iOS7 new features

iOS7 was presented yesterday (June 10) and will be released this fall. I'm going to point out my favorites of the new features.

The new Control Center feature means now some functions are directly accessible by sweeping from the bottom of the screen. Turn on or off Airplane mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Do Not Disturb are all available that way, but so are some functions you tend to need regularly and quickly, like flashlight, timer, calculator and camera.

There's one great Control Center feature I would have liked to see: sweep access to the settings of the current app. I hope someone at Apple reads this.

Notification Center access from the Lock screen. Very useful!

Real multi-tasking. This is a feature that Android has had for a long while. I think Apple waited to add this feature until they solved the battery draining problem that multi-tasking usually brings. I guess Apple's approach could be called smart multi-tasking.

AirDrop for iOS is great. Proctele can't wait to include that in some of its apps.

iOS Safari's new tab view is so beautiful I've got to put a picture of it right here:

It's like you're looking into a drawer and seeing pages of paper standing up, is it cardboard ;-)? Beautiful!

App Store app automatically updates your app with the newest app versions. Good!

iOS devices are among the most popular devices in the world and thieves know that. The existing Find my iPhone app counters that problem. A new feature is that turning off Find My iPhone or erasing your device requires your Apple ID and password. To reactivate the device your Apple ID and password are required.

And lastly. The icons have been redesigned. See them here. iOS7 looks good.

Google Reader expiry and Windows 8.1

Google Reader is about to expire. The sad date is July 1st.

Google Reader has been in operation since 2005. It is a so-called content aggregator. With it you can find feeds and subscribe to feeds, manage feeds and read them, and Google Reader tells you if there's new content in your subscribed feeds. This is a great service. Professionals have used Google Reader to stay informed about their fields of expertise.

Google has been warning about the expiry since the expiry announcement in March this year. Google Takeout let me export my Google Reader user data. Google insists that my user data belongs to me and I couldn't agree more. So what do you do when your favorite service is taken away? Look for replacement of course. I found Feedly in Chrome Store. It looks promising, definitely better looks than Google Reader whose user interface Google hasn't updated for several years.

A few words about Windows 8.1 the soon to be announced Windows version. Rumors have it that Microsoft are fearing that Windows 8.0 may have been too big a step from Windows 7. The previous Windows version looked much like an evolved Windows XP, so most users instantly felt comfortable with it. But Windows 8.0 started with a fresh slate, and that's not a Microsofty way of evolving. Of course something as different as Windows 8.0 is exciting and fresh, but probably scared a few IT managers. With Windows 8.1 Microsoft is reacting to bad sales (only about 100 million ;-) ) and reversing to some degree.

A more conservative way of introducing a touch-friendly user interface would have been to keep the Windows 7 interface (with start-button and all, but slightly evolved) and to make the touch-interface available at the press of a toggle button. This would have enabled desktop and laptop user to get used to the new interface without having to take the big plunge. What's more, the IT managers would have been kept secure and happy. I look forward to the release.

Google Glass(es)

Google Glass is a wearable computer, which is worn like a pair of glasses. I'd suggest they just use the words Google Glasses. Of course, being Google, they have to be rather special.

Currently they're an experimental product. Until recently you could apply to buy a pair and they were expensive at $1500, but probably not the most expensive glasses in the world.

Google Glass by necessity features voice commanded applications. Of course using a bluetooth keyboard would be possible, but would disturb the concept, at least at this stage. I can imagine that voice commands won't quite suffice in all situations, and a keyboard is thus not unlikely to be seen as a necessary accessory.

A still-camera and video-camera are included and the recordings can be shared. I would imagine Jay Leno to be interested in being able to record every moment of his life, as he used to claim he already did. Being able to do the recording himself must be a bonus. Further hardware features are a gyroscope, accelerometer, compass and ambient light and proximity sensor.

There used to be some buzz about wearable electronics in the 1980's, well ahead of when it became feasible, which is about now. Back in the 1980's there were no digital cameras, no gigabytes of storage for music or video and PCs were running at "pedestrian speeds", so how did the buzz get started? Things are different now. Ray Ban or Polaroid computers are indeed feasible. How they'll be used will be quite interesting.

Some legislators have already spotted safety problems with Google Glass. Safety is very important, particularly traffic safety. Will these glasses cause distraction behind the wheel? The potential for that is enormous, that's clear. But in the end maybe that problem will be solved by the same company that created the glasses: Google also are experimenting with completely(!) self-driving cars. Those are, in a limited sense, already on the market, because there are cars that panic brake automatically and some that help you stay in the lane or keep a distance to the vehicle in front.

Computers and electronics are getting closer to our bodies, indeed the pacemaker is inside it. It'll be very interesting to follow Google Glass developments. With a computer in the face it's going to feel like it's almost part of our sensory system. Enhanced reality is what it's called now. It's an important step in the evolution of computers.

New Mobile Operating Systems

Tizen OS, Firefox OS, Sailfish OS, Ubuntu Touch. These are the names of four new mobile OSes that have just been launched or are about to be. They all support touch interfaces.

Tizen OS is open source. Tizen runs Tizen-apps, web- and hybrid apps. Parts of Samsung's Bada OS, which is about to expire, will be added to Tizen.
Ubuntu Touch is open source. It currently runs on Nexus Android sets and it can run Ubuntu Touch-apps and web-apps. A good number of interesting games run on Ubuntu and then presumably on Ubuntu Touch too.
Sailfish was started by former Nokia employees. It runs Sailfish-apps, Android- and web-apps. The UI (user interface) can be customized to a high degree.
Firefox OS comes from the browser company. It can run Firefox-apps and web-apps. Of the four new OSes, Firefox OS is the one closest to launch.

One might ask what is the point of so many mobiles OSes. I think it has to do with the app-concept. There are different ideas of what an app should be. Some think Apple's proprietary app-concept is unnecessary and claim that web-apps written in HTML5 can do anything iOS-apps can do. 
Then there's Sailfish, which owes its existence to developments within Nokia, the demise of its Symbian OS and the MeeGo OS. Some Nokia employees thought there was more mileage left in MeeGo and built Sailfish.

The competition in mobile OSes that these OSes seem to promise, is likely to bring great consumer benefits. 

Cheap hardware already exists and will bring more phone makers. I can imagine Facebook as a phone maker and that they might adopt one of the new mobile OSes instead of Android or in addition to Android. Other likely phone makers are content owners, the ones that already have tablets.

I've tried a few web-apps and I don't think they are ready to take on Apple's iOS apps yet. In a few years they probably will, but that is several iPhone generations from now.

Facebook Home

I've been reading articles about Facebook's Home concept. Home will be available for download on Friday this week, and pre-installed on HTC First phones. Here are my thoughts.
Home is a new home screen for Android phones. After the phone has been started up Home takes over the home and lock screen and shows your FB feed. You still have access to the other apps on your Android, but the access goes through Home.
Home integrates some of the well-known messaging services like SMS and FB messages with the FB timeline, and hence one big advantage that Home offers its users, is integration of messaging in a Facebook device. It makes your phone FB-centric.
Home seems to be a great idea for the Facebook company. The user will think of his device as his Facebook. We'll soon be hearing "Oh dear, I left my FB on my desk!", instead of "Bugger, I left my mobile phone on my desk!". You'll think of most things you do on your smartphone in terms of FB and its user interface.
Everything you do on your FB phone will be known by Facebook, and that includes anything you do inside the other apps, including your banking app. That could mean FB will know what you own, earn and spend. It will know where your money is and how much you own, where you earn it and where you spend it. I'm speculating of course, but is there anything to stop them?
Facebook's revenue comes from advertising. To advertisers, customer information is the most valuable thing next to money. But is FB any less trustworthy than Google? Does Google spy less on Android users than will Facebook? I think Google knows less about its users, because they don't know the links between people as well as Facebook does. They would know more about its users, and as much as Facebook does, if Google+ would take off.
Would I want a phone with FB's Home? I'm not a great FB user, so my answer is definitely no. And in any case no.

Facebook writes: "Home is a completely new experience that let´s you see the world through people, not apps." That is not going to turn me into a Home fan. To me a smartphone is much more than FB, SMS or Email. It's about surfing the web, playing games, navigation, taking notes, dictionaries, music, film, camera, Twitter, RSS-feeds, todo, news; all those things that apps provide in all their diversity. To me Facebook is one app among many others.

Today is World Backup Day!

Today is an important day I discovered a few minutes ago: World Backup Day.
Thank you guys @ engadget.com!

Backup is increasingly important due to all those digital photos and videos most of us shoot. Not a lot of people use films these days. Developing a color-film is not so easy anymore, let alone a black-and-white film. If you're still using b&w film, you're probably best off developing it all by yourself. If not, prepare to wait.

Backup must be done on all data you create yourself. That means all your pictures, films, ripped CD's and documents and templates. Applications-backup is optional, because you can download them again or re-install from CD or DVD.

If you don't have a backup and you have that tomorrow feeling about it, think again. Imagine how you'd feel if your PC reported "Error reading <your harddisk>", the very disk where all your pictures are stored. Imagine the panic. Imagine what your family would say. Imagine how your life would be played back in your mind, particularly those hours spent with the PC. Don't let it happen! Do it! Do that backup! 

Make sure backups are made automatically at regular intervals. Configure your PC to take care of it.

World Backup Day, there are many worthy causes in the world, but this is one you definitely should support. You're worth it and so are all your photographic memories!

Great app: GPS MegaTape

GPS MegaTape makes it possible to measure a distance. It has two modes: a straight tape measure, and, an odometer (tripmeter). In the odometer mode you can record a path you walked or drove. That's a rather nice feature. 

Do as follows. When you've reached the destination, press the envelope-button on the bottom left and mail to yourself. Then open the mail and choose to open the attached file with Google Earth to see the path you traversed.

Of course you can open the mail with Google Earth on your PC too. While at the PC you might want to save the attachment to your harddisk and give it some good name for later reference. 

Here's a walk I recorded the other day (screen shot from my iPhone). The walk is the white marking on the picture: 

I usually keep my iPhone in the breast pocket of my shirt or some pocket in my jacket or overcoat. In the rather cold climate of southern Sweden taking a walk at this time of year means you need a pullover and an overcoat over the shirt. That seems to be no problem at all for GPS reception. The proof is in the picture: if reception were a problem, the white line would not be so smooth.

When you use the tape measure, it's important to wait for good GPS reception. Here's how to get a precise measurement: 

• Wait for the indicator dot in the top right corner to turn green. It can take a few seconds.
• When the indicator has turned green, press the Reset button to zero the measured distance.
• Start measuring.