Sloan Bowman's Blog
Life with Me in the middle
Have a drink on me
May 4th
As most of you have probably heard the city I spend my life in, Nashville,TN, was recently blindsided with a horrible situation. It started with just a average thunderstorm and ended with the Cumberland River pushing upward to 51 feet turning our beautiful city into a massive body or water and destruction. We were and in a lot of cases still are in a desperate situation with a loss as to what we are going to do to rebuild what has been lost.
I was blessed with many kind words from several of the wonderful people that I call my friends, my followers, people that I admire. If you are reading this you know who you are and I sincerely wanted to say thank you, this drink is on me.
Blackberry Roots Grow Deep
May 3rd
For many of us the first smartphone we owned was either a S60 or Blackberry. For the business users that demanded real time email there was no other option than the Blackberry. For those that demanded a more fully rounded operating system that excelled in media production and full web browsing on a mobile you were a S60 user. Times have changed and so have preferences towards how we setup and use our phones.
I was a an avid Blackberry fan for close to 5 years before I dropped my crackberry habit and moved to S60/Symbian and now that has been combined with iPhone as well as Android. You could call me well rounded, others may think I don’t know what really works for me. Personally I know exactly what works for me and currently no one phone can offer me that. My ideal setup allows me to mix my personal and business requirements into one device and still be productive with both. I had all but given up on Blackberry as a platform of choice but felt the need to give it one more try to see if has matured over the years of my absence.
With a new Blackberry Bold 9700 in hand and zero time to spend learning the new features I jumped right in to see how it fit my lifestyle. Like S60/Symbian and Windows Mobile, Blackberry is often criticized for its clunky old school user interface. The Bold 9700 runs Blackberry OS 5.0 which offers significant improvements over the last Blackberry I used as my daily device, however it is still far from what users are used to using in the modern high resolution touch screen world we live in now. The question I had to ask myself is do I really need that in device aimed at high productivity, rapid real time communication, and balance of personal and business interest? My answer was no. Like most of you I love the eye candy but does it actually distract from what the entire idea of a smartphone should be?
After about 10 minutes I had all of my email accounts setup and being pushed to my device. The initial feel of the device was strange because I kept finding myself wanting to touch the screen. Once you acclimate yourself to touch screens going back to full qwerty feels strange yet oddly comfortable. The first thing I noticed about this particular Blackberry was that it was fast, very fast. I was able to switch between applications faster than any other platform period. The multitask interface is simple, painless, and just works. There is no fancy transitions or push technology under the hood it all runs at the same time and performs very well.
The emails started flooding in and that surreal feeling of oh man I’m on a Blackberry began to hit me. I was instantly more on top of email than I had been in a long time on a mobile platform. In my opinion the only thing that comes close is Nokia Messaging which also offers a great way to keep on top of your email. Both the iPhone and Android have excellent email viewers but lack when it comes to actually performing daily management of email. With the iPhone in particular the emails looked fantastic but I constantly found myself behind and missing emails due to its lack of good notification and painfully over simplified email experience. Some love it but I can’t stand it. With the addition of a unified inbox in iPhone OS 4 maybe my opinion will change but as for now I leave the email off on my iPhone.
Most of us are so far addicted to being in the now that we are constantly loading Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Google Buzz and more, looking for the latest news. Checking the “status” of all of our friends and posting the most random bits of information that we can find. The problem with this is we are left with a dead phone come 8PM or earlier on busy days. With Blackberry I have 6 email accounts setup and running, Facebook and twitter running in the background and still couldn’t manage to eat through the battery on this thing. I was working until 3AM Friday night and I still had 2 bars remaining on the phone. That alone put a huge smile on my face. You may be thinking well you didn’t touch the phone but if you know me you would instantly realize that isn’t a possibility. I was tweeting all day, answering emails, replying to Facebook comments and even snapped about 5 pictures with the decent camera. Impressed yet? Bottom line is the battery life on this phone is incredible. For the first time I can head to work and not have to worry about carrying a charger in my backpack.
IPhone user? Think you have the best platform for social media? Think again, with the iPhone you have to open and close applications all day long to stay in touch. Yes there is the push technology but if you were to be honest you would have to admit that very few applications implement this properly. Even with push you have to stop what you are doing and open the application, perform the task, then flip through your apps, or search, and open the previous application you were working on. That seem like a good workflow to you? It sure as heck isn’t for me. Again this should be resolved with iPhone OS 4 but at the sacrifice of battery no doubt. With Blackberry you can set majority of the Blackberry social applications to push all important social information right into your messages application. With this level of integration you will easily stay on top of your social addictions without sacrificing workflow flaws. When I get a reply or direct message on twitter it shows up as a message in my messages application and you will see a notification icon on the top of the screen. This also means if you have indicator lights setup properly that will see a blinking indicator letting you know somebody has attempted to communicate with you. Seems productive doesn’t it.
The number one reason I still carry around my iPhone 3GS these days is not to be cool but for some of the best applications that no one else has. Android is catching up fast but still only has a fraction of what can be had on the iPhone platform. Symbian has so many wonderful applications however for those that are in the U.S. you will find that most applications aren’t yet available including banking apps from your bank, insurance, or things like Fandango that you can use to buy tickets on the way to a possibly sold out movie. With Blackberry I have found that there isn’t the selection like on the iPhone or even Android but there are plenty of great applications to meet almost any business or personal taste. Sure they aren’t as flashy but they work and in most cases are very efficient.
Blackberry has been a pleasant surprise for me as I wasn’t expected to be very impressed. Some consider Blackberry behind the times. If you base your decision on smartphones based on user interface you would more than likely look right over Blackberry. If you want a high performance, extremely efficient platform that will allow you to stay in touch both socially and on the business side I think you should give Blackberry another try. I am impressed and it takes a lot to impress me.
BTW this post was typed 100% on the phone I’m describing. The gates are open let me know your thoughts.
Blackberry OS gets a slight facelift with v.6
Apr 27th
Blackberry hears its users and moves towards an “all new” user interface. It has a hint of old school Blackberry look and feel to it with a dabble of salt and pepper but I wouldn’t call it an all new look and feel. To me this is more of an enhancement but either way it’s a very welcome addition to the Blackberry platform. What do you think? Is this what you have been waiting for or are you disappointed?
The gates are open.
What is your definition of a smartphone?
Apr 14th
The term smartphone is used very loosely these days. Just a couple of years a go a smartphone was defined by a phone that has an operating system that allowed you to develop and run third party applications through a standard interface. Today carriers label a phone as a smartphone if it contains a qwerty keyboard of any sort including an on screen touch keyboard. From a carrier’s standpoint this is the perfect way to provide a tool to convince the consumer that a full data plan is required to use the phone. In all reality what a carrier defines as a smartphone should have no bearing on what a real smartphone is.
I’m sure you noticed I never mentioned multitasking in the above definition of a smartphone. One definition of smart is “showing mental alertness and calculation and resourcefulness” which I’m sure you agree the majority of phones on the market in 2010 fulfill at least to some degree. Does a platform need to multitask to be classified as a smartphone? While obviously it is not an ideal solution for heavy users it is unfair to state that something isn’t smart just because it doesn’t have a feature set you don’t like or that doesn’t meet your needs. After all another definition of smart is “ache: be the source of pain” and by the definition we can easily classify most phones.
Ask your self these questions:
- What is your definition of a smartphone?
- What features are required to fit in this overly used stamp on phone technology?
- Are you biased based on your needs?
- Does a phone require a certain type of hardware to be classified as “smart”?
The flood gates are open, let us hear it.
The Reality of the iPad Part 1
Apr 12th
As with most products from Apple there is always a buzz surrounding their launch and those that love them and those that love to hate them. With the launch of the newest offering from Apple, the iPad, this has never been more true. On March 5, 2010 Apple showed us what “they” have been working on, for what has been rumored to be years in the making, the iPad. On the day of the press release people were going into the conference with the preconceived perception of what they thought the iPad was going to be or more what they felt it should be. On this very same day thousands if not millions felt let down by what was actually announced. This is the nature of what Apple does, they hide their secrets with lock and key leaving the consumers, whom think they know exactly what is coming, to build up the perfect mindset of what they want. In most cases we are very close or even surprised at the things we didn’t think of. I call this the “fruit syndrome”, you knew it would be awesome but oh how sweet it is when reality hits. However in the case of the iPad many felt it simply didn’t stand up to the bar that was set by the hush hush pre-release rumors.
On Saturday March 3, 2010 Apple put the iPad at the doorsteps of thousands of Americans to grease up the screens with a passion of being the first kid on the block to own the latest from Apple. Regardless of the criticism following the iPad initial press release the voice spread throughout the Internet that the iPad was here and was the greatest thing since sliced bread, or in Apple’s case the iPhone/iPod. Over 300,000 iPads were sold at launch which regardless of what you think of it is amazing. For what the iPad lacked in features it made up for with top notch media consumption and with third party apps like iMockup for design and production.
Being an Apple user means that most reviews are biased based on the love of all things Apple. Apple has some of the most loyal fans in the market and will continue to with the wealth of media and developer following. I too am a user but over the years I have grown far less affected by “the fruit syndrome” that many still feel themselves encapsulated in. When you find yourself forcing sayings like “its incredible” or “pure revolutionary” just because it is from brand you love and trust you are more than likely not taking a step back and looking through the consumers goggles.
Now that we have made one side of the fence utterly disgusted with me lets peer over to the other side. There may be a lot of Apple fans out there with the “fruit syndrome” but there are just as many if not more with the idea that everything Apple is evil and a total waste of space. The majority of the users that hate Apple have never even used a device for more than their friend would allow them to play with their iPod, iPhone or now iPad. There is something about Apple that makes many users simply hate the company and everything related to them. Is everything Apple puts out revolutionary, not a chance regardless of what the other side says but do some of the products change the way the industry uses technology, absolutely. Apple is not for everybody and for a lot of their products that includes me. Simple is not always better in certain applications. Apple continues to use the minimalist approach to designing products to gain the widest market adoption as possible. For the “rotten Apple” crowd I urge you to clear your thoughts and test out devices for yourself and determine without bias if it works for you. If you hate it, truly couldn’t find yourself using it, now you have ground to stand on but until then don’t judge what you don’t know.
Success, we now have both sides of the fence throwing iPads’ and slates’ at each other let us get to the point. A week after launch I have decided to try out the iPad myself instead of criticizing it for its lack of features that I have been stating publicly. How can I base a decision about what some are calling a new revolution in computing without putting it through my daily work-flow as a designer, programmer, business owner. At this moment I am the fence not leaning either direction, standing tall. I have been scarred on both sides but I stand strong. Let us see which side breaks through first. Let the reality of the iPad begin, day one.
Is the iPad for you? Voice your opinion
Apr 2nd
As I drudge through my news feeds today it seems that every other headline has something to do with the Apple iPad launching tomorrow. I don’t know how Apple does it but they are able to get every media outlet available in their pocket, to push their products through word of mouth. If you were to skim through headlines you would think that the iPad is the most important thing since landing on the moon.
With that said I want to know how you really feel about the iPad. The good folks over at ars technica have put together a simple poll to find what consumers really think. If you have time I highly suggest you go voice your opinion so we can find out what consumers really think about the iPad.
Poll Technica: To iPad, or not to iPad, that is the question.
What I was doing at 15..Rock N Roll baby!
Feb 24th
I have been into music almost all of my life but unfortunately had to make the choice of music or computers to make a living and obviously I chose the later. I recently found some old tracks from the studio of the band I was in called "The Cockles". Before you ask yes that is me singing and guitar. Let me know what you think. Did I have a shot?
Intuitive User Interfaces introduces a learning UI for Android
Feb 9th
Android has its fair share of custom user interface front ends, each customized by different manufacturers to tailor to its targeted audience. Today Intuitive User Interfaces released a new interface they claim is “based on understanding and predicting which actions users want to perform in various situation, and enabling those actions with one touch”. The entire interface is based on predicting what the user wants to see and displaying it in a new 3D design.
The new innovative interface was written to provide three major aspects:
- Personal – The phone understands which features and actions are important to different users, as each individual user utilizes the phone differently.
- Relevant – Users perform different actions in different scenarios. By identifying these associations, a set of the most relevant actions for a specific situation is presented to the user.
- Intuitive – The activation of these actions is easy, simple and instantaneous.
Having a user interface that knows what I’m thinking based on actions and locations seems like a great idea. However combined with the fragmentation that Android already faces I can’t see this being a big success. Had this been the interface that shipped with Android from conception things might be a bit different. What are you thoughts?
image provided by androidcommunity.com
via Intuitive User Interfaces Introduces One Touch User Experience for Mobile Phones.
Mobile application stores need a personality
Feb 8th
Image provided by nowsourcing.com
As I move from phone to phone exploring all the different choices we have in the application stores (Ovi, Apple App Store, Android Marketplace) there is one thing that they all share in common. Each lacks personalization and personality. Some could argue that having the ability to have applications suggested to you based on what you browse or purchase is a form of personalization but this is not enough to make it a compelling experience for most.
How many times have you found an application you would like to try but don’t have the time or resources to do so? What if the application store gave you the ability to add the application to a want list so you can follow up at a later date. If you chose to be notified with reminders one would be sent out at a predefined time to remind you to review the items. Currently if you browse away from that application the chances that you will come back to it and buy it in the future are slim to none.
Apple attempts to capture your likes and dislikes through the use of their Genius engine but if you have ever used it before you know that it is about as helpful as a sled without snow. Why not add the ability to like and dislike application types prior to actually buying the applications. With this in place a better suggestive engine could be built and custom tailored for each user. If you are anything like me you don’t want to spend your hard earned money just to rate something. Obviously the like/dislike system wouldn’t be public to other users and would be used primarily to make your experience a better one on the store itself. The existing rating (5 star) system would remain in place for public ratings for the applications themselves.
Last on my list is a developer/consumer communication channel. Every application store fails thus far with binding the consumer with an easy to use developer support channel. Because all application stores are not made equal, the developers are having a hard time keeping up with demand and support with their applications. What if a normalized developer support channel was setup for all mobile application stores? Not only would we see more cross platform development but the user experience would be much more friendly and consistent.
If you could change your favorite mobile application store to be have more personality with higher levels of personalization what would you suggest? The gates are open….