The Nexus One is another smart phone that we will inevitably see inside the walls of the enterprise. Smart phones seem to have a way of being used for all kinds of work activities. So, what are the pros and cons of using the Nexus One in the enterprise? First off, anyone using the Nexus One in the enterprise will be using a rogue device. That's just the way it is. Perhaps that may change when the enterprise wakes up and realizes that people born after 1982 want to use any device to connect in any way they want. But that's the future, unfortunately. In the meantime, let's look at reality. Sponsor Compliance The Nexus One was not built as a device that meets compliance requirements. As with almost any device, compliance is a reality in the enterprise world. We doubt, though, this will stop most users. You Can Make it Compliant Dan Dearing of Trust Digital has a few points of advice for the IT manager with the foresight to deal proactively with the inevitability that the Nexus One will become his or her problem to solve: Make sure that the device can be locked and swiped of its data if a user loses their Nexus One. Make sure Exchange ActiveSync is installed on the device so permissions for accessing data can be set up according to the policy set by the enterprise. Provide the ability to configure the device to remotely provision application clients and device interfaces used to reach the application source (e.g. Wi-Fi, VPN). Allow for PKI support that allows Android devices to receive and ingest digital certificates. The use of certificates helps automate connectivity to enterprise applications via Wi-Fi, VPN and web by making authentication transparent to users. It's Not an iPhone The iPhone has tight security features baked into it, and hardware encryption, too. Applications are tightly controlled with a centralized point for distributing applications. This may prove to be a temporary advantage for the iPhone over the Nexus One. According to Dearing: "The Nexus One is less secure than the iPhone 3GS. Nexus One is currently running on Android 2.1, the latest update, so is equivalent to iPhone 1.0. The iPhone 3GS provide the most comprehensive security controls with the addition of hardware-based encryption." "The iPhone is much more mature in this area than the Nexus One. iPhone configuration profiles provides business IT with a way to configure the iPhone over the air and according to corporate policies. In addition, the iPhone 3GS provides device encryption to help meet corporate compliance requirements, ensuring the protection of sensitive corporate information." Hooray - It's Not an iPhone The Nexus One is a cloud-connected device, making it a true web-based, data-driven device. This to us is a huge advantage. Apple is playing catch up in developing a cloud infrastructure. Google may lose a bit on security but the ability to use the computing power of the cloud may be what shoots Google way ahead of Apple. Tim O'Reilly goes as far to say that at some point, Apple may never catch up. A Strong Start The Nexus One represents a very strong start for Google. It's not designed as an enterprise phone but generally smart phones are meant to be used universally. We expect that as more smart phones enter the market, an ecosystem of middleware providers will emerge. These services will provide filters, treating the device as a computer, much like desktops and laptops. Discuss

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The Pros and Cons of the Google Nexus One As An Enterprise Phone

In December, I visited Parrot 's development labs in Paris to check out the company's newest project. While Parrot is mostly known for its Bluetooth headsets and speaker systems, the company's newest project combines augmented reality with a remote controlled helicopter. This helicopter - the AR.Drone - features four rotors to keep it stable and a front-mounted camera that is linked to an iPhone or iPod touch. The rig is controlled via an iPhone or iPod touch and the device's screen can show an augmented view of what the helicopter's camera sees. Sponsor AR Meets the Real World What's most exciting about this product is how it combines a real helicopter with this augmented reality view. Instead of just looking at an augmented view of the world through the phone's camera, you get to see the world through the drone's camera. The iPhone takes the view of the camera (via Wi-Fi) and replaces markers with anything from walls to dinosaurs. During our discussion with Parrot in December, we couldn't get any information about the price of the AR.Drone out of the company's representatives. Given how sophisticated the hardware is, however, chances are that it won't be very cheap. The drone, for example, features two camera. Besides the camera that feeds the video to the iPhone, the drone also features a second came that is mounted underneath he structure and augments the drone's autopilot. Hands-On With the AR.Drone We got a chance to play with a prototype of the AR.Drone in Parrot's labs and while it took a while to get used to the controls (the app uses a combination of the phone's tilt sensors and on-screen controls to manipulate the drone). The video on the iPhone was surprisingly clear and didn't show any noticeable lag. Sadly, we didn't get a chance to try out the AR features of the app, though. Parrot will launch the AR.Drone later this year. The company plans demo the helicopter at CES this week but the exact date of the public launch remains unclear. A Drone for Developers In its current iteration, the hardware and software is clearly laid out for gaming, but Parrot also released an SDK that will allow developers to use the hardware for other purposes as well. It will definitely be interesting to see what games and other tools the developer community will come up with one the AR.Drone is launched. Parrot told us that it hopes that developers will look at the hardware as a platform and the company hopes to create an active developer ecosystem around the AR.Drone. More Videos Click here for more videos of the AR.Drone in action. Disclosure : Frederic met with Parrot during a trip that was partly sponsored by Parrot . An Early Demo Discuss

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Parrot's Remote Controlled Helicopter Takes Augmented Reality to the Next Dimension

Google is holding a press event to showcase the new Nexus One and possibly some other mobile innovations today. We already know quite a few details about the phone itself, but hopefully Google will also have a few surprises up its sleeve. The press conference should get under way at 10am PST and we will live blog the event here. Sponsor We will post updates as they happen. Keep reloading this page to see the latest news. 10:00am As usual, the event is running a bit late. 10:06am Getting started. VP of Product Development takes the stage to talk about the Open Handset Alliance. "We will unveil the next generation of the evolution of Android today." 13 new members will join the OHC - including: NEC, China Telecom and Freescale. Recapping the history of Android hardware (G1, myTouch, Droid) 10:10pm "A year ago we had 1 device, now we have 20 devices on 59 carriers." Google wants to prevent fragmentation - talking about compatibility test suite. "Android today is about getting more users onto the mobile web." Android users search the web over 30x more on Android than on feature phones. From the beginning, Android was always about being developer friendly. Talking about being able to multi-task (a subtle swipe at the iPhone?) The Next Step in the Android Evolution 10:15am "We are only in the early stages of the evolution of Android. Volume and variety of Android devices has exceeded Google's expectations. "But we want to do more. Wants to work closer with hardware partners to showcase the software. Announcing the Nexus One "Where Web Meets Phone" 10:18am Google calls this a new category of phones: "super-phones." On stage now: Peter Chou, CEO of HTC. Talking up the Nexus One: "The Nexus One is one of the best designs from HTC." Outstanding display, fast processor. "It pushes the limits of what is possible on a mobile phone today." Chou leaves the stage after posing with the phone... 10:22am In depth look at Nexus One Erik Tseng takes the stage to demo the phone. Hardware : 3.7 inch AMOLED display - WVGA. "Deep contrast and brilliant colours." 1 GHz processor - fast processor = less slowdowns. Trackball works as notifications tool. Will pulse when you get new messages. 130 grams - 11.5mm thick Sensors : light sensor, proximity sensor. 5 megapixel camera New for Android: active noise cancellation - using two microphones. 10:29am Google will offer custom engraving (just like the iPhone...) "With this hardware, we think we have half of the story. It's the combination of hardware and software that makes this such a great phone." No surprise: Nexus One will come with Android 2.1 10:31am New features in 2.1: Customization More homescreen panels - more widgets Example: weather widget: knows where you are from GPS Google expects to see more widgets from 3rd-party developers Showing live wallpapers. 10:35 3D capabilities of the Nexus One and Android 2.1 App launcher: new twist - 3D scroll-wheel - icons sit on a 3D wheel instead of a flat page New photo gallery - written with CoolIris Everything scrolls smoothly - quite impressive. Looks just like CoolIris on the desktop. Features background sync with Picasa Web Albums 10:39am Voice Commands In 2.0: Voice queries ("directions to nearest Ikea") In 2.1: Every text field is now voice-enabled Voice recognition learns every time you speak a query 10:42am Sneak peek at Google Earth for Android Also voice-enabled. Clearly making good use of the fast processor. Everything scrolls very smoothly. Buying the Phone: Google Hosted Web Store 10:45am How to buy the phone? Google will sell the phone in its own web store Keeping it simple: buy phone without service ($529) - or with service from partners (T-Mobile $179) For now, T-Mobile only. But: "Expect to add more carriers and hardware in the future." Verizon Wireless and Vodofone will join the program. Web Store 10:49am Demoing the store. Purchasing all done in the store - no need to go to the physical store 10:54am Recap First phone of a series of phone - more operators, devices and countries coming in the future Showing demo video right now Q&A 11:00am Question : Why only such a small amount of space for app storage? Answer : soon, you will be able to store apps on SD cards Question : Will it ship today? Answer : Yes. Question : Is this an iPhone killer? Answer : Choice is a good thing. Question : Whose inventory will the phone come from? What will you do to make the App Store more well-known? Answer : Unlocked phone comes from Google. Regarding the Android Market: Marketing for Nexus One and new Web Store will be essentially online. Focused on making the store better. Question : Why was it necessary for Google to design the phone? Why not just have an HTC phone that runs Android? Answer : Google didn't design the phone - HTC did. Google is just the retailer and worked mostly on the software. Question : What would convinces somebody to buy a $530 phone? Answer : That's choice at work. "This is the early stages of a longer journey." Question : Google isn't known for being a retailer. Answer : "We shouldn't focus on retailing." Google wants to offer a complete solution and give consumers choice. Retail part is very important but just another channel - not a channel that will replace other channels. Question : What's the revenue opportunity for Google? Answer : These super-phones are great for accessing the Internet and that's where out business is. Hardware sales are not the big deal - just wants to get more people on the mobile web. "If you want the best possible Google experience you come to the store and get the device." Question : Will it support tethering? Answer : In future versions. Not a strategic issue but just something Google needs to implement. Question : Is the physical keyboard dead? Will Google start to sell more products online? Answer (from HTC): We offer lots of different phones and people can choose what best fits for them. This design is focused on the form-factor and screen. HTC offers other devices for "keyboard-lovers". From Google: The new voice input works very well and Google will soon offer other devices as well. Question : Will other counties support multi-touch on the Nexus One? Answer : It's a software thing. "We'll consider it." Question : When will Google Voice launch publicly? What about the other phones that are coming soon? Will something awesomer come next month? Answer : Other manufacturers will add more devices. "If you need a great phone today - the Nexus is a great phone." (Nothing about Google Voice in the answer). Question : Google wants to do revolutionary stuff? What's revolutionary about this phone? Why does Google get behind this phone if it's pretty average? What not revolutionize the pricing structure with an ad-supported phone? Answer : This is a baby step. Let's get the store going and then we can see what comes up in the future. Question : Will people be able to check out the phone in retail store? Answer : We want this to remain pure and simple. Marketing this online-only and selling online-only. Question : What's the difference between a super-phone and a regular smartphone? Answer : The big differentiator is the openness of the app store. This is as powerful as your laptop was a year ago. Question : Question for Motorola: Will the Nexus One cannibalize sales of the Droid? Answer : We try to deliver the best products we can. Will upgrade software on the Droid. Question : Why does Google feel the need to change the way phones are bought? What's broken about the current system? Answer : We are trying to optimize efficiencies. Just like web store revolutionized the way you buy a camera, Google wants to do the same thing for phones. After there are enough phones out there, you can experience it through using somebody else's. Marketing just increases prices. Sidenote about partners : We would love to sell for Verizon and Vodafone right now - just have to integrate the IT. Question : What can users expect in terms of software upgrades? Users never really know what phone will get the upgrade Answer : HTC wants to upgrade all of its phones (nothing specific). Google argues that some phones simply don't have the hardware capabilities for the upgrade. The intention is to make sure everybody gets some kind of future-proof hardware that can get upgrades for a certain amount of time. From Motorola : Intention to upgrade the device to the best software that the hardware can run. Not every device supports the 3D capabilities of Android 2.1, for example. Backward compatibility slows down innovation. Questions : Will Verizon get unlocked phones? Answer : Unlocked phones are a problem with CDMA phones. Will only be sold with Verizon plan. Question : Will you port Google Voice to the iPhone or will you suppress this to give Android an advantage? Answer : Google Voice team isn't opposed to having its app run on other platforms. Question : Didn't Google say it won't do a phone? Answer : We don't do hardware. 11:43am: And that wraps up today's live blog. Thanks for reading! Discuss

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Live Blog: Google's Android Press Gathering

Later today, Google plans to unveil its own smartphone, the Nexus One. According to new data from research firm Forrerster's new U.S. Omnibus Survey, Google is launching this phone at just the right time. Today, 17% of U.S. adult who subscribe to a cell phone plan use smartphones. This number is up from 11% in 2008 and 7% in 2007. Thanks to the growing importance of Android, Forrester thinks that 2010 will be "the year of the smartphone." Sponsor Forrester's Charles S. Golvin also notes that quick messaging devices with closed operating systems like the LG Xenon are still growing at a rapid pace as well. Currently, about 15% of adult subscribers own one of these devices. While the growth of this category slowed down somewhat over 2009, it still eclipsed that of the smartphone segment. As prices for smartphones continue to come down and as developers manage to overcome some of the usability issues of current devices, more and more users will opt for full-blown smartphones instead of quick messaging devices in the coming years. While Android and Apple's iPhone are clearly driving the adoption of smartphones - and the Nexus One will surely play its part in this in 2010 - it's important to note that BlackBerry still maintains its two-to-one advantage of the iPhone. The Google Phone It'll be interesting to see how Google will market the Nexus One. Thanks to numerous early reviews , there is very little that we don't know about the phone itself at this point. Chances are that Google has a few surprises up its sleeve for today's announcement. After all, the company must have known that today's press briefing would come long after all the details about the actual hardware of the phone had leaked already. Discuss

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Will 2010 Be the Year of the Smartphone?

Recently I wrote about the decline of RSS Readers as a way for people to keep up with news. I noted that while many people still use RSS Readers, usage has decreased due to the emergence of real-time and social flows of information via Twitter, Facebook and other such services. The post sparked a fascinating discussion, with over 160 comments. What I learned from that discussion is that while the RSS Reader market is indeed in decline, there are still a number of compelling use cases for RSS Readers. Not to mention new tools worth checking out. So in this more optimistic post, I list 5 reasons why you should continue to use RSS Readers. Sponsor My conclusions in the previous post still stand: 1) Google now dominates what's left of the RSS Reader market; and 2) RSS reading is a very fragmented experience circa 2009/2010 due to Twitter, Facebook, start pages like Netvibes, Firefox bookmarks, and more. However, a lot of commenters wrote that they still use RSS Readers each and every day. Here are the main reasons why: 1. Control over Information Flow RSS Readers allow users to control their flow of information , whereas it's impossible to keep up with the Twitter firehose of real-time information. Mathew Ballad (comment 11) put it well: "I tend to check Google Reader multiple times a day. While I do keep up with bigger news through Friendfeed or Twitter. I like to keep up with multiple Graphic Design blogs, tech blogs, entertainment blogs, photography blogs and Apple blogs on my own. I just can't see myself ditching RSS Readers for something that I really don't have much control over." It's not just about controlling your stream of daily news. Many people have feeds that they just don't want to miss. Tim Bray has a folder of feeds in NetNewsWire that he feels is "unacceptable when I don't at least glance at everything those people have to say." Some people would argue that it's a thankless task trying to control your RSS Reader. I am one of those people who long ago gave up trying to keep my "mark all read" count at zero. Indeed I don't even try to mark as read my email nowadays (I just let it all flow in and I mark the ones I should reply to with stars, in Gmail). On a similar point, RSS pioneer Dave Winer remarked (comment 80) that Google Reader "has the wrong view of RSS." In a follow-up post , he wrote that "fundamentally, Google Reader views RSS as email," by which I think he means users feel compelled to read everything in it. His view is that "reading every story is a meaningless concept" and that RSS Readers need to find a way around this issue. 2. Evolving User Interfaces Some readers are expecting RSS Readers to transform their UIs in 2010, in particular for "processing life and news streams in the same interface." ( Marco A Torres ) This has already happened to a degree in Google Reader, which has many nice social sharing features. @businessquests (comment 57) called Google Reader "a monitoring and intelligence tool enabled by tagging and publication of tag-based RSS feeds." Eric (comment 19) agreed, commenting: "I use it [Google Reader] not only as a constantly evolving newspaper, but to share and to create new snippets using the "Note in Reader..." bookmarklet. I also subscribe to others' interests and see what they have marked to share with me." Eric also noted that he gets breaking news in Google Reader, thanks to its support of the real-time standard PubSubHubbub. However a number of people complained that Google Reader isn't evolving fast enough in terms of user experience. I would put myself in that camp too. So, like me, you may want to check out some new feed reading innovations. Feedly (one of our Top 10 Semantic Web Products of 2009 ), Fever (one of our Top 10 RSS & Syndication Technologies of 2009 ) and my6sense (an iPhone app - our review ) are 3 apps that received multiple mentions from our readers. We use Fever internally at ReadWriteWeb and I just today downloaded my6sense onto my iPhone. As an aside, note that two of those apps (Feedly and my6sense) integrate Twitter as well as RSS feeds. 3. Tracking Twitter It's not necessarily an either/or situation between RSS Readers and Twitter. Lynne Pope from New Zealand pointed out (comment 44) that she uses Google Reader to track some Twitter accounts: "Time zone differences mean a lot of good information can be missed in a tweet stream. Pulling the important streams into a reader means the information is readily available." 4. Mobile News A number of people remarked that they commonly read their feeds via a mobile version of an RSS Reader. Something for those of us who are sick of being tied to PCs to do more of, perhaps. Bill (comment 46) wrote: "I use NewsRob on Android to pull the most recent 250 articles from Google Reader via my home wifi. Then I walk out the door and head for the commuter train, where I will read my feeds while other poor souls are stuck with the newspaper. Same on the way home and late at night when I'm rocking the baby to sleep." 5. Categorized News Perhaps some of us are finding RSS Readers difficult to use nowadays because we don't use them efficiently. If you spend some initial time setting up your Reader and categorizing your feeds, then chances are you will get a lot more out of it. Randy Orrison (comment 78) described a good use case that you may want to emulate: "I have folders in Google Reader for the blogs that I check every day, new release feeds for software I use (I could never remember to check all 20+ websites regularly), and down at the bottom of the folder list feeds from busy aggregators (like TechMeme) and news sites (like the BBC)." Conclusion Reading through all 160+ comments on my post restored some of my faith in RSS Readers. Viva la read/write Web! I'm going to test out some of the tools people suggested, find new ways to integrate Twitter streams with my RSS feeds, read more on my iPhone using my6sense and other services, and do some re-ordering in my Google Reader. What are your thoughts now about RSS Readers, given the discussion summarized here? Discuss

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5 Reasons Why RSS Readers Still Rock

The Android platform has grown exponentially since mid-2009, but December's stats show a particular factor that might help catapult the platform to greater heights of user adoption. In figures just released from mobile advertising company AdMob, the Droid singlehandedly boosted calls to their network by nearly 300 million requests while stats for HTC Magic devices remained static and those for HTC's Dream model actually decreased. In terms of consumer use of the network and acceleration of device popularity, it seems we have a winner. Sponsor Having been compared extensively with the iPhone, the Droid stands up solidly even under extensive scrutiny . And in terms of 3G network access, we've personally seen fewer issues than with any other mobile carrier we've tried to date. (Note: I'm a Droid owner and a former iPhone user. I've also suffered through my share of BlackBerries, Palms and their ilk.) If any device is to become the iPhone killer, it will be the Droid or something very close to it (here's looking at you, Nexus One). AdMob's numbers show that requests from all Android-driven devices increased by 97 percent between October to December in 2009, totaling more than 1 billion requests in December alone. The open platform has also seen a refreshing diversity of devices and manufacturers. AdMob shows that in December, 56 percent of requests were from HTC devices, 39 percent were from Motorola devices and 5 percent were manufactured by from Samsung. And in December, seven devices generated more than three percent of requests each: the Motorola Droid, HTC Dream, HTC Magic, HTC Hero, Motorola CLIQ, HTC Droid Eris and the Samsung Moment. This stat represents a significant increase from just three devices in October (HTC Dream, HTC Magic, and HTC Hero). Already, the Motorola Droid is the leading Android device on AdMob's radar, generating a third of all the network's requests in December. Released just under two months ago, it's already the top-selling Android device on the market, a title it's held since a scant fortnight after its launch . Granted, AdMob's metrics show a small slice of mobile device usage. But they've consistently been reliable in showing what mobile users use and need and in predicting trends. We are internally excited about what Android-powered devices will do in the market in the months to come, and I am personally quite optimistic about Droid adoption specifically. Let us know what you think in the comments, particularly if you're a fanboy or fangirl of a particular device! Discuss

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Droid's December Boom: AdMob Metrics Show Android Platform's Growth

According to a new report from Cambridge University ( PDF ), students aren't interested in being able to read eBooks and eJournals on their mobile phones. Instead, users are far more interested in opening hours, location maps, contact info, and access to the library catalog. Most respondents were also far more interested in getting alerts by text message than being able to use library resources over the mobile web. Sponsor Editor's note: This story is part of a series we call Redux, where we'll re-publish some of our best posts of 2009. As we look back at the year - and ahead to what next year holds - we think these are the stories that deserve a second glance. It's not just a best-of list, it's also a collection of posts that examine the fundamental issues that continue to shape the Web. We hope you enjoy reading them again and we look forward to bringing you more Web products and trends analysis in 2010. Happy holidays from Team ReadWriteWeb! According to the researchers, libraries that serve colleges should invest in text alerting services, and text reference services instead of mobile web services. With text alerting services, users could receive alerts when books are due, for example, while text reference services would give students access to the library reference desk over SMS. The report also advises libraries to allow mobile phone use in their buildings, "as long as they are set to silent or to flight mode." It is important to note that the researchers only surveyed users at Cambridge University and the Open University , so these results are somewhat skewed and only apply to the U.K., where text messaging is even more prevalent than in the United States. The report, however, also found that users of more advanced phones like the iPhone are far more inclined to read e-books on their phones than users of feature phones (no surprise there, given the difference in screen estate and quality). In the end, though, the report argues that it is currently "not worth libraries putting development resource into delivering content such as e-books and e-journals to mobile devices at present." Too Conservative? While these recommendations seem reasonable based on the survey data, we agree with Lorcan Dempsey , a library blogger and Vice President of OCLC , who argues that with the advent of better eReaders and the iPhone, these survey results will probably look very different in just a few years from now. As Sarah Bartlett from the Panlibus blog points out , the recommendations in this report are anchored in the past (getting SMS alerts about due books, for example), while now would be a good time to "re-imagine the library and its services." While some libraries are often conservative when it comes to adopting new technologies, we would think that starting to adopt some of these technologies like e-books and better mobile services now would help these institutions to remain relevant in a future where those large buildings in the middle of campus are already turning more into places for study groups to meet up and grab a cup of coffee than centers of academic research. CC-licensed image used courtesy of Flickr user umjanedoan . Discuss

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Libraries, eBooks, and the Mobile Web: A Long Ways to Go