Cannot Top this!!

Hi

So I came to the conclusion that you just cannot top these three announcements. First off all we can say two - since the last one will not make any impact anymore. Nevertheless it is also good :)

Anyways - let’s forget mobile devices from this post. iPhone, Palm Pre, N97 whatever..

Nothing will ever be the same after Google launched their Google Wave!! Please see the video. It is amazing.



So breaking it down - if possible - it’s remarkable what Google can do and has done. The whole project has been done in 3-5 (max) years and was located in Sydney.

I think WAVE will change everything as we know it -

* Email - Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail etc.
* Instant Messaging - Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, GTalk etc.
* Social Networking - Facebook, Orkut, MySpace, Twitter etc.
* Collaboration tools - Zoho, Google Docs, Adobe tools etc.
* Content publishing - Blogs, Discussion Boards, and Wikis

Yes. Once WAVE is out, I can foresee massive changes to all of the above and beyond!

Here is a preview pic of the service:



Next up: Xbox unveils project Natal: a hands-free motion-sensitive controller system.

"Introducing Project Natal, a revolutionary new way to play: no controller required. See a ball? Kick it, hit it, trap it or catch it. If you know how to move your hands shake your hips or speak you and your friends can jump into the fun -- the only experience needed is life experience." "Natal, by comparison, provides much of that same functionality, but without having to hold on to the controller. Want to kick a ball in a game? Then make a kicking motion. Want to buzz in a game show setting? Smack your fist into your hand. Want to share a drawing with an in-game avatar? Draw it and then hold it up to the Natal camera. "

Please see the amazing video:



Closing this video madness: Sony unveils their response to Nintendo Wii. A new motion controller demo.



That’s all for now. Hope you have already come across this news stream. If not hope you’re seeing the colors brighter now :)

Br. Vesa

Big start for exciting and upcoming June

Hi there

Well June gets a nice start with Nokia announcing the Ovi Store. TechCrunch already manifested that: "Nokia Ovi Store Launch Is A Complete Disaster." the service was very slow (due to high interest), applications disappeared or showed up twice, user experience i.e. navigation was complicated and in addition the search did not work properly.



Bad start for Nokias ambitious response to Apple Apps store!!

Enough said on Nokia.

Moving on: At the Google Dev Conference Google has confirmed that the mobile world will welcome at least 18 new Android OS-powered smartphones by the end of 2009.

Google will offer three different versions of Android OS: a completely free and generic flavor with no pre-loaded Google applications; a slightly-customized version of Android OS that comes pre-loaded with Google apps like Gmail and Google Calendar; and a completely “Google-fied” Android OS bearing all sorts of Google branding and integration with Google’s services.

Continuing with this Google Developer news here is a VERY cool video: Spotify mobile demo for Google Android



Spotify is a streaming music service which is gradually gathering a large fan-base in Europe, and is poised to launch in the US, has been plotting a mobile version for a while. The Android app is still very much a work in progress and subject to minor changes, but it gives a pretty good overview of their thinking. The demo highlights a number of features including playback, playlists, offline synch and music search.

Please see the video. It looks fantastic even though it is still under development.



Br. Vesa

Stats to the table

Hi

Bringing some stats to the table.

Akihabar tells us that Sharp Announces 10 Megapixel Camera. Other specs include a nice 3.3” VGA Mobile ASV LCD, a LED Flash and the ability to go up to ISO 12800.

Seems like the pixel war will hardly ever end. Fooling consumers to buy more via pixels does not really make any sense. Unless you are into having more pixels than you neighbor :)

Below is the picture.


Next up iPhone rumored feature list. I picked some of the highlights:

* Sleeker design with Apple logo on the back to light up
* 32GB and 16GB to replace current capacities
* 3.2 Megapixel camera
* Video recording & editing capabilities
* Double the RAM and processing power
* Built-in compass
--> In addition the New iPhone is Due to Land July 17.

Last but not the least:
Video Demo of Android ‘Rosie’ OS Leaked Online



The interface looks very nice and fast. Guess the future is truly about widgets and apps :)

Br. Vesa

Sticking with the news

Hi

Starting off: FierceMobileContent

Reports that financial giant MasterCard is going live on an on-demand, person-to-person Mobile MoneySend payment platform. Nice - finally some movement in this area. Please notice that I have already looong been talking on mobile payments. Guess someone needs to make the first steps.

“The platform enables bank customers to offer P2P payments to their customers--users can send and receive funds via SMS, mobile web, downloadable mobile application or PC, linking their mobile phone number to a MasterCard. The platform is already available in 17 countries across the Asia Pacific Middle East Africa region, including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, India and the Philippines." Does anyone know how it has worked out in these regions?

Also another favorite of mine has been mobile education. IntoMobile reports via CrunchGear that Japanese University Tracks Students by iPhone.

"The iPhone will basically be used as a tracking device with which the university can control if its students are physically on campus or not (the main goal is to prevent cheating during roll calls). But the phone will also be used for digital lectures (podcasts), doing homework and taking tests."

Hope that stuff like this will take up. Really promising as far as reaching rural areas and educating people.

Br. Vesa

Problems ahead

Hi there

Recently I came around this:



So it seems that Nokia is transferring Widsets to Ovi store. Nice - but what happens to all those personal smaller RSS feedbased widsets such as this one on 1.6.09 ?

Will I have to publish my stuff on Ovi store? Sounds really hard.. taking into account the publisher costs etc. Hmm.. I sure hope my bloggy widset will keep on going :)

I will keep you posted on what will happen by 2.6.

BR. Vesa

Communities

Hi there

Starting off: Tomi Ahonen indicates interesting numbers on the Finnish Habbo hotel (teenager) social networking site.

Numbers: “The teenager social networking service has over 90% of its users within the age bracket of 13-18. They have 11.7 million active users any given month. They earned 50 million Euros (74 M USD) last year in revenues and made a profit of 4.8 M Euros. Ebitda profit margin of 9.6%. A profit margin for an online social networking service with no subscription fee and where the majority of the income is NOT advertising."

Wow impressive figures when you take into account that they do not have subscription and major advertising. How do they make their money? They make it the same way that Second Life - by selling virtual stuff. The teenagers can decorate their hotel rooms and characters as they wish with real Euros.

Next up also news from: Tomi Ahonen evaluating / speculating on Blyk.

Blyk is a free mobile service for young people funded by advertising. So does the Blyk concept work otherwise as well? Seems that Tomato Plus out of Croatia is doing the same with a different approach. "Is not limited to the 18-24 age bracket like Blyk, so they also understandably have attracted a wider age range in their users. Similar to Blyk the users agree to receive 6 mobile ads per day and they receive somewhat a smaller set of free traffic, 50 minutes of free calls and 50 free SMS text messages per month. The ads arrive as SMS or MMS messages."

So: 92% of their users are happy. MobHappy says Advertisers get better response rates than Blyk and their range goes up to 75%. (Blyk after 18 months reports 25% average response rates). I will not go into detail. Please visit Tomis blog if you are interested in more speculation. the main idea is that people are happy and willing to receive ads if they also get something out of it i.e. free calls and text.

Lastly: Cnet states that Crystal Wiski, a teen from Antelope in California's Sacramento County, claims to having sent out almost 304,000 SMS text messages in a single month. More precisely, Crystal claims to have sent 303,398 text messages from her iPhone. Previous record-breaking attempt by a pair of Pennsylvania buddies resulted in a whopping $26,000 phone bill. But, that particular record attempt had just 217,000 text messages sent between two people.
Crazy teens :)

That's all for now.

Br. Vesa

Video time

Hi

This post will have two interesting videos.

First up: Seth Godin at Gel in 2006

Bio: Seth was founder and CEO of Yoyodyne, the industry's leading interactive direct marketing company, which Yahoo! acquired in late 1998. Godin worked as VP Direct Marketing at Yahoo before leaving to become a full time speaker, writer and blogger.

Seth Godin at Gel 2006 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

Even though the video is old (2006) it nicely demonstrates how things take time. Nothing happens over night. The video/presentation is called: "This is broken". If something is "broken" i.e. the process or things/products do not work - then who is to blame? This is the question that the video/presentation tries to answer. Ultimately in an organization no one really wants to take responsibility of putting out there something that is (already) broken. Please see the vidoe - this is difficult to explain.

The other video is from TED.

Bio: David Pogue presents "When it comes to tech, simplicity sells." New York Times columnist David Pogue takes aim at technology’s worst interface-design offenders, and provides encouraging examples of products that get it right.



The video has numerous examples of what not to do when trying to get a service or product out there. Design does count. And when you mix this video with "This is broken" you start to see the point in UI and industrial/experience design.

To end this post on a relaxed manner Engadget informs us that:

Devious carrier pigeon caught trying to smuggle cell phone parts into prison. Case one: attempting to smuggle cell phone parts to inmates in a high-security Brazilian prison. Case two: Columbian authorities say that pigeons are likely being raised inside the prison, and then sent to the outside to collect the contraband handsets before doing what pigeons do best -- returning home.



Br. Vesa