Thursday, January 17, 2013

App Stores In The Way

Tux, the Linux penguin
Tux, the Linux penguin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Bringing about the demise of the app store would be a welcome innovation. And with HTML5 the browser is at your service even when you are offline. But that is not to say Android can not swim into a HTML5 reality. Of course it can and will. Google is all about the web. But I am glad it is being pushed in that direction by the competition.

This development is a much bigger threat to Apple than to Google. If Apple loses the app store, what is it left with? Even the demand for iPhones - hardware - is on the decline. Lesson: Soviet control is not a good thing.

The phone will be lighter and correspondingly cheaper. That's good.

New Mobile OSs May Mean the End of the Closed App Store
Firefox OS from Mozilla, Tizen (which came out of Nokia’s MeeGo platform but is now the brainchild of Intel and Samsung), and Ubuntu Phone, based on the wildly popular Ubuntu desktop Linux distribution .... These operating systems are all open source, which means vendors can tinker with them as they see fit and create entirely unique offerings for their consumers. But what’s most important about them is that all will provide for HTML5 applications. Developers will have the ability to quickly port their apps between the platforms, creating a much easier path to revenue-generation. ..... Tizen, Firefox OS, and Ubuntu will attempt to eradicate that paper tiger of controls. The Web will become the basis by which all smartphone owners get their applications. And there won’t be a single entity that will ultimately decide the fate of a respective application. ..... Apple and Google, controllers of their domains, might need to accept that open Web standards truly are the future. And in the process, their control over mobile might ease. .... the Web could win the battle over application control.
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Swype's Language Innovations

Image representing Swype as depicted in CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBase
Fast typing is not just about keystrokes. It is also about language. It can be argued it is primarily about language. Voice input for text is quite a treat too. It is great for taking quick notes, to be corrected later, or not. A Gmail saved draft is easy to correct later on a laptop.

Smartphone Dictionaries Go Gangnam Style
may also eventually enable Swype to roll out customized dictionaries based on a user’s geographical region or occupation, and add support for smaller languages that are often ignored by technology companies. .... language varies tremendously from person to person and place to place, and it’s hard to keep up with constantly changing jargon and slang—not to mention doing so in many different languages. ..... Swype Living Language .... If Swype sees a critical mass of people adding a word or phrase—such as “MakerBot”—it will push that out to participating users ..... Swype is also trolling popular blogs and websites for new words that can also be added to its collection. This only goes so far, though, as terms like “Gangnam Style” can show up in users’ vernacular well before becoming popular in the media ...... noticed tens of thousands of appearances of the word “Lochte”—referring to Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte ..... very up-to-date dictionaries that include subjects trending in the world around us. .... new Living Language words will expire after six months unless they retain a certain amount of popularity .... A doctor might use one type of Swype dictionary, while a tech journalist would get another
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