About a month ago the iPhone version started reformatting all of my linked web pages to a mobile Google format. This was frustrating since the iPhone is fully capable of displaying rich web content and in some cases I wanted to see iPhone specific HTML and Javascript content in action. Unfortunately all of this is stripped out in the mobile version. I put up with this for a few days before I decided to look for the settings.

Easy fix

To get your linked web pages back to the way they were meant to be, scroll to the bottom of your iPhone reader and click settings. At the time of writing this you will find 3 settings. Uncheck “Reformat linked web pages for mobile browsers.” and you will now be linking to the real web pages. I’m not sure if I inadvertently turned this on, but if this is the default setting it seems kind of odd for the iPhone version. Luckily with Google there is always lots of ways to customize your experience and they have a great number of other mobile solutions online.

I of course jumped on the iPhone bandwagon, but before I did I spent a lot of time researching many of the smartphones out there. At the time just before the second iPhone was launched there were a lot of great smartphones on the way, but none were out yet. Now that the iPhone has been out for a few months a lot of new devices have emerged. One of the reasons I bought the iPhone was because Apple was ahead of the curve, now a lot of the other manufacturers have similar offerings, but are any of them really iPhone killers? I decided to do a quick smartphone round up to see what’s currently out there.

Android is the newest cool kid in town

Of course you can’t talk about smartphones without talking about Android and their new G1 offered by T-Mobile in the US. This phone by HTC came out a couple of weeks ago, but even before a phone was announced, the Android platform had huge buzz in the blogsphere and tech news sites. I wrote about it several times and was pretty hyped about it myself when I wrote Android Android Android! everyone’s talking about Android and I still am pretty buzzed about it.

Android promises a lot of innovation and is really shaking up the industry. First it’s open source, which means anyone can play with the innards of the code. Up until now this was practically unheard of, and this could be the end of locked down phones, which I think is great. I can do what I want with my computer, I should be able to do the same with my smartphone, which is basically a portable mini computer. This is one flaw with Apple’s phone, without special applications I can’t even treat this phone as a storage device or copy my music on to different computers. The Open Handset Alliance is another great by product of Google Android.

Everything I have read about the G1 says that it is no iPhone killer, but there is massive potential and that this is just the start. Google is on to something here, and one of these days there may be a Google phone that is an iPhone killer. Remember this is Googles first phone.

See Engadget’s review on the G1

Blackberry Bold and Storm

Research In Motion is one of the big players and has been around for a long time. The big toys from RIM this year are the Bold and the Storm. If any phone could have swayed me from my iPhone purchase it would have been one of these. In the end I’m glad I went for the iPhone because the Bold does lean towards business users, and the Storm is taking forever to come out.

The Bold is the newest and greatest Blackberry in town, with a higher resolution than the iPhone but smaller screen this thing is crystal sharp. I have played with it once and it is pretty clear, but you have to wonder what the point of such high resolution is with such a small screen? It’s a nice phone, but it still feels a bit flimsy, I’m not a fan of how easily the Blackberries tend to scratch, but with that said if I had to pick a second best phone, I would probably go with a Blackberry.

The Blackberry Storm may be a different story, this is RIM’s attempt at the consumer market and is a direct competitor to the iPhone. It has what RIM calls “tactile-touch” which is basically a spring loaded screen. You basically have to push all the way down to hit a key, which sounds pretty cool. I’m used to not having to push down, so it might be hard to get used too. So far I have read that the new touch screen is awesome, to not so great, so only time will tell. I think what you are used to will have a lot to do with how much you like the screen. Blackberry is late to the game and a lot of people who use touch screens have gotten used to how they work now, but this may appeal to the users who have not switched to a touchscreen yet.

You can find first impression reviews at Gizmodo and Engadget along with a gallery of PowerPoint slides on The Boy Genius Report.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1

Sony’s EXPERIA X1 has been rumoured and talked about so long that I almost forgot about it. Its already available in some places, but still pretty hard to find.

This is a pretty sweet looking phone, but I’ve read a lot of good and bad about it. First it’s Windows Mobile, so depending on how you feel about Windows Mobile, your decision may be already made. There have also been claims of slow response on the touch screen and that the keyboard keys do not provide enough tactile feedback. Either way, I don’t think this phone will be viable until it’s on major carriers. Rumours are that it will be available on AT&T at some point.

Unboxing of XPERIA X1 and some nice high resolution shots and a very early review at The Boy Genuis Report.

HTC and a world of cool smartphones

HTC has so many cool phones it’s hard to mention them all. They build the G1 Android phone and had a hand in the XPERIA X1. They also released the Touch Diamond this year, and the Touch Pro will be out soon. There is also the really cool HTC Touch HD which unfortunately will not be showing up in North America, but it has been called an iPhone killer.

HTC definitely makes a whole lot of cool phones, and I’m sure we will be seeing Google’s Android on a lot more HTC phones.

Nokia

Nokia is huge in a lot of the world, but not so much here in North America. That may all change if they start bringing out slick phones like the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. It comes with a stylus so you can write out your messages, so if a stylus is your thing, then the XpressMusic might be for you.

Engadget has a hands on review.

Samsung instinct

Samsung has also jumped onto the touch screen smart phone bandwagon, the big one this year was the Samsung Instinct. I’m a huge fan of Samsung products, especially their LCD displays, but for some reason their phones just don’t do it for me. The instinct did perk my interest, but then the reviews came out and laid my anticipation to rest. The Omnia on the other hand seems to score a bit higher, but it’s a windows mobile device and it doesn’t have the prettiest interface. Samsung is also a member of the Open Handset Alliance, so we may see a Google Android phone from them in the future; fingers crossed.

Openmoko, truly open

Although a much smaller player in the smartphone field we cannot forget Openmoko, the truly open source smartphone platform and the device it runs on, Neo FreeRunner. I have been keeping an eye on Openmoko for many of the same reasons I watch Google’s Android platform. I believe in the concept behind these platforms, but Openmoko steps it up a notch, this is a truly open source project, everything from the OS to the phone itself; even the CAD files can be downloaded so you can modify the actual phone itself. Openmoko is definitely a hardcore computer geeks dream.

More information can be found on the wiki entry for Openmoko. The phone can be purchased at the official Openmoko website, and you can also visit the Openmoko wiki website which has much more information.

Apple iPhone, the darling of touch smartphones

And of course this roundup wouldn’t be complete without the iPhone. Apple has lead the way here the same way they lead the way for mp3 players. Whether you love or hate Apple there is no denying that they are market leaders in innovation and have consistently upped the bar delivering a compelling product that’s hard to beat. Almost every review I have read on smartphones uses the iPhone as a measure of quality. You always hear references to Apple’s iPhone or “the iPhone Killer” catch phrase.

That doesn’t mean the iPhone has no flaws, one of the most mentioned features that is missing is “copy and paste” functionality. I don’t know if Apple will ever add this, but it’s a much needed and requested feature, especially for sending web addresses to people in applications such as Twitterific. There is an option to email someone a link from Safari, but copy and paste would be a lot more useful. Another thing that needs fixing is the browser, although it’s a fantastic mini browser, possibly even the best, it does tend to crash an awful lot, at least for me. That said, I am more than happy with my iPhone and it really is the best device I have bought in years. Many of the games are simple but very addictive, just what you want on a small device like this and there is a constant stream of new applications every day. When I was showing my phone to someone once they asked “is there anything it can’t do?”, well yes, it won’t do your laundry yet.

An amazing year for gadgets

It really has been a great year for great gadgets and smartphones in particular. I can’t help but get excited about 2009’s lineup. Where will Apple be this time next year, and the one I’m really keeping an eye on is Google’s Android. It will also be interesting to see how the Blackberry vs Apple battle turns out, I personally think Android is more of a threat than the Blackberry. The Blackberry has a strong loyal consumer base and owns the business sector. They are also making their phones pretty, because lets face it, even business men and women want to have a cool cell phone.

For the third iPhone next year I’m predicting a higher resolution, better GPS and a better camera as obvious places to work on. I hope all the other smartphones have surprises up their sleeves also. 2008 was an amazing year, lets hope 2009 is even more ground breaking.

So how does Google Earth hold up on the iPhone? Well obviously it’s a bit trimmed down, but still much better than I thought it would be. You can see photos, Wikipedia entries and move around the earth in the typical intuitive Multi-touch way that we are all so used too. You can even twist two fingers to rotate, and if you tilt your device the accelerometer kicks in and allows an angled view so you can see the 3D surface of the Earth. You can also use the iPhones GPS to find your current location on planet Earth. The application runs fairly smooth on the iPhone, but I did notice a few hiccups which sometimes even happens on the full Google Earth.

I have taken several screenshots below. You can also check out the official Google announcement on the Google blog which also has video, but the application is free, so check out the app store and get it now.

Toronto via GPS.

Wikipedia entry via iPhone Google Earth

Mount Everest in all its 3D glory

Hot on the heals of the Google Android phone will be the new Blackberry Storm which is a direct competitor to the iPhone. It has a soft touchscreen with built-in tactile feedback. I can’t help but wonder how scratch resistant this will be; I have a Nintendo DS which is a soft touch screen and it is very scratched up. I really wouldn’t want this to be the case for a phone that goes in your pocket for most of the day. The iPhone screen is extremely scratch resistance, so this could be a show stopper for some people but we’ll have to wait and see. The release dates around the Storm are a bit cloudy as Verizon seems to be playing games with everyone. Today many blogs linked to Verizon’s Storm announcement page which was then removed.

Exciting times in deed, although the Android OS has my attention more than any of the phones themselves. Another interesting tidbit was in London today when one of the Android guys was asked if it could run on other devices he replied “why not?”.

The first thing I have noticed about Chrome is that it feels very zippy. I will have to try some more intensive tasking, but so far the tabs seem very responsive. Right now I have over 15 tabs open including game trailers. Game trailers usually slows down Firefox a bit while loading or switching tabs, but in Chrome I rapidly clicked back and forth on the tabs and it was extremely responsive. I also find that pages seem to load faster. 

When you open a new tab with Ctrl T or the plus sign you are presented with a home page of your history with thumbnails of everywhere you have been recently. This is a different approach and I think I like it. You also have access to a search panel and you are asked the first time you install if you would like Google to be the default search engine. 

Google suggest has also been incorporated into the search / URL bar which double up as the same field. There is no separate search field, which really does makes sense once you start playing around with it. The suggestion seems rock solid too. Page search is also very intuitive and has page highlighting as you skip through each occurrence of your word search. 

Developer tools

One of the big reasons a lot of people use Firefox, at least web developers and designers is the developer add-ons, namely Web Developer and Firebug. Chrome does have built in developer tools similar to Web Developer and Firebug and although not quite as full featured they are a far more powerful default tool set than I have seen in any browser to date. To access an inspector type dialog you can right click the page and select Inspect Element. This will give you a Firebug style interface. There’s also the typical view source and a JavaScript debug screen. 

Another interesting addition to the browser world is a task manager. This shows you exactly what is happening in your browser and what pages are being resource hogs. You can end any task here which consist of tabs, flash and other plugins. The browser is supposed to keep running even if something fails in one of the tabs. There is also a link at the bottom of the task manager called Stats for nerds which will give more details about what’s going on. You can also open dialogs and still use the browser at the same time.

Privacy

Of course I know what a lot of people are thinking when they see a page full of pages they have recently visited along with thumbnail screenshots. What about my privacy? Well aside from being able to clear your history there is also an interesting tab mode called “incognito” or “porn mode” as some of the blog sphere have started calling it. Google even adds some funny humour to the description when you go into incognito mode. 

Going incognito doesn’t affect the behavior of other people, servers, or software. Be wary of:

• Websites that collect or share information about you
• Internet service providers or employers that track the pages you visit
• Malicious software that tracks your keystrokes in exchange for free smileys
• Surveillance by secret agents
• People standing behind you

So keep in mind it won’t work when people are standing behind you. 

Is there anything bad about it so far?

I would not go so far as to say there is anything bad, just some things that are missing. When I right click on an image I would like to see more options such as view image or a view background image similar to Firefox. There is however a copy image to new tab. I would also like to see a print preview, I could not find one. An advanced configuration screen like Firefox has would also be nice, maybe there is one, I have not dug very deep yet. Obviously it would also be nice to have my favourite FireFox plugins, but to be honest I can’t say too many bad things about Chrome so far. This may be my new surfing browser of choice. For now Firefox will remain my development browser of choice.

Final thoughts

This is a really polished first release. The interface is lightweight and clean. It does feel very Google like and I can’t wait to see what they will do with Chrome in the future. I’m sure there will be even more reason to use Chrome in the near future, like Gears enabled web sites that offer a lot more than non-gears enabled web sites. Google has created many duds in the past, but I really don’t think this is one of them. So far I am very impressed and I will continue to use the browser for a week or so and see how things work out. Why not give it a try yourself.

This is really big news and probably really bad news for Microsoft. Google has already released Gears a browser add-on which allows Google to jump start browsers ahead into more modern standards. Chrome will use webkit, the same engine that Safari uses, but it will not use the webkit Javascript engine. It will use it’s own, which should make apps run much faster and with more features.

Could this really be Google’s entrance into the desktop market? I believe the future of applications is online. Everything is headed in that direction. More and more people are accessing their apps and data in multiple places and on multiple devices, and right now the major player in that space is Google.

Update: Google Chrome – first impressions are the most important

More info at TechCrunch:
Meet Chrome, Google’s Windows Killer
First Images of Google Chrome
No Joke: Google Introduces The Chrome Browser With A Cartoon

Even though I have an iPhone now I am eagerly awaiting the reviews for the first Android phones. Competition can only be good for everyone. Apple gave the smartphone industry the kick it needed to start innovating and now things are about to be kicked up a notch with Android entering the scene. HTC also seems really serious about releasing great phones as they have proven with the HTC Touch Diamond which was based on Windows mobile. The UI of the Touch Diamond was nicely designed, but only skin deep, hopefully Android gives them the flexability to really flex their muscle and serve up an even better UI.

Google has also finally released an updated Android SDK today.

The first thing you will notice about Cuil is its unorthodox appearance. The main page is black and the search is centred in the middle.

The next thing you will notice is the results page which is broken into columns. Under the FAQs section of the site one of the questions is “Why do you display search results in columns?” and the answer is.

It’s easier to read text when it’s in columns. That’s why publishers of densely written text like newspapers and family bibles use them. You can switch between using two and three columns by clicking on the link at the bottom of the results page.

I have to disagree with this. The web is not print. The reason publishers cram densely written text into newspapers and books is because they are dealing with limited space and paper costs money. Most papers are also huge and would be impossible to read in one long sentence. Neither of these are a factor in the online world. There is no need to cram everything onto one page and I just find it confusing, but maybe I am alone in this. I believe horizontal panes are much easier to read and much more scalable. Columns do have a place on the web, but I don’t think it’s working here. Lets not forget about hand held devices that have very small and narrow interfaces. I know most sites have mobile versions, but as mobile browsers get better people will start using the regular web interfaces and not the stripped down mobile versions.

So far everything I’ve talked about is cosmetic, what about the actual search; because really that’s what it comes down too isn’t it? Google is huge because it’s interface is easy to use, but more so because the engine finds what we want.

My first test on Cuil was my own name, maybe I’m narcissistic but no more so than all you Facebookers out there. The shot above is the search of my name; unlike Google it didn’t find much. Again I find the interface very confusing, the columns are not helping ease of use at all in my opinion. I did see one snippet of text from my blog, but when clicking the image and link I was taken to some link farm. Another user on Slashdot commented that they had searched their name and found their blog with an image saying “My success with Scientology”. He further went on to say he was not a scientologist.

Earlier in the day some searches were bringing up a message saying the server was too busy, yet more simplistic searches like “cat” would work just fine. A search like cat does yield more interesting results.

Now this is where it gets a little more interesting. At the top you get tabs with things like “Cats and Dogs”, “Cats & Dogs” (what’s the difference?) and Siamese Cats. There is a more tab and then down the side their are categories. Some of this is really reminding me of a web directory, only done web 2.0 style. I also typed in Javascript and the breakdown was really nice. For broad topics like this the engine displays a nice list of sites and categories, the problem is most of my searches are nothing like this. I don’t search for Javascript. I search for something like “jquery postal code form validator” which yields a whopping zero results in Cuil while yielding 27,200 in Google.

Okay, lets try something a little less niche. Maybe my cat is not eating so I run to Cuil to do a search on “cat not eating”. What do I get? I get the list below.

• Re: Hatchlings Still Not Eating – Please Help!
• Why is My Betta fish Not Eating and Stays at the top …
• Re: Sulcata Not Eating Help!
• Python Not Eating
• Re: Python Not Eating
• Baby Sinaloen Milk Snake Not Eating!!
• Re: Box Turtle Not Eating
• Rat Snake Not Eating
• Re: Python Not Eating

What’s with the reptiles? I was searching cats? None of the pictures are snakes either. What gives? See a full size shot.

Now lets see what Google made of “cat not eating”.

• Cat Not Eating
• Yahoo! Canada Answers – Cat not eating – is it the heat?
• cat not eating – Pet forum for dogs cats and humans – Pets.ca
• My Cat Is Not Eating And I Need Help
• Ask Cat Not Eating Questions Questions
• Cat not eating – Pet Health Forums

Yep, no snakes on that list. Cuil did manage to get an extra three search results onto my page though, but none were on cats unfortunately. Final verdict from me is a major failing grade. Cuil has got a long ways to go before it can be dubbed a “Google Killer”, it may be the biggest or have the most features, but if I find snakes when I’m looking for cats there is a problem. Lets hope these are just a few bugs that need to be ironed out, but really, first impressions can be everything.

The hype is building and this is both good and bad for Google. When something gets so hyped up it can be hard to meet expectations. People who don’t usually follow techy things are mentioning Android. Let’s face it, everyone loves Google and for a lot of people they have changed the way we use the Internet. For a smaller number of us Google has changed how we do email, how we work with documents and how we stay organized with its plethora of tools and widgets. Google has become the Swiss Army knife for the Internet, so of course we have high hopes for Android.

Google thinks the future of the web is mobile.

Christmas Day 2007 offered Google proof that the strategy could work. That morning, people unwrapped their iPhones, powered them up, clicked on the easy-to-use Safari browser — and pointed to Google. In 24 hours, the iPhone, which accounted for fewer than 5 percent of all smart phones worldwide, drove more traffic to Google than any other mobile device.

This is from Wired; they have a fantastic seven page article on Android titled Google’s Open Source Android OS Will Free the Wireless Web. This article is a must read for anyone interested in the story of Android, how it got to where it is today, and where they plan to be in the future. It also covers the challenges and battles Google may face in the near future.

Google has major backing for Android, you can check out the member list on the Open Handset Alliance website. The handset manufactures include HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung. The phone I am looking forward to seeing the most is the HTC Touch phones which I have talked about in the past. Right now they use Windows Mobile, but they are actively developing their Android phone and hope to have it out in the latter half of this year.

Unfriendly obstacles

The most unfriendly obstacle facing Google is convincing the carriers. Some are on board, but the large ones are not. Living in Canada I know all too well what overpriced Telecoms like Rogers, Bell and Telus do for innovation and brand loyalty. With many brands and companies people use them because they like them, they have brand loyalty. People use Google because they love to use it and it does what they want. We buy certain electronic brands because we choose too. We use the carriers we use because we have too. The carriers are afraid of becoming irrelevant, and I think they are paving the way for this to become a reality.

A smart phone is about so much more than just a voice plan. Companies like Bell are actually losing when they win. A lot of people with cell phones are switching off their home phones, in Canada that is usually a phone plan with Bell. Right now my home phone costs 45 dollars a month. All I have is voice mail and the ability to call people. That’s not much for 45 dollars. A smart phone can get me 24/7 access to the web, email connectivity, voice, video, photos and more. The days of the home phone are numbered.

Time for innovation

I think now is the time for the carriers to innovate and realize that the average person doesn’t like their carrier. Change your face, come up with something new, team up with other online services and offer cool products at the tap of a button. Stop trying to trick your customer! Confusing data plans, complicated service charges and activation fees annoy customers. When I look at my regular home phone bill I don’t understand it, why does a phone bill have to be so convoluted. Tell me how much I have to pay for what I want and give me a single number. If you sell me an unlimited plan, don’t put an asterisk at the end and send me a bill when I go over the hidden limit. You are either unlimited or you are not! Make us like you and want to use your service. Honest service plans would be a great start.

As the Wired article mentions, Google is a big company and they would like to play nice, but if they have too they can get mean. They have money and have already tried to buy their own air space and probably won’t give up trying. There’s also the chance of wider Wi-Fi coverage at cheaper prices. The telecoms can either play fair now, or suffer the possible consequences in the future. I don’t hear a lot of nice thing said about the US carriers either.

The stagnation of innovation in the wireless arena is a direct result of artificial lock downs by these companies. When I read about some of the amazingly cool applications to appear from the community of developers all around the world I know that this is the way things should be done. I think Google has a new way of looking at things. Innovation should never be held back for anything, and it so often is because of narrow mindedness. Instead of innovating most of these companies go into a protectionist mode. The same applies for so many other industries, it’s the same reason we use dirty oil in our cars. Innovation is being held back because people are afraid they will lose out. Instead, we should all be thinking about how much we have to gain from new technology.

Can’t stop my buzz

Google has me excited, and the buzz is growing rapidly. I may give in and get an iPhone, since that’s a technology I can get my hands on in the coming weeks, but Android is on my radar, not only as a consumer, but as a web designer and developer too. People in these fields need to stay alert as we will most likely be building the web for these devices in the near future.

Today I have been playing around with Google Trends and the BlogPulse tools. While trending some of the newest smartphones out there I noticed something odd with the iPhone data. It seems that last week when the new iPhone was announced there was actually a far larger spike in iPhone news than actual interest.

A. Cisco sues Apple over iPhone B. First iPhone Launch C. Apple lowers price D. Apple software update E. Apple announces business tweaks in future iPhone

In the chart above I have plotted the iPhone, Blackberry and HTC brands of smartphones. The top half of the chart represents the search volume, and the bottom part represents the news reference volume. As you can see the search volume for iPhone is all over the map when it was first launched in 2007. You can also see the news spikes are in tandem with the search spikes. In late 2007 search volume stabilizes.

Huge news spike, small search spike

When the new iPhone was announced in June 2008 there was a small spike in search volume, much smaller than previous announcements, but a massive spike in news volume that is larger than any of the previous news spikes. Now I’m also assuming that search volume equates to the overall interest in the iPhone. It’s also important to note that this data is still very new and may look different a month from now. It will be interesting to see this chart after the actual launch of the iPhone on the 11th of July.

Is the blog sphere becoming redundant?

If the data is correct however I think it shows how much information overload there is on some topics. The blog sphere is growing rapidly, almost to the point where there is way more information than demand for it.

This chart is a two month period generated on BlogPulse. It represents the number of posts on the iPhone within that period. The iPhone was announced on June 9th and you can see the blog spheres response. The big hot topics are the easiest ones to cover, so everyone jumps on the bandwagon. My Google Alerts for iPhone news have been overflowing my inbox for the past week.

Are we missing opportunity?

Now for contrast, look at the Blackberry or HTC smart phones. Their search volume is way less erratic and shows a steady upward trend yet the news on these devices, especially HTC show very little increase. I think it’s time for us bloggers to get a little more creative and dig a little deeper. Sure we all love reporting on the big cool stuff out there, but we may be missing opportunities to report on other great stories in the process.