The Mobile Spoon - Gil Bouhnick's Blog About Mobility

What will be the third largest mobile OS in 2013?

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 13:57:00 +0000

Shhh…
Can you hear that?
Those are the sounds of a change.
Something is about to happen in 2013, and it’s going to be exciting.

No more a two-horse race. No more iOS vs. Android. It’s about time something will change around here.
Time for a third mobile operating system to come in and shake up the mobile realm a little bit.
Time for a new competitor to join the party.

After 2 years of a status-quo in the mobile operating systems, there are finally signs that a third mobile OS can break through this year. The conditions are here: iOS is getting old (and is not as cool as before), Apple is slowing down, Android is everywhere, in all shapes, colors, prices, but it’s still the same Android.

Time for a third option to join the race. Who shall it be?

Windows Phone 8

Yes, it took Microsoft forever to release WP7, and then to introduce a weird re-write of the underlying infrastructure to fit the Windows 8 technology. Microsoft, as usual, is lagging behind, but the Windows Phone OS is not.
It is actually an advanced OS, with a unique UX, and tons of potential.

Microsoft claims that WP8 is friendlier to the enterprise than iOS and Android. It includes all the security features required by IT managers, and comes pre-integrated with Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, OneNote and more.

In a way, I see the future of Windows Phone dependent on the success of Windows 8 and devices such as the Surface. If people will love Windows 8 and the new experience it brings (Metro, Modern UI, the name doesn’t matter), they are most likely to “feel home” with Windows Phone 8 and select it as their next smartphone.

And of course, there’s the devices thing as well. Smartphones, tablets, they must be cool. I think the Surface has what it takes to intrigue people, but I’m not sure Nokia and HTC are enough for the phones.

Will Microsoft be able to finally create the right volumes for Windows Phone? I believe 2013 will bring the beginning of it: more apps, more sales, more partners, and maybe finally a momentum for Windows Phone.

[Confession: I actually own a Windows Phone device, I think it is an amazing platform with inspiring user interface, yet I stopped using it after a few months, mainly because the apps ecosystem is still very poor. Hopefully this is about to change.]

BlackBerry 10

Built on top of QNX, BlackBerry 10 is RIM’s last chance to survive. Palm did a similar move few years ago with webOS, and was acquired short after releasing it by HP. Some say the same will happen to RIM, but it doesn’t change the fact that BlackBerry 10 is soon to be released, for both smartphones and PlayBooks.

BlackBerry 10 is going to be completely different than older BlackBerries, a re-write, a new platform. It will have a better balance between personal stuff and enterprise data (sandbox) to support the growing BYOD challenges.
It also aims to be the leader in HTML5 capabilities (as seen in previous PlayBook models).
It comes late, but still on time to try and make a comeback (and think what an amazing comeback it can be!).

Will executives or IT managers give BlackBerry 10 a chance or is it too late for RIM?
I believe we will find the answers during 2013. Unlike Microsoft, RIM faces bigger challenges to create the volumes and the ecosystem, but unlike Microsoft, RIM still has enough users and organizations using older BlackBerry phones.

Ubuntu for phones

The creators of Ubuntu for phones, Canonical, is claiming that Ubuntu is the only true device independent platform out there. The only one that runs seamelessly across laptops, tablets and smartphones. As a result, apps that are running on the full Ubuntu for desktops will run on Ubuntu for phones with a bit of UI tuning.

Ubuntu for phones brings a refreshing design, and just like Microsoft’s WP8 – it’s all about the content and less about the chrome and buttons. Ubuntu looks similar to Android, but feels more like Windows Phone; it’s clean, it hides the menus, and focuses on the content.
Like BlackBerry 10, Ubuntu pushes HTML5 strongly, but it also treats HTML5 apps as first citizens of the OS and lets them sit alongside the native apps.

Will Ubuntu be the iOS/Android killer of the year?
Probably not, but I sure hope we will see some new smartphones packed with it during 2013 as the infrastructure approach and UX look promising.

Is HTML5 Truly Ready For Prime Time?

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 23:32:00 +0000

Some say 2011 was the year of the big breakthrough for HTML5.
From a promise to something real. A technology supported by a growing number of developers. The only true device agnostic alternative.
Well, if 2011 was the year of the big leap forward, seems like 2012 was the year of the disillusionment.
HTML5 became one of the biggest topics for debates, being mostly smacked down by many experts.

“Is it better than native?”
“Is it ready for prime time?”
“Did you hear what Mark Zuckerberg said about HTML5?”

Gartner recently stated that HTML5 is still 5 to 10 years from becoming a suitable basis for businesses.

I think they are wrong.

I am certain it will happen much faster. For many businesses it is already happening right now.

Many people have mistakenly defined HTML5 as an equivalent alternative for native development. It cannot be, just like a web based email client such as Gmail cannot compete with a native rich client such as Outlook.

And yet, organizations are successfully using web-based tools for doing business, isn’t it?
Windows is undisputedly dominant in the enterprise, and yet most software vendors build web-based products and stay away from native technologies, aren’t they?
Web tools are part of any IT strategy and only 10 years ago experts claimed that web applications will never be able to replace native products (I remember I used to protect native technologies such as MFC and .Net against those wild, disordered web developers who used plain text editors with no compilers… they’ve won. I lost. I’m now part of their team).

The same will happen in mobility, and it will be thanks to HTML5 and other mobile-web technologies.

Yes, Mark Zuckerberg wanted a kick-ass mobile app for facebook and couldn’t get it using HTML5, but to be honest, facebook’s desktop version isn’t exactly the top of the art in terms of user experience either, so maybe it’s not all about the technology after all?

So 2012 seems like the year of disillusionment for many HTML5 developers, but it’s not because it’s a bad technology. It’s because it’s so good it managed to dazzle all of us.

Think about it for a second: a new technology which is not even close to being standardized, already responsible for the death of a few other successful technologies, already supported by all the leading platforms, being used by a huge number of organizations, products, platforms, and more.
That was the peak of inflated expectations, and from there it could only go down.

So during 2012 people and organizations have learned that in some cases (or better say: some Android devices) the user experience provided by HTML5 is not yet perfect. Developers have learned that in some areas there are still functional gaps. The world has learned that HTML5 will never be a good fit for developing games. It learned that HTML5 does have limitations.

It changes nothing, because what the business world has also learned is that HTML5 brings a perfect answer to many of its’ needs: it’s easy to deploy, flexible and configurable beyond any imagination, truly device agnostic, beyond just mobile devices, and most of all: can support the majority of the business needs fairly easily (and also interact with complementary technologies to close some remaining gaps if exist).

My personal experience with HTML5:

I’ve been involved with mobile development for the past 8 years. Java, Embedded C++, .Net, WAP, Objective C, Windows Mobile, CE, resistive screens, styluses, you name it.

We started using HTML5 back in 2009, when it was fairly new and not as popular as it is today.
Back then, we were asked to build a native BlackBerry client for a few of our clients. Java for BlackBerry was the obvious way, but we felt it would be a matter of time before iOS and Android will become popular among our enterprise customers. We wanted to develop once and still support those new platforms. We made a bet on HTML5.

Today, old BlackBerry is dead, and BlackBerry 10 is just around the corner. It will have a solid support for HTML5, just like iOS and Android have. We made the right decision.

So back to 2012: while people were debating whether HTML5 can compete with native or not, we at ClickSoftware, spent our time deploying our mobile solutions among many of our large enterprise customers all over the world.
Thousands of mobile employees are using our HTML5-based products today. They love it. They run it everywhere, on multiple devices from smartphones to tablets, including laptops and desktops. Some are using our products as pure web-based apps, while others have selected to embed it inside native containers. Functionality wise it gives them exactly what they need, with the ease of web-deployment, brilliant configurability and extremely high flexibility. Using Responsive design, our solutions not only run everywhere, they are adapting to the device type, screen size, peripheral devices and network availability.

2013 is right around the corner, and I’m sure we will see more products designed to run everywhere using HTML5.
Few years ago I predicted that by 2013, HTML5 will rule enterprise mobility. In some aspect this prediction has already materialized. In other aspects it will take longer, as companies are still learning the pros and cons of the mobile web, and with time will learn how and where to make a better use of it.

Scan2Login will help you log-in quickly and safely

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 08:18:00 +0000

Firefox and Google Chrome add-on that lets you log in to websites by scanning a QR code with your smartphone.

Memorizing user names and passwords is a nightmare; using the same combination to all of the accounts is too risky, so people are often using different variations with some priority rules – but with so many online/cloud services, it’s not a simple task too.

You can always count on your browser to remember those combinations for you, but then again, what happens when you switch computers?

Scan2Login (by Holabar ltd) is a unique app that allows you to automatically log in to any website by scanning a generated QR code with your smartphone. The system combines a smartphone app (currently available only for Android) with a FireFox/Chrome extension. To login, all you need to do is pull out your phone, point to the QR code, and you are logged in automatically.

The process is simple and quick, without compromising on security. It means you can use longer (and therefore stronger) passwords, without wasting time trying to remember or manage them. The app does it for you, it does it quickly and in a very friendly way.

Here’s how it works:

The Scan2Login QR code is totally anonymous. It generates random number and does not keep any private information. The login data is stored encrypted only on your smartphone and transferred (using a secure channel) to the addon only when needed.

Read more about Scan2Login by HolaBar in here

Or download the mobile apps directly from Google Play:

The Great App-splosion (Infographic by ClickSoftware)

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 06:35:00 +0000

A great infographic by ClickSoftware is now available in here.

It describes some of the trends in enterprise mobility and how IT Consumerization impacts IT in the business world.

Hit the link below for the full infographic:

http://www.clicksoftware.com/mobile-business-applications-infographic.htm#.UCdMhp0gc1N

HTML5 vs. Native Applications… Again…

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 21:20:00 +0000

HTML5 is not a “mobile technology”, and yet it seems like it is considered to be the one technology than that has the power to change our current mobile experience from native apps into coherent, device agnostic, software applications.

Few weeks ago I was interviewed by By Brian Albright, from Field Technologies magazine, along with Zack Bergreen and Dave Miller. The article was recently published and can be found in here:

http://www.fieldtechnologiesonline.com/doc.mvc/html-levels-the-mobile-playing-field-0001

The maturity of HTML5, device selection process, tips when deploying an HTML5 product, and more.

More Enterprise Mobility Articles in The Mobile Spoon

Looking ahead, the mobile realm will deliver new mobile devices and more importantly: new mobile form factors and hybrid devices (Microsoft’s Surface is just the beginning). In such world, HTML5 will continue to evolve rapidly and influence the entire industry.

Are Widgets About To Be Extinct?

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 22:26:00 +0000

My short experience with HTC One X has taught me that widgets are not as useful as I expected them to be. Widgets allow you to access information “previews” without having to dig into specific apps. They let you see information at a glimpse, take popular actions in a single click, and practically be more productive. And yet, with the recent changes in iOS and WP7 I think that widgets are simply overrated.

When you think about it, It’s hard to find really good widgets which are not related to stocks, clocks and weather. There are plenty of those, plus a lot of system toggles for changing network settings, Bluetooth, etc. but that’s about it. Productivity widgets that are truly brilliant are harder to find and in most cases they simply present limited information and take you to the app itself to do the sophisticated things. It’s not always enough to make an impact.

Instead of using the widget, how about you simply use the app?

Why bother navigating to the page with the widget, when I can place a shortcut and simply open the app?
It takes about the same amount of clicks, opening an app is done very quickly (especially when you have a quad core processor), and since the widget will eventually take you to the app anyway… why not start with the app in the first place?

Many apps today take no-time to open, and give you such a strong user experience where reaching the desired action or piece of information simply takes seconds. So why do we need to mess up our homescreen?

Instead of a widget, how about you simply do it from your lock-screen?

It took me a while to understand the true power of the relatively new iOS lockscreen. It’s a masterpiece when it comes to efficient handling of common activities. It’s all there, being pushed to you, on a silver spoon.

Missed a call? slide to make a call back. Got an email? Here’s a preview. Got a new article that interests you? There it is. Read, unlock, you are there already. Faster than using a widget. It’s like Apple took all the widgets in the world and placed them in one queue, ordered by time, priority and relevance. Who needs widgets when you can get everything loaded to your lockscreen?

Instead of widgets, how about Live Tiles?

I still haven’t made up my mind about Microsoft’s Live Tiles. They are nice, they are special, They are part of the fascinating Metro User Interface, and yet, they sometimes seem to be too simple.

Windows 8 will be all about Live Tiles. They are much smaller than widgets, and they have clear UI guidelines.

As a result, they do not mess up your screen with inconsistent fonts, colors, sizes, and layouts, and in addition, you can squeeze many of them into one page. The result is similar to having “mini widgets” stored in one location.

You can argue about the functionality a given Tile provides, but the combination of multiple Tiles is for sure much nicer than widgets.

Summary:

Android fans often mention Widgets as an advantage of the OS over other platforms out there. And still, Microsoft chose not to add widgets in Windows 8 and Windows Phone, Apple copied back a lot of features from Android in recent iOS releases and yet decided to ignore widgets. RIM never tried to implement widgets and the same goes with the unforgettable webOS by Palm (RIP).

I have widgets on my Mac and I never even once used them. Windows 7 has widgets and I don’t think they are that popular.

Can it be that widgets are overrated? Can it be that users have become so lazy they want everything to be pushed straight to their lockscreen? Will live tiles eventually replace widgets to create live walls with endless data streams?

Think about it.

How Does A 3D TV Work?

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 21:03:00 +0000

[Guest Post]

The TV has come a long, long way since it made its first appearance. Big bulky boxes have become sleek new panels. Grainy black and white pictures are now crystal clear and vibrant in colors; you can even hear grass rusting in the wind. LCD, KLED, HD, Plasma... just when you thought that it had reached the pinnacle, in comes 3D TV: The latest kid on the block. Watching 3D at home seems so amazing. So how does it work?

You need to have 3D capable TV sets and the glasses to view 3D channels that many cable and satellite providers air. If you want to rent 3D DVDs, you will also need a 3D capable blu-ray player.

We get to see the depth of an object (or get 3D vision) when the vision form both our eyes merge. When we see the same objects on TV, we see them flat. Let’s see how 3D technology gets around this conundrum. To put in short, the TV needs to refresh the picture at least 120 times in one second. It also needs to present alternating frames for the left and right eyes. The brain is tricked into thinking that there is only one image, and it gives the illusion of depth.

How we see

It’s the light reflected off the objects that’s interpreted and used by the brain to create its image. When the object is at a distance, the light travelling to both eyes is parallel; the light starts converging as the object comes nearer and our eyes too, shift to make up. While focusing, the brain estimates how far the object is by looking at the eye convergence: the more the convergence, the nearer the object.

So in 3D technology, both eyes are shown the same image, but at two separate locations. This tricks your brain into convincing you the object has depth. Your eyes seemingly come together on an object right in front but in reality you’re focusing on the screen far away.

Glasses

3D technology is incomplete without the glasses. There are

a) Passive glasses

b) Active glasses.

Passive glasses use anaglyph lenses (two different colored lenses) show one image to your left eye and another for your right simultaneously. The filtered lens in the glasses ensures that the right eye sees the right image. The not-so wow factor with passive glasses is that you don’t usually get a full HD picture, because with two images being shown, the resolution has to be halved. Active 3D glasses have shutters that display an image to each eye in rapid succession, in sync with the images displayed on the screen. This also ensures the each eye sees exactly what it is meant to see. Picture quality is better with active glasses.

The TV

Your TV of course needs to be 3D ready. The TV needs a way of communicating with your glasses. It needs what is called a stereoscopic sync signal connector; one end goes into your TV port and the other to an IR remitter. This sends signals to your active glasses. You could also plug your TV to your computer with an HDMI cable and stream 3D onto it. Currently Panasonic, Samsung and Sony are some of the top companies striving to bring 3D entertainment to your living room.

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HTC One X is a huge smartphone but may not be that smart

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 13:53:00 +0000

Disclaimer: the writer of this post (me) is not an Apple fanboy.
First of all, I’m not a ‘boy’. I’m an old man with 1,000 kids. Second, I’ve been using non-Apple products my entire life and like them very much, I do think the iPhone was the biggest, most innovative mobile invention of the past few decades but it stops there: I recently bought a Mac and learned that Apple does have bad products. So Android fans, before you start commenting, please take my words as they are without suspecting I have a hidden agenda…

For the past few weeks I’ve been using one of the best Android smartphones out there: the HTC One X.
It took me a while to get used to the ridiculous size of it, the keyboard, the Sense UI but after a few weeks of giving it a serious chance I came up to the conclusion that HTC One X may be one of the strongest smartphones out there but it’s definitely not a smart product.

Yes, sorry HTC fans, if this is the best device HTC could create to compete with Samsung and Apple then I wouldn’t buy HTC stocks in the near future (nor recommend on buying the One X).

So by now you probably ask yourself, how can a device by a company known for its’ years of experience in mobility, and its’ friendly Sense UI, be called ‘Not Smart’? Here are few reasons:

The size may be huge, but it doesn’t bring real advantage

When I just got the One X I didn’t know what to do with that ridiculous size of it (4.7 inches).
I mean, I’m not a small man. I’m actually pretty tall with relatively long fingers, but at first I found it really hard to operate this mini-tablet. Reaching specific areas in the screen forced me to change the way I hold the device, I found myself using two hands instead of one, or accidently touching the wrong buttons with parts of my hand I never knew existed, while stretching my finger trying to get somewhere.

After a few days with it, I started to get use to it.
Guess what? The iPhone suddenly looked too small, a bit funny even. I started appreciating the size of the new phone, and of course I appreciated the amazing design of it.

But the problem is that HTC failed to make a good usage of that screen size when it comes to the software.

Here are a few examples to how the size of the device is not being used wisely:

Sense UI: Sense UI is nice, but the truth is that it has widgets that existed 5 years ago in the TouchPro user interface that ran on Windows Mobile (I had one of those devices back then).
The way the Sense UI is using the screen real-estate is a disgrace. You can barely place more than one informative widget in a page and the number of pages is still limited (the plus button doesn’t work), the result is that you cannot really enjoy the benefits of widgets and need to move back and forth to find information.
(Information that, by the way, exists on the iPhone’s lock-screen without having to make a single action).
Emails: With such a huge screen you would expect not to have any issues with reading emails, right?
Unfortunately, it seems like there are some issues identifying the required width of each email, and so I find myself scrolling left and right in 1 out of 3 emails I read where the text expands beyond the width of the screen. This is a huge usability bug, that doesn’t exist in phones with much smaller screens. And no, you cannot “zoom-out” and make the text smaller…

On the positive side, browsing the internet (especially with the new AMAZING Google Chrome) is much better when you use such a big device.

Great specs but disappointing results and poor performance:

Almost a year ago I explained that technical specifications should not be your primary way of selecting a new smartphone and the HTC One X is a perfect example of how great specifications do not guarantee perfect performance: this giant droid comes packed with 1.5 GHz Quad-core and things still work slowly!

Unlocking the screen with one of the quick app launch options takes long
The beautiful multi-tasking option is an eye candy but getting back to a running app takes forever and in many cases seems like it is restarting the app that is supposed to be running in the background…
Sense UI is simply the slowest homescreen I’ve ever worked with. There are lags when you move from one page to another, lags when using different elements of this shell.
The front camera (1.3 MP, 720p) might not be that bad, but the pictures it takes are seriously below expectations.
Browsing through photos in the Gallery app feels like it is actually challenging the device. From time to time you will notice the photo did not move as if the phone is getting tired of photo browsing.

And a word about the Sense UI and its’ performance: I mean, how many years should a company the size of HTC invest in order to make such an important product work perfectly without bugs and performance issues?
And how come the most popular topic in the forums is “how to remove Sense UI?”

A smartphone UI that is not that… smart:

User Interface and UX are very popular these days, as smartphones are getting smarter every day, doing more for the user, helping him to get things done with minimal attention. HTC One X fails in the small things of the UI and it made me realize I do not enjoy using it and use my laptop (!!!) instead for simple things I used to do with my iPhone.

Some of it is Android’s fault. This OS still lacks the “magical” touch iOS has. The capabilities are the same, and actually better than iOS in many aspects, but the “how” is not the same.

Sorry Google. You are just not there yet with the UX. But hey, make everything work like that new Chrome for mobile and I promise I will stop complaining…

The main problem with the One X is that HTC customized some areas and made them worse.

Here are a few examples:

Front camera: bad, bad…
I have kids, and like any (dumb) excited parent, when they do something (I think is) cute – I want to picture it and force others to see it even though they really don’t want to.
Once you are in the camera app - it takes 3 extremely accurate clicks (menus and stuff) to activate the front camera! That is just annoying.
When holing kids, and trying to keep up the momentum – that is an insane number of actions to get things done. Seems like something small, but believe me, when you have kids all over you, every click counts.
Lock-screen: You can only have 4 apps launched directly from your lockscreen, how about some configuration over there to make it more useful?
Notifications in the lock-screen are doable, but guess what: unlocking your phone by sliding ‘missed call’ notification does not call back the person. Instead, it opens up the phone application. Why do I specifically slide down the missed call notification if it’s not for calling back to the person I just missed? Why do I need that redundant click in the upper area of the phone (which is had to get to anyhow due to the size of the screen…)?
Emails: up to now, I’m not clear about the way addresses are presented in the email app. Sometimes they are shown when I scrolling up the email page – (which reveals them), and sometime they can be seen only by clicking a certain part of the email showing only the first name (taking you to a special screen with all the addressees). Weird. Inconsistent. Annoying.
Emails again: Picture this: you get an email, from a person not in your contact list. You want to copy the email address and do something with it… well. Sorry kids, you cannot. The only way to do it is by creating a contact out of this email address, edit it, and then copy the address…
Keyboard: I can’t say the default HTC Keyboard is bad, but still, as the alternatives are there, I tried looking for alternative keyboards, and found that each of them had few issues that bothered me. Sometimes having too many alternatives makes you more frustrated than having just one option. Eventually I found that SwiftKey X did better job for me.

So many small things. Am I a nagger to even mention them? I probably am, however, in a world where every click counts, where Apple and Samsung are constantly searching for those small things that can make their mobile OS smarter and more productive, comes the HTC One X and proves that highly customized products often take you backwards in terms of basic usability.

Bottom line

Don’t get me wrong: HTC One X is not a bad smartphone. It is a beautiful device, it’s elegant, it is loaded with the best specs you can possibly ask for. For many people out there it might be the perfect smartphone they always dreamed of. There are days when I’m actually happy with it, but then there are those small things that drive me insane.

I think HTC can (and should) improve the software so that UI bugs, and performance are significantly improved. There are already a bunch of tweaks all over the net showing how to improve performance in the Sense UI, most of them a bit techy. HTC must release an update in order to get this beast to do what it’s capable of. I believe it will happen.

For now, I’m generally disappointed with the HTC One X. I think it doesn’t stand to the expectations I had and the potential, but I’m not switching back to my iPhone just yet. I’m going to give it some more time, look for ways to customize it some more, optimize it for my needs. Enjoy the unique features it does have (camera and sound mostly).

Who knows, maybe in a few weeks from now I will be a happy Android user saying bad things about Apple fanboys too…

What is Hawk-Eye technology and how does it work

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 07:51:00 +0000

Making the game far more accurate, interesting and cooler than it already is, FIFA has recently passed the Hawk eye technology to be used for the Premier League after a meeting in Zurich. Hawk eye has been used with great success at Wembley for Tennis and for Cricket World Cup to eliminate the debate of whether a ball is inside court or not.

And now soccer is embracing it too. Referees are after all human beings with the possibility to make errors, which can leave a lot of fans disgruntled and a lot of debates sparked unnecessarily on the integrity of everyone involved. But with Hawk eye, the referee has assistance when notifying of a goal. Remember when Ukraine’s disallowed goal at Euro 2012 against England garnered wrath on TV, sport shows and blogs? Well, fans will probably be as happy about this move as the referees.

Here’s how hawk eye works:

Six super high speed cameras shoot about 500 frames per second, tracking the ball as it is moved around the field by players.
The images are collated and collected and compared by a computer that triangulates and zeroes in on the exact ball location by using the painted lines on the field as reference points.
The ball also has a microchip, because of which it can be tracked.
The goal posts also have low magnetic fields which help to triangulate location.
In the eventuality that the ball goes over the line, a radio signal is transmitted to a watch that the ref has, which tells him if a goal is scored.
The signal is encrypted to avoid any mess-ups from other frequencies.
All this takes less than a second and is accurate to the thickness of hair, and because the results can be watched on screens by fans and organizers, the debate is often resolved even before it arises.

This is all an expensive affair as you can imagine, and can only be used in very large stadiums which can afford this kind of technology, but for high stake games like the Euro and the Premier League, this technology beats everything else that has come before. It will be installed in all major stadiums and tested for 12 months to check for accuracy, which is why the Premier League may not host it right at the start of the season, but as the organizers mentioned, it might begin mid-way.

Well, that works for us!

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You can read more about the Hawk-Eye technology in here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawk-Eye

What will happen when device agnostic apps will no longer be required?

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 08:35:00 +0000

With a somewhat shrinking mobile ecosystem, and a relatively lower number of true successful mobile platforms, do we really need 'Device Agnostic' solutions anymore? How will mobile applications look like in just a few years from now? And what devices will they run on?

Do we really need 'Device Agnostic' applications?

The term 'Device Agnostic' became very popular in the past couple of years due to the growing fragmentation in the mobile world. For enterprise organizations, the challenge of supporting multiple devices types, operating systems and working modes (online, offline) made the ability to ignore the platform look appealing and magical.

But that was few years ago. Looking at the mobile ecosystem these days shows that Microsoft's Windows Mobile (once a very popular platform in the enterprise), and Windows Phone barely exist in the enterprise, RIM is slowly becoming irrelevant and other smaller alternatives are not playing a significant role.

Today's mobility includes iOS, Android, and Windows (assuming we call laptops mobile devices). That's it. So the big question is – do we really need to care about 'Device Agnostic' solutions? Maybe it's time to kill this term and look for the next big thing in mobility? Can it be that device agnostic solutions became irrelevant?

The answer is: NO WAY.

Not only will device agnostic remain relevant, I believe this term will remain important and will probably evolve into new things, as we move forward with Windows 8 and the next generation of mobile devices.

Future Mobile Devices:

Windows 8 is all about touch, and mobile. It's a combination of everything that was good in previous Windows versions along with the new touch experience powered by Microsoft's Metro UI. The vision behind it is devices such as the 'Surface': hybrids, semi tablets, semi laptops, but it's only the beginning; we are already getting familiar with webtops and lapdocks, and as time moves forward we will see more and more of those hybrid devices: mobile phones turning into tablets, or powering full desktops. It's only a matter of time and we will be there.

Hybrid devices will increase popularity, and when they do, they will mix-up our terminology: mobile apps will run on desktops, online services will have to be adjusted to offline usage, every app will have to automatically adapt itself to different screen sizes, form factors, and integrate with different hardware capabilities.

Seamlessly of course.

This is the Post PC Era, but you can bet Windows will still play a significant part of it. Maybe not as dominant as 10 years ago, but definitely still significant.

In such era, device agnostic solutions will have to work on multiple platforms (iOS, Android, Windows), multiple screen sizes (smartphones, tablets, desktops) and multiple environments (online, offline, portable devices, robotics, cars, etc.). And as such, the tools we will be using will be much more sophisticated than they are today:

Software will be device agnostic: it will run on multiple operating systems
Software will be responsive: the user interface will automatically adjust itself to the screen size of the device. (What is responsive web design)
Software will be adaptive: adjusting itself to the hardware capabilities of each device to provide optimal user experience.
Software will focus on NUI, Speech, and Personal Assistants: OK, this might take longer then 1-2 years but at first it will be less touching, and more talking / moving, and after a while we will do less of anything that involves human-machine interface because the software will be intelligent enough to do things without ordering it to.

This is how I envision future mobility: where "web" is everywhere, everything is "mobile" aware, and device agnostic stands for a sophisticated, responsive, adaptive technology we will use without even noticing…

Some examples of responsive UI:

Transformers: Constructions turning into Devastator – Adaptive or Responsive?

Why is mobile banking so popular?

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 11:41:00 +0000

[Guest Post]

Banking using mobile devices has grown in popularity in the last year - among thinkbanking customers at least, to cite one study.

At thinkbanking, overall visits to the site increased by 161% between May 2011 and May 2012. During this time:

Visits from Macs and PCs (including laptops) rose by 137%.
Visits from iPhones rose by 266% - the lowest rise for mobile devices, although the iPhone is still the most popular mobile device overall.
Android smartphone and tablet visits increased by 518%.
iPad visits rose by a massive 909%.

Overall, visits from mobile devices between May 2011 and May 2012 rose by 497%.

What's so good about mobile banking?

It's clear from these results that mobile banking is a popular way to manage your finances - but why?

There are a few factors, the biggest being (perhaps rather obviously) the idea that you can check on your bank account anywhere and at any time. This is especially important during these economically tough times, when people want to keep a close eye on their funds. People are getting more and more used to being able to do various tasks - like check their emails and their bank balance - that would originally be done on a computer on a mobile device instead.

And technology has made it easier - a lot of banks now have their own dedicated app for users to access their services on their mobile devices. Banking websites are also being optimised to fit on different-sized screens - such as tablets and smartphones.

What's in store for the future?

Many people have embraced mobile banking - but there are still some concerns about security to be addressed. The head of PR and communications at thinkbanking, Ian Williams, said: "provided banks offer the same safeguards and guarantees as they do on internet banking services, it's likely that more and more people will start to take advantage of the benefits mobile banking can bring."

Plenty of people are already used to the idea of mobile banking and are now interested in 'contactless' payments. Everything Everywhere (Orange and T-Mobile), O2 and Vodafone are already developing a mobile payment platform named 'Project Oscar'.

Email Overflow: Why I Hate My Inbox

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 12:56:00 +0000

Email has been one of the most important working tools for years, yet lately I’m beginning to dislike my endless, messy, over needy, time consuming inbox.

Discussing it with some of my colleagues and friends, I learned that they all suffer from a similar problem, struggling to properly manage their emails, wasting hours trying to master their inbox, so we tried to analyze the reasons why our inboxes turned form being our best assistants into becoming our greatest enemies.

Here are 3 behavior patterns that will make you hate your inbox:

1. Over-chatty emails:

People like chats, they always did. Yet, emails were never designed to replace chats or the instant messages in this respect. The only problem is: people often treat emails as if they are part of a huge chat, or a social network, by sending useless replies with no meaning.

“Thanks!” | “:-)” | “No Problem!” | “Same Here” – those are just some of the examples I found in my inbox. Some of them includes a much longer text that still does not say a thing.

Are we chatting or working? Do we really need smileys? Can replies with only smileys and no text be deleted automatically please? (I just gave myself an idea for another Outlook rule). Are we going to have ‘Like’ button in emails soon? Because if we are – I’m quitting!

Oh, and the best part: over-chatty emails are always being replied to all…

2. The Magic Tasks – Emails magically turn into an endless task list

You all know what are Magic Tasks, you just don’t know they are called like that.

Here is how it goes:

You get an assignment from your boss to do “something”.
To complete this “something” you need some answers or help from some colleagues of yours.
Chasing people is hard, they all have their own “something” to do, so you take the easy way out and send them an email, asking for that “something” you need in order to complete your own “something”.
Magic #1: by sending that email, you are no longer the owner of this task. The responsibility was magically rolled over to your colleague (without him approving it). Your table is clean.
Magic #2: when your boss asks you about the status of your task – you can always say: “I sent him an email, still no answer…” and guess what? You are clean! Off the hook. The failure is not yours.

Now some of you are probably thinking: “Wait a minute! People are actually doing it to me! my inbox does have magic tasks!” – that means you are a key person or a domain expert in your organization, people need your guidance, or knowledge, and the easy way to get it is by sending you magic tasks. You are actually working for them now, thanks to emails.

And a message to the ones who are actually sending magic tasks: stop it. Look for the information yourself, pick up the phone, go visit your colleagues, discuss those topics face to face. As revolutionary as it sounds, it might actually save some time.

3. Showing others you are working by misusing the ’CC’ option:

Yes, we all do it. Sometimes by accident, sometimes in purpose. But cc-ing too many people just in case anyone has something to add, or as an informative method of saying: “hey, I just did this, thought it would be good to let you know… and you… and you… and all of you as well…” is actually very annoying.

Sharing information is not always a bad idea, but the problem these days, is that people are doing it too often, plus it actually increases the probability of getting over-chatty responses (see behavior #1 above) from people that were not supposed to be in this email thread in the first place.

I say, lets give people some time to do real work. Stop spamming them. Catch them in the corridor, and give them a 10 seconds update saying things are done, under control, all set.

The 3 behavior patterns above are only partially responsible for the ‘Email Overflow’ many are experiencing.

There are more reasons of course: spam, social network emails, and other goodies, but the 3 above are actually caused by people we work with, as part of a change in our working habits which is becoming too social and less efficient.

It all ends with an impossible load of emails, causing people to spend hours managing them, or answering them while siting in other meetings (yes, we all suffer from the “laptops in the meetings syndrome”) and an overall feeling there are just too many emails to handle them all.

How does Location Based Services (LBS) work?

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 09:57:00 +0000

Guest Post By Mark Dwayne.

We’ve all been there - searching our brains for a great restaurant in the street we are shopping on, trying to find a drop-off box to pay a credit-card bill at the last minute or simply, tracing a long-lost friend. We pull out our mobiles and search and the relevant information is right at our finger tips. What’s getting us results is Location Based Services or LBS. Using this, our mobile device lets us connect, find, shop, take shots and simplify your life in many ways. iPhone apps like Urbanspoon which selects restaurants and Loopt which helps you track and meet friends are widely used and are useful too.

The LBS has come a long way since its genesis in 1999 and is part of daily life, for instance in the navigation system inour cars. On a larger scale, we have stores that send offers and details of sales to our cellphones. For instance, you can even receive coupons if you are in the vicinity of a particular store and get some cool discounts. Other uses of LBS include vehicle tracking, parcel and courier tracking, games and weather. Social networking sites have made LBS popular too with users updating information about their location all the time. You can give your friends your location in real time thanks to Apple’s ‘Find my Friends’ and Google’s Latitude.

When you key in a request, the LBS provider, like Gowalla and Foursquare use a network map or a GSM search to find your coordinates. The router which draws the network map also contains a control plane. Once your coordinates are received, another search ensures to find the nearest radio signal. The other technologies used here could include Bluetooth and WLAN.

Once the user’s location is pinpointed, she is offered all kinds of support based on her location, including being directed to the nearest ATM or store she is looking for. Most providers require registration and give points, prizes and bonuses for specific, oft-visited locations. You can use any hand held device, including your Blackberry and iPhone to track down what you are looking for.

On the plus side, the sheer reach of the LBS is mind-boggling. On the minus, the fact that almost anyone knows where you are can be a nuisance and a risk. For instance, marketers gain information ranging from your interests to your political views and even your work details and could use it. While there are laws to protect privacy, they are not stringent enough and thus LBS pose problems that need to be worked out.

Do use the service to simply your life and your day but be watchful when you do so.

This is a guest post by Mark Dwayne of buytimewarnercable.com, a site that offers savings and current information on http://www.buytimewarnercable.com.

What's the first thing you'll do after downloading Google Chrome for iOS?

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 11:17:00 +0000

The first thing you will do after downloading the new Google Chrome for iPhone and iPad would be to search for the term: "how to set Google Chrome to be the default browser in iOS?"

The thing is amazing! It's the fastest mobile browser I've ever experienced, the user interface is incredible, the multiple tabs feature is well implemented, you get one bar for both url and search, extra line of keyboard buttons and much more.

It's free of course and like in the Android version it allows a sync between the desktop version and the mobile one.

Is Chrome (in its' multiple versions) the best product Google has ever built?

Give it a try. Do it now.
Do it.

Why I’m never going to buy Windows Phone 8

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 21:53:00 +0000

Windows Mobile, Kin, now Windows phone 7!

In a world where upgrades are something every normal mobile vendor provides, a world where for over 5 years we have seen companies like Apple and to some extent Google, constantly pushing updates of their mobile OS to their existing customers base, Microsoft continues to do things without thinking, in it’s continuous mobile fiasco.

Early adopters of Windows Phone 7 devices, customers who trusted and promoted Microsoft, customers who figured that after waiting so many years before making the move, Microsoft will, for once, do it right – those customers will not get an upgrade to Windows Phone 8.

Why? Because Microsoft needs to change things again, from the bottom up. It didn’t think it through… and consumers need to pay the price.

And yes, I’m upset. You know why? Because Microsoft screw us, the early Windows Phone adopters who suffered months of having no significant apps, no global store, shameful amount of configuration options, limited functionality and tons of “potential” that will never reach our devices.

I’m upset because today I saw this video (below) that demonstrates Windows Phone 7.8: a stupid improvisation that is designed to calm down the early adopters with a useless update that will supposedly “enrich” the Live Tiles experience.

Big deal. Thanks Microsoft, now I can resize my stupid tiles. Wow.

I feel like my Samsung Omnia (Which I’m not longer using due to the humiliating low number of apps, thank you) is seriously going to be part of my “Hall of Shame” parade: side by side with the Kin, Windows Mobile devices etc.

Guess who’s not going to pay a SHAKEL for Windows Phone 8 when it’s released?

Texting while driving is bad – here are some numbers

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 15:38:00 +0000

The mobile spoon is a very educational site. We don’t drink, we don’t smoke, we only play with mobile phones and mobile apps (we steal those phones of course, but that’s another thing…).

Today I saw this infographic discussing texting while driving. We all do it from time to time, thinking “it will just take a second…”. Well, read the numbers below, you might find them interesting…

Source: http://www.bitrebels.com/social/texting-while-driving-its-worse-than-you-think-infographic/

Click to enlarge:

First thoughts about Microsoft Surface tablet: Makes Sense

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 09:53:00 +0000

As I was watching the reveal of Microsoft's Surface tablets yesterday I couldn’t stop saying to myself: “Makes sense”.

I’m not sure why I keep supporting Microsoft for so long (including buying failing products like the first Windows Phone based Samsung Omnia) but for some reason I really want them to finally succeed, after suffering so many failures in the mobile space (remember Kin?).

I’m currently using an iPad, and an iPhone, and both of them are missing “something” when it comes to old-fashion productivity. I’m calling it old-fashion productivity, because in many ways the iOS invented new productivity tools and habits, which I’m enjoying and appreciating very much. And yet, when it comes to doing my old-fashion stuff that I still need, such as presentations, excels, writing documents, articles – iOS sucks badly.

Few months ago I wrote about Windows 8 and how the combination of the new Metro UI along with the classic Windows might save us all from the mobile nightmare. Today Microsoft made another step forward in this direction, which to me, simply makes sense.

Here are some key sentences which were told during the announcement:

People want to create and consume
They want to work and they want to play
They want to be on their couch and on their desk
A tablet that is a great PC, and a PC that is a great tablet

I like the sound of that. Microsoft tries to close some gaps between modern mobile operating systems and classic Windows PC through the software, but also through the hardware. Makes sense. Notice the key words: create, work, desk. Those are not the strongest sides of the iPad, which is why every iPad owner also has a a PC.

If this step succeeds (there is a big if here, but I believe that it will eventually succeed), Surface will mark the formal death of the PC. It will not “kill” it, it will simply contain it. Instead of carrying laptops, we will carry tablets with cover-keyboard. When consuming, we will all use the tablet-style UI (Metro UI in Microsoft’s case), while sitting on a couch, and when creating, we will place our tablet on our desks, pull over the keyboard, probably a mouse (yes, I’m thinking short term here), and start working.

Makes Sense.

Of course, there are some extra cool stuff with the Surface (built in stand, a full multi-touch keyboard cover), and nice specs, while those are things that can be easily implemented in other devices and platforms, I enjoyed seeing Microsoft tries harder to innovate and impress us, the consumers.

Here is the full event in case you missed it. Notice some funny bugs around the 13-14th minutes… :-)

Reminder: Strategies in Enterprise Mobility Webinar–TODAY!

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 11:31:00 +0000

If you haven’t registered to our webinar today about mobile strategies in the enterprise – make sure to do it!

The webinar will take place today (Wednesday), June 13th at 8:00 am PST/11:00 am EST/ 4:00 pm GMT.

To register – head over to the registration page and secure your (virtual) seat.

What’s new in iOS6? 10 new key features

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 19:55:00 +0000

10 Takeaways from Apple’s iOS6 presentation at WWDC 2012

iOS has been revealed, and as usual lately, we saw a long list of improvements but little real innovations.

Still, it seems like Apple continues to push iOS forward with a bunch of useful features and tools that will continue to position iOS as a leader in the mobile operating system space.

I think that the theme this time is making iOS smarter than in the past with many “intelligent” features.

Here are the top 10 new features in iOS 6:

New maps: we saw it coming, it was required, and it’s finally here. There will not be a street view, and there will probably some early bugs for such a huge piece of development, but in general this was a required move by Apple against Google, and those maps look impressive on first look.
Siri improvements: I’m not a huge fan of Siri, yet I believe that the huge set of improvements, and more importantly – the built-in integration with the new navigation system will make Siri much more useful than in the past. (still no API’s though). Besides, the ‘Integration’ part is a key in the next generation of Siri, with integration to services like Yelp, OpenTable, IMDB, Fandango, and other services that will turn Siri into a real assistant. Hopefully…
Facebook integration: finally. Facebook integration is probably going to be more significant than the twitter integration (as it will come with calendar, birthdays, and maps integration), and from what we have seen it looks like it was implemented in an amazing way.
Facetime using cellular network: yes! my parents are going to love being able to talk and see the kids when they are outside!
Shared photo albums: another feature that was specifically created for my parents! Why sending them pictures of their grandchildren when I can simply share an album with them directly from my iPhone? Brilliant.
iPhone is getting smarter with new convenience options:

‘Reply with a message’ to a call
‘Remind me later’ option with location aware notifications
‘Do not disturb’ option to put yourself and your push notifications to sleep
Important calls filter – which will wake you up in case a truly important (and repeating) call happens. Another win for someone with old parents like myself.

Smarter emails: if you think of it, the email application did not change for quite a long time. Now it is finally getting a little bit better:

High priority mails (called VIP)
Attachments straight from your mail (just when I found this amazing trick!)

Safari improvements: I must admit the list did not make me that excited, but nevertheless:

iCloud sync between your mobile browser and your (Mac) desktop browser (similar to Google’s latest Chrome mobile features)
‘Upload’ from the web (finally!)
Offline reading list (this is a ‘ReadMeLater’ killer, courtesy of Apple…)

Passbook: an intelligent app that is not only keeping your tickets and coupon organized but is also location aware and constantly updated to give you the most up to date information (including changes in your next flight or gate). Nice! Apple is finally thinking of business people traveling all day long? I’m shocked.
New accessibility features: most people are not aware of this, but iOS is surprisingly strong in supporting accessibility features such as onscreen helpers, special UI navigation buttons (a mode most people do not use), fonts, and other features for users with disabilities. It seems like iOS 6 will bring some new features in this space, plus some new ‘single app’ modes to allow students take tests with iPads without being able to cheat by going to other apps and find the answers they need…

That’s it. My summary of Apple’s new iOS.

I’m glad I managed to successfully predict what features will not be included in iOS 6, and pretty content with the new stuff, although I would say, once again, that Apple’s iOS is no longer innovating like in the first 2-3 versions.

Will it be enough to fight Android? I don’t think so. But now we have iPhone 5 to wait for…

Technorati Tags: Apple,iOS,iOS6

iPhone Tip: How to send multiple pictures in one Email

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 14:53:00 +0000

This iPhone tip I just discovered is going to change my life completely (and to think I spent hours creating multiple emails for sending multiple photos… how absurd!).

Question: How do you send multiple pictures by email on the iPhone?

Wrong Answer: You send them one by one…

You go to your photos app, select a photo, use the ‘Send’ button, and send it via one of your emails accounts.

Then you pick another photo, and repeat the same annoying process…

Well, that’s what I thought, up until 2 minutes ago when I thought to myself: “it can’t be…no one is so dumb to miss it… let’s ask Google…”

And so I found that there is indeed a way to send multiple images in one email…

Right Answer: You multiple select your photos and send them, stupid

Yeah, this is embarrassingly simple, yet I’m sure many people have missed it: you go to your photo thumbnails view and use the multiple selection option. Then you simply click on ‘Share’ and send all the selected pictures by email… that’s it.

And that’s it…

Oh no, don’t thank me. Thank Google for making so many useful iPhone tips accessible…

More iPhone tips in here:

iPhone tips any iPhone beginner must learn

18 tips for true happiness with your iPhone (apps and more)

5 things we are not going to see in iOS6

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 14:26:00 +0000

Few hours before Apple introduces iOS6 to the world at WWDC, here are 5 things I’m betting we are not going to see there:

Better files management system: Apple will probably not change the “closed” environment iOS brings, and even though we are going to see more of iOS features coming to Mac OS X, the iPhone/iPad style will stay the same.
Widgets: Widgets already exists in jailbroken iOS devices. They exists for a couple of years now, and other than two fairly simple weather and stocks widgets Apple refuses to accept the widgets concepts, especially the open architecture one. Probably because widgets, by design, create a messy UI environment and can hint on multi-tasking load.
A new design for the boring LockScreen: Yes, we all hate it, it’s old, it’s boring, but Apple won’t change it (here’s how to customize your lockscreen by tweaking your iPhone).
An improved Siri that actually works plus API’s for external applications to integrate with Siri.
The ability to change the default iOS apps such as emails, contacts, and other pre-integrated components and apps.

What are we going to see?

I think of the usual stuff: facebook integration, new maps, some (minor) Siri improvements and iPad support, and maybe, just maybe – finally something new and refreshing.

The Mobile Spoon is now available in Google Currents

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 08:17:00 +0000

Google’s alternative to FlipBoard is called Google Currents. It’s an app (native apps for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets) that will turn your favorite blogs and social networks into a dynamic magazine.

As I constantly look for ways to manage my huge collection of technology sites I follow – I found that Currents is doing a good job in holding some unique content as well as my usual Google Reader stuff. It supports offline reading and a nice set of social sharing buttons. I still use other readers such as FlipBoard and MobileRSS Pro, but I’ve found that I actually enjoy having multiple readers, each one with slightly different sites list, to improve the reading experience.

The Mobile Spoon – Now Available in Google Currents

Today I created a special edition for The Mobile Spoon, ready to be used in Google Currents. It’s highly optimized for iPhone, iPad and Android smartphones and tablets. It’s based on the content of this website, and if you enjoy reading my crap, and happen to use Google Currents in your smartphone or tablet – you can now add it easily by navigating to this link: http://www.google.com/producer/editions/CAow5sV8/the_mobile_spoon, or simply use the search option and look for “the mobile spoon”.

If you navigate here (http://www.google.com/producer/editions/CAow5sV8/the_mobile_spoon) you will be redirected to a page that looks like this:

And then you will be able to simply click on the button which will add the mobile spoon to your Google Currents editions list.

That’s it. If you haven’t tried Google Currents yet, I recommend you give it a shot, and once you go – be sure to add the mobile spoon to your subscription list.

This Wednesday: Strategies In Enterprise Mobility Webinar

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 06:11:00 +0000

Reminder: in 2 days (Wednesday, June 13th [8:00 am PST/11:00 am EST/ 4:00 pm GMT]) I will be giving a joint webinar with Kevin Benedict discussing latest trends and strategies in enterprise mobility.

If you haven’t registered yet – you can do so by hitting the registration page.

Webinar Invitation: Latest Strategies In Enterprise Mobility

Why a facebook phone doesn’t make any sense

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 22:17:00 +0000

This Facebook smartphone mockup that surfaced around the blogsphere last week is indeed impressive, yet I don’t believe a facebook phone would make a lot of sense.

Take a look at the mobile devices landscape: you have 2 successful companies: Apple and Samsung.
All the others are struggling: some manage to keep up (HTC?) while the others are really doing bad (Nokia, RIM), and that is, without talking about the ones who already ceased to exist in this space… (Palm, Ericsson), or have been acquired (Motorola).

That’s not a pleasant view, isn’t it? And that’s when everybody is talking about a mobile era. Imagine what will happen in 1-2 years from now.

Dead Market?

Two weeks ago I’ve been listening to a lecture by Dov Moran, inventor of the successful DiskOnKey [by M-Systems], and the failing Modu. He started his lecture by saying that the mobile market is dead, talking about the tough situation many mobile companies are facing.

It really made me think about it… No, I don’t think mobile is dead, but it is, without a doubt, a topic that is already becoming commodity. Once it does, no one will talk about “mobility” as if it’s a special technology. It will just be there.

Back to this facebook smartphone concept:

This phone concept looks amazing, and we heard that facebook is hiring ex-Apple designers and engineers.

And yet, it seems to me like facebook will have to invent something extremely unique in order to come up with something which is truly attractive. having more of the same and calling it facebook phone will not be enough.

At the moment there are only 2 successful mobile operating systems out there: Android and iOS.
Microsoft is trying badly to get in this race, and so far without a lot of success – what can facebook bring to the mobile table that Microsoft can’t? I doubt if the company with a site that can be an encyclopedia for bad user interface, can come up with a true innovative phone.

Another question might be: what can facebook have in a facebook phone that cannot be easily copied and implemented by Apple and Google in iOS or Android?

I don’t think it can, although I would love to be wrong about this one.
This Android / iOS stuff is becoming a bit boring anyhow...

The Mobile Spoon - Gil Bouhnick's Blog About Mobility

What will be the third largest mobile OS in 2013?

Is HTML5 Truly Ready For Prime Time?

Scan2Login will help you log-in quickly and safely

Firefox and Google Chrome add-on that lets you log in to websites by scanning a QR code with your smartphone.

The Great App-splosion (Infographic by ClickSoftware)

HTML5 vs. Native Applications… Again…

Are Widgets About To Be Extinct?

Instead of using the widget, how about you simply use the app?

Instead of a widget, how about you simply do it from your lock-screen?

Instead of widgets, how about Live Tiles?

Summary:

How Does A 3D TV Work?

HTC One X is a huge smartphone but may not be that smart

The size may be huge, but it doesn’t bring real advantage

Great specs but disappointing results and poor performance:

A smartphone UI that is not that… smart:

Bottom line

Recommended Stories By The Mobile Spoon

Some of my own sick opinions:

Enterprise Mobility:

Microsoft:

Apple:

What is Hawk-Eye technology and how does it work

What will happen when device agnostic apps will no longer be required?

Do we really need 'Device Agnostic' applications?

Future Mobile Devices:

Why is mobile banking so popular?

[Guest Post]

Email Overflow: Why I Hate My Inbox

Here are 3 behavior patterns that will make you hate your inbox:

1. Over-chatty emails:

2. The Magic Tasks – Emails magically turn into an endless task list

3. Showing others you are working by misusing the ’CC’ option:

How does Location Based Services (LBS) work?

What's the first thing you'll do after downloading Google Chrome for iOS?

Why I’m never going to buy Windows Phone 8

Texting while driving is bad – here are some numbers

First thoughts about Microsoft Surface tablet: Makes Sense

Reminder: Strategies in Enterprise Mobility Webinar–TODAY!

What’s new in iOS6? 10 new key features

10 Takeaways from Apple’s iOS6 presentation at WWDC 2012

Here are the top 10 new features in iOS 6:

iPhone Tip: How to send multiple pictures in one Email

Question: How do you send multiple pictures by email on the iPhone?

Wrong Answer: You send them one by one…

Right Answer: You multiple select your photos and send them, stupid

5 things we are not going to see in iOS6

The Mobile Spoon is now available in Google Currents

The Mobile Spoon – Now Available in Google Currents

This Wednesday: Strategies In Enterprise Mobility Webinar

Why a facebook phone doesn’t make any sense

Dead Market?

Back to this facebook smartphone concept: