iDunzo.com

Google Ruins Its Apple iPhone Home Page

December 5th, 2007 by iDunzo

Google redesigned the Google home page presented to Apple iPhone users and now it is totally useless.

Before, it was the general mobile version of the site, which showed my headlines, weather, Gmail and other content all in a quick glance.

Now it is a simple search box and I have to actively choose to view my content. Why did Google make it more difficult to use?

More and more companies are beginning to design versions of their sites that have versions optimized for the iPhone. I never thought Google would take that route, but it has.

So much for the “real Internet” on the iPhone.

The old version of the Google Mobile home page was just right.

It was fully customizable and let users choose from a wealth of news feeds for the latest headlines, movie times, weather reports, stocks and so on.

For those that wanted a brief rundown on what was going on in the world and in your own neighborhood, it fit the bill. Now it doesn’t. At all.

The new version of the Google home page for the iPhone has a large search box smack in the middle of the page and tabs across the top to access different services.

Those tabs are Home, Gmail, Calendar, Reader, and More. Below them are some more selections for signing in and changing search preferences.

The Home screen is just the search box. I could not find any way to customize this page or add in the content that I was used to seeing here.

The Gmail tab obviously brings you into the Web version of your Gmail.

The Calendar tab shows you the upcoming events in your calendar. The Reader tab shows you all your RSS feeds (assuming you have any and actually use Google’s Reader).

The More tab brings you to a basic menu of other Google mobile services, such as Documents, Google-411, Blogger, etc.

It’s under this More tab that you have access to news and unfortunately it is no longer the customized news you had picked out, but just the generic Google news stories of the day.

If you ask me, Google is trying to make its home page more smartphone like. Quick access to calendar and email accounts are buttons or functions you’d see on smartphones.

The reason I am complaining is because it took something that I had come to rely on, and changed it to something that is less useful to me.

Will others love it? I am sure they will. My experience has been altered for the worse.

Posted in Apple + Google + Technology + Wireless | Comments Off on Google Ruins Its Apple iPhone Home Page

Google Adds Locator Feature To Mobile Maps Application

November 28th, 2007 by iDunzo

Google made a new beta version of its Mobile Maps application available to certain smartphones today.

The biggest improvement of the application comes with its My Location feature, which uses cell tower information and not on-board GPS to determine user location.

The new software will work with BlackBerrys, Nokia S60 Third Edition, and Windows Mobile smartphones and will help users find their location even if their devices don’t have GPS on board. (It will work with GPS-enabled devices, too.)

Notably, it won’t work on the Apple iPhone. HAHA!!

Basically, Google takes GPS information transmitted from other phones that do have GPS and corresponds that with nearby cell towers.

When your phone connects to a specific cell tower, Google uses this GPS info and relates it to your device. This means it won’t be nearly as accurate as GPS.

Google is touting accuracy in the 500 to 5,000 meter range (that’s up to 3 miles).

The denser the concentration of cell towers, the more accurate user results will be. This means it should work fairly well in cities, but not so well out in more rural areas.

Posted in Google + Technology + Wireless | Comments Off on Google Adds Locator Feature To Mobile Maps Application

Google Thanksgiving 2007

November 22nd, 2007 by iDunzo

As with most festive times of the year, Google has put up a tasty logo just in time for Thanksgiving:

Thanksgiving Day in America is a time to offer thanks, of family gatherings and holiday meals. A time of turkeys, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. A time for Indian corn, holiday parades and giant balloons.

My mom loves the parades and balloons. As for me, it’s all about the turkey and pumpkin pie and of course spending time with friends and loved ones.

Once again, if you celebrate Thanksgiving, have a wonderful day.

Posted in Google + Memories + Search + Technology | 1 Comment »

EU Rolls Out the Hate on Google, DoubleClick

November 14th, 2007 by iDunzo

Leave it to the European Commission to ruin a good party.

On Tuesday, the antitrust arm of the European Commission nixed approval on Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick, citing competitive concerns.

The EU also ordered an in-depth review into the acquisition.

The scale of the deal certainly raises eyebrows — $3.1 billion isn’t chopped liver — but by most estimates, Google grossly overpaid for the company.

DoubleClick’s annual revenue — which reportedly falls short of $200 million — hardly puts a dent in the overall Web ad market, which is estimated to be worth anywhere from $17 billion to $20 billion.

The bigger question is this: Why didn’t the European Commission pick on Yahoo for its $680 million purchase of RightMedia in July 2007?

And what about Microsoft’s $6 billion acquisition of aQuantive in August of this year?

Posted in Google + News + Technology + Web | 1 Comment »

Will Google Android Be Windows To Apple’s iPhone?

November 14th, 2007 by iDunzo

Everyone is complaining that Google’s Android looks an a lot like the iPhone.

Well, what if that is Google’s point? What if Google hopes to do to the iPhone what Microsoft did to Apple’s first user experience breakthrough, the Mac?

Here is the Google video again, just to remind you what Android looks like:

Let’s return to the to the Android, Windows analogy.

Think about it: Apple spent a lot of time building the Mac. They proved the concept of the GUI on the desktop, but Apple never captured the desktop.

Why? Because all Microsoft had to do was step in with a lower-cost alternative that ripped off Apple’s UI and did most, but certainly not all, of the things the Mac did.

Windows has never equaled the Mac in terms of aesthetics or usability, but it never had to. It just had to be good enough.

The other reason Windows beat the Mac in the 1980s was because it was, gasp, more open than the Mac.

While Windows is far from an open platform, it is more open than Mac and Microsoft has always courted developers. As a result, Windows is the global ecosystem of applications and developers.

Google is intentionally making Android more open than its closed rival, the iPhone. Google is courting lots of developers with lots of money. Doesn’t this all seem a little familiar?

Let’s push the analogy further.

What does Google Android promise? It promises easier-to-use mobile applications on a lot of cell phones.

Doesn’t that promise sound a lot like Microsoft’s promise with Windows? Easier-to-use PCs for the mainstream?

I am sure Google doesn’t want to be compared to Microsoft, but at first glance Android sure looks like a movie we’ve seen before.

What do you think? Do you think Google plans to use Android to give the Microsoft Windows treatment to the iPhone?

Posted in Apple + Google + Microsoft + Technology + Wireless | 2 Comments »

Google Android Puts The Screws To Nokia’s S60

November 13th, 2007 by iDunzo

I assume by now everyone has checked out the video demos of Google’s Android platform. If not, you can watch them here.

One thing I noticed about the slick user interface is that it marches right past Nokia’s S60’s usability. What can S60 do to prevent Google from eroding its market share?

In short, probably nothing. Any new mobile platform will steal users from each and every other platform that already exists on the market. But that sure shouldn’t stop Symbian and Nokia from trying.

Even the latest iteration of S60 doesn’t do some of the things we saw in the Android demo.

While Symbian and Nokia are probably hard at work developing touch-capable software and phones, Google has already done it, to a certain extent.

The demos highlight how applications can be used and tied together seamlessly to create a natural workflow.

Don’t get me wrong. S60 is a great platform, one of the best, in fact. Its strengths have led it to become the dominant smartphone platform in the world (78% share). But it is still somewhat clunky to use. It requires users to think like they are interacting with a computer.

If there’s one thing the iPhone seems to have taught the world is that mobile user interfaces don’t have to be painful to deal with.

While everyone else is going to be playing catch up for a while, Google will represent a serious challenge when Android finally becomes available.

Will it have the hardware cache, the integrated platform that Apple has with the iPhone and its other products? Or the global manufacturing and distribution empire that Nokia has?

Likely not but the interface sure does some cool things and as is evidenced by U.S. sales of the Apple iPhone, people are tired of difficult user interfaces.

So Nokia needs to make some snappy changes to S60. Though the Finnish giant is not known for quick updates to its core platform, in this case it has a lot more to lose than anyone else if it can’t play the UI game up to Apple and Google’s standards.

Posted in Google + Software + Technology + Wireless | Comments Off on Google Android Puts The Screws To Nokia’s S60