Test email posting

I hope this works!

Twitter: the new SMS?

I still find Twitter quite an amazing experience. The idea that I can write a small SMS like message and have it view across the world by millions of people stunning.

Twitter has many pros and cons that makes it the platform that it is. It's difficult to follow conversations, fun to discover new people, worrying how often people seem willing to reveal very private information openly yet incredibly addictive to point of being an obsession.

So does it have a long term future?

If you parallel Twitter to Facebook as a comparison then some questions open up.

Facebook has been described many times as the telephone directory of the future. We will store contact details and messages for all of our key connections / friends / family and use that to continue to communicate. Facebook helps you find 'lost' friends from days gone by to rekindle friendships that you never would have been able to do BF (before Facebook).

So how does Twitter compare? The obvious one that jumps out is that Twitter is the SMS of the future. It works to the same 140 character limit but offers links, private message, open replies, searching... it's SMS on drugs!

But is it? You see for SMS all you need to know is your friends mobile number. Then you are in contact. On Twitter I need to find the user to chat to. And that's not always easy when the majority of users use obscure usernames.

There are more mobile users today not using mobile Twitter if not Twitter at all than are using it. So that means no tweets for them.

But we need to remember. Twitter was not designed to be a SMS service. It was designed for micro blogging. Small messages that if another user found interesting he / she cod post a small comment back.

More and more I now see Twitter replacing IM. Even replacing email. Neither are ideal or welcome. Make a comment. Yes. Have some replies. Yes. But take the ongoing conversation away to email or something else better suited.

Tweet spam? It's comming. Oh yes, it's comming.

Tags: Tech Thoughts

Operating Systems

Firstly this isn't a tech blog. Honestly!

There's been a lot in the tech news recently about Google's announcement of their own operating system, called Chrome to confuse us all as it's the same name as their browser, to be released free of charge and open source.

My comment? Yawn.

I have a long history with computers. I started with home machines in the UK such as the ZX Spectrum, had an Amstrad CPC464 in the house, an Atari ST, a Commodore Amiga, various other PC-like devices before finally getting a 486 PC, Pentium 1, Pentium 2... the list is ridiculously long.

Today I have a Tablet PC at home on my desk as a plaything, a MacBook as my main laptop, a MSI Wind Hackintosh as my main day-to-day travel laptop, a Dell laptop supplied by my employer, an old desktop as a home server, an old desktop as our media center, an Asus laptop for my wife and 2 iPhone's.

So let's put that in to context, just taking my primary machines -

• 2 x Windows 7
• 2 x Apple Leopard
• 1 x Windows XP
• 1 x Linux
• 2 x Apple iPhone
• Various OS installations as virtual systems on the MacBook

What does this tell me? Firstly I spend too much money on tech! Secondly that the OS really isn't that important.

A bold statement. Let me explain.

I love my Apple gear and if I had to use only one manufactures kit then my choice is easy. However the choice of OS is not really what drives people today, as it hasn't for a long time now really. It's always been about what you want to do and how easy it is to do it.

So when us users needed access to MS Word, Excel etc. to be able to work on the move or from home we really needed a Windows device. Yes there are versions for Mac but they paled in comparison to the Windows versions.

Similar for design apps, photography apps, life style apps etc. There seemed to be one system that was 'better' (better meaning what you want it to mean - more choice, cheaper, better etc) and that was Windows. Not that Windows was the best system, just the most popular in sheer numbers and therefore the most supported.

Today though that has changed. Users still need to word process, spreadsheet and so on but equally important is that they need to twitter and Facebook and generally be sociable to strangers on the web. To do that you need an internet based device and a browser. As long as the device gets you to the web and the browser works well enough then the user experience on Windows 7, Vista, Leopard, Ubuntu etc. is close to being the same. Some may run a little faster. Some may render the screen a little differently. But 99.9% of what the user sees is the same.

And then we have devices like the iPhone and Palm Pre who offer great mobile browsers and optional mobile versions of web sites to give an either better web experience. On top of which are dedicated apps that make that experience even stronger.

I suggest that more so now then ever the operating system really doesn't matter to a large majority of users. My wife is a prime example - put her in front of a XP / Vista / Windows 7 / Leopard / Ubuntu machine, load the browser and she will work happily with no problems in Gmail, Facebook, Google Cal and various other cloud based sites.

I would even push on and state that if I told her that she could choose a device with a browser only giving her Gmail and Facebook, no Word or Excel but as a compromise she could have Google Docs then she would be ok. The choice of Word or Facebook is a no brainer to her.

Is she unusual? I suggest no. Her computing needs are fairly standard to the majority of non-professional and / or home users that I encounter.

Google Chrome does have three interesting features though -

1. It's going to be free. That will mean a drop in PC prices that opt for Chrome as the OS as there will be no license fees to Microsoft for a version of Windows;
2. It's designed for low spec machines. Netbooks are a big part of the future of computing for the next few years and an OS designed for such devices makes a lot of sense;
3. It's open source. We should see a steady curve of improvements and features that will be interesting to watch and try. But will we be allowed to install apps or is it web only? If so the 16gb flash based netbooks become very interesting (Chrome cannot be that big an install if it is only a browser, right?).

It's an interesting time in the user space of computing. Interesting to observe. Even more interesting to be a user of.

My Tech, Tech Thoughts

My Tech: iPhone 3GS

I posted a tweet on this but felt that it needed a bit more detail.

I have now owned or had come through my house five iPod / iPhone devices -

1. an older style iPod (5th gen I think);
2. an iPod Touch 16gb;
3. an iPod Nano (my wife's);
4. an iPhone 3G 16gb;
5. an iPhone 3GS 32gb.

That a lot of hardware that has cost me and my family a lot of money.

Ignoring the standard iPod's for a moment the Touch to iPhone upgrades that I have made have been on the back of wanting more: more connectivity, more memory, more functionality. That's not to say that the Touch wasn't a good device, it was. The introduction of OS 2 and the App Store gave it an amazing lease of life, showing what an amazing platform Apple was developing.

But unless I was near a wifi network it felt held back, like a car with only 3 gears. The apps only highlighted that even more so.

Equally the iPhone 3G is a great device, adding connectivity to the equation. The 3G element gave fast data to an already strong platform.

And now there is the iPhone 3GS, bringing a far better camera, video, more storage and a generally faster overall experience in main usage. This device cost me a small fortune but I never had a second thought about it.

So why do I feel the need to upgrade outside of the main added features? I realised the reason why only a few days ago. And it really surprised me. The iPhone covers 75% of my daily needs of the internet. And the iPhone excels -

• Twitter - I never expected to be addicted sending and reading tweets but I am. I have and continue to meet many interesting people who have interesting things to say. The iPhone has many Twitter apps that make using the service on the go a dream. Twittelator Pro is my favourite at the moment.
• Web - the iPhone's Safari browser is very impressive, allowing me to do almost everything that I want to do at any time. The only thing that it misses is a Flash implementation but I don't hit too many problems with that at the moment.
• Email - similar to the web usage, the in built web client is fine for my basic needs and OS 3 has added server side searching.
• IM - I never was much of an IM user but seem to have got in to it more and more over the last few months. With the push notifications that OS 3 introduced IM works just as well as text messaging. I use BeejiveIM.

When you consider where we were with mobile technology only a few years back it can be nothing short of amazing how far we have come in devices and expectations.

I love my iPhone. Apple have me well and truly hooked and I'm not complaining.

My Tech

Twitter test

A quick test to make sure this hits Twitter.