Design vs. Functionality - Mobile Phones Archives

Apple's Safari Reader May Become a Publishing Game Changer

2011-06-07T15:43:47Z

The WWDC 2011 keynote was jam-packed with software innovations and new offerings from Apple, including new versions of its desktop and mobile operating systems, as well as the all new iCloud. Of everything announced though, there was one new feature I saw that could potentially disrupt my day-to-day professional life if it took off, and that is the Reader update to the Safari browser.

In a nutshell, if you navigate to a Web page containing an article while using Safari 5 and click the Reader icon in the Smart Address field, the article is pulled forward cleanly, with all disruption, advertising, and unassociated visuals removed. Basically, it looks similar to the double-spaced papers you used to hand in at your High School. The layout is actually painfully clean and easy to read, something not often seen online anymore. Even if the article is paginated across 10 or so separate pages, Reader pulls them all together into one flowing document.

So what’s wrong with easy to read content? For a user, nothing… yet (I’ll explain the “yet” later). For a publisher, the concept of a feature like Reader in browsers could seriously damage online advertising efforts: the life blood and singular revenue system of many of these sites. Pagination on articles is designed to increase repeated advertising exposure (impressions) based on a singular interest point. Reader negates that strategy entirely. Secondly, if your advertising does not run within the content of the article itself, it’s removed. As far as I can tell with some simple testing, Reader also pulls out all Flash/video advertising… even if it is included in the context of the article itself. Realistically, if a user becomes accustomed to using the Reader function exclusively, entire online advertising strategies become ineffective.

Currently the Reader feature is only available on Safari 5 (6.3 percent market share as of March 2011), but as mentioned in the keynote yesterday, it will be rolled out in iOS5 this fall across all mobile Apple products. I know, it’s still a drop in the bucket as far as market share is concerned. But, who isn’t to say that Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer won’t follow suit with similar features in the near future? They all seem to play copy-cat in some way or another sooner or later. It’s not like mobile usage is decreasing year to year either.

Now back to that “yet” from before. What does this change mean for the users? Initially, it means you’ll be able to read great content on the Web, but sooner or later these publishers are going to need to bring in online revenue. One way to bring in this revenue would be similar to product placement in movies. Conceptually, if you can’t run a commercial, work the product right into the content. This means content itself will become commercialized more so than normal. Publishers will start small, but eventually for the sake of the dollar it will be abused and content quality will suffer. Many publishers may want to retain their quality and move their online publishing strategies to an exclusively application-based solution. With an app, they regain control over their mobile content and advertising, without having to worry about browser features interrupting revenue strategies. In the long run though, this may cost the user in download and/or subscription fees.

Do I think this a doom-and-gloom feature? Absolutely not. Personally, I think it’s ingenious. As smartphones became more powerful and mobile browsers became easier to use, mobile versions of websites have gone the way of the Dodo. But, a cluttered website is still ridiculously hard to read on some screens. Reader basically makes article content of any website mobile friendly.

My only concern is that features such as Reader open a door that could potentially send a lot of the online publishers back to the drawing board, and we’ve essentially gotten the “heads-up” about it. Plan accordingly.

The BlackBerry Storm 8 Months Later

2009-08-18T18:55:48Z

I really wanted to like this Smartphone. I've tried so hard. People ask me on a daily basis how I like the Storm. I can't tell if they ask out of general curiosity, or pity, but I lie either way and say it's great. It's terrible, but I have my reasons. Primarily, I really hate to admit failure in my investment of time and money. Secondly, I really did hope things would get better with upgrades. It's now been 8 months. There's been a few OS upgrades, and there is reports of a new model possibly surfacing in November. It's time to set things straight.

Official review from someone that used the BlackBerry Storm extensively for 8 months:
Run, don't walk away from this BlackBerry.

It had so much potential, so much promise... so many bugs. When I wake up to the alarm on my BlackBerry Storm every morning (that it decides to work), I glance over at my night table and all I can think about is the "F" word.

Frustration.

No wait... Failure. No, maybe Flop. Or maybe... nahhh can't say that here.

As soon as I depress the screen (multiple times for it to register) to activate snooze for the 5th time, I know all I have to look forward to with my hand-held headache is a full day worth of cursing as my little black and chrome friend refuses to work, lags out, hangs up, or just turns off for no reason. Sometimes I don't even get to hit snooze. Those are the mornings I wake up on my own due to the failure of the device overnight. Those mornings are my favorite. And by "favorite" I really mean the phone is lucky to still be in one piece at that point. Those are the mornings that some type of battery or hardware failure occurred overnight and I am greeted with a white screen and an icon of a battery with a blue lightning bolt through it.

Those are the special mornings that I get to take the next couple of hours trying to get the phone to take a charge, pulling the battery, and holding buttons on boot screens, until finally I hit the perfect combination of random events that tell my BlackBerry Storm to come back to life.

Speaking of battery pulls, it's a daily occurrence. Sometimes multiple times a day. The damn Storm should just have an eject button to make it easier for me. Pulling off my protector, the rear panel, and then digging out the battery, just to replace everything a second later gets old real fast. What kind of gadget requires you to yank its power source out daily just to keep it limping along?

Want to read your email? Press and wait 2 minutes. That's the average time I have to wait each time.

Need to make a phone call? I'd love to, but the little green button doesn't seem to register the request until the 12th time I press it.

Yesterday I snapped. I wrote to Verizon and explained that I'm about 12 hours from giving up on them and switching to AT&T and an iPhone unless they attempt to fix my problem. Early termination penalty or no, I'm that fed up. I asked for a replacement BlackBerry Tour free of charge, so I could continue with the Verizon service, but I could shed myself of this epic disappointment of hand-held technology.

They explained that because I have never reported a problem previously, and I have not replaced the phone yet, that they could not accommodate my request for the Tour. Instead they are sending me a new Storm in the mail to replace my "problem". Yay. I'm overflowing with excitement...

The first hick-up this new phone experiences will result in me marching it right back to Verizon. I've dealt with it long enough and I refuse to continue. They can keep replacing my problem Storms until they get that it would just be cheaper to give me something that works. Maybe I'll be able to run their stock dry to save the rest of you from making my mistake.

Verizon Redeems Itself with 4.7.0.148

2009-06-05T16:35:01Z

If you read this blog semi-frequently, you know about my love / hate relationship with my BlackBerry Storm. I'm normally fairly quick at announcing my reaction to the latest releases regarding this phone, but I purposely did not announce the release of BlackBerry Storm OS 4.7.0.148 last Sunday.

Why you ask? Because I don't trust Verizon anymore, and I didn't want to suggest downloading anything that could drive a BlackBerry Storm user closer to launching this phone off a cliff. I wanted to put in a few days of testing and see if this really is the update we were all waiting for. I'm happy to say... it is!

How do I know? Because for 5 days straight my BalckBerry Storm worked. Yeah that's right, it worked. No Joke. No hangups, better response time, no battery pulls. I know to all of you other smartphone users, this doesn't sound impressive. But, for a Storm user, having the phone work is a blessing in itself at this point.

A few people have had issues with the new OS erasing their contacts and addresses because of how they completed the update, but you should always back-up your BlackBerry before an update. I had the same issue, and with a quick restore from my latest back-up, everything loaded back in.

Other than that hiccup, I haven't had another issue. The phone is much more responsive especially on the home menu and with scrolling. It just feels like a much more stable program all together. The accelerometer is still not perfect but it's much, much faster. I don't type in portrait mode much, but I can at least use the new QWERTY keyboard effectively and easily. I'm pretty sure I looked like a monkey with a math problem when trying to use the old portrait mode SureType keyboard. I don't use my camera a lot either, but the camera functions have been mostly fixed as well. There use to be a white screen delay of nearly 3 seconds between when you snapped a photo and when the camera actually took the picture and displayed the image. It's now virtually instant, just like a real camera.

I guess that's my whole point about this update. The Blackberry Storm now works like a REAL smartphone. I honestly feel like I bought a new phone last Sunday.

A full list of the fixes included in 4.7.0.148 is below:

Time to Abandon the BlackBerry Storm?

2009-05-15T19:16:08Z

I've been a strong supporter of the BlackBerry Storm since it's announcement last year, but it may be time for me to cut my loses. I expected a buggy phone with it being the first generation model. But... I also expected RIM and Verizon to fix said bugs with OS updates. The last update for this phone was firmware version 4.7.0.75, back on December 5, of 2008.

Now, it's been announced that the long awaited next official update to OS version 4.7.0.113 was rejected by Verizon. However, Canadian service providers, Bell and Telus, approved and rolled out the update. Apparently it failed Verizon certification testing, but with how buggy my phone is, I can't imagine it could have been worse than what I am running right now. If it's good enough for Canada, it's good enough for me.

Hey Verizon, just give us something. You don't have to get it perfect, infact I doubt you could even if you wanted to. Just start fixing a few things at a time and send us a small update every once in a while. Show us that you're doing something, hell... ANYTHING to make our investment feel worthwhile.

With the speculation that Verizon will be rolling out a Storm 2, possibly as soon as next year, I'm really loosing faith. I'm not sure who is running the show over there, but I can tell you this for sure... If they don't try to fix this first model, I'm not buying the second model. Actually I'll guarantee you this. I'll abandon Verizon all together.

Pandora Available For BlackBerry, But Not The Storm

2009-03-19T21:23:08Z

The charade continues...

Pandora has finally released an app for the BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry Curve, and BlackBerry Pearl handsets... but of course nothing for the BlackBerry Storm.

Follow this link to find out if the application supports your handset model, and to obtain download information.

Meanwhile, I'll still be listening to Slacker Personal Radio.

Google Latitude is Just a Bad Idea

2009-02-19T20:17:31Z

For those of you not on the up and up with Google Latitude, it's a free application that works with Google Maps and basically allows mobile users with GPS to upload their exact location to friends, family, and anyone else they allow.

Google has recently released a new version of Google Maps that now supports GPS for BlackBerry which includes the Google Latitude application. I decided to try it out with my Verizon BlackBerry Storm and after about 30 seconds of letting everyone know where I was, I freaked out and turned it back off.

I'm addicted to my BlackBerry now, but it took a lot for me to finally upgrade to a smartphone. I like being accommodating but not instantly and entirely accessible. Even with those feelings, I can currently be found with my BlackBerry Storm by calling, text, AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, BlackBerry Messenger, Google Talk, Facebook, and E-mail me at 4 different accounts. I admit, it's a bit much, and I find myself living in this phone.

The times I don't want to be found... I ignore that flashing red LED. But, with Google Latitude I won't have that luxury. If I don't pick up, I could potentially find that persistent (and now forever creepy) person tapping me on the shoulder minutes later. I've got enough common sense to not allow questionable people to have my GPS fix in the first place, but sometimes you don't realize who the creeps are until they do something pretty creepy. What's that quote you always hear on the news from the old lady who lived next to the mass murderer? Something like, "He was such a nice man. Very normal... I never expected this."

I know it's an opt-in application, but stalkers can emerge from nowhere and friendly situations can quickly change. Significant others quickly become crazy exes, neighbors become mortal enemies overnight, friends betray friends, etc. I can see someone not exactly as tech savvy as myself not being able to turn this off once activating, or forgetting they allowed access to someone currently not so happy with them.

Thanks but no thanks Google, I'll just be using the maps.

Slacker Radio Beats Pandora to the Punch

2009-02-09T19:18:44Z

I'm a Pandora addict. It's always playing in the background on just about every computer I sit down at. I have been dying for Pandora to release an app for my BlackBerry Storm because I've recently gotten myself back in gear and into the gym 4 or 5 nights a week. It'd be nice to just bring my Storm and some headphones while I work out, and get a nice variety of music that I didn't have to purchase or spend hours organizing into "perfect" playlists.

Well Pandora dropped the ball, even after myself and others have repeatedly harassed them over the past month or two. Slacker Radio beat them to the punch and is now available for the BlackBerry Storm. It's a sweet little application for streaming internet radio, and even has a function to cache a song to listen to later offline. You can get artist bios, album reviews, can ban artists from your stations, and the music continues to run while you use other applications on your phone. It also has a nice landscape design that works well with the touch screen functionality of the Storm.

Honestly, I'm very impressed, and have even switched my computer over to Slacker Radio to really test what it has to offer. Who knows, the switch may be permanent. It really appeals to me when a company tries to stay on top of new technology, and makes sure it's accessible across all formats.

Who's the slacker now Pandora?

Weather the Storm

2009-01-27T17:19:29Z

I'm exceptionally bad at checking the weather, and with the way this winter is going, I'm bound to get into trouble as a result of it sooner or later. There's been a certain buzz today about the snow and ice coming tonight and tomorrow, and honestly, if my fiancée hadn't said anything while I was walking out the door, I probably wouldn't have known about the storm until I found the roads covered in 4 inches of snow in the morning.

It made me realize that I really should start using my Verizon BlackBerry Storm for this type of thing. It's always on me and has the functionality to keep me in the know with a simple touch of the finger.

I've found that it's not too difficult to check the weather using the browser on the Storm, but it's not very smooth either. On the BlackBerry Bookmarks Home Page, there's a weather link that navigates to WeatherBug. Once there, you plug in your zip code and you can get pretty decent reports and alerts. But as always, I'm looking for a better, faster, and easier way.

While browsing for Storm 9530 Apps, I managed to find a unique WeatherBug application. The application has a simple design and utilizes the touch screen functions of the Storm fairly well. One feature I found helpful, is that it will find your location through a GPS fix. If for whatever reason your GPS is on the fritz or you don't want to wait for it to find your location, you can plug in locations as favorites and slide through them with a quick touch of your finger.

The application also features an icon that updates itself to tell you what the current conditions are for your area (if you're not near a window), the current temperature, and the high/low of the day. Basically, you actually need to open the application if you just want a quick update on the weather outside. Well... you could do that or just get off the computer for a minute and walk outside.

Inside the application there is a current conditions page that tells you anything you want to know including temperature, wind speed, dew point, and much more. You also get a 7 day forecast, which if you slide further too the right has detailed descriptions for night and day forecasts for every day including precipitation percentages and possible accumulations. There's also a radar feature to see the conditions around your area, an option to view the conditions through the camera of the weather station you selected, and a weather advisory button to display alerts for your area.

The app is free and you can download it here.

The PerfectStorm?

2009-01-18T19:58:35Z

Got an iPhone? Want a BB Storm? Well before you go changing carriers and investing in a couple hundred dollars of hardware, there's a new iPhone theme you may want to check out first.

The self proclaimed PerfectStorm brings the look and feel of the BlackBerry Storm to your Apple iPhone. Once installed, most of the user interface resembels the Storm including icons, lock-screen, calculator, media player, camera, dialer, sounds, browser, and keyboard.

Personally, I think it's silly, but I guess if you are really having that much trouble choosing between the top touchscreen phones, it's a middle ground of some kind.

Pandora for the BlackBerry Storm?

2009-01-07T17:49:40Z

I usually have Pandora, the internet-based radio station, running in the background while I work, and I see the ads showcasing the Pandora application for the iPhone just about every time I log in. In fact, Pandora for iPhone just went 2.0, adding new functionality to an already well designed application.

So I have to ask... where is version 1.0 for my BlackBerry Storm? Why can't I join in to the Music Genome Project from one of the most advanced mobile devices on the market? I can't even access Pandora through the web browser on the Storm. Pandora Mobile already supports Sprint, AT&T, and Windows Mobile phones. Why not support the latest and greatest from Verizon, the soon to be largest US Carrier?

When emailed a request for a Pandora app for the Storm, this was the reply:

Thanks very much for writing.

Each version of Pandora software for a portable device needs to be separately developed and approved by the cell carrier. We're currently working to bring Pandora to more devices including the Blackberry.

I don't know exactly when it will be available for the Storm but I would encourage you to stay tuned to our "On the Go" page for updates: Pandora Radio - Listen to Free Internet Radio, Find New Music for updates.

Thanks for listening in the meantime!

cheers-
Tom K@ Pandora

BlackBerry Storm Not So Touchy With TalkLock™

2009-01-02T16:43:31Z

One design flaw that's bothered me with the BlackBerry Storm is that the touch screen remains active during a phone call. CellAvant has offered a solution to my frustrations with TalkLock™.

While on a call, the BlackBerry Storm touch screen stays active and displays your number, your connected time, and as much information as is available with who you are contacted to. On the bottom half of the screen you also have 4 large buttons, one for speaker, one for mute, one for flash and one to add participant. Then at the very bottom there are 5 menu buttons. One to show keyboard, one to launch the notes application, one to navigate you to the home screen, one to show your calendar, and one to show your contacts.

All of these options are great and very useful in keeping everything at my fingertips that I might need during a call. The only problem is I've got big cheeks... Yeah I know it's an odd thing to say, but while talking or smiling, my cheeks constantly hit the mute button and I get mad at my phone because I'm talking and the person on the other end of the line can't hear me. I've resorted to holding the phone out and hovering during the calls.

Now... I imagine the phone was designed this way because RIM and Verizon assume that a good percentage of their clients are Bluetoothing. Everyone who lives off an earpiece would have no idea what I'm talking about and I can see how this current design works perfectly for them. I however hate walking around with an earpiece as I've said before, and I know I'm not the only one.

Well, for the rest of us Stormies that are frustrated with accidental screen presses during a phone call, CellAvant is offering the free utility TalkLock™ (BETA), a touch screen lock for the BlackBerry Storm.

Once downloaded, the utility automatically engages a few seconds after a call is connected. It locks your screen similar to the image shown in this entry. While you see this screen, all normal touch screen functions during the call are intercepted, preventing screen presses from launching functions or programs. If you need to access all those options you would normally have on a call, just slide the lock bar across, and you return to the normal Storm call screen. When the call ends, TalkLock™ automatically releases your phone and hides until the next call. The background image that you see during the call is also customizable (save a 360x480 PNG format image over TalkLock-Background.png in the home/user folder of Device Memory and do a full reboot).

To install TalkLock™, register here, providing an email address that delivers mail to your BlackBerry Storm. According to my device the download was 69.0KB for Version 1.01.

YouTube Client Offers Richer Experience for BlackBerry Storm Users

2008-12-31T15:47:05Z

The BlackBerry Storm's built-in web browser is capable of browsing YouTube, but it was a little depressing that my new toy did not come with a YouTube application out of the box like the iPhone does. The experience worked well enough for my purposes, but a dedicated client is usually much more user friendly and offers more on a mobile device.

Google answered the call and has now released a YouTube client for the BlackBerry Storm (Version 1.6.10). According to Google this dedicated client will offer Stormies a much richer mobile video experience.

I downloaded the 520.1KB client to my Storm this morning and I fully agree. This is a much better mobile YouTube experience.

Features included in this client:

Browse through millions of videos through different criteria on your phone
Access favorites and playlists from your YouTube account
Upload videos directly from your Storm to YouTube
Share and rate videos
Keyword search for videos
Related video suggestions to videos you watch

If you own a Blackberry Storm and you use YouTube semi-frequently... I highly suggest downloading this client.

Download YouTube Mobile for the BlackBerry Storm.

Bloggers dream of a perfect iPhone

2008-12-29T17:41:53Z

Earlier this week Gizmodo posted a concept design of what they vision should be the next generation of the popular iPhone. The design was originally developed by blogger Matt Brady and named the iPhone Elite. Gizmodo took his concept and tweaked it with some added features of their own and named it the iPhone Pro.

Their basic complaints about the current iPhone follows that of many in the blogosphere. No physical keyboard, lack of storage, and a sub-par camera. The iPhone Pro concept features 60 GB of storage, a slide-out keyboard, true 16:9 aspect ratio, and a better all around camera.

While Matt's original concept is incredible, I think Gizmodo made one very impressive addition. A D-Pad and two buttons. iPhone games are becoming increasingly popular and by adding easier and more recognizable controls, I think it could really begin to compete with handhelds like the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP.

The only problem that I can see with all of this is the risk of adding too much size. With an added keyboard and a better camera with zoom capabilities, you could potentially get close to doubling the 4.7 ounces that the iPhone 3G currently weighs. There's also the potential that the depth would increase to well over a half inch (currently at 0.48 inches). Features are great, but no one wants to talk to a brick.

Finally... the BlackBerry Storm is here

2008-11-21T13:39:47Z

I've been loosely following some of the hipe in this blog and now we've finally reached the release day. As of this morning, you can purchase the worlds first touch screen BlackBerry. Through Verizon it is available for $199 ($249 2 year price minus $50 mail-in rebate debit card) and a new 2 year activation.

I was hoping to be one of the first to comment on real world experience with its functionality and the pro's and con's of the touch screen design... but I was informed last night by my fiancee that I am now in the "Christmas Blackout" period. Basically I'm not allowed to buy myself anything until December 26th.

So please feel free to drop me a line or comment here and tell me and the rest of the TMCbloggers how great this phone is or how terrible your experiences are with it. Meanwhile, I'll wait for Santa.

Interesting "First Reactions" to the BlackBerry Storm

2008-10-08T20:27:27Z

An interesting marketing video was just released by Verizon Wireless for the BlackBerry Storm. It's advertised more as a fun and stylish tech-toy more than anything else. It's very apparent that they are targeting it at consumers who have interest in iPhone like capabilities, and not so much at the power a BlackBerry has to offer functionally. I'd like to see some feature demos myself.

Don't fret though...it got a "dope" review.

Check it out here.