Android vs. iPhone follow up...

This article was posted on Investor's Business Daily - including some of my comments regarding iPhone vs. Android and the open nature/friction free development process... http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=513727

Android - looking forward

I'm a little bored today sitting in San Francisco at the BlackBerry Developer Conference...not RIM's fault, just waiting for things to start...

As a way of background, I wrote some of the first apps on the original Mac, the original PC and the Next machine - as well as Android, Windows Mobile, Palm OS, BlackBerry and iPhone. I think the key here is that the closed ecosystems of the Apple personna yield only marginal value (vs. the potential monsterous value). The Mac clearly should have won the "pc war" - it was a better operating system, it was 'tight', etc. You could say the same thing for the Next machine. The fundamental problem is that the development 'costs' (most of which are not financial) were too high on those platforms and were not 'open' in a way for people to truly innovate. "Here's your box, stay within the lines." The ecosystem was 'closed' (or at least severely throttled). [Believe me, I know the argument between 'deveoper open' vs. 'consumer experience' all too well...]

Anyone remember how much the original 3 Mac programming reference books were in 1984 (note: I still have mine)? or, better yet, how much the insane price of the Next developer program was (which you were required to join to get any API information whatsoever)? ($1500) They were out of reach for the common tinkerer developer. Enter the PC and Charles Petzold's book. Cheap to develop on, lots of APIs to get yourself in trouble, no barrier to distribution. Outbound marketing by a developer relations group that actually wanted you to succeed (vs. the pinhole the iTunes App Store has created vs. the floodgate it *should* be...).

Android will succeed because it is far more accessible to the average developer - from an overall 'cost' *and* a process standpoint. You cannot get monsterous growth like Microsoft had on the PC revolution by hyper-controlling the environment. Someone else will come along (be it Android or ??) and leverage the developer masses interests.

Believe me, I think the Android OS is incredibly slow, clunky interface, and needs some BlackBerry engineers to fix the underlying JVM - so it ain't perfect. However, getting off of being only on T-Mobile (meaning picking up real networks like Verizon and Sprint) and adding Samsung, Motorola and others as distribution partners, will cause it to succeed.

Windows Mobile 6.1 - stepping backwards

To foster application development and deployment, you would think the mobile phone OS manufacturers would make it *easier* to download and deploy apps. Unfortunately, Windows Mobile 6.1 took a step backwards in this department (could have been prior to this version, but we're getting more calls on this than any other...). Using Internet Explorer, if you click on a .cab file to try to download and install it, unfortunately, the default action got changed from "Open" to "Save". Now, the 'common man' is having incredible amounts of difficulty figuring out how to install applications. They take the default action (hey, who wouldn't...) and can't understand why the application doesn't install. Unfortunately, you have to choose "Open", not "Save". If you do choose Save, then go to the File Explorer, find the file in the My Documents folder and choose to Open it - which really means Install.

In summary two problems...1) why make it more difficult to install applications on an OS that is getting beaten in the market so severely?, 2) wouldn't it make sense for the OS to understand that a .cab file is an installation package and actually say "Install" vs. "Open"???

New Android Framework

After getting tired of dealing with the idiosyncrasies of the new and improved Android soft keyboard, we released a new build of the Boopsie framework for Android. So, instead of the virtual keyboard being displayed when it shouldn't be, we hide it at appropriate times - which you think the OS would do on its own....

We also improved scrolling speed and got rid of the annoying 'fade to black' that happened as you 'flick' scroll the screen. So, things are nice and clear now.

Update by downloading the latest framework at http://boopsie.com from your Android browser.

Thank you ALA 2009!

A big thank you to ALA and the attendees at the annual meeting. We had over 1500 people download the application to find sessions and exhibitors - attendees generated over 70,000 searches.

Thanks again - hope to see you next year!

Android Quick Install Guide

You may go here to see a quick visual installation procedure for Boopsie for Android. http://www.boopsie.com/home/aug.html

Boopsie Sponsors ALA 2009

Boopsie is a Ruby level sponsor for the Annual Library Association 2009 conference being held in Chicago. You may download the conference application that Boopsie provides at http://ala.boopsie.com from your mobile browser. You may also download "ALA 2009" for the iPhone from the App Store.

BlackBerry Storm installation

For the download website to properly detect your BlackBerry device, you should start your Browser and choose Options, then choose Browser Configuation and make sure "BlackBerry" is checked under "Browser Identification". If you have Firefox or another browser selected, the download site will not automatically recognize your phone.

This problem may occur while using Opera as well. Opera does not send a device identifier string to the download site, so the download site cannot detect your device.

Also note that on the BlackBerry Storm, a dialog may popup asking if you want to download the Boopsie Framework. Be sure to highlight Yes before pressing - the highlight sometimes moves around and highlights the wrong choice when you just 'press' vs. highlight and press.

Boopsie and GPS on BlackBerry

To make sure you are able to use your internal GPS (or assisted GPS) on the BlackBerry devices. Please make sure you have the Boopsie Framework (boopsie.cod) with version 4.4.4 or greater. You may download a new version at http://boopsie.com from your mobile device. After installing this version, your GPS will work on the BlackBerry Storm, all devices that have GPS on AT&T's network as well as others that support internal GPS. You may also use Boopsie with a GPS 'puck' thru Bluetooth. Just set your GPS setting to use Internal or the name of the Bluetooth device in the main Boopsie "Settings" menu.

Maximum number of connections in use. Close an active connection first.

When using Boopsie on a Symbian S60 device (most Nokia devices), if you see the error message "Maximum number of connections in use. Close an active connection first." the problem is related to how you have your device setup to use Assisted GPS. You have to use the same APN setting for Boopsie that you do for your Assisted GPS setting. The AGPS setting uses the network to help determine your position. So, it has to connect at the same time that Boopsie has to connect to the network. If you have the two APNs set to different ones, then you get the error message. To fix this, make sure your GPS settings for Assisted (Network) GPS is set to the same APN as you use for Boopsie.

New Demo Videos

We have posted a bunch of new demonstration videos showing several types of applications that can be created with the Boopsie platform. The Wikipedia ones are particularly interesting if you use Wikipedia from your mobile phone. You may download Boopsie for Wikipedia by going to http://wikipedia.boopsie.com from your mobile browser. Let us know what you think.

We have also posted an implementation of a MLS (Multiple Listing Service) for real estate. It uses your phone's GPS if it is available, or you can specify your location via zip code or city, etc.

Another cool app is the one that shows how we look up Office Depot real-time inventory for products available in the store closest to you. Try the HP 78 printer cartridge and see which store has one near you.