Here is an insightful bit from this comment in this Slashdot discussion:
Someone I know went for a job interview with (I think) Vodafone. Their open-plan office was set out according to the OSI model — physical layer people at the end, application people at the other end, and everyone in order in between!
Talk about integration of technology and corporate culture…
Today is the last day of The Mobile World Congress which takes place in Barcelona. Makers of everything mobile (as in phones, not as in real estates opposite) are showing off their stuff at this event. Also, there are many announcements, news, and releases tied to the dates of the congress.
It seems like a good time to revisit the Android story. Is it moving it all? What’s happening there? Will we see any of it any time soon?
It appears that the Android is moving along as planned. There were a few pre-production prototypes at The Mobile World Congress, and people were pretty much impressed with them.
The biggest surprise of the demos was how well Android runs on slow devices.
In other news, Google released a new version of Android SDK. This new version brought a few major changes and improvements, fixed many things that developers complained about.
The upgrade also takes to heart developer complaints about the software and includes several major but less visible upgrades: in addition to easier development of layouts, any app can now translate addresses to map coordinates and back. Audio formats such as MIDI and OGG are now also built-in, according to Google.
The same source suggests that we will indeed see some phones in the second half of 2008, as it was planned and announced last year.
Android’s upgrade brings the Linux-based platform much closer to production quality for its expected release, which should start with handsets in the second half of the year from companies such as HTC, Motorola, LG, and Samsung. Most of these devices are understood to focus heavily on Internet access and are expected to include some models with GPS and touchscreens.
Yesterday I posted about some ultra-rapid development – a couple of days for a web application. Well, it turns out I didn’t do my homework, since two days is an ultra-slow development. At least compared to 45 minutes for a killer web application.
If you could gather together some of the smartest Web developers and ask them to brainstorm a killer app for you, what would you ask them to build? Oh, and they will only have 45 minutes to do it.
“Wow!” is all I that I can say right now… Stay tuned for the actual development.
I was reading this post about Mobile World Congress over at Web Worker Daily. This paragraph got me thinking:
At January’s Macworld show, Apple CEO Steve Jobs cited data from NPD showing that the iPhone already has 20 percent of the smartphone market after one year, and that Apple is selling 20,000 iPhones per day.
How often do you change your mobile? And how often do you change your mobile phone vendor? Are you a fan of one particular brand or do you like trying each and every one of them?
Mobile market is measured in billions of users. And these users can be pretty dynamic about their devices and the choice of vendors. Mobile phone is something very easily replaceable. It’s not like a house, or a car, or even a laptop computer. The thought of how dynamic the market is boggles the mind. One day you the king of the mountain, and the a couple of months later they don’t know your name. But then again you can get it back before the end of the year…
The other day I wrote a post about possible Yahoo acquisition by Microsoft. There have been some developments to the story. If you haven’t followed it elsewhere, here is a brief summary for you:
There are a couple of posts at Mashable (one and two) which tell how the story unfolds in more details.
What Microsoft does this time, is what they have always been doing. This time it’s just on a slighter bigger scale. And if you ever had any fantasies about how Microsoft cares about you as a customer or partner, take a closer look at what happens now. If they don’t give a flying fork about major players on the Web, who are creating an ecosystem, what do they care about you as an end user?
My extremism years are long over, but I still get to hear “Boycott Microsoft!” scream in my head once in a while. Whatever the case, I believe in natural balance and the equilibrium of all things. I think that Microsoft has been rocking the technology boat for far too long and that things are slowly turning to where they should be. It will take a few more years to make them more obvious to general public, but the trend is there.
In regard to this particular situation, there is a slight chance of Yahoo getting away from this acquisition through an alliance with Google. It’s not as good as if they could just be, but it’s by far better than if they get acquired by Microsoft.