MobileViews Blog

- Facebook mood manipulation experiment (ref: WSJ: Facebook running experiments with users with little oversight)

- China shutting off access to photo sharing services in possible response to pro-Democracy protests in Hong Kong (ref: The Next Web)

- Hospitals data mining patient credit card data to predict health outcomes. (ref: Businessweek)

Todd’s In Memoriam – App-less of the week:
Bidding a fond farewell to Quickoffice for iOS & Android

Jon’s Pick of the Week: His Gmail Push Hack!

Todd Ogasawara and Jon Westfall are joined by guest panelist Steve Jocke in MobileViews Podcast 87. They discuss:

- The Supreme Court’s Aereo decision and Aereo’s shutdown on June 28. Ref: Aereo

- Items of interest announced during Google IO including the Motorola 360 smartwatch

Todd’s app pick: The Google Camera app for non-Nexus (Google Experience) Android phones.

Todd Ogasawara and Jon Westfall take on these topics in MobileViews Podcast 86:

- Amazon’s Fire Phone (Ref: CNET)

- iWatch rumors heat up (Ref: Wall Street Journal)

- Dropcam acquired by Google/Nest (Ref: Dropcam Blog)

- FCC Chair proposing $1B to install WiFi in schools in time for 2015-16 school year (Ref: FCC)

Tip for finding new or updated products. Visit:

http://www.producthunt.com/

Todd’s anti-app pick: MagiCam (99 cents intro price) from Tap Tap Tap – makers of one of my most used apps: Camera+.

Just ran into this on my Dell Venue 8 Pro running Windows 8.1 (with Update applied). I had to use Windows’ “Refresh this device” earlier this week after the Windows Store app and Desktop mode stopped working. I wonder if there is a more problematic underlying problem behind all of these problems?

In MobileViews Podcast 85, Todd Ogasawara and Jon Westfall discuss:

- DDoS attacks on Evernote, Feedly, and the prevalence of online ransoming / ransoming (i.e. the recent iCloud ransoming that happened predominately in Austrailia, CryptoLocker, etc.). Ref: BBC News

- Starbucks Powermat wireless charging spots. Ref: Chicago Tribune

- Amazon Prime Music: Amazon’s new streaming music service that is free for Amazon Prime subscribers.

- Comcast turned 150,000 home cable boxes into WiFi hotspots in Houston. Ref: Houston Chronicle

- Android OS 4.4.3 update. Reduced battery life and WiFi stability on Todd’s Nexus 4

In MobileViews podcast 84 Todd Ogasawara and Jon Westfall discuss:

- Apple’s 2014 WWDC announcements (nice roundup in The Verge)
- The rumored Apple health gadget (iWatch?) launch in October
- The $32B Sprint/T-Mobile merger (Reuters)
- Amazon’s presumed smartphone announcement scheduled for June 18.

Apple developer links (may require developer account)
- What’s new in iOS 8
- What’s new in OS/X 10.10 (Yosemite)
- Apple Swift language sample code

Todd Ogasawara and Jon Westfall discuss:
1. The strange disappearance of the well-regarded TrueCrypt Open Source software.
- First phase of 3rd party audit info here.

2. The registry hack that partially re-enables Windows XP updates

3. Status update on Springpad’s shutdown: New web-based migration tool to move notes to Evernote available. Springpad alternatives community on Google+.

4. Speculation about Apple’s WWDC 2014. Good overview here on 9to5Mac.

Jon’s app pick: Mailbox for iOS

Amazon upset a lot of people by disabling the ability to buy comic books in comiXology’s iOS apps (Amazon bought comiXology earlier this year). My ComicsViews podcast cohost, Jay Stone, was so upset by this change that he deleted the app from his iPad. He was not the only person incensed by this change to avoid paying Apple its 30% iTunes in-app-purchase cut. Amazon tried to appease comiXology’s customers but offering a $5 credit after the app change and, more recently, offering a free digital comic book every day for 20 days starting this past Memorial Day (May 26, 2014). However, I discovered one more annoying aspect to this change for iOS device users who can no longer purchase through the app: Forced to use comiXology’s web browser interface to make a purchase, I noticed that my home state’s name is spelled incorrectly – It is “Hawaii” with two “i”-s, not one. With the understanding that I make spelling errors/typos like everyone else, you would think comiXology or Amazon would have staff checking for this sort of error.

FYI: You can hear Jay and I discuss the comiXology iOS app issue in ComicsViews Podcast 51.

Apple’s App Store Distribution page reports that 88% of iOS devices are running the current version. Google’s Android Developer Dashboard reports that 8.5% of Android devices is running the current release (Kitkat 4.4).

Todd Ogasawara discusses the impending shutdown of Springpad, a web service he uses daily, with Jon Westfall. Springpad announced last week that they plan to shutdown on June 25, 2014.

Todd is testing using Pinterest (of all things!) as a bookmarkng service to replace Springpad’s excellent ability to clip and store web page references from desktop and mobile browsers. Jon suggests evaluating Evernote Clipper and Xmarks (formerly Foxmarks).

Jon also offers the three characteristics he looks for in web services.

1. Exportability
2. Transferability
3. Stability / Competitors

I haven’t tried it myself yet, but the Skype blog announced that Skype group video calls are now free.

In MobileViews Podcast 81 (recorded on April 26, 2014), Todd Ogasawara and Jon Westfall discuss.

- Streaming video set top boxes including the new Amazon Fire TV
- The 2014 version of the FCC’s view of Net Neutrality
- Apps of the week

Todd’s App of the Week: Google Camera for Kitkat 4.4 devices. The new Lens Blur feature is interesting to use. However, the chrome-less UI may annoy some

Jon’s Apps of the Week (all written by Jon):
Quick Port Tester (for Mac OS/X, $0.99) and Obscurity (for Mac OS/X, $0.99). The version for Microsoft Windows is free and available from Jon’s website.