Google's Nexus One Android Phone

I finally decided to dump my trusty BlackBerry Curve, which I have had for two years, and upgrade to a Nexus One Android phone from Google.  I received the phone on 2/16/10 and have been using it for 10 days at the time of this post.  I stuck with my carrier T-mobile, which is actually the number two carrier in the Bay Area according to Consumer Reports.  In spite of the poor perception that many people have of T-mobile, I generally find good voice coverage.  I thought about getting an iPhone, but the AT&T network is just too spotty.  Calls to colleagues who use AT&T are often dropped or poor quality.  Anyway, here are my initial impressions:

PROs

• The Screen – Active-matrix organic light-emitting diode, 800 x 480 resolution, 100,000:1 typical contrast ratio!  This screen is simply amazing.  Crisp and beautiful.
• Web Browsing – The pinch to zoom feature is excellent.  This is my first experience with a 3g phone and it is vastly superior.
• GPS – The GPS navigation features are so good that Tom Tom’s stock took a tumble.  Navigation mode has turn by turn voice instructions, large buttons, great voice search, etc.
• Voice input – I am really impressed by how good the voice recognition is (for short phrases).  You can say things like “Call Gretchen” or “Navigate to Whole Foods” and it will pull up that contact’s number or show the directions to that place.  I understand that the audio is uploaded to Google for processing, but that doesn’t explain why the same feature on my BlackBerry worked so much worse.  Voice recognition  even works well to input one sentence at a time when composing messages.
• Media – The wired headset that comes with the phone has a three-button-controller to play/pause music, answer and hang up calls, and move forward and back in the track list.  My only gripe is that I often leave the headset attached and the play button is always active, so I accidentally start playing songs quite often.  However, once a playlist has been selected, it is nice to be able to start listening to music without having to unlock the phone and open the media player.  My friend John told me about a great tool to sync media with many types of smartphones called DoubleTwist.  It is like a good stripped down iTunes, they even have Amazon MP3 store integration like the Nexus one itself.
• Google Apps Integration - Our company uses Google Apps and the Nexus One has as good an integration with that Google service as one would expect.   You can even start a draft e-mail on the phone and finish it on your computer.  It was trivial to sync my contacts and calendar.  The only problem I had was with the Android Apps store.  I needed to set up a separate gmail account to use Google checkout.

CONs

• NO PHYSICAL KEYBOARD – I always looked with envy upon those iPhone users with their slick multi-touch interface and giant screen (by smartphone standards).  But I would console myself by saying that I liked my physical keyboard and mature, stable BB platform.  Well I was really right about the keyboard.  In portrait mode, with my fat fingers, the Nexus keyboard is nearly unusable.  The landscape mode is better and I am actually getting better at using it, but there is definitely a learning curve to get used to.  I can’t compose mail nearly as easily as I used to on my BB.  The dictation feature is good and I want to explore it more, but it’s not always convenient to be speaking a message aloud.  That said, the voice search is a saving grace, so I won’t toss the phone out yet.
• Flakiness - Andoid 2.1 on the Nexus One is simply not a mature platform.  The buttons don’t always respond properly.  They are often either over-sensitive and launch commands you didn’t want, or under-sensitive and require several taps.  I feel that I have to type slightly above the keys when using the keyboard.  The 3G cuts in and out at random even when I am not moving around.  Overall, it’s a slightly clunky experience to use the phone.  These are all things I expect to get smoothed out as updates come along and are typical of immature platforms.
• Visual Voicemail – This is really a T-mobile app, but it is pretty weak.  It doesn’t work on WiFi and it doesn’t offer transcriptions like Google Voice does.  Until I can port my number to Google Voice I guess I am stuck with this.
• Can’t edit Google Docs Documents – This seems silly to me because you can edit Google Docs Spreadsheets on the phone (via a web app) but not documents.  Maybe this shouldn’t matter to me given my problems with the keyboard, but it does.  We use Google Docs quite a bit and it just doesn’t make sense that Google hasn’t delivered this yet.  There are forum posts going back over a year with people screaming for this feature.

Overall, I really love the phone.  Just having such a rich web experience in the palm of your hand is outstanding.  Over the next few weeks I will talk about the Apps that I am exploring.

Tell me what you think.  Is anyone else interested in the Android platform?

A disturbing news story about computer security came out this week. In a high school in Pennsylvania, the students were given laptops with webcams to use outside of school. It was later discovered that the school was turning on the webcams remotely and spying on the students inside of their own homes! Hopefully the school administrators will be appropiately punished and prevented from doing this again. However, there is something simple you can do right now to prevent this kind of spying from ever happening to you. If you borrow a laptop with a webcam from someone, just tape a small piece of paper over the lens. You could just use tape for privacy reasons, but the paper will prevent damage to the lens from the glue on the tape. It’s a simple solution that will give you peace of mind. – Gretchen Bily, 18 East Web Design

Read full article: School gave kids laptops to spy on them at home

So I went to MacWorld 2010 and was surprised at how many cool things there were. Most of our client’s machines run on Windows, but scientists and designers still tend to prefer the Mac experience. I am even working on a project in which we are replacing all the Windows machines with Macs and running the one required Windows application within a Windows VM running XenApp on a Mac OS X server. XenApp serves up Windows applications to any client (even Macs) via a web based Java applet.

The iPad discussion was so popular that the 1500 person capacity primary room filled up and they had to open an overflow room. The discussion covered most of the topics which are being discussed in the gadget blogosphere. Probably the most contentious point is Apple’s control of which apps can be installed. Other platforms allow users to set a well-buried option to enable 3rd party apps. One panel member likened this to Cuisinart forbidding users to cook pop-tarts in their toaster ovens. I actually sympathize more with the stability argument. Also, why shouldn’t Apple get more revenue as a reward for building the most cohesive mobile experience? If people want more choice, HTML5 might be an alternative going forward. Google built a good Voice app for the iPhone using HTML5. This might open the door to many more applications to side-step the apps store.

Here are my favorite products from the show:

These little external batteries will prove handy to keep those cell phones charged without having to swap out the internal battery.	Flexible solar panel charges large battery in just 2 days! Bring on the ThunderDome.
Then again, you can always spend $1000 for a brick that will run you laptop for 30 hours. Great for the survivalist laptop user.
There were some cool touch surfaces, but they were all running VISTA! I was surprised that there weren’t more multi-touch interface products.
The kids loved the multi-touch table for adults!	Touch whiteboard and multi-touch table from SMART Technologies.
Touchscreen Gloves by iTouchGloves.com. Cool multi-touch screen by 22miles.com.	I was fascinated by these nanotech-enabled leather gloves that work with capacitive screens. I understand that the process is integrated into the tanning of the gloves and is very durable. I also like this touch screen which brings us one step closer to Minority Report.

Well Windows Mobile 7 has  finally been announced.  Engadget has good coverage of the OS.  I was impressed by the overall look which is being called “chromeless” (i.e. no shading or drop shadows).  This seems like it should improve performance and give it a unique look and responsive feel.

 As of December 2009, 73% of the smart phone market was controlled by vendors with vertical hardware – OS integration.  Google does seem to be creating a downward trend in that number.  Google may prove that  there is more to success than having an integrated hardware/OS philosophy but it’s certainly been the most successful approach so far.  I do think that MSFT is going in the right direction.  I don’t think that they can do whatever it is that is making the Android successful, so it may be better for them to simply ape RIM, Apple, and Palm and try to work on “consistency in the hardware platform.”

[Update 2/25/10 --I saw this new Gartner report on TechCrunch.  These world-wide numbers reveal a different market leader - Symbian!]

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 2009 (Thousands of Units)

Apple iPad

Apple has announced a new device called the iPad. I understand that it will be something like an iPod touch, but with a 10″ screen. You might have heard of it. This might be Apple’s way of entering the netbook market which it has avoided thus far. Or it might be a good e-Reader to compete with the Kindle (maybe). However, I like to look forward to it as a thin client to a virtual desktop. Citrix has announced an iPad app to access virtual desktops running under XenApp or XenDesktop. This is interesting, but the fact is that iPhone already has native VPN support and there are several Remote Desktop Client iPhone apps out there now. So no offense Citrix, but who cares? In the short term, we can just leave the user’s physical desktop/laptop running in their office and connect to it remotely from anywhere the iPad has a signal.

To be fair, virtual desktops have been hindered in my mind by the lack of a compelling thin client. With it’s decent screen size and coherent Apple multi-touch interface, a VPN/RDP solution for the iPad may be the thin client I have been waiting for. This solution might even prove to be a workable alternative to a laptop. Offline use during flights, etc. will be an issue, but more airlines are adding WiFi to help keep us connected to the internet at all times. Certain senior executives seem to like having the newest, lightest laptops available. So dump the laptop, get an iPad, and keep a desktop running somewhere else. Who knows, there might even be budget to build a XenDesktop server at some point.

Notion Ink Android Tablet

However, another alternative is using an Android tablet. Android phones also have both VPN and RDP clients available. I am particularly interested in this new Pixel Qi technology which is a full color “transflective” LCD that claims to be competitive to e-ink in bright light. A company called Notion Ink will be producing an Android tablet with a Pixel Qi screen that should be available this summer. Android OS may lack the coherence of Apple’s mobile offerings, but that Pixel Qi screen would be compelling if it works as advertised. The Notion Ink device might be a better Kindle-killer than the iPad.

I am not normally a gadget person, but I am probably going to buy both an iPad and a Notion Ink tablet when they come out. I have put up with my heavy laptop bag for on-site visits for too long. I should take a cue from those discerning senior executives who I provide services for.

What do you think? I appreciate the opportunity to learn from your comments.

Google China

It is romantic to think that Google might try to live up to it’s unofficial motto of “don’t be evil” by pulling out of China.  However, if Google pulled out it wouldn’t serve to  tighten up their corporate information security.   Also, Google pulling out of China will just give Chinese consumers one less search engine to choose from.  The wrong people would be punished.  It might make a fine display on the world technology stage to “take a stand” against the Chinese government, but it will almost certainly hurt Google’s profits. [ UPDATE 1/19/2010 - Google now denies they will leave China, but want to negotiate a non-censored search (?)]

The biggest payoff might have already been achieved.  Simply announcing the incident and the possible intention to leave China has had a huge impact online.  In the first place, very few corporations are even aware when they have been compromised, let alone announce it willingly to the world.  This sets an excellent standard of transparency.  If other corporations followed this example, it would raise the visibility of information security and hopefully lead to more attention (and budget) being devoted to protecting corporate information systems.  If other companies do not follow this example, it makes Google appear more honest, not less secure.  (This last was accomplished by revealing that as many as 30 other companies had also been hacked.)  In the second place, Google is hurting the reputation of the Chinese government by their announcement alone.  This may or may not be fair given that it’s difficult to prove exactly who hacked Google, but it focuses attention of the issue of Chinese “cyberspying“.

The actual attack vector was probably a previously unknown IE vulnerability (zero day attack).  It makes sense to start switching to a different browser, preferably one that has a Flash blocker plug-in available.  IE might be so vulnerable because it’s still got ~60% of the market.  It’s a high value target for hackers.  Having more browsers to divide up the attention of the hacker population might give browser developers a relative advantage.  The fact is that all software contains bugs and the more people you have beating on your software, the more bugs are revealed and the more robust your software becomes as you patch those bugs.

This incident highlights the general trend that client machines are becoming the most common attack vector.   Here is a quick summary of my current thinking in this regard:

1. Switch your primary browser to anything but IE.
2. Definitely use a Flash blocker.  Flash is too dangerous to use indiscriminately.  You can always choose to play flash video on sites you trust. For Firefox I use the aptly named “Flashblock” add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/433
3. Try to keep Adobe Acrobat patched and don’t open Acrobat files unless necessary.
4. Keep client apps patched  (i.e. MS Office, Quick Time,  etc.).
5. Explore using a browser proxy service.

What do you think? All comments are welcome.

[UPDATE 2/14/2010]
I just saw this other blog which suggests that one of these attacks exploited “a system used to help Google comply with search warrants by providing data on Google users.” Also, Spint apparently served 8 million GPS requests within a year and “someone who downloaded a phony warrant form and submitted it to a random telecom would have a good chance of getting a response.” Nice. Automating government access to user data seems problematic to me. Ideally, each search warrant request should be validated, but I don’t see how that can realistically be done. So we end up with systems designed to help US law enforcement catch criminals and terrorists than can be hacked to spy on practically anyone. We trade one form of security for another and privacy goes in the garbage. What a conundrum!

Priority One: Client-side software that remains unpatched.

Waves of targeted email attacks, often called spear phishing, are exploiting client-side vulnerabilities in commonly used programs such as Adobe PDF Reader, QuickTime, Adobe Flash, and Microsoft Office. This is currently the primary initial infection vector used to compromise computers that have Internet access…

Priority Two: Internet-facing web sites that are vulnerable.

Attacks against web applications constitute more than 60% of the total attack attempts observed on the Internet. These vulnerabilities are being exploited widely to convert trusted web sites into malicious websites serving content that contains client-side exploits…

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/security/?p=2048

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