Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » février 15, 2010

BetaNews.Com (6 non lus)

Wireless operators want their own open app store

Publié: février 15, 2010, 11:41pm CET par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Today, a group of the most prominent wireless operators in the world announced its intent to form an "open app store," that is capable of vending applications to all mobile phone users.
Calling itself the "Wholesale Applications Community," the group is made up of 24 of the biggest mobile network operators including China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, NTT DoCoMo, Telefonica, SK Telecom, Sprint, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and hardware manufacturers LG, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson.
The group says it aims to set up the simplest way for developers to publish to the widest range of users and devices, or "scale unparalleled by any application distribution ecosystem in existence today."
It's a goal others are trying to reach...the decades-old WORA (Write Once, Run Anywhere) ideal. Adobe, for example announced today that it is bringing its AIR runtime environment to Android, which lets users develop across multiple platforms.
But the WAC today said it will utilize mobile widget language JIL (Joint Innovation Lab) and application runtime OMTP BONDI to reach that goal, rather than devise new standards for developers to be able to write once and run anywhere.
JIL is currently in beta and BONDI is only up to version 1.1, but they both have SDKs available for download now.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Linux shakeout merges Maemo with Moblin, while Symbian^3 awaits its future

Publié: février 15, 2010, 10:52pm CET par Scott M. Fulton, III

By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

Before today, if you had asked, which mobile phone company is the one that intends to split itself into two pieces, you might have gotten the answer: Motorola. Today, Nokia is the company taking two directions, both of which are a little startling, and both of which appear uncertain.
First, it's made a decision to merge its open source mobile Linux project, maemo, into Intel's Moblin project, with the result being MeeGo -- a product that, at least at first glance, bears more resemblance to parent Intel than parent Nokia. Second, Symbian proponents are still awaiting word about a future Nokia phone, the N87, believed to be the launch pad for the now-fully-open-source Symbian^3 operating system. But they're waiting in the backseat, it would appear, as Windows Phone 7 Series and MeeGo get the lion's share of attention, on this first day of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
A late screenshot from Intel's Moblin Linux-based operating system, which was geared more toward Atom-based netbooks.
Intel Moblin was being developed as the mobile Linux system for Atom-based netbooks, with the strong backing of the Linux Foundation. Meanwhile, maemo (lower-case "m") was Nokia's project for ARM-based platforms, including TI's OMAP application platform. Not only were their environments different, but their focuses seemed different as well: Moblin was more metaphorical, capturing the spirit of the mobile desktop; while maemo tried to be more of a facilitator of mobile applications, especially those made with the cross-platform Qt development tool.
Nokia's maemo system was designed for ARM-based smartphones, although it extended the desktop metaphor used in Windows and Linux for PCs, complete with widgets like this example.
Although there are no early screenshots of MeeGo to go on at this point (perhaps some will pop up at MWC), it would appear from the art direction employed thus far (a sort of Henry-Moore-meets-Friz-Freleng theme) that Intel's look and feel may win out. However, comments released today in the video below suggest that one very important element of maemo development is being assimilated into Moblin whole: the use of Qt libraries, with which Moblin developers have historically had trouble. It's Qt which will let a developer write a mobile Web application for MeeGo that can also run in maemo, in Moblin (with a little help in the library department), and even in Symbian.
As of now, MeeGo's newly launched community Web site urges new developers to get started by downloading the Qt development platform for their respective PCs, and compiling the "Hello, World" test case app. That wasn't exactly the message community developers wanted to hear today; they're looking for clues from just about anywhere -- YouTube videos, gadget blogs, last year's analyst meetings -- as to what a MeeGo application is supposed to look like. While Nokia and Intel tout the merger of the two platforms, and thus the coming together of the two communities behind those platforms, all that members of those communities see today thus far are a bunch of executives shaking hands.
"You print-screen a simple QT-helloworld with no copy-paste-possibility (even without the full lines of code)," writes MeeGo community member ckpinguin this morning. "Are you so desperately looking for developers in order to push app-downloads?" And zeevik the fox writes, "Where is the example to show Meego power or benefits? What is new in Meego and what is the advantage over other platforms? Is this is the way to attract developers, with software code for an 11- year-old kid?"
While that bit of confusion is going on, the Symbian community awaits word on what some had hoped would be the pinnacle smartphone for the newest rendition of their operating system: the Nokia N87 for Symbian^3. Expectations have already been raised high for an incredible device featuring a 12-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics capable of shooting 720p video.
But Nokia's Symbian^3-related announcement today was about as cerebral and invisible as the future UI of MeeGo. Although Nokia purchased the Symbian code last year with the intention of releasing it through the Symbian Foundation as a fully open source system, its proponents still expect Nokia to show some leadership in steering Symbian^3 development forward. Last December, Nokia promised a display of such leadership, which proponents assumed would come this week.
While this week is far from over, the bone that Nokia threw to Symbian proponents may be less than they expected: a preview of coming attractions video that frankly looks less convincing than Microsoft's preview of Windows Phone 7 earlier today, and a promise that Symbian^3 would be code-complete by the end of March.
That gives developers a six-month window to develop applications for this apparently completely revised platform, assuming Nokia sticks by plans to release some kind of Symbian^3-based device (no word yet as to which one) during Q3. Once again, the development platform of choice is Qt; and although Qt is well respected and firmly entrenched in the development community, there remains no clear instruction manual as to what developers should start doing besides "Hello, world."
So the early word from members of the Symbian community was, we're encouraged...kind of. "I realize this is a preview but it seems to address many of the UI frustrations that I am currently experiencing. However, many of these already exist in Android and the iPhone," wrote Mopedia this afternoon. "I guess we'll have to wait and see what new features Symbian will be bringing to the table."
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Windows Phone 7 Series: The good, the bad and the ugly

Publié: février 15, 2010, 9:06pm CET par Joe Wilcox

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Earlier today, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced Windows Phone 7 Series at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The new operating system is a bold move for Microsoft, which is looking to reinvigorate its mobile strategy. But how bold is Windows Phone 7 Series in context of other mobile platforms? That's the question this post seeks to answer.
Because I'm miserably sick with the flu today, I'll limit this post to three areas: Windows Phone 7 Series as Microsoft's mobile Manhattan Project, mobile applications competition and garnering developer interest.
1. Mobile Manhattan Project
The Good. Finally, Microsoft is on a path of reinvention, which its mobile operating system desperately needed. Windows Phone 7 is something new, deriving heritage from Zune. Windows Phone 7 Series is a refreshing departure from Windows Mobile -- it demos well, anyway. Microsoft finally is making the kind of commitment necessary to once again be a major competitor in the handset market. Microsoft also seems to have at least some sense about how the mobile device market is changing.
Last week, IDC reported that the mobile sector, which now is an $850 billion market, accounts for nearly 60 percent of the global telecom market. Combined analyst data puts the worldwide mobile subscriber base at 4.6 billion. IDC predicts another 1.3 billion subscribers will be added by 2013.
"The mobile sector is in transition from its prior focus on subscriber growth," Courtney Munroe, group vice president of IDC Worldwide Telecommunications, said in a statement. "The expanding demographics of smartphones and new operating systems, the arrival of mobile broadband, and the explosive growth of applications and content are combining to reshape the landscape of mobile telecommunications."
The point: Microsoft still has time to recover lost momentum and consumer mindshare.
The Bad. The transition from Windows Mobile to Windows Phone 7 could cost Microsoft market share, as manufacturers transition from one operating system to another and consumers delay purchases (or buy a competing handset). Today's announcement makes Windows Mobile even less appealing, because something new is coming.
In fourth quarter, based on a survey of 30,000 US consumers, ComScore put Microsoft handset subscriber share at 18 percent. Research in Motion: 41.6 percent. Apple: 25.3 percent. Google: 5.2 percent, up from 2.5 percent three months earlier.
The Ugly. Microsoft is taking too long to bring Windows Phone 7 Series to market. Today, Microsoft announced holiday 2010 availability for new handsets, which isn't soon enough. In between, Apple will start selling iPad and is sure to release a new iPhone. What's trendy from Microsoft today could look less appealing come the holidays. New Android-based and Nokia handsets are sure to ship in between, too.
IDC predicts a mobile operating system transformation in 2010 because of open-source operating systems (like Android) and user-interface and user-experience (UI and UX) improvements in new categories such as iPad. Microsoft's time to market will put it on the tail-end of this transformation.
2. Mobile Applications
The Good. Microsoft has done well to leverage existing products or services, such as Xbox and Zune, for Windows Phone 7 Series. The new Mobile IE will be based on the desktop version 8 and no longer 6, which should hugely improve the browsing experience and safety. Windows Phone 7 Series devices will also extend to Web services through features like "hubs" and "live tiles." However, I predict that Windows Phone 7 Series poses greater risk to BlackBerry, rather than Android-based handsets or iPhone.
The Bad. Microsoft's core leveraged applications are games and music, where Apple has a huge lead, with consumers and developers, on iPhone, iPod touch and presumably forthcoming iPad. Microsoft's core entertainment push knocks up against Apple's huge lead. Microsoft will offer mobile Office on Windows Phone 7, which I contend is totally unnecessary for consumers, although it's good for extending and preserving Microsoft's productivity suite monopoly.
The Ugly. For years, Microsoft executives have talked about software plus services. But on mobile devices, Apple and not Microsoft has brought them to market. Apple claims about 135,000 mobile applications in the iTunes App Store and more than 3 billion downloads. Meanwhile, Google, which does offer the Android Marketplace, is pushing Web services, leveraging its strengths and offering alternatives to mobile applications. Once again, Microsoft's long time to market -- holiday 2010 -- will allow competitors to widen their leads.
3. Wooing developers
The Good. Microsoft is using the time between Windows Phone 7 Series' announcement and availability wisely, For starters, the company plans to woo developers during next month's MIX10 conference. Meanwhile, Microsoft is opening up its mobile platform to more third-party customization than does Apple (but not Google or Nokia). Microsoft also is a notoriously good development partner, providing lots of documentation and support.
The Bad. Windows Phone 7 Series doesn't really offer anything shockingly new for developers to embrace -- other than perhaps Office support. That's great for the enterprise market, but Microsoft needs to make a big consumer play. Microsoft will have to work developers all year long, and, once again, time to market -- meaning, when developers can profit from the platform -- is a deterrent to supporting it.
The Ugly. Apple already has huge mobile application developer lead among closed platforms. Meanwhile, today, Symbian Foundation announced open-source Synbian ^3. Nokia and Intel revealed that they will combine their Maemo and Moblin platforms into the single MeeGo. Like Symbian ^3 -- and Google's Android -- MeeGo is open source. Closed Windows Phone 7 Series must woo developers from closed iPhone OS and three open source mobile operating systems -- Android, MeeGo and Symbian 3.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Google's next attempt at a more secure Buzz may take a few more days

Publié: février 15, 2010, 8:39pm CET par Scott M. Fulton, III

By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

A Google spokesperson confirmed to Betanews this afternoon that a second round of privacy changes, the nature of which was revealed last Saturday evening, is still being developed, and may yet go live "in the next couple of days."
Among those changes will be a more obvious way to turn Buzz off (no pun intended), a feature that remained obscure after the service's first round of privacy changes last Thursday. At that time, Google chose to un-hide an option that new customers may easily have ignored: to not only build a list of followers from existing Gmail contacts, but to publicize that list on the Buzz user's public profile. Depending on what other Google services the customer may have been using, that profile could possibly have been visible to anyone, including non-Buzz users.
On Saturday, the company announced it would change Buzz again, not with regard to profiles (which will apparently continue to be made public, if only to other Buzz users, by default) but rather, followers. As Buzz product manager Todd Jackson wrote, "Starting this week, instead of an auto-follow model in which Buzz automatically sets you up to follow the people you email and chat with most, we're moving to an auto-suggest model. You won't be set up to follow anyone until you have reviewed the suggestions and clicked 'Follow selected people and start using Buzz.'"
Google's mockup of Buzz's new "auto-suggest" list, produced Saturday, appears to collect a larger swath of Gmail contacts for possible inclusion than the "auto-follow" list demonstrated last week. What we will not know until the rollout date (Google is not providing further details until then) is how this process would make a material difference over the method Buzz uses presently. Specifically: At present, Buzz gives the new user a more direct option for seeing the list of people who will be followed. Assuming the user finds and activates this option, he can then uncheck those people from the list he does not want to follow, and then click Save profile and continue. At that point, he's a Buzz user, and whomever he didn't uncheck is now a followed contact.
Under what appears to be the new system (we won't be able to test it ourselves until it's finally rolled out), it's no longer a question of whether the user sees his contacts. He will see them, and he will be given a chance to uncheck the ones he doesn't want, before clicking on a new button labeled Follow selected people and start using Buzz. At that point, he's a Buzz user, and whomever he didn't uncheck is now a followed contact.
From that perspective, it doesn't appear to matter whether Buzz enrolled a cavalcade of Gmail contacts into the user's Buzz profile before he removed them and launched his own Buzz status, or refrained from enrolling those contacts until the user reviewed the list. Or in short, whether we call it an "auto-follow" or an "auto-suggest" model may not actually matter, except to the extent that it may change the public's perception of how Buzz implements its privacy model. What will change for certain is that all incoming users will see their list of suggested contacts prior to signing up.
Also over the weekend, Google essentially admitted it was not the best of ideas to assume that items already shared through Picasa and Google Reader, on a local basis, should become automatically shared through Buzz; new users were discovering they were already sharing Picasa photos without ever having given their permission. What we have also yet to see next week is whether Buzz users can still make use of a trick that a security engineer discovered last Friday, to use Picasa to ascertain one's semi-public Google Profile URL as though it were a fully public one.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
The overkill response to Google Buzz

Publié: février 15, 2010, 6:22pm CET par Carmi Levy
By Carmi Levy, Betanews

In today's viral, social media-driven world, it never seems to take long for things to get ugly. This is especially true for Google Buzz, which became a lightning rod for privacy-related criticisms almost as soon as it went live last week.
My advice to the critics: Don't get your panties in a knot.
Google's public privacy debacle
I'm not saying that Buzz didn't come out of the box with an embarrassingly long list of issues. It did, and Google should fix them pronto. And Google users everywhere should hold the company accountable for doing precisely that.
I'm also not saying that such criticisms aren't deserved. Whenever any Web service is flawed to the point that everyday use can compromise the integrity of our personal information, we can't simply let it slide. As originally delivered, Buzz was, shall we say, problematic. Its auto-follow feature created a list of contacts from users' Gmail accounts and automatically followed them. Then, it "helpfully" made this list of most frequently used contacts public, so any stranger with a Gmail account could then see who they'd been corresponding with.
Buzz's initial profile setup was also a privacy minefield. At first blush, the profile requirement wasn't such a major issue, since most social networking tools ask for at least some personal data. It helps add value to the user experience by, for example, making it easier to localize search or quickly build a list of contacts.
Unfortunately, the devil of Google's profile setup methodology lurked in the details. While users of most other online services could expect this private, personally-identifiable information to be kept relatively private, they had no such protection in Buzz. Google by default made the profile public and forced users who wanted it kept hidden to edit their profile manually.
Changes are welcome but insufficient
We all know how this works in the real world: Tech-savvy early adopters will typically explore the full feature set and tweak the settings to their heart's desire. The other 95% of the population would never even know there were additional settings to set -- and they'd be exposed without even knowing it. It's a scary place to be, and Facebook, for one, has been there too many times to count. As more services move online and become more dependent on socially aware architecture, it'll only get worse.
To its credit, Google has responded quickly to the criticism. Specifically, it's rolled out two separate waves of changes to the service. The ability to block those who follow you and those you follow from your public profile is now a much more prominent and linear component of the setup and account management process. Blocking followers is also more visible, and you can do it before they actually start following you. Previously, you had to wait until someone started following you before you could set up a block, which was another point of exposure. More broadly, Google is making it more obvious to users what's public, what isn't, and how they can change things to suit their personal comfort level.
Although the controversial auto-follow feature has now been replaced with one that merely suggests whom you may want to follow, Buzz continues to make new users' follow lists public until they specifically choose otherwise. While this fits Google's release-first, tweak-later-and-iteratively Web app development methodology, it reinforces the never-ending struggle between usability and privacy, and how Web services vendors don't always strike an optimal balance. Since this looks like the first social networking tool in Google's inventory that'll actually stick around, it's a conversation we'll likely be having for a while.
We still need to be nice
As we discuss the pros and cons of Buzz, we'll want to keep in mind the tone with which these conversations are held. While the feedback is mostly deserved (Google missed the memo on privacy, and wrongly assumed that none of this mattered to its users), the nasty barbs being tossed in Google's direction are largely uncalled for.
Maybe my rampant Canadianism is showing through, but when the blogs and Twitter feeds light up with Google-is-evil invective that would make my mom blush, I can't help but think that we all need to step back and put it in a little perspective:
- No one forces you to use Buzz. This is all volunteer. If you don't like the feature set, use something else. Or nothing at all. If the vendor can't or won't solve the critical issues at the root of the firestorm, you can easily opt out. (At least in Buzz's case now, you can opt out from the Buzz tab in Gmail, which wasn't there at first.)
- It's free. I always laugh when users assume vendors owe them something when a given service doesn't work as intended. It could be loose with privacy (Facebook or Google), unavailable (Twitter), or feature-deficient (every other service known to humankind) and thousands of people will cry foul as if they've been fundamentally wronged. They haven't. They've invested nothing beyond their own time to use these services, so when they glitch out they should shrug their shoulders and move on. If they've decided to base their careers and lives on these free services, I humbly suggest they consider an upgrade to a premium account, which adds some vendor accountability and gives folks a leg to stand on when they feel they aren't getting their money's worth.
- Responsibility for privacy rests with you. Relying on vendors to secure our privacy is like trusting used car dealers to do everything in their power to get us the best deal. That's our job, not theirs. So if their tools for managing privacy are deficient, it's up to us to navigate them and make them work for us -- and, yes, complain. We may grumble at the inconvenience, and we may jump to competitors who make it easier for us. But in the end no one else is going to captain this ship, so stop complaining if things get rough along the way.
I have no doubt the conversation will ultimately make Buzz a better product. It is, after all, how Web services evolve today. But it's time we stopped blaming vendors like Google for being evil (They're not. A bit disconnected, perhaps, but not evil), and realized the accountability for online privacy rests with us and not them.
Carmi Levy is a Canadian-based independent technology analyst and journalist still trying to live down his past life leading help desks and managing projects for large financial services organizations. He comments extensively in a wide range of media, and works closely with clients to help them leverage technology and social media tools and processes to drive their business.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
This is not a PC: Microsoft debuts Windows Phone 7 Series

Publié: février 15, 2010, 4:29pm CET par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Without a doubt the biggest news from Mobile World Congress thus far, Microsoft unveiled Windows Phone 7 Series today. This is the big update to Microsoft's mobile environment which presents a more social, touchable, consumer-friendly user interface with new ways to interact with mobile data.
In short, the experience in Windows Phone 7 Series is almost nothing like the Windows Mobile experience, which was designed as a complement to the desktop PC.
And to drive that point home in today's Mobile World Congress presentation, Microsoft repeated one key phrase at four different times: This is not a PC.
This is because Microsoft has turned completely against its old model in the mobile space. Instead of a system that is a truncated desktop experience, or an experience that hinges upon the device's partnership with a PC, Microsoft's new mobile platform is being sold primarily on its standalone capabilities and secondarily with its integration with Zune and Xbox Live. Integration with the PC has been moved far out of the spotlight.
"We have redesigned every step," said Andrew Lees, Senior Vice President of Mobile Communications.
Indeed, they've even moved away from the app-based model popularized by all of the other major smartphone platforms. Windows Phone 7 Series offers an almost entirely widget-based interface with its concept of task-oriented "hubs" and "live tiles."
Windows Phone 7 Series has six hubs built into it: People, Pictures, Games, Music/Video, Marketplace, and Office. Each hub corresponds with an ecosystem, and rather than simply present a blank field full of app icons, it is meant to act as a central point to interact with live icons representing all of the user's related content.
"Just about a year ago we took a hard look at the state of the smartphone industry -- particularly at design," Eric Urban wrote in the Windows Mobile team blog today. "Our view is that the predominant user interface design -- screens of icons to manage and navigate -- has become a little outdated. It's a UI paradigm that was created for the PC, where it's EASY to have lots of separate apps which you navigate between, spend time with, and operate with a large screen and mouse. We said to ourselves 'a phone is not a PC...it's got a small screen, no mouse, and you want to use it not just for long periods but in short bursts -- it should work great in the tiniest of moments.' We wanted to solve for 'glanceability' -- so you could get data and information without constantly going in and out of applications. We knew that we would need to innovate further to deliver something in which each of us, and each of our customers can take delight. So here it is."
One of the immediate points of criticism, however, is that Windows Phone 7 Series was shown today on a mocked-up device, and it isn't expected to come to market until the 2010 holiday season. Given Microsoft's history with delays in the mobile space, this is a bit unnerving, and means the final experience could be quite different from what was shown today when it is run on actual consumer hardware late this year.
But regardless of the launch date, Microsoft is working toward an entirely different mobile experience, one that moves beyond the stigmatized Windows Mobile environment, and even beyond the stigmatized PC environment, into one designed especially for the devices we all use.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010