It has been pretty well advertised that pretty much any iPhone apps will be useable on the iPad, though they may not necessarily take advantage of all of the iPad’s advanced features and specs.  Which is why many developers are redesigning their iPhone apps and releasing iPad specific versions of their apps.  And if you have ever wondered why this should be necessary, check out Sudoku Real Edition, which has been approved for the iPad app store and is expected to be available for the iPad release on April 3.

I have played Sudoku on pretty much every mobile platform, including the newspaper, and I have never seen it look like this before.  Let’s take one more look:

Thanks to our friends over at Just Another iPad Blog for the info and screenshots.  Head over there for a lot more details about this fantastic looking app.  And tune in here after April 3, when there is a fair bet I will have already purchased this one and have it queued up for review.

[via Just Another iPad Blog]

Hi.  My name is Doug, and I am a TV-aholic.  Well, I am actually not sure whether that is a real thing, but it should be.  I watch TV pretty much anywhere: while eating, riding in the car, working, you name it.  Probably the only time I do not watch TV is when I am in between locations.  You know, places like the train, or walking down the street, or just sitting in the park.  Places that are just too far from an extension cord to make TV watching practicable.  Until now.  Thanks to Flo TV, now you can pack your 60 inch TV into your pocket and take it with you.  Live TV, anywhere…anytime.  Now that warrants a closer look.  Fortunately, the folks at Flo TV were kind enough to send a loaner unit for me to check out for a few weeks.  So, indulge me for a minute and I will share my impressions with you.

In the Box: Let’s get started with the basics and take a look at what you will find when you open up the box.  Nestled on top, of course, is the Flo TV unit, which you will probably want to pause and admire.  Go ahead, I’ll wait.  Once you are done ogling, we’ll go ahead and remove the cardboard insert and check out what else is going on inside the box. 

Under the insert, you will find:

• a cleaning cloth, which you will learn to appreciate since touch screens can be fingerprint magnets
• a USB cable
• AC adaptor
• battery
• headphones (which I promptly ignored in favor of a higher quality pair)
• quick start guide and legal documents

Noticeably absent from the box were any kind of case or screen protector, which would have been nice.  I also would have liked a car charging adaptor. 

While it is not advisable to use this device while driving, there are plenty of opportunities to use it while you are a passenger in a car, and an adaptor to keep the battery charged would have been helpful.

Hardware: I was really impressed by the hardware on the Personal TV unit from Flo TV.  It had a sleek feel, which really made it fit well within the world of mobile electronics.  It is much skinnier than you might have expected.  In fact, it is pretty close in width to the iPod Touch. 

There are not a lot of buttons on the device, because most of your interaction will come through the touch screen.  On the top, there is the power button, and the battery button. 

Tap the battery button and the four LED lights will show how much time you have left to watch TV before you will need a charge.  Obviously, the more lights you see, the more power you have available.

On the right hand side of the device are your volume controls and mute button.  Again, this is all pretty self explanatory.  Also on this side, you will find the charging connection, which is a standard micro-USB, and a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

Before we get to the face, which I know you are all waiting for, let’s just flip it over and take a look at the back for a minute. Folding out of the back is a stand, which I thought was fantastic.  This allows the Flo TV unit to serve as a standalone player, without the need for you to hold it all the time.  A lot of media players miss this obvious feature. 

In addition, you will also fine two speakers on the back, which I thought featured pretty good sound quality.  Though I do question the decision to place them on the back of the device.  This results in the audio projecting away from you, rather than towards you.  In other words, by the time the sound reaches your ear, it has already been bouncing around the room and is going to be partially degraded.  For this reason (at least in part), I found that using headphones significantly improved my experience with the Flo TV.

OK.  Let’s go ahead an check out the face of the device.  Here, you will find a 3.5 inch touch screen, which the Flo TV website describes as, “the perfect size for watchability and portability.”  While I agree with the portability aspect, we’ll more fully test watchability in a bit.  I can tell you this, I do not believe that 3.5 inches is perfect for much of anything.  Five inches would always be better than 3.5, and 7 is even better.  Actually, in my testing, I have found a seven inch screen to be a more perfect size for watchability and portability.  That really seems to win the balance for me.  It is still pocket sized and portable, while making an extremely nice viewing area.  Notwithstanding these overstatements, I do think it is accurate to say that the Flo TV unit struck a nice balance between watchability and portability.

On the right hand side of the screen is the guide button, which will call up the on-screen guide.  Other than this button, there is nothing else going on on the face of this device, which left me wondering why we needed such deep bezels on either side of the screen.  Some might argue that these bezels are required so you have space to hold the device in your hand without interfering with the screen.  This seems a bit unintuitive to me, though, because the stand on the back eliminates the need for you to hold it while watching.  In the end, this just seemed like an awful lot of wasted space, which could have been much better used to increase the viewing area.

As far as the hardware goes, that is all you need to know.  I loved the clean lines and simple layout of this unit.  All of the controls are well placed and easy to locate, which makes the device intuitive and easy to use. 

What is Flo TV: Before we get to how the device performed, I thought it would be a good idea to pause for a moment and talk about what exactly is Flo TV.   In a nutshell, this is live, over-the-air TV.  There are three modes through which you can view Flo TV: a car unit, AT&T or Verizon mobile phone apps, and the stand-alone portable TV unit.  We are looking at the stand-alone portable TV unit today.  Since this is live TV and not video streaming from the Internet, you do not need to worry about download times, buffering, or any of the other complications usually associated with watching video content on the web.

User Experience: This device simply could not be easier to use, which is exactly perfect.  Just power it on, and wait a few seconds for the guide information to download.  That’s it.  Now you are ready to start watching.  To change the channel, just swipe the screen up or down.  For a more complete look at what is on, tap that guide button on the right and you can scroll through the whole guide, and even skip ahead to see what is coming up.  I was a bit disappointed to find that, unlike DirecTV or other cable providers, the guide on Flo TV does not offer detailed information about the shows in the guide.  As such, you cannot check the guide to see whether a show is a rerun or who will be appearing on your favorite talk shows that day.  Hopefully, this feature can be improved in the future.

Once you have selected the show you want to watch, the bulk of the user experience is going to revolve around the image on the screen.   Overall, I thought the image was pretty good, if not a bit small.  I did notice that some content had an extremely pixelated feel to it, especially when watching live events like sports.  Additionally, the small size of the screen made it difficult to see some detailed content like news tickers, sports scores, or other detail oriented content (note that the pictures of the screen in this review are actually sized larger than the screen on the Flo TV unit.)

That all being said, neither of these issues really caused a problem for the bulk of my viewing.  For example, I did not have any problem watching and enjoying Godzilla vs King Ghidora on the Crackle channel.  As for my kids, they never voiced any complaints when watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the Disney channel or SpongeBob Squarepants on Nickelodeon.

One thing I found odd was the sleep mode on the screen.  Leave the unit sitting for a few moments and the screen will go to sleep, requiring some form of user input (a tap will do) to wake it up.  While this is a fine feature on a device which requires active involvement from the user, like a phone, the Flo TV device is a passive use device.  In other words, once you find the show you want to watch, all you need to do as the user is sit and watch.  No further input should be required, which made this sleep mode extremely frustrating.  Even more frustrating was the fact that I could not find an option to adjust it in the settings menu.

Finally, when I spoke with the folks representing Flo TV, they warned me to check out the coverage map.  Their concern was that I was not in a great reception area, which might detract from my ability to use this device.  I have to say, however, that this proved not to be a problem at all.  Even though I never seemed to climb out of a poor reception rating, I always enjoyed perfectly fine reception.  I was pretty impressed by this, and I think it speaks volumes about the strength of Flo TV’s network. 

Content:  If there is one area which Flo TV could really improve, it is the content.  For your money, you are only going to get 17 channels, which is not much at all.  This includes:

• 4 News Channels
• 2 Kids/Family Channels
• 7 Specialty Channels
• 4 Local Broadcast Channels

By comparison, sprint TV, which is included free on virtually every Sprint PCS phone, includes dozens of channels, with both live and recorded content, as well as premium and subscription channels alongside the included free channels.  That kind of robust programming is noticeably absent on the Flo TV.  Of particular note here is the fact that not all of these mobile channels mirror their broadcast counterparts.

By way of example, here is a shot of what was on the mobile versions of NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX.

And here is the standard version.  OK, maybe you did not want to watch all that news from 11:00-11:30, but, needless to say, you will not necessarily be able to watch your favorite broadcast shows as you might have expected.

Still, this was not nearly as disappointing to me as the other options which I did not find here:

• There are no premium channels.  It would have been great to see different packages with expanded or premium content, especially movie channels like HBO or Showtime.  Barring that, content which is not available on any other mobile or portable devices is critical.
• There is no way to watch prerecorded content.  The player would really benefit from a memory card slot, allowing you to use it to watch prerecorded videos and movies on the go.  Another idea would be a DVR-like system, allowing you to record content for viewing at a later time.
• The ability to connect to the web and download or stream content would be fantastic.  It would be great to be able to watch things like On-Demand content or Netflix videos, as well as YouTube and other online content.

Without these features, you are really left with an extremely limited array of content options.  In my opinion, Flo TV really missed a bet here.  They had an opportunity to make this a complete stand-alone video player, with the unique Flo TV content, as well as a myriad of online and prerecorded video options.  The problem for Flo TV is that they are competing against mobile phones, iPads, and other devices which offer significantly more content options, not to mention other online TV providers, like Hulu.  So, it is hard to imagine the niche which Flo TV is aiming for.  Someone who wants Live TV on the go, is comfortable with a mobile/portable device, but does not use another mobile device which could play live TV, as well as  a significantly great range of media content, and other functions.

Conclusion: I am always leery of these single-function, stand alone devices, and Flo TV proved to be no exception.  While I probably would have absolutely loved this device 10 or even 5 years ago, it is really hard to endorse this effort today.  As I noted with the Peek device, which was limited to email only, it is hard to imagine someone investing the money into a device like this, when for the same price, you can buy a mobile phone or mp3 player which far outpaces the limited functionality of this device.  Still, I could have stood behind the Flo TV as a portable video player, but the limited content options really hurt it in this area as well.  In the end, I really did not find anything that made this one stand out from the myriad of online, mobile, and other media playing options.  What Flo TV lacks is unique content.  Either in the form of channels which are not available anywhere else, or the ability to watch prerecorded content, such as movies stored on a memory card.  The Flo TV Personal TV is a nice idea, which came about five years too late, and includes far too few content options to appeal to the average mobile user in today’s market.

The Flo TV Personal TV is available from the Flo TV website for $199.99.  In order to receive service, you will also need to sign up for a subscription, which costs $14.99 per month.

What I Liked:

• sleek design
• easy and intuitive controls
• fold out stand
• live TV with no buffering or downloads
• excellent reception, even in poor reception areas

What Needs Improvement:

• no case included
• no car charger included (though I think I understand why)
• screen could be larger
• deep bezels
• sleep mode for the screen
• limited content (17 live channels) and no unique channels
• cannot play recorded content from a memory card

Our friends at The Mobile Spoon have just finished a review (see here) of SBSH Software’s application RadGuard.  With cell phone radiation becoming an ever growing concern (see here), I can only hope to say that we see SBSH bring RadGuard to all of the different mobile operating systems.

All in all, this is a very good review with a lot of worthwhile information about the topic of radiation exposure as well.  I highly recommend that you check it out here.

Today Google introduced a new feature to help GMail users face the risk of being cloud dependant: having their account used by someone else.

While there is already the remote sign out and information about recent account activity tool, Google will now also show a warning in a red bar at the top of the page saying: “Warning: We believe your account was last accessed from…”. This is completed by a guess of the the geographic region that can be associated with the unwanted access. Then you will be able to have more information by selecting the “Show details…” link, or click the “Ignore” one.

Here is The Official Google Blog post with  the details of the rationale for this function:

Detecting suspicious account activity

Posted by Pavni Diwanji, Engineering Director

A few weeks ago, I got an email presumably from a friend stuck in London asking for some money to help him out. It turned out that the email was sent by a scammer who had hijacked my friend’s account. By reading his email, the scammer had figured out my friend’s whereabouts and was emailing all of his contacts. Here at Google, we work hard to protect Gmail accounts against this kind of abuse. Today we’re introducing a new feature to notify you when we detect suspicious login activity on your account.
You may remember that a while back we launched remote sign out and information about recent account activity to help you understand and manage your account usage. This information is still at the bottom of your inbox. Now, if it looks like something unusual is going on with your account, we’ll also alert you by posting a warning message saying, “Warning: We believe your account was last accessed from…” along with the geographic region that we can best associate with the access.

 

 

To determine when to display this message, our automated system matches the relevant IP address, logged per the Gmail privacy policy, to a broad geographical location. While we don’t have the capability to determine the specific location from which an account is accessed, a login appearing to come from one country and occurring a few hours after a login from another country may trigger an alert.
By clicking on the “Details” link next to the message, you’ll see the last account activity window that you’re used to, along with the most recent access points.

If you think your account has been compromised, you can change your password from the same window. Or, if you know it was legitimate access (e.g. you were traveling, your husband/wife who accesses the account was also traveling, etc.), you can click “Dismiss” to remove the message.
Keep in mind that these notifications are meant to alert you of suspicious activity but are not a replacement for account security best practices. If you’d like more information on account security, read these tips on keeping your information secure or visit the Google Online Security Blog.
Finally, we know that security is also a top priority for businesses and schools, and we look forward to offering this feature to Google Apps customers once we have gathered and incorporated their feedback.

If you are concerned with the implications of this tool, which implicitly states that Google can track wherever you go really easily, don’t be too scared as, Google says:

[...] we don’t have the capability to determine the specific location from which an account is accessed [...]

Reassuring, don’t you think?

Via: The Official Google Blog

Amit Regev, CEO of SBSH Software

As we continue the JAMM Developer Interview Series, this week finds us both having sat down with Marc of Ilium Software on Monday and today, spending some time with Amit Regev.  Amit is the CEO of SBSH Software, the company behind Windows Mobile classics like PocketBreeze, PocketWeather and Go News Touch.

While visiting with Amit, he shared some great “sneak peak” information about upcoming platforms and programs that SBSH are going towards, along with his predictions on the future of mobile technology.  He also addresses the SBSH development methodology, which I think you’ll find rare among today’s developers.  And on yeah, he finally reveals what SBSH stands for.

Without further ado, please join us below.  JAMM’s questions are in bold while Amit’s responses are indented.  After reading the interview, be sure to leave any questions or comments that you may have.  Also, as per the last question please leave any good book suggestions that you may have for Amit.  We’ll be sure that he gets them.

Hi Amit.  Thanks for agreeing to this interview.  Can you tell the readers at JAMM a little bit about the history of SBSH Software, and the mobile solutions it offers?

Hi Brian, thank you very much for the opportunity and inviting me here today, I really appreciate it!

SBSH Software specialize in development for mobile devices. We started developing for mobile devices 8 years ago, focusing mainly on Pocket PC development. Since then we’ve expanded our activity to virtually all smart-phone platforms, offering today some of the market leading apps for the Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, iPhone and Series 60 platforms.

In this upcoming year we will continue our expansion, introducing new apps for the most recent and exciting platforms: webOS, Android and Microsoft’s new Silverlight based Windows Phone 7!

How did you get involved with developing software for mobile devices?

The idea to develop applications for mobile devices goes back 11 years ago, back to the days I was still in high school. Around that time I got my very first PDA – Handspring Visor. For those who don’t remember, it was made of somewhat cheap-looking blue plastic with staggering 2MB of memory and running Palm OS.

Playing with the Visor I got familiar with the endless possibilities mobile development can bring! Packed with low resolution B/W screen and without phone capabilities it really didn’t do all that much, but it was mobile, it synced with my PC and this was definitely enough for some amazing new opportunities!

Three years and about five Palm-powered devices later, in 2002, I got my first Pocket PC device, an iPAQ running Pocket PC 2002 OS. This was when I first started coding actual apps for mobile devices. The potential encapsulated in mobile development was clear from the start. At that time I developed several small apps, one of which was Calendar Plus – a small today plug-in listing your appointments and tasks on your Today screen: “Your Today Screen Just Became Tomorrow’s”

Three years later and several incarnations it was re-introduced as PocketBreeze, one of our ever best selling apps back-in-the-days that gave us the leverage to go to the next level.

Your applications represent a diverse portfolio, not necessarily fitting into one genre.  SBSH Software has applications for working with PIM in PocketBreeze and Calendar Touch, RSS feeds with GoNews Touch and secure data management in SafeWallet, to name a few.  How do you decide upon the programs SBSH Software creates?

Although our apps catalog spreads on a variety of categories, our thumb rule remains developing apps that users need for their real-life needs; apps that help users get the most of their smart-phones and get their smart-phone work for them.

We focus on real applications that real people need – apps people use for years; Once a user downloads one of our apps he or she will immediately see the benefits of using our apps and will definitely benefit from using our apps for a long time. This shows by the large number of returning customers we have that use our cross-platform switching program that allow users to easily take their favorite apps to their new phone when switching platforms.

In most cases we try to avoid games development and we won’t develop small gimmick-style apps, a trend that started in the early days following the iPhone release, which I predict will decade as the market and users mature together – users will be willing to pay a bit more for apps, but at the same time will be looking for more added-value from their apps and getting apps that they won’t delete from their phones the following day.

SBSH Software has a long standing reputation of releasing an initial version of a program, and then rapidly adding functionality in the form of small releases.  How do you maintain this intensity in developing your programs?

We’ve always believed the path to market leading apps goes through the market; This is clearly reflected in our development process and when looking at the large and active community we have at our company forums.

Taking this guideline to practice, we have our unique development process that starts by defining a new solution goals and developing a first official release with the help of a closed beta team.

Once a first version is released to the market we pay close attention to the feedback we get from our users and together with our users draw the path for upcoming developments. We found that this is the way to success and together with the great help of more than 120K forum members, we designed and produces some of the best selling mobile apps today!

Our development methodology sees the first release as a start of a new path rather than the end.

Can you tell our readers anything about upcoming projects you are working on?

During 2010 we plan to expand our existing line of professional applications to all leading Smartphone platforms, making each of our best selling solutions available for users of any mobile platform. With such multi-platform approach our users will be able to enjoy SBSH solution with any Smartphone operating system and take their SBSH apps with them whenever switching to a new platform!

With your permission, I will be glad to take advantage of this review and announce for the first time that the most robust weather application for mobile devices, PocketWeather, will shortly be available for iPhone and iPod Touch users! Similar to the Windows Mobile version, PocketWeather for iPhone doesn’t fall behind, packing together the most powerful weather tracking and forecasting tools ever made available for mobile devices! We invite our users to stay tuned for more news about PocketWeather for iPhone in upcoming weeks!

Continuing with a similar line of multi-platform development, our users can expect to find the rest of our best selling applications expanding to all Smartphone platforms in upcoming months! Additionally, we have one new very important major project we’ve been working on for a while now which is also planned for release during 2010!

SBSH Software already has software available for Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Symbian and iPhone.  Can we expect to see any of your programs on newer operating systems, such as WebOS or Android?

Definitely Yes. Our first webOS application is already in last beta testing stages and is most likely to be released during Q2 2010.

We are also pushing in full pace with new Android developments and plan to launch a full set of applications for Android phones during 2010, some of which are already in stages of development and beta testing!

With all of the interesting twists in the mobile arena, what predictions do you have regarding the future of mobile computing?

Over the past 8 years I learned that predicting what will happen in the future of the mobile sphere is similar to predicting lottery numbers. We’ve witnessed the meteoric rise of the mobile market in general, and the apps market in specific; A growth that brought some surprising changes with it. Yet, I will take advantage of your question here and gladly fall in to this trap (again).. Here are two short term prediction that I believe we will see during 2010 and one long term prediction that I’m willing to make.

Most analysts predict that Apple will become the largest smart phone manufacturer within the next five years. Personally I don’t see this happening, unless Apple will manufacture new models that introduce new hardware changes such as QWERY keyboard and various sizes. At the time of release the iPhone was revolutionary, and still is, but users get board quickly. Software and minor hardware additions alone won’t allow Apple to continue its growth. Without opening the iPhone OS for other OEMs, or, producing new iPhone models in a similar way to the iPod series, I don’t believe Apple will be able to continue its current growth rate.

My prediction is that Apple understands that software changes won’t keep their market growth and we will be seeing an expansion of the iPhone brand to a series of products in a similar way to the iPod family, such as the iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle and so forth. New hardware will bring new innovations and opportunities to apps developers as well.

My second prediction is regarding Nokia. Currently, a giant that slowly but steady losing its market share to the new comers. Nokia is definitely paying for the lack of innovation over the past several years after enjoying the benefits of being the strongest player. With a growing demand from users for smarter phones, carriers are forced to introduce new devices, such as Android and the iPhone, and we are seeing cracks in the wall Nokia-carriers connections that allowing new players to grow in the mobile market.

For the past year Nokia learned that the rules have changed and selling phones without apps no longer works. Furthermore, Nokia will need to find the right way to re-invent itself before it will reach the no-return point and it will become impossible for Nokia to stop their fall. Nokia’s hardware is definitely one of the strongest out there, while their software, operating system to be precise, is their weakest point. With the growing demand for more apps, hence a growing focus on devices’ software, Nokia failed to introduce the software solutions users demand.

My prediction we will witness Nokia letting go of their Smart phone software developments initiatives, such as Symbian and Maemo, and moving forward with one of the new innovative Smart phone platforms. My best guess here will be for Android powered Nokia devices, or, the rumors indicating Nokia to buy Palm’s webOS will indeed take place.

The sooner Nokia will let go of their software development ambitions and focus back on hardware innovation the better it will be, for Nokia and for us users!

Taking a wider look at the mobile market I believe the most important developments we will see in upcoming years will be related to new input methods, replacing the dial-pad, QWERTY keyboard and touch screens we know today. We’ve witnessed amazing developments for the past few years that allow us to utilize our smart phones better and faster, and yet, even with the latest technology, the largest performance bottle neck up-to-date remains the communication layer between us users and our smart phones.

I believe we will be seeing new technologies developed over the next few years that will allow us to communicate faster with our smart phones. Such new communication layer with our smart phones will also introduce a new era of smart phone designs once the user input layer is taken out of the hardware design of the smart phone, as it is today.

SBSH seems to be an acronym.  I’ve always personally been curious as to what the letters stand for.  Would you share what SBSH stands for with us?

Smart Boutique Software House.

Finally, is there anything else that you would like readers to know about your SBSH Software, your programs or yourself?

I would love to get some good book recommendations! If you have any, please let me know! And be sure to follow us twitter @sbshsoft.

Thanks for having me here Brian. Have a great day!

Thanks again, Amit.  We really appreciate you taking the time to sit down with us.

If you have any questions, comments or book suggestions, please leave them in the comments section below.  We’ll be sure that Amit gets a copy of them!