apple’s tow stepping should make you happy

Posted in All Mac, Technology, google on 04/09/2010 09:08 pm by Nir

man what a couple of weeks we had in the tech world… since the day the ipad was launched, up until the unveiling of the iphone OS 4G, through the new and impressive CS5 by adobe, the plethora of slate devices about hit the market at low prices, with windows 7 going mobile and android making it to tv sets… man.. what a couple of weeks we had in the tech world. not to mention barcelona’s victory over arsenal with 4 goals by messi… :)

did i forget something? let me think for a second… anything else ground breaking that is worth talking (besides the 100 pages one car write about all listed above?)…. mmmm…. ah yes!! iAd. the new ad delivery service by apple.

seems like apple is right there at vertical integration, from processor to content – full control with an iron fist.

apple was able to piss off way to many people and companies in the last couple of weeks. here is a quick list in case you had missed it:

- iphone OS 4G will not allow cross-compiling apps. this is a big middle finger to both adobe and microsoft and a huge disappointment for their massive developer community. every developer and their sister were dreaming of loading up their flash app in cs5, clicking a few buttons and submitting their app to the appStore. apple says no-no-no.

i can’t really blame apple here.. honestly… flash is as closed a system as the iphone. adobe control and monetize that market for years. now that apple is turning a cold shoulder adobe is pissed? flash can kill the appStore, with infinite amount of games and utilities. the number of developers for flash is significantly larger than cocoa touch…

so what should adobe do? simple. push flash on other platform like windows7 and android. maybe think about developing their own device (i am not sure it is a good idea). everyone wants to take a piece of the pie when it comes to the emerging market of app stores. heck, that market is projected to grow exponentially the next 5 years and top 20 billion downloads in 2012.. who does not want a slice of the pie?

apple is being apple. closed system, total control – an iron fist. today i’ve learned apple is using undocumented web app tools in the ipad user guides (http://www.tuaw.com/2010/04/09/adlib-apples-secret-web-app-weapon/). maybe we will hear about those libraries soon. maybe we won’t. apple is definitely holding all the cards.

BTW, apple’s supposed response to the anti-cross-compiling issue is multi taksing (http://www.tuaw.com/2010/04/09/apple-blocking-flash-built-apps-because-of-multitasking/). essentially apple may argue that wrapping non native code will prohibit multi tasking and the like on the 4G version of the OS…

in my mind this is the time for android to shine. google – get your act together and hire some UX experts. the nexus one feels like a geeky toy next to the iphone. did you not learn that the user experience is KEY? seriously… how do u enter a market with a smart phone that does pretty much all the iphone does, at the same price point with an inferior interface? adoption of the device will take longer than expected. change the UI, make it attractive – and u will win in the long run.

the good news is that apple will not take over the world. this is not microsoft nor google. they are here to take a little slice of heaven – an expensive piece of real estate. in the long run HTML5 will win and the web will triumph and bla bla bla…

a good move by apple is iAd. google is reporting a 30% growth in mobile search. no doubt the market is booming and more people have smart phones than laptops. the desktop is seriously sick and will die soon. why does google continue to push text ads in mobile devices? who is interested in contextual ads when reading a feed? no one! with 90 something percent of revenues streams from ads, google had no other choice but to go head to head with apple. those who control the medium – control the market. it is the device you use to access the internet that matters. the screen size, the operating system, the API’s and abilities to uniquely add advertisement.

google is in a tight spot, just like adobe, only google has much more to loose. i mentioned in a previous post that google should manufacture their own hardware – which they are doing now. but the only difference is the price point is the same. what is your competitive edge? only time will tell.

with apple pissing off everyone, we – the consumers, can relax and be happy. this competition will drive prices down, introduce new and exciting applications and innovation, will allow the eco system to grow globally, investors will start taking more risks, and the supply for smart phones and slates will rise while prices drop. a sure winner if you ask me.

as the google moto goes, and now it may be a good time to apply to to apple: apple – don’t be evil!

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don’t u get close to my peanuts!!

Posted in Technology on 03/16/2010 10:09 pm by Nir


blue bird peanuts, originally uploaded by nir.pengas.

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Five Things music and photography share

Posted in inspiration, music, photography on 03/02/2010 03:39 pm by Nir

great post by the strobist, creating an analogy between music and photography. both arts site in the intersection of science and creativity like no other school. where it gets interesting is when u “get” the technicality of it (or even better – master it) is when u can liberate yourself and really focus on creation.

Strobist: Five Things Music Can Teach Us About Lighting.

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Confirmed: Google has Acquired Aardvark

Posted in Technology, google, online services on 02/11/2010 02:17 pm by Nir

Why aardvark? u guys had something great going on here.. selling out so soon, with so much potential to make you much richer than the $50M google gave u… just like smule who had a fantastic head start with the ocarina and other apps.. they raised $3.9M dollars thereafter. the aardvark community grew strongly quickly and created a niche that no other search engine does nor did. real time answering from real people. sure, u have yahoo answers et tal.. in those u hope that someone knowledgeable will pick up the glove and provide you with the info you need. by using vark, u can get good answers in minutes, and the more you ask, the more the system learns about how to route the question to the right person and figure out which answer was a good one. there was an attempt at the beginning of the interent revolution. at the time i was at my 2nd year in college studying computer scient. one of our teachers started a small venture where people answer each other’s questions. the implementation was not at it’s best, but it kinda worked. after two years of operations the money had run out and the creative ideas of how to make money dried as well, so they shut it down (for the life of me, i cannot remember the name of that company). what vark is doing differently is several things. one, it uses jabber/xmmp protocol to be present right there alongside gmail contacts with google talk, or any aggregator (like adium) that supports this open source protocol. the heart of the system is the algorithms to analyze a given question, suggest the right tag (ie topic) and route it to whoever is a good authority in the field (usually more than one person). those people are online (naturally) and can either pass or answer. you can then continue discussing the issue with them, rank it as a good answer or flag it as an inappropriate one. if u did not get the answer you want, you can resubmit it, change the tags and hope for the best. i started testing aardvark since the day it launched it’s beta and later on the iphone app. at the beginning there were not many users, and not so many questions to answer, but quite slowly, over a period of two months it was working really well. best case scenario, i got a solid answer in less than a minute. nothing i could do with google or any other search engine. the social aspect is interesting as well. people love giving answers to what they know about. there is an innate desire in humans to help each other out… u may say it is an ego thing (and to some extent u are probably right), however, people get our of their way to provide answers sometimes, doing basic research, giving good links and more. so why is google buying aardvark? good question. two answers: one, the small team of aardvark are ex google employees with top notch management with yale and stanford grads. these are serious people with the creativity and leadership ability to makes things work. they understand google and it’s weaknesses and have found a way to monetize. two, real time person to person (rtp2p) search does not exist. and the aardvark team has shown us that it can be done, and done well. so where is the money? meaning… how does the aardvark makes it’s profit. good question again. and the answer is simple: just like google’s adwords, the aardvark places results that are paid for. for example, let’s say someone is asking the community if they can recommend or know a computer technician in the upper west side of manhaatan. some people will respond giving their input, but this question can be routed directly into a paying customer, who wants to be notified immediately when someone is looking for a technician in the metropolitan area. long short – a lead engine. i have answered several questions and provided links to products on amazon, using my amazon referral id, so why not others in a streamlined maner, where the vark directs all of those potential leads to the user. aardvark also plants automatic answers. i was questioned by the devel team about the quality of that feature a couple of months back, when i was looking for someone to build a loft bed in my studio. i got an answer from service magic, a well known lead generator for all type of construction work. if haven’t tried aardvark u definitely should. they are at http://vark.com, they have a free iphone app and they can be added to your fav jabber client as aardvark@g1.vark.com. Confirmed: Google has Acquired Aardvark.

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what does hunting lions and the ipad have in common?

Posted in fashion, inspiration, ipad on 02/10/2010 12:34 pm by Nir

men usually do not carry bags around. they try to stuff all their things into the jeans (especially in israel)..

so the keys in the front pocket, another other pocket one has the cell phone, one the car keys (which are bulky) and then the wallet…

this actually creates tiny imbalances that influence your posture (believe it or not).

there is something about men which makes theme reluctant to carry stuff around.. maybe it is the hunter within that wants to be as light as possible.
this is why you see couples walking the streets together and the guy looks defeated because he is carrying the purse of the woman he’s with.

seriously… guys can streamline quickly, trying to minimize what they carry, and then the lady comes by and asks “can u carry this for me?”…
“sweetheart – i am hunting lions here, the last thing i need is to carry a bag! (pakal in the israeli army).. what the hell?!”

here is my question: can the ipad change the game for men?
one of the great things about the iphone is that it is quite small for what it can do. it can fit into your jean pockets or slide onto a belt with a clip.

the ipad is a versatile device that will require some sort of carrying (not the one portrayed in the image above for sure.. though some men would find it appealing).
but the right design and the right concept, may start convincing more men that carrying a bag around is cool and masculine. we won’t have to feel like a girl walking around with a bag full of stuff we don’t need.

i personally think there is room for an ipad carrying bag that men would adopt and use. time will tell.

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