Daryl Baxter.

Hey Google+, Scrap the Social Network, take Skype head on instead.

Google + has always been a like/dislike relationship with me.

I first used it when it was in beta, and for a couple of weeks or so, it was ok, but i thought it was irrelevant.

Then i saw Google Hangout.

At this point, you were able to watch a YouTube video in the same hangout, but that was about it. But it showed promise.

I then decided to get rid of it, mainly as i knew one person who was using it, and i couldn’t justify using Facebook, Twitter, and now a 3rd social network. It only had hangout as its trump card, and if they had that as a separate app, i’d definitely use it.

Around a month ago, i decided to go back, to solely promote this blog, and see what had changed.

Apart from a refreshed UI, not a lot.

But it wasn’t until earlier today that i used Hangout, and the amount of features are mind boggling.

Here’s a couple that caught me eye:

• Join an existing hangout, so in a way, you’re becoming a live audience member to an indie TV Show, which i think is brilliant.
• Not only watch YouTube synchronously, but draw Doodles, play games, share Google Docs, and have 9 people join one hangout.

The reason i used Hangout earlier was because I need a service that not only does video conferencing to 3 people, but able to show rough sketches and videos.

Skype did the first point well, but only on the desktop. If you try this on an iPad or iPhone, you can only participate in an existing call, and only hear and see the recipients, but they can only hear you.

Maybe we’ll see an update that will fix this, but for now, it’s a bit crazy.

I proposed that if the other two join Google+, we can use it solely for Hangout.

So one lad is directed to the Google+ main page, and the first thing he says is this:

Straight away with this point, alienation smacks Google+ around the head a thousand times over, and all these potential users miss out on Hangout.

We then try Hangout, and after using top hats, it’s brilliant.

But, the UI for a Hangout on an iPad is so confusing, we decide to go back to Skype and hold up pieces of paper on the screen.

Hangout really has the potential to become a rival to Skype, FaceTime, and any other video conferencing applications, but if it’s only going to be a feature of Google+, it’s a wasted opportunity.

I still don’t see the point for Google+ as a social network, people are used to Facebook because, going back 5 or so years, the reason it exploded was because it was user friendly, and it catered to all age ranges, which MySpace failed to do.

I’ve always and will continue to believe, that if Hangout becomes a separate app on all devices, brings the features of a doodle feature and the ability to watch a video and comment at the same time, it’s got huge potential.

With Google + it’s dragging a huge weight behind.

From Acorn to ARM.

A little fact for yourselves:

The first computers i used was an Acorn Computer & a BBC Micro. My primary school only had these, as it was before the boom of Windows 95, and these would be the only computers you could find in a school.

I remember in the breaks when it would rain, if you weren’t playing ‘Guess Who’, you could go on one of these machines and load up a floppy disk nearly the size of a magazine.

But, if you remember playing this, then you’re in my good books:

I remember loading it on the 5 inch floppy disks, and typing anything to see what he would do.

Whereas the Acorn, i remember it loosely resembling a Windows 95 desktop, but the pixels managed on less than 256 colours and was mainly used to make the banners across the classroom.

This and the Mega Drive is when it all began.

So i came across an article detailing how Acorn went from building their own computers and OS, to designing the chips used in 99% of mobile devices today.

Herman Hauser was once asked why a great British success story like Acorn finally failed. He queried the last word: “There are over 100 companies in the Cambridge area that can trace their beginnings back to Acorn, and have been founded by Acorn alumni. ARM has now sold over ten billion processors, ten times more than Intel.”

Source.

The original ‘Google Phone’ in 2006.

Another interesting story from the Oracle vs. Google case ongoing:

At that time, touchscreen support wasn’t a requirement — in fact, the baseline specs required two soft menu keys, indicating that touchscreens weren’t really in the plan at all. 

Back in 2006, Google had Android working on TI’s OMAP850 processor “in three form factors,” and functional apps included the dialer, home screen, messaging app, contacts, and an early example of Android’s ubiquitous WebKit-based browser; implementations of Google Talk, Gmail, Calendar, MMS, “chat-based SMS” (presumably a threaded messaging app), and POP email were expected for Q3 of that same year. That’s a lot of functionality considering that it would be another year and a half before we’d see the first Android prototypes on display.

All told, Google expected Android to be certified by carriers between June 1st and August 31st of 2007, at which point it’d be released to manufacturers. Of course, it wasn’t until October of 2008 that the G1 hit shelves.

Pictures can be seen in the source link.
I wonder why they changed to make the touchscreen the focus of the phone?

Source.

Google Drive launches.

Often rumoured, lately often leaked service finally launches:

Today, we’re introducing Google Drive—a place where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all of your stuff. Whether you’re working with a friend on a joint research project, planning a wedding with your fiancé or tracking a budget with roommates, you can do it in Drive. You can upload and access all of your files, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and beyond. 

If you’ve got dropbox like myself, I wouldn’t bother, but if you believe ignorance is bliss , go for it.

Source.

YouTube adds more editing features to Audio

We introduced AudioSwap to let you replace a video’s soundtrack for free with a song from our library of thousands of tracks. With more of you using AudioSwap and giving us lots of feedback, we have some cool improvements to share today in YouTube Audio Editing:

• You asked for more tracks, and our library of songs now includes more than 150,000 tracks—and growing!

• You can now mix music into your video’s soundtrack at levels ranging from “soft background” to “completely replace.”

• Our “featured tracks” make it easy to find the best songs across genres for a variety of moods.

• We’ve revamped the Audio Editing user interface to make it easier to use.

I’m struggling to understand why Google Video is still active.

Source.

Larry Page doesn’t think ‘Android is critical’ to Google.

File under ‘what you must never say when in charge’:

When asked if he believed Android was a critical asset to Google around 2010, Page said: “I believe Android was very important for Google. I wouldn’t say it was critical.”

When asked whether Google’s board of directors was told that Android was critical to Google, Page stated that he wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case, but that he wasn’t sure he’d go that far. He elaborated that Android was a means to get pre-existing Google services to mobile users. “We’d been frustrated getting our technology out to people,” said Page.

Even though in a way it’s the best method of offering it’s many services on one device, it’s not the smartest answer to give when Android is one of the most popular mobile OS’s for mid to low end smartphones.

Source.

Free Dongle!

Although the Transformer Prime is not a professional GPS device, as part of our unwavering commitment to customers we are offering all Transformer Prime owners a free external GPS extension kit, called a dongle, which may help improve signal reception and optimize the user experience. 

Imagine if Apple had to deal with this.

Source.