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by Aryeh on Software, Tech

Why is Everyone Crying Over the New Facebook?

Over the past few months Facebook has been testing its new interface. Frankly, I was quite excited to try it out. In the beginning there were a few bugs and glitches, but they have ironed most of them out by now. I think the new design is spaced well and is easy to navigate. The photos are much easier to access now and you don’t have all those crazy wall programs on the main page. But there have been groups started on Facebook with around 2 million people, to keep the old layout, not to mention the many mindless status updates: “I hate the new Facebook”, “what the hell happend to my Facebook”, “how do I get the old Facebook back”. What is everyone crying about? I like it.

-Aryeh

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by hilzfuld on iPhone, Mobile, Random, Software, Tech

HTC Touch HD Proves There is Still Where to Go

Just as I thought cellphones have maxed out with the Samsung INNOV8, HTC goes and proves me wrong with their just announced Touch HD. The Touch HD has a (are you sitting down?) 3.8 inch, 400×800 display. It has all the standard features (did I just call a phone with GPS and a 5 megapixel camera, standard?), such as HSDPA, a 5 megapixel shooter, and GPS. However, it is that amazing touch display that sets it apart from the rest.

Anyone that knows me can confirm that they have never heard me say this before, but I am speechless. It’s phones like this that make me forget that the iPhone even exists. I truly have nothing to add, the phone simply speaks for itself. Honestly, have you ever seen such a nice phone?

-Hillel

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by hilzfuld on iPhone, Mobile, Random, Software, Tech

First Generation iPhone Sales on the Rise

In a surprising twist of events, first generation iPhone sales have been on the rise ever since the new iPhone 3G was announced. Even with its major flaws, such as the painful EDGE, awkward headphones jack, and others, which make it inferior to the new iPhone in many ways, people are buying second hand, first generation iPhones, and lots of them.

How do you explain this? Well, there can be a lot of explanations for this phenomenon. Engadget claims it is the fact that the first generation iPhone is easily cracked, which enables you to insert your non-AT&T sim card into the phone. Another contributing factor is the lack of a commitment to AT&T. I agree that both of these factors are making the original iPhone more attractive to consumers. However, with all the advantages that new iPhone offers, neither of these explanations would make ME get an old iPhone. So what is really pushing people to go out and buy the original iPhone?

To answer this question, we need to examine what made the iPhone so appealing to begin with. I have written on many occasions that even with the iPhone’s good looks and revolutionary touch interface, what really did it for me, is the fact that the iPhone simply works. With phones on the market like the N95 and N96, or the Omnia, what people loved about the iPhone is that it really worked, and well. It was easy and fun to use and actually did what it was supposed to do.

When the new iPhone was announced, people were really excited by all the enhancements, and just took it for granted that it would work as well as the first generation did. However, they soon found out that they were wrong. The new iPhone was buggy, very buggy. People complained about dropped calls and crashes, amongst many other things. This is something that was not present in the first generation.

In my opinion, people are more interested in a phone that actually works and responds fast, rather than one that has all the functions in the world, but none of them work like they should. This is what people complained about with Windows Mobile 5 and older version of Symbian as well. I am under the impression that both Windows Mobile and Symbian have improved their operating systems, but Apple, on the other hand, moved in the wrong direction.

Well, Apple recently released a new firmware update that is said to fix most of the bugs, I guess only time will tell.

-Hillel

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by Aryeh on Mac, Software, Tech

Genius – Not So Smart

Apple’s main theme in this past event was music. They launched a new service called Genius, in which with the click of a button you get recommendations to similar songs, and the iPod or iTunes automatically populates a playlist inside your own music collection. The request goes to some fancy algorithm cloud, and it is supposed to all be anonymous. What they don’t tell you is that you need to open an iTunes account in order to use the service. In order to open an iTunes account, you need to provide a US billing address and credit card number.

It’s just so backwards that they claim that Genius is anonymous, but they still need our private details. Ok so they don’t gather info on our song preferences, but rather all the private information that they can easily get from the credit card companies. Bad concept and dumb feature. I’m not going to use Genius.

-Aryeh

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by Aryeh on iPhone, Random, Software, Tech

The New iPod Lineup

New iPod Touch

 Well, yesterday I did something for the first time ever, I preordered a new Nano from Amazon. The new iPod lineup does not dissapoint. When I first encountered the Nano 3rd generation, I truly did not think they can make it any thinner, the thing was like three pieces of paper.

Well, not only did they make the new 4th generation thinner (now it is like two pieces or maybe even one, it is ridiculously thin), but they now offer a 16GB version of the Nano. I have an old 4th generation iPod (maybe if I had a few more readers, Apple would send me the new iPods for review) that is around seven times the size of the new Nano, and it only holds 20 GB, and this thing holds 16? That is just nuts.

They added this new “Shake to Shuffle” (do I have to explain what that is? Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the name says it all) feature, which is kinda cool, I guess. However, the huge enhancement for me, is the addition of the accelerometer. How did they manage to get that inside such a microscopic machine? It is really amazing. And those colors, I mean, I am generally not into colors, but you got to admit, those are some nice colors.

The new iPod touch does not dissapoint either. It is also thinner, and it has the whole Nike+iPod chip built in, which once again, leads me to the question, how did they get that into such a thin machine? The iPod Classis remains the iPod Classic, a  little thinner and more memory, nothing huge there.

The one big thing that Apple just announced in the Nano, the Touch, and iTunes is this new Genius feature (you gotta love the names that Apple comes up with, makes me wonder if there is someone within Apple that sits around and comes up with these names). Basically, you can select a song and with one click, creat a similar playlist. I am not sure I would use this feature, but let’s wait and see how well it does.

All in all, after watching Steve Jobs’ keynote, the first thing I did, was call Amazon and order a new Nano (granted it was for my younger brother, but if I could afford it, I would buy the new Touch), so suffice it to say, I was impressed with the new lineup.

– Hillel

  • New iPod Nano Colors

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by hilzfuld on iPhone, Mobile, Random, Software, Tech

Mobile Web is Finally Mobile Web

There have been many attempts at enabling us to truly access the Web from our mobile devices like we do at home. I think it is safe to say that most of them have failed. There have been many surveys conducted about how many cellphone users use the Mobile Web, none of them displaying very impressive numbers. The reason the technology has not developed, is not due to the lack of speed. With HSDPA or WIFI, you can access the Web at speeds that are similar, if not higher than your home connection.

The reason Mobile Web is not a huge success is because Mobile Web does not live up to its name, it is not the real Web on your mobile. It is hard to use, not user friendly, and generally does not provide users with what they get on their home PCs. I think this is one of the primary reasons for the IPhone’s incredible success.

Well, all this is about to change. A new startup has just introduced a revolutionary product that will transform Mobile Web into what it was intended to be. Just imagine viewing your email inbox or your Facebook in real time, without the headache of accessing that annoying mobile browser on your phone. You know that sleep screen that shows you the time, when you are not using your phone? Wouldn’t you want to have your email update itself there in real time? Wouldn’t you want to be able to add any widget there, that can update regularly displaying you information on sports, social networks, stocks, or anything else you choose?

Studies have shown that most users access the Web on their phone for the same things over and over again to see any new updates. Things just got a whole lot easier with Flyscreen, take all those things you like to surf to on your handset, and add them to your phone’s sleep screen. No more mobile surfing needed.

Cellogic can really shake things up in the mobile world with their new product, Flyscreen, and it seems that someone over at Techcrunch agrees, Cellogic was just launched in the Demo pit.

Anything that enables me to stop using my annoying mobile browser is a huge plus for me. I for one, am very excited to see how this product does in the real world.

– Hillel

Jonathan Strauss, VP Business Development for Cellogic

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by Aryeh on PC, Software, Tech

Chrome vs IE8

Today I downloaded Chrome along with the rest of the world, and am pretty impressed with the speed and design, but I am looking forward to the plugin capabilities similar to that of Firefox. I need my plugins to block the adverts, my social bookmarking tool bar, and tab management. If you watch the Google press conference about the  program, they blabber on about tabs and about their design etc. but where the hell are the settings to change the functionality of the tabs? I want anything I type in the address bar to open in a new tab, not the same one, is that too much to ask?  Overall it needs work, but its fast and it works great with Google Reader and Gmail, so I’m happy, but not going to use it as an everyday browser.

I also download IE8 today, come on Microsucks… which moron came up with this browser? They are regressing in their design. They want to integrate their own  StumbleUpon into the browser, which is totally unnecessary because StumbleUpon already exists, and if people choose to use the program, they will. Internet browsing needs to be simple and clean, and if people want to make it complicated, they can choose to do that themselves with plugins.  On to the installation… Ok this is the story, I downloaded Chrome and within 2 minutes, I was browsing. On the other hand, I download IE8 and it takes a good 5-7 minutes to install and to the run the installation, and then I need to restart the computer??? Its an Internet browser not an operating system, why the heck should I need to restart the computer to install a program? Again the largest computer company in the world can not figure out how to install a program without rebooting, its pathetic. Noting really new or innovative with the new IE8 and I’m not surprised.

-Aryeh

I dont want to be almost there just install the freakin program!

Addition:

This just proves my point. Look how heavy IE8 file is:

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by hilzfuld on Random, Software, Tech

Google’s Done it Again

After playing with Google’s new browser, Chrome, I can safely say that Google has done it again. They have managed to maintain their “we make products that work” reputation. Chrome is faster than IE, Firefox, and Safari. My initial disappointment due to the lack of a compatible Google Toolbar, has now been corrected. Google designed the browser so that you do not need any add-ons, you can simply type your search words in the browser’s address bar and you are automatically directed to the search results, as if you had searched at Google.com.

All in all, Chrome offers a very nice and smooth experience with an easy-to-use interface. After Google released their Lively service last month, that was, in my opinion, unusable, I got a little worried that Google was headed in Microsoft’s direction, i.e getting too big to make really good products. It seems now, that they are in fact headed in Apple’s direction, which is where all companies should be headed.

-Hillel

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by hilzfuld on Mobile, Software, Tech

National Pride and Android

Just thought I would make mention of the two Israeli start-ups that came in the top 50 applications designed and written for the soon-to-be released Android OS.

TuneWiki is an application that enables you to listen to music and watch video on your Android handset, while viewing different information on the screen, such as lyrics or geographical information about the singer or band. They came in the top 10.

BreadCrumbz is a pretty cool app that enables you to navigate to places that a regular GPS is unfamiliar with (dirt roads or small unknown streets). The app makes use of pictures taken by other people. For example, if you are throwing a party in a place that will not show up on GPS, you can take pictures of the landmarks nearby, and using this app, your guests will easily be able to find your location. Pretty cool, if you ask me.

Well, I for one am pretty impressed with these companies.  Let’s wait and see how they do. The fact that they won $275k and $100k respectively, is just the icing on the cake.

-Hillel

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