Vincenzo Carabillo' » Google

Google’s Android revolution

Vincenzo Carabillo' — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 19:05:40 +0000

Will we have have an Android in our pockets? Google new exciting project is an Operating System for mobile phones. Android is a groundbreaking idea that will probably change the market. In the future we would be able to use the same user interface for mobile phones made by different companies. An API (Application Program Interface) is already available for accessing the low-level hardware features, and a conveniently crafted Eclipse plug-in can be downloaded to start writing new applications in Java. The Android SDK (Software Development Kit) contains a nice emulator in which to preview the applications under development. Everything works smoothly, and is very easy to setup. Excellent!

The Open Handset Alliance which Google is building, holds together many big names (HTC, LG, Samsung, Motorola,Intel, Broadcom, Marvell, Qualcomm, SiRF, T-Mobile, Telefonica, Telecom Italia and Sprint, plus Google and eBay and a variety of other partners) but not Nokia or Microsoft. This means that it seem that no Nokia phone wil be equipped by Android for the moment being, but I guess that Nokia could join later. Of course Microsoft would be much harder to convince!
For motivating developers to start using the new platform, Google has launched a contest (the Android Developer Challenge), for which there are more than 10 million $ awards for the best applications made for this platform.

The idea to deliver an Operating System like Android is surprisingly in line with Google’s mission to "organize the world’s information". Once again Google proved to work smart, and once again will change the way we approach the IT, this time in our pocket.

What will happen next?

Many developers will happily start to work with Android
there will be several hundreds of beautiful pragrams for this platform before the commercial launch
many manufacturers will be happy to see such audience, and will put more attention (and budget) on the platform
mobile phone users will be able to buy phones from several companies, sure to be able to use the same android software in each of them. Now the choice for an handy will be easier, finally not based on usability, but on style, and hardware quality!

Android is good news. We have to wait until the second half of next year to be able to buy one of those phones able to run Android.

Human computation

Vincenzo Carabillo' — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 08:01:30 +0000

This is a very interesting video in which you will find many of the new aspects of Web2.0. The point is that a cooperative effort of humans can solve some of the greatest problems of Artificial Intelligence. Think about captcha: these are small problems created by computers, that the computer itself is not able to solve, but relatively easy for an average human.

Speaking to "think out of boxes", the video reported below can give some insights and interesting point of views about the new cooperative way to rewrite the web.

MapJack

Vincenzo Carabillo' — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 19:17:01 +0000

I have just found a web site which makes it much easier to use the new "Street View" feature of Google Maps. Even if Street View is a marvelous add-on to Google Maps, I found the interface and controls it a bit too unintuitive. MapJack makes the thing much easier. A nice add on is that it seems to pre-fetch the images, so you the experience to run around the city is much more enjoyable. The only supported city at the moment is San Francisco. Have fun!

http://www.mapjack.com/

Google Street View

Vincenzo Carabillo' — Thu, 31 May 2007 06:15:35 +0000

A few days ago Google launched a new feature for the already marvelous Google Maps : Street View.
Have a look to this YouTube presentation:

The "walkable" cities are at the moment San Francisco, New York, Las Vegas, Denver and Miami, but the list will be extended soon. Take a look at this page, and start walking in Vegas!