Bought something at the Apple Store on West 14th Street yesterday and tried the new Apple Store app for self checkout. Launch the app and it recognizes you’re in a store (GPS? SSID? Geo-fencing?). A special interface appears within the app, you click the EasyPay button and take a pic of the barcode on whatever you’re purchasing. Pay with your Apple ID (same as iTunes account) by typing your password. Your receipt appears on screen so a sales rep can give you a “paid” sticker.

Pretty slick. Apple’s got something incredibly powerful with their Apple ID system tied to customer credit card info, and they’re one of the only big players in the space that has both physical and online stores. Amazon’s got this down (duh) but not so much for offline purchasing. Facebook and Google are trying to figure out how to monetize offline purchases too, but seems like they’re playing catch up here.

Share this:

Google App Engine is Google’s platform-as-a-service for developing web applications. There’s been some people saying goodbye to GAE, and perhaps in response Google has announced several enhancements to the service.

In the midst of all of this, a few of us at Control Group have been developing Tagatag: an Android and iPhone application for commenting on barcodes that uses web services running on Google App Engine.

Scan this QR code with Tagatag to join the conversation!

Barcodes are everywhere around us. You can find them on advertising, products, places and even people. Tagatag provides you with a virtual paint marker to let you make your mark on all of these codes anonymously. Download the Tagatag app and give it a try. Scan a barcode to see comments people have left for you and then leave some for them.

We chose Google App Engine for the back end of Tagatag for a few reasons:

• It’s quick – You sign up for an account, download the SDK and you’re developing. The development server in the SDK lets me run the application on my desktop and interact with the code as I’m writing it.  Uploading new versions, rolling back old ones, or performing maintenance is a snap with the GAE dashboard.
• It’s simple – There’s not much to the web service. It’s small and simple. We used the webapp framework because we didn’t feel we needed anything else. It makes for a very concise application. Believe it or not, there are about 300 lines of code for the GAE part of Tagatag.
• It’s scalable – We don’t have to worry about what we do when Tagatag becomes popular. We’ll just raise our billing quotas in GAE and let them handle spinning up new instances or expanding the datastore. Knowing that you don’t have to be concerned about scaling makes things a lot more fun.

I’m happy that GAE let us bring Tagatag to you so quickly. So, when it’s available at the end of the week, be sure to download the app, tag a tag and make your mark!

Share this:

About a week and a half ago, Myriad Group announced an updated version of the Dalvik VM for Android, appropriately called the Dalvik Turbo VM.  Running the Dalvik Turbo VM, Android devices can experience a 2x – 3x performance boost in their applications.

What does this mean for Android users?

With any Android device, it’s pretty apparent that they are performing below what one would expect from their hardware specs.  This is because Android was designed to run on a wide range of devices, including devices with limited resources and processing power.

If your phone were to be updated with the new Dalvik Turbo VM, you wouldn’t experience nearly as much lag, applications would open faster and perform better, and you would actually see improved battery life (all things that as an Android user I would LOVE to see.)

How does it work?

The Dalvik VM is a virtual machine that runs in the background on all Android devices.  It acts like a middleman between the applications and the OS itself.  One of the things that makes Android so attractive to developers is that it’s apps are written in Java, the Dalvik VM then takes the Java code and converts it on the fly into code that Android can use.  The Dalvik Turbo VM is an enhanced version of the original VM that makes the conversion process a whole lot speedier.  The new Turbo VM is said to be 100% compatible with Google’s stock VM so any existing apps would be able to see the benefits from this as well.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blJpQQZdYPM]

A demo of the Dalvik Turbo VM vs Dalvik VM on a pair of Android Dev Phone 2′s.

How can I get it?!

Sadly that’s not such an easy thing to answer.  While Myriad hasn’t given an official answer, it is believed that the devices that would most benefit from the new Dalvik Turbo VM (T-Mobile G1 and MyTouch 3G) won’t be seeing it and it will only be included on new retail devices (which we should see before the end of the year.)  That said, many of the Android faithful (myself included) are hoping to see the new VM show up in the popular Cyanogenmod Android ROM amongst others in the near future.

If you’d like to see some more info on the Dalvik Turbo VM, check these links for some impressions and other demo videos:

Myriad Group Announcement

Myriad Group Youtube Channel

Engadget Hands-on at MWC

Share this:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi50KlsCBio]

First off, Buzz has some serious potential. Google gained an incredible amount of ground on Facebook and Twitter with this launch, and I do sense a shark-jumping moment for Facebook. Once the Google App ecosystem takes off, and social games and e-commerce get integrated, there will be a huge erosion in Facebook market share.  People want one thing, one place to go, and Gmail is already mandatory.

1. Lets start off easy here: Mobile. Google, you own the platform, how hard would it be to launch with an Android app? In the time it took to do the marketing piece on the mobile site, Google could have developed a full-fledged app. Instead I have an “above ground only” slow-loading mobile web page. HTML5 isn’t quite here yet – and Android 1.6 is not supported.
2. Two way integration! Getting Tweets in Buzz is great, but I still have to go out to Twitter or TweetDeck to post. If I had the option to choose which networks my updates appeared on from within Buzz (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc), I would never have to leave Gmail… except for…
3. Where is Facebook? They have a strong API and a straightforward authentication service. Connect to Facebook and never make me go there again. Aggregate and publish (see above).
4. Buzz for Biz. I know it’s coming for Google Apps, but get it going already! How about full integration with LinkedIn – a CRM app would be a really interesting mash-up, as well as bringing all my connections into my address book. No more stale email addresses or phone numbers.
5. OK, I saved crazy for last. Google Profile. I am the strongest believer in an open information society – if everyone knows everything about everyone, then we are all equal. I understand that’s a little overboard, but why should I hide my information when it will only make the web more relevant to me, and get us to our ultimate destination quicker.  But with Buzz, your Google Profile went from obscurity to super relevant. So, quick inventory: Google has information about my friends, my browsing/search history (not to mention DNS info), my purchase history, my communications, the news I’m reading, and my documents. Now they want to know my age, sex, where I grew up? Are you crazy? Google is holding ALL the cards now. They keep repeating “don’t be evil” but you know what they say about absolute power… (did I mention my location?)

If history is any indicator of the future, Google will evolve and add features and services. They have done so consistently since inception, and people will choose convenience above all else, including quality and privacy. And I guess I’m one of them. See you on Buzz.

And if you disagree, see you in the comments!

Share this:

There’s been much discussion and debate recently surrounding the iPad’s lack of Flash, which in turn has fueled discussion about the future of online video delivery. This week’s preview release of the HTML5-powered SublimeVideo player is seen by some as the beginning of the end for online video delivery in Flash player. As Senior Multimedia Development Consultant at Control Group, I thought I’d share a few thoughts on the topic.

To me, this isn’t so much a debate about Flash/ActionScript 3 versus HTML5, but rather another win for HTML + Flash/AS3! It’s all about creativity as a developer. Bad coding leads to poor applications, proper coding leads to a proper experience. It is a common pitfall that most people think “HTML or Flash”. I see this as more power for the mixing of technologies, raising the cap on what can and can’t be done in a web browser.

Adobe’s technologies provide clear benefits to the end user, but also (and perhaps more importantly) the developer. As a developer, I can utilize the unique capabilities of the .flv format to protect content in some fashion or for metadata injection, all of which can be done on the fly and server-side, if implemented using Flash Media Server (FMS).  I’m also really excited about Flash Player 10.1 – it brings the ability to scale all the way from mobile to HD flavors, and will be available on smartphones and other Internet-connected mobile devices.

This is about more than just video delivery, it is the platform combined with the tools, and Adobe has been making tremendous strides in going open-source with them. Adobe is providing a cohesive environment that is deeply integrated with some of the best tools out there for content creation. HTML5 is just starting out, and the gap between the tools and technology is too immense to make it the competition. Flash has fantastic penetration and Adobe can rapidly evolve the technology. Remember, HTML5 still is not a standard – in fact we are looking at sometime in 2012 before we’ll see a final recommendation. These are cohesive technologies and they are here to stay for a very long time, which means plugins will be around for a long time too. Simply put,  plugin implementations have the potential to penetrate faster, and as history has shown they often do. Plugins forge the path, and the Web comes right behind them to standardize those paths.

If you want to better understand what the big picture is regarding Adobe and its technologies, I recommend reading a little bit about:

OpenScreenProject
Catalyst
SVG and FXG
Flex Data Services
RTMFP (Real Time Media Flow Protocol)
Binary Sockets

Share this:

Many of our clients use a combination of communication tools to keep in touch — whether Outlook/Exchange, Apple Mail.app, Entourage, or Google Apps. Combining these tools can create some technical challenges, as technologies from different manufacturers don’t always play nicely together. Today I wanted to share a workaround that I use in my personal calendaring setup: using Google Calendars with Apple’s iCal. This necessitates figuring out how to get Google Calendar ‘delegate calendars’ to sync with iPhone/iPod Touch via iTunes.

Google Calendar is a great tool for managing appointments, accessible from anywhere (check out Colin’s thoughts on Google Apps). It is also very versatile as it offers the ability to import iCal .ics files and MS Outlook CSV calendar snapshots. A delegate calendar is an additional calendar you can add to your existing Google Calendar account. At the present time, it is not possible to sync/view delegate calendars when syncing an iPhone/iPod Touch from iTunes. They will not show up there as it looks like this feature is not supported/implemented at the present time. There is a simple workaround which will allow users to sync delegate calendars from within iTunes. The following steps will guide you through the process:

STEP 1: disable your delegate calendars from iCal

1. Open iCal, then select ‘Preferences’ from the iCal dropdown menu
2. Select your Google CalDAV account and open the ‘Delegation’ tab at the top of the window
3. Uncheck each checkbox corresponding to each delegate calendar; they will disappear from the main calendar view where they were currently shown as delegates

Disable your delegate calendars from iCal

STEP 2: create the necessary account(s) for each delegate calendar

A typical Google Account URL has the following form: https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/USERNAME@gmail.com/user

This should be already present on your existing CalDAV account (the one you expunged the delegates from). Replace ‘USERNAME’ with your Google Account username, then copy and paste the line above into a temporary text document for now.

1. Open your browser and log in into your Google Account, then follow the Calendar link
2. Select ‘Settings’ on the ‘My calendars’ box on the left column of the page
3. Select the delegate calendar you want to keep in sync from the main page’s frame
4. At the bottom of the next page (the with the selected calendar’s details), copy the Calendar ID value (shown as clear text) which can be found in the ‘Calendar Address’ section; the Calendar ID has the following sample structure: qwertyuiopasdfghjkl1234567@group.calendar.google.com
5. Go back to the previous temporary text document where you saved your Google Account URL, paste the Calendar ID value you copied in the previous step and replace the ‘USERNAME@gmail.com’ part as follows (replace the Calendar ID with your correct value):https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/qwertyuiopasdfghjkl1234567@group.calendar.google.com/user
6. Then copy the whole resulting string
7. Go to iCal, select Preferences once again and add a new CalDAV account: please make sure you expand the ‘Server Option’ dropdown and paste the aforementioned string into the ‘Account URL’ field.

Create the necessary account(s) for each delegate calendar

You will need to create a brand new iCal account for each delegate you have set up on Google Calendar. When done, your iCal software will display each delegate(s) as separate calendars, and each one of them will be shown into iTunes and will be available for synchronization in the Device’s Info tab.

Each delegate(s) as separate calendars

Share this:

Check out this great video that our friends at SPIN put together to show off the new SPIN Mobile iPhone app. Read more about how we built the app, and download it for free from iTunes!

[vimeo 4493737]

Share this:

SPIN publishes some of the best editorial content out there. They’ve been doing it since 1985: topical, not mainstream, but still accessible. When we heard they wanted to jump into the mobile “space race” with an iPhone application — and that they wanted CG to take that first step with them — we were pretty fired up.

So it is with great excitement that we announce the SPIN Mobile iPhone application. It’s available today for free at the iTunes Store. (Update: check out this great video that our friends at SPIN put together!)

SPIN Mobile iPhone Application

For this initial release, we wanted to accomplish something really simple: get the writing, pictures, and music that makes SPIN one of the top music magazines in the world into the palm of its readers’ hands. We wanted to push the fresh daily content, and close the loop on the complete experience: from the music news, to the latest reviews, and photo galleries of shows we wish we had been at. We also wanted to add direct downloads from iTunes, letting users listen to and purchase the albums and songs that they were experiencing on their iPhones.

With things changing at the rate they are, there was a heavy emphasis on getting an app out there quickly, staking a claim in the App Store land rush, and building from that stake down the road with a killer app for the iPhone OS 3.0 launch.

We developed the core app in four weeks with a small group of our dev team members, meeting with Spin’s design team on a weekly basis. Adjusting plans mid-flight, in a truly agile way, we changed designs, integrated with their publishing workflow, their CMS (Drupal) and added a few new tweaks in the process. I won’t say it was all roses — developing an application in four weeks on a new platform, with a full page ad in the presses can put some pressure on the team — but we got it done, and SPIN was right there with us, positive and understanding the whole time.

It’s hard not to get a little sentimental and think about my first Walkman, a bulky yellow Sony thing that was supposed to be waterproof. I used to wait weeks to get the latest copy of SPIN and then run to The Garage in Harvard Square to find the latest tape from the band they were raving about, pop it in and walk around, knowing I was up on the latest thing. Here we are 20 years later with that complete experience condensed down to just few seconds, anytime, anywhere I want. That’s what mobile is all about.

With all the turmoil in the publishing world, its so refreshing to have a client who really ‘gets it’ — understands what its base wants, knows how to monetize without being offensive, and has a plan for the future. I’m glad we could be part of the team that got this out there, and I’m looking froward to all the cool stuff we have cooking for the 3.0 release this summer.

Share this: