Real competition for the iPad

Amazon has announced their new color e-reader called Kindle Fire. Kindle Fire is a 7” tablet which runs on Android. However, Amazon has customized the interface so that you cannot tell it is Android. Most likely, this customization includes that you will not be able to get to any Android function which Amazon does not want you to get to without rooting your device.

Click on the above image for a video tour.
Defining the Kindle Fire is a little tricky. While it is based on Android, it is not a full-blown tablet. There is no camera, microphone, or other peripherals you would expect with a tablet.
However, you can:

• Run any Android app which you get from Amazon’s Appstore which not only include the apps which are always free but also the paid apps which are featured as Free App of the Day. (Today’s free app is the extremely popular game Cut the Rope.)
• Browse the Internet. They have their own web browser which utilizes Amazon servers to speed up viewing webpages on your device.
• Browse content, which not only includes books, but streaming of music, movies and TV shows from Amazon.

But why is this competition for the iPad? Amazon is selling the device at an extraordinary price of $199, half that of the iPad.
Amazon has also announced an e-ink Kindle for $79 and the Kindle Touch for $99 (or 3G Kindle Touch for $149).
More details are available on Amazon’s website at this
link
.
Based on Apple’s past practices, they’ll be suing Amazon as an attempt to eliminate competition.
Update: “Real competition for the iPad” does not mean that the Kindle Fire can do all things which the iPad can do. Keep in mind that the Kindle Fire is about half the price. What I meant though is that the Kindle Fire can introduce people to using tablets and cut into iPad sales. In order to keep costs down, the Kindle Fire is missing some components found on normal tablets, such as a microphone and camera. People who bought the Kindle Fire also complain about the software is “laggy” (slow) at times. It all depends on how you plan to use the device. Also, keep in mind that the Kindle Fire is not using e-ink technology but has a normal LCD. This means that the screen is not easy to view in direct sunlight unlike e-ink e-readers. For about $100 more, one can find a tablet which has more functionality of a full-blown tablet, although the price of higher end tablets can be much more.

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As part of getting organized, I need to find tools which will help me get the job done.

Open letter to Google:

While I’m a big Google fan, unfortunately, Google apps fall short in many areas. Without better integration of the Google apps, Google will end up falling behind the likes of Facebook, iPhone, and potentially even Microsoft.
Overall
Google has some exceptional apps, like Gmail, YouTube, Maps, Picasa and others. On their own, most Google apps including Calendar, Reader, and others can stand on their own. However, from an integration point of view, Google generally falls flat. While there have been across the board changes to the apps, simply making the user interface more consistent is way short of the needed integration.
Below, I’ll get into details how specific Google apps can improve:
Google+
Google’s answer to Facebook. It started out with a great start, but statistics showed that the number of public postings decreased during beta. While taking Google+ out of private beta has brought on a huge number of people signing up, Google shouldn’t pause to congratulate itself because otherwise it will find similar to private beta, the general public will find Google+ less appealing to continue to use.
Some of the changes which Google needs to make to Google+ are:

• The most important change is to allow pseudonyms. If you really want people to grow their social network on the Internet, you have to give them to safety of a pseudonym. It’s a safety risk to expose so much traceable personal information on the Internet. At a minimum, it may be ok for the Google account to be tied to a real name, but it should not be required to expose one’s real name as part of Google+.
• The second most important change is to remove the requirement that a Google account is tied to an individual. Sometimes it makes sense to have family accounts to make it easy to also post information at a family level separate from an individual level.
• Google never has seemed to be good at developing an attractive user interface. While there’s something to be said about a simple interface, there’s also something to be said about aesthetically pleasing eye candy. If someone can have a beautifully architected plain house or a aesthetically pleasing, beautifully designed house, I think most people would pick the latter. This also applies to Android apps. Who wants to see 6 simple icons on a screen for a menu?

Update: My original post was from Sept 27, soon after the Google+ public launch. Google+ experienced peaked traffic, but it soon went down to pre-public launch levels as shown by [Chitika] in their post from October 7.

Can I call it or what? (OK, didn’t take a rocket scientist.)
Google has pointed out 3.4B pictures uploaded to Google+ in their first 100 days. That’s A LOT of photos. Hopefully they aren’t drinking their own kool-aid though. One of the functions of the Google+ Android app is to automatically upload photos taken from your Android device. I’ve had hundreds uploaded, but none shared on Google+.
Since then, Google has announced they will start allowing anonymous accounts. It’s a beginning, but they still have a ways to go to make Google+ the place to go for social networking.
Gmail
Gmail is generally known as the best mail service on the Internet. Lots of good capabilities exist, but if Google sits on its hands, Gmail will be passed.
Some of the improvements should include:

• Gmail should be one’s inbox for everything, not just mail. As an example, in addition to mail, it could post all updates from Facebook, Twitter, even 43T. Everything would be chronologically ordered like mail, but could filtered out whether user is only interested in mail or any one of the other sources. To me, it makes no sense to subscribe to updates, so that they can in turn send a mail to your Inbox which results in cluttering up one’s real Inbox. Why not just show the notifications as part of the Inbox without having to have actual mails be sent to you.
• If my inbox can now be filled with many more notifications from a wider range of sources, I need a better interface to be able to get through all of it. I can whiz through 100s of new articles using Google Reader. I would love a similar type of interface which would allow me to go through the entire inbox just as quickly.
• For people who have multiple Google accounts, there needs to be a way to share contact information. It makes no sense to maintain multiple duplicate copies of contact information. I know there is an export/import capability, but it should be automatic. In fact, while sharing contacts, it should also be possible to specify which contacts to share. As an example, for example, one would not necessarily want to share all of one’s individual contacts with contacts associated to a family account.

Android
I can’t believe I’m putting Android here. Andy Rubin, “father” of Android, is a brilliant guy… but sometimes, it looks like he doesn’t get it.
He criticized iPhone 4S personal assistant function Siri saying that people should use their phone to communicate to other people, not to their phone. He seems to be ignoring the fact that our phone is not just a phone anymore. It’s the reason personal digital assistants (PDA) are basically obsolete. People are now using their phones also as their PDAs… So of course, then an assistant is a perfectly logical use of their phone.
And hopefully Google realizes that their strategy for continued dominance of the phone market is to make Android ubiquitous as I mentioned in January. The new GoogleTV will have Android support. Archos is making landline phone systems and alarm clock type devices running on Android. It’s a start.
More to come including:

• Google Calendar
• Google Tasks
• Picasa
• Blogger
• Google Sites
• Google Docs
• Google Health
• Maps
• Google Bookmarks
• Google TV

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Who needs a watch when you can have this waterfall?

The “water clock” at Osaka station.

Click on the above image for the video.

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This is what I've always wanted... To be able to park my car with my phone...

Click on the image for the video…

See more progress on: get the latest gadgets whether they are practical or not

Way cool! Mouse without borders!

Have you ever wanted to drag and drop files across two computers?  Copy and paste text across computers?  Now you  can with the Microsoft Garage project "Mouse Without Borders".

More details are here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/next/archive/2011/09/09/microsoft-garage-download-mouse-without-borders.aspx

Or you can download the software directly from here: http://aka.ms/MouseWithOutBorders

Or you can first view the YouTube video:

Even my wife would like this... Now only if we had more computers... Hmmmm... "Hey honey, I have this cool thing to show you... but first, I have to buy more computers..." Yeah, that'd work!

Gingerbread!

Woo hoo! Gingerbread is finally available for my wife's Xperia X10.  I just have to be careful when upgrading or she'll kill me. You know, in the way that she does.

The main thing is that I have to make sure her playlists will be preserved. Speaking of preserving, my version of Titanium Backup has been freezing up frequently. I may have to go back-level. I think my wife's phone has a back-level version.

Now if only they would provide a Gingerbread version for my lowly X10 mini. I guess that means I'll need to upgrade my phone soon. (Wry smile...)

Speaking of Android, there is a nice looking 5" Latte ICE SMART Media Player running Android 2. It's on Android 2.3, has a 800MHz processor, 800x400 dual point RESISTIVE touch screen, 256MB RAM, 8GB internal storage, up to 32GB microSD card storage, WiFi, mini HDMI output, and Android Market pre-installed. Very tempting at $160-$170 at J&R or Amazon. Per a comment on Amazon, it only has 2 directional G-sensor, so any games which may depend on more sophisticated sensors would not work on this device. Also, a camera is one of the items missing from its specification.

The 256MB limitation is very restricting but I've found Link2SD works flawlessly on my X10 mini running Android 2.1.

Strategy

OK, I need to outlay my strategy. Not the strategy for convincing my wife to let me buy all the things I need, er, want, er, need... but what it is I need to buy anyway.

The ideal system is one which is integrated. However, if everything can be run off of Android, perhaps they do not need to be so integrated.

Security system

• Remote allows arming/disarming
• Allows identification of zone where the sensors indicate an intrusion
• Security cameras 
• All above functionality can be done within the house or remote
• Door locks based on either biometric or other remote mechanism

Speaking of which, security cameras to cover:

• All key spots within the house
• Perimeter of the house
• Out to the street including night vision
• Motion sensors to trigger automatic video recording
• Video archiving

Home automation

• Related to home security, motion sensors at key points inside house and perimeter with logging of activity
• Lights activated and deactivated upon timer and motion
• Home automation to also include temperature control
• Controlled by remote either within house or remote

Since I have Lightolier Compose PLC light switches in the house, I am running on an x10 system. From my perspective, they are the most stylish of the light switches, I am stuck with x10 for the moment. Thus, the software I'd need to use would need to be compatible with x10.

Of course, I'll need to also find light bulbs which are compatible with x10 systems, too. In the meantime, I am dependent on incandescent light bulbs where I have light switches hooked up.

We currently have ADT for home security. They have a package called ADT Pulse which includes home automation, but I'm not sure I want to spend the extra money on Pulse. However, seems the cost of Pulse is only incremental compared to what we are already paying for monitoring services. With home automation capabilities, approximately $50/month and for video, an additional $8/month. Unfortunately, their video support does not include IP cameras. Pulse also works with Z-Wave, not x10.

Home entertainment
Obviously this would cover:

• Movies/TV
• Music
• Home video and pictures

Movies/TV should include on demand for any show, a queue mechanism to identify which shows we want to see, and a trailer capability to help decide which movies we want to see.

Our current set up mainly includes the long defunct ReplayTV. Even at over 10 years old, they are still going strong. Yes, we have 4 ReplayTV units in our house. Actually, we had 6 at one point, but I have given one to my mom. The disadvantage of ReplayTV is that it does not record high-definition. However, the recording quality, even for standard, is pretty good. The big advantage of ReplayTV is that it is possible to share with other ReplayTV owners. The other big advantage is that it is easy to download, archive, and take recorded shows with me on trips. For our provider, we currently have Verizon FIOS TV which is way too expensive. 

Anyway, to integrate our home entertainment, XBMC is a good candidate with its ability to present our recorded shows in an easy to use format as well as supporting various streaming providers.  I would still like to integrate the ReplayTVs somehow. Someone had created an XBMC plug-in but unfortunately, it doesn't appear to work.

The big wildcard is Google TV. With their upcoming follow-on release, it may provide the desired capability missing from its original offering. Especially if we use Google Music for cloud-based music and Picasa for our home videos and photos, Google TV may provide a better integration than XBMC.  This also does not mean that XBMC and Google TV are mutually exclusive though.

Home phone
Currently we are using Verizon for phone services, but it seems we should be able to find a cheaper alternative. At any rate, we are using Skype to call Japan and Google Voice is also a good alternative for free calls within the US.

The phone system itself has to go. It is an old Siemens Gigaset where people say the voice comes across too softly. A phone system which supports integration with a common contact list with our PC and our mobile phones makes the most sense. Since we have Android phones, then an Android-based home phone system makes sense, too. I always liked the idea of being on the phone and easily able to check weather or traffic.

Anyway, shouldn't our phone system be able to support video conferencing, too? Thus, what are the best options? Perhaps this is where Google TV may come into play, too.


And regarding the criteria for a solution, obviously eye candy is an important criteria.

I guess one of the reasons why I consider Apple as evil is due to the similarities of their policies with the right...

• There was the infamous incident where an Apple employee lost an iPhone 4 prototype in a bar. It was recovered (for $$) by the blogging tech website Gizmodo. They contacted Apple and simply wanted confirmation that they had in their possession the new iPhone, but Apple would not do that. Eventually the phone was returned to Apple and everyone already knew who the person was who found the phone (turned in by a spiteful roommate), but in something I would only expect in a world like that in the book “1984”, the police broke down the door of the Gizmodo tech writer to confiscate his computers. There was lots of speculation in various tech forums that the Gizmodo tech writer would face charges, in a sense, justifying the action by the police, but in the end, no, the tech writer was never charged with anything.
• Well, you may have heard in the news recently, once again, an Apple employee lost the newest iPhone prototype in a bar. At least it was a different Apple employee this time. Anyway, Apple used the phone’s GPS to track down the location of the phone. This time, police went to the door and without a warrant started to search the occupant’s house. This was originally reported by the tech website CNET, but when other news media tried to confirm with the SFPD of this incident, SFPD denied any knowledge of such a raid. This led people to assume CNET had done shoddy reporting and only wrote such a baseless article because of ill feelings toward Apple. However, later SFPD changed their tune and said that they did accompany Apple employees on such a visit. During the visit however, they all flashed badges and noone identified themselves as Apple employees. In fact, besides looking for the phone, they also questioned (aka, threatened) the immigration status of him and his family. (Just FYI, they are all legal.) And no, they have not yet found the phone.
• We all know that Apple dictates what software is allowed to be put on the iPhone. They reject apps which they consider “smutty”, so now they are being the judge of what is considered decent and what people are allowed to view on their phones. Interesting enough that they rejected all such apps except for that of Playboy. I’m sure this exception was made because we all know we only read Playboy for its articles. They also decide which companies software can run on the phone as they have made all efforts to prevent Adobe from having their Flash player available on the iPhone and iPad.
• Apple has been known to silence (ie, delete) critics on their forums.
• During these hard economic times, they gave the new CEO Tim Cook almost $400 million in stock as a bonus for becoming CEO as if his CEO salary and position of being CEO of the company with the highest market value in the world is not enough.
• Instead of competing based on their products, they are suing competitors. Most notably, Samsung has arguably the best Android tablet on the market, and Apple has been trying to sue them to prevent them from being able to sell their new tablet. Where they first filed for blocking the sale of Samsung tablet in Europe was a conservative German district, who initially agreed to impose an injunction to block the sale of the Samsung tablet in all of Europe until later it had to backtrack when it came to realization they had no authority to speak for Europe. In the meantime, the case was then brought forward to a court in the Netherlands where out of the 10 patent claims, the judge ruled 9 out of the 10 claims invalid and only supported that there was a potential patent infringement based on Apple’s patent on touch scrolling for photos which did not apply to Samsung’s tablets, only a handful of phones not yet running on the latest Android level. In addition, it was discovered that the documents which Apple submitted in Germany had doctored photos to make the Samsung tablet look more like the iPad. In recent news, the judge in Germany has agreed to Apple’s claims and decided that the Samsung tablet “looks” too much like the Apple iPad, saying there are alternatives to designing a tablet other than a “minimalist” look. Does Apple have a patent on minimalist look? No. So the judge’s decision is then not even based on any patents.
• At any rate, with the below diagram, we can see that “suing” is the way companies are trying to block other companies. We see that Apple is highly involved in this approach. If there’s a bright side, it’s the tens of millions of dollars being spent to pay lawyers for these lawsuits, which in the end means their fees are being paid by consumers.
  
  Diagram courtesy Gizmodo under the article US Patent System Is Killing Innovation.
• The most recent lawsuit filed by Apple is that they are suing a Chinese food company for their logo.
  
  Somehow Apple says their logo is improperly similar to Apple’s logo. These lawsuits are not only a financial burden on Apple and that of the targeted company, but also on our legal system. This is similar to the time Apple sued Woolworth over their logo:
  

Some of the points were already outlined in an earlier post.

References:

• http://news.yahoo.com/police-helped-apple-search-iphone-5-prototype-175651593.html
• http://www.techdigest.tv/2011/08/did_apple_fake.html
• http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20102071-71/apple-objects-to-chinese-food-makers-logo-report-says/
• http://www.theage.com.au/business/apple-bites-over-woolworths-logo-20091005-ghzr.html
• http://gizmodo.com/5831354/the-us-patent-system-is-killing-innovation

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