Vimeo on Demand launches to let creators charge for videos
I wonder why YouTube hasn’t done this before. I’ll definitely pay for some of the contents there.
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E-Ink Smartphone Could Work
An E-Ink smartphone could work, for 3 Reasons:
1. Long battery life
E-Ink consumes very minimum power.
2. Price
Since video performance is no concern at all, I imagine good pick of chipset and E-Ink screen will actually make it very affordable.
3. Easy to the eyes
Self-explanatory. We all love E-Ink for it.
Combine these 3 treats, I came to a very interesting conclusion:
E-Ink smartphone is perfect for enterprise!
- It’s cheap so it can be deployed to a wider range of staff.
- It last longer so good for long business trips.
- And it can’t be used to play games, watch videos, etc. Reducing distraction and increase productivity
4. Always on, no locking/unlocking hassle
Drew Wilken pointed out to me that another advantage for E-Ink is that after the pixel is printed, it cost no power at all, which means the device can be always on without much battery drain. So you don’t have to lock your smartphone or turn off the screen to save power, just leave it on and anytime you want to check time, new message or tweets, it will be there. Handy!
Samsung’s Recent Copy of Apple and Their Secret Ingredient For Success
Another blatant copy from Samsung. They could have come up with millions of different designs for the app, but no, they ‘happened’ to come very close to Apple. Makes you think they have Apple designers working for them maybe?
Image Source: The Verge
Hey come to think of it, I think I cracked Samsung’s secret ingredient for success. They took a page from Google on the Android OS, riding on Google’s huge R&D Android department. Then they took a page from Apple’s industrial design, exploiting the best design talents at Apple. Then they copied both Google and Apple’s ideas on application and services, like Passbook, Siri, etc., getting the best of both worlds. See my point here? No wonder they are so successful, they pretty much copied from the best on every area and put them together under ‘Galaxy’ brand. They are the best ‘other’s innovation integrator‘ on the market.
A note to Apple and Google, stop Samsung from doing it or your designers and engineers are also Samsung’s. Another note to legal system, stop Samsung or US companies will suffer even more, or got their success stolen from Samsung. If innovation and ideas cannot be protected here, then what else are we gonna compete with the likes of Samsung? Cheap labor?
Can Tablet Replace Smartphone?
Kevin is quite forward-thinking in predicting a future when tablet replacing smartphone as our main mobile device on all applications, including cellular voice. I agree with most of his points. Just from a product designer point of view, I would like to explore where we are in the process and how well each party is doing right now.
To be the center of our digital life, I believe a real main mobile device needs to have the following treats:
- Powerful enough to cope to our daily needs
- When we need them, they need to hit the ground running instantly.
- When we don’t need them, they can get out-of-the-way with the least burden.
Let’s look at each treat and try to score it on both devices, smartphone and tablet.
1. Powerful Enough to cope to our daily needs.
Smartphone: ♥♥♥♥
Smartphones have become more and more powerful. It IS a mobile computer now. The only limitation is screen size, and that has been mitigated by great attention on UI/UX designs.
Tablet: ♥♥♥♥♥
Performance wise, a tablet can pretty much do everything the smartphone can do, only faster and easier. The bigger screen size offer more freedom on user interactions and more immersive experience. If smartphones are only good for content consuming, tablet can handle some light weight content creating jobs already.
2. When we need them, they need to hit the ground running instantly.
Smartphone: ♥♥♥♥♥
For two major use cases, app launching and voice calls, smartphone handles them very well. Usually app launching is quick on most smartphones and tablets and mobile OS now all support ‘instant on’. Unlock your smartphone and hit the app icon, within seconds you’re already on the road. Cellular calls are easy too, user can pick up the call just be pulling the smartphone out and unlock, then place the phone near their ear.
Tablet: ♥♥♥
This is where tablet is still struggling. Yes you can always use headset or Bluetooth, but who wants to wear a headset or Bluetooth all day just in case someone call them? Holding the big tablet near your ear to take the call is borderline ridiculous.
Another more subtle factor is how many hands user will have to use for the device. For smartphone is one hand most of the time, but for tablet it’s both hands. From my personal experience, if I can use one hand, I would prefer to not use two. Anyone shares the same feeling with me?
3. When we don’t need them, they can get out-of-the-way with the least burden.
Smartphone: ♥♥♥♥♥
Simple, putting the smartphone into your pocket will do. It become invisible and you are worry free. There is nearly no cost in carrying them around.
Tablet: For guys ♥♥ For gals: ♥♥♥♥
This is much less of an issue for purse carrying ladies. 7 inch tablet can easily fit into ladies’ purse and they carry them around all day anyway. For guys, it’s a bit harder since purse is not a necessary accessory for them. Wherever they go, they always have to think about not losing it. The weight might not be a problem for guys though.
Overall:
Smartphone: 15 ♥
Tablet: 10 ♥
It’s very likely that smartphone will still be our main mobile device for a while, until we can find a better way to carry tablet around and picking up incoming calls.
Fujitsu’s Senior Smartphone Debut : A Falling Leaf, A Coming Fall
Fujitsu recently launched its first Android based smartphone with France Telecom. I know there’s nothing ‘exciting’ to blog about, but there’re some serious implications from it, just like people can tell the fall is coming from the falling of a leaf.
1. Accessibility to a whole new level.
Every UI/UX designer should take accessibility into consideration these days, but in most cases people do it just to conform to regulation requirements. It has never be in the center of the design stage before. But by choosing to release its first smartphone as a senior oriented phone with unique features and user interface, Fujitsu made a serous commitment to accessibility, from regulation abiding level to business sell point level. There are cold numeric business calculation behind it yes, but it’s still heart warming to see seniors are targeted and well thought out designs are making their use of smartphone much easier. Seniors want a piece in the mobile trend also!
2. Android OEMs start to tap into niche market already
This is something where iOS ecosystem is lagging behind actually. Don’t get me wrong. iPhone is still very popular and I’d even say it’s still main stream and leading the innovation. But on niche markets, they are not making much progress. Reason? Simple. Because Apple is but ONE company and they release but ONE phone per year. This is a pretty hard limitation. Yet for Android, there is always your ambitious ‘new comers’ want to do something different to strike from different angle, thus the senior demographic targeting Fujitsu. If you ask an elderly which phone he will use, a dedicated designed senior phone or iPhone with some accessibility enhancements. I don’t think the answer will be too hard to guess.
3. Flexible UI Themes for iOS to close the gap
Yet hope is not all lost for iOS ecosystem. When Steve Jobs first release the iPhone, one notion he brought up in his keynote about why traditional handset OEMs did wrong is hard keyboard. He claimed that what hardware can do on one thing, software can do equally well on the same thing with one hundreds different ways. And that leads to the rise of mutli-touch technology and touch screen becoming the ‘de facto’ choice for phones just because it’s so flexible.
Along the same line, the user interface potential for iOS to evolve and become more flexible to address more niche markets are huge. For example, by introducing different user interface design tweaks as different ‘themes’, your iPhone can actually look and feel like a senior phone, or enterprise phone, or kid phone. At the center, it’s still iOS, but on the user experience level, it can be optimized for different purposes. This has been the strength point for Android from the very beginning, ability to tweak the interface, and iOS do need to play catch up.
A good start of this would be introducing ‘Dashboard’ of Mac OS into iOS. Put all the relevant information and widgets on top, so the ‘update hungry’ users can quench their thirsty in one glance. I’ll try to write a separate blog on this in the future.
All in all, a move to make dedicated device for older guys is always welcomed, and I had a feeling that we’ll see more of these kinds of dedicated devices in the future.
Related articles
- Orange to offer new Fujitsu Stylistic S01 phone for older people (slashgear.com)
Tesla vs NYT: And the Winner is …
Generally I think it’s a good thing that everyone could have their voices. People will listen to both sides of the story and make their own judgement. And usually the more you discuss and dig something, the closer it will be for the public to come to the truth.
I was reading most of the comments on this NYT vs Tesla drama from different websites. Some offer photos, some provide perspectives, I can compare all these and figure out the big picture easier than with only NYT’s article and Tesla’s blog. I felt empowered. That. Is the most important implication to me from this. The public is empowered eventually.
So in the era of media democratization, our readers are the biggest winner.
Android Developer ‘Perk’?
In his blog, Dan said:
Let me make this crystal clear,
every App purchase you make on Google Play gives the developer your name, suburb and email address with no indication that this information is actually being transferred
I can’t say this is totally unexpected. There are so many privacy leaks everywhere. And the only way to not get spammed or exploited is to not give out your email information at all.
However, the impact of this privacy issue could be huge. People could get stalkered for leaving negative rating of an app they don’t like on Google Play, or being the victim of email spam. Developers don’t really need these private information and Google obviously gains nothing from it. I hope Google could show some respect to user’s privacy and stop this ASAP. They don’t want an unnecessary push on the fine ‘Creepy Line‘ they are carefully walking, don’t they?
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Microsoft Surface Pro Tablet: What They Got Right on Hardware Design
Microsoft Surface Pro Tablet: What They Got Right on Hardware Design
The gadget repair blog iFixit claimed today that Microsoft’s new tablet Surface Pro is even harder to repair than Apple’s iPad. I’m not surprised at all. The entire ‘Surface’ tablet initiative is an attempt from the software giant to go vertical, go mobile and go relevant after all. Apple has been practicing the ‘vertical model’ artfully for years, and with great success. Tighter integration between software and hardware offers more streamlined products, which is extremely essential in the mobile era. Microsoft got it right when designing the Surface tablet’s hardware in several fronts:
1. They design the device to be a mobile device, not a portable version of a desktop counterparts. (cough..netbook…cough)
They seems to adopting ‘Mobile First’ motto in hardware design. That’s why they cram every components together tightly to make it as slim as possible. (which they had to, Apple has set the bar so high now with iPad and iPad Mini) This also lead to why it’s so hard to repair, because it’s not designed to be so like desktop/laptop PC did.
2. Go high quality, high-end, instead of cheap
When Microsoft first announced the price for Surface tablet, everyone was hit with surprise. It’s even more expensive than iPad. Crazy? Reality. Because the materials and components they use on the tablet are good quality ones, not cheap plastics. This at least enables them to compete with Apple on hardware, which is a very prevalent strategy adopted by most Android OEMs. Meanwhile, let’s not forget that Windows is not designed to be ‘lean’ and ‘streamlined’, they are designed to be ‘everything for everyone’, thus requires more hardware power to run smoothly, or at least not to sluggish.
I don’t really believe Microsoft want to move into hardware and compete head-on with their loyal OEM partners. I think what they really trying to do is like Google making Nexus: Set the yardstick and standard, so OEMs can follow. And showcase what the ‘best practice’ can do. OEMs not moving as fast as Microsoft has expected is another reason too.
3. Make it harder to repair instead of easier.
The normal life span of a desktop/laptop PC is around 2 to 4 years. For mobile device, the number is much smaller. We’re talking about 9-18 months. Mobile device is designed to be disposable in the first place. This is actually a positive drive on the sales for mobile device since people will upgrade their device every year or so, buying new models. Making the device less ‘repairable’ will in effect encourage people to replace it with newer model instead of repairing it. (And R&R is a cost on Microsoft side too, which isn’t what the company used to handle as a software company)
Now it seems the hardware is pretty competitive already. The Windows 8 OS, on the other hand, seems to still has a long way to go on user interface and user experience. Early reports of Surface Pro sold out in Microsoft Stores and Best Buy could be an encouraging sign, but no one can say for sure before the actual sales number released.
What do you think of Surface Pro’s design? Will it gain any traction on the market? Leave a comment and let me know!
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My Creepy Experience with GMail
My Creepy Experience with GMail
My piece of experience with Gmail that I hope someone could decipher for me:
In Gmail, I was forwarding an email to a friend talking about an attachment I sent him before. Hit ‘Send’ button. A notification dialog pup up:
‘We noticed that you mentioned to send an attachment, but this email doesn’t have an attachment. Did you forget to attach the file?’
Seriously? Reading my email to sell ads is bad enough but I can still stand it somehow. Reading my content and try to make sense of it, and make suggestions (even in the name of helping me the user) is very very CREEPY to me. I felt like you’re writing a private letter to your lovers at home, then someone pop out of nowhere telling you: ‘oh you really shouldn’t add that last line. She wouldn’t like suggestive language.’
Does anyone know what’s going on with this Gmail behavior?
‘Less is More’: Netflix Gets It
‘Less is More’: Netflix Gets It
This is the first time I came across Netflix’s ‘HR Deck’. Turns out it’s actually pretty famous and well spread. Today, Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg called the deck ‘the most important document ever to come out of the Valley.’ For those of you haven’t read it, here’s the original copy.
There are many facets of their HR strategy that are worthy of a deep dive. To me, the most intriguing part is their focus on keeping their ‘corporate policy’ as simple as possible. Actually their policies for Expensing, Entertainment,Gifts and Travel is five words: “Act in Netflix’s Best Interests.’ Stunningly simple, right? But what’s not simple is, to achieve this, they need to hire high performance, self-motivated employees. They also need to align them with corporate visions to motivate them, and pay top notch salaries to keep them. What will sound really hard is, in an ever changing tech industry, they need to remain successful and get through all kinds of disruption changes coming their way (like the big change on switching from DVD mailing centric model to an online streaming based strategy).
That comes to the point of this blog: Less is more. They hire less people, but with better performance and more dedication; apply less policy, but rely on more self-discipline and good judgement; less fake promotion (promotion just to keep people from leaving, not due to bigger job), more power and fulfillment on position.
With less, they are trying to achieve more. Does anyone did this before? Yes, Apple! Apple is claimed to be the ‘biggest startup company in the world’. Apple apply similar HR philosophy, flat corporate structure and remain nimble and fast no matter how big the company is.
Can Netflix repeat Apple’s success? Very likely. Because for this model to work, there is one critical condition:
Must be in an industry that value creativity exponentially instead of linearly.
Only in a creative industry, high caliber talents with creativity are able to generate value many times more than traditional industry. In short, creativity and talent need to scale exponentially on value generation. Only in this case, hiring a smaller group of highly talented people will trump hiring a bigger group of mediocre people. Case in points, movie, music industry.
Is Netflix in the ‘right’ industry? Yes. They are in the media consuming industry, which is undergone a disruptive change from Internet and mobile. Digital media is the future, and the old empire of cable TV is crumbling. People need creative solutions to the new problem of media consuming in digital and mobile age. Need proof? Look no further at the expectation level of new Apple iTV.
So it seems Netflix gets it and are working on getting through some hurdles. We’ll see how things develop in TV and media consuming market and how well Netflix lives up to its own words.
Will Netflix become the next Apple? What do you think?
Design With Soul 