I’m going on about this like a stuck record, but it’s something I feel strongly about.

I was in a meeting at work the other day. The subject of the meeting was streaming formats, bitrates and accessibility to these streams. The usual boring work related subjects.  Along came the topic of mobile listening.  Asked by someone in the meeting “Do you own an IPhone David?” the answer was “no, no I don’t.”  And just like that, almost instantly, I was dismissed as having any sort of knowledgeable viewpoint or understanding of mobiles, streaming and their future.

Trying to bring to the meeting the idea that media organisations shouldn’t just concentrate on iPhone development, but multi platform support, bringing in devices such as Android and Blackberry was almost frowned upon, because it wasn’t the latest ‘in craze’, the iPhone.

Thinking about it afterwards, I should have said yes to the question posed to me. While I don’t own an actual iPhone,  it would seem that the term ‘ iPhone’ has become an umbrella term for anything smart phone like, and I do own an smart phone, a much smarter phone than an iPhone in my opinion. In pretty much in the same way that I own a Hoover, well I don’t, I own a Dyson, and the Tannoy system in our school was actually made by Panasonic, therefore it wasn’t Tannoy at all because Tannoy is a brand name of Sony.

I know a lot of people who love technology, love media, and quite often show me the ‘latest amazing thing’ that their iPhone can do. If I try and do the same with my Android phone I’m ignored because it’s not an iPhone.

With Apple releasing details of their latest iPhone OS4.0, news outlets like the BBC, Guardian, Telegraph and loads more are all over the story. I like these newspapers, but sometimes their over biased coverage of Apple products amaze me. And this is why your bog standard punter doesn’t know or like anything other than the iPhone, because Apple get so much coverage and the mainstream media are not at all interested in anything else.

This isn’t a dig at anyone I work with. It’s not a dig on iPhone users. It’s a dig on the general ignorance and perception of iPhone’s as a whole. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some things Apple and the iPhone do far superior than my Google Android phone. Brilliant marketing, seamless integration with your computer, well timed regular software updates and the games and graphics on an iPhone is far superior to any other phone I’ve seen .  But we shouldn’t put all our development eggs in one iPhone shaped basket. Once the iPhone app is ready we shouldn’t just sit back and rub our hands with glee because we have an fancy pants  iPhone app, because if we do that, we are alienating A LOT of people.

The future of mobiles isn’t the iPhone. It will play a large part of the future, but so will Android, Symbian, Blackberry, WebOS, Meemo and who knows what else as time goes by.

There’s no denying. Apple IPhones are very popular. Every 2nd person seems to have one. So quite rightly when a company, an organisation, an individual, whoever, decide that they want a mobile application (or app as they have now been abbreviated to) they quite rightly decide to make their app for the IPhone.

While it’s unlikely that one make or model of phone is going to overtake Apple’s domination of the market any time soon, I can see it being highly likely that in a year or so from now Google’s Android operating system will have taken the lead on the number of devices it’s installed on.

Google announced this week that Android is now available on 27 models of phone, and this number is only going to grow.

Anyone who has used the Android OS can tell you that it’s as good as the IPhone, and with it’s ability to multi task and less restrictive over what can be installed, it has many advantages over Apples system. What’s stopping it at the moment is the lack of apps compared to the IPhone.

So if you are a developer of mobile apps at the moment, while you may be tempted to develop solely for the IPhone, I’d also seriously consider making an app for Android as well. Because in a years time I personally believe that Apple are going to have a serious competitor on their hands.

I’ve started learning Java with the aim of trying to get my head around making Android appications. Maybe within a year, when I believe my Android prediction to come true, I will be ready to release an app.

Of course I say all this being an Android fanboy. I’m biased. I want to see it do well. If you’re developing a mobile application and you want it to get the highest possible user base then really you should still be developing for Symbian (found on most Nokia phones) who accounted for 50% of the OS’s installed on mobile phones sold in Q2 of 2009, compared to only 12% for the IPhone OS and only 2.8% for Android.

[Update: 17/02/10] Some interesting statistics on this article here.  Apparently 60,000 phones  a day ship with the Android OS. That’s 21.9 million a year.  Apple shipped 8.7 million IPhones in the last quarter, or 34.8 million a year.  The gap is closing.

I’ve always been a fan of Google. You probably know that by now. I use their search engine. I use their browser. I use their phone. I use their email. I even have my work in Google thanks to some clever Microsoft Exchange filters. Anyone who sends me a text message appears in my Google Mail. I use their maps. I’ve blogged about it all in the past. So it would only be right to blog about their latest invention.

Out of the blue, out of nowhere, last night came Google Buzz. It’s billed as some sort of cross between Facebook, Twitter and Google Mail. Think email meets social networking. You’re confused aren’t you? I am. I like it’s idea… I think. I’m just not entirely sure what it’s for. And I think a lot of people are thinking the same.

Buzz is a new tab in my Google inbox. And I have my Google inbox open all day every day. Whenever I’m at a computer, my Google inbox is there. And so is Buzz now. All of my contacts in Google are now also there. That includes friends, colleagues and acquaintances. My Google Buzz is closely linked to my Twitter, Flickr and this blog. I make a post on one, and appears in my Buzz. I can also make individual buzzes separate from any other service. And then any of my Google contacts can then make a comment on that buzz, whatever it may be.

What Buzz seems to good at is geo-tagged buzzes (is buzzes the collective term we’re going with by the way?) Google actively encourage you to include your location on your buzzes, so people around you know what’s going on near you. Location aware social network is going to take off massively this year. Twitter is already allowing you to geo tag tweets. Mobile phones with internet access and GPS devices are pretty common, it makes sense to combine the two to give a better localised experience for all.

Will I use it more than I use Twitter? Probably not. But then my Twitter account lay almost dormant, updated once a month at best for its first 12 months. Same with my Facebook. There’s a chance the same could happen with Google Buzz.

What I’d like is a service that all my social network posts, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Last.FM, Buzz, Picasa, YouTube, WordPress are all linked in as one. Some websites already offer services like that, but I’d quite like it to be handily in my Google inbox, and while Buzz gets very close to that, it just doesn’t quite seem to do it… yet.

But it’s still early days. I will be watching and participating with interest.

Tweet was the social media buzz word of 2009, will Buzz be the same for 2010?

It was a perfect opportunity to do something interesting with the website. Tracking Santa was an idea that came up in the office during last week. Something similar to the NORAD Santa website that is run every Christmas Eve.

As he started his journey from Lapland this morning, we tracked him as he made his way to Aberdeen.

A few people asked me during the day on Twitter what was the technology behind it?  Simple answer, Google Maps and a tracking device on Santas sleigh. Simple eh?

Well think again.

With an impending tax bill due on January 31st, and my saving not going as well as I’d have hoped, I decided to see if I could indeed convert my old mobiles to cash.

I had two phones for exchange. A Nokia N95 8GB. In its day it was the king of mobile phones. But 2 years later this workhorse of a mobile is battered, scratched and ever so slightly unresponsive after a beer spilling incident back in June. The recycling company Mobile Phone XChange gave me the best quote for this phone. Up to £114 they said. I knew I probably wouldn’t get anywhere near that, but thought it would be worth a go none the less.

I also added a Sony Ericsson K800i in the envelope I sent back. Older, not as high spec, but certainly not as battered as the Nokia N95. Mobile Phone XChange said I’d get up to £25 for it.

3 days after sending a received an email from Mobile Phone XChange. £25 for the Sony Ericsson, and £60 for the Nokia. The reason they wouldn’t give me any more for the Nokia because, and I quote, “there was a PIN lock on it, so they couldn’t check how well it worked.” I was rather chuffed, £60 for the Nokia is more than I would have charged for it if I had been selling it on Ebay. Infact I probably wouldn’t have sold it on Ebay because it was nearly at the end of its working life. But I thought, “hmm, I wonder what would happened if I emailed them the PIN number?”

A day after emailing the PIN number they said “in that case you can have the full £114″. 3 days later the money was in my bank account.

So in total I got £139 for two phones that I still think to this day are worthless.

I can’t entirely work out how these companies are able to afford paying for all these phones, or even what they do with them. I believe that in some cases they recycle the phones and in some cases they send them to Africa.

There is one downside to all this. I’m now having sleepless nights thinking that some poor sole in Africa is using my beer soaked phone and cursing at it in the same way I did when it wouldn’t respond.

I remember reading, what only seems like a couple of years ago, an article professing that one day location aware devices such as your mobile phone would be all the rage. At the time it seemed like a great idea on paper, and something that would be many years away (much like that self drying jacket in Back To The Future II).

However in those last two years, location aware devices have subliminally made their way into my life.  The self drying jacket still has yet to show.

Equipped with only my mobile phone (an HTC Hero running Google Android – something I keep meaning to blog about), here’s how Google affected my weekend.

Google Mail – http://mail.google.com

Not entirely new, but I felt it was worth a mention. My only email provider for 5 years now.

Whether you send an email to my gmail address, my ‘professional’ address (david [at] davidrlewis.com) or my work address, they all come into my Google Mail account, and are then sorted through various filters.  My whole life, and its past five years, are stored under my Google Mail account.

All the information for the apartment we were staying at in Fort William were saved on an email. Directions, times, cost, phone number and even the door code were there.  No need for any bits of paper.

With Google Mail being so well integrated into Android, it’s handy for emailing photos to people (or Twitter), and mailing your dad with your current co-ordinates (he likes keeping track of where I am).

There is one downside to email being so easily available, it’s difficult to ignore your boss when he emails you on your day off.

Google Maps - http://maps.google.com

Google Maps is hardly anything new either. I’ve used this on my phone for a good two years now.

It was the saving grace on a college trip to Orkney last year, and it still impresses me every time I need to rely on it.

It’s still not quite suitable for replacing your Sat Nav yet (although turn by turn direction for Google Maps is now available on the new version of Android), it is useful if you have a passenger in the car who can reel off directions or if you vaguely know the area.

Google Sky Maps – http://www.google.com/sky/skymap.html

Lack of light pollution is one of the nice things about getting out of the city.  I could sit and watch the stars all night if it weren’t too cold.

Google Skymaps is a very handy application for your phone.  It takes your location by GPS, and what direction your phone is facing via its built in compass, and presents a map of the night sky, customised especially for you. As you turn your phone to a different part of the sky, the map moves with it too. Showing you the names of the stars, constellations and planets in your eye line.

If you don’t tell the person you’re with at the time what you’re using, you can sound as knowledgeable as Patrick Moore.

What it can not do for you however, is get rid of cloud cover.  Of which there was quite a bit this weekend. I expect Google are working on this as we speak.

Google Places – http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2009/06/places-directory-app-for-android.html

This is something new to me.  You tell it what you want to find (restaurants, bars, museums, that sort of thing) and by using your phones location (either by cell tower or GPS) it will tell you all those nearby. In fact it will give you exactly how far you need to go and in what direction. It will even show you turn by turn on Google Maps if you feel the need.

It will also give you user ratings and comments for the place you’re about to visit. Very handy if you can’t decide where  you want to have your Sunday Roast. Google recommended me the Snow Goose Vintage Inn in Inverness, and I can vouch for it’s recommendation.

Google Latitude - http://www.google.com/latitude

This runs within Google Maps, and it’s quite a good idea, in theory.

So long as you and your contacts use Google Latitude, you can see where they are at any time on Google Maps. In turn they can see where you are.  Your phone will then beep at you if one of your friends is nearby, so you can have a coffee, or most likely what I’d do, try and avoid them at all costs.  You can switch it off for privacy, or even lie about where you are (I was in New York City last week).

Where the idea falls a bit flat is that so far I know very few folk who use it. It’s a bit of a catch 22. It’s only good if people use it. But no one will use it because they don’t know anyone on it.

I so far know two people on it. One who lives in Greater London, and one who hasn’t updated their location since May. Not very useful.

What I do use Latitude for is the “I’m currently in” section on the front page of this website.  It’s set to vague mode so you don’t know exactly where I am (like my flat). It’s there because I was experimenting with coding something I plan to use in the future. I can imagine it’s also useful for potential burglars (although my brother in law lives right next door so don’t even think about it).

Google Latitude also provides a nice map of my location history, which only I can view. Great for fans of nostalgia and map geeks, two categories which I fall in to.

Conclusion

So there you have it, my weekend away with Google. Some of what they provide is very handy, some a bit more pointless. But it’s amazing to think what we could be using location aware devices for in only a few years.  All that, from the palm of my hand.

There is one problem with all this though.  When the mobile signal goes or the battery dies, so does your ability to do  anything. And the more and more we rely on Google, the more and more scuppered we’re going to be when it all goes horribly wrong.

I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to new phones. The purchasing of a new phone is always an exciting moment for me. I think it’s fair to say that I get way too excited about the prospect of one. With an upgrade due at the beginning of August I’m already beginning to twitch ever so slightly at this thought.

And with a new IPhone hotly rumoured, I spent 2 hours watching Apple’s WWDC conference yesterday evening to see what tricks they would have up their sleeves. 2 whole hours. We had talk about new laptops (or Macbooks as they call them), new operating systems, yadda yadda yadda (I’m not an Apple Mac computer fan). And then we got to the bit I (and mostly everyone else was waiting for), talk of a new IPhone. With an upgrade inimant I’m keeping my options open, and one of those options is an IPhone.

Here’s some key points and my understanding of the new Apple IPhone 3GS. ‘S’ stands for ‘speed’ don’t you know.

A 3 mega pixel camera – my Sony Ericsson of 3 years ago had a 3 mega pixel camera on it. My current phone has 5.

Voice control – if I say “call Emma” it will call Emma. If I say “call Emma” at 3 in the morning after a night out it will probably call my boss by accident.  A nice thought, but my Sony Ericsson of 5 years ago had this same feature. I remember impressing people with it in our common area at school. These voice controlled systems don’t like my half Scottish half Shetland accent anyway.

MMS picture messaging – 5 year old phone had that. The novelty wore off quickly.

Video recording – Most people have had this feature on their phones for a good few years now.  And lets all be honest, it’s not that good.

Tethering – Apple have coined an idea a phrase for a feature that at a premium allows you to connect your IPhone to your computer and use the Internet through your IPhone.  Did you know my phone of 5 years ago could do that?

There’s a ‘locate me‘ me option where if you lose your phone you can pinpoint it on a map on your computer screen. I like that idea, but presumably that would require the phone to have a GPS position which anyone who’s ever played with their GPS unit will know that it is not too accurate indoors. The computer wont tell me that my phone is underneath that pile of papers on my desk.

Essentially the IPhone is full of basic features wrapped up in great marketing by Apple. There are many phones out at the moment that whip the IPhone in terms of what they can do.

So with that in mind, do I want an IPhone? Yes… Yes I do.

Why? Well, the IPhone has something that I’ve yet to see any other phone compare with, it’s interface. The operating system it runs in seamless. If Nokia could create an interface as nice as that then they would be on to a winner. It’s this alone that makes a pretty basic phone into a must have object for anyone.  Mutton dressed as lamb I believe is the phrase.

Will I buy an IPhone? Probably not. For one reason only.

The price . A quick look at O2′s tariffs for the new IPhone shows on the 18 month £34.26 plan which gives you unlimited data, 600 minutes and 500 texts (which is probably the average plan for most normal users, it’s certainly the plan I’d go for) your looking at a cost of £184.96 for the 16GB version of the handset.  18 x £34.26 + £184.96 = £801.64. Holy smoke! Over 800 quid for a new phone.  And O2 have an exclusive deal with Apple to sell the IPhone in the UK.  So no competition. They can price it whatever way they want.

It wouldn’t be too bad if for that price I got a full 18 months out of it, but I wont. Because you cant unlock the IPhone. It comes as an O2 phone. It will always be an O2 phone. Unless you jailbreak it, which funnily enough invalidates the warranty.  We’re planning to go to Canada for a year next summer. I would want to use a Canadian SIM in it. You can’t.  Nokia phones on Vodafone come unlocked as standard, a Canadian sim would work.

So it looks like no IPhone for me this summer.  Other options. Well there is the HTC Magic. More commonly known as the Google phone. Syncs beautifully with Google Mail, Calenders etc. Runs the Google Android software too which is the closest yet to the IPhone OS. The camera is alright and it’s specs don’t look too bad, but there is no headphone socket. So that’s no straight away. I want something I can use as an MP3 player with my headphones I already own.

Nokia’s new flagship phone is launched in a couple of weeks, the Nokia N97. A pull out QWERTY keyboard, 5 mega pixel camera, decent specs, a HEADPHONE socket, FM receiver and transmitter. Looks promising however its operating system lacks the smoothness and style of the IPhone or the Google phone.  First reviews of the N97 all seem to suggest that it’s lacking something.

And finally there’s the Palm Pre. Dubbed by many as the real IPhone killer. Launched in the States this week. Launches in the UK in November. We can rule that one out straight away, like I said at the beginning of this geeky blog post, I love new phones and seriously I can’t wait 5 months for a new one.

Gah, it’s a tough life.