I don’t like the word process

The fun part working for a carrier is that you sometimes get to touch the new stuff before it is introduced to the market.

At the moment I’m carrying a Samsung Galaxy Nexus as my primary device. It’s a cool gadget, maybe on par with the iPhone. But that’s not what I want to talk about today.

The Samsung phone showed me with brutal honesty how settled I am in the iOS ecosystem. The established processes makes it harder to switch sides.

Let me give you one example.

I listen to a lot of music on the go & everywhere. So I’m eager to get the relevant music from my large music library to my little companion (iPhone 4S). On the one hand I want my favorite songs, on the other hand I want to discover new music to my liking.

That’s where the old fellow iTunes comes in. Since Version 3 you can create Smart Playlists (they update automatically based on selected criterias).

For my purpose, I build two lists which accompany each other:

The playlist “Fresh” displays all songs that have been added to my iTunes in the last 3 weeks, that I haven’t listened to.

The second one, named “Hot Right Now”, lists the songs that I’m currently listening to a lot, means they’re my favs right now.

The only thing left for the setup is to select the playlists to sync with my phone:

I also include the Genius Mix “Indie Rock” made by iTunes and tick the box “Automatically fill free space with songs”. From my experience the last option gives you the songs that have the highest playcount in the library.

Of course one can tweak the parameters to their satisfaction, but I accomplished my goal: Everytime I sync with iTunes I get the music I like best, mixed with a bunch of new stuff I haven’t heard before, always maxing out the storage capacity, automatically.

Now show me the Android way of doing this task. (There is none.)

And that from the guy who told you 15 months ago how to stay iTunes free. Oh, irony.

[Update]

I recently re-discovered the iTunes alternative doubleTwist. It should be noted that doubleTwist offers the import of existing iTunes playlists (inlcuding Smart ones) and can sync with Android devices.

The Android Wishlist Phone

Hey you, Android vendors. Since you are all clearly experimenting with your Google phones at the moment, why don’t you cherry-pick the things I’d like to see in a compelling iPhone rival?

To make my point clear: We are definetly not in a feature race in the smartphone space, I stated that before. But the ingredients listed below could be used to make me forget the great iOS ecosystem. [1]

Hardware

  • The Casing could be thin and with Kevlar on the backside (as seen in the Motorola Droid Razr).
  • I’m still not sure about the right screen size. 4.65” seems bloated, on the other hand 3.5” in the meantime seems a bit too small. [2] For the moment I’ll settle with the 4.0” display (1280x720 pixel) seen in the Sharp AQUOS Phone 104SH. [3]
  • Actually I don’t care about the underlying processor power or RAM - just make the experience smooth. It seems not that easy, so throw in all you can. Maybe a 1,5 GHz OMAP Dual Core-Prozessor with 1 GB RAM will do the job (as seen in the HTC Vigor).
  • Include a publicity astonishing camera, like the 13.2 Megapixel CMOS Lumix sensor (as seen in the Panasonic LUMIX Phone 101P), completed with a 2 Megapixel Frontcamera (as seen in the LG Optimus Black).
  • More nice to have hardware additions: HDMI Output and 1930mAh battery (as seen in the Motorola Droid Bionic) / Waterproof body, DLNA support, Digital TV Tuner and NFC (as seen in the Sharp AQUOS Phone 102SH)

Software

Furthermore, some really simple rules:

  • Release at most 2 hardware updates per year. I don’t want to see minor speed bumps or other versions of my phone the week after I bought it.
  • Spilling a name like “Galaxy” over the whole line-up, will just weaken the customer perception of the brand.
  • Support your old hardware with the newest software at least for the common time of a contract, which is where I come from not less than 2 years. (How it’s not to be done)
  • Let me buy an unlocked version without a carrier contract, even if the phone itself will cost xxx freakin’ dollars.

[1] Also it’s clear that many of the features contradict each other, mostly in regard to battery life.

[2] I’m aware of the argument that you need to reach every corner on the screen with your thumb. But let’s be honest, bigger is better while gaming or entertainment activities, like watching a movie. And now ask yourself what you do with your smartphone all the time.

[3] Sadly, not one Android phone that is available in the western hemisphere does offer the same pixel density as the 17 months old iPhone 4. And it makes you wonder why only Japanese people get the good stuff.

[4] I’m not sure about the legal situation. But since Google seems to be ok with Bing as the default search, I think other App Stores and the Google Android Market could coexist. Perhaps Amazon or Sony give you a couple of bucks to encourage the integration.

As most viewers of Apple’s “Let’s talk iPhone” event I was disappointed immediately after. But then I asked myself the question what Apple should have done to appease me or the masses. I can’t think of a damn single thing. [1] Or did you really expect that Apple’s Voice Control goes way beyond what we know from Android? Oh wait, perhaps it does. I was working on Voice-to-Text technology and I can tell you what Forstall did on the stage was pretty amazing. In fact, Siri is the dream of the Semantic Web, which was dubbed “Web 3.0” a decade ago. It remains to be seen if people change their behaviours and use voice as an input method, though. Or do you think a smartphone camera can ever replace your DSLR? Maybe not, but you can clearly see how Apple does everything possible to get the best camera experience with this form factor. Look at these (hopefully untouched) photographs and tell me you expected more from the iPhone 5. [2]   Once more, this is how Apple rolls. Small, incremental improvements, instead of dramatic revolutions. Secondly, hardware specs alone isn’t what’s important anymore. Services, and their integration with hardware is the new real deal. [Update] Read similiar lines from Dan Frommer. For users, this is still the best phone that money can buy. [1] LTE is too laughable to even discuss here. We’ll talk again when TelCo’s made their promises happen. Same goes (in a smaller degree) for NFC.One area - where improvements would be very welcome - is the battery life. On the other hand the iPhone already rules the smartphone competition. [2] What I really don’t get is the naming. I understood it with the 3GS, but now? I thought Apple stands for simple and clear product titles. Now consumers are waiting for the “real” next iteration, the iPhone 5.
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As most viewers of Apple’s “Let’s talk iPhone” event I was disappointed immediately after.

But then I asked myself the question what Apple should have done to appease me or the masses. I can’t think of a damn single thing. [1]

Or did you really expect that Apple’s Voice Control goes way beyond what we know from Android? Oh wait, perhaps it does. I was working on Voice-to-Text technology and I can tell you what Forstall did on the stage was pretty amazing. In fact, Siri is the dream of the Semantic Web, which was dubbed “Web 3.0” a decade ago. It remains to be seen if people change their behaviours and use voice as an input method, though.

Or do you think a smartphone camera can ever replace your DSLR? Maybe not, but you can clearly see how Apple does everything possible to get the best camera experience with this form factor. Look at these (hopefully untouched) photographs and tell me you expected more from the iPhone 5. [2]  

Once more, this is how Apple rolls. Small, incremental improvements, instead of dramatic revolutions. Secondly, hardware specs alone isn’t what’s important anymore. Services, and their integration with hardware is the new real deal.

[Update] Read similiar lines from Dan Frommer.

For users, this is still the best phone that money can buy.

[1] LTE is too laughable to even discuss here. We’ll talk again when TelCo’s made their promises happen. Same goes (in a smaller degree) for NFC.
One area - where improvements would be very welcome - is the battery life. On the other hand the iPhone already rules the smartphone competition.

[2] What I really don’t get is the naming. I understood it with the 3GS, but now? I thought Apple stands for simple and clear product titles. Now consumers are waiting for the “real” next iteration, the iPhone 5.