Peter's Thoughts

Privacy is a Balance

2012-02-15T08:25:00.001-07:00

As I watch the news unfolding about Path (link) and the controversy over accessing my address book, I can't but shake my head in amazement that people are still missing the point. It's not that they accessed my data without my permission that's the problem - it's that I have no choice in what I choose to share that's at the heart of the matter.

Think about it for a moment, Michael Arrington is an investor in Path. Now Michael probably has an address book only second to Ron Conway's. Can you just imagine the number of aspiring entrepreneurs who would love to access that database. And it's probably all sitting up on someone's servers somewhere.

Now to their credit Path immediately issued an apology and deleted everyone's data from their servers. So far so good. Now comes the problem - they then updated their app so that it asked "permission" to access your address book. As someone would tweet - #fail.

They are still missing the core problem - I want to allow Path access to "some of the people in my address book" - but only those who Path turn into something of value for me. And therein (as the Bard says) lies the problem. Privacy is NOT binary, it's contextual. Not only do I want a choice in what I share, I want to ensure that sharing the data results in a better outcome for both parties.

What the current approach to Privacy has #failed to do is deliver not only a choice, but it has failed to make it contextually aware of not only Who I am, but Where I am. My Privacy has value - it must have because at the moment this topic is becoming radioactive - and yet my only "Choice" is binary. Either share it or not. Well how about offering me something in return? Why do you get to keep the value and I don't. Seems like an unfair choice to me.

Ultimately Privacy is a balance between ensuring Privacy and allowing information to be shared for a better outcome.

And that's why we invented the new Choice™ browser. It gives you a choice in what and to whom, you want to share your personal data with.

Mobile Browser testing on an “Actual” Device

2012-01-19T15:55:00.001-07:00

Just a quick post on Improving the Mobile Web Experience by measuring in real time how fast your Web site loads on a Mobile device. Note the huge difference in time when testing on an emulator vs. the real device.

Selenium for Android using the new Choice Mobile Browser

2012-01-17T16:25:00.001-07:00

We’re pleased to announce the “Choice™” browser for Android and iPhone. For the first time you can now automate browser testing using the popular open source tool – Selenium across any carrier network. For more information please check our web site @ www.3pmobile.com or email us at info@3pmobile.com

Selenium automated browser testing for Android using the Choice Browser

AT&T introduces New Developer Platform - Immediately fragments the Carrier industy

2012-01-09T13:16:00.001-07:00

It just keeps getting better… today AT&T announced a new developer platform (link: AT&T Announces API Platform to Boost Innovation and Collaboration with Mobile App Developers).

Only one problem (well several actually).

It only works on AT&T's network/phones. So if I build something that works for them it won't work on any other platform
AT&T controls access to the API's. This is the Carrier dream. You get to see only what they want you to see. Want to innovate? Then wait for the next set of API's to be released
No support for Privacy - you can now access the API's to the device and unless there's a fancy pop-up (easily suppressed) then you won't know what's happening

The holy grain for HTML is access to Native Device side API's AND, the ability integrate that capability with Native Web Services. It's the game changer and makes Mobile apps obsolete (well except maybe for gaming). However the along with nirvana comes the privacy problem. How do I control what has access to my device?

I can see it now. Lots and lots of Mobile Web apps (simple apps where the content lives on the server and you access it through a "browser like interface). But therein lies the disappointment - the interface on the Mobile device will never be a full browser - just a very limited Web run time engine (think Phone Gap).

The solution - a Mobile browser that connects to ANY Web service (not just a Web app) AND allows Native Device side API access with standard programming techniques, all while protecting the users Privacy.

Why Personalization algorithms won’t work

2012-01-09T07:58:00.001-07:00

Because they don’t know “Me”.

There’s this great TED video up on Yahoo… What Facebook and Google (and a few others) are hiding from the world.

So what’s going on here? Well what the Content providers are doing is “monitoring and measuring” You…

And then they start building a profile on You…

Which means that “You” get placed in a bubble…

And then they give “You” content they think (algorithms) is appropriate…

But what they (algorithms) fail to do is give you more content because they’re not very good at solving these kind of problems…they’re filtering and NOT in a good way.

When the Internet finally “Knows Me” it becomes a much more colorful and relevant world.

And that’s why when we built the “Choice” browser, we included a little something for You…it’s called “Me”, and allows “You” to chose what you want to share with the Internet. This allows those algorithms to make some really smart “Choices”, and for you to see “lots of really cool bubbles”.

Could solving Mobile Privacy Speed up the Web?

2012-01-06T14:53:00.001-07:00

Yes, Virginia it sure could… How?

Well let's think about it for a moment and revisit an old blog post - "Privacy on the Internet is NOT binary" I started with a definition from Wikipedia....

Privacy (from Latin: privatus "separated from the rest, deprived of something, esp. office, participation in the government", from privo "to deprive") is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively. The boundaries and content of what is considered private differ among cultures and individuals, but share basic common themes.

When something is private to a person, it usually means there is something within them that is considered inherently special or personally sensitive. The degree to which private information is exposed therefore depends on how the public will receive this information, which differs between places and over time. Privacy partially intersects security, including for instance the concepts of appropriate use, as well as protection, of information.

What privacy allows us to do is be selective in what we share. It includes data about myself, my current location, my device that i'm using to connect with etc. In essence it's context. The more context you have about something, or somebody, or some location, then the more PRECISE your response can be.

And Virginia therein lies the key to unlocking performance on the Internet - the precision you can bring to your response then the faster it will get there. Here's a simple example. Yesterday I ran a performance test on Google's Mobile home page. Here are the results...

Load time was 5.789 seconds on Sprints network
Page size was 525.83kb - that's 525,830 bytes worth of data

Think about that for a moment. Google sent over ½ MB of data to my Mobile phone and it still had to ask me for access to my current location. Imagine for a moment that I could transmit my personal information to Google BEFORE it had to send a response back to me. Instead of ½ MB you could drop it down to less than 100,000 bytes of data. That's an 80% drop in the data sent. And on top of that I get a personal response.

So there you have it - Privacy really can help speed up the Web. The more you trust and share with content providers then the better job they'll be able to do with the response that you get back.

The real reason no one wants to solve the Privacy problem

2012-01-06T14:31:00.001-07:00

It's all about the "Benjamin's" . Here's a simple graphics that says it all...

The guy on the left represents the Mobile OS manufacturers. In exchange for "free" they want access to your privacy so they can sell more ads. They've invested an incredible amount of money in infrastructure to support you. And as the old saying goes "pie is not free at the truck stop". Someone has to pay for all this "stuff".

So whose the guy on the right? Well right now he's the Enterprise user and he's got a real problem. The lack of consistent privacy controls across devices prohibits them from extending their Web strategy to Mobile users. Lots of people are now bringing their own devices to work (BYOD) and corporations are looking for ways to integrate their current Web services with those devices. The problem - the current Mobile browsers (with the exception of RIM, Opera and Mozilla) don't allow for plugins that could be used to increase privacy.

So why not switch to the alternate browsers? Well RIM means a Blackberry, Opera means everything goes through their servers in Norway. Which leaves Mozilla - it supports plugins but there aren't any that increase privacy. And there's no developers building anything for them. (Because the current browsers that come with the device are "good enough").

Which if you think about it leaves a huge opportunity open to someone enterprising enough (pun intended) to build a new browser, one that gives you a Choice in what can be shared and with whom.

PS. The W3C solution is just a guideline and offers no complete solution. As for "self-regulation", well everyone agrees that doesn't work unless there's an incentive.

So there you have it - there's no financial incentive to solve the Privacy problem - simply because there's too much money in NOT solving it. As for the Enterprise - therein lies the opportunity.

Why is Privacy such a hard problem to solve?

2012-01-06T12:48:00.001-07:00

Back in October I wrote a blog post titled "Privacy on the Internet is NOT "binary" Since then i've been giving Privacy a lot more thought. And so it seems has the IETF (The Internet Engineering Task Force)

From the IETF draft document published, November 14, 2011… (link)

[snip]

The goal ( of this protocol ) is to allow a user to express their personal preference regarding cross-site tracking ( using an HTTP X request header ) to each server and web application that they communicate with via HTTP, thereby allowing each server to either adjust their behavior to meet the user's expectations or reach a separate agreement with the userto satisfy both parties. Key to that notion of expression is that it MUST reflect the user's preference, not the preference of some institutional or network-imposed mechanism outside the user's control.

[/snip]

In short they want the browser to send a message to the server that says don't track me. So I thought I would check back in to see how much progress they are making? It's a little techie but worth a read.

Privacy is a really tough problem to solve. My personal opinion is that the W3C is on the right track, however without the ability to influence to the Browser manufacturers there is little chance for implementation. It's going to require changes to the browser and to the Web server. Changing the HTTP protocol doesn't solve anything - as it's just a communication mechanism. What you have to change is both end of the pipe - and that is going to take some real innovation.(hint www.3pmobile.com)

Here's the closed issues with some notes to follow along with.

B. Closed Issues

ISSUE-2: What is the meaning of DNT (Do Not Track) header?
[CLOSED] "Does the presence of a DNT header field on requests always indicate an explicit choice".
The answer we agreed upon is "yes".

[Peter notes]… means that if the Web server sees this header in the browser requesting the page then the user has said explicitly that they do not wished to be tracked.

ISSUE-50: Are DNT headers sent to first parties? Yes

ISSUE-70: Does a past HTTP request with DNT set affect future HTTP requests? No

ISSUE-40: Enable Do Not Track just for a session, rather than being stored
[CLOSED] Resolved in DNT Call 2011-10-26: The user agents are free to send different DNT values for different sessions. We agreed that this is a user-interface issue and out of scope on its own.

[Peter notes…] this means that the browser can send a do not track header for one session but then change to another value in another session - obviously the hard part is figuring out how to implement this. Think of a whitelist (which would need to be added to the browser) so that the user can select which Web sites that can track them. This is beyond the scope of the W3C to implement - the browser OEM's will have to do it.

ISSUE-68: Should there be functionality for syncing preferences about tracking across different browsers?
[CLOSED] Resolved in DNT Call 2011-10-26: The user agents may or may not sync. However, this is out of scope for this spec.

[Peter notes…] this is a big problem - what happens if I switch browsers? How does it remember my privacy settings?

ISSUE-42: Feedback to the user from the browser when Do Not Track is turned on

C. Postponed Issues

ISSUE-44: Ability to measure/detect who is honoring Do Not Track at a technical level
[POSTPONED] The info at the well-known URI declares whether a server promises to follow DNT. Whether it actually does (or just pretends to do so) is hard to determine and should be addressed later.

[Peter notes…] This one is really difficult. How do you know at the technical level if some is really honoring your request for privacy or is just pretending?

ISSUE-64: How does site preference management work with DNT
[POSTPONED] To what extent cookies can be used for preference management (such as storing a language preference) will be resolved later.

[Peter notes…] This is another tough one. On Mobile cookies do not work very well. And the problem then becomes how do it store privacy data in them for a later use?

Choice-Browsing the Internet of the Future

2012-01-04T14:08:00.001-07:00

In my last two blog posts I talked about why Mobile apps don’t matter anymore (Part I & Part II). I finished the blogs with a quote, “In the future – the ONLY Mobile app you’ll need will be the Browser”. My personal opinion is that with now close to 3/4’s of a million apps between the top two Mobile operating systems how can someone hope to come up with something new and, (key part here) sustainable?

6 years ago almost to the day we set out to solve that problem. Our focus was simple – users should have a Choice when it came to sharing their private information on the web. They should also have a better, faster, more personal experience. Like most things – at the end, everything appears deceptively simple (as it should be).

A simple analogy would be like pulling your car up to the gas pump – you now have a choice – “Regular, Unleaded or Premium Unleaded”. There are no changes required to the infrastructure (well maybe a newer car), but for the most part virtually every engine can run on either of the three grades of gas. However if you pay a little more – then your engine runs a little better.

That’s the way it should be with the Internet – if you’re willing to share a little more data with those content providers you trust, then the experience should be faster, more personal, and more rewarding. We summarized those things as the Three P’s… Faster Performance, Better Privacy, More Personalization.

And now we’ve released Choice for Android (and soon for iPhone). A mobile app (or a mobile browser, you decide) that for the first time allows you to deliver a faster experience, one tailored to the capabilities of the device, the operating system, the carrier network and most importantly to “Me” the user.

And just to show you we haven’t lost touch with those native app we’ve introduced something new for the first time ever – we call them contextual menus. Browser menus that take into account your context and the web services context, and then adapt and change in real time. Giving you the user and the content provider millions of different uses for a single mobile app – the browser.

Why Mobile apps don't matter anymore - Part II

2011-12-27T08:48:00.001-07:00

In my previous post "Why Mobile apps don't matter anymore" I talked about why the number of Mobile apps doesn't mean anything anymore.

This blog adds one more item - Money

Go to a VC today with a Mobile app and see if they'll fund it? It better be one incredible CROSS platform Mobile app before they'll even consider it.

Why?

Because it's all about the money. The distribution method (choke point) is the app store. A NO from Apple means that market is closed to you. Ok, now all you have left is Android and Windows Mobile. Still not bad - but is it enough that people will flock to your app and download it in the numbers that eventually makes money for the VC.

I wouldn't bet on it.

And that's really all it boils down to in the end. It's not whether or not a customer feels safe about buying a phone, it's nothing to do with the number of apps - that's so 2011.

No in the future - 2012 and beyond, it's going to be how you monetize that app. And there's only one truly cross platform app out there today which fulfills that promise and that's the browser. And that's the place where the next round of innovation is going to take place.

Stay tuned for my upcoming blog - "In the future - the ONLY Mobile app you'll need will be the Browser"

Why Mobile apps don't matter anymore

2011-12-27T08:01:00.001-07:00

We all remember that famous quote "if you need a stylus for your tablet you've failed". Well "if you need 500,000 apps for your phone you've failed".

Seriously think about it. People cannot deal with 100 apps let alone 500,000. 99% of the apps are merely features not apps. For example how many features are there in Microsoft office - probably over a thousand (but not 500,000). How many API's are there in Apple's iOS? No idea - but it's not 500,000

Do you see the point here - the number of apps doesn't count. What counts is the apps that I really need. And for us mere mortals that usually no more than 10, maybe 25 and never exceeds 50

There's big debates going on about why Windows Phone 7 hasn't take off - link and Scoble responds that it's about the apps and customers wanting to feel "safe" - link

I don't think so. Windows Phone 7 has a superior user interface to both iPhone and Android - it has 40,000 apps (if you feel the need) and what it really has (and no one is paying attention to) is seamless integration into the Enterprise. Microsoft owns the Enterprise - what it was missing was a real phone OS that played nicely with IIS and their cloud solution. Now it has one. No other phone OS comes close to that level of integration.

So what if Round 1 went to iPhone and Android. In a few years no one will care. What they will care about is integration into the one thing that really counts - the Web. And nobody will do it as well as Microsoft.

We're now coming to the end of the first innings - App fatigue is setting in, I don't need more features in my phone, what I need is better battery life, better connectivity to where the real content is - the Web.

And my next post will be about just that - Why the only app you'll ever need is a browser.

Timing the Mobile Web Experience

2011-12-19T09:57:00.001-07:00

Alois Reitbauer has a great post up at the Performance Calendar …. where he talks about how complex it is to measure the users experience from the browser. One quote is very interesting… "Creating a waterfall chart like the one below by just using information available in the browser simply is impossible." (see the link above for the image).

Well it's not impossible, it's just very difficult. Here's four snapshots from our Mobile Performance Timing app that tells you the story of what's taking place inside Androids browser when a user clicks on Google's Mobile home page. We even integrate this with carrier and geo-location data.

HAR report

Webkit timing events

Detailed information on each element…

Carrier and Geo-Location information

All I want for Christmas is an Introduction

2011-12-12T12:19:00.001-07:00

What amazes me at the moment is the total lack of help out there in the tech marketplace. I see part of my job as to make introductions, to help others succeed. It's what leadership is really all about - doing the right thing vs. making things right.

I recently asked for a simple introduction, that's all. Nothing major, I could (and probably will) find away to reach this person on my own. But all I got was a NO.

WTH is wrong with helping other people out? It blows my mind, it takes a few seconds that's all. Good people do that, others obviously not so much.

Very sad. But welcome to the World where it's all about Me. We'll see how well that works out for the No's.

Why Mobile Web Performance is so hard to test accurately

2011-11-08T08:44:00.001-07:00

Two tests – back to back, same web site, same device. On one, Google.com loads 2.12 seconds, on the other 10.08 seconds.

Now let’s test it on Sprints Network, in Denver Co. (Note different device, but it shouldn’t make that much difference).

So I would say that tests 2 and 3 are closer to being accurate. I’ve never seen Google.com download to a Mobile device in 2 seconds.

Gone Fishing

2011-10-25T12:09:00.001-06:00

Taking a break… back soon.

iPhone Browser

2011-09-23T17:07:00.001-06:00

Sneak peek at our new iPhone browser

3PMobile – The third “P” is for Personalization

2011-09-01T08:38:00.001-06:00

The third post in the series (posts 1 & 2) talks about Personalization. This is perhaps the most powerful of the three “P’s.

So let’s get straight to it… what if the website that you load in your browser really recognized you? Would it be possible for something to change in real-time so that the “Experience” became more personal?

Let’s take a look at the standard Android Browser (image on the left)… and compare it to the 3PMobile enhanced browser (image on the right). Notice the difference?

Google is “branded” inside the browser (top right menu).

Think about this for a minute. Google is now literally 1 click away. And the second I click on that menu not only will I be taken to www.google.com but they will also know in real-time, my device’s capabilities, my exact geo-location and who I am. All before they even have to send a page back to me.

Everyone will be thinking – hold on a minute I don’t want Google knowing all that data. Now you can see why the second blog post was on Privacy. And that’s why you also see a Privacy Option menu so you can control who gets access to “YOUR” data. If you trust Google, then simply add them to your whitelist, check what you want to share, and let them provide you with a better Experience.

And therein lies the power of personalization. When a Web site knows “you” there’s so many more things that a Web service can do to enhance the customers experience. And the bandwidth and performance savings increase dramatically simply because the Web service knows before it has to make a response. Think of it as walking into your favorite restaurant with the meal you wanted already on the table.

So how do we add Personalization to the browser menu in real time?

With just a few lines of HTML – here’s the exact code for the menu in the picture above…

And there you have it… the 3 P’s – Performance, Privacy, & Personalization. And combined they all deliver a better Quality of Experience (QoE) for your customers and employees.

3P Mobile – The second “P” is for Privacy

2011-08-30T10:06:00.001-06:00

Following from my previous post on Mobile Performance today we’re going to look at the second “P” which stands for Privacy.

When we first started the company we talked to a lot of potential users about the issue of Privacy and the Internet. The feedback was unanimous, they wanted three things:

Convenience
Privacy
Control

So we listened, and then built it into the browser.

Screen shot 1: Browser 2 is running, a Web page is loaded. Everything looks and feels like a normal browser would.

Screen shot 2: With Browser 2 running, simply click on the Menu key for a pop menu to appear. You’ll notice a new menu in the top left hand corner: Privacy Options. Our focus was to seamlessly integrate these new capabilities as “if they’d always been there”. This way customers would have nothing new to learn.

Screen shot 3: Clicking on Privacy Options launches a secure database (think of it almost as a wallet) where all of your information is stored. (For OEM customers this database is completely customizable to support a variety of additional fields). Click on “Owner Preferences” to continue

Screen shot 4: The Owner Preferences tab reveals an additional 7 menus. They’ve been designed to be self-explanatory so customers have nothing new to learn. Each menu links to a page showing fields of data with check boxes next to them. As you’ll see in the next screen shot simply checking that box enables the data to be shared. The reverse (unchecking) prevents access to that data.

Screen shot 5: Clicking on Owner Information allows you to select from the following options – simply adding a check mark to the box allows that information to be shared with a Web service. You can see in the image below that I’m NOT sharing my cell phone number (the check box is greyed out).

Screen shot 6: With all of your owner preferences set, there is one final setting to make. This is your approved whitelist. By adding a Web address to the whitelist every time you visit that Web site your personal data will automatically be included in the request. (We’ve encrypted the data so others will not be able to view it.) To access the whitelist you select “Advanced Options” from the Owner Preferences panel. There you simply add the approved Web site by typing in the address.

And that’s it. A way to control your privacy as you surf the Web. You choose what to send, and to whom you send it to.

My next post will be on the final P – Personalization. What happens when you trust a Web service and share your data in real time.

3P Mobile – The first “P” is for Performance

2011-08-29T12:37:00.001-06:00

This blog post shows you how easy it is now to measure Web performance on your Android Phone. All you need is our Mobile Browser (Sign up here – or just download the App).

Once it’s installed all you have to do is launch the app and navigate to a Web page. (This will give you a summary performance result – for the full set of results you will need to have signed up for the free Web service). Let’s step through some simple screen shots from the Android Emulator to see how it works.

Screen shot 1: Browser 2 is running, a Web page is loaded, and you can see from the red arrow at the top that the device is using GPS.

Screen shot 2: With Browser 2 running, simply click on the Menu key for a pop menu to appear. You’ll notice the “Performance” menu – click on that

Screen shot 3: Click on the Performance menu brings up the following display window. You can select either from the Options or Summary Tab. You know there’s a performance report available by checking in the top right hand corner for a “number”. 1 or higher indicates a report is available

Screen shot 4: Clicking on the “Summary” tab brings up the following screen. Here you can see a quick summary of the Mobile Performance report. To see the full report you will need to have an account at www.3pmobile.com (for more information click here)

Screen shot 5: Assuming you’ve signed up for the full account you will use the Performance Options tab to send the report to 3P Mobile.

You will then be able to see the full performance report including a real time map of where the test was ran. Below you can see the Emulator was set to Rosemead Avenue in Cape Town South Africa

And that’s all there is to it.

Now there’s an app for that – Mobile Performance measured in the palm of your hand.

Why the Browser Matters

2011-06-30T11:08:00.001-06:00

I borrowed the title from “Ben’s Blog” (link), however the content is going to be a little different.

Why does the browser matter?

It’s simple to use. Ask anyone if they know A) What a browser is & B) how to use it and the answer will be “Yes”
It’s cross platform, meaning that no matter what device you’re on, the browser works the same way
It connects to the Web in a way that is universally understood

In short, you have an “app” that is universally understood, works the same way on every platform and delivers content in a consistent and easy to view fashion. No other app can make that claim and that’s why the “Browser Matters”.

But let’s not stop there. Let’s look at the other side of the coin:

Why does the Web Matter?

The Web is simple.
The Web is flexible and forgiving. (The browser ignores things that it doesn’t understand).
The Web is heterogeneous, which means it works on all platforms. (Not just Windows)
The Web is loosely coupled. Most previous computing architectures required tight integration between the “server” program that stores the data and the “Client” program which manipulates it. In contrast there is no need to upgrade the Web browser every time a Web publisher changes a site. Server and Client are loosely coupled.

No other platform can make that claim and that’s why the “Web matters”.

So what does the Enterprise want?

One Interface – the Browser (see Why the Browser Matters)
One Platform – the Web (see Why the Web Matters)
Access to Multiple Data Sets – the Context (because that’s where all the customers data is)

It’s the last one that is the driving factor behind new revenue opportunities and ultimately why the Browser (& the Web is becoming more important and valuable every day).

Ben’s article talks about the importance of the Browser and about a company called Rockmelt which just raised another $30m dollars to improve their browser. He goes on to talk about how Rockmelt is focusing on 4 major items:

People – it’s all about “social”
Information Flow – it’s all about “feeds”
Search – it’s all about “better search”
Multiple Computing devices – It’s all about the cloud (storing my bookmarks, history, configuration in the cloud)

Totally agree, and everyone of those features is already available in the current browsers – well you might have to open up another tab but that’s about it. So if Rockmelt got $30m to improve the browser (because it matters)… what else might need improving while you’re in the code.

Well how about looking back at what the Enterprise wants, One Interface, One Platform and access to Multiple Data Sets (databases). Why is this so important – a single word sums it up – Money

They’re looking to leverage all the data that’s sitting in those databases. They know that customers the world over all know how to use a browser, and because it ships on every device there’s always a way to reach out and touch your customer.

So if all this matters so much what’s missing from the browser?

Well we asked a lot of users this very question and it all boiled down to three things:

Convenience
Privacy
Control

Summarized – Give me a better user experience and don’t abuse my privacy, (let me control it).

So the goal now is to align those three things with what the Enterprise wants. And therein lies the things you need to do to really improve the browser.

So what’s missing?

How about a secure database where I can store my data (like a wallet)
How about a way to integrate this wallet with the browser so I can send my data to trusted Web sites
How about a way that I can “control” what gets sent to whom

Seems so simple, but there’s currently no way to do it. Microsoft has started the ball rolling with IE9 and “whitelisted” Web sites but still no real way to control my private data. And while we’re here, lets talk about Mobile for a moment. To me this is where the biggest opportunity lies. We keep these devices with us 24*7. We use them constantly and surprise, surprise – they’re mobile.

And yet to this day the Web really has no idea what the connecting device is really capable of doing.

So if someone offered me $30m to improve the browser I’d focus on the above. Doing so opens up net new revenue opportunities, it offers a way to improve the customers experience, and it offers a way to improve customers privacy.

And I’d put the other $29m in the bank for a rainy day.

Mobile Performance, Real Time, All the Time–On the West Coast (using a BROWSER)

2011-06-29T13:01:00.001-06:00

Now that’s what I’m talking about! That’s AT&T in real time, not too shabby (Green is good, Red isn’t)

(The browser part of the title is important as I’ll reveal in my next blog post)

Panopticlick – How unique – and Trackable – is your browser?

2011-06-27T14:44:00.001-06:00

Is your browser configuration rare or unique? If so, web sites may be able to track you, even if you limit or disable cookies. Panopticlick tests your browser to see how unique it is based on the information it will share with sites it visits.

So I ran the test on the following browsers…

	Works	Identifying number of bits
Internet Explorer 9.0	Fails	---
Safari (Mac)	Yes	20.65
Firefox 5.0 (Mac)	Yes	20.65
Android Native Browser	Yes	20.65
5o9 Browser2	Yes	20.65

Interesting item… Androids NATIVE Mobile Browser does NOT support the following:

DOM localStorage: NO, DOM sessionStorage: NO, IE userData: No

However if you run the same test in KeyNote’s MITE (Mobile Internet Testing Environment) it will indicate that it does support it.

Inter-continental mobile performance testing!

2011-06-12T19:38:00.001-06:00

Courtesy of the Ops Manager. An amazing blog post – link

Real time Automated Mobile Web Performance Testing

2011-06-10T13:09:00.001-06:00

Where? LAX along the taxiway to the terminal.

How? 9 lines of code!

Knowing that your page loaded quickly --- “Priceless”

Here’s the 9 lines…

<script>
function do_google_loop_test()
{
var urls = ""; // The list of URLS to AUTOTEST

urls += "http://www.google.com\n";
urls += "loop delay 30\n";

js5o9.autotest( urls );
}
</script>

The Unpredictability of Mobile Web Performance

2011-06-10T08:24:00.001-06:00

I’ve been running some Mobile performance tests from different locations and was surprised by how much they differ.

Now obviously the tests below are not “exhaustive”, but it does illustrate how different locations affect Mobile Performance. 4 tests were done on the East coast, the remainder in Denver, CO. What’s amazing is the byte count of the Google home page. It’s almost double at the major airports. (The yellow triangle indicates that the page has JavaScript errors). Why should that be the case. What is different on their Web page served to the airport that is different everywhere else?

As we move to a Mobile Web it’s important to consider the location of the device as well as the size of the content you’re delivering. More and more web pages will query the location API found on these mobile devices. Combining that with page size control will be critical to ensure the optimal experience.

Mobile Web Performance Testing Coverage

2011-06-07T09:46:00.001-06:00

3PMobile

Anywhere (and we mean Anywhere) you can get a signal, either Wi-Fi or Cellular

Blaze.io – 3 places, NO Cellular, Wi-Fi only

Any Questions?

HTTP Archive Mobile–Very much Alpha

2011-05-13T11:44:00.001-06:00

I had a chance this morning to take a quick peak at the latest offering from S.Souders and Blaze.io It’s an attempt to become as they say in their words “a permanent repository for mobile performance data.”

The only problem is that it lacks any meaningful context and does NOT appear to be at all accurate. For example here’s one of the stats that’s posted…

The New York Times is in the top 5 pages with the most JavaScript with 230 kB on desktop and 326 kB on mobile – 94 kB more JavaScript on mobile than desktop.

Really? How do we know that? Where’s the actual comparison test of the desktop version and the mobile version. To check this out I went to Blaze.io’s site and ran a test using a iOS 4 Here’s the actual report they generated… link

In short, on the iPhone they downloaded 1.4MB of data in 13.82 seconds. If you look at the HAR data (link) it doesn’t even “redirect” to the Mobile web site (something featured as part of the HTTP archive).

So just for grins I ran exactly the same test on my own desktop. I have a 22Mbps Comcast connection. The total download was 1.8MB in 8.83 seconds.

Think about that for a moment. The iPhone is only 5 seconds slower than a 22Mbps connection to a desktop browser. Clearly something is very wrong here.

Next I ran the same test on Firefox with firebug (cache cleared). This time I got 1.1MB in 8 seconds

I’m sorry to say that without a lot more context the HTTP Archive can not be relied on to revel accurate performance data.

Twitter’s Mobile Site is still too big and too slow

2011-05-11T17:36:00.000-06:00

I thought I’d take a look at what Twitter is up to with it’s Mobile web page. It’s pretty fascinating data – and as you’ll see, they’re still sending way too much data to the phone.

First screen shot – the report of My Sprint HTC loading mobile.twitter.com – 287k in 7.5 seconds

Now to see what’s inside that page load. You can see the hot spots causing the performance problem.

So how about we go even deeper…this is just part of a much bigger report (it goes to line 88) and shows the inside story on how Android’s browser is processing the data. Some very interesting links.

Technorati Tags: Twitter

Mobile Performance–Wi-Fi vs. Cellular using a Sprint HTC smartphone

2011-05-11T16:19:00.000-06:00

For today’s test it was a simple drag race… Go to Vodafone’s UK web site (link) from Colorado USA using my Sprint HTC. First test was with Wi-Fi turned on, second test was without.

Here’s how the results looked using our new Mobile Performance Web service. Check out the cool icons underneath the test URL… they’re Cell strength, Wi-Fi strength, GPS and the cache cleared before load.

Wi-Fi ON: 14 seconds to download 662k

Cell Tower Only (ASU was 99, 85dbm): 23 seconds to download 662k

Let’s put that into context… using Wi-Fi it’s 64% faster than using Cell. What a difference a radio network makes over “copper”.

Check out our new service 3PMobile to learn even more about Mobile Web performance.

Mobile Performance–Device Detection

2011-04-27T16:18:00.001-06:00

This afternoon I ran a simple test.

On my Android phone I used the browser to go to each carriers home page. Below are the results for each web site. What’s amazing to me is that only one carrier actually detected that I was using a mobile browser to access the site.

T-Mobile is the worst offender downloading almost a meg and a half of content.

Verizon gets it. Put a simple page in front of the user and do it really quickly.

Mobile Performance–Live “Real Time” Screen Shots

2011-04-04T10:34:00.001-06:00

In our ongoing focus on Mobile Performance we’re taking a look at what’s going on inside Androids browser as it processes Extreme Mobile MSN -

To see the Performance screen shots click on this link

Here’s the detail behind the screens…

1. The 'Loading' screen stays up WAY TOO LONG before any
real content appears. Big red flag. Need to take a look at
all the work being done in the HEAD section and cut down
some of the pre-loading.

2. SCREENSHOT 2 shows clearly that the CONTENT SECTIONS are being presented by HTML but not being 'filled out' with anything at first. It's relying on JavaScript to come back and 'fill out' the sections.Might want to rethink that or find a way to speed that up.

3. SCREENSHOT 3 - Some of the multiple VIDEO SECTIONS are 'already running' before ALL of them have even been 'laid out'. This puts a huge burden on the processor and the HTML rendering engine. Might want to just make sure all the VIDEO frames have loaded before letting them 'kick off' and choke the processor before the entire page is even laid out.

4. SCREENSHOT 4 - 40 seconds went by with the page mostly 'ready to go' from SCREENSHOT 3 with the only difference being a VIDEO FRAME in the 'Lifestyles' section finally got the content it needed to cause the page to finish. Might want to take a close look at the code
in that 'Lifestyles' section and see if that can be speeded up since
it seems to be dragging the whole page down.

Summary:

There’s lots that can be done here to speed up the customer experience. Sometimes a pictures says a thousand words or in this case it could accelerate ad revenue and keep your customers coming back to your web site.

Screen snapshots…

Mobile Performance–revealing Above The Fold

2011-04-01T12:37:00.001-06:00

One of the toughest things to figure out on Mobile is when various elements of the web page actually load. Unlike their desktop counterparts Mobile browsers do things a little differently. Take Androids browser for example, it waits until the entire page is assembled before it displays it.

So with that in mind we set out to reveal exactly where the Above the Fold line is – and how it relates the to entire page.

Here’s a link and a picture that shows you what’s going on. This is Yahoo’s Mobile Home page. This is a real time snapshot and shows you the whole page which is 320*2743 pixels (the entire page is shown in the link above) We’ve added a pixel ruler so you can now clearly see where the “fold” is (right at the 533 pixel point). Yahoo could dramatically improve their performance by simply sending just enough content for the fold. Sending everything the way they do just takes longer to assemble and display.

We define the “Fold” as the bottom of the device display which in the above case is right at 533 pixels. It will differ depending upon the device and orientation.

Mobile Performance–Thunder from Down Under & Real Time Screen Snapshots

2011-03-31T11:17:00.001-06:00

We’re lucky enough to a have a beta tester visiting Perth in Australia. He ran a few tests for us. Here’s one with real time Geo data and Carrier information:

Link to the performance data and a picture:

And finally a brand few feature we’re adding. The ability to see exactly the web page you just tested on.

In this case we ran a test on Yahoo. They send down a page which is 320*2743 pixels – Here’s the actual timing information

screenshot_time_absolute = 1301563754654 ms
screenshot_time_relative = 127903 ms
screenshot_width         = 320 pixels
screenshot_height        = 2743 pixels
screenshot_description   = [Screenshot taken during WebKit onPageFinished event]

This screenshot took place at +127903 milliseconds during
the page load.

And here’s the screen snapshot:

Mobile Performance–Twitter.com–Redirects

2011-03-24T09:36:00.001-06:00

Fascinating HAR report (if you’re a techie). Here’s Twitter.com on Androids emulator (running our 5o9 Browser2).

Notice the first two waterfall entries? The first one is me requesting www.twitter.com in my browser. It then “redirects” to something called mobile.twitter.com – at first blush you think it’s just a simple redirect.

But you would be wrong. Only deeper analysis shows what the browser & Twitter are really up to. Start with the first webkit event… that’s me again going to http://www.twitter.com Then all of a sudden the browser starts loading “another page” which is http://twitter.com This time it never loads anything (no onLoadResource) event and then redirects me to http://mobile.twitter.com

So think about this for a moment in the context of “onPageFinished” which is typically what you look for to determine if the page has finished loading. If you did it this time you’d be wrong – because there are actually 2 onPageFinished events – one after the first redirect and the second after the THIRD redirect.

Mobile Performance–Above the Fold time. Thinking Differently

2011-03-16T15:05:00.001-06:00

Joshua Bixby has a great post link which talks about this complex issue. It’s a big problem and in my opinion won’t be solved by a universal algorithm.

When we were working on the design of our Mobile Performance solution we thought long and hard about this issue. We thought about things like “time to first byte”, “time to first visible element” etc. But it became too complex, and too subjective. Everyone had a different idea.

So we thought differently.

To see what I’m talking about here are two links for you:

5o9 Cuzillion Web Page -

Do a right click and “view source” to see the custom timing events

Mobile Performance Report - HAR

This report was generated using our “Browser2” app for Android. Click on the HAR tab at the top of the page. Scroll down and read the _webkit_events - it tells you everything going on inside the browser

You can now set your own custom events at key places inside your HTML, CSS & JavaScript includes and see how everything interacts inside the browser.

Above the fold will not be solved with a universal algorithm. There simply isn’t one to support all the combinations. What is required is the ability to profile each page for each location, device and carrier in real time. And then use that data to deliver a better user experience.

Solving problems on Mobile is different – therefore think differently.

Mobile Performance Blaze.io vs. 5o9 Browser2

2011-03-15T17:05:00.001-06:00

Just to be clear – let’s remain “hard on the problem” not on the people.

Mobile performance is a whole new bailiwick. In the coming months and years lots will be written and I’m sure there will be lots of “heated debates”.

Ultimately though it all comes down to your methodology. The title of this post is Blaze.io vs. 5o9’s Browser2. Two companies “two completely different approaches to testing”.

If you want, you can review Blaze’s methodology by going to this link In short they have a collection of Agents (they don’t define what an Agent consists of) that are running on actual devices. They all connect to a central server running webpagetest.org software. All of the Agents connect to the web via “dedicated high speed WI-Fi.

So to recap – There’s an actual device with a high speed Wi-Fi connection running an agent which talks to a central server running http://www.webpagetest.org/ software.

What’s missing?

The explanation of how, or rather whom gets the web page. If you look at webpagetest.org you will see that it’s designed to get web pages. So my “assumption” here is that the Agent is actually something like PCAP (http://pcapperf.appspot.com/) which is actually a packet sniffer that sits on a laptop (or server) and then when the “Agent” makes a request it reads the packets and generates a HAR report.

The key is whose getting the data? As we don’t know what the “Agent” is there’s no way of really telling.

Secondly it’s sitting on a Wi-Fi connection. This is NOT the same as a carrier connection.

Thirdly – we don’t know where the “Agents” are located. Are they all in the same building as the server or are they spread out around the country?

Again the “devil is in the measurement details”.

So now lets take a look at how 5o9’s Browser2 does it. Well first of all we’re a “browser” NOT an Agent. We sit on any Android device and can access the Internet both via Wi-Fi and 3G or 4G carrier networks. When we run a test we access not only device data, but also carrier information and real time geo-location data.

Note – Mobile is “well Mobile”. Testing in a building is NOT mobile.

Our test results – they’re published with all the same detail as Blaze’s except we add even more data. We’ve actually gone inside the browser and captured ALL of the webkit event messages. You can see a sample at this link. Click on the HAR tab at the top and you’ll see more detail than you ever imagined possible about what’s going on inside the Browser.

In short we’ve taken a “show me the data” approach to Mobile Performance.

As the inventors of Mod_Gzip we know a thing or two about Performance. At some point you have to “lay down” your cards and reveal the timing metrics.

Blaze.io does a great job. All they’ve done is taken a different approach to the measurement problem that’s all. Nothing wrong with that. Unless….

Remember “it’s all about the numbers”.

Mobile Performance–the tale of the tape

2011-03-15T13:48:00.001-06:00

Running some tests this afternoon and thought that these results were interesting.

In case you’re in a hurry – Blaze.io’s results are nearly a second faster than a desktop browser on a 22mbps cable connection!

Methodology:

Test link – Steve Souders Cuzillion
Test browsers – latest version of Safari and Firefox
Performance apps – Web Inspector (Safari) & Firebug (latest version)
Connection – Comcast Cable 22mbps

Blaze.io – their network connection link

#1 – Safari on an iMac i7

13 GET requests (2 errors) 20.59kbs of data in 4.63 seconds

#2 – Firefox on an iMac i7

10 GET requests (no errors) 12.6kbs of data in 4.62 seconds

#3 – Blaze.io (link to actual test)

11 GET requests, 14.6kbs of data in 3.67 seconds

Mobile Performance Bing Vs. Google on AT&T on Android–Bing by a tenth!

2011-03-10T09:54:00.001-07:00

And the winner is BING. Here’s the numbers

13 requests, 306.8KB in 6.89 seconds and NO errors!

Google

11 requests, 130.5kb in 6.97 seconds but with 3 errors

What’s that tenth of a second worth? Well 1/2 a second is worth about a billion a year to Google. So a 1/10 of a second is probably worth a couple hundred million dollars.

Mobile Performance–Google Vs. Yahoo

2011-03-10T09:14:00.001-07:00

As George Takei of Star Trek would say – Oh My!

Here’s Google’s Mobile home page – 3 JavaScript errors, but still gets the page loaded in a sub 7 second time frame.

Now for Yahoo’s. Oh My!

83 requests, 390,000 bytes but it takes almost 30 seconds to get the full page loaded. In fact the page was so big I could not get the geo-location, carrier and device data on the same page. (I was using a Motorola Atrix 4G running on AT&T’s network for both tests)

Mobile Performance Really Matters–a quick use case

2011-03-08T14:27:00.001-07:00

The other day the folks over at HTML5 Boilerplate (link) posted an update to their web site and Tweeted about it. I ran a quick performance test on it using our Android browser. Here are the “Before” results.

Items to note…

Real time: Geo-location, Device info, Carrier data, JavaScript errors. 42 GET requests, 1.7MB’s of data and almost 11 seconds to download

So I sent them the Performance report. Well it didn’t take them long to fix things. Here’s the “After” results.

Items to note…

Real time: Geo-location, Device info, Carrier data, ZERO JavaScript errors. 14 GET requests, 264.8 KB’s of data and sub 8 seconds.

So what did they change?

In their own words… “Wait for domready to manipulate the DOM, lazyload videos + disqus, don't block the UI thread”

The moral of the story? Mobile Performance really matters and the only way you know that is to measure it from “inside the browser”.

Hats of to the HTML5 Boilerplate guys. Awesome job!

PS. Disqus and Google Analytics are still slowing things down. You could easily wipe off a few more seconds of that load time.

Real Time HTTP Traffic Measurement for Android

2011-03-03T11:48:00.001-07:00

Today we just released our beta version of “Browser2” for Android (2.1 and above). This allows you to measure, real time HTTP traffic from any web site.

In addition you can also include real time device information along with real time Geo-Location data.

In the next few weeks we’ll be adding support for the following:

The ability to automate performance testing via scripting (limited to a single domain)
The ability to support “js5o9.events” API call(s). In short you can create your own events, and use them as timers for anything you want. They’ll span all HTML, CSS and JavaScript Include documents so you can reference your own “events” at any point in the entire page load process

If you’d like a link to the beta please send me an email at peter.cranstone “@” 5o9inc.com

Blaze IO vs. WebPageTest.org vs. HAR

2011-02-28T13:14:00.001-07:00

Definitely needs looking into. I just ran a bunch of tests using Blaze.IO’s latest technology for measuring Mobile performance. I then compared that with WebPageTest.org (whose service they’re using) and then extracted all the HAR reports for viewing.

Ignore for the moment the timings for WebPageTest.org vs. Blaze.IO – the actual number of GET requests for the page should be identical (each are requesting the exact same page). But then it gets weirder – the HAR report shown on Blaze’s page shows 42 GET requests but if you download the actual one from the test it shows 53 GET request. Now start comparing all the times. Using WebPageTest.org through Chicago and a DSL connection it takes 3.419 seconds vs. Blaze at 3.78 seconds.

Think about it for a moment. Blaze gets 96kb down in 3.78 seconds (42GET requests) – WebPageTest gets 47kb down in 3.419 seconds. Throughput wise the Android device is twice as fast as a DSL connection. (I don’t think so).

Also one other HUGE issue. Androids browser is single threaded – which means the elements (GET Requests) load one after the other. All of the charts show data loaded concurrently – that’s not true.

Picture #1

Blaze.io Mobile test on www.jetsms.com
42 GET requests, 3.78 seconds, 96.1 Kb

Picture #2

The actual HAR report – 53 GET requests, 115.1KB and 3.78 seconds

Picture #3

WebPageTest.org report – 13 GET requests, 47KB and 3.419

Picture #4

The HAR report exported from the WebPageTest.org test

13 GET requests, 43.2KB and 3.76 seconds

Mobile Performance Measurement via JavaScript event messages

2011-02-24T07:21:00.001-07:00

Let’s say that your customer needs to know exactly (at the microsecond level) when something is occurring inside the Web page. They would add a JavaScript event message like this to their web page:

<title>EVENTS</title>

Now when they run their test the performance results will include the exact millisecond timing of when that event occurred inside the browser.

Google On Designing Mobile Friendly Websites

2011-02-23T10:12:00.001-07:00

link

RE: Google said they “expect smartphones to handle desktop experience content so there is no real need for mobile-specific effort from webmasters.

Really… How about some performance metrics. Click on the link below. This is British Airways desktop web site on Android. Check out the number of requests, the time to download and the size of the web site. Also pay close attention to the doubleclick ad timings.

Link to mobile performance report

Mobile Performance

2011-02-22T08:39:00.001-07:00

Two different carriers (Sprint and Verizon) HTC vs. Droid X. Both connecting to the same web page. Sprint wins by over a second.

I guess location also makes a difference.

FL390, Night, Level 6 Thunderstorms–over the Pacific

2011-02-21T08:05:00.001-07:00

So you want to know what flying into a thunderstorm does to a airplane? Read this. Having landed (and slide of a runway) in a level 6 storm I can barely imagine hitting one at FL390 in the dark over the Pacific – FL390

Nokia Plan B

2011-02-15T12:51:00.001-07:00

It should read – Plan BS. Seriously what are these people thinking. Dump Windows Phone 7 OS and go with MeeGo.

Are you serious?

Have you even seen the OS lately. It’s a joke. No developers, no UI to talk of, basically a shell with nothing.

And then there’s talk of good old Symbian. Obviously they’ve never programmed this behemoth. It is so incredibly fragmented that it’s now a nightmare.

Guys (gals) you cannot, I repeat cannot support multiple operating systems. pick one and execute. The most innovative platform out there right now (with the best developer tools) is Microsoft’s.

Remember “It’s the tools, stupid”. Without the developers you have nothing.

Where were you 70 years ago?

2011-02-13T08:07:00.001-07:00

We’ve come along way for sure. I wonder what the next 70 will bring us?

Do NOT Track = #Fail

2011-02-09T12:02:00.001-07:00

This just showed up in Firefox beta -

Never going to work. Why? Because I can’t tell if the web site is honoring the request.

What is needed is this – Privacy Options which allow YOU to control what gets sent to the web site. Telling a web site not to track you is one thing – turning off any data is something else. The former relies on the web site – the latter leaves you in control.

Androids Browser supports JavaScript Console messages

2011-02-08T17:17:00.001-07:00

For the techies…

So exactly what kind of Mobile device is that?

2011-02-08T11:23:00.001-07:00

Here’s an interesting exercise – the following 5 User Agents all came from the same mobile device. Was that device an iPhone, iPad, or Android smartphone?

HTTP_USER_AGENT=[Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A341 Safari/528.16]
HTTP_USER_AGENT=[Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; U; CPU OS 3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.21.10 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.4 Mobile/7B367 Safari/531.21.10]
HTTP_USER_AGENT=[Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-us; PC36100 Build/FRF91) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1]
HTTP_USER_AGENT=[Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-us; Sprint APA9292KT Build/FRF91) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1]
HTTP_USER_AGENT=[Mozilla/5.0 (Android; Linux armv7l; rv:2.0b11pre) Gecko/20110126 Firefox/4.0b11pre Fennec/4.0b4]

And herein lies the problem – with mobile devices exploding we’re now presented with more browsers than ever, all trying to connect to the web server. The issue for the web admin is simple – figure what just connected and send the appropriate data.

MeeGo is doomed

2010-12-01T16:28:00.001-07:00

Comment: Nokia's MeeGo is doomed - A summary of Dublin's MeeGo Summit | TechEye

Yep. Nokia can only afford to support one OS. It's either going to be Android or Windows.

There will be blood

2010-11-22T08:15:00.001-07:00

There Will Be Blood - NYTimes.com

Maybe the Democrats should have thought about the consequences of ignoring the Republicans during the Health Care debate.

What they BOTH don't realize is that America is on the brink of insolvency and without JOBS nothing else is going to matter.

I predict that a 3rd party will emerge from these two. Now that would be real change.

Unions are not a "sustainable business" anymore.

2010-10-03T07:09:00.001-06:00

University of Oregon President Begs Legislators for $800 Million and Says "We are Not Asking for More Money"

This is the "next shoe to drop" issue facing the economy. Unions are about to get a lesson in simple economics. When there is NO appetite for debt then there pension plans will collapse. Money has been "free and easy" for years and now they're about to pay the price.

Currently Pension Plans are "underfunded" by about 3 Trillion dollars. The only way to fund them is with bonds or some other debt instrument. With Americans de-leveraging away from debt, Unions and their ridiculous pay structures are next on the chopping block.

Welcome to "this site best viewed with... fill in the blank"

2010-09-29T09:21:00.001-06:00

Apple's newly formed "creative technology team" will be responsible for creating new, interactive HTML5-based content on the company's website to support owners of iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad.

link: AppleInsider | Apple plans to push HTML5 by creating new, 'innovative' websites

This is EXACTLY what is wrong with HTML5. And what about the other couple billion folks who run regular browsers on regular devices?

Welcome back to the "old" slogan - the site is best viewed with…. (fill in the blank)

HTML5

2010-09-26T07:45:00.001-06:00

HTML5 Transfers Application Power from Server to Browser

Amazing what passes for journalism these days. This VP of Products has no idea what he’s talking about. Here’s a quick tutorial on off-line caching via HTML5 (link). The idea is simple.. store a Web page offline, improve the speed of loading a Web site and reduce the load on the server.

This is absolutely absurd. First of all let’s think about the idea of storing a Web page off line. Most pages these days are generated dynamically, which means that while you might be able to store the style sheet “off-line” the rest of the Web site will still have to be rendered in real time. So getting something there faster still is an issue (compression).

As for reducing the load on the server - poppycock. Server processing is cheap, it’s abundant and it’s got an “everlasting” power source vs.. my smartphone.

As for most browsers having them next year? Swing and a miss - here’s an snip from Wikipedia…

Ian Hickson, editor of the HTML5 specification, expects the specification to reach the Candidate Recommendation stage during 2012. The criteria for the specification becoming a W3C Recommendation is “two 100% complete and fully interoperable implementations”. In an interview with TechRepublic, Hickson guessed that this would occur in the year 2022 or later

In short this means that millions of devices will have to be upgraded to a spec that doesn’t fully exist yet or has even been fully ratified. And finally - this means that every Web server/service will be even more dependent than ever trying to figure out what the target device “can really support”. For example just because it says it “does” HTML5 what “does” that exactly mean.

Conclusion:

HTML5 will eventually become a standard. But it will be decades before the standard makes it’s way across everything, and it will not obviate the need to completely know in real time Who, What and Where is at the other end.

Hitler on the AngelGate fiasco

2010-09-24T11:55:00.001-06:00

Brilliant!

Facebooks Phone Madness

2010-09-19T12:06:00.001-06:00

I can't help myself, the blogs are lit up with news that Facebook is "supposedly" building it's one Phone.

Who thinks up this crap? Doesn't anyone remember the other social phone - the Kin. The carriers killed it with the data plan. Deja Vu is just around the corner. (Remember the Disney phone and the ESPN phone - I didn't think so.)

In all of the reports I haven't seen one analyst talk about the revenue model for this thing. It can't be advertising otherwise their current mobile app would be doing really well (it isn't because it has a lousy design).

Facebook has never released it's revenue numbers. The rumors are all over the place on exactly how much it brings in a year. Certainly there has never been a whiff of an actual "earnings number" (you know the number that really counts).

So now they come out with the idea to build a phone. They're going to compete with Apple (iPhone) Google (Android Phones) Microsoft (Windows 7) RIM (Blackberry) and good old Nokia.

Every single person who accesses Facebook already has a phone. Do you really think they're going to rush out and get a "FaceBook" only phone. I mean, it's farcical.

This thing is going to cost $100's of millions of dollars, will most likely be based on Android (an OS that's admittedly a work in progress) and will have a 1.0 user interface.

Surely there is something better FaceBook can do with it's money? Like go public and pay back the investors

Skyhook sues Google

2010-09-15T13:20:00.001-06:00

How to piss away shareholder capital...

Skyhook Sues Google in a Location Battle Royale «

Doomsdayers Not Cynical Enough

2010-09-12T06:19:00.001-06:00

Two words - Goldman Sachs. People are only now learning how destructive the power of Wall Street has become. What you haven't quite grasped yet is that the very culture of America is now in transition. You're not the same any more. This is not the America I moved to 25 years ago. This now something quite different.

link: Doomsdayers Not Cynical Enough

Let's get back to work

2010-09-10T12:02:00.001-06:00

It's so incredibly simple - you need an economic program to put people back to work fast. The rest will fix itself. Anything or Anybody that doesn't align with this needs to be gone from Congress. (This is worth watching)

Google validates the value of Personalized Search

2010-09-09T15:15:00.001-06:00

Below is a link to a great post Liz Gannes of Giga Om.
Google Instant: A Mobile App Approach to Search «

Two things immediately jump out of this blog - the power of personalization and a contextually aware mobile app.

Personalization. Each version of a mobile app knows who its main user is — whether it’s to remember your high score, keep you logged into to your social network, or hold your place in an article. On Instant, when you start typing to ask Google a question, it will not only show results for what other users are likely to be looking for, but what it thinks you personally are likely to be looking for.
Context. Mobile apps make use of information about your location and state from GPS and other cues. Instant also uses your location within the nearest metro area based on your IP address. Soon, the feature will also include a user’s web history (this was included in tests, but removed for the launch because it wasn’t ready yet, said a spokesperson).

Currently the only way to get Context to a web server is to use a mobile app. Imagine the power if you could do this in the Mobile browser. Well wait no longer - head over to 5o9 Inc and see how it all works.

Tony Blair on the Panic

2010-09-03T08:54:00.001-06:00

Great response:

On stimulus, Keynesianism and re-regulation, Mr. Blair is also astute: "Ultimately the recovery will be led not by governments but by industry, business, and the creativity, ingenuity and enterprise of people. If the measures you take in responding to the crisis diminish their incentives, curb their entrepreneurship, make them feel unsure about the climate in which they are working, the recovery becomes uncertain."

Inconsistency in a Consistent World

2010-09-03T08:03:00.001-06:00

Apples iTunes 10. The Kings of consistency do something inconsistent.

Performance accurate HTTP traffic analysis on mobile devices

2010-08-29T07:51:00.001-06:00

According to the experts here is no known solution to performance accurate HTTP traffic analysis on mobile devices.

As the French would say "au contraire mon frere". Check out the image below. (link)

Google's Android browser is now doing some magic. It has a couple of new buttons - one is "view source" - you can now see all of the elements of the page and how long they took to load. Looks like Google's gstatic.com web server needs a faster connection.

iPad - to be released

2010-08-23T12:53:00.001-06:00

The iPad becomes a laptop (almost). Great idea. A real keyboard, add a few more ports and it's a laptop.

The housing gold rush is officially over

2010-08-23T08:27:00.001-06:00

Real Estate’s Gold Rush Seems Gone for Good - NYTimes.com

This is what I’ve been saying for sometime. Right now house values are falling (in line with deflation that the economy is experiencing - in essence you're financing a depreciating asset).

In the future the value will be pegged to inflation - in essence you get your money back (as long as you haven’t gone nuts with home improvements (if you have you will lose that money). Home improvements in the future will help you stage and sell your house but not get more for it.

What's wrong with this picture?

2010-08-17T07:05:00.001-06:00

What happened to the old days when all you needed was a few million in funding. For example:

Electronic Arts: $2m
Amazon: $8m
Google: $20m

Mobile Apps vs. Web apps for Mobile

2010-08-16T08:32:00.001-06:00

The only surprise here is how little developers have made…

Loic Le Meur Blog: How much can you really make developing mobile apps?

The only solution is a web app - simply because it scales to everything that has a browser for the same cost.

The future is Personal

2010-08-14T09:04:00.001-06:00

Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.: Google and the Search for the Future - WSJ.com

Interesting article - Google ONLY knows roughly who we are, roughly where we are, and barely what device we’re using…. what if they knew exactly who, what and where we were?

Well the answers obvious - according to Google’s CEO -
"The power of individual targeting—the technology will be so good it will be very hard for people to watch or consume something that has not in some sense been tailored for them.”

The future is going to be personal - Schmidt is right, the technology will be that good. So how will work?

The web will carry more of your personal data but always under your control. If you trust the content provider you will share more, if not you will share less.

The future is precise, it's personal and it's all about "Me".

This sums things up nicely - can you spell JOBS?

2010-07-20T18:30:00.001-06:00

Chart of the day comes from Derek Thompson:

Apple vs. Android vs. Blacberry vs. Windows Mobile vs. Symbian

2010-07-17T11:05:00.001-06:00

Great article - misses the other three operating system but his premise holds anyway. Mobile apps cannot win - it's far easier to rev a web page than it is to build a mobile app...

Apple or Android? What’s Best For Developers? [Opinion] | Cult of Mac

What has America Become?

2010-07-14T11:20:00.001-06:00

I Don't Care

2010-06-29T11:46:00.001-06:00

Today's funny...

Apple knows Where you are - and shares it

2010-06-21T17:35:00.001-06:00

Apple knows where you are and plans to put that information to work.
The Cupertino company updated its privacy policy today to disclose that it may now “collect, use, and share precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device.”
The new terms of service will pop up as a prompt next time you try to download or buy anything on the iTunes store — there is currently no opt-out option.

Amazing - no opt out for the most private company in the world. Pathetic.

Why the Euro is doomed

2010-06-07T08:21:00.001-06:00

As they say a picture paints a thousand words...

Web 2.0 - it's 1999 all over again

2010-05-20T13:43:00.001-06:00

There are so many reasons to love the humor site The Onion. Here is the latest, hot from its breaking news desk:

NEW YORK—While millions of young, tech-savvy professionals already use services like Facebook and Twitter to keep in constant touch with friends, a new social networking platform called Foursquare has recently taken the oh, fucking hell, can’t some other desperate news outlet cover this crap instead?

Hip city-dwellers nationwide are embracing the new, come to think of it, haven’t we used this photo for some other tech piece?

Launched last year, Foursquare is unique in that it not only allows users to broadcast their whereabouts, but also offers a number of built-in incentives, including some innovative new crap The New York Times surely has a throbbing hard-on for.

In fact, why don’t we just let them report on this garbage and call it a day?

“Foursquare is a little bit of everything—a friend-finder, a local city guide, an interactive mobile game,” said company cofounder Dennis Crowley, as if reading from the same tired script used by every one of these Web 2.0 or whatever-the-fuck-they’re-called startups. “But more than that, Foursquare is an [endless string of meaningless buzzwords we just couldn't bring ourselves to transcribe].”

Added Crowley, “[Who gives a shit].”

Read much more of this very funny made-up story here.

Are you an American? Born and raised? Then vote!

2010-05-19T08:36:00.001-06:00

My name is d'Lynn. I'm a disabled Vietnam vet. I don't look too bad for a beat-up old fart, do I? And that's my ride. She's looking pretty good looking also, especially when you consider that she'll turn twenty this summer. That's right, it's a 1990 with a 1990 sidecar. I can't ride a solo bike, ergo the sidecar rig. It's my sole means of transportation - rain or shine, snow or wind, and this summer also marks a milestone in both of our lives, as I will finally be able to pay her off. Twenty years old? What? Why did it take so long?

You weren't paying attention, were you? It's right at the beginning of this paragraph. I am a disabled vet, which means I receive a veterans administration disability pension, which also means "I'm broke!" Just one step ahead of being homeless every month, and that's not an idle statement or an"Oh, whoa is me" dire complaint. There's a point to this, so hang in there a minute or two and read on.There's a 25-year-old illegal immigrant woman living in Florida, with eight kids. Yes, eight "anchor babies" and she receives just shyof $1,500 per month per kid, plus medical, plus food stamps. Oh, wait. I've been informed that I shouldn't call them Food Stampsanymore. That's not PC. It's all called "Social Assistance" now. You do the math on that yourself. I'd say that she was schooled early in how to make it in the system. Twenty-five years old, eight kids . . . . . yep, she started early.

You can whip out the calculator if you want, but this women who never has paid a dime in taxes of any kind, (and still doesn't - she's 'illegal,' remember?) is here in this country illegally. She hasn't paid one one cent in medical for all the "anchor babies," makes more in one month, legally, than I receive in over a year and a half in disability payments and I can't even get food stamps! Oops, I mean "Social Assistance."Technically I am eligible for "Social Assistance." I was told it would be a walk through - a gimme - being disabled. No problem, and in the very next breath I was also informed that under the law the amount I received in "Social Assistance" would be deducted from my disability pension.

Let's say I take a great photograph. It was just luck, a one of a kind accidental, in the right place at the right time shot. My local newspaper offers me fifty bucks to use the photo in a featured story. (I live in a small town and fifty bucks is all they could afford.) I have to report that fifty dollars to the VA as earned income, which will immediately be deducted from my next month's disability check. If I don't report it I'm in violation of federal law and technically they can stop my disability pension and prosecute me under a federal felony. Pretty cool, eh? For fifty bucks.I see no point in dealing with two federal bureaucracies, so I don't bother. What's the point?She's here illegally and with just one kid would make over twice what I receive per month. She has eight and she's not a stand-out case. She's not alone. That's the way the system works. Millions of illegal immigrants know this, know how the system works and know how to use it. (Haven't you seen the pamphlet? It's handed out all along our borders, "The Illegal Immigrants' Guide to Keeping America Just The Way It Is.") and that's just the way it works.

Did you know that the federal government provides a "refugee" in this country with a monthly "stipend" of $1,890, plus $580 a month in "Social Assistance?" That's $2,470 a month, tax-free. That's two and a half times what I'm allowed to receive as a disabled vet. And just what did they do to earn this? All you have to do is show up on our collective doorstep, raise your right hand and swear that you're a refugee and, bingo, receive $30,000 a year, tax-free. That's more than someone making $15 an hour, and they have to paytaxes to boot!Now, in defense of the Veterans Administration, they are doing what they can with what they've got. This is precious little compared to what they should have to get the job done. At least this country has a VA. It's the Senate that keeps passing laws, rules and guidelines,cutting their budget, denying requests for more staff and computer systems to handle the massive work flow. Their hands are tied by the very government that's supposed to give them what they need to get the job done, by the government you voted into office.

Don't scream at the VA. I have. It's misguided anger. The point to this "story?" Just why are you paying such high taxes to support this incredibly screwed-up government? Why? And I'm notproposing you stop paying your taxes. That's wrong. There are good programs and reasons to pay your taxes and support our government. What am I proposing? It's quite simple. Vote.The government, our government, is broken and we as the voters serve as the maintenance crew.

We fix it . . . . . by voting.

If your state Senator has been in office more then two terms, vote 'em out at the next election. If your state representative has been in office more then two terms, vote 'em out of office. We put term limits on just about every publicly-elected official in the country except the House and Senate. Why? Believe me, they know this and love it! Ahhh - the power!I don't care how much you believe your Senator or Representative is doing a good job. They're not! Look at the government you have, that we have. How can you state they are doing what you want as the voter that put them there? How?Vote them out of office. Do it. Change the course of this country's history by what you are granted and guaranteed under the law. Vote!

And if you have the guts, the anger, the outrage, start a petition in your state for a state-wide initiative to be placed on your next state ballot. Limiting the terms ofoffice for your state senators and state representatives to your federal government to two terms.The federal government will never pass such a law, but you can. You can get it done. You can force it. You can make it a law.This is the first step in "getting it right." Just vote. It's simple. It's easy.This first step will send a very clear message. It'll work. It'ill put "us" back in control of "them." As it should be.

As it was intended in the first place.Are you an American? Born and raised? Then vote!

Side note: I sent this e-mail to a little over one hundred on my e-mail list. If you believe I'm wrong or misguided or you simply don't agree, that's fine. Go right ahead a delete this e-mail. No problem. Sorry to have bothered you. But if you think I just might have a worthwhile idea, something we can easily accomplish, something that could be a small part at getting this country back under "our"control, then please pass this along.

Not to take anything away from Shazam... but really

2010-05-18T08:13:00.001-06:00

Today Shazam reached 75m users and there's a strong rumor out there that they'll be going public. Usually the acid test for IPO is 24 months of consecutive profits.

So what are Shazam's numbers?

In its 2008/09 fiscal year, Shazam Entertainment Ltd made a £89,943 post-tax loss and a £133,462 operating loss on turnover of £7.3 million, thanks to £886,903 costs and £6.5 million expenses.

You've got to be kidding me?

75m users is producing a post tax loss of £89,943 on revenue of £7.3 million

And then we learn this:

Shazam took an initial £11.5 million investment from Acacia Capital and DN Capital and a later round of an undisclosed size from Kleiner Perkins Caulfield and Byers.

So you take £11.5 and one more round, probably at least £20m, combine it for a total investment of around £30m or so and then product £7.3 in revenue for a post tax loss.

I'm sorry but that's not a business. You can't even determine the margin as you continue to try and scale the business. One misstep and everything evaporates. And yet - with all of this it's now an IPO candidate.

I hardly think so - now we'll just have to wait and see.

Privacy - Yes, it's a big deal

2010-05-04T16:51:00.001-06:00

Congress Proposes Sweeping Internet Privacy Bill

Here’s one of the consequences

If a new online privacy bill proposed todayby two U.S. senators becomes law, web surfers could find themselves confronted with a growing swarm of disclosure notices, opt-in requests and user information licenses whenever they try to use websites and services that employ online advertising.

Can imagine everywhere you go on the web all you see is opt-in notices that have to be clicked each time, and or requests for user information. This is a real killer for Mobile users who will not stop to type in this data.

Here’s the alternative - Select Privacy Options in the menu (above picture) and then select “Send Privacy Notice to Website” - Opt-in. This lets the web server know “ahead” of time that you’re giving them permission to use your data. No annoying pop-up’s, nothing to type in, and compliance with the customers privacy.

The Smartphone's rosey future

2010-05-03T07:31:00.001-06:00

Very Personal Computing | Monday Note

As always, it's all about "Show Me the Money". This graphic illustrates it well.

In the PC business it's all about margins. As a product matures and becomes a commodity item, it's natural for margins to fall. The reason that Smartphones are now accelerating faster than anticipated is that it provides venders with a "Net New Revenue Opportunity" with associated higher margins.

6 months ago no one was really paying attention to Mobile. Sure Apple was blasting ahead, but that's not enough of a "data point" for the masses to jump in. Fast forward 6 months and it's a whole new day out there.

It's still not quite time to strike up the band, but you can clearly hear them warming up. The music really starts cranking next year.

The T word

2010-04-25T08:43:00.001-06:00

I, Cringely » Blog Archive » The T Word - Cringely on technology

Without Trust you have nothing. Trust is achieved through transparency - something the Banks and Goldman have yet to embrace

(Thin) Air on Mobile

2010-04-23T05:43:00.001-06:00

Adobe AIR on the Android Platform (Adobe Featured Blogs)

Google is happy to be partnering with Adobe to bring the full web, great applications, and developer choice to the Android platform. Our engineering teams have been working closely to bring both AIR and Flash Player to Google's mobile operating system and devices.

Ridiculous idea. Imagine designing an app that runs in Adobe Air on the desktop where you have a mouse, keyboard and big screen. Now the same app runs on Android. Good luck using that - Printing anyone?

This is just a PR stunt. Air is to resource heavy for Mobile and Flash while OK on the desktop isn't needed on the small screen.

iAds, iAds, it's off to work I go.

2010-04-22T06:55:00.001-06:00

Is Apple Booting iAd's Competition from the iPhone?

Yep. Advertising rely's on metrics - no metrics, no ads. Apple says no metrics for you and you're done.

FaceCash

2010-04-20T15:51:00.001-06:00

Will FaceCash, the mobile payment application, kill the credit card? | VentureBeat

Here's the problem - infrastructure. If you have to install it takes forever to get traction. It also introduces the notion of multi-factor authentication by using your face. What's interesting is why do I have to have my bank and social security data on the phone? Where is that data going?

Is Android Evil?

2010-04-16T10:00:00.001-06:00

What might be the most closed system in the history of Open Source

VisionMobile: Is Android Evil?

Don’t believe the commercials - dig into these mobile operating systems and you’ll really learn what goes on. It’s all about control, who gets to access what and then who makes money. Neither RIM, Apple, Nokia, Microsoft or Google are charities. Each of them are going for their own lock-in. Customers are being forced to choose a platform when a phone is the most personal decision you can make.

The big 5 don’t want that - they’re grudgingly paying it lip service with HTML5 but only because it’s easy to add search and location tags.

What is Apple thinking?

2010-04-12T17:09:00.001-06:00

“Notwithstanding anything else in this Agreement, Device Data may not be provided or disclosed to a third party without Apple’s prior written consent. Accordingly, the use of third party software in Your Application to collect and send Device Data to a third party for processing or analysis is expressly prohibited.”

link: Is Apple Closing Off the iPhone to Rival Ad Networks? | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD

This is getting ridiculous. Apple wants to control every single thing. So why develop for the platform if you can't build a sustainable business?

History is doomed to repeat itself. Apple is overreaching here.

It's nuclear war in software

2010-04-11T11:59:00.001-06:00

Has Steve Jobs gone mad? - Apple 2.0 - Fortune Brainstorm Tech

Apple is simply protecting it's platform against Microsoft, Google and Adobe. Same thing Google is doing with HTML5 (it's all about search).

iAd – Value Extraction Machine vs. Value Generation Engine?

2010-04-08T16:15:00.001-06:00

Apple CEO Steve Jobs kicked off his rationale for a new ad platform and experience by knocking the competition. “For lack of a more elegant way to say it, we think most of this mobile advertising really sucks,” he said.

Jobs also took a direct dig at Google, noting that behavior in a mobile experience is more oriented to apps than search, so mobile advertising should center around apps and not search. Today, when users click on an ad within an app, “You click on a banner ad it yanks you out of an app, throws you in a browser,” said Jobs. “You may never get back to your ad and never to where you left out. So what’s the result? People don’t click on ads.”

By contrast, “Because the iAd is in the OS itself, we have figured out a way to do interactive and video content without ever taking you out of the app with the iAd experience,” said Jobs. iAd holds a user’s place in an app and opens the ad up in an app-like environment that connects to the rest of the services on the iPhone, so users could look directly on a map for nearby stores, watch videos, make a picture their phone’s wallpaper, or buy a promoted app directly.

Couple of things worth noting:

Apple had to pick apps - they don't have a search strategy (although you know it's coming)
They just crushed the Mobile app/ad marketplace

From a business perspective Apple just extracted more value from their platform. They did so at the expense of all those VC backed Mobile ad engines including the $750M dollar purchase of AdMobs by Google. In my estimation they just lowered the value of everything around that is trying to generate value - except one constituent, the Mobile App developer. While they actually did him a favor, they made sure that no one but them is going to build big value off of that platform. (See the latest Apple Developer Agreement - link No love for Adobe)

Fair enough - it's there platform. But what about the rest of the world? Well Mobile is a big place and while it appears that Apple is the center of the universe I believe 5 years from now we'll look back at this whole app thing with mild amusement.

The world will have moved on - they will have transitioned to a Mobile Web environment which allows for a "Value Generation Engine" to be created that scales across ALL devices that connect to the Internet.

In one respect Apple has done all of us a favor - they have now drawn a direct correlation between "Emotion" and "Interactivity" saying in effect that the more personal the ad, the more local the ad, the more relevant the ad the more likely the consumer is to interact with that ad.

Well the good news is that there is already a solution out there for Mobile app and web app developers that leverages Apples idea and applies them to the Internet and all the devices that connect to it.

You can now make the Internet Personal, Local and Mobile - it can now deliver contextually aware ads that are relevant and appealing. It can do all of this without requiring a single programming behavioral change. It's called 5o9EZMobile and you can find it here - link

Apple's iPad Memory Problem

2010-04-08T09:16:00.001-06:00

I'm going to start this blog with a disclaimer. I have no axe to grind with Apple. I'm platform agnostic and only care about "the tools" that make things work. I've been in the software business for 20 years now, am the co-inventor of mod_gzip and my latest venture (5o9 Inc) has a solution that runs on 7 platforms and allows you to extend your current web services to mobile with very little effort.

So with that said let's dig in a little to the memory problem. Years and years ago my partner and I were playing around with one of the very early HP mobile computers. I believe it was a Jornada. I remember discussing with Kevin the OS and what it could and couldn't do. Essentially what Microsoft had done was to take their current OS and strip it down to the bare essentials. The only issue with doing this is the somewhat indiscriminate removal of various API's by which programmers build new features.

Now let's fast forward to the introduction of the Blackberry Storm. We build software that runs on the Blackberry. However the Storm caught us out. The Storm introduced a new form factor. A touch screen that enables you to pinch and zoom etc. What we didn't realize at the time was that this was an incredible performance hog. So bad in fact that RIM turned off access to a crucial API that we were using. Having access to the API while the browser was running would bring the machine to a stop. So they temporarily disabled it until you had finished in the browser. Of course it was too late for us. We solved the problem using a different technique but I was again reminded that "pie is never free at the truck stop".

This now brings me to the iPad. I first noticed the issue on Daring Fireball where he talks about his frustration with Safari (scroll down for the comments). You then can click on another link which talks about why Apple may have made the design decisions they have with Mobile Safari.

So here's my premise - Apple have made some design decisions which are going to have ramifications. First of all they took the OSX platform and stripped it down. In typical Apple style less is more. I think in this case they did a little too much pruning. There's a real reason that the iPad doesn't have any ports. It's not because you couldn't put them in - it's because the amount of memory required to run would exceed the 512MB it has onboard. Which brings me to Safari. Think of Safari as a "poor mans multi-tasker" in as much it can open "multiple tabs". There's an incredible amount of rendering going on in each tab. If the page has lots of JavaScript it means that the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) is working overtime. Add in a "big screen" compared with the iTouch and all the performance required to drive that and you're going to hit the memory limit immediately.

If Apple could have got 1GB of RAM on that chip it would have shipped with a camera and a USB port. No question. Aesthetics aside the iPad has traded performance and flash graphics for memory. The app that is impacted the most is the browser because of the additional requirements that are placed on the CPU to run not only the GUI interface, but multiple tabs and the rendering necessary for HTML and JavaScript - plus let's not forget the fact that it has to communicate via the TCP/IP subsystem which is talking to WiFi etc.

In short - Apple has the same problem with the iPad that the Blackberry Storm had when it first came out. The Storm's performance was awful - Apple has a bigger chip to use, but as they say in the automobile industry there's no substitute for "cc's" - in this case - Memory. The next rev of this device will have more memory. As soon as it does you can add a port, and the browser will be better behaved.

Widgets little secret.

2010-04-07T14:41:00.001-06:00

BlackBerry OS Update: RIM Woos BlackBerry Devs With Java, Web Tools Update - www.enterprisemobiletoday.com

Wow, 20,000 new API's to access via Widgets and good old HTML/JavaScript. Here's what nobody is talking about - Cross Platform Support.

So you sit down to write this cool little widget to tie into your web app. It (the widget) talks to the Operating System via the 20,000 API's and returns data. You can then access that data via an HTML page. Essentially the Widget framework "hosts" the browsers control and you get a browser in a widget window.

Presto you think you're done, you have a cool "web app".

Not so fast!

That widget runs on Blackberry's OS which is not compatible with any other OS. So now you have to port the widget code to the other operating system. Only one problem - they don't support Blackberry's widget framework. And all that HTML/JavaScript you wrote - Oops, doesn't work on any other device.

Bugger, back to square one.

But wait there's more - Blackberry supports the OS and the Widget Framework, but the carrier gets the final say as to what the Widget can access. And guess what? Different carriers have different rules.

Bugger, Bugger.

Now you have to build a QA matrix to support the carriers and their peculiarities. And none of this works on any other platform. Oh Joy - Not!

Looking for a real cross platform solution for your Web app?

Click here

iPad + Keyboard = Laptop

2010-04-07T11:05:00.001-06:00

I said it awhile ago. The iPad is a laptop without the keyboard. Well people now want to use it with a keyboard. And we're back to a laptop.

Why resolving Device Capabilitites is so hard

2010-04-06T16:36:00.001-06:00

Which browser am I using?

It looks like Safari on a Mac - however I can “trick” (aka spoof) the browser into sending a different “User-Agent” (link) to a web server. I can make the web server “think” that it’s talking to ANY one of the browser versions shown above - 19 of them. In fact there are two missing - Mobile Safari - iPad 3.1.3 and soon to be 4.0.0 How the heck do I (the web app programmer) really figure out exactly what is at the other end of the conversation.

The next killer app

2010-04-06T08:31:00.001-06:00

The next "killer app?" - Trust. Trust drives transactions. Customers want control over their "Trust account". 5o9's solution enables that to happen on any device, any screen, anywhere, at any time.

link: Facebook

iPad impressions

2010-04-04T07:04:00.001-06:00

It's fast, it's heavy (way too heavy). 2x pixelation is awful. It's not a computer replacement until it cuts the cord with iTunes. (The Cloud) People looking at it in Best Buy and then moving on. It's not as big a deal as the iPhone was. iWork is ok for simple stuff, not going to replace anything. Rev 2.0 will be better.

To me the real issue is the continued dependency on iTunes. Time to move on.

Privacy is NOT dead

2010-04-03T09:55:00.001-06:00

What do customers want?

Convenience
Privacy
Control

ink: Privacy is not dead - Inside Windows Live - The Windows Blog

What's this?

2010-04-02T17:12:00.001-06:00

Privacy really is important

2010-04-02T16:55:00.001-06:00

Foursquare's Digital Graffiti, a Legally Nerve-Wracking Taste of the Future | Technomix | Fast Company

Worth a read and also worth really thinking about. Welcome to the law of unintended consequences. Privacy is a serious matter.

Context is the Future of Mobile

2010-03-31T09:39:00.001-06:00

Context aware solutions are the future. Let me add something else - without context you're just a "dumb pipe", with context you can personalize the web. And that's a game changer.

Flash, HTML5 or Bust?

2010-03-30T07:14:00.001-06:00

With More Flash, Is Google About To Cut Off The HTML5 Nose To Spite Apple’s Face?

More confusion and uncertainty for developers and users alike.