According to a recent IDC Press Release, by 2015 there will more users accessing the internet with mobile devices—smartphones and tablets—than with desktop or laptop computers. I think what’s really happening now is that the ‘computer’ as we know it is being marginalized because it’s not the device that matters—what matters is what people want to do, and the ability to do it wherever they happen to be.
“Forget what we have taken for granted on how consumers use the Internet,” said Karsten Weide, research vice president, Media and Entertainment. “Soon, more users will access the Web using mobile devices than using PCs, and it’s going to make the Internet a very different place.”
I don’t know if the internet is really going to be a ‘very different place’ but I see a few related trends with the move towards greater mobility.
Optimized web content. More websites and web applications will be designed specifically for viewing on smaller devices. This should force designers and developers to optimize systems for mobile use and faster network performance.
Location-based services. GPS and other tracking technologies will likely grow due to the mobile nature of internet access. (Last night my daughter ran out of gas on the freeway, and as I was driving over to find her I thought it would be really useful if I could pinpoint her location on my iPhone’s maps app so I could find the best point to get on the freeway. I’m sure there’s a way to do this now but I haven’t looked into it—probably Apple’s Find My Friends app will do it.)
Secure the data, not the device. Security is a huge concern in the enterprise and a lot of time and money is spent ensuring that mobile devices meet security standards for accessing sensitive data. One result of this is that fewer devices are approved for use—iPhones and Blackberries, for example, can be remotely erased if lost or stolen because that technology is built into the device management. Data encryption is one strategy that could mitigate the hardware concerns and reduce administration overhead.
More public wi-fi. Many restaurants and other public places are bringing up free wifi networks to attract the digerati. The network, like its users, will be ubiquitous.
Improved battery technology. Faster processors, expanding functionality and frequent network access on these devices requires increasing amounts of power to keep it all running throughout the day. The battery technology has already come a long way and I expect a lot more innovation here to give users more time away from the charger.
Cloud-based services. This is one area that is really beginning to mature now, and should grow enormously both for consumers and businesses as users want access to their data regardless of the device being used or its location. This is what Apple is doing with the iCloud service, for example: the data on your iPhone (email, documents, photos, contacts) is synced (optionally, user decides) to offsite storage, and then syncs back out to your other devices (iPad, laptop, desktop). Dropbox and other similar services are doing this now with cloud-based file storage.
Fewer corporate data centers. The maturity and reliability of cloud providers will eliminate the need for many companies to have their own data centers. They do it today mostly because of security and control concerns, not because they want to manage hundreds of servers.
I don’t know if this resolves the problem or not as I no longer have the 2010 MacBook Pro—I recently upgraded to the 2011 model. If this fixes the problem for you I’d be interested to hear about it.
Here’s an interesting bit of mobile innovation: EasySign.
It’s an iPhone app that lets you set up digital signatures and then apply them to documents (PDF, Word, Excel, JPG, etc) right on your phone, then send the signed doc wherever it needs to go. It eliminates the need to print the doc, sign a paper copy, scan the signed doc and then send. You can also insert dates and other custom text.
I like the EasySign concept a lot, but what I don’t like about the current model is that it requires server-side technology for inserting the signature into the document, which means it goes to their servers for processing and is then sent back to the user. Their FAQ states that they are looking into other ways of handling this. Ideally it would all be done locally within iOS and never leave your device until you send the finished product.
Today Google introduced Google Wallet—an ‘app that will make your phone your wallet.’
A blurb from the Google blog post describing the service:
You’ll be able to tap, pay and save using your phone and near field communication (NFC) [...] Because Google Wallet is a mobile app, it will do more than a regular wallet ever could. You’ll be able to store your credit cards, offers, loyalty cards and gift cards, but without the bulk. When you tap to pay, your phone will also automatically redeem offers and earn loyalty points for you. Someday, even things like boarding passes, tickets, ID and keys could be stored in Google Wallet.
Initially it will only work with one phone (Nexus S) on one network (Sprint) with one credit card (Citi MasterCard) so it’s a very limited rollout.
I’ve recently read that Apple is working on something similar for the iPhone, and I wonder if Apple’s approach will be compatible with Google’s. Adoption of this technology will take much longer if we begin with competing technical standards and protocols.
I also wonder how much more of my life I want to put in a device that’s capable of tracking my location pretty much 24/7 already—now it’s going to track my spending, too. Not only will Google have a near-monopoly on our search data, but now our financial data to analyze and sell to advertisers as well?
As a follow-up to a previous post about embedding Vimeo videos and having them work on Apple’s iOS devices (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch), Vimeo just announced their Universal Player which will deliver the appropriate video format for the device being used. Vimeo’s FAQ page has more info on it, but the new method uses an <iframe> HTML tag to frame in the content, and the player will detect the device to serve the right video file. YouTube has recently rolled out something similar. Vimeo’s code looks like this (line breaks were added):
I did some quick testing and it worked fine. Both the iPad and iPhone were delivered h.264 versions, while Mac and PC still get the standard Flash player. I would like to see Vimeo offer some embed options to include serving straight HTML5/h.264 to the desktop as well and avoid Flash altogether.
WordPress doesn’t like the <iframe> tag, so if you’re using WP you will need to install the Embed Iframe plugin. In my testing this plugin has supported the new Vimeo method within a WP post. I have a test page here where I embed two videos, the first one using the new iframe code and the second one with the earlier javascript workaround.
Here’s the idea: you’re away from your computer—Mac or PC—and you want to use your mobile device to access folders and files that are saved on your computer. A cloud sync service like Dropbox can fill that gap and provide quick and easy access to your files. I’ve been testing this for a while and it works great.
The way it works:
You have a Dropbox account (free 2 GB account, or pay for more space).
The Dropbox application is installed on your computer, which creates a folder called ‘Dropbox’ and syncs this folder (and every folder inside it) to your online account.
Any folders and files that you would like to be able to access on your mobile device, just move those into the Dropbox folder structure.
Install the free Dropbox app on your mobile device, enter your login information, and have access to your online account and all of the folders and files you have synced up on your computer.
It’s important to point out that this is not some ‘virtual’ folder—the Dropbox folder and its subfolders actually exist on your computer, so it’s no different than your current folder hierarchy: your data is still stored on your hard drive. The only difference is that once a file is saved locally, a copy automagically gets pushed to the cloud. This serves several purposes:
A remote backup of your files. In case your computer were stolen or damaged such that you couldn’t get to your data, you could recover your files from Dropbox. This is reason enough to do it.
Remote access for viewing up-to-date copies of all your files when you’re away from your computer.
The ability to share a file with someone else, either by using the Public folder or by emailing a link to the file directly from the Dropbox mobile app.
As of this writing Dropbox mobile apps are available for iPhone, iPad, Android, and iPod Touch—according to the Dropbox Anywhere page, Blackberry support is coming as well.
I’ve found the Dropbox service and the mobile applications to be very stable and reliable so far as I have used them on iPhone and iPad. I experimented for a while with a free 2 GB account, but recently upgrade to the 100 GB service for $20 a month.
I’ve mentioned Dropbox in several blog posts—I’m not involved with the company in any way, just a satisfied customer. They’re doing a really good job.
There’s no rounded plastic back like the previous two models, the 3G and 3GS. The front and back are flat, covered with a specially-engineered glass surface from top to bottom and a stainless steel frame holding it together. I think this new form factor looks much better, more solid and modern than the curved-back models. The weight is about the same as before, 4.8 ounces, but it feels heftier.
Screen Resolution
Apple calls it the Retina Display, and resolution on this screen is ridiculously sharp. It’s most noticeable to me when looking at text — there’s none of the jaggies or pixelated stuff we’re used to seeing on small screens.
Speed
This model feels much faster than my two year-old 3G. The 3GS was probably closer in terms of speed, I don’t know, but it’s a big improvement over the older model. Everything just feels faster and smoother, from app launching and switching to game performance.
Multitasking
Apple has worked out a way to allow multiple apps to run in the background (sort of) without putting an extraordinary drain on the battery. So you can stream music over Pandora while continuing to read email or browse the web, for example. What I like most about this feature is the ability to switch quickly between apps and pick up where you left off — it’s more like switching apps and less like quitting and restarting.
Folders
Folders are a great idea, and something that’s been needed since the App Store took off and people started filling their iPhones with dozens of apps. Instead of having several screens worth of apps you have to scroll through, you can group apps together in folders for quick access. I predict that many users will have a folder that’s the equivalent of the ‘junk drawer’ in the kitchen — a folder for those apps we thought we might use, and still could someday, but probably not, so we’ll just stick them in a random folder and forget about them rather than delete them.
Cameras
There are two camera lenses, one on each side of the phone, so you can shoot still photos or video from either side just by touching a button on the screen to toggle from one to the other.
Still Camera
The 5-megapixel still camera with LED flash shoots in 4:3 aspect ratio, and is probably good enough to replace many point-and-shoot pocket models, certainly good enough for casual use. It won’t come close to replacing my DSLR, but it’s not intended to, and sometimes the best camera is the one you have with you. Below is an unmodified shot from the camera.
Video Camera
It’s amazing to me that a little mobile device can shoot High Definition 720p video at 30 frames per second, but the A4 processor seems to handle it well. Shoots in 16:9 aspect. Short clip below to demonstrate the quality, this is unedited HD video straight from the phone.
The new iPhone operating system, iOS4, has a smart feature that lets you store PDFs on your ‘bookshelf’ in the iBooks app. There are two sections in the bookshelf — one for books and one for PDFs — tap the button at the top of the screen to navigate between the two.
To get your PDFs onto the iPhone, in iTunes go to File > Add to Library… and import them. iTunes will put them in the right place when you sync up.
I like this because I have product manuals and user guides and all kinds of things in PDF form; this is a good way to have them somewhat organized and available wherever you are. You can selectively choose which books and PDFs you want to sync over, so you don’t have to carry them all. If you have a lot of PDFs, it’s nice to have a ‘library’ to organize them in.
Here’s what it looks like when you open a PDF on the web — you get an ‘Open in iBooks’ button at the top. Pressing this button will take you to the iBooks app, put the current PDF on your bookshelf, and open it up:
Folders are a great idea, and something that’s been needed since the App Store took off and people started filling their iPhones with dozens of apps. Instead of having several screens worth of apps you have to scroll through, you can group apps together in folders for quick access. I predict that many users will have a folder that’s the equivalent of the ‘junk drawer’ in the kitchen — a folder for those apps we thought we might use, and still could someday, but probably not, so we’ll just stick them in a random folder and forget about them rather than delete them.
