Great Expectations: the lost potential from concept to reality

There are many concepts in the technology world, with a few coming to light. Google Glass and Xbox Kinect are just two groundbreaking products that have made it out of the lab and into the real world. But what about the lost potential?

Above is the first video of Google Glass – then called “Project Glass” – showing how it will integrate into our lives, by showing us all the information we need, when we need it. The person in the video is reminded of calendar events, told the weather when looking outside, notified that the subway is closed and is even navigated around a book shop. There’s even no apparent connection problems – Glass is always connected.

But in reality? It’s nowhere near as powerful.

Joshua Topolsky from The Verge took a look at pretty much the final version of Glass, and though it may be useful to record a video with just your glasses, and know the time simply be looking in the top right, it isn’t that useful in everyday life. Gone is the full vision overlay, and it turns out that the only built in apps are New York Times, Evernote, Gmail, and Path (at least at launch). Useful occasionally, but not all the time. There’s no Calendar, Weather, and (at launch) there will be no cellular version (Wi-Fi only) and you have to wake glass up before using it. I understand that more third-party apps will come, but it isn’t good that Google won’t be integrating simple first-party apps such as Calendar.

Yes, it was just a concept in that video. A preview of how Glass might end up. But the real Glass won’t be that useful in everyday life, and no amount of third-party apps can give you cellular data or a full, useful vision overlay.

So that’s Google Glass, with quite a lot of lost potential, at least in my opinion. Another example of this – but less so – is Xbox Kinect, previously known as Project Natal (I prefer the original name):

Xbox Kinect – the final product – is nowhere near as accurate or as powerful as that. It will likely be improved significantly in the upcoming Xbox update (Xbox 8? Xbox 720? New Xbox?), but it will probably never be quite as good as in the demo video. 4 years after that video was put online, can anyone walk into their living room, and just start talking, with the Xbox instantly knowing who they are? No.

So… many features have been lost in the transition between concept and reality. It hasn’t just happened with these products; everything from the Pebble, which requires terrible phone setup to, in some extent, Windows 8 and Windows RT, which are overall ok but lack amazing hardware and, in the case of the latter, lack apps and compatibility. It’s impossible to incorporate everything in the final product, so I just wish that companies would stop raising our hopes with amazing concept videos only to have our dreams shattered when the final product comes to market.

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And a longer version:

 

What I now use: Chrome and Evernote

As you may know, I’m a big fan of Microsoft. I use Windows 8, and I’ve used IE and OneNote (occasionally for the latter) basically since I got a computer so many years ago. But recently, I’ve switched to Chrome and Evernote. Why? Read on…

OneNote to Evernote

As useful as OneNote can be, I’ve never really used it that much or to it’s full potential. It’s probably because it’s doesn’t fit that well into my life – the iPhone app is very poor, it’s not easy to get content on there (for example, using the Share charm only share text, not images), and when searching for something I had to search Google and OneNote – there wasn’t a universal search. Another negative is, well, it’s not free. I’ve only got OneNote 2013 on my desktop computer, so when using a laptop there was a fragmented 2010 experience. A recent Verge article opened my eyes to Evernote, which seems a lot better. The metro style version is rubbish, and there’s a 60MB monthly upload limit for free users (unlike 25GB or 7GB altogether with no monthly upload limit) but the benefits are tremendous. It integrates with Google search, so typing in “china city” shows me web results and my note for china city opening times within one search. There’s a send to email address, so I can create notes without an internet connection. It’s on every platform – I get the same experience on my Windows 8 PC, a Windows 7 laptop and a Mac. And the iPhone app is brilliant. I changed back and forth a bit, but Evernote is staying. Which brings me onto my second major change…

IE10 to Chrome

If you’d said to me just a couple of weeks ago that I’d be switching to Chrome, I wouldn’t have believed you. But there’s a couple of key reasons:

• Extensions – IE can share some stuff via the Share charm, but it’s limited. With Chrome, I can send articles to Pocket in one click. I take an image or selection of text and send it to OneNote in two clicks. And there’s the awesome Evernote Clearly extension, which makes webpages a lot nice to read. I’ve never used extensions before, so I didn’t miss them, but when I use IE I now find it extremely lacking.
• Cross platform – I can get my Chrome favourites on a Windows 8, Windows 7, Vista and XP, a Mac, Linux, my iPhone and an Android device. IE can only sync to other Windows 8 and RT devices. The only downside is there’s no Chrome for Windows RT.

There are a few things I miss about IE, though. Mostly the speed (it’s a little faster than Chrome), the font rendering (fonts don’t look as nice on Chrome) and the simplicity (the full screen view of IE10 metro is just amazing). I’ll still use IE for pinning Outlook.com and some other sites to my taskbar, and if I get a Windows RT device, but otherwise I’m done with it.

So those are some quite major changes to the way I use my PC. Have you made some major software changes recently?

I’ll leave you with possibly my favourite Verge video of all time (and click here for the music):

PS: I’m nearly at 50,000 views! Yay!

 

Features/changes I’d like to see in Outlook.com this year

There’s a few features and changes I’d like to see added to Outlook.com soon; mostly from Gmail. Here’s the list:

• An improved Calendar – The Outlook.com calendar is still officially called Hotmail Calendar, has an old interface and doesn’t have search. I’d like to see it updated with an interface similar to Outlook.com’s, with search, and a quick add feature similar to Fantastical‘s and Google Calendar’s.
• IMAP support – I don’t really see the point of IMAP anymore, since EAS is around which supports push email along with calendar and contact sync, but it’s needed in some situations. For example, Mac users wanting to view their email in OS X Mail need to use POP, which doesn’t sync changes back to the server. Ideally, though, Apple should implement EAS support into OS X so Mac users can sync everything.
• A smaller compose window – basically the same as Gmail’s. It would be really useful.
• A dedicated iOS app – The default iOS Mail app suffices for most tasks, but since Outlook.com has added Categories and more recently Archiving it’s not so suitable. We need a dedicated, metro-style iOS app that supports pretty much all Outlook.com features and has push email/notifications. We don’t, however, need special contact and calendar apps – Cobook and Fantastical are just great.
• A much better Android app – the current Android app is rubbish. It needs the same features of the dedicated iOS app plus a nice interface. This is one of the main reasons that’s stopping me from buying a Nexus 7, so fix it!
• Delete becomes mark as read and delete – if you currently delete something that’s unread, the Deleted folder has a little 1 next to it. I don’t need to know that something’s unread in deleted because, well, it’s deleted! I don’t care!
• A much better set of Windows 8 apps – The Mail app needs to basically be Outlook.com but not in a web browser plus Windows 8 style notifications etc. The Calendar app needs searching and a form of quick add. The Messaging app just needs to be replaced by the Skype app. The People app is fine. Fix them!
• Allow multiple “schedule cleanup rules” – I’ve set up emails from several senders to automatically be moved to my Archive folder after 30 days. But I want them auto-deleted after 60 days. I can only have one of these rules. Why?!?!
• Better search – in Gmail, once you’ve signed up for the field trail, search suggestions of emails you might be searching for appear as you type. Something like that in Outlook.com would be awesome.

I think that’s all. Phew. Although it may not seem this way, there’s a lot I like about Outlook.com, and that’s why I use instead of Gmail. There are some occaisions when I do wish I had Gmail, however, and doing all the above would eliminate this entirely.

What’s coming from Microsoft in 2013, and a new theme for my blog

Firstly, there’s a lot coming from Microsoft in the New Year. Here’s the approximate timeline:

• Microsoft Surface for Windows 8 Pro - January
• Microsoft Office 2013 general availability – Q1
• Windows ‘Blue’* – Summer
• Xbox Next* – pretty much anytime; unlikely to be at E3
• Formerly-known-as-Windows Live-Calendar metro style update* – probably sometime in 2013, but no-one really knows. We thought we’d get this update back in August, then we thought we’d get it before Christmas, and now we hope we’ll get it in the New Year. Only Microsoft knows.
• And not forgetting the shutting down of Windows Live Messenger (formerly known as MSN Messenger) in favour of Skype, and the shutting down of Windows Live Mesh in favour of the SkyDrive for Windows desktop app[lication].

* means that this has simply been rumoured, and not ben confirmed (yet) by Microsoft. But we’ll all be very surprised if we reach 2014 without the next version of Windows, the next generation of Xbox and we’re still stuck with Windows Live Calendar.

In other news, you may have noticed a more professional looking theme for my blog. I know I changed it recently to a fish theme, but I decided I needed a cleaner look. So here it is.

Happy New Year!**

**I know it isn’t 2013 yet, but this may be my last post before Tuesday, so I thought I’d say it now before I forgot.

New apps for a new year

There’s several apps (Windows 8 and iPhone) that I’ve started using recently. Here’s what they are and what they do:

• Clear (iOS; paid) – this great little app lets you set and manage several to-do lists, and it uses gestures (such as swiping to complete and pinch out to view lists) to navigate. Not quite as many features as the built-in Reminders app (it doesn’t sync with any online accounts other than iCloud, for example, and there’s no notifications) but the natural gestures make this an overall better app.
• Pocket (iOS, web, Android and possibly more; free) – a bit like Instapaper, this nifty app and browser extension lets you save webpages and view them later, even when offline. It sounds simple, and it is. When configured properly, it can be a joy to use and I can’t really imagine life without it now.
• Latermark (Windows 8 and Windows RT; free) – a third party app for Pocket, it’s not without its faults. But the live tile support is nice, and the Share charm support makes it easy to add webpages in IE10 to Pocket. Significantly better than just using the web version, and is a must have until Pocket releases an official app.
• Remember the Milk (iOS and others; free and optional pro version) – another, more powerful Reminder solution, Remember the Milk is really, really useful. While Clear is more for quick to do lists, RTM lets you set due dates, how long it will take you and more, all in a clean interface. It relies less on gestures and more on buttons, but it’s still a must have app. The only downsides are that the free version is quite restrictive – there’s no push notifications, and sync to the web is manual. Not only that, you can only sync the app with the web once every 24 hours, so it’s a pain to use it on anything more than one device. If you really want to use it a lot with multiple devices, the pro version is available though.
• Fantastical (iOS; paid) – I’ve not started using this as recently as the others, but it’s worth mentioning because it’s so much better than the alternatives (aka. the default iOS calendar app). The clean UI and the awesome features like DayTicker and the ability to add new events simply by typing in some details (e.g. “Lunch on Friday at home”) make it a must have. The only things missing are the date on its icon (that’s Apple’s problem though) and the week view, which I never really used anyway.

All of these amazing apps have made it onto my first iPhone home screen or the first bit of the Windows 8 start screen, just to show how brilliant they are.

There’s one more thing I’d like to mention. It’s not an app, but it does make using some services a lot better an easier – it’s called IFTTT. This service lets you create or use other people’s recipes – if this happens, then do this. It supports integration with popular services as well, making it, well, awesome. Examples of recipes I’ve used are:

• Post on Facebook if it will snow tomorrow
• Email me if the temperature tomorrow is due to rise above 28 degrees Celsius
• When I’ve posted a new photo to Instagram, upload it to SkyDrive to Pictures/Instagram with the caption as the name
• When I email trigger@ifttt.com with the subject “#facebook”, post the content of the email as a Facebook status update (I’ve done the same for WordPress.com)
• Every time I am tagged in a photo on Facebook, upload the photo to SkyDrive at IFTTT/Facebook
• Post on Facebook at January 1st at midnight (I wonder what the post might say…)

Etc. There are basically endless possibilities, with services from Pocket to Blogger available. You can even make a special kind of USB drive blink when you’ve got a new email!

I recommend you give some of these apps a try, as I think you’ll find they really are great. It’s worth taking a look sooner rather than later, as prices are often temporarily lower (I got Clear for about 69p!)

I hope you’ve had a good Christmas, and I hope you will have a good New Year.

Exactly how fast Windows 8 boots on an SSD and news of a TARDIS redesign

WOW! Mine will be a little longer because I will need to dismiss the lock screen and enter my PIN, it’s going to be amazing when I get my SSD. The BIOS will be the only thing slowing it down!

16 days until Christmas…

In a completely irrelevant topic (other than the fact that’s it’s to do with Christmas), the TARDIS interior is getting a redesign in the Christmas episode. What?! How can they do that? They didn’t change it that long ago… well, it was April 2010 when they last changed it, but the last TARDIS design lasted for five years. Plus, the new design looks kind of dull:

I suppose that they want to remove everything relevant to the Pond era, but that’s a lot. Will we never see River again? Will the sonic screwdriver be re-designed? Will they change the Doctor Who logo? Will they give the eleventh Doctor a different outfit (actually, we already know that’s going to happen)? I can understand that they want to show that it’s a new era, but it’s not all changed like it did when the tenth doctor and his companions left – the eleventh doctor is the same as ever, though a little scarred by the death of the Ponds.

I guess we’ll just have to see how much the BBC have changed, and whether the new TARDIS interior is as dull as the first image shows…

 

My favourite iPhone feature

This actually might surprise you a bit. No, it isn’t the notification centre. Nor the gigantic app selection. It’s actually a feature called Do Not Disturb.

This optional feature lets you schedule a time period every day for when incoming notifications are silenced (the screen doesn’t even light up) and, if you want, calls are also silenced or calls only from your favourites are allowed. The feature can also be turned on and off at any time, overriding the set schedule.

So what’s so amazing about this feature? Well, I’ve signed up for a lot of technology email newsletters from companies like CNET in America. Sometimes, they arrive during the night, and thing I want is loud noise waking me up. Just put the phone on silent, you might say. But I might forget, and even when on silent the phone still vibrates and lights up the screen. That’s why this feature is just so brilliant.

There certainly isn’t anything like this on Windows Phone, and probably not on Android, so sometimes I’m really glad I’ve got an iPhone. Even though I really, really want a nice Windows Phone 8 device.

My Christmas present – an SSD

30 days and counting until my computer becomes very fast…

Sinofsky has left Microsoft!

http://m.winsupersite.com/windows-8/microsoft-announces-leadership-change-sinofsky-out