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> My Top iPhone apps
> My own little iPhone app
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27 June 2010 | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
16 June 2010 | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
By now, over a 100 million people have downloaded 5 billions apps under the now called iOS, or operating system for mobile devices. Millions of people start to become familiar with the act of downloading an App. An app is rarely final once you have downloaded it. It needs to be updated for new features or self adaptation to new the iOS specifications or is has to be updated because if pulls content or self refreshes out of the internet.
An app to be fully enjoyed needs to be updated and if it depends on a web service needs to be connected to the web in order to be updated, even to be enjoyed offline.
iOS is not solving 2 pains that are specific to native apps: easy automatic updating, and automatic content syncing.
Let me illustrate with examples
Automatic App Updating
You have downloaded say 40 apps. Apple updates its iOS or introduces a new device (say the iPad). Hundreds of developers update their app in order to be compliant. You open your App Store and you see 10 apps waiting for updates. Then every day you will meet this screen, with apps waiting for updates. Personally i hate wasting time with that. And i can be a lot of time once accumulated.
Apple should allow users to give permission to developers to auto-update apps without consent and run the updates automatically in the background when, say, the iPhone is not used more than an hour in a row. To make sure this does not hurt your bill, Apple could allow it to run only when you re on wifi > which is typically what happens when you are at home when sleeping at night.
I want to give Apple once this approval, and that's all. I can revoke it if i need to (i don't see any reason why i would, but let s assume you need to make yourself feel comfortable)
This means that users need to become aware an app has become updated. Apple could do that in a welcome screen in the App Store or by just sending an email when this is done (they do have our emails and they use it to send us the purchase receipt). But that would not be enough.
I think developers need to do something more (which is something i would recommend anyway to do already...)
> Tip to Developers: when you update an app, DO NOT rely on users reading the update pane with new features, instead on the opening push a message with the new features you re bringing. The app that does that best is GoodReader. Check it out. Really well done
Automatic App Content Syncing
You have an RSS reader, or a news app (Wired, ...) or ReadItLater/Instapaper, or even Dropbox or OneMail (for accessing Gmail offline). You need to access the content, but in order to enjoy it you need to first Open the App and wait for it to pull content from the web. This can take some serious time. Specially when you need to move offline for a few hours (in a plane) or want to save roaming fees (abroad). This means you need to specifically open every single app, wait for it to pull out content and repeat that, as many times as needed with each App.
Any iPhone owner who s travelling has met this pain. But if you think about it, even if you are not travelling, having to rely on syncing to get your app updated is a pain. We are more and more used to get content instantly from web services. Waiting to get content, is a pain.
This is why for news and RSS i prefer to surf Google Reader rather than any other killer RSS app (like Newsrack or Reeder) even if super Well done
What's missing? This has to be solved by Apple with a content sync service available to developers allowing them to trigger an Content app update on a regular basis, using simple rules: the app is updated more than X hours/days, it has to be on WIFI, and the iPhone has to be unused for more than X hours. Users in addition must have give specific approval in optin to the developers in order to run that operation. Then there need to be a simple notification tray in the app, indicating when it was last updated, and if a sync should be necessary or not.
The day this part of infrastructure is in place apps relying on content will get a major boost in usage.
Conclusion: Saving 5 billion seconds to the world (and counting)
On average an App update takes about 10 seconds (sometimes a lot more), let s assume that only 10% of the Apps downloaded get updated (because people care enough to run the update) - We're talking about saving 5 billion seconds to the world just for App updating. We re talking about a cumulated time of 82 000 years saved to users.
i have no way to measure how many time this would save for content App updating. But let s take Wired which is a 500MB+ app (of which 400MB of rich media ads...). Each edition takes in very very high speed about 1 or 2 min to download. There is around 100k users who downloaded this app >See how much time is saved? Repeat that by the number of App in your iPhone/iPad
Personally i know it would save me around 30 min each week. Roughly
Beyond those meaningless numbers iOS has the possibility to bring back, what is missing most from Apps, the instant access to content. No lag, No syncing. Getting closer to the Web and a little bit away from the CD-Rom era
Will Apple bring this? I am sure they will. Not sure when though. It took them 2 iterations of the OS to bring Copy Paste.
ps: i seriously doubt, based on what i know that the multi tasking that Apple is going to introduce will allow this kind of background operation. The App needs to get access to a better and specifically designed service for this to happen correctly. And it has to be created by Apple and not by one developer on a case by case
note: i put aside in this note, the necessity of wireless syncing which would be really nice for syncing the content of your PC/MAc with your iPhone. But this is a different matter which requires more technical consideration and background that i have.
14 June 2010 | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
I know this piece by heart. Listened to it hundreds of times. But i never saw it so close and heard it with such clarity. Performed without Orchestra (explaining why she interupts at some points)
2nd movement is even more beautiful
ps: the little genius composed this piece at age 19. What did you do at this age?
13 June 2010 | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
10 June 2010 | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
I am assuming you have seen the great keynote by Steve Jobs announcing the iPhone 4. If you did not take a look here.
I am going to address little details that i have not seen covered by the hundreds of blog post talking about the iPhone 4
09 June 2010 | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
I would like to bring my tiny point of view in what seems to be a gigantic debate: what is better for the web? open or closed platforms?
i'll go simple to make my point:
The web (for computers) as we know it today is rather open. You can develop anything and access it through your browser(s) which comply with standards of navigation which are universal. We used to have a closed Web: portals, limited browsers, absence of standards, web organized in directories rather than links. This has changed and no one would use today a directory or use rather this or that browser to access a specific site (except when Apple showcases html5)
But the mobile web is rather closed. The pipes are controlled by operators, the new ISPs and AOLs of the PC era. The browsers are not running everything either because of limitations (safari and flash) or device capabilities (try an MMOG on opera mini..). The Web is being rebuilt through apps, which are built by developers using App Store SDKs (Apple, Android, Blackberry, OVI, Bada,...). Users are driven to those apps because they are simple and convenient.
But you simply cannot use the web created for your PC on your mobile phone. It is not designed for those screens (even iPad) and it is not conceived for a touch experience.
This means the mobile web has to be created and Apple got the first shot super right.
So the question is: Will the mobile web remain a closed environment where developers and therefore users will have to comply by rules that are limitative by essence? Or will the mobile web, just like the PC web evolve to an open environment? Let me detail. In the long term:
I think the key to those answers lie in how OS owners play it with developers. I am personally very happy with a closed mobile web. I don't care i can't read flash on my iPhone, i love my Apps sometimes even more than the original web sites that are too cluttered and complex. And i believe 99.99% of users are not concerned by the debate, simply because to date there is enough to do with and not enough maturity in usage to realize you need more than that.
And the reason to that: Developers play by App Store rules. They are happy creating apps. And users are happy with it. App Stores are taking away the control Cell operators had once on mobile content> which will drive i believe, operators to become pipe providers, which is what we pay for. Which i believe is a good thing.
i think a closed environment can work for developers but on 3 conditions: it has to be consistent in its rules, efficient in its treatment and monetization and transparent in its communication. Android is providing nearly all of this except on the monetization> which brings many developers not to think to much as to where to allocate their time.
Apple has made an amazing job at creating a working app ecosystem. Tomorrow they will present again how people love apps (4billion download, 200k apps - not really progressing for a while btw, ...) But this shadowing some deep issues that cannot last.
In conclusion: the mobile web can remain a closed platform as long as it is fluid enough as an ecosystem. I personally don't care about the rules as long as they are clear, consistently applied and based on a transparent and efficient communication process.
If this is not happening, i don t care about what the next iPhone or Android or Blackberry phone can achieve. If developers feel or start feeling uncomfortable with creating apps which make the mobile web so great, those phones won't have nothing differentiated to offer.
Steve jobs will say it tomorrow: it is all about apps. So if this is the case: this has to be treated with the highest priority. I believe app stores in general, and in Apple case in particular, are under resourced internally. This is an easy fix. But that is not enough: A process where a developer has to wait 2 months (and we are not alone) to get a feedback is not a working process. The allocation of resources is related to the understanding that this is a necessity.
I don't feel Apple has done enough in that direction. The war Apple has to fight is not against Google or Microsoft, or RIM but with itself making sure they treat decently and fairly developers big, or small. If they do that, and they can, they will win the battle of the mobile web.
06 June 2010 | Permalink | TrackBack (0)