Archive for: August, 2010

FroYo Update for the Verizon Droid Incredible

Aug 31 2010 Published by Ben Chong under Gadgets

For the uninitiated, FroYo is Android Version 2.2, the latest version of the Android operating system from Google.

The Verizon Droid Incredible has been shipping with the earlier 2.1 version of Android and owners have been waiting impatiently for the upgrade to 2.2. New features include video capture at 720p, support for Adobe Flash 10.1, WiFi hotspot etc.

The upgrade was to have started on August 28th, but I didn’t get mine until August 31st.

The following pictures capture the upgrade process. The pictures were taken with my MyTouch Slide:

You've got an update!

This is where it is downloading the update, I think

Done with the download

Something's happening here...

The phone reboots at this point

We see the red Droid eye

Still rebooting...

The bezel button lights come on...

At this point, I have to unlock the phone with my unlock pattern

Yet another restart

Yay! I'm done

Nope! Not yet. The upgrade is still not done!

Now, it wants to go through the set up wizard...

More spinnning...

And we are done!!!

Android 2.2!

Note: the upgrade will remove your unlock pattern. So you need to reset it after the upgrade is done.

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Dude! Where’s my stuff?! (Part 2)

Aug 30 2010 Published by Ben Chong under Business, Marketing, Product

In the first article of this series, I talked about all the digital “stuff” that you have  today (photos, documents, music, browser bookmarks etc etc) that is spread over multiple devices (phone, iPad, iPod, personal notebook, work computer etc etc).

Products like Dropbox and ZumoDrive try to alleviate this problem by using a centralized storage location on the Internet (the Cloud).

ZumoDrive uses a file synchronization technology that is similar to a lot of backup solutions.

If you have folders or files that you know you need to access from different devices, you mark them for sharing with ZumoDrive. A copy of these folders/files is then uploaded to the ZumoDrive server. Changes made to the folders or files are synchronized with the online copies. Changes made to the online copies are synchronized back to the original copies.

When you are on a different computer, you can access these folders/files using a web browser pointed to zumodrive.com. Alternatively, if you have installed the ZumoDrive application, you can access these folders/files via a virtual drive (represented as a drive letter on Windows, or a disk icon on a Mac).

ZumoDrive also has apps for the iPhone/iPad, Android and other mobile devices.

Dropbox, on the other hand, uses a drop box approach (duh!). If you have folders or files that you need to access from different devices, you simply drag them to the Dropbox folder and voilà, the folders/files get uploaded to the Dropbox server. To access these folders/files from a different computer, you can use a web browser. Alternatively, if you have the Dropbox application installed, these folders/files are available from the Dropbox folder.

Dropbox, like ZumoDrive also has apps for the iPhone/iPad, Android and Blackberry (soon).

Both Dropbox and ZumoDrive focus on the most common types of files that users want to share between devices: music and photos. ZumoDrive, for example, integrates a music player and photo viewer into its Android application: you can play music directly from your music files on the ZumoDrive server.

There is little support for other kinds of file types. The assumption here is that if you have a Word document, for example, you already have an application that is capable on handling that on the device you are using. You will have to first download the document, then launch the associated application.

What is missing here is the functionality to deal with the case where you are in an Internet cafe and you want to access your documents or files on ZumoDrive or Dropbox.

ZumoDrive, in particular, has a security problem in such a use case: I discovered that it uses an on-disk cache to speed up repeat accesses. On my Android device, for example, the files that I access on ZumoDrive are stored on the SD card, in plain sight and unencrypted. On a computer, you want to be very careful if you are using it to access personal documents on a work computer. Copies of these documents are stored in the ZumoDrive cache folder.

To be fair, I have not used Dropbox sufficiently to determine if it has similar security issues.

Having said this, I think both ZumoDrive and Dropbox are very useful products. As we accumulate more content and acquire devices that are smart enough to handle all that content, there is a real need to be to have access from all those devices, without having to remember where everything is: it’s all in Dropbox on ZumoDrive!

However, both products only provide part of the solution. In the next article in this series, I will talk about non-music, non-photo files and the problem of access when you are on a public or friend’s computer.

Note: My friend Sarabjeet also mentioned the company called Box.Net as a competitor to Dropbox and Zumodrive. However, Box.Net is more geared towards the enterprise user. I see it as a SaaS version of Microsoft’s Sharepoint product.

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The WOW! factor, a comparison with babies and dogs

Aug 27 2010 Published by Ben Chong under Business, Marketing, Product

This happens everyday here in Silicon Valley: an entrepreneur whips out his latest thingamajig and runs it through its paces in front of an audience, and the reaction is “Wow! That’s cool!”

And the entrepreneur thinks that he has it made.

What has this got to do with babies and dogs?

Well, when your friends bring their baby to visit you, your reaction will probably be “oh, how cute!” or “that’s a beautiful baby!” and coo at the kid.

The question is: will you want to stay 24/7 with the baby?

As a parent, I would say that babies cute but only if they are someone else’s, at arms’ length and for no more than 5 minutes at a time.

The same applies to dogs. The cute, fluffy pomeranian at the park may be a whiny, demanding dog at home.

And that applies to any new product or product concept.

When you, the entrepreneur, talks about a new product idea or when you demo your new thing, you may get a very positive reaction from the audience.

The questions you need to ask yourself and that audience are whether:

(a) they are willing to pay for that new product

(b) they are willing to use that new product everyday of every week

In the consumer package goods (CPG) world, this is called repeat purchases. When you run a promo for a new toothpaste, you can see a spike of orders. This doesn’t necessarily mean anything. The key indicator of success are the repeat purchases: customers who are so satisfied with the new toothpaste, that they come back for more.

A case in point is that ultra mobile PC (UMPC) I talked about in my previous article, the Asus R2H. It had very positive reviews. Some users referred to its “wow” factor.

But ultimately, it was not a usable product: you could not use it everyday of every week without getting frustrated.

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The UMPC: yet another idea that was too early

Aug 25 2010 Published by Ben Chong under Business, Marketing, Product, Gadgets

Does anyone remember the UMPC aka the Ultra Mobile PC?

It was only about 3 years ago that the press was all agog with the idea of UMPCs and MIDs (mobile internet devices). Even consumers were excited by the idea: a super small handheld PC that you can use on the go; no keyboard or mouse needed, thank you!

The Asus R2H was one example of a UMPC. It came with a 900MHz Celeron processor and Windows XP Tablet edition. User input/interaction was via a pen/touch screen combo. Versions of this UMPC even included a GPS module.

The resulting product was completely unusable.

The CPU was too slow, the operating system was original intended for a large screen/keyboard/mouse paradigm and everything, from the on-screen keyboard to pop-ups, dialog boxes and application windows got in the way of what you are trying to do.

As part of my work, I actually went through the OOBE (out of box experience) of the R2H and could not even set the screen resolution: the change resolution dialog box was outside of the visible screen area.

Fast forward to today and look at the Apple iPad and Android devices. At the IFA show in Berlin, manufacturers from Archos to ViewSonic will be unveiling a number of Android-based tablets.

Any one of these devices will beat the R2H hands down in performance, size and usability. For a size comparison, just look at the photo comparing the R2H (left) with the Dell Streak (right). Interestingly, both devices have the same screen resolution (800×480):

For the question of performance and usability, the answer has to do with using the right hardware and software.

The Dell Streak, for example, uses an ARM processor. One that is optimized for running at low temperatures, with low power consumption, yet at a 1GHz clock speed that is fast enough for driving a web browser.

The software is also not skin-deep derivative of a desktop operating system. Instead of taking a standard desktop Linux and grafting some “tablet” features onto (as some earlier Linux devices have done), Google made deep enough changes (including branching the Linux kernels) to enable a user experience that was more appropriate for the type of devices that Android was going to run on: small screen sizes, low resolutions, using a touch screen user interaction paradigm.

As a result, you don’t have multiple overlapping windows that get in the way. You have an onscreen keyboard that is not trying to duplicate a real keyboard in functionality (down to that Windows key).

This hardware/software confluence or alignment is what makes a great product.

And all of the above also applies to Apple’s iPad and iPhone products.

As far as the UMPC is concerned, the problem in retrospect, was Intel’s and Microsoft’s obsession with keeping the legacy parts of the company happy. So we had a derivative of a desktop processor and a derivative of a desktop operating system that were both trying to do something they were not designed for.

Intel made a mistake selling off its StrongARM product line. But it is trying to make up with lower power ATOM processors. The launch of the iPad resulted in HP canceling its Windows 7-based slate product and Microsoft is back to the drawing board to develop an operating system more suitable for a tablet device.

The question is whether Intel and Microsoft will be willing to break enough with their legacy businesses to be truly innovative.

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