Google Phone just unleashed the dogs of war... and if Apple and Microsoft don't have plans in place, then they're just about to get served. I hope for the market's sake that you two have your act together!
In just over a year, Google has been able to develop and present a strong front on which to wage their mobile war on Apple and Microsoft. The momentum has built slowly, with the HTC Dream first launching in October of 2008, and early Android-equipped mobile phones receiving a positive, but lukewarm reception. As improvements were made to the platform, and more applications written and loaded to the Android Market (the Android version of the iTunes App store), users have built and extended the base for more promising Android developments.
Through 2009, more and more handsets adopted Android. With almost every major wireless carrier now touting Android devices, the OS began moving off of just phones and into other consumer electronic devices, like media players and ebook readers.
We recently witnessed a major battle joined with Verizon releasing Motorola's Droid bringing Android 2.0 to the enormous Verizon subscriber base. With the potential for one million Droids entering the market before year-end, this creates a mass of momentum that will be hard to dissipate.
And it's only appropriate that the first handset maker to have Android loaded, HTC, now is the standard bearer for Google's homegrown, own-branded phone. HTC is leading the charge by being developer of choice for Google's new device.
Microsoft, with it's somewhat whimper of a Windows Mobile 6.5 update, and Apple, with its long-in-the-tooth iPhone 3GS update, now must marshal their troops and execute on battle plans that are, with luck, well in place. The market will be the ultimate victor or loser, here. We've seen Apple dominate the market for some years now, and no real challenger has been able to pass muster. In that time, customers have had to make due with their iPhones and AT&T, and go without service and a few features that are really standard on mobile devices. Windows Mobile has struggled to get off the ground from a user passion perspective.
We now see a giant emerging in the mobile space through Google. Their shot-over-the-bow is the only opening Apple and Microsoft will have to exploit, so now we wait to see what they can bring forward in the coming months to really join the battle.
P.S. Note how Blackberry is not mentioned above... there's a reason for that. More on that later.
Had this cool idea for an iPhone 3GS game. Now that there's a compass and a camera, I'm combining that with augmented reality software so that in the game, players can "seek" other players in real-time in the real world. The idea is to find other players using a GPS-enabled map. When players get close, their iPhones will alert them of approaching players. This is where the fun begins.
As players approach, a minigame activates on their iPhone. The game issues "challenge beats" that both players have to match. They do this by pushing a button when it is lit. This happens 5 times at varying intervals as the players draw nearer. The player that succesfully hits the "beat" button the most times wins.
From there, the player who lost will have their iPhone display their badge, which is like a QR code that can be scanned by the winning player. The winner then scans the photo and collects the points/badges.
What makes the game more interesting, is that each player is assigned special "badges" or prizes as they progress. The better they get, the more badges they receive. If another player takes them down, they take those badges.
This would be a networked game that would show global ranking.
OK, while yes this is for Microsoft's XBox only, you know that other game console manufacturers will get into the mix. Check out this clip from The Late Show with Jimmy Fallon for a taste.
When I first saw the photos, I thought "there is no way this could be real." But then I saw the video... and it blew my mind! The engineering, and dare I say creative geniuses at BMW Group DesignworksUSA have created a car that has a "skin" instead of the normal sheet metal body we have in our cars of today. Imagine a car that has a normal frame, but instead of sheet metal or composite materials as the skin, it uses a flexible, shiny plastic.
Called the BMW GINA Light Visionary Model, the car has all the underpinnings, frame and suspension of a normal car, but with a skin stretched taut around a frame that creates all the necessary lines and shapes forming that familiar, albeit strikingly sculpted and beautiful form of an automobile. The benefits are clear: not only would this be less expensive to produce, but customizable as well... the skin takes less than 2 hours to install.
Talk about innovation. I expect nothing less from BMW. See the video here:
A few months ago I began seeing some of the rumors and early shots of what the upcoming Mazda6 would look like. Honestly, I wasn't impressed. I happen to own a 2003 Mazda6 and find it to be an almost perfect car - smooth elegant looks, great driving dynamics and just enough power. The thought of Mazda changing the looks was intriguing, but after seeing the initial renderings I was disappointed.
Check this story: http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=122001
Next month at the Frankfurt Auto Show, Mazda will be unveiling the newly redesigned Mazda6. Based on Ford's Mondeo platform, and with some added power it should shape up to be a well-engineered drive, but what will it look like, I wondered. The photo in the link above is a great teaser, and, well, I am now re-excited. I anxiously await the unveiling... and may need to ready my crow-eating utensils.
We're here to talk... about tech, the auto industry, the world.. anything that comes to mind. If we start talking about other things, that's even better. You'll find that the simplicity of any motion can drive talk toward every direction and topic under the sun.
About Me
Name: Michael Velasco
Location: Chicago, Illinois, United States
I love to talk about tech, but have the kind of background the makes me love to talk about lots of other things - politics, music, movies, history... you'll never know what you'll find me talking about next.
