Supersweet update to an app that was born through our company's innovation program.
web strategy, social networks, game thinking, and the future of good
Supersweet update to an app that was born through our company's innovation program.
When an incoming call arrives, you can now quickly respond by text message, without needing to pick up the call or unlock the device. On the incoming call screen, you simply slide a control to see a list of text responses and then tap to send and end the call. You can add your own responses and manage the list from the Settings app.
Ice Cream Sandwich is an impressive update. Improved shutter speed and multi-snaps in the camera. Killer live-transcription. Simplified core apps. Even screenshots.
Unfortunately, it's not the iOS experience yet. Android dug itself into a big usability hole by making decisions like having four hardware buttons and leaving it unclear the context in which to use them. Ice Cream Sandwich is getting Android out of the hole (now only two hardware buttons + home button), but it'll take yet another version (or more) to achieve true simplicity.
Over the years, through what I consider incompetent marketing, Bluetooth was relegated for use as a wireless earpiece technology and not much else. The PAN was dead as a doornail and my take on the phone as a credit card fell by the wayside. For the moment.
But good ideas can't be killed. But this "good idea" isn't about the convenience of paying with a phone swipe, but the idea of running your tab through the phone company. If you think your banker is a gouger with dubious fees and no-leeway, what do you think the phone company will be like? Yes, let AT&T handle all your money for you, and see how that works out in the end.
Dvorak makes a good point: Do we really want phone companies to be involved in every type of transaction we make? Remember, they're the ones charging us $.25 per sms/mms message, which costs them literally nothing--just because they can.
As with all great technology concepts, the trouble lies in the power struggle for dividends moreso than in the support for implementation.
I just saw a most entertaining demo video for a biz collaboration platform called Convofy--replete with ants marching, Seinfeld, and Monty Python clips.
Context is the differentiator for Convofy, but I have some questions about whether or not they've hit some core features that my team would consider part of the Minimum Viable Product for any enterprise social network.
Really, really intriguing approach to drawing out better communication through context. Interesting to see what they do with the platform over the next three to six months.
There's no attaching, uploading, or friending to do.
It's THIS idea that has me watching Color closely. Aren't you tired of attaching, uploading, and friending? Those things need to go away. If Color can lead the charge in making it happen--not to mention use data to incredible user benefit--they are on to something.
When I talked about the evolution of sharing & syncing a few days ago, I was happy to see Color get unearthed.
It's a photo sharing app. Simple, right? Instagram, Flickr, MobileMe. Photo sharing has "been done," but Color shows how it hasn't evolved--yet.
Color takes the concept of sharing much further by allowing you not to have to think about how to share photos from memorable experiences with those closest to you. That's it! All it's doing is simplifying the act of sharing photos of my daughter's birth with my family, that pain point I talked about and why sharing and syncing must change from active actions to automatic experiences.
This simplification comes from two concepts spoken about in the video: "photo lens" and "elastic network."
It's very simple, yet a perfect example of the evolution of sharing & syncing.
Technology made it possible for me to live in a village, as opposed to what I am in, a very large community.
Groundcrew is a startup platform meant to help communities self-organize around a real-time need, such as assembling a group of people to shoven snow in a neighborhood.
Or look for a missing person.
Or canvas an area for a cause.
A couple days ago I said the future of social networks doesn't look like Facebook, where the main goal is to simply connect, but rather like smaller niche networks built around a common goal, organizing people of common values.
A subset of that social networking future is what I'd call "ad-hoc goals" such as the snow shoveling example above. We need to get something done right where we are--let's do it. Grab the people around you, get directions, and do it.
So ironically, the bigger the promise of technology, the smaller it will make our communities feel through these ad-hoc networks that take advantage of location, availability, and need for interaction.
Won't you be my neighbor?
Our competitors aren't taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem.
It's not about a product or suite of products; it's about a platform--an ecosystem.
An honest memo like this means Nokia has a chance. Maybe. It's not fun being behind even the likes of Microsoft at this point, however. Allow an analogy: If this situation were seen as a game of PacMan, Android would be eating the dots of Nokia's international market share whilst the ghosts of Nokia retreat to the centralized regrouping station to spawn another attack. It might be game over before the ghost of Nokia can even come back on the attack.
