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What does the Android misstep mean for it’s chances?

Earlier this week, it was reported that Google’s Android handset OS was having some serious problems keeping on schedule and almost all of the major carriers vested in the project were having problems getting their phones ready for launch. With the launch of the iPhone looming, this is looking bad for Android.

This isn’t to say that Android, when it’s released, won’t be phenomenally successful. Unfortunately, all along they have been positioning themselves as an open alternative to the iPhone OS. With the iPhone 3g’s release only 14 days away, and no Android in sight, a lot of the people who might have been interested in an Android phone will likely not wait for one to show up. Instead, they’ll simply opt for the likely cheaper, and available iPhone which will now have an extremely robust set of developers and applications.

This of course makes the assumption that potential Android users are indeed potential iPhone users. For the purposes of this article, I think it’s safe to assume that most of the people who would go out and push Android devices into the spotlight are indeed the same people who would do the same for the iPhone as long as all things are equal.

Unfortunately, they aren’t.

The iPhone is coming. Android is not. At least not until well after the new iPhone has a serious amount of traction with users. Also, the new iPhone is a second generation device, whereas Android handsets will be the first generation to use the OS on the market. Expect the iPhone to be much less buggy, and much more stable than the first set of Android handsets. With the iPhone gunning straight for the enterprise this revision, I don’t see how Android is going to compete.

Not to mention the consumer space. Much like how the majority of people ask a geek friend for advice on what kind of computer to get, I have found that many of the same people have asked me what cellphone they should get. I can’t think of any good reason why I would currently recommend for a friend or family member to pick up an untested first generation device. And, though it’s awesome, I cant recommend the extremely expensive Symbian based Nokia N95. So what WILL I recommend? The iPhone 3g. It’s inexpensive to buy in, extremely well designed, easy to use, and will now have a large stable foundation of awesome games and apps.

I have a feeling that to make any headway in this race, Android will have to more or less bow out of this cycle, and make another serious push with a newer version around the time the iPhone 3g contracts will be ending.

RIP George Carlin 1937-2008

The world has woken up to some seriously shitty news this morning.

We have woken to the news that we have lost yet another great.  Famed comedian George Carlin died last night of heart failure.

If there ever were a case of someone needing to be immortal, it was George Carlin.  His outlook on this existence was both hilarious, and unabashedly true.  We have lost a personality that can never be replaced.  Though I’m sure if he is around somewhere to see this, he has a great joke ready.  We’ll miss you.

Making Craigslist Work For You – RSS based searches

As you might have noticed, the pace of posting on here has slowed down over this last week. There’s a good reason for that. I’ve been told that the house I’m renting is being sold, and we have to be out by July 31st. Lovely.

So I’ve been spending my time searching the best place online to look for an apartment. Craigslist.

Unfortunately, going back and refreshing Craigslist all day has made for a serious reduction in my productivity, until I figured out something really neat that I wanted to share with all of you. You can subscribe to a search, and get new results pushed to you on your favorite RSS reader. This is a really powerful feature, especially if you’re looking for something that will sell quickly and you want results quickly.

I currently use FreeRange newsreader on my T-Mobile Shadow, and being able to get up-to-date search results has been a really fantastic way to regain my productivity again.

So let me show you how to do it:

This is the standard Craigslist.org homepage for New York City. So let’s say we wanted to purchase an iPhone.

So, in the search box, type in “iphone” and press enter. You should get a nice listing of results from your area.

By clicking the RSS icon on the site, you can subscribe to your search results! This means anytime something new that fits into your search shows up on Craigslist, it will show up automatically in your subscription. Usually if you have a modern browser like Firefox or Safari, the browser itself will handle your RSS subscriptions, but you can also use an RSS reader on your cellphone, a desktop reader like NetNewsWire, or a web-based reader like Google Reader.

So there you have it, now you have a news subscription to exactly what you want! Good luck finding what you need on Craigslist!

Photoshop CS4 UI revealed

Now this is something I’ve been looking forward to.

MacRumors today broke the first screenshots of the UI changes to Adobe’s upcoming premiere photo-editing software Photoshop CS4. The biggest change to the interface is occuring on the Mac side of the fence this time around.

Though I’m happy about it, the change is sure to create some level of controversy in the Mac community. They are giving users the ability to run the entire application in a single window, similar to the functionality of the Windows edition of Photoshop. Currently on the Mac, Photoshop runs simply as palettes that can be docked to the sides of the screen, leaving your desktop visible.

Personally, I set the application to full-screen mode now simply to emulate that Windows-like functionality because I find that leaving my desktop visible makes everything appear cluttered. Also, having a colorful background visible when you’re working on a very color-specific task, can alter your perceptions of certain colors. They have also added the ability to tab-between maximized images, or tile them for comparisons.

Photoshop developer John Nack describes the features in more detail:

- It facilitates N-up (2-up, 3-up, etc.) document layouts that adapt as you adjust the interface. Think “live window tiling”–great for comparing, compositing, etc.

- It makes it easier to move the entire application and its contents, including from one monitor to another.

- It prevents documents from getting obscured by panels (palettes).

- It blocks out the contents of the desktop, minimizing visual clutter. (A number of Mac users have requested this option for many years. I’ve known quite a few people who open a small blank document, hit F to put it into full-screen mode, and then put it into the background to hide the desktop. Willingness to live with that kind of hack demonstrates some genuine desire for a real fix.)

Check out the screenshot below:

UPDATE: They’ve added a video. Neat!

WOOT OFF!

If you aren’t familiar with the concept of Woot.com, heres a primer.  Generally they sell one item per day, whether it sells out or not.  If you’re not interested in what they’re selling, you come back the next day.

Today however, is something special.  The woot-off is a stream of items sold over the course of 1-2 days.  Every time an item sells out, a new item replaces it.  This leads to a lot of refreshing of the site to see if the current item has sold out yet.

It’s quite a bit of fun, and the activity on the Woot forums during a woot-off is generally hysterical.  So go check out woot.com and keep an eye out for the coveted “bag of crap”.

Why the whole Yahoo thing doesn’t really matter to me

It has been the top headline among tech sites like Silicon Alley Insider, Techmeme, Techcrunch, and more for months now.  Podcasts like TWiT and Buzz Out Loud have been talking about it.   To be honest though, I’ve had one and only one feeling about the whole proceeding.

“I don’t care.”

That’s right.  The whole Micro-Goo-Hoo-OL story doesn’t interest me in the least.  In fact, it probably shouldn’t interest any of you either unless you are stockholders of one of the interested parties.  Everyone is over analyzing this.   I hear noise from every which way on the subject, speculating on prices,  mergers, acquisitions, and search deals.  The problem is, that in the long run, while there will be changes from this, none of it will likely be good, and we’ll all just have to put up with it.   All of it comes down to the fact that no matter what happens from this point on, Yahoo in it’s current incarnation is dead.  What happens next depends on everyone else. So let me break it down.

The deal is likely off.  Microsoft isn’t interested anymore, which in the long run is probably great for Microsoft.   To be completely honest, I don’t really see any reason why Microsoft was interested in the first place.  Sure Yahoo has some great properties like Flickr and Yahoo Mail, but Microsoft is an overly bloated organization to begin with.  Combining these two giant companies both with very different corporate cultures, niether of which has a very focused plan about the future, would be an absolute disaster.  Likely the ugly and functionless conglomeration of these two companies would slowly begin to collapse under it’s own weight.  So in this situation both Microsoft and Yahoo lose.  With the deal off, Yahoo still loses.

Why does Yahoo still lose?  Because as we speak, a flood of executives from all corners of Yahoo are jumping ship.  This braindrain is aggrivating the problems of the stock tanking, and the general lack of focus in the company.  So regardless of whether or not the company sells, your favorite Yahoo property is likely to go down in quality over time whether Yahoo owns it or not.

Can Yahoo save itself?  I don’t think so.  At least, not in it’s current state.  No matter what happens, something is going to give.  All we can do is to wait and see who the board brings in as CEO after they kick out Yang (and don’t think they won’t).  Until someone actually says something substantive about the whole thing.. just please stop talking about it.