Tech And Stuff

Moving on to new things

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 19:16:00 +0000

So january 2012 started a little bit hectic and strange for me and I am now starting a new job as a software developer at Acando in Trondheim Norway. I'm going to be doing .Net development which means several things like:

Gotta use Windows again, last time was about 2006 I think
Learn new programming language and framework called .Net
Doing serious systems development

And a bunch of other stuff I have probably never thought about before. In any case I will not stop doing Android development, it will just be more free time based then before. I'm very excited to learn .Net because I have heard so many great things about it, time to se what all the fuss has been about.

OS X Lion five months in

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:01:00 +0000

I have now been using OS X Lion at work for about five months, at home I still use OS X Snow Leopard so I actually get to feel the differences quite often. Here are some thoughts:

Not missing much
Coming home from work and starting up the basic same apps (IntelliJ IDEA, Chrome, Twitter, Sparrow) and doing the same stuff (coding Android, surfing for codestuff, tweeting, reading email, surfing stuff) I really don't miss anything when I am on Snow Leopard compared to Lion. In fact the feature differences are almost zero. The important thing here is that there are differences between Snow Leopard and Lion, I'm just not using or noticing any of them in practice. Not once I have been using Snow Leopard and tried to do something and had a "damn I wish I had Lion right now" moments.

The real difference
The only real difference I have noticed between Lion and Snow Leopard is that Snow Leopard performs much better then Lion does. After installing Lion on the work iMac 27" the spinning umbrella has been more frequent and crashes have been occurring weekly instead of yearly (Snow Leopard is extremely stable in my experience). So at work stuff is slower and more prone to crash (I don't even dare starting up Adobe PS and the Android emulator at the same time anymore at work) and at home stuff is faster and more stable (sometimes simply amazed at how stable this thing will stay and simply trudge along when the tasks get tough).

Upgrade to Lion?
I'm still not going to upgrade to Lion because right now there is for me zero reasons to do so and several reasons to not do so. Should I ever have to, and sooner or later some cool and fancy app will require Lion or maybe I wan't to start making iOS apps, I am going to do two things first:

Buy more RAM - Lion just loves more RAM and who doesn't?
Buy a SSD - Lion loves swapping out that RAM

That makes Lion quite the investment, so I'm sitting on the fence just a little while longer.

Short Android Story

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 20:02:00 +0000

Using the Google Reader app and came over an album recommendation, click the link and start listening to the album with the Spotify app. Now I am blogging about it with the Blogger app. Android is a pretty awesome smartphone os.

Why I Don't Like Microsoft

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 18:51:00 +0000

For several years now I have had a growing resentment towards Microsoft as a tech and IT company. This post is more or less a rant on what I dislike about Microsoft and why. The sections are headlined by the specific tech and why I don't like it.

Windows
I started my knowledge of Microsoft as many people do, by using their operating system Windows. My first Windows was 95 and I was more or less 100% Windows up until 2006 when I bought my first Mac, I never used Windows Vista so XP was my last Windows experience. Windows was a blessing and a curse from the first day I can remember fiddling with it. Moments like installing a scanner driver that caused the mouse not to work or dismissing thousands of "DLL Error" messages are fond and frustrating at the same time. Windows was in many ways a great operating system and it certainly pushed the PC revolution many steps forward, but something happened.

At some point Microsoft became so dominant in the desktop PC industry that it didn't have a market share, it had the market. I'm not going to dig up stats on peak Windows dominance, the simplest fact is that when people talked about PCs they meant PCs with Windows on them. This complete dominance of the market gave Microsoft the opportunity to make it harder for other OS vendors and even software vendors to enter. It also meant that Microsoft could work very little to earn very much if they played their cards right, and they did.

In my personal opinion Microsoft did little real improvements to their OS line since Windows XP was released (and fixed drastically over the next years) back in 2001. Windows Vista took forever to get released and when it did it was terrible, luckily by then I was using OS X, wich compared to Windows was a dream come true. With releases like Windows ME and Windows Vista and the real lack of true innovation to make the OS truly userfriendly, not just geekfriendly, Windows to me is a failure from Microsoft in many many ways. Apple meanwhile pushed OS end-user innovation much further and Linux became the hardcore IT tool that many geeks wanted, Microsoft became the bland soup that IT support people must endure day in and day out, not to mention the users. I really don't like Windows anymore and to be honest I don't have much hope for Windows 8, I just don't care about MS tech anymore.

Word and Office
Word is for text editors as Windows is to OSes, regular people think Word is the only thing out there that writes text on PCs, wich have Windows. Word came late to the game of wordprocessing, Wordperfect was the market leader by far, but MS somehow swooped the market and Word and later on Office became the de facto standard of productivity software for business, schools and households alike. Then what happened?

Again in my opinion almost nothing happened after Word and Office reached their peak market dominance. At that time the software was cutting edge and the developers had made the best productivity software the world had ever seen, then we got stuck with that software for over a decade (Office 98 was pretty decent in my opinion). With Office Microsoft saw a market opportunity that was as genius as it was evil, they made new versions of Office incompatible with previous versions. From there came the everlasting tug of war that was "what version of Office was this file saved with?". You would destroy certain files just by trying to opening them with the wrong version of Office and every time Microsoft released a new version the problem only got worse, never better.

Microsoft managed to make Office so terrible and a insane hassle for it's own customers and users that when Open Office and other alternatives where released, with far fewer features and being far behind MS in reality, people where just glad not to pay for the terrible software and jumped ship to the competition. Off course these people where few and far between so Microsoft didn't care enough about this to actually fix the problems they where creating. I remember when Google Docs was released and being almost as basic as Wordpad and thinking "Finally a simple editor that works, is free and let's me collaborate with people". Before Google Docs it was a constant hassle of sending documents by email back and forth and trying not to ruin the doc itself with the wrong formatting, version of Office or OpenOffice. I remember in 2009 when learning that to export something as PDF Microsoft Office 2008 required a plugin, I wasn't surprised, just sad. Office is a terrible software story on abuse of market dominance and not caring about the end users.

Internet Explorer
Again history repeats itself. Microsoft was late to the game, again, and then brute forces its way into supreme market dominance. Pushing Netscape aside and racing onwards to about IE 6 Microsoft again poured money into development and made the best browser on the market, that also happened to be bundled with the dominant OS and also had plenty of dirty tricks to make things harder for the competition. Microsoft achieves market supremacy and then what happens? IE 6 becomes the most outdated, insecure and most annoying piece of web technology that this world has ever seen, and it was the most popular browser ever. To this day there exists campaigns to remove it from the earth and even Microsoft has poked fun of the thing. IE7 and IE8 where little better and it was not until the market shares really started to dip, wich was strange since IE was still the bundled browser with the number one bundled OS, before MS started focusing effort on IE with the ninth release. Another piece of evidence that shows that as soon as MS has a comfortable market share they just don't care about the product anymore, it's all about raking in the cash. That strategy may just cost them the whole company in the end.

Windows Mobile
Again MS takes big chunks of the market share, makes it's own solution the best solution to match with their other market leading solutions and voila you have success and money. However if you actually try to use a Windows Mobile phone you will find it strange that people used it at all. You stare at a 3-4 inch screen and try hard to hit the small small icons with you'r stylus and then try even harder to read the text as it slowly loads on the screen before you. Options are cluttered, messy and hopelessly out of date. Did i mention that this OS was released in late 2009, two years after the iPhone? The CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, laughed of the iPhone and said "It doesn't even have a stylus!", yes funny I know. Another terrible terrible software story from the former market leader of smartphone OSes.

To sum it up
There are many other stories like the ones above, but those are the big points. The point is this, Microsoft is a great company when it comes to being late in the game and then making great software to quickly outrun the competition. The big problem it seems is that the moment they get comfy they totally abandon all innovation and real development and simply start milking the cow. Compare this to other companies that never dare to rest on their laurels for even a second, maybe in fear of becoming another Microsoft in the field.

Right now Microsoft appears to be scrambling to either catch up with the rest, like with Windows Phone 7, or just try to stop it before it happens, like Windows 8. For me I don't really care, I don't care that Windows Phone 7 is a decent OS (more on that later) or that perhaps Windows 8 will be great or even that Office 365 is a nice Office suit. I just don't care because I have had it with Microsoft. They had over ten years to convince me to stay with them, they have given me almost no reasons to do so. The one exception is the Xbox, I have one and it's probably the best console out there, perhaps because they are not the numero uno leader. I don't like Microsoft and now it just feels to late, if I ever get excited about something Microsoft again I just know they are going abandon it the second it becomes the market leader, I'm not going to let that happen again.

Android Quick Tip - Android Asset Studio

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 09:57:00 +0000

When making Android apps you often need graphical resources and often you need them in different sizes as well. For every app there will be basic stuff you will always need and for such needs there exists a site/tool called Android Asset Studio that is a amazingly helpful and is quick and easy to use.

The site/tool takes resources as input and generates nicely sized icons for xhdpi to ldpi size screens. Brilliant for making launcher icons, menu icons or other basic app resources quickly and easy. I have been using this site more and more lately and it just keeps on getting better.

Huge thanks to Romain Guy for making this tool (also it is bundled in the ADT now, nice for you Eclipse users out there). If you make Android apps then do check this out.

Android Asset Studio

Android Development: Eclipse vs. IntelliJ IDEA Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 21:48:00 +0000

Almost one year ago I posted on Android development in IntelliJ IDEA compared to Eclipse and it has been the most popular post on this blog by far so I wanted to come with a update. Since November 2010 I have become a full time Android developer and this has ramped up my time with IntelliJ and Android development in general. With IntelliJ 11 coming soon and the Android Tools becoming better and better including the Eclipse Plugin I want to share my experiences with these to others so here goes. I would like to point out that I use a Mac running OS X Lion and that the IntelliJ version is always the free Community Edition.

Eclipse, Android and ADT
The Android developer tools have become better and better and the ADT tool for Eclipse has actually been keeping nicely up with this development. Eclipse is the supported Google editor with several other Google projects also having their own plugins and libs for Eclipse. Eclipse is also the biggest Java editor out there and has a massive enterprise and community following so it's a natural fit for the Android team for sure. With the latest SDK tools and ADT 14 the GUI preview system in Android is becoming very very solid and drag and drop GUI creation is possible if not 100% perfect yet. With support for animations and other tidbits like supporting custom GUI the ADT and SDK tools are a solid combo, no doubt about it. Below is a video from the makers of the Android SDK and tools that show some really nice tricks and coming features.

The GUI tools are so nice in fact that for several months now I have been booting up Eclipse just to create some layouts, using the whole IDE as a kind of Android GUI sketcher. This has worked ok but is really tiresome for several reasons, first of all it takes a huge amount of resources just to start Eclipse and secondly Eclipse doesn't play well with IntelliJ when viewing the same Android project. So I have a dummy "GUI Builder" Eclipse project that requires me to dump resources into it from my IntelliJ project so that I can sketch and tweak my layouts, not ideal at all.

Now you may ask yourself why I don't simply use Eclipse when clearly I need and want the ADT tools and GUI stuff, why not just drop IntelliJ and go for Eclipse? The simple reason is that I simply can not go back to writing code in Eclipse when I have already tried IntelliJ. As comments have suggested this may be because I have the wrong Eclipse (64, cocoa, version etc.) or that I have not tweaked it (add more virtual RAM etc.) but IntelliJ is amazingly fast compared to Eclipse and I don't have to do anything at all to make it fast. I don't have to spend hours on Google and forums to get the right Eclipse and to tweak the right settings, IntelliJ just works. And again with IntelliJ I don't need any plugins for SVN or GIT or anything at all, it is all there. In fact the integration IntelliJ now gives for Android is far far better then Eclipse for my use. With Eclipse I always have to select New->Other and then find some hidden Android subset of files like this:

This gets old pretty quick. This is integrated with IntelliJ as it understands that the current project is a Android project and that you just might want to add a XML layout file in the layout folder of you'r Android project. This is even getting better with IntelliJ 11 as it will suggest folder names from the Android SDK like drawable-hdpi. Compared to IntelliJ then Eclipse is slow, unresponsive, has bad UI and hacked on Android support that isn't nearly as streamlined and smart as that of IntelliJ. So going back to Eclipse, even tough I tried, was not a option, what then about the tiresome workflow of GUI previews? Read on to learn about IntelliJ 11.

IntelliJ 10 and 11

So for the last six months I have been developing Android apps fulltime with IntelliJ 10 and it has been great. The speed and stability of IntelliJ and all the smart features that are easy to find if you try to look (no they will sadly not jump up in you face) that you will be amazed at what the editor will do and help you with. It's robust, feature rich and yet still fast and usable, many things that Eclipse is not. So IntelliJ 10 has been and is a great editor for Android. But IntelliJ 10 is quickly becoming past, what about IntelliJ 11?

IntelliJ really ups the ante for winning over Android developers because they have included the most importan missing piece of the puzzle. Fortunately this piece has been OSS and developed by the Android Tool developers to be "easy" for other IDEs to integrate, they are making a effort not to force people to use Eclipse and offer IDE creators the same goodness. This feature is GUI preview integrated straight into IntelliJ and it uses the excact same libs as the ADT tool. Here is a Google+ post from the Android tool developers themselves and a quick quote:

All this code is not in the Eclipse plug-in (which uses the Eclipse Public License), we put it instead in separate libraries under Apache license so that other tools vendor can reuse it easily. Pretty awesome to see them finally used!

This is followed by a link to this post by the IntelliJ blog announcing the preview feature. I have been using the preview build of IntelliJ 11 (grab it here) and it's working very well already. With this feature in IntelliJ it will be far and between me booting up Eclipse wich is very good news for me. IntelliJ 11 also integrates Android more with small but nice features like supporting and exposing the different resource qualifiers in Android like this:

There might be more Android additions as well, but the preview is really the killer Android feature for me. Also IntelliJ 11 seems more snappy and has a more nice compact feel to it, making it better for laptop coding and amazing for my 27" iMac workstation as I can fit the emulator, adb and editor all in one screen.

Wrap up for Eclipse vs. IntelliJ part 2

So each time I have booted up Eclipse it has been slow as sludge, as usual and it has been buggy, naggy, unstable and frustrating to even touch. Compared to IntelliJ it is a pure nightmare. This may be because I have the wrong Eclipse, the wrong OS or the wrong settings for Eclipse, but when IntelliJ just works then the choice is simple. With GUI preview built in IntelliJ 11 the choice for a Android development IDE is simple for me, it's IntelliJ every time.

Even More Android Fragmentation

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 19:45:00 +0000

I have written about this before, but let's have at it again shall we.

Here is a well researched article about Android fragmentation drawn directly to handsets from major handset makers and or carriers. The article has clearly been in the making for quite some time, but the recent announcement of Ice Cream Sandwich and then the news that the Nexus One would not be getting it spurred it's perfect publish date. I wan't to talk about several points, below is a summary and further below is the long form.

Summary:

Is Android really fragmented? Yes it is. Se this chart for proof from Google.
Is this fragmentation a problem? No it is not, yes security issues exist but not as much as you would think
Is Google evil? No, but they want to make money, also Google doesn't actually (yet) make phones
Is Android a terrible plattform doomed to fail and I should go buy a iPhone and download a iOS SDK right now? No and if you want a iPhone you should buy one and if you want to make iPhone apps then yes download the SDK

Is Android fragmented?

Yes it is, just check the official distribution chart from Google that they update about four times a year. This is not a big secret and it is not a big surprise. Handset makers sell phones and they are clearly bad at updating their handets. Worst of all is perhaps HTC because they make a gizzilion Android handsets each ~~year~~ month and clearly don't have the resources or will to update them all to the latest versions of Android. That is their choice and it is a perfectly sound strategy. You could even argue that it's not that big of a problem seing as for example the 2.3 update added mostly XLarge screen support and NFC support, the HTC Desire isn't really missing much by being stuck on 2.2. For most consumers I believe they will never notice and never really care about the issue either, they just use their phones and are happy to do so. I would also like to mention that this goes for iOS device users as well, people that never sync their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch won't get the next iOS and they will most likely not care either. I will give great cudos to Apple for supporting "old" hardware like this tough, however they do in fact scale the OS versions down to each device as well, alas no Siri for iPhone 4. So yes Android is fragmented and this is somewhat the handset makers fault and also the Android developers fault for making Android better and better meaning it's sometimes hard or meaningless to keep up with the OS. Ideally all Android phones would have the latest greatest version of Android, that is not the case and perhaps not even the end of the Android world as I will discuss further down this long post.

Is the fragmentation a problem?

No it is not. If you are a developer just do the following:

Check the chart
Se if APIs you really need are in the latest greatest (and probably least adopted) version of Android, if not then just go with a 97% market share by targeting 2.1 and higher, or go all the way with 1.5 if you'r making a simple app
Use all the APIs but have fallbacks for missing APIs in older versions of Android, this is very possible and Android gives several helping hands on the way. Here is a excellent post from the excellent Reto Meier on tricks and tips for making apps that work on Android 1.1 and beyond.
For extreme cases you could publish multiple APKs. You could make one for 1.5, 1.6 and as many specific versions you wan't, not a recommended strategy but you can with Android Market.

So if you are a developer you have plenty of options for supporting either 1% of Android users or 97% or 100%. It is simply about effort from the developer. As a reward for making a app that scales from 3" to 10" and 1.5 to 4.0 you get a really big user base with a wide array of handsets.

Is Google evil for not updating the Nexus One?

It is sad that the Nexus One will not be getting ICS. My best guess is that ICS is to big for the ROM (Nexus One is 512 MBs whilst the Nexus S has 16 GB), that is the technical reason. They could do as Apple and make some subset version of ICS for the Nexus One and certainly the modders will, but I suspect that Google will not. The not so technical reason for Nexus One not getting ICS is, my guess again, that the Android team did not have a 2 years in the future plan for Android and that the hardware coming out reflects this lack of strategy. This may change with Duarte and ICS wich looks to be a more clear and planned path for Android and the future, but then again my gut feeling tells me that Google likes to try stuff, not plan stuff. This try and se if it sticks approach is something I admire as well as I se as problematic when it comes to product support and longevity. All in all I don't think the Nexus One is missing that much with ICS and the modders will take care of those in dire need for cutting edge ROMs, that is, in a poor Google defense, after all what Androids openness is all about. And no Google is not being evil.

Is Android doomed?

I believe it not to be and here are some reasons.

Google Android is doing just fine with insane growth and expansion in the phone market
Tablets are coming in drowes, just needs a little more developer and user adoption and this will quickly be a repeat of the handsets
Android is doing great with Chinese manufactures, Amazon and others making their own versions without the aid of Google. This only strengthens the plattform because Android is Android
The importance of this fragmentation is minimal

Crowdsourcing from a barometer

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:52:00 +0000

The Galaxy Nexus has a barometer and Gizmodo has a great article on potential uses for this little sensor. If it gets any traction it could be very very cool.

Galaxy Nexus

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:23:00 +0000

My current phone is a Nexus S and I can safely say that it is the best mobile phone, perhaps mobile device, I have ever had and used. For this reason I was very interested in the next Nexus member and as with the Nexus S I have some mixed feelings about the device.

The size
Yes I actually think the size could be a big issue for this phone. I will be eager to get it in my hands to actually hold, feel, use and not at least pocket, but until then the size of the device worries me. The HTC Hero was in many ways perfect, also I loved the "lip" a great deal, and sometimes whilst trying to text with one hand the Nexus S does feel a little big. However the Nexus S is really slippery (all plastic that gets really greasy and slippy) so the Galaxy Nexus may be better because of the grippy backside. However if the size is bearable then the upside is great, I use my Nexus S for surfing all the time and more space is always a good thing when surfing.

The specs
Ok specs but nothing remarkable or insane, devices now need to be more focused on what they are delivering in terms of experience, not just pushing specs, and the Galaxy Nexus does this by fronting important features like the camera shutter speed, the 1080p filming etc. I am curious about the battery tough, the details on that where not quite as clear. It has a barometer wich is kinda cool.

The superquick verdict
Before holding it in my hands I'm skeptical of the size. Also if my Nexus S gets ICS and has many of the same features as the Galaxy Nexus (panorama, face stuff, snappy GUI, faster camera) then it's gonna be a tough sale. If the screen turns out to be usable then this device may quickly become my next Android phone.

Ice Cream Sandwich and some quick toughts

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:07:00 +0000

So Google finally showed off the next version of Android, 4.0 aka Ice Cream Sandwich. First I would like to mention a post I did back in July where I miss on several stuff but I also hope for several things that came true, most important of all was the total GUI revamp. On with some quick thoughts on ICS.

The UI
Is really great and a much needed revamp of the whole of Android. Looking at the presentation it is good to se the team focusing on a unified experience of the basic Android OS. The new font and the remade standard apps all work together towards a much more complete Android experience that says "this is Android". This has been sorely missing from Android and I can't wait to go back to the standard apps again to se how they feel now.

The APIs
Many cool new APIs and as always with Android you can use them without breaking backwards compatibility. The media remote API (lock screen Spotify!) and people API are especially nice. Also the Beam system seems really really promising, now all we need is more phones with NFC. Also screenshots is a small but important gesture from the Android teams to devs, users and reviewers everywhere. The face recog system seems kinda gimmicky and potentially frustrating, but time and testing will tell if it is worth using or not. Better voice input is nice but until it understands "Jeg er på vei hjem nå, skal jeg kjøpe noe middag" I'm not really that blown away by voice stuff, sorry Siri.

The whole package
With GPU rendering (finally!), one version for tablets and phones, more rounded and complete UI experience Ice Cream Sandwich feels like a huge big step for Android in a more focused and clear direction, a direction I can agree with.

Some Interesting Android Numbers

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 21:52:00 +0000

There have been several reports about this, but this recent one made me think about the topic and spurred me to write a post. It is a blog about several articles and sources that point to one thing, Android users aren't surfing the web or buying apps as much as iOS users are. There are plenty of interesting stats here, this article has some that I'm going to write more about soon, but the main point is simply that even tough Android market share is rising and becoming equal to that of iOS, the usage and purchasing is not matching up. Here is what I think.

First of all this seems perfectly correct and extremely plausible, if you have been paying attention you would also have suspected it. When I wrote about the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini and Mini Pro I mentioned that such phones would find their way into the hands teenagers and parents and my guess is now that I was right. Here is the thing that I also suspected back then, these people are not using their smart phones to their fullest potential. Just a like a PC user that doesn't make spreadsheets, edit photos, make videos, use Auto CAD or any actual productive work on a PC, a large margin of Android users are not surfing or buying apps. So what are they doing with these phones and what are the implications for Android?

I am only guessing but I think that people are getting Android phones without knowing it in the first place. What they get is a nice/crappy phone with a big touch screen that can take photos and view them (pinch to zoom!), phone and send text messages. I also suspect that a somewhat larger percentile manage to try out some of the free apps the phone comes bundled with, like these:

These apps, except maybe Spotify, have the largest intervall numbers on Android Market and this may be because many of them are preloaded on the phones themselves or they are "could you help meg get Angry Birds on this thing?" installed.

Now these articles that the blog references and the people that reference this blog and such similar references are clearly doing so with a poorly hidden message. That message is simply that Android has terrible usage rates for web content and the apps in Android Market are gathering dust on the shelves. Not quite saying outright that developers and publishers should shy away from Android, but close enough.

In my opinion there doesn't need to be a problem with these numbers at all. For me personally all that matters is that fun and useful apps keep my tech needs at bay, in that regard there is no problem at all. For publishers and developers this needs to be adressed, but I think also here there is little to be concerned about. Are game developers not making PC games because only a small percentile of the PC install base at large are actually playing games? No, because the percentile that do is huge! The same goes for Android, publishers and devs don't need every last Android handset to be generating them revenue if 5%-10%-15% is enough for them to be happy. Put in another perspective, if 1% of Google Maps users would use my app I would have between one and five million users, and I would also be a lot richer.

As to why iOS users are more active I believe iOS buyers are more aware of what they are buying and why. Sure it is becoming a mainstream device, but still you are forced to connect to iTunes and put in that credit card and you most probably bought some expensive data plan with that device, so surfing is a clear option.

Also I believe the smartphone stuff is just beginning, and like the PC revolution, the Internet revolution and other tech revolutions, it will take time before everyone sees the need to surf the web from their own hands. And when that happens I am sure that the Android handset that those people have between their hands will be a great starting point.

iOS 5 and stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 15:56:00 +0000

So iOS 5 is just around the corner with several nice and in my opinion much needed features like the notification tray and tighter integration with 3rd party services like Twitter. All tough it's actually just Twitter, not a opening for tighter integration with any 3rd party.

I would like to talk about the confirmed/rumored (it's hard to tell what is real and fake when it comes to future Apple features) Assistant wich is a nice and savvy voice command tool.

Voice recognition tech has been around for several years now and has been a dream and goal for computer science even longer. I myself love to read and test this technology, from my first cellphone that had voice recognition for calling people to testing Google Voice search on my HTC Hero last summer. The tech is always cool and always promising, but always fails me in everyday life. The simple reason that it fails me in everyday life is twofold. One the tech is always a little rough and will guess wrong when I say something. Two is the most important reason, it feels incredibly stupid and foolish to be speaking to my device in a public setting and also I'm perhaps on a noisy bus or in a quiet place where shouting "Find nearest pizza place" into my device just feels stupid. Voice input for Android is nice because any app can use it for input, but how often do I want to speak loudly in public the intimate and personal messages I send to my girlfriend?

The biggest problem with voice recognition tech then is not tech at all, it is socially awkwardness of shouting you'r business in front of other people, in situations where it is either difficult, not private enough or simply rude to do.

So in the end I'm not sure how big a impact Assistant will be on iOS 5, SplatF suggests it will steal away Google search from iOS, I'm just curious if it will gain widespread adaption at all.

Developers complain

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 20:48:00 +0000

Developers will always complain, but I find it interesting that many complain about all the different devices when making apps for Android. If you don't like many different devices then you might consider another plattform because different devices is what Android is all about.

You should try a Android

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:36:00 +0000

So Gruber likes the "integrate any app" feature in Windows 8 huh? How long did he try that Nexus One again? This is one of the greatest features of Android and is has been around since Android 1.0. If only OS X would have something like that.

Windows 8 Tablet

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 19:49:00 +0000

Gruber is right, going for Intel chips is a bad idea. It also shows that MS still wants tablets to be the same as PCs, they will support standard Windows apps, and that is just plain stupid.

Google, Android and something called OSS

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 21:42:00 +0000

So more and more dirt is spilling out with the proceedings between Oracle and Google. Mostly this dirt revolves around strategy related to Android being discussed internally inside Google. Here are my thoughts on some points. Check out this as a starter on the subject from FOSS Patents.

About the patents
It appears that Google and/or Andy Rubin himself have heavily discussed the problems surrounding the use of Java technology in Android. They even discuss opting for C# or other languages (but the main choices where Java and C# since they wanted many developers ready to go with regards to syntax and basic stuff). It seems that the dealings with Sun did not go so well so they ended up with grabbing any OSS Java tech they could use and some shady reversing of some available Java tools. The details are better explained at FOSS Patents. In any case to me it seems that Google wanted Android to be cheaply and as OSS as possible in terms of licensing and development for both Google and any developers that where interested. As such they may very well have broken a few laws/patents and it could have large ramifications for the Android world. However it is more likely that Google and Oracle will come to a agreement, a costly one for Google as it now stands.

All in all I think Google acted arrogantly and foolishly in terms of right and wrong in the corporate software sector, it's ok to think that software patents and the like are stupid, I certainly do, but that doesn't help much in the real world, and now you have Android partners that may or may not take a serious hit from this.

About the strategy
The latest report shows in clear writing how Google is going about to monetize and make some headway with a "free" mobile operating system. Basically the development will be closed and pushed after completion to OSS channels, this gives them leadership of their own software stack, making Google the best Android developers around. They also use this position to great, and shady, advantage by granting partners access to such early versions before the rest, if they accept Google terms and includes Android Market, GMail and the like. This will make Android Market the biggest and best distribution channel for apps and make Google the king of Android both in development and approval. The mention specifically a "carrot not stick" approach to Android.

This strategy is not something new, it has been evident since the launch of the G1 and it became quite crystal clear with the launch of Honeycomb, still not pushed to any OSS channels. It has been clear that Google wants to control Android development and distribution by certifying Android handsets and holding back the next version of Android for the general public whilst giving early access for new devices to partners like Motorola, HTC, Verizon and the like. They have also assisted and helped these partners in making the handsets in terms of hardware and software implementation. This is not something new, however now these leaked emails spell out loud and clear what everyone was understanding.

This strategy is actually not something I find object-able. Google could have dropped the OSS part of Android all-together and never showed any of the code, ever. They could have sold it to partners under exclusive license rights and made it impossible to ever make a Android device without the explicit approval of Google. Symbian was created and sold under this model, you gained access by purchasing licenses. Google did not do this however, they decided to release Android as a pretty much complete mobile operating system under OSS licensing. Such a strategy has the clear advantage of gaining developer and hardware support as it is easier to try and play around with the OS and it gives the freedom to not depend on the creator, also the price is nice. The strategy has a clear disadvantage in terms of fragmentation, compatibility and most important of all it makes it hard to control and benefit from the project itself. The strategy then was to make Android a post-oss project in the development cycle. This gives Google a permanent head-start in terms of development and creates a great incentive to partner with Google, you then get access to that early and fresh Android before the general public (and potentially before other hardware makers, that is where things start to get a little shady). This again gives Google the option to push Android Market, Gmail, Google Search and other Google branded and related services into the Android devices that are build and shipped. This is a quid pro quo and not that strange at all.

What is problematic is off-course if certain vendors, from the looks of it Motorola, get some super-special treatment and gives unfair Android advantage to the companies that Google want to succeed. This then is a big problem for the Open Handset Alliance, if true. I suspect that all the partners have been given access to early Android versions as long as they play nice, if not then the alliance would quickly dissolve. Should it be the case and it comes out in the open then suddenly vendors like HTC, LG, SE and others will quickly look to alternatives like Windows Phone 7 and perhaps even Bada (don't know if Samsung makes that possible tough).

All in all I se this as pure business and it is just as shady or not shady as any business dealings. Asserting control, making partners, spreading products to other markets etc. The difference is that in the end you can download the whole source to your PC and do whatever you want, that is a big difference for me.

Is Android open?
Many then like to say that Android is not open. However I would like to give som examples that shows 1) that Android is open and that 2) Google has had it's reasons to try to stay in control of Android.

Both 1) and 2) are answered best by the current actions of a small company called Amazon. They have launched their very own Android App Store, with exclusive content and all, and now they are launching their very own tablet. This tablet seems to be stripped of anything Google related, meaning no Android Market, no Gmail App, no Google Search app, no Google nothing. From the rumors it seems it will be running stock Android 2.2 (not forked as some suggest) and ontop a heavy Amazonian GUI. This is Android without Google and exactly what Google was afraid of when they began pouring resources into Android and the reasons for such "shady" strategies that they have used. There is also little Google can and probably will do to stop Amazon. Amazon has the full right to make their own app store and make their own tablet without a shred of Google left in it. Android IS OPEN so you can simply do what Amazon is doing, try doing that with webOS, iOS or Windows Phone 7, I dare you. Also this is more proof that Android is open and can be "taken away" from Google at any time, extra bonus is that Baidu is a search engine, a big one.

Is Google evil?
No I don't think Google is evil. They are however living poorly up to their "don't be evil" motto because they are getting closer and closer by the business day. I would say that Google now is simply a big corporation trying to stay big and become bigger, it always gets dirty from there. Still I like Google a lot as a company and I love Android a lot as software plattform and mobile os. Despite dirty revelations little has changed for me in how I view Google and Android, perhaps because I was never naive when I heard that "Google loves OSS" and "Android is OSS", there is always a business motive behind a business company.

iPad vs. HP Slate 500

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 18:21:00 +0000

The way I se it (not really, but still funny)

OS X Lion - two weeks in

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 13:42:00 +0000

After two weeks of OS X Lion at work and Snow Leopard at home the feeling remains that I don't really need the features in Lion and that the bugginess of the OS makes it a upgrade you should postpone. At least until the major bugs are fixed (my iMac has had the "grey screen of death" four times last week.

The people who might have bought webOS

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 18:21:00 +0000

I came to think of something about webOS right after HP announced it's demise. The only people I heard speaking good things about the OS where iOS users. This was probably because webOS was a similar "elegant" approach to computing and looked nice and shiny at every screenshot. However, not surprisingly, being the iOS users second choice is not a good business idea.

Apple PR is good PR

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 21:16:00 +0000

Funny how the opposite result of the intended one may easily occur.

The Google Store

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 16:19:00 +0000

SplatF has some good questions on the Google+Motorola:

Will Google get into the retail business? It will, all of a sudden, have hardware to show off. This seems like a stretch, but it has really helped Apple. And a Google store could be really cool.

A Google Store could in fact be really cool. SplatF - 10 questions about Google’s Motorola deal

Superquick on Google buying Motorola

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 16:11:00 +0000

So Google just bought Motorola, here are some quick thoughts.

This is mainly a response to patents, but it has certainly been brewing at Google/Motorola for some time
The patents will be given to Android manufactures, not sure if they will be 100% free tough
Motorola may become the primary "Nexus" line supplier now, but nothing is certain
Google TV might have gotten some nice new legs
The patent wars will continue
Windows Phone 7 stands unclearer still
Android has a future

I may come back to this later

Why OS X Lion is terrible (for me)

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:55:00 +0000

I have just completed my first workweek with OS X Lion, here are some impressions and a conclusion.

My first impressions and experience is that it is buggy and crashy. But the problem is not the bugginess, slowness and general crashiness of the OS, such faults are to be expected and will be fixed in the coming months, the real problem is the new features that are supposed to justify the new os bugginess and price. Her are a list of a few of the new features in Lion and a note if I use it or not:

Fullscreen apps - No
Mission Control - No (I use it just like expose)
Natural Scrolling - No
Versions - No (maybe in the future, but I have git and time machine)
Multitouch - No (turning them off because they distract me)
Launchpad - No
Resume - No (or perhaps yes, but most apps that I need this for have had this for a while already

More or less I would say that I don't use any of the new Lion features and having this laptop at home I barely notice the difference between Snow Leopard, not missing a beat feature wise, unless you count the feature of stable in the patched and nice Snow Leopard.

And this is the biggest problem with Lion, it has no real added value from Snow Leopard so the only thing I'm getting in return is a buggy OS. Yes the bugs will disappear, but a new OS should mean step forwards, not more shiny new stuff that you spend the first hours removing and tweaking away. I think the saddest part is that this reminds me of using Windows again, after any install of a new Windows OS I would spend hours tweaking and removing features, with OS X I had it pretty much standard and then added the software I wanted on top, no stupid stuff to spend time on removing.

So as it stands today OS X Lion is a big failure for me and I recommend NOT buying it. However, seeing as I have a Mac there is the simple fact that upgrading to the latest OS is not something that is optional. You can't expect to coast along with nice updates and new software if you'r running a 3 month old OS X, unlike Windows where you might still try to use Windows XP, and many do. However I will recommend to anyone to wait until OS X Lion is patched up, perhaps maybe 10.7.2, then at least it should not be as buggy and crashy as it is today. Really disappointed with Apple on this one.

I don't like patents

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 19:34:00 +0000

I just wanted to mention that I don't like patents, they make abysmal sense in very niche markets, but even there they seem to cause more harm then good (I'm looking at you drug industry). I have also mentioned that I feel that Apple and any company frankly has and will steal and improve on others ideas and IPs.

I have come to think of this as the great back and forth mechanism that I have noticed will drive a good idea to a brilliant idea. When I work alone I can sometimes muster up a ok idea, design, thought. But when I'm working with a group, especially a group with some diversity, I find that one good idea can become a great one in a matter of hours with some back and forth. A back and forth is basically patent infringement without the patents because the other person takes another persons idea and iterates on it to make it, hopefully, better. Off course one could argue that they are just stealing the idea (especially if the idea is identical and posing to be original). However the point is that this back and forth is much more productive than one single person/company grinding on it's one notion.

In the world of software I se great back and forths, mostly with plenty of lawsuits in the middle. You have Xerox, Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Xerox, Google, NeXT, Xerox (seriously those guys where awesome) and a bunch of others just making stuff, copying some ideas and making them even better. As one might say that everything is a remix.

If you are innovating, making stuff, working with technology, in the year 2011 and for a second even think that you are NOT standing on the shoulders of a thousand giants before you, then you are mistaken.

Apple stops Galaxy Tabs in the EU

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Mikkelborg Syvertsen) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 19:08:00 +0000

Apple has, for the moment, stopped the Galaxy Tab from being sold in the EU (except the Netherlands). Fortunately I'm not in a EU country (all tough strangely I would like Norway to become a member of the EU), but this still kinda blows since it's one of the best Android tablets out there and now it's ~~seriously hindered~~ slightly delayed.