the other hand is a global manufacturer of valve actuation systems.  They don’t sell anything locally and in fact target most of their business out of state and country.  I have worked at Rotork for 11 year, and while their marketing department might not know this local listing exists, I still put it in there, knowing it was the right thing to do at the time.

The more interesting of the two, is by far the Country Party House generating 1641 impressions or visits, with 276 actions off of the site over a 30 day span.

The actions are broken down into categories, showing that not only did somebody find your listing, but took initiative to get more information or directions from that listing. In the case of the party house…

49 Clicks for more info on Maps
141 Clicks for driving directions
86 Clicks to your website

While the second search query identifies that people already knew the business and were searching for directions, the rest of the input almost forms a trend.  People searching for wedding receptions or banquet halls and following Country Party House as the local resource is a direct score for the marketing campaign, capturing the core demographic of what they want.  A look at the regions of the area, we can see a saturation of interest around Webster, perhaps from a different marketing campaign, and the need to advertise more in some of the thinning areas.

While the Rotork information wasn’t completely useless, it shows that people are really just either looking for directions, or something completely unrelated to the business itself.  With search results for generic terms like “businesses” topping the list, you have to imagine the local demographic is non-existent.

There are some more enhancements that this new service brings to your listings, enabling you to define store hours, link to media about the store, etc. For local businesses, looking for free exposure, this is a huge resource to tap into.  Once you identify the revenue stream being generated by these local listings, you will find some resources like Google AdWords, Google Checkout and Google Base available to enhance these listings even further.

I was glad that I actually had some businesses listed to visit, as I would have never appreciated how much traffic was actually going through this service.  For the local business today, this is a key resource to take advantage of.  For those large international companies, at least get your address right, so we can still get directions.

We may not be the best example of measuring smartphone adoption rates, because our company has a head start with the iPhone.  We in the IT department manipulate our knowledge of change management to make our own lives easier, one iPhone at a time.  When the only requirement for a smart phone was defined by management as needing “access to email”, we moved to the iPhone as soon the Exchange integration became available.   The corporate community is no different than any other populous.  Just as they spread the word when something fails, they strut their glory when something works.  It didn’t take long before the viral effect of a very successful platform took hold, and we started receiving the requests for iPhones over the other platforms.  The advantage for us, is that people are quiet, happy and working, apposed to calling and complaining about their Windows Mobile platform locking up.

That is not the case for most corporations.  Most corporations are invested heavily in Blackberry or Windows Mobile because their list of requirements extend already beyond the need to access email, because they have already changed their own applications to accommodate their new platform.  Being slow to the smart phone race has had its advantages for us.  Regardless, with the announcement of iPhone 3.0 software and the features it brings, the corporate community will not be far behind us.

Capital Expense Reduction

As most corporations in the economy today, we are watching the extra money we spend.  While the iPhone has never been the cheapest, it certainly gets attractive now that they offer a $99 model for the iPhone 3G. Our guys on the road also have a GPS, so removing that from the list of purchases, now that TomTom has released an iPhone Turn by Turn application is a huge advantage.  Slide a little further and invest in a iPhone 3GS and you eliminate the need for a separate digital camera with closeup capabilities and video clips.  I think the only thing left on my wish list is for iPhone to completely emulate windows mobile for the purpose of running those old apps that we wrote years ago and seem to ignore. Certainly eliminating 4 or 5 devices in the list of items an employee will need to carry, is a huge advantage, and worth a serious look moving forward.

Cut Copy and Paste

There is no argument that this functionality should have made it into the iPhone long before the 3rd release of software.  It was a complaint of most everybody since day one.  Now that it is here however it is also no longer a point to argue against the platform.  Providing functionality that is one step closer to conducting business on the iPhone, this is a key feature, which we all knew was coming.  I am not ready to give Apple a big pat on the back for finally getting around to it, but this rather un-glorious feature is not without celebration.

Tethering

The ability to tether just took 30% of our populous and moved them to the iPhone side of the argument.  Once AT&T figures out how much they want to squeeze people for this service, it will be a HUGE step for anybody with a laptop to connect.  As it stands now, we have many employees going to a broadband card, and being able to eliminate that extra piece will be worth the offset cost.

LandScape Keyboard

Check this off in another one of the, “should have done that a long time ago” boxes.  For people trying to overcome the move from tactile keyboards however, this will significantly increase the adoption rate.

Voice Memo

Believe it or not, we still have a few executives carrying around dictation recorders.  Now, I know that there are already iPhone applications for recording notes, but having one built in may yield some better support for the playback of these files down the road.  After all it is the transcription software that really is needed.  If there is no software down the road, I may have just identified my ticket to retirement.

Honorable Mention

There are many items up on the list of things to come, which we really can’t put our finger on, but know are really good to have for our developers.  While the rest of the manufacturers try to scratch at market share the iPhone already has, these features pave a powerful foundation for infiltrating the corporate environment.

• VPN on demand is a huge, but only for organizations already developing applications. Being able to tell the the application to connect a VPN tunnel back to the services it needs, will be a huge advantage towards integrated CRM, ERP, MRP and a long line of other acronyms relating to business software.
• LDAP was on the list of items, but didn’t yet make the describable list of features.  Obviously a huge statement when approaching any Active Directory or Microsoft Windows network.
• One of the large hangups from a corporate perspective is the security aspect of the device.  While the new 3.0 software brings some powerful enhancements with remote wipe functionality, it appears to still require a MobileMe account.  This needs to be opened up into operating with the Exchange functionality before it is makes the “advantages” list.
• Encrypted profile backups are always a good thing, but if a corporation has already adopted an encryption policy for their devices, it is just another feather in an already protected cap.

If you are in the corporate environment, you must at least prepare for the notion that there will be iPhone entering the corporation, and it may be time to start preparing for it.  The largest number one negative against the entire concept of the iPhone in a corporate environment is that you need iTunes on the clients. Apple will need to create a management application and thin client for corporate iPhone users if it hopes to really take over.

Gizmodo has an excellent writeup of the announcement covering the highlights if you missed it.

Director Steven Spielberg on stage during the press briefing to praise Microsoft's approach to the mainstream audience with Project Natal. (Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

Microsoft’s large announcement at E3 this year was the development into Project Natal, their full body movement and gesture detection system.  The allure of the system is that you don’t need a controller at all to enjoy motion sensitive games and architectures.   Obviously taking a stab at the under-estimated market segment that Nintendo tapped into with the Wii, the system certainly moves the bar higher than ever before.  The question is whether or not it will hit the market segment they were shooting for, and whether or not they have anything to offer the core gaming community.

There is a large distinction between the core gaming community and what the Wii has created as a community.  While the rest of the manufacturers were busy trying to develop a platform that would make gamers happier, Nintendo when and focused on all of those people who weren’t playing at all.

Here is where the concept of Microsoft jumping into the motion control segment starts to fall apart.  Unless Project Natal becomes part of an off shelf Xbox system, it will forever be seen as a peripheral to an existing game console.  It will be the PowerGlove of the modern day system and it will not compel people to purchase the system, not really understanding how they get the motion feature added on.

Knowing Microsoft has the eyes and ears of the gaming community, there is a longer list of challenges that Microsoft will have in order to attract the core gamers.

Exercise

There is misconception that gamers want to exercise.  If I wanted to play soccer, I would go outside and play soccer.  If I want to get together with my friends online and play soccer with my friends for a few hours, I do not want to have to exhaust my energy to do so.  Obviously there are some exceptions out there, but the attraction of gaming is mental exercise and not the physical one.

Accuracy

I realize we have only seen a few videos, and there is a lot left to the imagination before passing judgment.  However if I make the gesture and the console doesn’t record the action fast enough, we are going to have issues.  If I repeat the action yet some how miss objective, get shot, fall off a cliff, or anything else to cause failure in my game play, this system will be never be utilized again.

Reaction Time

Because the games are going to have somewhat of a visual buffer to to protect around problems anticipating the accuracy, they are going to be slower.  They have to accommodate  uncomfortable pauses right before key actions and gamers will find themselves adjusting their strategy to accommodate the speed.

Ergonomics

I am sure a certain amount of programming has to go on yet before they are comfortable tracking every gesture.  The problem is the shape and design of the people on the planet are different.  How will this system react to the 6 year old versus the 20 year old, not only in actions but in facial gestures, etc.

Environment

The technology driving the actions are surrounding a monochrome camera, acting as an infrared sensor to record depth and motion.  It even identifies the different actions being performed.  How does it react to more light in the room, or outside?  How does it react to a baggy set of clothing, where the system might not be able to differentiate the joints in the body?   I realize they probably put a lot of effort into making this work, but there are too many variables to not expect some major hiccups.

What I would want to see out of this system is a complete interactive environment, not for gaming, but for an interface to access the internet, and for home automation control.  They are reaching that futuristic interface design that we saw in Minority Report, which set a visual representation of how we will be able to interact with an interface.  I am just not ready for it to be a game, but want it to be more. Time will only tell if this redefines anything, or goes to the closet of innovative ideas that were too early.