Mobile Dad

Lance Ulanoff of PC Mag fame posted a critique of Motorola’s CLIQ product launch.  Let’s just say Motorola is not off to the start they need to stop the hemorrhaging.  Lance preface the launch with a statement that should be plastered on every wall at Motorola’s headquarters:

The Motorola CLIQ and its MotoBlur widget interface are, as far as I’m concerned, Motorola’s last chance to matter in the mobile space.

Sadly the launch did not reflect the dire need of importance or rationality Motorola so desperately needed to display in the highly competitive mobile market space. The last thing you want to do is confuse those who report for you:

This lead to a comic 10 minutes where most of the press had no idea how to spell the product name. “Is it ‘Click’?” we asked each other. I wondered if it might just be a RAZR-like “CLK.” We didn’t figure it out until Motorola’s press release crossed the wires and someone gave my row the proper spelling.

The hardware is quite attractive, just not the presentation. So sad, too bad.

[PC Mag]

Layar is a new cool mobile browser that adds an augmented reality layer.  By using your mobile camera, information is displayed on your screen about your surroundings.  Treating the image as one layer, it is possible to ’stack’ many layers of information using the API.  This would be a goldmine for tourists. Signing up companies to provide information or advertise is the next logical step.  Sadly the browser is only available on the Android platform. Damn, I knew I should had never given up my G1.

Layar has some cool features which include:

• Switching easily between layers
• Radar widget to give you an overview
• Logobar to indicate which layer is active
• Link through to mobile websites
• Integrated map view
• Custom filters for each layers (like distance, category, search box)

Not sure if this is going to be official but I do like what I see.  HTC has a great history of modding the graphical layer of WinMo to make it palatable. Take that quality engineering to the very mod-friendly Android and there is really no telling how far they can take it!  I am in love with those widgets!

So Google is giving developers a sneek peak of Android 1.5.  Looks like there will be support for multiple versions of the code base, meaning you can have both v.1.1 and v1.5.  Kind of nice if you are trying to support the latest and greatest yet be able to run on the lowest rev.  1.5 includes the mythical cupcake update that has YET to make an appearance on the G1.  Maybe on APRIL 21?!?!

Cool features to keep an eye on are:

• Live folders
• Search within a webpage
• Video upload on Youtube
• Pic upload to Picasa
• Speech recognition libraries
• Accelerometer-based application rotations

Looks like everyone is trying to soften the blow iPhone 3.0 will bring.

[via Engadget]

I spent the last couple of days filling in for my dad while he recovers from surgery.  My parents own a couple of stores in Colorado and though it would have been helpful to manage the front-end, my talents were better utilized elsewhere, like fixing up their homes and properties.  So while I was re-wiring electrical (small stuff mind you) and moving a whole lot of earth, a lot of tech news had occurred while I was away.  Like, oh I don’t know, the preview of the iPhone 3.0!  So sadly I was not there when all the tech sites went live with coverage, but at least there were great summaries:

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