Back in 2009, Steve Balmer introduced Microsoft’s new strategy of “three screens and a cloud” – namely the mobile screen, the PC screen, and the TV screen, all interlinked together by a unifying cloud. Let’s take a step sideways and looking at what Apple has done over the past few years, and my personal prediction of Apple’s strategy going forward into the future.

Apple started with their foray into mobile screen way back Steve Jobs introduced the iPod back in 2001, which created a big disruption over the music industry. Apple then introduced the iTunes Store 2 years later in 2003, creating the first music store online disrupting the entire online sales space, laying the foundation of the largest most successful online content store in history coupled together with their hot-selling iPod devices.

In 2007, Apple went into the fragmented mobile phones space by introducing a revolutionary iPhone 2G that introduced a unique interaction with your phone – purely touch. A year later, Apple introduced the “App Store” for the iPhone, piggy-backing the highly successful iTunes Store, growing the apps ecosystem in the mobile phone space.

All the while doing that, Apple innovated and revolutionized the MacBook line by introducing the MacBook Air – the first super thin and light mobile laptop computing system that got everyone in the industry scrambling to imitate Apple, unsuccessfully.

Not only that, Apple introduced a new screen form factor, the iPad recently in 2010, which provided a different experience yet maintaining the familiar iOS user experience together with the apps eco-system that comes with the iPhone.

Also in 2010, Apple introduced the newest 2nd generation Apple TV, coupling streaming video service into a lightweight and cheap USD$99 device. Google has already forayed into this space too with Google TV, but unsuccessfully at doing any damage to the existing TV eco-system.

Going forward in a few weeks time, iCloud will be released publicly which Apple has time and again failed their MobileMe cloud strategy. The iCloud will be synchronizing all your content like photos, music, videos, documents, contacts, calendar, mail and apps to your iPhone, iPad, Macs.

So where am I getting at? Does this sound familiar to you? Doesn’t it sound like Microsoft’s “three screens and a cloud” strategy? Apple has captured the mobile screen – iPod, iPhone, iPad (yes it falls under this); the laptop/desktop screen -MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac Pro; the TV screen – Apple TV (really? Maybe not, as I explain below); the cloud – iCloud + iTunes and content services.

So what is lacking in this picture, knowing that Apple loves to maintain strict control over everything from hardware to software to services and content? During Apple’s Q1 2011 financial results announcement, we already know that Apple made $3.9 billion long term investments in components supply for the next few years.

Here’s what I think the next disruptive revolutionary technology Apple is going to introduce. The Apple iTV (or whatever they’re going to call it). Why do I say that, and why not just use the Apple TV companion device instead?

The television manufacturing industry is still relatively immature, with very unsuccessful attempts at making SmartTVs by Samsung, LG, and various others. Apple potentially has the ability to disrupt this industry and make this the next biggest cash-cow of Apple. Not only that, Apple will also be killing another industry altogether – the console gaming industry.

Imagine your Apple iTV running iOS, with the ability to interact with your iPad or iPhone as a control device. Together with the ability to directly purchase and consume content directly from your TV, synchronizing all your content (photos, videos, etc) to all devices using iCloud, and of course providing the ability to run apps and games on your Apple iTV.

Utilizing the huge pool of developers currently writing iOS applications, these developers will be able to create a whole slew of new interface apps to the TV. With the control over the hardware of the TV screen by pushing the resolution higher than ever before, providing the best experience with iOS and content.

How about democratizing hand gestures with your Apple iTV by licensing a motion gesture technology aka Microsoft Kinect? Knowing Apple, they may even come up with a completely new way to interact with your Apple iTV (read “not touch”).

Your Apple iTV will be the living room extension of your Apple experience. That is the future.

Google launched Google+ just a few weeks ago, and it has boomed into a relentless hunger from the Social Media scene to be on the newest and hottest social media platform from one of the most popular brands on the planet, Google. However, I still hear a lot of people asking what exactly is Google+, why they should want to be on it, and how to use Google+. Well, I’m going to try to answer all those questions, and talk about what will become possible in future for Google with this new Google+ social media platform.

Be forewarned, this is a pretty heavy article. Read on after the break.

The New Social Media Platform

Google+ can be seen as a mashup between Facebook and Twitter, bringing concepts from both popular social platform into Google+. Fundamentally, Google+ views all your friends as friend circles which is very similar to Facebook Friend Groups. However, Google+ forces you to sort your friends into the individual circles when you “follow” your friends and forces you to think how to categorize your friends. Adding a friend into a circle is different from friending a person on Facebook. Google+ uses the Twitter’s style of “following” where you follow your friend and the content he shares, but he doesn’t necessarily have to follow you back. This allows you to control the content you share while still receiving the content you want on the Google+ Stream.

When you take a look at Google+ Stream, it looks very much like Facebook with the streaming content on your “wall” from your friends, and also the ability to share the usual content like website links, photos/galleries, videos and locations to your friends.

Of course, if Google+ offers you exactly the same as Facebook, there’s no reason for you to switch. Google added the ability to edit what you share even AFTER you’ve shared it. Not only that, you can specifically target the content you share to 5 types:

• Public - Visible to anyone who’s added you to a circle, as well as on your public profile
• Your Circles - Everyone in your circles
• Extended Circles - Everyone in your circles, plus all the people in their circles
• Individual Circles – Everyone in a specific circle
• Individual - A specific person

This pretty much gives you complete control over who you want to consume the content you share, which is the entire premise of Google+. Controlling your content to a controlled circle of friends, or public, whichever your choice is in a simple manner, right in your face.

The Glue of Google

I had a discussion about Google last year with Daniel Tsou, our chief of Tech65, about the possibility of a Google OS (maybe a future Chrome OS) completely made of all the Google services available tied seamlessly together. However, the one missing piece we both agreed was lacking is a platform unifying all the services, a Google social platform similar to Facebook except geared towards an entire OS ecosystem on the cloud. This, as we have predicted, is now called Google+.

Google+ (or fondly called G+) is what I would call the glue between all the Google Services. The aggregation of all the individual services into one unifying platform while still maintaining its individuality, which is very critical to Google’s existing services. Right now, Google Picasa (soon to be rebranded Google Photos), Google Buzz, Google Chat, etc have been somewhat integrated in some form or other into the social platform giving the service an actual consumer-centric purpose rather than a standalone service. This is only the first step.

Going forward, I foresee more services from Google will be tightly integrated into Google+, like Google Mail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Youtube while still leaving these services accessible as separate entities should you not want to consume them within a single Google+ social platform. The possibilities become endless when you provide a social sharing platform to these services. Integration and synchronization of your Google+ friends with Google Contacts will make managing contacts a breeze, giving you the ability to keep yourself updated with your individual contacts.

Similarly, integrating some of Google’s existing communities like Youtube, Google Hotpot, Google Places, Google Offers, etc. into Google+ while maintaining each separate community (or simply phasing out the community if it doesn’t make sense) will increase the interaction and activity in these services. Your Google+ Stream will become richer, with more content and notification services tightly integrated into a stream of information which you can filter based on your circles (that’s why circles are important). Google+ will be the one social platform you’ll go to for all your information and happenings.

Google Buzz is like the awkward uncle you never talk about, and Google+ Stream is like the cool uncle everyone loves (right now anyway). Personally, I think Google Buzz should really be phased out and include the ability to connect twitter and Facebook directly into the Google+ Stream. Not only that, if Google provides the ability to connect to every other social platform today and in future into G+, it won’t alienate other existing social platforms.

Integrating Google Translate into G+ will allow conversations across borders, breaking all possible language boundaries by providing the ability to converse and translate almost in real-time with increasing accuracy as more people use Google Translate. Imagine the possibilities on this one.

So… You have photos, videos, blogs, location, other social platforms, emails, calendar appointments, documents, etc… All tied into 1 single platform called G+. Now, imagine this is your “cloud” operating system.

That is Google+, the glue between the Google Services.

P.S. I’ve decided to split this into 2 parts. In Part 2, I will talk about the potential benefits from Google’s side of things, and what might happen to Google 5-10 years down the road. Watch for Part 2 soon.

In light of the recent explosion of mobile smart phones, many people have asked the same question – “Which smart phone is the best?” There are many phones that are better in some ways than others, yet doesn’t perform as well in other ways. Different people have different usages and different needs out of their phones. The better question when getting a smart phone to first ask – “Which smart phone operating system is for me?” – before choosing which phone to buy.

Apple iOS

Let’s start with one of the most popular mobile OS in Singapore, Apple iOS. It’s simple, responsive, clean and consistent interface, with lots of applications and games from the Apple App Store to extend the functionality of your phone. It’s very app-centric where you have a whole range of apps for your various needs. If you’re a person who just wants a phone that can give you a “no fuss, no muss” experience, Apple iOS is for you. However, if you’re looking to do more than what Apple has dictated for your phone, read on.

Google Android

Google Android OS takes the opposite spectrum of Apple. It’s highly customizable, flexible, with various complex interactions to use the phone. The integration with all things Google (e.g. Gmail, Google Maps, Google Calendar, YouTube, etc) is very tight with majority of the features found on the web also available on the Android apps. The home screen allows you to put various widgets, icons, folders, etc., up to your heart’s content. If you’re a person who uses the various Google services and loves to personalize your phone, Google Android is for you. However, if you feel lost without some direction, or just require a simplistic use of your phone, you might want to consider the other mobile OSes.

RIM BlackBerry

RIM BlackBerry has always been strong in the mobile enterprise messaging space. With its interface primarily focused on messaging together with its secured encryption and private BlackBerry network, it makes a very compelling reason to use this phone as a business phone or a messaging device. If you’re a person spends a lot of time communicating through text messages, instant messaging, emails, or just simply typing a lot, BlackBerry OS is for you.

Microsoft Windows Phone 7

Microsoft Windows Phone 7 is a new player in the mobile OS space. It focuses on putting information at your fingertips. The tiled home screen allows you to consume information quickly with a flick of a button. The entire phone OS interface is geared towards showing information efficiently, effectively, plainly, without fluff so you can quickly understand what information is presented to you. If you’re a person who consumes loads of information every day, from reading emails to social feeds, from photos to the news, give Windows Phone 7 a try. You might just like it.

Summary

There are many similarities between all the smart phone OSes out there, like the ability to download applications and games or to surf the web with a browser. However, different smart phone OSes are great for different uses and needs, catering for different types of people. So, “Which Mobile Smart Phone OS is for You?”

Apple recently announced iPhone OS 4.0 enabling “multitasking” of a sorts. I want to dig slightly deeper into understanding what they actually mean by this “multitasking”, without talking too much about the nitty gritty details.

There are 7 kinds of “services” they expose for multitasking:

• Background Audio
• Voice over IP
• Background Location
• Push Notifications
• Local Notifications
• Task Completion
• Fast App Switching

Among all 7 “services” exposed, 6 of them are somewhat already available in the system itself, one way or another, with hidden APIs not exposed for public developer usage. Let’s take a look at each of them, and how they might “save battery” without “slowing down the system”.

Background Audio

The background audio is simply what the iTunes application already does, which is to play audio in the background without having the iTunes application open. This simply means they just expose what iPhone can already do to developers. This does not make any changes to slowing down the system in any way, since people have been using the iTunes application to play background music since the first iteration of the iPhone and iPod Touch. However, understand that the application does not remain open at all, only a small portion of the “application” remains streaming the music.

Voice over IP

Voice services has been around ever since the beginning of the iPhone (duh?!?) with the Phone application, running constantly in the background to “receive” calls. This, in fact, is also not a full fledged application at all, but a small part of code that “reacts” to an action by the OS (namely the voice service) to load up the application and “receive” the action to do something about it.

Background Location

Similarly with the voice service, it is simply a “reaction” or a “response” to an action that the OS has prompted, in this case, your GPS or Wifi location based services. This is probably one of the things that will drain your battery pretty quickly, since these services do take a lot of resources. However, since the control lies with the OS of how and when to serve up this reaction and NOT the application that decides to take over your entire GPS and Wifi location based services into their hands and drain your battery dry, the OS will probably have some battery consideration when location is required, hopefully not letting the application go rogue.

Push Notifications

What can I say? It’s been done, and been available since the last iPhone OS 3.0 release. I think it’s just put here for good measure. Once again, it is a “reaction” and not true multitasking.

Local Notifications

This is simply the same thing as your “scheduled task” or “timer” for those familiar with the terminologies. This, too, isn’t having your entire application open, but simply just a small part of it that you register to a scheduler to run it when required.

Task Completion

This is slightly interesting because it isn’t a “reaction” to something, but letting a “thread”, “process”, or keeping with this post’s terminology “a small part of the app” running in the background, and when that finishes it just automatically closes the application. This has potential for having a rogue application that simply just continuously have an infinite loop to keep the application open. I’m curious to find out how much is exposed, or only certain services like “downloading” and “uploading” are available.

Fast App Switching

This is ALSO not true multitasking, where the application once lost focus will save its state, close itself, and not “run” at all. Only after reopening, the state is restored, and the application is once resumed again. So in fact, anything running will have to be resumed, for example connection to the internet and so on. This means that it does not actually continue to run at all. However, with what was covered in the previous 6 ways of multitasking, you can very well achieve seamless “multitasking” with “Task Completion”, “Local Notifications” and so on.

Summary

What does this all mean? Steve Jobs has redefined what multitasking actually means and converted the meaning to a consumer terminology. Consumers do not want true multitasking, but a pseudo-version of it with all the benefits of multitasking, and also the benefits of a fast and responsive OS. But does this mean that developers will have more to worry about, trying to work around what’s available to them to create a seamless so-called “multitasking” application? Most of what Apple has announced isn’t anything new at all to the iPhone OS, it is simply just exposing it with a tight grip, disallowing developers to go rogue.

Do note that all this right now is speculation based on what makes sense to me until I actually see the SDK.

We’re having an Open House viewing on 21st November at 6pm onwards together with the BarCamp After Party. I hope everyone can come and take a look at what we have achieved as a community.

Here are some photos of the raw-ness of Hackerspace.SG right now.

HTC Hero Review Part 1: The hardware
HTC Hero Review Part 2: The Sense

We @ tech65.org also did a quick video overview about the hardware and we will do an in-depth review once Tech65 gets its hands on a review unit.

Original Video Post: HTC Hero First Look (HD Video)

Link: Official Homepage

I finally bought the 13” MacBook Pro, 2.53GHz with an 8gig RAM upgrade. I’ve used it for more than 2 months and here are my thoughts on it. I’m splitting this post into 2 parts, where I’ll talk about what I like in this post, and what I dislike in the next post.

I love you, MacBook Pro

One of the things I really love is the hardware itself. The unibody case is very well crafted together with the screen. The aluminium gives it a very nice touch and feel to it, although be very careful if there are power leaks. My MacBook Pro had a power leak once and got pretty feisty because of the aluminium casing. For those who know me personally, I have the tendency to caress this marvellous piece of craftsmanship very lovingly.

The screen is brightly lit with LED backlit, displaying great graphics and clear images. Even though the screen is glossy and reflective, I don’t really have any problems with the reflection as I initially thought I might have. I like the glass panel protecting the screen although it adds a little weight to the overall laptop.

The multi-touch trackpad is a pleasure to use, with various multi-touch gestures that are inbuilt into the operating system. For example, I love the 2 finger scroll up/down gesture; the 3 finger back/forth gesture; the 4 finger swipe up/down for expose and swipe left/right to switch applications. It is well integrated into the operating system and works on most applications which really makes the experience all the more complete.

The keyboard feel is not too stiff and not to deep to type. It isn’t stiff and clickity like some keyboards out there. It has a different feeling from my usual Thinkpad keyboards, but I like this new MacBook Pro style of keyboard. The backlight on the keyboard is a refreshing change from the slowly deteriorating ThinkLight technology.

The new non-removable battery is exactly as what Apple proclaims, of much better quality. Although I can only get less than 3-4 hours with my virtual machine turned on, and a little more than 5-6 hours with my normal applications running, it is more than satisfactory as opposed to my previous Thinkpad. It’s been 2 months, yet I’ve been able to get consistently 96-98% full battery charge, which is pretty good. The battery usually gets reduced to 93-95% or less after 2 months of my normal usage on previous laptops. Just a refresh of the battery usually brings the maximum battery charge back a little higher. I’m very impressed with the quality of the battery, and what Apple has done to make it robust and last for quite some time. To get almost all the information you need regarding your battery, download coconutBattery. The maximum capacity for this battery is 5450 mAh and my current maximum charge is 5300 mAH with about 60 charges.

One of the greatest features I love on the Mac OS X is Spaces. Now I can’t live without Spaces. I assign different Space for different uses. Space 1 contains my web browser, which is mainly what I use, and various other activities like QuickTime for watching movies, and listening to music. It is my main workspace. Space 2 contains my various communication avenues, like twitter, IRC chat, instant messengers, etc. Space 3 contains my news reader and various news related applications. This is the workspace where I just sit back and relax, reading my news for a few minutes before I get back to work. Space 4 contains my Windows 7 virtual machine, which I use for coding, and other Windows related activities. I love this ability to compartmentalise my life into different spaces to manage my tech lifestyle. There are many applications out there that allows virtual desktops on Windows 7, but I haven’t really found anything that’s nice. If you do, leave a comment.

Spotlight is another really great tool that I find really useful to load up applications and search for various information related to your search criteria. Windows 7 has the feature too, but it isn’t as powerful as Spotlight. One things that Spotlight wins over Windows 7’s search implementation is it has it’s own dictionary application which is able to search for the definition of a certain word. That, my friend, is the most useful feature I’ve ever come across, especially when writing articles, emails, documents, or just chatting with friends. You are also able to use it as a calculator just to do quick calculations. There are applications that offer this feature too, like Skylight and Launchy, but it’s either too resource intensive or just isn’t as clean and good as Spotlight.

But I think the best feature, which I’m sure everyone would agree, is the speed it takes to sleep and resume from sleep. To me, it is an amazing experience to be able to open your MacBook Pro and just able to use it within 2-5 seconds, as opposed to Windows 7 which takes a fair amount of time to wake up for its sleep. Putting it to sleep is really a pleasure, especially when you’re in a hurry to go somewhere. Although it is great, but it didn’t fully sleep for just once, which made the MacBook Pro extremely hot. I had to turn it shut it down manually in order not to let it overheat any longer.

Although there are many features on both the MacBook Pro, hardware-wise, and the Mac OS X, software-wise, that I like, I have many complaints about it. There is a love-hate relationship between my MacBook Pro and myself.

Stay tuned for Part 2 when I discuss the bad and the ugly of both the MacBook Pro and Mac OS X.

Disclaimer: These are my own opinions, and do not represent anyone, any organization or any company’s opinions.

Special thanks to Jaryl Sim for editing my post. Anyway here it is.

CodeAndroid early look at Zii Egg – waiting to bite

Analysing how a successful product/solution become successful is basically what I’ve been thinking about the last few days.

To have a successful product/solution, you’ll need to have a solid Vision for it. Vision to bring the product/solution far and wide. That means you’ll have to promote, advertise, and get people to listen to you.

Next. You need to have Passion to drive the product/solution. With passion, you can bring the product to higher reaches. With Passion, you can imagine the possibilities out there.

Next. Cooperation VS Competition. For me, I’d rather choose Cooperation. Cooperation yields almost the same result as Competition. You further your product/solution to become better, you strive to be better than your competitor. But Cooperation really brings about a whole new meaning to everything. Let me explain. Cooperating will give your users/clients a better and smoother ride along your product/solution.

Next. Don’t think of possibilities. Try out unknown possibilities and see how it can start something new. What I mean is, instead of pondering how we can work together, why don’t you think, we CAN work together, let’s discuss further how we can work together even more. During this discussion or whatever, you’ll start seeing MORE possibilities coming out than you thinking of it by yourself without the other party.

Next. Possibilities are the Key to Innovation. Don’t turn away any idea or possibility that might come into your mind. Keep it. Archive it. Store it for later use. Don’t let your mind be restricted by what you can do. Possibilities are limitless, it is you who set the limit.

Next. And I think it’s the most important point. User Experience. It’s really how your user/client enjoy using your product/solution and how easy it is to use it. Don’t restraint yourself to within the box. Think and innovate outside, and new possibilities on new ways you can create your user experience. I’m not talking about fanciful graphics and such. I’m talking about a totally new concept that’s natural, easy to pick up, and it’s just simply fun to do.

That’s about all I want to say. Summed up from my previous attempt to post. I’m going to copy this post just in case. I hope someone reads this and actually finds this useful.

Disclaimer. These are my own thoughts. And some discussion points I might like to bring up. I might be wrong.

There are alot of very wonderful and fantastic products, solutions, applications out there that alot of people do not know of. Why is that so? Because they lack the vision to promote, advertise and gain the public’s interest. Vision is very important and you have to get that straight down way before you get anything done. What do I want this product or solution to achieve? How am I going to achieve it? Not only that, which I’m going to go on to my next point here.

The next question you should ask yourself. Who and How can I cooperate with other people, companies, organisations, government? This will expand your horizons and discover new ways to improve your product/solution, and to find new ways to collaborate with your partners.

Yet another question you must ask yourself, do you have the drive to carry this out? You must foremost have the passion and the belief to carry all these out. You also need to have to come up with more plans, more ideas constantly to improve your product/solution. You will also need to think outside your box. For example, how would a totally unrelated subject/thing can help with my product/solution, or how can my product/solution help it/them/her/his?

It’s quite vague right now as it’s an idea that’s been swarming around my head. Because what I realise with Asians is that they are quite closed-minded, living in the box, and very competitive.

Another point I want to bring up also. Cooperation VS Competition. I see more sense in finding ways to cooperate than to compete. With cooperation, you co-exist and work together, helping each other in some ways or another, to improve each other’s solution/product. One must start the initiative to give first, and the other must also have the initiative to return in favour. In this aspect, each can grow in its own ways. Why compete, when you can cooperate to make something even better together? Or make the customer’s lives better by having our products/solution work together?

I’d like to bring up is to try out new ideas. Always try it. Don’t be afraid to carry it out. Don’t keep thinking of how you’re going to do it. You’ll have to solve it some day. JUST DO IT (NIKE Trademark).

Lastly, it’s to engage in new possibilities even when THERE AREN’T ANY POSSIBILITIES YET. It’s always good to sit down and discuss informally, and somewhere somehow something might come up, and we go back to the Cooperation point. Cooperate.

What I can say now is.

Possibilities are Limitless, It is Only YOU Setting The Limit.

Possibilities are the key to Innovation.

Always concentrate on the Solution, and not think about the problem.

Cheers. I hope to read this blog one day and realise what I think now is true and can apply everywhere.