Apple iCloud and the future of computing

Monday 6th June 2011 saw Apple announce iCloud at its worldwide developer conference.  It was the 3rd element of a major software revamp, the other two being OSX Lion and iOS5.

iCloud is important for many reasons, one of which is that it will build trust in cloud technologies through Apple's massive user base, and give developers the environments to deliver cloud based applications.

This is significantly different from Google Apps, Microsoft Azure, and the Amazon S3 environments.  This is Apple delivering one set of benefits of cloud computing to its users.

For the moment this is about content storage and synchronisation.  By content they specifically mean music, photos, email, contacts, calendars, book and apps.  They'll also store some device configuration files too.  What's remarkable is that they're giving this solution away for free, removing the previous subscription product (MobileMe), and opening it up to everyone.  Even Windows based users with iTunes.

However I see this being bigger than the near-term offerings.  For me this is about eventual hardware abstraction, where the device you hold in your hand is basically a connection to the internet.  In the cloud there will be an operating system running that is fully customised for you, and will enable and disable relevant apps depending on the particular device your using.  Let me explain with an example;

You have an iPhone, an iPad and an iMac.  You also have a bluetooth headset.  Your iPhone has a SIM card and is connected to a carrier and getting 3G data.  The iPad and iMac are wifi only devices.

Lets say the carrier mast has failed and standard calls and 3G data are unavailable, you do however have wifi.  The cloud OS recognized this and automatically diverts calls the iPad and the bluetooth headset.  Or you're working in a photo editing app on the iPad and move within range of the iMac.  The cloud OS knows that the iMac has more processing power, so asks if you want to migrate the editing app and the work in progress to the faster machine.

Sounds like fantasy?  Well iCloud is the foundation infrastructure for all of these possibilities.  it may even lead to devices that are completely basic in terms of local processing capability, but have diverse connectivity options (transferring data across multiple bonded wifi networks and 3G) meaning fast access to your own environment running in a datacentre.

The media have been broadly approving of these developments, although I did read a piece in the Evening Standard where Roy Greenslade commented "the global behemoths such as Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon, that bestride the internet, gradually acquiring unaccountable power and influence through their control of so much information about so many of us."

I personally think this is sensationalism of a fairly benign issue.  We can all either opt-in or opt-out of these technologies, but ultimately it's about convenience.  As a species we have less time to do as we like.  I used to use 35mm film and take it to Boots for processing.  Now I upload a flash card to iPhoto and it takes seconds not days.

When we subscribe to these services we are giving some information about ourselves to these organisations, but it's the price we have to pay to experience their products.  I believe it's a price worth paying.

Windows Phone 7 on HTC 7 Trophy

I'm going to open this article with 2 quotes;

"Windows Phone 7 is an entirely fresh mobile experience, on which HTC is excited to be going big.  We see tremendous customer opportunities with Microsoft's most popular services like Xbox LIVE and Zune integrated.  The value Microsoft is bringing to mobile customers around the world sets a new benchmark for the industry.  HTC will be introducing five new HTC Windows Phone 7 Smartphones at launch to support our customers with a broad variety of choice."

Peter Chou, CEO, HTC Corp.

"We're delighted to be partnering with Microsoft to bring the HTC 7 Trophy to our customers as a Vodafone exclusive.  Not only does the phone have all the 'quietly brilliant' innovations that HTC is famous for, but it comes with the new Windows Phone 7 services and user experience.  Along with the LG E900 Optimus 7, the Windows Phone 7 additions to our Smartphone range will further enhance the choice we give our customers."

Patrick Chomet, Group Director of Terminals, Vodafone Group plc

I've had the HTC 7 Trophy for about 10 days, and as it didn't spark me within the first couple of hours, I've needed to force myself to drop the iPhone 4 and BlackBerry 9800 for 48 hours so I can comprehensively test it.

Will all the marketing spend that Windows Phone 7 has received I had high hopes for the OS and the handset.  I was even primed by a colleague at Microsoft that it was a great alternative to Apple's iPhone.

I'm going to get the tech specs out of the way first.  The model I tested was the T8686 with a 1GHz CPU.  It has 8Gb of internal storage, 512Mb of ROM, and 576Mb of RAM, has a 3.8" touch screen, 5 megapixel camera that also records 720p HD video, and weighs in at 140 grams.  On the network front it supports GSM, GPRS, EDGE, HSPA and WCDMA, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, and 802.11 b/g/n wifi.  It has a standard micro-USB for charging and computer connection, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

In the hand it feels robust yet has a silky feel to the plastic case on the back.  The screen is clear, and the buttons have positive click response.  Photos and videos look great, music sounds great.  The camera takes good pictures, and the video record quality is good.  The handset itself is a really nice piece of hardware, although the 8Gb internal storage seems a little light compared to the 32Gb on the iPhone 4.

The Windows Phone 7 OS is a different beast altogether.  The Home screen is customisable in that you can move the tiles around meaning what's important to you is the first thing you see.  The arrow pointing right leads to the rest of the applications and the phone settings.

The most important thing to me on a smartphone is email integration.  I have multiple email accounts including Exchange, Google Apps and a couple of other generic IMAP accounts.  One of the things that Apple Mail does brilliantly on the iPhone is the consolidated inbox.  Unfortunately Windows Phone 7 doesn't replicate this; each email account is displayed as a separate tile on the Home screen, meaning the additional functionality that I'd like to put there is displaced.  Yes you can scroll down and see the other tiles, but it negates the idea of the Home screen.

In terms of getting my own content onto the handset, Windows computers were the easy option.  When I first connected the HTC Trophy to an iMac, it started charging, but nothing else.  I had to download the Windows Phone Connector for Mac, which is an interface between iTunes, iPhoto and the handset.  Once installed, it did a good job of getting content on there, however it failed with the DRM movies and TV shows that I'd bought from the iTunes Store.  The other point I wanted to mention was sync time - it took nearly 90minutes to move 8Gb of content from the iMac to the handset.  And I can categorically confirm it isn't the iMac that is the problem here, I regularly move content between the iPhone 4 and the BlackBerry 9800 via the same USB ports.

While we're on the topic of content, I thought I'd check out the Zune store for album pricing.  I wanted to buy the Magnetic Man album - Zune price: £10.99, iTunes price: £8.99 - I bought it on iTunes.

I took the handset to the gym this morning instead of the iPhone.  All the music sounded good, apart from the 3 second delay between tracks.  I've searched the phone for the setting to disable this, but didn't find it.  Many of the albums I listen to are continuous, and it's extremely irritating to have a gap in there.  Again, Apple resolved this with the early iPods, so Windows Phone need to add this to their update list.

As a hardware reviewer, probably the most desirable feature of any handset is screen capture.  Apple delivered this in the first generation iPhone; BlackBerry didn't deliver it on the 9800 (but 3rd party developers did), and Microsoft have failed to deliver it here.  What this essentially means is that I'm forced to use standard marketing materials form Microsoft and HTC, try and use an emulator and capture those images, or take photos using another device.  It's a little thing, but it makes such a big difference.

Considering this phone is free depending on the Vodafone price plan you adopt it's not a bad phone.  As with all things, it's diminishing returns the more you pay, and a free HTC Trophy at £35 per month vs. a £279 iPhone 4 handset at £35 per month might seem a no-brainer.  Let's just be clear that in my opinion, the OS that Microsoft has released is probably much like one that Steve Jobs canned in 2004.  When businesses are playing catch-up, they often cut corners, and Windows Phone 7 clearly feels mo where near as polished as iOS4.  We've also yet to learn how Microsoft will update the software, and how frequently.

In summary, Windows Phone 7 is a great start, but the Windows 7 computer OS has been through multiple iterations to become the solid platform it is today.  My feeling is that the Windos Phone OS will have to go through the same hoops before it's a real contender as a handset OS.

I'd love to see iOS4 on the HTC Trophy though...

XBox Kinect - the experience so far

So you've all heard about it, and not surprising when Microsoft had an advertising budget of $500 million to keep us all informed.  Kinect is the latest XBox 360 add-on to give you gesture control of your Xbox interface, and interactive gaming without the need of a controller.  As I already had a 360 Slim that I purchased earlier in the year, all I needed was the Kinect sensor add-on.  In the box you get the Kinect unit, a power supply that makes the sensor compatible with first generation 360 units, and a copy of Kinect Adventures.

I admit it, it took me a while to get this setup, primarily due to the launch of Call of Duty Back Ops, but also needing to re-tech my house to the living room, since my home office didn't have a big enough space to jump around in.  Hence a further £650 on a new TV which will be reviewed later.

Setting up was easy; place the sensor in front of the TV and connect to the AUX port on the back of the 360S.  This port is a modified USB port which has extra power specifically for the Kinect unit.  Next was the room scan, and here's where I had some difficulties.  My living room is a basic rectangle with two sofas on adjacent walls.  The TV and Kinect unit are on a stand in the corner.  The room dimensions are approximately 5m x 3m, and during the calibration was trying to get us to stand where the sofa was.  Funny, but didn't do the room calibration much good.  User calibration was much better.  We already had XBox profiles, and using the Kinect ID application linked those profiles to the physical characteristics of each player.

Next we moved onto gameplay.  Kinect Adventures is all we have at the moment, and has you jumping around with a variety of games.  You can go rafting through rapids, popping bubbles in zero gravity, and even on a track where you have to duck and jump obstacles.  The technology is good enough to auto-recognise players as they move in and out of the playspace, so a one player game quickly becomes a two player game.  Occasionally it did get this wrong, specifically between my wife and my eldest son, and I think this is something to do with them being close in height, and that William tends to stand in front of Kathy leading to potential sensor confusion.  It's easily overcome in the menus by selecting your avatar.

The only other issue worth commenting about is my 4-year old.  Getting him to stand in the right place for calibration was a nightmare, and what took everyone else just a couple of minutes, took about 25 minutes with Callum.

All-in-all, Kinect is a great piece of kit.  For my wife to say 'it's very clever the way it detects you and instantly updates the in-game player' carries more gravitas than any technology review.  The last major IT revelations for her were BT Vision pause live TV and record from a programme guide, and iPlayer on the iMac.  She also said without prompting that it was way more fun that the Nintendo Wii.  If Kinect can achieve that with just a few hours of gameplay, imagine what's possible with feedback data and a couple of Microsoft pateches.

William had a great idea about the playspace calibration.  He suggested that we should be able to mask off areas in the space that can't be used.  For us Brits with small houses, it kind of makes sense.

Google Apps - small business application nirvana

Google is universally known for being the go-to search engine when looking for information.  A lesser-known arm of their business is Google Apps, and this article will discuss its components in detail.

Google Apps is a group of applications designed to deliver business class services through the internet.  The applications include Email, Calendar, Contacts, Groups, Docs, Sites, Tasks, Video and Voice.  There's no server hardware required; Google host all of these services on their hardware.  All you need is an internet connection, and a computer or mobile with a browser.

I've been actively using Google Apps for ZXZ Consulting for over 3 years, and have further installed for 2 other clients.  What makes it a brilliant proposition is the overall cost.  In the UK you pay £33 per user per year for the Premier edition.  The Standard edition is free.  I'm going to talk specifically about the Premier edition.

The cost here is important.  Before Apple released the Mac Mini with Snow Leopard Server, most businesses had the choice of Microsoft and their Exchange email server, or for the larger businesses, Lotus Notes.  Both the Microsoft and Lotus messaging solutions required that businesses have their own hardware to run the applications on, and therefore usually an IT function to support it.  The total cost of ownership for a business messaging environment could run into many thousands of pounds, placing this kind of technology out of reach for small businesses.  And along came GMail.

Gmail was born in 2004 and offered 1Gb of mail storage to invited users.  A year later, Google increased the storage amount to 7.5Gb sending internal IT departments into disarray.  At that time server storage was expensive and IT functions were generally restricting email account sizes to between 100Mb and 1Gb.  Having users tell you that they received a better email experience from GMail became a recurring event.  In 2006 Google announced GMail For Your Domain, and soon after Google Apps For Your Domain.  This meant that you could use your own domain name and have access to the Google suite of applications.  The next major step was to introduce Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook, meaning users familiar with Outlook and essentially reluctant to move to the web-based interface could sync their Google Apps email to the Outlook application.  Google Apps Mail is the resulting application from this.

The other applications supplement email; Calendar give you and your team a fully customisable calendar with options to make it visible on the internet.  Docs is a space where you can share documents and edit them in real time.  Sites empowers you to create internal websites for teams, or even a full on internet site.  Alongside these you have Chat, Voice and Video, which makes collaboration that much easier.  It means you don't have to use separate applications for chat and video-conferencing; Google Apps has it built in.

While Google does provide exceedingly good value for money, it does make the internet connection even more important.  If a small business migrates to the Google Apps environment, a key thing to ensure is that you have a service level agreement with your ISP so that you'll know response times and fix times should your service be interrupted.  With all the money you've saved, it would be a good idea to have a secondary backup line which activates should the primary fail.

If you're interested in looking at Google Apps for your small business, feel free to get in touch through the Contact page.

XBox Kinect - video conferencing for everyone

11th November 2010 will be a day to remember - Microsoft will launch globally the XBox Kinect kit and living rooms will never be the same again.

In April this year, Microsoft announced their Q1 earnings, and along with it a statement that 40 million XBox 360 units had been sold.  40 million.  It's a massive number, and a further 4.2 million have been sold since then.  With holiday season just around the corner, you can bet that people are asking the console question.  And Kinect may have a sting in the tail for Sony and Nintendo.

When Nintendo introduced the Wii it was a revelation, engaging people to move during their games, and becoming part of the home AV suite and bringing families and friends together.  At that time, Sony and Microsoft were firmly rooted in the old school gamer mindset; handheld controller, the best graphics that the console can handle, and targeted at people with high disposable income.  The Wii was perceived as not good enough graphically for the hardcore gamer, and generally aimed at children.

Needless to say that Wii Fit and the balance board opened a different market - that of the interactive home exercise market.  Hardcore gamers remained on the Microsoft and Sony platforms, but Wii was generating its own market.  The sales numbers speak for themselves - according to VGChartz.com Wii has 47% market share with 75.1 million units sold.  Microsoft have 27.7%, and Sony have 25.2%.  I think this is about to change.

Kinect for me will be the trigger for XBox sales to go crazy.  That and the fact that the new slim version is so much better than the previous one.  BUilt-in hard disk, smaller footprint, and wifi make it a really great console.  Kinect with its movement games will enhance that, but for me it's videoconferencing that will really make XBox come to the masses.

For years we've been hearing about videoconferencing in business, saving organisations countless millions in expenses, and countless man-hours from not having to fly to meetings all the time.  It's now time for that technology to migrate tot he home.  Don't get me wrong, Skype, iChat, Yahoo Messenger and the plethora of other instant messaging clients do a great job at delivering video from computer to computer.  I'm a big Skype fan as it's cross platform, and even my Mum can use it.  The thing is, it's on a computer in a spare room, or a corner, and isn't ideally located for family communications.  Enter Kinect.

XBox consoles need HDMI or Composite to display on TV's, which generally means more modern sets, which generally means 28" screen size minimum.  Imagine having a video call with your family from your living room, and seeing them in their living room?  All the benefits that businesses have had from the early 90's (PictureTel, Tandberg and Polycom) will finally come to the masses.

As with all technologies we're in a flux period.  Skype are embedding their software into Panasonic TV's, Sony already has the Eye for their PS3 range, and Kinect is entering the fray.  My prediction is that for a time you will be committed to a single platform - by that I mean that XBox Kinect users will only be able to communicate to other XBox Kinect users and possibly MSN Messenger users on computers, Skype will only talk to Skype etc., however there will eventually be standardisation where any console will be able to make a video call to anyone on any video capable device.

I'll be getting my Kinect kit next week and will review fully in a future post.  In the dim and distant past I wrote my thesis on remote working, and postulated that video conferencing would give knowledge workers the freedom to do their job from any location, and managers the ability to oversee projects across multiple geographies from their chair.  To some degree I think that's happening, but the move to the living room is the ultimate goal for me.