The PlanetRecruit Blog

Making niche technology mainstream

Apple could be about to do for the cloud what it did for the MP3 player and the tablet computer – make previously niche technology mainstream.

For most, the first MP3 player was the first generation iPod, released in 2002 – when in fact they had been around since 1998. Most recently, since the release of the iPad manufacturers and people alike are falling over themselves to release and buy tablet computers. However, the concept of tablet computing has been around for some time, with Microsoft trying it as far back as 2001.

These innovations have hugely changed the way we think about and consumer media. Take music, for example. Many swore never to give up their CD collections and to continue buying CDs after the iPod release. Compressed music doesn't sound as good – true – and nothing beats owning a real CD or record, yet most music lovers will now have extensive digital collections. The same holds true for books, with research indicating more digital books than paper copies were purchased last year.

iPhone the spyPhone

Last quarter, Apple's profits rose by 95 per cent and revenues grew by 83 per cent on the same period a year ago. The latest figures show profits of US$6 billion on revenues of $24.7 billion.The iPhone remains immensely popular, with sales of 18.6 million units, more than double that achieved 12 months ago, whilst the company cannot make enough iPads to keep up with demand.

Great stuff by any standards, but the results are overshadowed by the remarkable revelation that the iPhone automatically (and secretly) records and stores exactly where a user is and then time-stamps the data. In other words, your iPhone is watching you, tracking you and keeping detailed records of where you are and when you are there. What's more, if/when users synchronise the iPhone to a Mac, the data is copied over to the computer and secretly archived there as well.

However, whilst the data is hidden away from the average user, it is stored in unencrypted form so that it could be read anyone (or any agency) who actually get their mitts on the device.

Navigating the technology and applications market

Making sure that we meet the needs of our clients means that we are constantly keeping an eye on emerging technologies, staying on top of demand, so that when a new type of requirement materialises, we are in a position to respond and offer expert assistance. This does involve an element of guesswork and sometimes when you call heads it will come up tails from time to time.

We recently took such a plunge when we began providing specialist services to those looking to hire mobile application developers, specifically the development of new applications using the Android platform. Entering a new market takes time and money so it was with some satisfaction this week that I learnt that the number of Android mobiles has passed the number of iphones for the first time. Gartner research predicts that Android will account for almost 50 per cent of the smartphone market by the end of 2012, giving it an enormous lead on its competitors.

The market is ever more steadily moving towards applications and devices that can be used on the move. While we don’t yet have a credible rival to the iPad tablet, we are surely only a few upgrades away from having an iPad killer on the market, most likely running on Google's honeycomb platform.

The 'i's have it: tablet taken in the Commons

A UK MP enlivened an otherwise forgettable speech by prompting herself from her iPad - and nobody noticed or cared.

New technologies famously take less and less time to hit the mainstream: TV took a couple of decades, video recorders about one decade, PCs about five years and so on, up to the smartphone and then the iPad, with the latter seeming to go mainstream even before it saw the light of day.

The UK House of Commons is a good index for this progressive change in change resistance - albeit it runs a decade or more behind. It managed finally to get itself televised four or five decades after TV first beamed out, but this week it surrendered meekly to the iPad just a year after the little plastic flap was announced.

Through the Looking (Local) Glass

The public sector may not be cool, sexy or even well-funded for much longer, but it still serves countless essential functions, and has just been given a technology boost via an iPhone interface (that’s right – an interface, not a full app; that’s coming later in the year) which provides access to a wealth of information from local authorities, Transport Direct, NHS Choices and Jobcentre Plus.

Developed by Looking Local – an organisation set up to provide local government services through DiTV (digital interactive TV) and mobile devices – the interface, or ‘iPhone solution’, as Looking Local call it, is plugged as a money-saving solution for councils, in that it saves them from having to develop their own iPhone ‘solution’. They can simply continue uploading information and allow Looking Local to be the middleman in providing the info to local residents.

Seems sensible enough, and as 120 UK councils are already partnered with Looking Local, there’s no financial motive at work here.

HSDPA tariffs from £400 per day

This is a tale of Eric Schmidt waking up to smell the coffee beans.

Google’s claim that the mobile platform is where the next generation of search is would be true, if they weren’t so keen to kill off the mobile data market themselves.

So I’d like to suggest that, contrary to their marketing and mission statement, Google might just be evil.

After their recent dealing with Verizon and an agreement on non-net neutral mobile networks, prices are bound to soar. Those fat cat telcos will make even more money while avoiding the fate of the music industry (and the Dodo, for that matter).

Take a brief look at today’s mobile data market and see how users really have to curb their enthusiasm for the mobile web in order to avoid the crippling data charges. With 4G networks just around the corner, our headline could well read ‘£4,000 per day’ in a year’s time.

Is Jailbreaking worth it?

I’m an iPhone 4 owner and I love it – a common sentiment I hear from my fellow aficionados. Fast and reliable, with a noticeably more resilient battery life and lasting several days on one charge, it’s exactly what I have come to expect from the boffins in Cupertino. For me, it’s almost perfect.

So why only almost?
  
My one true gripe with the sleek interface of Apples iOS is the overly-intrusive notification system that seems to require, nay, demand your immediate attention.
 

Google Android's ten great apps

With the Android platform now outselling the iOS (iPhone) platform, app developers are quickly building great apps for our beloved new smartphones.

Every app featured in the list is totally free to download from the Android marketplace.