Becoming a Mobile Developer

I know a lot of people are interested in getting their piece of the metaphorical mobile pie, and I felt I should help people sort through all the info in cyberspace. So, let's get to it.


Becoming a Mobile Developer (Sorta...)

Google+ vs Facebook

So I've been on Google+ for awhile now and I think Google finally figured it out, social networking that is. Well... mostly that is. Circles are great. They feel like a much easier version of Facebook Groups. Hangouts seem a little gimmicky. Nonetheless, it is free video chat. Huddles is Google's attempt at group chat. I haven't tried Huddles yet, but I have a feeling it may be harmful for GroupMe.

The death of print...

For the past couple years, everyone has been calling for the death of the newspapers. I have been right there along side my fellow techies and bloggers declaring the rise of internet news. And the headlines seem to agree with us. Every day it seems another newspaper is shutting down or laying off workers. Many of them are scrambling towards digitizing themselves. More are simply disappearing silently. But yesterday, I had this semi crazy idea of trying to get a small local paper to publish a tech column. Along with that, who better to write the column than me? (Don't answer that) I think it would be great. There are tech start-ups all over that no one knows about simply because they are not located in California or New York. I think these small Ohio start-ups deserve a little credit as well. Ohio is by no means a technological state compared to others, but we do offer some great innovations from time to time. If you happen to be reading this and are in the early stages of your start up, I would love to help you get the word out about you product. Shoot me an email at matt@my-hes.net

Facebook's New Products

Although three products were announced, I feel the first two products were more revisions than new products. Group chat and a new sidebar... I don't know about you but a sidebar is the last thing that gets me excited. So let's focus on the last product. Video Chat, that was the bombshell everyone was looking for. The bigger bombshell, Skype. The new video chat is powered by Skype. This in my opinion is a game changer. One click to connect and a plugin download in under 30 seconds. I would say the can not get much simpler than that. The product is already rolling out today. I'd imagine most users will see these products start shown up in the next week or two.

HTC EVO 3D

I finally replaced my quickly aging HTC Hero. I have to say I'm not surprised by the excellent build quality of this phone. It has a very solid feel to it. Now the 3D is a little gimicky but that's not why I bought the phone. The speed is what sold me. There is no lag. None. Period. The Google Voice integration is pretty good. And the picture quality is also excellent. People deemed the originally EVO an iPhone killer. The EVO 3D kills the original EVO. With that being said, I believe that Apple is now required to release the iPhone 5 this year. I have yet to find anything I don't like about this phone. I even feel that it gets better reception, but it may just be a placebo effect. The stock keyboard isn't bad, but I am a fan of the swype keyboard. I strongly suggest this phone.

Overall - 9/10

-Matt