This article from Business Insider got me started. Since I have to time to address potential fanboy arguments let’s go this way. For each time you think I am a fanboy I’ll think of you one of the following:

- troll
- user who has time to loose with lower quality devices/experiences
- user who likes to accumulate stress

Right now that Eric Schmit is promising that Android will soon beat iOS (whatever is the meaning of beating in this context), Android’s throat is getting more and more exposed. I can’t provide evidence but I started to feel a while ago that Android has found his way: more and more devices released and much buzz around the topic. But I always got in mind a few key aspects:

1. Fragmentation: it is not easy at all to build an homogeneous experience across many different devices
2. Too much fanfare about the number of devices activated per millisecond
3. Nobody has ever revealed how many dollars has Google shared with developers

While the second is mainly related to marketing and the too much diffused tendency to reveal meaningless numbers, as a UX designer, developer and entrepreneur I am pretty sensitive to points #1 and #3. The first is pretty a technical reason: developers have to write more code and carry more stress with respect to iOS. The third point is pretty a mystery to me: Apple is known to be pretty secretive, especially when prototyping, but is proud to reveal key numbers to attract more on their platform. Rhetoric questions for developers/entrepreneurs: which market would you dive in? the one where you know the current volume or the one you don’t know anything about? While reflecting on this please don’t fall into the childish thought that “more devices more potential buyers”, unless you are a rookie. Just consider that you are making money by selling applications, and a higher number of devices does not imply a higher number of sales. The key value is the “willingness to buy”, and the internet is full of articles supporting the idea that iOS users are more prone to buy applications than androiders.

Getting back to the main point of this article the new announcement from Samsung, that won’t allow upgrades to the new version of the OS on old devices, is really exposing Android’s throat to attacks. While it was relatively easy to copy (umm … take inspiration from) iOS and its ecosystem, now I think that Android has reached a pretty unsolvable issue: the one of upgrades. People who bought an iPhone 3gs (released in June 2009) can still happily use it today with iOS5 and the iCloud. Can you find a similar example in the Android world? I doubt so. The reason is exquisitely technical: relatively young devices have not enough hardware power to run new versions of Android OS. It is just a physical limit, and I think there is nothing to discuss. My opinion is that it is due to lack of vision. One of the few upgradeable devices is the Galaxy S2, because it is a flagship product, and preventing an update on that would mean users migrating to other devices in a hurry.
I am not a fan of Microsoft but if you bought the first model of Windows Phone you can still happily run the latest version of the OS on that. This means being on track.

Besides technical reasons I think that there is an issue related to the approach. While it was possible to “decouple” hardware and software on the desktop (and Microsoft has built his empire on that) this is much less doable in the mobile world, where hardware power is limited.

Here are a few suggestions for Google, makers and users.

Makers

HTC, Samsung and colleagues should follow Amazon approach. The only way to attack a well established market are a few. You can work on:

• the best product
• the best solution
• the best price

Amazon, to attack the tablet market, is betting on the best price. I don’t see a simpler way for competitors to undermine Apple’s iOS ecosystem. Building the best product or solution would take a lot of time.

Google

Google should close the gates, reorganize all the code to be more tightly coupled with hardware. They should put a lot of effort in rendering, demanding that (when possible) to the hardware. They should also devise crystalline rules about installation and updates. In 2012 I should not connect my phone to a computer to update the OS and I should not be forced to buy a new device to have the latest version of the OS. The recent acquisition of Motorola
is going toward that direction. If I were HTC or Samsung I’d be a bit worried, for I suspect new versions of Android will be super optimized for Motorola hardware. That’s the only solution I see for Android to resurrect.

Users

In the current situation, my suggestion is to go cheap. If you buy a $500 Android phone which is not OS-upgradeable it is not easy for you to afford a new purchase. If you have bought a $200 one, you have saved $300 (with respect to an iOS device) and you can think of using that money to buy a new model in one year.
Of course it is not easy to spot which models are upgradeable before you buy them (see crystalline rules above).
In general, we are told that a Google-approved Nexus device, should be eligible for upgrades (my addition: provided that hardware is powerful enough). So if you really like to buy an Android phone/tablet I strongly suggest to stick with those models or buy the new ones which will be released by Motorola in 2012.

Conclusion

While Google and friends are just chasing the highest number of activations per day, exposing his throat to competitors’ weapons, Microsoft and Apple are pointing on good experience, simplifying data migration and assuring compatibility with old models.

I’d like to conclude with a set of questions:

• where is all the “freedom” that Android supporters claim?
• do you realize that openness and (supposed) freedom, in the long run, are more costly than “closed-source” competitor solutions?
• do you see all the ifs you are going to face buying an android powered device?
• do you know that all this is due to a business model

?

• Not convinced yet? Have a look at this graph.

I’ll remember you like this, spreading creative fire.

New is cool. I like to try new things, even alpha or beta stuff. I like to see changes, improvements, new directions. I like the way Apple continuously pushes improvements: one new iDevice almost each year, new software solutions, new ways to save data. But I can’t let the things I like to influence my business in a bad way.
If you are like me you probably have a machine (in my case a MacBook Pro) which is your faithful daily companion. There is everything you need, the tools you use daily. An operative systems is not a toy application you can live without. It’s part of that faithful companion, something you count on. OSX Lion is something I cannot count on yet. I installed it on a spare Mac mini, which I use for experiments. I like the new interface, the way it is inspired to iOS, the way it is easier to use. But there are tools I work with daily, which are still not fully compatible with Lion. The first release of new tool is not perfect, even if it has been extensively tested during the alpha and beta stages. This happens to each product, even if it is built by great developers. Check out the Mac or App store to see how many 1.0.1 or 2.1 versions you can spot. Those minor version changes reflect updates which are needed to improve and fine-tune applications. Not even Apple is immune to that. I bet there will be a Lion 10.7.1 soon. The same applies to other Apple products like XCode. That’s another tool I use daily. There has been a 4.0, then a 4.0.1, a 4.0.2 and now a 4.1. If you search the Twitterverse it’s easy to spot people lamenting crashes of Lion or XCode. I can even venture a bet that 50% of Apple developers is still using XCode 3.
Not to mention 3rd party apps. Part of my daily job is based on the Adobe Creative Suite, which sometimes is buggy per se, regardless of the OS. I don’t want even imagine how it behaves on Lion, considering that Adobe is lazy (BTW compatibility issues are listed here) Also historically known applications like Coda are unstable and crashy, in spite the fact it has been upgraded to be Lion compatible. See here and here for example. I remember I had the same approach to Snow Leopard, which I installed at least two months after the first release.

I can understand people which install Lion to test it or review it. But really, what’s the sense of installing it and polluting the Twitterverse like screaming kids? Software development is craftsmanship, it takes time. Or is Apple so trustful that people blindly upgrade without doing any check?
Personally I can support an application crash a week, and a kernel panic error a month. Something more frequent would kill my productivity and raise my stress. My suggestion is to wait at least the next minor release. Moreover:

• monitor relevant twitterers and bloggers to have a glimpse of the current situation
• talk to people you trust, ask them how is the current release,
• monitor Apple’s forums,
• check the website/forums of each application you use for your business

And even after that be a bit doubtful. We are talking business. Or would you prefer to tell your client that the last release got screwed due to a Lion crash an app crashing on Lion? :)
That said, when do you plan to install Lion? Did you already install it? How many issues did you have?

Update.
If you like to check whether an app is compatible with Lion you can consult roaringapps

There is a lot of buzz around Apple vs Adobe recently. It all started few years ago, when Flash was forbidden on the iPhone. Somebody claims that it started even before. I really don’t want to get into the chronology of the issue. I am just wondering: do I really need to choose?
Many people took it personal and, as long as the are allowed (by laws and by companies’ policy) they are free to express their opinion. I understand their viewpoint. If you believe in a company, you invested your time by using/learning/building-on-top-of their tools, you get angry when these conflicts happen. And if you are angry you can have reactions like changing your hardware and software in favor of another producer.
I am writing this post because I feel weird about this situation, for I am not angry (yet :). I started my career with Flash, since MX 2004 version. The Flash platform enabled me to pay my bills and it still does, cause I develop, consult, teach and write about the Flash platform. Probably I did a good move a while ago by qualifying myself as “designer and developer of web, ria and mobile applications”. This is my short description, that you’ll find anywhere my logo appears. As you can see there is no commitment to any specific technology. Though I might have preferences about development tools, I think what clients need is a solution to their problems, not a list of complicated techie explanations about what is under the hood. Probably another good move I did almost three years ago was to expand my knowledge of the mobile industry, and specifically of the design and development of iPhone applications. I was fascinated by the tool and especially by the “ecosystem” of iTunes, ’cause the biggest obstacle for me has been commercializing, and not developing, my products. Although I have played with Titanium (and I liked it) I always stuck with Objective-c, because I felt I had more control on the development process and the final result. There are many support tools (debugger, leak hunter) and overall I like XCode.
I built applications for clients and I recently released HugeTweets, an app for the IPad in less time than planned (launch deadlines help :). So far I just I feel I have to say thanks, to both Adobe and Apple. As long as they will run on MacOsX I will use Adobe tools to design and develop. As long as Apple will produce MacOsX and will keep the current ratio for developers’ gain on the iTunes store, I will work on the iPhone/iPad.
In few words I don’t feel the need to say: “I am with …”.
Honestly, I also feel I am taking advantage of the recent 3.3.1 clause . I am NOT saying I am happy of a restrictive rule, I DO like open platforms, but at the moment my investment on the iphone/ipad market acquires value, ’cause there are less potential iphone developers, all those which invested on “third party” dev tools. Should I raise my hourly rate? :)
The main reason I didn’t fully switch to those tools is the lack of debug/measurement tools. Since I spend part of my time improving performance and memory usage of iphone/ipad apps (and Apple provides great tools to do it), I always wondered how can I do it in Flash/Titanium/OpenGap? Still wondering, if you have any idea drop a comment below …
Summing up, I feel weird because I am still using what I think is the best of both worlds: Adobe’s tools to design/mockup and MacOsX to develop on the iphone/ipad platform and I don’t feel the need to boycott any company.

Out of curiosity: how does Apple find out when an application is not built with c/objective-c? Any hidden code put in the binary by the compiler?

UPDATE: Even guys behind Corona are not worried.

ps: wanna betatest upcoming versions of my iPad application? All you need is an iPad and a Twitter account. Drop a message to the support email here: hugetweetsapp.com or dm me on Twitter. You’ll receive instructions.

I was going to write an angry post after some recent experience with Apple customer care service. Now I am writing a happy ending tale with a strong suggestion as final moral: unplug the cable only when necessary or when you need to calibrate the battery. Here is why.

After eleven months of usage my Macbook Pro notifies a “service battery” message like in the picture. Before contacting the customer service I started investigating on the internet. Many people on Apple’s forum had a similar issue, which has been reported after the upgrade to Snow Leopard. Since I upgraded as well I thought my machine was falling into the same category, so I adopted the same solutions proposed in the forum: recalibrate, reset pram, SCM reset, etc. I didn’t solve. Then I installed coconut battery, which reported 363 cycles. Finally I decided to contact Apple’s customer service. Since my mac is less than one year old the warranty is still valid. I went to the shop confident that they’d just change my battery with a new one. There I got the first shock.
The live by a rule: battery is a consumable.
“Agree, I am not denying the evidence, but my warranty is still valid and I expect you give me a new battery at no charge” I replied ingenuously.
“Let’s see the number of cycles, if lesser than 300 we can change the battery at no charge”. They plugged in a usb key while I was figuring out 120 bucks flying from my pockets to theirs. The key confirmed the previous verdict: 363 cycles.
I thought “DAMN” but I said: “Ok, I am not discussing your rules, just wondering where I can check them out. You know, when you buy a tool with a warranty you want to know its conditions.”
They replied: “This is what I am told whenever I open a procedure about a battery, no free substitution if cycles are greater than 300, EVEN IF you have bought the Apple care. There should be something about that on the Apple’s web site.”
Very said, I left my used battery at the shop an got home. During the trip I was mumbling: “This is not transparent, when I buy something I HAVE to know its policy about substitution.” I called the european office and they pointed me to this page, which mentions the famous 300 cycles, but no details about substitution policies. Again, I am not happy, cause I think it should be written explicitly: “We do not change the battery, even if under warranty, if cycles are greater than 300.” Write in on the booklet, on the internet, somewhere in a public place.
The angryness faded away during the weekend and got happiness when on monday I went to the shop and they told me that I did not need to pay, because “the procedure” did not require a payment for now. They will send back the old battery and, IF there is no argument, I will not pay.
I also happily collected some hints from the guy at the shop. Here is a quick recap.

• This type of batteries has no memory effect.
• Completely discharge and recharge only when you need to calibrate the battery.
• When full, if you unplug and replug immediately, you will use battery power until it is 95% (even if the cable is plugged in). This counts as 1/20 of a cycle.

The last tips is the most interesting to me. So here is a quiz. Let’s say I move my laptop from the office to the bedroom to watch a movie. Let’s assume that’s the only case I unplug and replug the battery charger. Considering each move is 1/20 of a cycle, how many movies can I watch before getting to the 300 cycles limit? (Hint: remember to take into account that the morning after I have to bring back the laptop to the office).

A related post from Marco Arment (with a more serious ending :).

A few days ago, as many developers, I got the following message from Apple.

I think it is a good step towards developers. A small one, but towards. The feed, publicly available, includes tips about submission and general news. For example, iTunes connect will be down from Dec 23rd to 28th. An encouraging news is that “92% of applications are being approved within 14 days”. Although this is far from the dream of many developers I think it proves positive attitude in cultivating the relationship with the creators of iPhone applications.

In the meantime, acceptance policies are sweetening.