Posts Tagged iPhone

Booyah’s MyTown Running Out of Ideas?

Nov 14

Posted by Andrew Machado in Technology | 8,228 Comments

I wrote about Booyah’s MyTown iPhone game awhile back about how fast the app felt on my iPhone.  Well they recently released their fifth version of the application and it has me a bit worried.

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If you look closely you’ll notice all that is new for a full point release are unlimited levels and stamps.  That’s it.  Is as if they’ve said look we tried to get people scan products for levels, decorate their places, but we are out of ideas and this will be the last update.

I will be very curious to see if they update the app again.  Maybe they are fully focussed on InCrowd which felt really rushed to me in the 1.0 version and I haven’t checked it out since.

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What I Expect From Apple Tomorrow…

Jan 26

Posted by Andrew Machado in Technology | 8,961 Comments

There is a lot of rumors going around about what Apple will launch tomorrow.  I think it is safe to say Apple will be launching a tablet device, but what kind of features will it have?

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1.  Extremely long battery life with 3G/CDMA disabled (more on that later)

Apple has been working on form fitting batteries for quite some time with the currently shipping MacBook Pros and Apple iPhones.  These batteries are custom made to fit inside these enclosures and are built into the design rather than making them removable.  This allows Apple to further think about packing more cells into a small space and not having to worry about designing a lock mechanism for batteries seen on other phones and laptops.  Sadly this means you have to take it to the genius bar to get it replaced.  That being said the Apple Tablet will be thin and contain a screen large enough that you have plenty of volume to pack a nice battery into.  If I had to peg a time on battery life I’ll say 8 to 10 hours of browsing time.

2.  Persistant Wireless Connection

I had previously written about the JooJoo explaining how it will fail with one reason being a lack of a persistent wireless connection.  We are in an age where if a device can not access the internet easily and consistently it fails.  Apple knows this and will bundle 802.11g/n on this device along with an optional data connection.  My prediction for this is a built in 3G connection and on revision two a 4g.  With 3g being a worldwide standard Apple could ship one standard model of device with unique firmware depending on the country its being sold in.  3G browsing is very expensive on battery life, I believe it uses nearly 40% more battery than browsing over 802.11 so expect Apple to make tweaks to the Operating System to quickly allow users to toggle between connections.

3.  Verizon

AT&T’s exclusive contract with the iPhone doesn’t run out till June, but that does not apply to this device.  Expect it to ship with a the dual band chip which isnt currently shipping, but will be by the time this device hits the market.  It allows Apple to get maximum distribution on every network possible and get this device everywhere.  Apple needs to bridge the gap until 4G is everywhere which wont be for 1 to 2 years.

4.  Video Conferencing

I previously covered this in my article about what is coming to the iPhone in 2010. Video conferencing will be on this device.  It will have enough power, cameras are small enough and cheap enough throwing them in is not expensive.  It also opens up opportunities in the UI to do some cool stuff such as Facial Log In, picture taking ability and even video recording.  Expect iChat to finally hit the iPhone OS with this announcement.

5.  Nvidia

Manufacturing GPUs is tough, its why Apple doesn’t get into this space when they design motherboards.  Nvidia will be coming back into the fold of Apple products after getting booted out of future MacBooks.  In this device will be a product of the Tegra chipset giving the tablet enough horsepower to handle Web Video and gaming without nuking the battery life.

6.  High Resolution

Sony has been shipping a laptop for awhile with a high res 10.1 inch screen.  I expect Apple to use this in their first model, its 1366 x 768 inside a 10 inch space.  Amazing.  It will allow the tablet to display 720 p video which lines up with their push on iTunes for HD video as well as YouTube HD content.

I can’t wait for tomorrow.

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How Important Speed is in Applications and the Web..

Jan 22

Posted by Andrew Machado in Technology | 8,619 Comments

Over the last few weeks we have been investigating speed at Apture. I’ve been most curious in the effects of speed when a user browses the web or interacts with applications. Today I wanted to focus on a few applications and sites I’ve noticed where speed makes me not only use the product more but really wonder how they did it.

1. Quora.com
Quora.com has the single fastest search engine I’ve ever seen. The way it recommends data in real time to me is astounding. I found myself typing random phrases into its system just to see it keep recommending topics. Let’s take a look at it.

Apture CEO Tristan Harris recently inquired on Quora’s site how they got the search engine so quick and accurate. Their response from Adam D’Angelo, Quora Founder “It’s a service written in C++ designed to be fast and designed for prefix matching. Normally autocomplete interfaces on websites are backed by database queries, or by search engines like Sphinx or Lucene that weren’t originally designed for prefix matching or designed for speed, which makes them slower. There’s a lot more that goes into the autocomplete results than just the query to our backend service though”

This type of speed and presentation makes the service feel so game like. It can not be understated how important it is.

2. MyTown (iPhone Application)
MyTown is an iPhone game with over 500,000 users. It is designed by ex-Blizzard employees and centers around Checking into venues ala foursquare or gowalla, but with a twist. You can buy the properties you often check into and get rewarded money and powerups as your level up and people check into your owned properties.

What made me fall in love with this app besides it being game like was the speed at which you could navigate the UI and quickly check into places. My friend Kirk recently completed the game over the last 3 days due to addictability, but without the speed at which he was able to navigate he wouldve given up.  With simple finger swipes you can navigate through properties, results for local business’ load quickly and the experience feels seamless.  The game has gotten so popular even TechCrunch covered it recently touting that Booyah’s game has received 31 million checkins to business’.  Amazing.

3.  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Modern Warfare 2 recently topped $1 billion in sales equaling over 15 million copies.  Astounding.  What blows me away the most about this game from the fun combat, clever leveling system is the speed at which you can get into a game.  I dont just mean how fast from the title screen till when you are in the battlefield, but the speed at which the game boots up on my PlayStation 3.  I’ve never seen a game of this caliber with such speed from boot to playing.

Whats really impressed me is mind share wise I find myself when having a free 10 minutes convincing myself that I can get a game in because I know how fast the game boots and is ready for me.  This has lead me to put in over 40+ hours on this game since getting it in November.

Speed is imperative to consumer success.  Just ask Google.  In tests they conducted reducing the average search results by .400 ms caused a drop in searches of .6%.  You spread that number out of over time and it can matter. Speed changes how people think of your product.  Make sure you are quick.

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The JooJoo and why it will fail

Dec 8

Posted by Andrew Machado in Technology | 10,031 Comments

Announced today was the JooJoo the latest in the internet/tablet device arms race.  It’s a tablet with the world’s largest touchdscreen for a tablet at 12.1 inches.  It has built in Wifi and is built for one thing…surfing the web.  The specs for a device like this are very nice.  It contains an Intel Atom processor running at 1.6ghz, 4gb of flash memory and should surf the web plenty fast, but as you’ll see in the video below I think there are a couple of problems with this device.

1.  It does not have 3G built in

If you want to take this device online you have to hook it up to a WiFi hot spot.  I realize 3G is a tremendous power draw on a device (if you surf the web on an iPhone via 802.11 over 3g you should see 50% longer battery life), but when you are talking about an internet device it should be able to get on the internet anywhere.

2.  It’s only running on an Atom 1.6ghz processor

Atom processors are great for battery life, but for a device like this with Multi-Touch and a screen as large as a 12.1 inches you need a really solid machine to push around Flash, HD Video, amongst other things.  I realize the GPU handles a great majority of Flash content, but you’ll notice in the video when he starts to scroll top to bottom or left to right it gets a bit choppy.

3.  The “operating system” is proprietary

I realize this is an internet computer, but it is running a webkit based “operating system” and will not be compatible with FireFox plugins, Google Extentions, etc.  Essentially all of the functionality of this device is going to have to be built my JooJoo which doesn’t sound too fun.

4.  It’s $499

You read that right.  A device with no operating system, no 3g and running on an atom processor for $499.

Hardware is a tough market to compete in.  Palm tried it earlier this year and is seeing their device for under 50% of their original subsidized price.  You usually take a loss on the hardware in hopes of selling software for it (see the Amazon Kindle, Sony PlayStation 3, etc).  With the JooJoo it is entering a crowded space with the likes of Dell, IBM and as of tomorrow the entire Media industry including Time Inc.

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