The only real thing that the iPhone and the Gphone have in common at the moment are five letters.
Google’s plans for the mobile phone market have caused quite the stir Monday, even though the company’s press conference Monday morning didn’t add much to what we already knew about Android, a collection of software that could be a catalyst for Linux on mobile phones over the next few years. Still, when any company the size of Google makes noise about steering its ship in a certain direction, people take notice.
One nice development is that we can stop calling the damn thing the Gphone, which stopped being cute awhile ago in the fine tradition of J-Lo, A-Rod, and K-Fed. But while both Apple and Google will be selling mobile phone software in late 2008, the companies seem determined to walk a fine line in their new dual relationship as trusted partner and wary competitor.
Android is a nice idea; take the promise of Linux as a mobile operating system and finally give it a backer with some legs. This could set Google up nicely for the future if mobile phones continue to turn into little computers, since companies like Symbian and Microsoft are far from entrenched in this market.
Apple is also eying that future. Much of what Google said about Android during its press conference–such as the desire for a better Internet experience on mobile phones–was uttered by Apple CEO Steve Jobs in January during the presentation of the iPhone. And it’s already sold 1.4 million iPhones in three months.
So this time next year, are we going to be talking about the looming showdown between Google and Apple in mobile computing, or the surprising resignation of Google’s Eric Schmidt from Apple’s board of directors?
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Posted in Apple, Google, Hardware, Ideas, Linux | 1 Comment »
The technology behind the wind-up radio could soon be helping to light up some of the poorest homes in Africa.
The Freeplay Foundation is developing prototypes of a charging station for house lights it hopes will improve the quality of life for many Africans.
The Foundation said the lights would replace the expensive, polluting and unhealthy alternatives many Africans currently use to light their homes.
Field testing of the prototypes will start in Kenya in the next few months.
Light and life
Kristine Pearson, director of the Freeplay Foundation, said few Africans in the continents most vulnerable areas had access to electricity to light homes.
“Their life stops or is very narrowed when the sun goes down,” she said. “Two extra hours of light would make a big difference to their life.”
The World Bank estimates that more than 500 million people in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to electricity supplies that could be used to light their homes.
Instead, said Ms Pearson, many used kerosene lamps, battery-powered lights or wood fires as sources of illumination after sundown.
Buying kerosene or batteries can consume up to 15% of a household’s budget, said Ms Pearson. In addition wood was hard to gather and unhealthy to burn.
As part of its LifeLight Project the Freeplay Foundation has drawn up designs for a charging base unit that would be able to power up several detachable lights that can be used around a home.
“They could use them for study or for safety – to help them if they go somewhere at night,” said Ms Pearson.
Working prototypes are now being made that will be tested with families in Kenya to refine the design.
Freeplay technology has already been used to create wind-up torches and small lights said Ms Pearson but the LifeLight Project aims to make bigger, brighter bulbs for homes.
She said the Foundation was adopting a similar approach to that used for the wind-up Lifeline radio to get the lights to families.
Instead of just giving the lights out and then leaving, the Foundation aims to recruit women who will sell the lights and be trained to repair and maintain them for customers.
Ms Pearson said the take up of the lights was likely to be rapid because it would piggyback on the network created by the Foundation to maintain Lifeline radios.
Since it was established in 1998 the Foundation has given out more than 150,000 Lifeline radios.
Ms Pearson said the Foundation had applied for a grant to fund the design and testing work from the World Bank as part of that organisation’s Lighting Africa initiative.
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Though almost everything Google touches seems to turn to gold, there is one project that never quite became ubiquitous (at least here in the U.S.). Orkut may have found a following in Brazil and Asia, but I don’t know anyone who uses the service. As Erick Schonfeld reports in TechCrunch, that may be about to change.
Known internally as Maka-Maka, the project will provide a means for all of Google’s existing applications to work together within a social-networking landscape. Google is also building a series of APIs that will allow developers to integrate their own applications into the Google universe.
Schonfeld describes the Google initiative as an attempt to “‘out-open’ Facebook” and predicts that the APIs will roll out for Orkut and iGoogle before percolating down through the Google universe.
All eyes will be on Google, but don’t expect anything too earth-shattering straight out of the gate. Many of these apps will be copycats of what is already available on Facebook (just as the very first apps on Facebook were ported over from other parts of the Web). This first go-round, Google will just be trying to match Facebook’s ante. Remember, even on Facebook, the best apps didn’t emerge on Day One. And now Facebook has a six-month lead.
Given that Orkut seems to have already lost the battle for social network supremacy, I have doubts that a barrage of borrowed Facebook apps will inspire anyone to switch. But if other Google properties begin to incorporate social-networking elements, then it seems like Google may succeed, if only through its near-complete Web saturation.
As I see it, the biggest shortcoming of social-networking sites is their inability to play well with others. Between MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tribe, Pownce, and the numerous also-rans, it seems as if maintaining an active presence at all of these sites could erode into becoming a full-time job. If Google can somehow create a means for all of these services to work together, and seamlessly interact with the Google family, then perhaps this is the killer app that people don’t even realize they’ve been waiting for.
On the other hand, if Google delivers a platform that simply mimics Facebook, while opening up the API just a little bit further, I have doubts that it’ll go anywhere. The business of social networking has been a bit of an enigma for many of the larger companies. Whereas Friendster, MySpace, and Facebook were practically born in dorm rooms and garages, their success has dwarfed anything that Yahoo or Google have been able to accomplish. Perhaps that’s all about to change, but amongst each segment of the population, there is usually only room for one social-networking portal, and Google will have a rough road ahead of it trying to convince kids, teens, and adults alike that this spot should belong to Google.
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Posted in Google, Ideas, Internet, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
