The many faces of a little green robot
Open Signal Maps has a report on Android fragmentation here where they point out just how many devices they have to check compatibility for becuase of the fragmentation that plagues Google’s OS.
Canonical unveils Ubuntu Phone OS
Google Now and the predictive future of search by TheVerge
The Verge interviews the engineering team behind Google Now on Android to find out what’s next for the innovative search feature. Google executives Hugo Barra, Scott Huffman, Jeff Dean, and Vincent Vanhoucke tell the story behind how Google Now came into being and why it represents the best of Google.
The Art of Apps
This is a new gallery showing on SoHo that displays beautiful apps designed for iOS. You can get The Verge’s full story at the source or watch the interviews at the video above.
The Mozilla Story
Matt Buchanan on things that should be better, or just exist
These are some of Matt Buchanan’s ideas for some things in apps that should be improved ASAP:
- Foursquare iPad app — my primary use for Foursquare isn’t to see where people are anymore, it’s to see where places to go are. This is something I’d like to do on my iPad. It’s something I’ve tried to do on my iPad, but it always make me sad, like a really insipid macchiato.
- Path iPad app — Path is supposed to feel cozy, and when I am feeling cozy, I prefer my iPad over my phone. Phone = speed and concision and smallness and genereal feelings of AGHGHHGHH. iPad = how’s it going, I’m feeling really great because it’s Sunday and sunny or at least the kind of grey outside that makes me feel very comfortable. Why yes, I would heart hearting your very cute photograph.
- Twitter direct messages — I tried DMing somebody I hadn’t DMed in a while last night and it took me like five minutes to dig up their profile and find the correct button to direct message them, which is the only way I will direct message people because I am so very paranoid about accidentally tweeting pictures of my third nipple to the whole world. It could’ve been one of the many Fabled SMS Killers, but now it’s just another broken messaging service and I feel like I’ve stepped over more of those than piles of dog poop on NYC sidewalks.
- Facebook messaging — It should be the Great AIM Slayer, but it isn’t. Nearly complete ubiquity and penetration (I truthfully know very few people who don’t have a Facebook profile), but it’s still not a very good IM service. I want to say it could be the IM service, but Facebook is so bad at making things sometimes, it is actually impressive in its complete incompetence. I mean, it couldn’t even crush Foursquare in its infancy with Places, when it so very clearly could have, since it was only 400 bajillion times larger. (I am glad it didn’t, though.)
- Pay With Square — I think out of half a dozen or so times using it, it has worked completely correctly just once. It is kind of the ideal payment service, a cyborg payment method, human and machine, but I’m about to give up on it because swiping my card is easier, and I still have to carry a million paper loyalty cards anyway.
- iMessage — Ahahahahahaha.
I agree 100% with him. Do you?
Awesome image from The Verge, featuring the four major smartphone platforms in all their glory, mostly (should have used the Nokia Lumia 800 instead of the HTC Radar).
(via thisistheverge)
Google changes are coming
Google may have a new social network called Google+, but that is not the only news. The company is revamping their entire product line-up, announce major redesigns for Gmail, Search, Calendar and more, and even a whole new mobile experience. With Android’s newest version just around the corner and Chrome getting speedy releases, and the recently announced Google Music, we can only hope for big things for the rest of 2011. Take a look at some of the more recent announcements at the link.
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