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Google Chrome OS Tablet by HTC on Verizon

Quang Ly — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 15:12:35 +0000

Following the tablet footsteps laid by Apple, Google has built a Chrome OS tablet with help from HTC, and the device will launch on Verizon Wireless’ network come November 26th, 2010 — a date known otherwise as “Black Friday” in 2010.

The tablet is speculated to sport a 1280×720 display, 2GB of RAM, a 32GB solid-state drive, and WiFI/Bluetooth/3G wireless connectivity. Not bad. No word on front face or back camera yet though.

As for now, we would advise you to take the above information in with a grain of salt, at least until some more information on this so-called tablet is made available.

What are your thoughts? You want one?

Apple iTunes Cloud Lala Very Cloudy

Quang Ly — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:07:33 +0000

Apple iTunes Cloud Lala Very Cloudy

Many people expected that Apple would offer your iTunes music and movies over the cloud after it acquired Lala.com last December. That is of course after Apple obtained the appropriate music licenses to do so. Lala, the music serviced, shut down after being acquired by Apple this past May.

The Lala team leadership that went to Apple after the acquisition seems to leaving. Bill Nguyen, Lala’s founder, is known to be press friendly and against Apple’s culture of secrecy. Another founding member has left the company leaving Apple’s media cloud plans in a haze.

Google, on the other hand, hired Elizabeth Moody, an attorney with deep experience negotiating digital-music deals. Record executives expect Moody will help cut the first cloud music licensing agreement. Google has told label managers that it wants to launch a music service this year.

Apple is not worried though since it is still the #1 online and offline music store and jukebox.

However, in this fast pacing media game, tables can turn very quickly.

Google Must Have Heard My Advice

Quang Ly — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:49:51 +0000

Google recently announced that they will be experimenting by building a super fast fiber network. I wrote a post “Why Google Needs to Become an ISP” a few months ago stating that Google needs to become an ISP because their search can be simply defaulted to another search engine. It is a war between tech companies to see who can control the platform and end-to-end services. Apple has devices, software, and stores. Microsoft has operating systems, office products, and mobile OS. Google’s strategy is simply to diversify and unify as much as possible.

Never thought my words would actually be heard from Google. They must have found it through Search

Why is Google building a high speed network? It is because the faster the network, the more people will be online which means the more ads they can display. Furthermore, Google can charge a subscription for access that is competitive to other ISPs. Google can also lease its fast fiber network to other ISPs as well for further revenue.

Want a Google Wave Invite? We have some!

Quang Ly — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:58:46 +0000

Google Wave Invite

Google Wave is a hot topic now. It is Google’s ambitious project for next generation unified real-time communication and collaboration tool. I finally got my invite and can now invite up to 8 others. I’m giving them away so if anyone is interested contact me through the web form. It even works on the iPhone!

What is a wave?

A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.
A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.
A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

Google Voice Quick Reference

Quang Ly — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:07:34 +0000

Google Voice Quick Reference

Google Voice is really quite an amazing service with a lot of features – for free. Granted if you have a smart phone with browser or near a computer to manage your calls. For those of you still sticking to your dinosaur phone lacking an Internet browser, this Google Voice Quick Reference is for you. Just print it out and put it into your pocket. I didn’t even know some of these features were available such as conversation recording. Managing Google Voice features is now whole lot faster.

Via TechCrunch

Please Android – give me hope

Jay — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:59:30 +0000

I don’t want to get my hopes up. I was so disappointed by the Palm Pre and I was not terribly impressed with iPhone 3.0 But I watched the promo vid for Google’s Android 2.0…

And I gotta say that I’m liking what I’m seeing. Oh please dear lord don’t let me be disappointed yet again. I gotta renew my two year ball-and-chain with the iPhone in July 2010, and it’s probably going to come down to a choice between iPhone 4G running OS4.x and an Android phone running ~~Cupcake~~ Eclaire 2.x. And I really really really wanna choose the Android OS because I’m getting pretty sick of the Apple monolith.

I think I’ve downloaded roughly 200 apps since I’ve owned the iPhone. I’ve paid for probably 40%-50% of those, maybe more, I’m not sure cause the App Store makes it so easy to buy junk you don’t need. Of those apps, I use maybe 10 on a regular basis. Maybe. Might be as few as 5, depending on how you define regular use. So it makes absolutely no difference to me that Apple has 100K apps in the store. I’m never going to know about 99% of those apps, and of the ones I do know about, I’ll want to try maybe 5% of them. And here’s where the sheer inertia of Apple’s store comes into play. Too many choices that people will never ever find out about. It’s like going to the local convenience store and standing in front of the drinks fridges. You have 50 kinds of ice tea, 90 kinds of soda, 30 different bottled waters – how many of those choices do you actually consider or even know about?

Google Wave Already Works With iPhone

Quang Ly — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:36:49 +0000

Google Wave iPhone App

Google Wave has been making headlines in the tech world. Not many people know this since not everyone received the official invite yet but it already works in the iPhone. It looks quite fantastic. You can simply go to wave.google.com in mobile Safari on your iPhone and wil be prompted that you are using a browser not supported during the preview, however, once you click through, it actually works well.

You can save a bookmark on your Home screen and it creates a little icon like other Web pages on the iPhone. However, Google Wave is a bit different. Once you launch it it removes the Safari wrapper which allows you to nagivate to another page or search the Web. It actually looks like a regular native iPhone app.

The screen shot on the right is what Google Wave looks like on the iPhone launched from the Home screen bookmark. The screen shot at the bottom is what it looks like from within Safari.

Via TechCrunch

Google Docs Now Convert Images to Text

Quang Ly — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:29:01 +0000

You can now use Google Docs to perform OCR image-to-text conversions when you upload high-resolution files. It is a nice newly added feature from Google (and of course it is free)

For 3rd party webapps or services that uses Google Docs, they can use this URL parameter to accept JPG, PNG, and GIF files for conversions. Keep in mind this is still in beta.

Tell us what you think of Google Docs OCR performance. Was it good for you?

Google Docs OCR Convert Images To Text

Via Life hacker

Play your GVoice messages in GMail

Jay — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:58:11 +0000

New in GMail fresh from the mad scientists at Google Labs – you can now activate a feature that allows you to play your Google Voice messages in your GMail account. Furthermore, the playback syncs with your GVoice account and causes them to be marked as no longer new. Slowly but surely Google is tying together all their services into a supermegamonstercloud application set. Though it still pisses me off that the same features they activate in Google Tasks in GMail aren’t immediately available in Google Calendar. And that Tasks still doesn’t have an API that some coder in a dark room can use to sync my To Do’s with my iPhone. C’mon you lazy Googlers – get at it!

Google Voice Now Fowards SMS To Email

Quang Ly — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:55:49 +0000

Google Voice Now Fowards SMS To Email

One of the most popular feature requested from Google Voice was the obvious forward inbound text messages to email. You can now receive incoming text messages to your email. Furthermore, you can even reply from email as well. Users previously could respond to the Google Voice text message on their phone but email forwarding was previously not an option.

Now, once we can have Gmail push to our iPhones then I can cancel the ridiculously priced text messaging plan from AT&T.

Via TechCrunch

Screenshot – Why Google Needs To Become An ISP

Quang Ly — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 21:22:09 +0000

Google is facing a lot of threats to its future relevancy lately. First, Apple claims to have “not yet approved” its Google Voice app which allows cheap international or free calls to Canada, free SMS texting, and phone intelligence. Secondly, Google’s competitor, Yahoo, partners with Microsoft to use their Bing search engine. Thirdly, Facebook is still growing and becoming a social desktop with rumored micro payments and online check out in the works.

Successful technology companies are the ones that control the platform. The platform allows 3rd parties to extend features by using the APIs. An example is the widely successful iTunes App Store. This allows the company controlling the platform to grow exponentially with scale and thus profit with others effort. This is another reason why Google wants to be the operating system for both mobile phones (Android), laptop computers (Chrome OS), and browser (Chrome browser).

Google’s core business is search and advertising. What do you do, however, when the ISP serving the user injects their own ads instead of defaulting to your engine? Well, most recently, I noticed this when searching using Safari but instead of the usual Google Search page, I get Comcast with Yahoo results!

Is this a threat to Google? Absolutely! Is this legal? Not sure. But by the time this matter goes through the courts. Google may have lost so much revenue that it doesn’t matter if Google wins by law. Remember the fate of Netscape browser after Microsoft included their own browser in their Windows releases? Microsoft got fined a huge amount. However, by the time it was over, Netscape was gone (well, actually sold to AOL) but is no longer relevent.

Domain High Jacking By Comcast

AT&T, Google, & Apple respond to the FCC

Jay — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 04:48:59 +0000

As everyone in the tech world knows, the FCC is poking into why exactly Apple decided to reject the Google Voice application from the App Store. The investigation has dragged in Google and AT&T as well, with the FCC asking some hard questions about what exactly happened. Today, all three companies delivered their responses. I strongly urge you to read their responses via TechCrunch, because of the flurry of commentary that’s popped up on the web since the release, it’s my opinion that TechCrunch has gotten to the heart of the matter in Michael Arrington’s unique style.

Here is TechCrunch’s commentary on AT&T’s response, as well as the full text of the AT&T letter.

Here is TechCrunch’s commentary on Apple’s response, as well as the full text of the Apple letter.

Here is TechCrunch’s commentary on Google’s response, as well as Google’s response.

Most importantly (and if you want to skip over the previous to get to the meat of the matter), here is Michael Arrington’s insights into Apple’s distorted reality as evidenced in their letter. Even someone like myself, who writes about gadgets out of love and as a distinctly part time hobby could see issues with Apple’s responses.

Mr. Arrington points out something that didn’t even occur to me until I read his post – aside from the email app and the phone, most of what I do with my iPhone does indeed revolve around Google-provided services. I use Safari to access Google Reader. I use third party apps that get me to POI’s via Google’s mapping app. I use Google’s mapping app as a poor man’s GPS when I am too lazy to fire up my Mio. I’ve already swapped out Apple’s Contacts and To-Do apps with an app that sync Google Calendar to my iPhone (and, god willing, will allow Tasks syncing in the near future). As Google improves the Safari version of gMail, I’ll probably start moving over to using that more than I use the Apple mail client, especially because Apple seems incapable of providing a universal inbox a la the Palm Pre. He’s absolutely right that the iPhone is a very pretty shell around a bunch of Google services, with Google Voice supplanting yet more iPhone functionality.

Dammit I never should have sold my Google stock. At this rate, AT&T will be a dumb (albeit expensive) pipe to an Apple manufactured platform that provides a pretty (non-Android) version of the Google OS.

Make Free Calls to Canada with Google Voice

Quang Ly — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:17:25 +0000

Make Free Calls to Canada with Google Voice

Google Voice now allows you to make free calls to Canada from within the continental US. Previously, you can only make free calls within the US with your Google Voice number.

You can make the call by logging into mobile apps , or by dialing your own Google Voice number from one of your phones and selecting option 2 to place a call. You can also install GV Mobile for a jailbroken iPhone from the Cydia store. GV is now free and can utilize your phone’s Contacts.

Google Palestine and a Bomb?

Quang Ly — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 10:36:49 +0000

Google Palestine and a Bomb

Google’s Palestine page has a doodle that closely resembles a bomb. However, it is actually not a bomb, but a drawing of an electromagnet in celebration of the birth of its inventor Hans Christian Ørsted. Well, could have fooled me and all the Googlers out there. It has a wire and a compass (which looks like a timer). That magnet does look like a stick of dynamite.

This is just poor taste regardless if it was never meant to offend anyone. Google and their smart engineers should have seen this coming. Google, let’s hire some real artists shall we?

Google Is Gunning For Facebook

Quang Ly — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 12:53:22 +0000

Google Accounts

Google is scared right now. Their advertising business is doing just fine. However, what they currently lack is an effective “crowd sourcing” strategy which is going to be critical in order to leverage future monetization opportunities. Crowdsourcing is loosely defined as a gathering of an online community to interact, engage, and share. In other words, Google needs a relevant social network beyond its Orkut social network brand which while popular in India and Brazil has not caught on in the United States or the rest of the world.

The threat Google faces right now is Facebook’s continued massive growth and this is really putting a thorn into Google’s side. Unlike most social networks Facebook culture is characterized by the use of real names This leads to realistic profiles, audience, behavior, metrics that can usher in real advertising dollars. MySpace has a “crowd” but in numbers only (and mostly band spam), too much advertising and the advertising is usually lacking relevancy. Twitter also has a massive crowd but I cannot imagine them being able to sustain themselves longterm with such a limited feature and so many spam accounts. Twitter also lacks static features like profile image gallery, videos, and personality interests to become an effective “social desktop” for the internet.

The secret sauce in Facebook’s growing success is the use of authentic identities which provides a higher level of social proof than other social networks. One of the major commercial challenges in the internet is the problem of verifying legitimacy, filtering spam, protecting against viruses and mining unstructured information across the globe. Much of this can be managed by focusing on connections between “real people”. When you get a Facebook request from a person with their full names, it looks like this:

Facebook friend request
“John Doe, you received a friend request from Jane Smith”

MySpace, Twitter, Google friend request
“John Do, you received a friend request from xooosweetboi”

Obviously, a connection with a real name is more likely to be legitimate. Case in point, our own GadgetMETER website now has a Facebook page. We have a real audience there. Since we added the Facebook Friend Connect widget on our sidebar, you can now see real people who are fans of this site. This provides GadgetMETER with a level of social proof that assures audience, which is a quality qualifier by the number of real fans. We experimented with Google Friend Connect but our fan responses seemed to indicate a lack of familiarity with it, particularly since it’s not connected to or identified with a particular social network.

Google Accounts and YouTube
YouTube just might just become Google’s savior in the crowd sourcing space since it is one of the top destination sites. If they can successfully convert YouTube audience to legitimate Google Accounts with real names they’ll have a shot.

Real Name Leads to Monetization
Google CEO Eric Schmidt has hinted about Google’s intention to move towards micro-payments. Facebook is rumored to be working on this as well. Micro-payments can be effective in charging smalls amount (say $0.02) to view or participate in a hot discussion or other piece of content.. The amount is so minor that it would provide a frictionless path towards an impulse purchase. Once its scaled, publishers and the network itself can profit immensely. However, getting people to pay for anything online requires real names attached to a merchant, social networks are notoriously horrible at this. Google already has Google Checkout it needs a real audience there, and YouTube could be the ticket.

Leaked Photos of Google Chrome OS

Quang Ly — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:52:45 +0000

These appear to be the leaked photos of the upcoming Google Chrome OS during a demo of the alpha version. A Google representative supposedly demonstrated the private beta build of the OS on an Acer laptop. The photos below were taken during the reps distraction.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Highlights of the demonstration break down as follows:

The install on Acer Extensa 4620Z laptop took about 10 minutes and 1 minute to restart. Better than Windows XP or Vista installs
Reboots in about 25 seconds.
Fast performance in its stripped down beta form. We suspect performance will still increase as they tweak the OS
The blue orb functions essentially as the Start menu.
Navigating the file system can be done in “exploration” (like Windows explorer) or “browser” (search based) modes
The Chrome Bar can also host a search ba.
Future Chrome OS netbooks will feature an iconified Chrome key on the keyboard similar to the Windows flag key

Via Engadget

Google and Apple Marriage Falls Apart

Quang Ly — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:04:57 +0000

Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Google CEO Eric Schmidt

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has resigned from sitting on Apple’s Board of Directors after nearly 3 years. It was a wonderful partnership at the start. Apple would create the fan boy devices while Google concentrated on dominating online services. However, as Google moves toward the telecom space with Google Voice, the mobile phone, its own browser, and creating its own operating system Chrome for both mobile and desktops, conflict of interests undoubtly arise with Schmidt sitting on the board.

Eric Schmidt’s resignation comes only a few days after the FCC sent letters to Google, Apple and AT&T on why Apple denied Google Voice from the iPhone App Store.

Apple released a statement on the matter

Apple today announced that Dr. Eric Schmidt, chief executive officer of Google, is resigning from Apple’s Board of Directors, a position he has held since August 2006.

“Eric has been an excellent Board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s Board.”

Image Courtesy of Technologizer

Screenshot: Google Chrome OS To Be Released 2010

Quang Ly — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 14:21:23 +0000

Google Chrome OS Screenshot

There is a lot of news lately with Google. What is the Google brand? Is it a Search engine? Advertising network? Free online services? A browser? Has Google now become an Operating System?

Google announced their Chrome OS to be released in 2010. Initially, it will be installed on light-weight portable NetBooks. Google Chrome OS is followed after the Chrome Browser.

Google’s primary business is search and advertising. To do so they have to get a lot of eyeballs. That is why they created the Chrome Browser. What is the point of having another browser? Well, first, the look and feel is very stripped down. Secondly and most importantly, it has true multi-threading for each tab. If a webpage you visit crashes due to a plugin, it doesn’t crash the entire browser and all your other tabs since each tab is running its own process. This is important as cloud computing becomes more and more popular. It is no different than if you are running an application on Windows XP or Mac OSX and it crashes. It should not crash your other programs as well. Once HTML 5 becomes a full standard, web applications will have just as much power as client programs and thus require stability.

The threat Google faces is competition from other companies like Microsoft. If Microsoft has another monopoly over NetBooks, they could theoretically ship a lite version of Windows with only a limited set of programs without Google. Google is playing chess and foresees this years ahead and is positioning itself to be THE online platform which it has been dominating with Gmail, Google Docs, Search, and AdSense. If a company can control the operating system or browser platform, it can be culturally significant for the future.

FCC Steps Into Apple and AT&T for Google Voice Removal

Quang Ly — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 11:29:58 +0000

FCC is now investigating the removal of the iPhone app Google Voice by Apple. Apple’s vague reasoning for the removal is that it “duplicates existing features”. We all suspect however, that AT&T is threatened by Google Voice free SMS messages and voicemail competing with AT&T’s pricing and thus “suggested” to Apple to remove it.

FCC Letter to Apple

July 31, 2009

Catherine A. Novelli, Vice President
Worldwide Government Affairs
Apple Inc.
901 15th Street, NW, Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20005

RE: Google Voice and related iPhone applications

Dear Ms. Novelli:

Recent press reports indicate that Apple has declined to approve the Google Voice application for the iPhone and has removed related (and previously approved) third-party applications from the iPhone App Store. In light of pending FCC proceedings regarding wireless open access (RM-11361) and handset exclusivity (RM-11497), we are interested in a more complete understanding of this situation.

To that end, please provide answers to the following questions by close of business on Friday, August 21, 2009.

1. Why did Apple reject the Google Voice application for iPhone and remove related third-party applications from its App Store? In addition to Google Voice, which related third-party applications were removed or have been rejected? Please provide the specific name of each application and the contact information for the developer.
2. Did Apple act alone, or in consultation with AT&T, in deciding to reject the Google Voice application and related applications? If the latter, please describe the communications between Apple and AT&T in connection with the decision to reject Google Voice. Are there any contractual conditions or non-contractual understandings with AT&T that affected Apple’s decision in this matter?
3. Does AT&T have any role in the approval of iPhone applications generally (or in certain cases)? If so, under what circumstances, and what role does it play? What roles are specified in the contractual provisions between Apple and AT&T (or any non-contractual understandings) regarding the consideration of particular iPhone applications?
4. Please explain any differences between the Google Voice iPhone application and any Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications that Apple has approved for the iPhone. Are any of the approved VoIP applications allowed to operate on AT&T’s 3G network?
5. What other applications have been rejected for use on the iPhone and for what reasons? Is there a list of prohibited applications or of categories of applications that is provided to potential vendors/developers? If so, is this posted on the iTunes website or otherwise disclosed to consumers?
6. What are the standards for considering and approving iPhone applications? What is the approval process for such applications (timing, reasons for rejection, appeal process, etc.)? What is the percentage of applications that are rejected? What are the major reasons for rejecting an application?

Request for Confidential Treatment. If Apple requests that any information or documents responsive to this letter be treated in a confidential manner, it shall submit, along with all responsive information and documents, a statement in accordance with section 0.459 of the Commission’s rules. 47 C.F.R. § 0.459. Requests for confidential treatment must comply with the requirements of section 0.459, including the standards of specificity mandated by section 0.459(b). Accordingly, “blanket” requests for confidentiality of a large set of documents are unacceptable. Pursuant to section 0.459(c), the Bureau will not consider requests that do not comply with the requirements of section 0.459.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation.

Sincerely,

James D. Schlichting
Acting Chief
Wireless Telecommunications Bureau
Federal Communications Commission

FCC Letter to Google

July 31, 2009

Richard S. Whitt, Esq.
Washington Telecom and Media Counsel
Google Inc.
1101 New York Avenue, NW, Second Floor
Washington, DC 20005

RE: Apple’s Rejection of the Google Voice for iPhone Application

Dear Mr. Whitt:

To that end, please provide answers to the following questions by close of business on Friday, August 21, 2009.

1. Please provide a description of the proposed Google Voice application for iPhone. What are the key features, and how does it operate (over a voice or data network, etc.)?
2. What explanation was given (if any) for Apple’s rejection of the Google Voice application (and for any other Google applications for iPhone that have been rejected, such as Google Latitude)? Please describe any communications between Google and AT&T or Apple on this topic and a summary of any meetings or discussion.
3. Has Apple approved any Google applications for the Apple App Store? If so, what services do they provide, and, in Google’s opinion, are they similar to any Apple/AT&T-provided applications?
4. Does Google have any other proposed applications pending with Apple, and if so, what services do they provide?
5. Are there other mechanisms by which an iPhone user will be able to access either some or all of the features of Google Voice? If so, please explain how and to what extent iPhone users can utilize Google Voice despite the fact that it is not available through Apple’s App Store.
6. Please provide a description of the standards for considering and approving applications with respect to Google’s Android platform. What is the approval process for such applications (timing, reasons for rejection, appeal process, etc.)? What is the percentage of applications that are rejected? What are the major reasons for rejecting an application?

Request for Confidential Treatment. If Google requests that any information or documents responsive to this letter be treated in a confidential manner, it shall submit, along with all responsive information and documents, a statement in accordance with section 0.459 of the Commission’s rules. 47 C.F.R. § 0.459. Requests for confidential treatment must comply with the requirements of section 0.459, including the standards of specificity mandated by section 0.459(b). Accordingly, “blanket” requests for confidentiality of a large set of documents are unacceptable. Pursuant to section 0.459(c), the Bureau will not consider requests that do not comply with the requirements of section 0.459.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation.

Sincerely,

James D. Schlichting
Acting Chief
Wireless Telecommunications Bureau
Federal Communications Commission

FCC Letter to AT&T

July 31, 2009

James W. Cicconi
Senior Executive Vice President-External and Legislative Affairs
AT&T Services, Inc.
1120 20th Street, NW, Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20036

RE: Apple’s Rejection of the Google Voice for iPhone Application

Dear Mr. Cicconi:

To that end, please provide answers to the following questions by close of business on Friday, August 21, 2009.

1. What role, if any, did AT&T play in Apple’s consideration of the Google Voice and related applications? What role, if any, does AT&T play in consideration of iPhone applications generally? What roles are specified in the contractual provisions between Apple and AT&T (or in any non-contractual understanding between the companies) regarding the consideration of particular iPhone applications?
2. Did Apple consult with AT&T in the process of deciding to reject the Google Voice application? If so, please describe any communications between AT&T and Apple or Google on this topic, including the parties involved and a summary of any meetings or discussions.
3. Please explain AT&T’s understanding of any differences between the Google Voice iPhone application and any Voice over Internet Protocol applications that are currently used on the AT&T network, either via the iPhone or via handsets other than the iPhone.
4. To AT&T’s knowledge, what other applications have been rejected for use on the iPhone? Which of these applications were designed to operate on AT&T’s 3G network? What was AT&T’s role in considering whether such applications would be approved or rejected?
5. Please detail any conditions included in AT&T’s agreements or contracts with Apple for the iPhone related to the certification of applications or any particular application’s ability to use AT&T’s 3G network.
6. Are there any terms in AT&T’s customer agreements that limit customer usage of certain third-party applications? If so, please indicate how consumers are informed of such limitations and whether such limitations are posted on the iTunes website as well. In general, what is AT&T’s role in certifying applications on devices that run over AT&T’s 3G network? What, if any, applications require AT&T’s approval to be added to a device? Are there any differences between AT&T’s treatment of the iPhone and other devices used on its 3G network?
7. Please list the services/applications that AT&T provides for the iPhone, and whether there any similar, competing iPhone applications offered by other providers in Apple’s App Store.
8. Do any devices that operate on AT&T’s network allow use of the Google Voice application? Do any devices that operate on AT&T’s network allow use of other applications that have been rejected for the iPhone?
9. Please explain whether, on AT&T’s network, consumers’ access to and usage of Google Voice is disabled on the iPhone but permitted on other handsets, including Research in Motion’s BlackBerry devices.

Request for Confidential Treatment. If AT&T requests that any information or documents responsive to this letter be treated in a confidential manner, it shall submit, along with all responsive information and documents, a statement in accordance with section 0.459 of the Commission’s rules. 47 C.F.R. § 0.459. Requests for confidential treatment must comply with the requirements of section 0.459, including the standards of specificity mandated by section 0.459(b). Accordingly, “blanket” requests for confidentiality of a large set of documents are unacceptable. Pursuant to section 0.459(c), the Bureau will not consider requests that do not comply with the requirements of section 0.459.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation.

Sincerely,

James D. Schlichting
Acting Chief
Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Federal Communications Commission

Via TechCrunch

Do you use Twitter or RSS?

Quang Ly — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:38:31 +0000

It’s never really been about too much information – the challege has always been how to manage and organize the volume of information. First, there was RSS (Real Simple Syndication) which essentially aggregates new posts from different websites into a central portal so that you don’t have to manually check your favorite sites. Think of RSS as an email Inbox, but for websites. The RSS feed can display a summary or the entire post depending on how the originating website configure it It may also contain Google Ads embedded in the post. What?! Did you think you were going to just strip away content from a website and have them lose advertising dollars?

I use RSS for quality content rich websites.

My favorites are

On the other hand, I also use Twitter to follow people of interest as well as other sites. Twitter “tweets” are much more brief as they are limited to 140 characters. Many websites have both RSS and Twitter profiles essentially doing the same thing which is to broadcast news to their subscribers (RSS) or followers (Twitter). Furthermore, you can also subscribe to a Twitter profile so the tweets show up as RSS feeds as well. What a marriage!

However, there are some key differences between RSS and Twitter. RSS feeds allow richer content such as pictures, movies, full articles in the feed. Twitter limits the article a great deal. When you receive a Twitter feed, sometimes you have no idea what shortened URL you are clicking. This can present a serious security risks such as phishing sites and direct virus downloads.

Twitter’s most fascinating feature is really its Search. You can search for celebrities and follow them directly without intervention of old media such as magazines, TV, or radio disrupting the message. You can see what is a Trending Topic and have that topic bookmarked to see what people beyond your Facebook friends are talking about. Remember the jokes of Chuck Norris Twitter trend a few weeks ago? It lasted for a surprising 2 days. People tweeted their own Chuck Norris jokes.

When Bruce Banner gets angry, he turns into the Hulk. When the Hulk gets angry, he turns into Chuck Norris
Chuck Norris once uppercuted a horse. Now we have giraffes.
Chuck Norris doesn’t bowl strikes. He knocks one pin down and the others fall in disbelief!

Twitter is also very easy to use since the features are so limited. An RSS feed can be quite cumbersome to setup unless your blog already supports it. RSS has search as well but it is typically limited to the websites you subscribe to. Twitter also allows you to engage and send a direct message to your friends or followers directly. RSS is more of a 1 way communication. You can still email the author (if their email is published).

So what do you use? Twitter or RSS or both (greedy aren’t you)?

Follow GadgetMETER on Twitter at @Gadgetmeter. You can also follow my personal Twitter profile at @QuangLy.

You may also want to read my blog post on The True Power of Twitter.

Apple rejects Google applications for iPhone

Quang Ly — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:19:39 +0000

Apple recently banned all iPhone applications based on Google Voice, this will certainly add some friction between the two “frenemies” as their competing interests grow more acute.

It is likely not Apple’s fault but more than likely reflects the will of AT&T. AT&T can threaten to revoke Apple’s iPhone subsidy if Apple doesn’t adhere to its wishes. The Google Voice app on the iPhone would have enabled customers to send and receive free SMS and access visual voicemail while bypassing AT&T’s voice network and associated fees. Within a matter of months or weeks, AT&T’s SMS (short text messages) cash cow could have taken a serious hit. The Google voice app could have also become a compelling remedy to the Visual Voicemail issues that AT&T has been experiencing.

Question: Why does it cost so much to send text messages which employ a single “one way” communication mechanism, uses little network bandwidth — yet it’s free to download a full HD movie on a Wi-Fi Network? It is certainly not a technological issue but rather one of convenience. SMS is much more convenient, has less friction and is often a more efficient way to communicate instead of using voice. Like Twitter and e-mail, it’s asynchronous yet these services are free!

For now, you can still access Google Voice services on your iPhone by going http://voice.google.com. You can send FREE SMS messages, but since web pages don’t support push notification you’ll have to refresh to see new in-coming messages. I will anticipate that Google will eventually use some of their AJAX mojo to enable auto-refresh for receiving SMS messages.

EDITORIAL – Google’s expanding (evil?) empire

Jay — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:48:31 +0000

(Thanks to Parallel Divergence for the image!)

Google’s been on quite the update frenzy of late. First they remove the beta label from a slew of their cloud apps, then they go and announce that they’re going where few have dared to tread and attempt to release a complete OS. All within the course of two days!

Let me preface all my commentary by saying that I am a Googler. They own my a**. I live in Gmail. My life is managed completely through GCal. I have two sites I manage that are drivien by GApps. I am moving more and more of my files into GDocs. I now get 99% of my daily news and information via GReader. I have a Google Voice number. Most of my web surfing outside of work is done on Chrome. I am so Googled, I may have their logo tattooed on my back. Suffice it to say that I use their products to the point where they are indistinguishable parts of my life. So I would be a natural for their OS right?

Well, not exactly. What disturbs me about all this is that Google seems to be heading right where Microsoft was a few years ago. At what point does Google become a defacto monopoly? They already own something like 2/3 of all the world’s search. I know their growth is slowing and they are looking for more ways to embed themselves into the fabric of our lives (especially our corporate lives). And I totally agree with the arguments that Google’s various apps (mail especially) have been out of beta for the past year or longer, and that they only kept the beta tag so that the techies could claim to be using an “advanced” product. Now that that tag is starting to hurt them in the enterprise sales market, they removed it from a bunch of apps that are at various stages of development. Gmail is one thing but Google Voice? C’mon – they only just started taking new requests for numbers. If they followed the same approach with the GrandCentral acquisition that they did with all their other acquisitions, then they basically re-architected the whole thing to fit Google. You can’t tell me they did that in a year to the point where it can be considered reliable from an enterprise perspective.

And that’s the key issue – there is no announced standard by which Google is declaring a technology as being out of beta. Does the fact that Gmail is no longer in beta mean that my uptime guarantee is higher? Or am I still at the “reasonable effort” level of service? Many companies just won’t hand over critical infrastructure to Google (or any other outsourcer) for less than 99.999% uptime guarantees, and many cloud-based services just aren’t there. And email, while vital, isn’t yet on the same level as phone service. Can you imagine trying to dial a number and not being able to? We can’t because (short of natural disaster or emergency), when we pick up a phone, we get a tone. It’s so ingrained in us that we just assume it to be the truth. Google’s not there yet.

At least with their OS ambitions, they are starting small. A lightweight, web-centric OS is perfect for netbooks. Even with XP, a netbook will get sloggy – so a super version of Chrome could do wonders for speed and performance of these primary cloud-focused products. But what’s going to kill the G-OS (and most other web-centric OS’s) is that people don’t like being limited. When they go to a web site, no matter what the platform, they want it to work. When they get an application, they want to be able to use it. Most users don’t want to think “is X compatible with Y”, which apparently is such a foreign concept to product designers and techies that to this day it continues to boggle them when people complain that stuff won’t work together. The only company that’s really gotten the closest to “getting” this is Apple, and, with the release of the iPhone 3GS, we’ll see how long that singlemindedness lasts. It’s very possible we’ll start seeing apps that focus exclusively on the 3GS because of its faster performance and enhanced graphics capability. At that point, fragmentation can’t be too far behind.

So am I looking forward to the G-OS? Yes, but I have my doubts as to its reception and success in the market. And with each expansion of Google’s scope, I become more convinced that they will become our defacto overlords. At least I’ll have identified myself to them as a loyal minion.

Google Wave

Quang Ly — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:29:06 +0000

There are a lot of different communication platforms to choose from: email, facebook, twitter. Google Wave is a very promising new unified communication tool that combines all these and more.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_UyVmITiYQ

What Is Wave?

Google Wave allows people to communicate and collaborate using objects like rich text, photos, videos, maps, and twitter. But also share these conversations with other participants at any point. The new participant can then watch a playback of the history of the communication.

Wave is also live so a person on the receiving end can see letter for letter what is being typed for real-time communication.

Track swine flu outbreak using Google Maps

Jay — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:44:58 +0000

We’za gonna DIE! No, I’m not channeling Jar-Jar Binks – I refer to the horrors of swine flu, delivered to us courtesy of Mexico and legions of drunk college spring breakers who just couldn’t stay the frak out of a country despite US State Department warnings about drug gang turf wars. Well now the rest of us are going to pay for their partying. To track the status of the pandemic-wanna-be, Google user Niman has mashed Google Maps with the CDC’s confirmed case identifier to show us where the spots of doom are showing up. Maybe those Japanese and their surgical masks aren’t so crazy looking now after all, eh?

View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map

How safe is YOUR location?

via CenterNetworks

Google Custom Search

Quang Ly — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:55:36 +0000

We are excited to let you know that we have finally implemented Google Custom Search to provide you with a better user experience. It took us a few tries but we happily made it!

You won’t see much difference in the user interface but our search results are now indexed by Google rather than WordPress (the wonderful blog platform we use).

Give it a shot and let us know what you think!

To see how to you can incorporate Google Custom Search on your site, visit http://www.zparacha.com/how-to-incorporate-google-custom-search-engine-with-adsense-into-your-wordpress-blog. They did a great job explaining it.

Cheers!
Your folks at GadgetMETER

Share the Pizza

Jay — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 17:47:42 +0000

We live in one of the fattest cities in the US, so I don’t know if this site is a good thing or a bad thing, but if pizza is your thing, then check out Pizzashare. It mashes together Google Maps with a social network of dedicated pizza fans to provide listings of pizza places in your area. The interesting thing is that the more people list a place, the “bigger” that place becomes on the map. Gives you a quick visual way to see what the most popular pizza places are in your neighborhood. Check it out:

This is the Pizzashare map of my zip code. The big red dot represents the Couch Tomato, which is probably one of the most popular pizza places in my neighborhood. Given that I live in an area where there is a pizza place literally every other block (I think they have some sort of non-compete clause that prevents them from having a shop on every block), the fact that Couch Tomato garnered 10 votes is a pretty big deal. Especially considering that this is a fairly new site.

Speeding Bullet! The Mission One EV Electric Sports Bike.

Quang Ly — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:21:17 +0000

The Mission One EV Sports Bike

Meet the new and long overdue Mission One EV Electric Sports Bike. I must say this bike just looks so damn cool. The Mission One EV brings the future in design to the present. This electric bike continues the trend to help save our environment and dependency on foreign oil. I must say I’m quite surprised it took longer than I expect. Electric bikes should seem more feasible and less costly than than cars since they are lighter and require less energy to burn so I’m not sure why it took so long. Anyhow, I’m glad to see them here.

[svgallery name="missiononesportsbike"]

This crotch rocket beauty has speeds up to 150 mph to keep you from getting late to work. And yes, that’s on battery! I’m sure the cop will simply let you go knowing he will never catch you anyway. Another great feature about the Mission One is it can fully recharge in less than 2 hours. The distance range is an estimate 150 miles without a charge.

The founding fathers of this elegant speed demon is Forrest North, Edward West, and Mason Cabot. Need their credentials you say? How’s the fact that they worked for Tesla Motors, Ducati, and Google. The results of their talent don’t come cheap though. The expected price tag of the Mission One EV Sports Bike is $68,995 for the special Limited Edition while a more affordable version to come in the summer.

Doesn’t it just look so cool? Leave us a comment and let us know if you’re getting one.

Via – AutoBlogger