iPhoneBuzz posts a video and images of the new functionality which is split into three categories. First, a web-page or web application can implement a local database which can store data directly on the device. Second, App Cache allows that same application to store its executable state directly on the device, which means that form processes being sent from a user’s “touch” can still be performed. Third, GeoLocation allows that particular application (while running in a browser) to securely access location based features while respecting privacy.

If after the video, the concept still seems blurry, just imagine being able to access data from Gmail while your iPhone is in airplane mode. With the implementation of these emerging standards, a developer can build and deploy an application that spans multiple devices and platforms. Just as long as they support these W3C open-web standards.

As we’ve explained, Apple’s intentions lie at the forefront of web technology and open-standards. They have long made it apparent that Adobe’s Flash is not needed, and have continued to invest in open technologies.

Back in January, we reported some information being relayed to us from sources inside AT&T. The term “wireless network caching” was being used to explain a potential way for iPhone users, and AT&T especially to open up a better solution for MMS. Not to be confused with local caching, which stores data on a particular device, AT&T’s potential “network caching” would utilize a cellular network to store data.

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Latitude is a new feature of Google Maps for mobile, as well as an iGoogle gadget, that allows you to share your location with your friends and to see their approximate locations, if they choose to share them with you. You can use your Google account to sign in and easily invite friends to Latitude from your existing list of contacts or by entering their email addresses. Google Talk is integrated with Latitude, so you and your friends can update your status messages and profile photos on the go and see what everyone is up to. You can also call, SMS, IM, or email each other within the app. Check out the video below to see Latitude in action.

Google states that they have been hard at work to get this on as many smartphones as possible right of the bat, to maximize the amount of initial users. There are two main ways to get your hands on Latitude as it stands right now. The first is to visit google.com/latitude on your mobile browser to download the appropriate maps. Currently Android, Blackberry, Symbian S60, and Windows Mobile are supported, yet should be made available on the iPhone shortly through the Google Mobile App, and can be accessed through a simple update.

The second way to get latitude would be to go to http://google.com/latitude from your desktop browser and add Latitude to your iGoogle homepage. If you have Google Gears or use Chrome, you can opt to automatically share your location from your desktop or notebook sans the smartphone.

As MacRumors first points out, Loopt is a service which attempts to provide a very similar service as Google’s Latitude. Apple proudly let one of the representatives from Loopt come up and give a demonstration at WWDC 2008. The fact of the matter is however, that Loopt should not feel so great with something like Latitude headed for the iPhone.

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While previous versions of iPhone Firmware 2.2 (Beta 1) hinted at Google Street View support, it had not been enabled.

Adversely, the first official phone running Android, T-Mobile’s G1 with Google, has support for full Google Street View as well. This functionality being added to the iPhone is not a surprise, seeing as how the native mapping application on the iPhone is powered by Google’s mapping back-end.

Apple has begun seeding iPhone 2.2 Firmware Beta 2 to developers tonight.

Update: A gallery can be found here. Thanx to iPhoneYap.

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The kind folks at Medialets have provided a multitude of observations and comparisons between the opening days of Apple’s App Store and the Android Market. They report three major similarities between users of both platforms, including:

• They like to play games, shop, and know what music they are listening to,
• They are curious about the weather, and
• They generally share the same interests as iPhone users

In the first 24 hours of launch, 62 free applications were made available to Android users. Upon opening day of the App Store, users were privy to more than 10 times the amount of applications, both free and paid. While thus far only free applications are available for Android users, paid apps will be made available in the first quarter of 2009.

Medialets notes that the Android Market is providing some level of detail pertaining to the amount of downloads per application, which is information that the App Store did not make readily available to the public. Yet instead of displaying exact amounts of downloads, they show different ranges that a given application may lie within. For example, the smallest range observed consisted of applications that had been downloaded between 100-500 times. Inversely the largest range of downloads fit applications into a range of 10,000-50,000. With the information provided, Medialets has determined that roughly 206,000-770,000 downloads had taken place in the first day of launch. While there a a rather large discrepancy here, we can see that the average is around 7,850 downloads per application.

The second observation made was that 9 of the 62 initial applications had made it to the highest echelon, landing in the 10,000-50,000 download range. In the early ours of the App Store launch, Apple’s download data had showed only two applications, Apple’s Remote and AOL’s AIM, to crack the 10,000 downloads mark.

The last observation that Medialets has asserted is the fact that both Android and App Store users appear to have similar tastes in the types of applications that had been downloaded. While this could certainly point to the fact that users of both platforms have similar interests, it may also indicate that Android developers may hold interest in developing applications that are similar to those with proven success in the App Store. The graph below represents normalized names of categories and displays the similarities between the frequency of downloads.

In some respects it is difficult to compare the two, as the Android Market had far less to offer, yet these findings do show numerous instances of similarity. Apple had reported 10 million application downloads from the App Store within the first 72 hours of launch. While the future of the Android Market may still be up in the air, I don’t think we will be seeing the success, at least in shear volume, that the App Store has managed to accomplish.

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Noted for being the first mobile device powered by Google’s Android platform, T-Mobile began offering the G1 manufactured by HTC at San Francisco’s Market Street outlet Tuesday evening. The anticipation was met with a line of around 150 people, eager to be among the first to own the device.

Christopher Laddish, the first consumer to purchase the G1 stated “I was sold on it without even having to pick it up.” Not only was he the first to own the device, but was given a t-shirt by T-Mobile that read “I was the first to get it.” Now if that doesn’t make a mother feel proud, I’m not sure what will. Laddish went on to note that his contract with Verizon had recently ended and decided on getting the G1 because he appreciates both HTC and Google products.

Close in price to the iPhone 3G, the G1 rings in at $180 coupled with a two year contract, or $400 unsubsidized. It sports a 3.2-inch touchscreen display and boasts a QWERTY keyboard, a feature that many iPhone owners have lusted for since the device’s inception.

Another eager customer waiting in line, Chijioke Amah, stated, “I’ve been reading a lot about the phone for the last couple of weeks and I’m not really a big fan of the iPhone touch screen…That’s probably what made me not that interested in the iPhone. When I heard T-Mobile was going to have the Google phone with a keyboard, that’s what got my attention.”

Yet what impact will the device truly have in the smartphone market? Yesterday’s conference call on Apple’s Q4 earnings showed the significant growth of the iPhone 3G and its ever expanding stronghold. As we have recently been made aware, Apple has managed to overtake RIM in revenue, a feat of epic proportions for only being around for a mere 15 months. Whether or not the reported figures will sustain in the long run is just something that we will have to see in the future. While predominant analysts believe the G1 will not hinder iPhone sales, it will be interesting to see what effect the G1 will really have.

[MacWorld]

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Google has partnered with T-mobile to release the first official device running Android. The device has been dubbed the “T-Mobile G1 with Google,” and some early reviews have begun to appear. In a nutshell, it seems that the Android OS as a whole is being coddled by many. The best review I’ve read is here, mainly because the author is able to approach the device from a non-biased perspective, putting aside the open-source and linux devotion to Android, while reviewing the device in the honest light it deserves.

Google is a major player in the push to cloud computing as well as being devote open-source advocates. Aside from my personal beliefs as to where mobile and cloud computing should lie, Google has clearly been at the forefront of innovation on this end.

No doubt Android has a lot riding on its shoulders. The entire mobile market has been demanding an alternative to the disaster that is Windows Mobile for many years now. Apple came along with the iPhone and the iPhone SDK, but it’s still not an entirely open development platform. With Android, Google is hoping that they can change everything, such as they did with Gmail and search. Google is aiming to bring open development to a mobile platform worthy of competing against Apple and the iPhone. However, Android, as the information explains, is simply not ready, and unless you “aren’t a stickler for User Interface quirks” and “don’t mind the pesky nonsense” you should love it. Oh yeah, it’s being recommended for “people who like tinkering” as well.

The problem is, Android is being coddled. As if it’s a newborn baby and the community is holding it with white gloves, moving ever so slowly being careful not to disrupt it. That’s not how technology should be reviewed, and if Apple were to release something in the shape Android is in, you can bet the reviews wouldn’t contain little elements of “hehe, it’s pretty cool” in them.

If Apple were to release an interface as inconsistent as Android’s, or with as many disruptive elements throughout the operating system, the community would lash back with furious rage and angry letters to Steve Jobs. With Android, consumers are being told that a lack of major features, or poor performance is “part of the early experience” and you should “enjoy tinkering with the different settings.” The G1 can’t render full email attachments such as PDF’s, it’ll only show you the mucked up Google version of each attachment. But this is being looked at as “part of the early experience.” Even when comparing the G1’s Youtube app, many are saying that it simply “holds its own” against the iPhone, and the “similarity is inspiring.”

Apple and the iPhone have set the bar extremely high, especially with user experience. The openness and potential for a massive developer community behind Android, may not be enough to outweigh the enormous brain-trust that is the Apple development team and the phenomenon that is the App Store. Instead of treating Google’s Android like a free trial, the industry should be pushing Google to innovate like they never have before. This way, the inevitable competition so many are craving to see in the mobile market place, will actually cultivate the most advanced and seamless end user experience anyone has ever seen. Whether it come from Apple or Google doesn’t matter, how it translates to the consumer market is what counts.

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The application uses the Digital Audio Protocol (DACP), which was recently introduced by Apple and built into all recent iTunes versions. DACP is the actual protocol used by the Remote app on the iPhone and iPod touch.

According to Sharkey, “With the protocol now reverse engineered, I wrote an Android client in about a week. Now you can remote control your iTunes from your new Android phone when it arrives later this year. This works out of the box without installing any extra software on your PC or Mac… Also, the full source has been released under a GPLv3 license, and you can grab it from Subversion on Google Code.” Apple’s iTunes Remote application is protected by a few patents that Apple could be aggressively protecting, so we don’t know all the rights that the open source world has when developing applications such as these. Whether Apple turns the tables on Android’s development communit, remains to be seen.

[9to5Mac]

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In a recent report Munster noted that the release of the G1 is merely a progressional change in the mobile market stating that “when Apple comes out with a product, they try to hit homeruns, but Google’s Android strategy is swinging for base hits,” further adding that the Android platform “will have little or no impact on near-term iPhone sales.”

While the iPhone has had a leg up over Android with its significant head start, the open-source platform may contribute to the addition of a wider range of carriers. Additionally the G1 touts a physical keyboard, a feature that many prefer over the iPhone’s touch based keyboard.

Munster also adds that Android may soon offer developers more freedom to distribute applications. One area of recent discussion has been if developers are allowed to integrate with the newly formed Amazon MP3 music store and player, we could be seeing some very unique and innovative applications in the near future.

The G1 is at a significant disadvantage for business users, as it lacks support for Microsoft Exchange. This could potentially hinder sales to this demographic, while Apple has made an exceptional effort to attract these users.

Overall, Munster maintains that both Apple and Google are at the head of the mobility game, making it difficult to pick one true winner. He does insist, however, that the G1 will not have an adverse affect on iPhone sales and has kept a buy rating on Apple stock throughout it all.

[via CultOfMac]

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Users will now have the ability to search, preview and purchase music from Amazon’s MP3 store, in similar iTunes fashion, via the device’s WiFi connection. While iTunes remains a dominating force in this market, it would seem nearly impossible launch a brand new music store in this sector. Yet Amazon’s 100% DRM-free stance, may begin to pose a forthcoming threat, which had led Google to decide that it would be far easier to integrate with Amazon rather than single-handedly take on such an endeavor.

“Amazon wants to make it easy for customers to discover, buy, and play their music wherever they happen to be — whether sitting at their computer or on the go,” stated Amazon digital music and video president Bill Carr. “We look forward to the release of the T-Mobile G1, which will put Amazon MP3’s vast selection of low-priced DRM-free music at the fingertips of even more customers in more places.”

While the mobile iTunes Store remains offline until connected to WiFi, users of this new music store will have the ability to queue purchases from even an EDGE network that can later be download via WiFi. This presents an interesting advantage over using iTunes on the go. Additionally, Apple does not allow developers to access the iPod application on the iPhone, leaving them relatively locked out of developing new and intuitive music applications. If Google does allow developers access to design applications that integrate with the new music store and player, Android powered devices may soon present music related advantages over the iPhone.

“For example, picture a mash-up of Shazam, GPS, timestamp and the camera that identifies songs you’ve identified and matches them with pictures taken in a similar time or place with the ability to buy any 30-second samples of unpurchased songs that are in the slideshow and other ideas along those lines.”

While the G1 is no where near mature enough to begin to out perform the iPhone, the Android platform seems to be taking necessary steps in the right direction.

[via Wired]

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Google released their very own web browser this week, “Chrome“. Initial reaction has been positive and Google’s stance on cloud computing has become more apparent. Everyone from the NY Times to Google’s own co-founder Sergey Brin have called Operating Systems bulky, and old-fashioned.

Cloud computing is being pushed like never before. Google with Chrome is taking a very large stance on where they think the future of computing will lie. However, many problems still lie at the core of cloud computing. One main concern is sufficient internet bandwidth and speeds. The end goal behind cloud computing is to shift your personal data from your computer’s hard drive, to a server (cloud) in the internet, and “set you free from your desktop.” Same goes for your applications, instead of opening up “Photoshop” or “Aperture” on your computer’s hard drive, you’d open up a browser (like Chrome), and do your work via an internet connection and a rich web-based application.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin said Chrome was designed to address the shift to using software from within a Web browser rather than as locally installed computer applications running inside Microsoft Windows or some other operating system.”I think operating systems are kind of an old way to think of the world,” Brin told a group of reporters after the news conference at Google’s Mountain View, California headquarters. “They have become kind of bulky, they have to do lots and lots of different (legacy) things.” (via Reuters)
“We (Web users) want a very lightweight, fast engine for running applications,” Brin said.
“The kind of things you want to have running standalone (on a computer) are shrinking,” he said, adding that he still edits photos on his computer rather than using a Web program.

But what about Snow Leopard? Apple’s refined version of Mac OS X Leopard. By dramatically fine-tuning the code in OS X, enhancing stability and speed and paving the way for the next generation of processors, Apple is laying the groundwork for the next generation of OS X. Is it just me, or is Steve Jobs’ fundamental principal of controlling the “whole widget” making a lot of sense right now.

Taking a break from adding new features, Snow Leopard — scheduled to ship in about a year — builds on Leopard’s enormous innovations by delivering a new generation of core software technologies that will streamline Mac OS X, enhance its performance, and set new standards for quality. Snow Leopard dramatically reduces the footprint of Mac OS X, making it even more efficient for users, and giving them back valuable hard drive space for their music and photos.

When Google unveiled Android, its open source mobile operating system, the entire industry was in a buzz. Everyone was talking and writing how Android could be the one and only thing that stood up to the iPhone. But weeks later, the truth about Google’s development platform trickled in, and it wasn’t very positive. Through all of it, Apple’s iPhone OS remains the holy grail of mobile operating systems, and developers still widely choose the iPhone OS over Android. Google has even taken it a step further by releasing an Apple App Store like, Android Market.

What if the same happens with Chrome, and Google’s entire prediction in cloud computing? Well, Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ “whole widget” idea of controlling the hardware and the operating system, and developing everything in house, will once again remain the most rich, robust and enriching user experience available.

It’s going to be rather difficult for major purveyors of cloud computing (Google in particular with Chrome) to compete with the speed, richness and robust user experience desktop applications deliver. Yes, Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin said that he would rather edit his photos in an internet application, but what if you’re traveling? What if you don’t have access to the internet? Google Gears won’t always cut it. Or what if Comcast limits your monthly internet usage? How are users supposed to access their data? What if the service which they’re using goes down for a few hours in the middle of a key presentation? There’s no way to guarantee 100% up-time in any technology environment, that’s why nobody does. 99% up-time seems to be the number that companies and internet hosts like to boast, but never 100.

Google’s Operating System Software Bundle

Henry Blodget from Silicon Alley Insider explains that “In a couple of years, you won’t be downloading Google’s “browser.” You’ll be downloading “Google’s software” (or, rather, you’ll be clicking on a series of Google icons that come pre-installed). Specifically, you’ll be working within a Google software environment that works sort of like Windows that will include: Browser, Google Gears (offline and online apps, including email, messaging, chat, etc.), Google desktop search, Google Earth, Open source development platform.”

This type of environment seems very promising, but very technically limiting at the same time. If Google is to sell its “software-bundles” to companies like Apple and Microsoft so that they can prepackage them in their operating system, then true competitors like Internet Explorer and Apple’s Safari would be nearly irrelevant. Can you imagine Apple ever distributing OS X without Safari pre-installed? Yeah, me neither. Saying that Microsoft won’t play along is a different story, however it seems unlikely that a company with 74% of the web browser market would do anything to sacrifice its already vulnerable state.

In order for a major change in the way we work to take place, Google would not only need to execute the process well, they would need to dramatically enhance the stability of the entire web’s infrastructure. Some analysts say that the stability of our internet infrastructure, globally, will peek around 2012, and by then, we should seriously be rethinking how to rebuild the underlying framework of the world wide web.

The idea that computing on an everyday basis, could become a seamless series of commands between me and a web server sounds great, however it doesn’t sound like a better user experience than what I currently have. It sounds like more load bars, more refreshing, more restarting, more crashing, more updates, and a downright unnatural ability to store even your most sensitive data, somewhere on the internet. Even the most trusted of companies, like Google, or Apple, cannot guarantee 100% security and access to your data 100% of the time.

Our data, should remain our data, and our operating systems should remain locally installed within our hard drives. Releasing a new web browser may be a universal way for Google to increase its market share and draw attention to open source development. Especially within the recent tailspin of negative press about Android.

Large, processor demanding applications like Adobe’s After Effects, Apple’s Final Cut, and Maya to name a few, will never be able to run in the cloud. The ratio between current run rates and the technology offered to consumers puts the maximum amount of stress on the most powerful of desktop machines. In order for their to ever be a true paradigm shift from desktop computing to cloud computing, the internet needs to be a much more reliable, and secure environment.

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