Как програмиста/журналиста променя новините?

Днес търсенето за програмист / журналисти е един знак за това как Интернет е променил новините. Докато ролята стана особено важно за много напред мислене новини организации, традиционни редакциите често са все още се борят да се интегрират програмист / журналисти в ежедневието си работен процес.
Говорих с някои програмист / журналисти за своите ипотпал хибридни роли в новини покритие. Те трябваше да предложи много за новите граници на журналистиката и как програмист / журналисти водят до безпрецедентни стойност за стартиране, така и на основните организации, новини.

[Via http://ipotpalex.wordpress.com]

stable 2.1 available for Droid

So I was browsing the internet and I went to Endgadget and I saw a post about a stable version of 2.1 out for droid and from what I here it is fast so go check it out If I find the files I will post the here butright now I don’t know where to get them. *Please do this at you own risk*.

Via:Endgadget

[Via http://blackberryfoster.wordpress.com]

한국 최초의 안드로이드 스마트폰

아이폰이 이 정도 큰 바람을 불고 올 것이라고 SKT는 예상하고 있었을까? 내가 볼 땐 천만에 말씀, 만만의 콩떡이다.

T옴니아2가 어느 정도 아이폰 대항마 역할을 해줄 것이라 생각했던 것 같은데. 팔리는 건 그럭저럭 팔리는 지 모르겠지만 얼굴 들기가 남사스러울 정도로 온라인에서는 온통 아이폰 이야기 뿐이다.

아이폰을 윈모가 깔린 스마트폰(옴니아2)으로 대항하겠다고? 말도 안되는 소리다. HTC 정도 UI에 일가견이 있는 선수들이 진짜 열라열라 고민해서 내놓은 HD2정도 되면 또 모를까.

결국 SKT는 뭘로 이 아이폰 폭풍과 맞서야 하나. 결국 안드로이드밖에 답이 없다. 원래 안드로이드 밖에 답이 없었고, 이건 우리나라 뿐만 아니라 다른 나라도 마찬가지다.

그럼.. 이 시점에서 SKT에서 출시될 첫 안드로이드 모델은 무엇일까. 결론부터 먼저 얘기하자면 둘 중 하나다. 삼성에서 새로 내놓는 모델, 아니면 모토롤라의 드로이드가 될 확율이 가장 높다.

모토롤라에서 1월에 내놓을 모델은 드로이드

모토롤라의 안드로이드폰 출시는 1월 출시가 거의 확정적인 것으로 보인다. 언론에서도 수차례 보도가 되었고, ‘정통한 소식통’을 통해 들어오는 소식도 마찬가지.

선보일 모델도 정해진 것으로 보인다. 지난 11월 US에 내놓은 Android 2.0이 탑재되어 있는 드로이드. 전세계에서 현재 아이폰 대항마로 인정받는 거의 유일한 모델이다.

이 모델을 한국사용자들 입맛에 꼭 맞춰서 들여오면서, (사용자 입맛이라고 했지, 통신사 입맛이라 하지 않았다)  Google Goggle, Google Navigation 등 구글의 첨단 Mobile Service를 얹어서 출시하면 아이폰 하고도 충분히 해볼 만 하다. 제대로 된 스마트폰 전쟁이 시작될 수 있다.

(참고로 혹자는 모토롤라의 한국 출시 첫 모델로 Cliq 얘기가 오가고 있다고 했으나 그 가능성은 희박해 보인다. 한국 사용자가 바보냐?)

문제는 삼성

국내 휴대폰 지난 10년 내내 부동의 1위 자리를 지킨 삼성전자. 이번에 아이폰 때문에 한국에서 스타일 완전 제대로 구겼다. 아이폰과 1:1 대결구도 형성에 어느 정도 성공하면서 오히려 옴니아2의 판매댓수는 늘어나기도 했지만 온라인 등에서 아이폰 때문에 생긴 옴니아2에 대한 냉소 등은 ‘옴니아의 굴욕’을 넘어 ‘애니콜의 굴욕’이라 불릴 만 하다.

또 삼성입장에서 국내시장은 그렇게 큰 시장은 아니다. 하지만 명색이 한국 기업이고 명색이 안방이다. 안방에서 온갖 수모 다 겪으며 맨날 지낼 수는 없다. 결국 아이폰에 삼성도 반격을 해야 하는데.. 뭘 갖고 하느냐, 답은 역시 안드로이드 밖에 없다.

‘한국 최초의 안드로이드폰’이라는 타이틀을 삼성이 놓치고 싶을까? 나 같으면 놓치고 싶지 않을 것 같다. 무조건 모토롤라 드로이드보다 하루라도 더 일찍 내놓으려 할 것이다.

이렇게 진행될 때 나는 2가지가 걱정된다.

1. 안드로이드 버전이 2.0이 아닌 1.5 혹은 1.6으로 나올 것
   매우 걱정되는 부분이다. 안드로이드 2.0은 지금까지 출시된 폰 들 중 모토롤라 드로이드에만 탑재되어 있다. 삼성이 발표한 폰들 중 1.6이상이 탑재되어 있는 폰은 아직 없다. (요새 구글이 직접 내놓을 것이라는 소문이 무성하게 돌고 있는 Nexus One은 2.1이 깔려서 나온다는데, 1.6은 뒤떨어져도 한참 뒤떨어진 느낌을 준다.)
   삼성은 글로벌휴대폰 제조사다. 한국은 작은 마켓이다. 삼성이 이번 한국 출시만을 위해 2.0폰을 만들어 내놓을 확율은 내가 볼 때는 아주 적다.
   



2. 옴니아2에도 못 미치는 사양의 폰이 나올 가능성
   삼성에서 지금까지 해외에 내놓은 안드로이드폰 중에 이렇다 할 만한 것은 아직 없었다. 삼성이 지금까지 출시한 안드로이드폰은 Galaxy, Moment, Spica 등 몇 모델이 있는데 ‘그럭저럭 괜찮은 폰’이라는 평은 있어도, 어느 누구에게서도 ‘최고의 폰’ 등 드로이드 급의 대우는 받아본 적이 없는 폰들이라는 것이다.

멋진 넘 아니면 삼성이 모토롤라에게 양보하기를..

난 이번에 한국에 최초로 나오는 안드로이드폰은 ‘멋진 넘’이기를 바란다. 아이폰보다 더 좋던가 아니면 아이폰 만한 넘이 나왔으면 좋겠다. 현재 전세계적으로 그 정도 대우받고 있는 넘은 아직은 모토롤라의 드로이드 밖에 없다.

삼성이 내놔도 좋다. 하지만 그동안 해외시장에 조용히 맛뵈기 식으로 슬그머니 내놓은 그런 넘 말고 진짜 제대로 된 HW스펙에 안드로이드 2.1이나 2.0에, 제대로 된 UI가 들어있는, 그런 안드로이드폰을 내놓기를 희망한다.

그래야만 ‘지대로 된’ 안드로이드의 바람이 불 것이다.

난 바람을 맛보고 싶다.

@sbroh

이 정도 멋진 Quality로는 내놔주셔야 되지 안카슴?

[Via http://sbroh.wordpress.com]

Nine ways of looking at a Google phone

The long-rumored gPhone has surfaced, but no one can agree about what it means

The purported Google phone. Photo: Cory O'Brien

Google (GOOG) announced on its mobile blog Saturday what dozens of staffers had already leaked: the company has given employees around the world free handsets running its Android mobile operating system. The idea, according to the official report, is to have Google’s own people test various advanced features and offer feedback to the company’s designers — a process known in the business as “dogfooding” (as in “eating your own dogfood”).

Not surprisingly, given Google’s financial clout and the power it wields over the Internet, the experiment has launched a storm of speculation about what it means. As we sort through the theories, we count at least nine ways of looking at the Google phone.

1. Google is in the process of designing an unlocked cellphone that it plans to sell directly to the public online — bypassing the mobile carriers and brick-and-mortar retailers — sometime next year. This is the line TechCrunch took first and the Wall Street Journal has picked up, citing unnamed sources “familiar with the matter.”  This theory underlies much of the theorizing that follows.
2. Google has watched with dismay as smartphone makers tweak the Android OS to suit their needs, fragmenting the software ecosystem and scaring off developers. “By putting its stake in the ground,” writes GigaOm’s Om Malik, “the company is hoping that it doesn’t make the mistake that Microsoft made by dragging its feet in releasing Zune and ceding the market to Apple’s iPod.”
3. Apple (AAPL) has finally met its match in a competitor that has the resources, the partners and the staying power to challenge the iPhone. This, finally, is the real iPhone killer.
4. The iPhone, despite the failure of AT&T’s (T) network to keep up with bandwidth demands in high-profile urban markets, continues to sell like crazy. Google realizes it has to move fast or the game will be lost.
5. A Google phone sold without a subsidy from the mobile carriers would be prohibitively expensive — at least $400, and probably more like $500 or $600, according to Ian Betteridge’s back of the envelope calculations. (See his comments here.) A carrier like T-Mobile (DT) could sell the same phone for a fraction of the price.
6. Google could subsidize the phone out of its own pocket, perhaps giving it away for free to drive more traffic to its revenue-producing ads — a strategy that’s worked for nearly every other project in Google Labs.
7. If Google were to try to sell a smartphone below cost, the company would be facing a 21st century version of the Microsoft (MSFT) antitrust trials, and the start of a long, slow decline.
8. Google is about to alienate the very hardware manufacturers it’s counting on to carry the Android flag. Why would customers buy a Motorola (MOT) Droid, for example, when they could get the official Android smartphone from Google?
9. Google has no intention of making its own hardware. The so-called Google phone is actually  the HTC Passion (AKA Bravo), an Android 2.1 smartphone set for U.S. release by T-Mobile in January. The “dogfooding” exercise is exactly what Google said it was — a way to test a bunch of advanced Android features on a friendly user base before they go public.

[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]

[Via http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com]

First videos of the Android-powered Motorola Opus One for Boost Mobile

Someone at Motorola needs to call the plumber. I’ve never seen so many leaks from a handset company. Or maybe all of this is staged for hype? Who knows?

Last week, the first pictures of the Motorola Opus One were revealed. BGR reported the device would support Sprint Nextel’s iDEN network and which lead us to speculate it is headed to Boost Mobile.

Boost Mobile offers no contract, pre-paid plans including the popular Monthly Unlimited Plan at $50. The Opus One would be the first Android phone for Boost Mobile and be marketed as their flagship device.

The Story

Imagine you are walking down the beach and you pick up a phone. The device is a shiny new touchscreen phone that you have never seen before. You rush home to search for the phone on Google, but are not coming up with any relevant results.

This is exactly what happened to our friend Jay. He found the new Motorola Opus One and just happened to have a working Boost Mobile SIM card. Here is his story:

I was in South Beach the other night and found this phone. I then notice it was a Nextel. I don’t own a Nextel but I put my Boost sim card on it and it worked perfectly then I notice that this phone has not been released yet. I wrote to Nextel letting them the situation and they replied the following.

jay84305YouTuber

Jay claims he actually got a response from Sprint and they confirmed it was a new phone. I find this a little hard to believe since carriers will never comment on unreleased products. Read it and see what you think. Real or fake?

Dear *******,

Thank you for contacting Sprint and showing interest in our products & services.

We are testing on it and hope to introduce this phone soon. Once it is launched, you will see promotional campaigns related to the launch date and the features of the handset on our Web site and other promotional media.

Please let us know if you would like us to assist you with anything else.

Perry K.Sprint

He then proceeds to upload four videos to YouTube of him playing with the phone. The device is identified as the upcoming Motorola Opus One and it is running MotoBlur powered by Android 1.5. The phone boots up with the Nextel logo, but most Sprint Nextel phones with direct connect are marketed under the Boost Mobile brand.

Watch his first video as he recaps his story and plays with the phone. I don’t think he has ever heard of Android, but he obviously thinks the phone is very cool.

Click here for the video…..

After making the videos, he then goes on to say he put the phone up for sale on Ebay and he thinks it was purchased by the person who lost it (for around $200-300 $850). I couldn’t find the Ebay auction, but maybe someone with some more time on their hands could locate it.

As crazy as the story sounds, I think the entire thing is actually believable. While some parts of it may have been exaggerated, this guy did find a Opus One and demonstrate it working on the Boost Mobile network. It looks like the device is pretty close to a final build and I would expect it to launch in the next couple of months.

Would anyone switch to Boost Mobile to get a cheap Android phone and their $50 unlimited service?

leave your comments…

[Via http://jdnews.wordpress.com]

Motorola: Brits buy boring.

So Motorola’s just started advertising the Droid in the UK. Except rather than ‘Droid’, as Motorola calls the phone in the US, our version is called ‘Milestone’. And instead of adverts showing stealth fighter planes bombing us with advanced technology, we get some voice-over lady telling us about ‘versatility’. Am I the only one who thinks we got the short straw?

(apologies if youtube pulls either of these.)

check out the US advert here.

check out the UK advert here.

Full disclosure as I start: I am an H G Wells fan, and any film that references The War of the Worlds would probably get my vote automatically. I’m not adverse to stealth jets either.  Honestly, the eight year-old in me thinks they’re actually rather awesome. So when I say that I think the US advert has its charms, I do have some less-than-formal reasons for doing so. However, our bland UK alternative leaves me feeling as if there’s more reasons for me to prefer the US’s version than simply its engagement with Michael Bay-esque boyish fantasy. These two adverts show a modern, useful consumer item being pitched in drastically different ways, and when that happens, it’s because somebody out there thinks that two groups of people buy for very different reasons.

I’m not going to get into the value of the US commercial. As much as I generally love US marketing strategies, quite a few of them would take a bit of time to logically justify (that recent Michael Bay ‘Victoria’s Secret’ ad springs to mind…). More interesting to me is the UK advert, and it’s attempt to basically pummel the viewer with a list of ‘features’. Roughly speaking, that list is:

1. the phone’s ‘advanced’, allowing a ‘richer, deeper experience’
2. connectivity: ‘connect in an instant’
3. adapatable – it ‘gets smarter’
4. it ‘knows where you are’
5. it ‘understands what you want’
6. runs android 2.0 (well, 2.1 pretty soon, but they don’t mention that)
7. it has both real keyboard + virtual one on its touchscreen
8. camera: ‘experience life clearer, wider, richer, the way it was meant to be seen’
9. and in conclusion: it is ‘without compromise’

Now call me crazy, but i don’t really see any USP’s in that list, other than perhaps Android 2.0, and that point of difference is going to mean nothing by the time the phone goes mainstream in the UK. It’s not really the product’s fault; after all, the boys at Engadget called DROID ‘the best Android phone to date’ [read the full review here], and with a little work, it wouldn’t be too hard to pull this advert into meaningful differentiation info (i’d focus on Android and Google integration myself, maybe the screen res, maybe the 5mp camera over iPhone 3gS’s 3.1mp). But that’s not what the list achieves; rather than being informative, it’s over-long, verbose, full of ultimately meaningless assurances. The effect it has is pretty much the opposite of what it should have done: it makes you wonder if the ‘Milestone’ does, in fact, have anything going for it.

To make this point clearer, consider the ad in the context of some other recent phone marketing. Apple’s recent iPhone brand work in the UK has put a lot of focus on the App Store, such as this example from World of Apple. Now that, at least, is successfully identifying a point of difference, since no other service comes close to the volume of apps Apple’s got up on their store. HTC, in their own way, follow the same USP tactic; the whole ‘quietly brilliant’ campaign seems to reflect HTC’s focus on Android pretty well, identifying the OS’s somewhat-of-a-newcomer status and picking up on the general public tech sense that anything by Google must be pretty decent. Even when they move onto the whole interactivity aspect – ‘you don’t need to get a phone, you need a phone that gets you’ – they keep it satisfyingly focused, such as this example for the Hero [image from slashgear].What could Motorola have picked up from all these enemy broadcasts? If i wanted to point out the path to Motorola, i’d probably remind them that ‘Droid’ being the first proper Android 2.0 device was probably part of why they decided to brand it as ‘Milestone’ over here in Europe in the first place. So what happened to that? If they’d stuck to their guns and kept it simple, they’d have a pretty clear USP, at least for initial exposure.

Pulling back to what I was thinking about when I started writing this post, I have to wonder why Motorola decided to so drastically alter the presentation. I guess it’s probably different US and EMEA offices commissioning different campaigns, but i still feel that the stealth fighter jets would have been a better option. (Honestly: when are they not?) As gloriously ambiguous as the US ad is, at least it sticks to roughly one main point: Droid is the most advanced, future-proof phone on the market. If we try and presume that the last line of the Euro ad is the heavy hitter, then we have to try and work with its primary point being that it is a phone ‘without compromise’. That’s a hard pill to swallow. Without getting into it too much, how is a phone that offers both touch screen and actual keyboards not in some way a compromise? And when you consider that Android 2.1 is probably getting pushed out to the phone sometime in Q1 2010, it seems that the release OS was equally the result of pragmatism. Especially when we remember that – at the moment – there’s no Google Maps Navigation in Europe.

So what do i propose? As it is, we get a boring ad as well as an undersold product. No one wins there. So why not have more HG Wells, and more stealth fighter jets? At least then we’d get an enjoyable viewing experience. And whilst you’re there, bring back that Orange ad where Steven Seagal pitches a romcom to Orange by destroying a golf cart.

R

[edit: comment aside, the minimal initial indications are that Milestone is pre-ordering like hot cakes. We'll have to wait and see what happens with general release. Maybe Motorola's European taste sensors got the boring ad right?]

[Via http://thoughtsbyroland.wordpress.com]

Bloggers, Help with Wireless Phone/Device Choice! DROID? Blackberry®?

It’s time for me to upgrade my ‘phone’. I am currently using Blackberry…happy with it. I am upgrading for a couple reasons 1) love new phones/devices 2) my phone gets abused #devicecarefail’

I would love love love for others to leave me their comments, opinions, experiences, etc., regarding Verizon’s options, only with phones NOT plans. There is so much to read, compare and/or chart on these, I just don’t have the time. Okay, #confession to me it feels like going back to school for only course I didn’t like Complex Analysis (Math 315)

NOOoooooo !!!!!

Peeps, please help me out?

DROID ? Blackberry® ? oiy! Check it !

 http://phones.verizonwireless.com/motorola/droid/   #imjustsayin ;D

Check it out. DROID by Motorola is fast. Like scary fast. You can blaze across the Web with a massive processor and Verizon’s powerful 3G network. You don’t even need to type! With Google Search™ by Voice, you just tell it what you want and DROID searches the Web to find it. You can switch between up to six apps at once! Choose a few (or a few hundred) from Android Market™ and try it yourself. DROID won’t bother you while you’re running those apps. It keeps disruptive alerts at bay in a handy expandable notification panel.
It’s a pint–sized power plant. It’s location–aware. Voice–recognizing. App–mashing and multi–tasking. It can see through walls. And connect you to anyone or anything at break–neck speed. At some point, power and intelligence mean something more than a phone. At some point, you have yourself a DROID by Motorola.

DROID is a trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd. and its related companies. Used under license.

or stick with….
BlackBerry®

BlackBerry® Storm2™ 9550 smartphone ?
BlackBerry® Tour™ 9630 smartphone ?
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=phoneFirst&action=viewPhoneOverviewByDevice&deviceType=BlackBerry%20Devices
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/index.html

aaah…good ‘ol Mashable aka @mashable on Twitter .  His blog really helped! http://mashable.com/2009/10/29/droid-vs-iphone/

[Via http://dawnspitfire.wordpress.com]

Break out your Android goggles for Google Visual Search

Google Visual Search is coming to Android. Hartmut Neven, Google Product Manage, revealed the new application during a recent CNBC special “Inside the Mind of Google“. The service allows users to take pictures of real world objects and generate a Google search related to the item. The technology uses visual recognition engines and location based services to provide accurate results.

Mr. Neven gave several examples of how the service could be used such as:

“Imagine you are on travel in Paris and you visit a museum. If a picture catches your attention you can simply take a photo and send it to the VMS service. Within seconds you will receive an audio-visual narrative explaining the image to you. If you happen to be connected to a 3G network the response time would be below a second. After the museum visit you might step outside and see a coffeehouse.”

We have been speculating that Google could offer free VOIP calling service when they launch their own phone next year and this is another example of how they could monetize the service. Google’s recent acquisition of Admob is going to be key in their mobile advertising ambitions.

I was unable to find a video of the Google Visual Search demo, but they had a short clip talking about Android. Most of the footage is from this year’s Google I/O. I was actually in the same room with Sergey Brin on some of those shots and I half expected to see myself in some of the clips, but no luck.

[Via http://jdnews.wordpress.com]