Some of us have been using Google Voice (GV) for the last few months and loving it! All the while, the GrandCentral service – the precursor to GV – was still alive and well. Today, however, GrandCentral account holders began receiving emails informing them that the service will be closing its doors December 31, 2009. To us this means Google thinks enough GrandCentral users have migrated to Google Voice that it can safely wind down the old service. Here’s the full email from GrandCentral:
Dear GrandCentral User (alexluft16):
We’re writing to let you know that we will be closing down the GrandCentral website as of December 31, 2009.
All GrandCentral accounts were upgraded to Google Voice earlier this year, but since that time, you’ve still been able to log-in to your GrandCentral account and listen to old messages there. You will no longer be able to log-in to your GrandCentral account after December 31. Because of this, we strongly suggest downloading any messages or contacts that you want to keep in the next 43 days.
We will send you another reminder before closing down the site, but we suggest you take action now to download any information you want to keep.
- The Google Voice Team
For anyone who needs invites to Google Voice, we have a few left – so please leave a comment and we’ll send them out on a first-comment-first-served basis.
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Breaking,
Google,
Voice,
Web
The latest development channel release of Google Chrome contains the ability to sync the browser’s bookmarks. The feature will let you keep the same set of bookmarks on multiple machines as well as store them in your Google Docs. Interestingly enough, Google already has a web-based bookmark service that goes by the name of Google Bookmarks. I wonder whether the plan is to eventually use Google Bookmarks as the back-end sync destination instead of Docs (a much better fit, wouldn’t you say?). If that is the strategy, then it is my opinion that we should get ready for a huge overhaul to the Google Bookmarks service. Read more »
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Bookmarks,
Chrome,
Cloud Computing,
Featured,
Google,
Strategy
This was to be expected: Google CEO Eric Schmidt has resigned from Apple’s board today, citing a conflict of interest. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest.”
For quite some time, Apple and Google have been serving the same markets:
- Web-based email, calendaring, and contact lists: Apple’s MobileMe and Google’s Gmail/Calendar/Contacts
- Cellular phones: Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android
- Browsers: Apple Safari, Google Chrome
- Productivity applications: Apple’s iWork online and Google’s Docs
- Most recently, Google has announced that it will enter the desktop OS space with Chrome OS, which would compete head-on with the Mac OS
When initial whispers regarding the effectiveness of Mr. Schmidt on Apple’s board began to spread, many analysts pointed out that even though the two companies compete in many spaces, they have different business models for the aforementioned products: Apple charges a premium price while Google either gives its products and services away for free or doesn’t charge an OEM a fee for a license (in the case of Android and Chrome OS). As I’ve stated on our daily bit podcast before, this argument holds no merit: different business models or not, most consumers will end up purchasing only one of the above products/services – either an iPhone or a Google Android-based device. That is, unless the consumer has unlimited amounts of resources (read: money) – in which case the simple rules of economics no longer apply. The same goes for the rest of the markets in which the two companies have overlapping products/services. Now that any conflicts of interest are out of the way, I see the two companies becoming more competitive, especially in the following areas:
- Mobility: enhanced multitouch support on Google Android-based devices should more closely compete with the iPhone
- Productivity: Apple’s iWork online suite being made available as a standalone product to directly compete with Google Docs
- Operating Systems: Google’s Chrome OS not withholding any punches versus Mac OS X
Yet one has to wonder what words were exchanged between Jobs and Schmidt when Apple booted all Google Voice-related apps from its App Store last week. Would that alone have been a reason for Schmidt to step down as Apple board member? Most likely, not. But it must have played a role in his overall decision. Full press release after the break, if you’re interested: Read more »
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Apple,
Business,
Decisions,
Eric Schmidt,
Ethics,
Featured,
Google,
Industry News,
People,
Steve Jobs
Ever since its initial release in 2007, the iPhone – along with its sibling, the iPod Touch – have shipped with a YouTube app. The sole reason for this app’s existence is because the iPhone isn’t capable of displaying Flash content. That much we already know. Yet with such prominent support for YouTube, I’m surprised that competing video sharing sites aren’t protesting with the words “monopoly, monopoly, monopoly.” Yes, I believe that Apple and YouTube’s parent company, Google, are behaving in a monopolistic fashion when it comes to video on the iPhone.
Flash – the background
Lets set some facts straight first: Flash is the format used to stream video content and display hyper-dynamic websites, among other things. Used by YouTube, Vimeo, Mevio, Hulu, Cnet, Ustream, Justin.TV, and countless other video websites, Flash is the most prevalent video delivery method on the web by a far cry. The only exception to the previous examples is Apple: it uses the beloved H.264 standard to deliver videos on its own website. But what’s important to note here is that Adobe has been trying, time in time again, to get Flash on the iPhone, all to no avail: Apple has had multiple excuses as to why Flash on the iPhone can’t be a reality. The company has cited battery life and a lack in processing power as the two major items that prevent Flash from being available on the device.
Competing mobile operating systems such as Nokia’s Symbian OS, Google’s Android, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, and Palm’s WebOS, have all either announced support for, or have already delivered devices that are capable of running the Flash Player. Today, the only Flash hold-outs are the Apple’s iPhone/iPod Touch and RIM’s Blackberry line. Given these facts, the effects of not being able to play back Flash on the iPhone are quite surprising, and even scary!
Streaming Video on the iPhone Read more »
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Apple,
Featured,
Google,
YouTube,
iPhone
Sometime late last evening, Microsoft launched its latest addition to its Bing decision engine. Dubbed Bing Tweets, the new destination is a mash up of real-time Twitter search with Bing web results (something Microsoft apparently calls Bing Insights). Interestingly, the site is a second series of partnerships between Microsoft and Federated Media – the first being ExecTweets. And while there is a plethora of real-time search engines cropping up (seemingly left and right nowadays), Bing Tweets may be that one place that takes real-time search mainstream.
Bing Tweets is described as combining “Twitter trends with Bing search results, enabling you to see deeper, real-time information about the hottest topics on Twitter. You can also search for anything in the BingTweets search box (at the top right of every page) and see Bing search results alongside the most recent related tweets.”
Read more »
Posted in
Bing,
Business,
Google,
Marketing,
Microsoft
Google Maps is awesome. Google Maps with Street View is even better. Just think of all the interesting things you can find with it: intoxicated men, topless sunbathers, a man climbing over a fence to (possibly) to break into a house, UFO-look-alikes, as well as offensively ugly vehicles. Most recently, there have been numerous complaints about the web-based mapping application that relate to privacy: Google Street View has been capturing hanging laundry in Japan’s backyards and – on occasion – not blurring vehicle license plates. Read more »
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Google,
Maps,
Privacy
Google Docs now supports uploading of documents in Microsoft’s most recent file format: the XML-based .docx and .xlsx that comes with Office 2007 (Windows) and 2008 (Mac). This means that whenever someone sends you a Microosft Office Word document or an Excel spreadsheet with a file extension that ends with .x, you no longer have to convert it to a .doc or a .xls format just to upload it to Google Docs. This also continues down the path of further removing the barriers of using Google Docs as one’s primary document-editing suite/repository.
No word yet on when Google’s online office suite will support .pptx files for PowerPoint presentations encoded in the XML goodness.
Posted in
Cloud Computing,
Google,
Web apps
To all those who have been patiently awaiting the day when it would be easy to switch to Gmail and migrate your mail and contacts from your old mail provider, your time has come! A post on the Google Operating System blog reports that users of other popular email services such as AOL, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, and other mail services provided by ISPs will soon be able to switch to Gmail and take their emails and contacts with them; in other words, they will soon have the option to have their cake and eat it, too! Read more »
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Google
Computer-based calendaring: the background
Today’s calendaring applications help us coordinate our work (and play) time. For some time, calendaring was something we did on a desktop-computer basis. These “high-tech” solutions, as some would describe them, offered many benefits over traditional paper-and-pen calendaring and planning solutions. The most significant of these benefits was (and still is) the act of making changes to a schedule: no longer does the user have to erase/white-out/cross-out a changed event and re-write it somewhere else. By using computer-based calendars, all the user needs to do is drag the re-scheduled event to its new location in the calendar. Yet these early solutions offered little (if anything) in terms of sharing your schedule with co-workers, family, or friends. Read on to find out how digital calendaring can help us and what changes need to happen in order for it to improve. Read more »
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Apple,
Calendaring,
Cloud Computing,
Featured,
Google,
Microsoft,
MobileMe,
Synchronization,
iPhone
These days, it seems like Microsoft’s business is getting attacked from every angle. What’s most interesting, however, is that the software giant is being challenged the most in those areas that it holds a significant share of the market. From the Mac going after Windows on the desktop, iPhone gunning for (and surpassing by years end?) Windows Mobile devices, Linux infiltrating the server market, and OpenOffice along with Google docs chipping away at the all-mighty Microsoft Office – the big M has many companies to pay attention to these days. As of late, Microsoft has been so busy saying goodbye to Bill Gates chasing its competition, it forgot to show up to a scheduled fight with one of its most feared closest rivals.
“Exchange for the rest of us”:
Let’s see what Microsoft’s identifiable markets are: home users, business users, corporate customers. In an interview on Windows Weekly a few months ago, a Microsoft executive in the online Live division explained how the company sees corporate users also as home users who want to enjoy their computers and have fun with them when not at work (my paraphrase). He noted that it was Microsoft’s goal with Live to unify the experiences of such users. That’s great and all, but just tell me one thing: how does a tech company that has been (incorrectly) relegated by the media to be the best choice for “home users” beat you in making “Exchange for the rest of us”, when Exchange is your own (Microsoft’s) product? It’s so embarrassing that it overshadows Windows Me (the biggest flop to leave Microsoft labs).
Just in case you have been living under a rock for the last few months, that company with the “home user” target market goes by the name of Apple, Inc. You know, the company who is known for turning certain industries upside down and re-inventing the business processes within them. Apple announced MobileMe on June 9, 2008 and dubbed it “Exchange for the rest of us”. That “exchange” reference, as mentioned earlier, is alluding to Microsoft Exchange – a corporate/large-business email and PIM tool/service. MobileMe basically does Exchange but for the consumer – on a personal subscription level. Herein lies the question: how does Apple, a company so focused on the “home user”, roll out something Microsoft should have been selling for the last five years?
You see, somewhere along the lines of Xbox breakdowns, Vista problems/negative PR, and chasing after copying Apple with Zune, Microsoft completely missed the boat. For a nominal fee to the user, Microsoft should have created “Exchange Hotmail”: a paid-for part of Hotmail that “brings your data with you at the speed of *push*” (my marketing tagline). It should have been the scaled down, personal version of Exchange that integrated with Hotmail/Live mail in the cloud, integrated with an Exchange-compatible mobile client, and pushed out to Outlook/Windows Live Mail on the desktop. It would do push email, calendar, and contacts the way Exchange does it, only Joe User would be able to sign up for it himself. But it wasn’t to be. Apple brought it first because Microsoft was too busy defending its “server plays”. Most likely, the big M felt that introducing a personal version of Exchange tied to Hotmail would in some way enroach on its own user base of corporate Exchange users. But that’s just a load of bollocks, since the two markets using Exchange enterprise and my proposed Exchange Hotmail would be different (a corporation would still run an Exchange server for company-wide email and Joe the employee would simply subscribe to Exchange Hotmail for personal use).
On second thought, the company did roll out a scaled down version of its server product for home users dubbed Windows Home server. Why could it not have applied the same type of thinking to an email and PIM system? After all, the new Microsoft is all about software plus services (as described in the linked memo by new Microsoft chief Ray Ozzie). Exchange Hotmail would have been a perfect play for Microsoft. So in the end, Microsoft is left with a very popular online mail solution (Hotmail) yet has not made a significant effort to monetize it. Apple, on the other hand, has beaten Microsoft at their own game and has brought out a kick-butt web service and, along the process, used Microsoft’s “Exchange” moniker in its description – almost as a mokery.
On triple thought, what has Microsoft really done to Hotmail and its consumer online services lately? Sure, they have copied Yahoo! and made Hotmail “drag-and-drop”. But what Apple is really great at doing is making an end-to-end solution, as the comapny has done with iPhone and MobileMe. The latter is the perfect complement for the iPhone user. Microsoft hasn’t seen the light at the end of this tunnel, and the jury is still out to see if it ever will.
P.S. Throughout the article, I put “home user” in quotation marks because for years it has been thought that “home use” was the best use of Apple Macs. Though this opinion is beginning to change rather quickly – and as it should – many uninformed tech journalists, “experts”, and those in tech media still wrongly believe this to be the case.
Posted in
Apple,
Business,
Cloud Computing,
Companies,
Decisions,
Google,
Marketing,
Microsoft,
MobileMe,
Software
