iPad 3 and Decline of TV

As expected, iPad new version is faster with a new quad core graphics process, resolution of screen is better than just HD, battery life is same at 10 hours despite high resolution and faster processor, supports 4G connections, better camera and comes with the new version of iOS, same as iPhone 4S. Moore's law of compute power is getting played again with better power efficiency of processors and innovations in battery life.

Tablets are the new devices for gaming, browsing and home entertainment. PC continues loses mindshare, and  entertainment PC segment loses ground almost permanantly. No points for guessing the losers in this game - Microsoft, Intel and among the smaller players Adobe.

Mobile phones have almost eaten away the digital camera category, with sony, canon struggling. The next category to hit is obviously the TV industry. When screens turn touch friendly, it is hard to imagine how TV industry can remain unaffected. Power of touch and high resolution screens are likely to rock this industry. Fighting over which channel to play is common across households. TV is no longer a family entertainment device and in personal entertainment, there is no better element of interactivity than touch.  What can happen? A few guesses.....
1. Online voting on current affairs programs, chat shows is very likely.
2. Movie makers will start experimenting with multiple storylines and tracks which audience can chose at run time.
3. In fact, fight sequences can merge with games to decide the outcome and next sequence in the movie can be based the outcome of the game. Audience can be an active participant in deciding the movie outcome. There comes the convergence between games and movies.
4. Online singing/dancing competition with automatic selection and winners from shortlisted candidates through votes within hours is possible.

And this is probably only a few years away.
What do you think? Do share your opinion.

Native App vs Wrapper on HTML5 site

Games need great interactivity, rich images, speed and performance, which only a client app can provide. Flash based games over the web also work, for non serious gamers. In general, serious gaming needs app on the client device.

On the other hand, for a content site which serves content basis the search context, personalized recommendations and user profile, client app provides little advantage. News requires retrieval in real time,and freshness and relevance of content is important.  Yet a client app has several benefits, it can be customized to device specific user interface, has access to local storage or caching of content items, and can access mobile device hardware/apps for alerts and notifications, that can help in engaging with users on more regular basis.

Local storage and caching with browser based cookies may not help if the data size for caching is large or users regularly clear out browser cache for privacy and security considerations. However, if a powerful browser exists and has access to some of the unique interaction elements on the device, a browser based HTML site may match the native app in user experience.

A combination of app and HTML5 site is also possible where the app reserves the content area for server based content that is pulled in runtime and rendered using the installed browser on the device. It saves costly maintenance across platforms and yet benefits from the rights available to the client app.

What are the risks with this approach? I welcome your comments.

Protecting Your Privacy

Google has changed its privacy policies, which should enable it to access information more freely across 60 services that are part of the Google network. That means, list of contacts on gmail and connections in Google+, will they become available to Youtube and Google search? That is, location co-ordinates on Google maps and Latitude, apps downloaded on the Android phone, search queries, profile on Google+ all can be correlated to gather a 360degree view of the user. This information when collected over time will provide immense source of information about any individual. When a website uses Google network to serve ads and user is logged in to Google+, Google may use the profile information to personalize. That will mean better targeting and more revenue for both Google and the publisher site. Already, retargeting of ads is considered vaulable by the advertisers in attracting customers.

Google is not alone in seeking access to personal profile, behavior and interests information, Facebook is also collecting enormous amount of information through specific widgets like login with facebook, social media plugin used by several blogs and websites to allow Facebook authentication for two way communication. Facebook now knows which site i visited and when, besides everything i do on facebook.

While the ability to gathering information shows great promise for personalization, privacy concerns are natural. That said, users are still in partial control of their information. That may or may not be enough.

How can i protect myself?

1. Remember to logout from Facebook/gmail/youtube/google+, the moment you logout, no information can be correlated. Dynamic ip addresses provide sufficient level of anonymity even though all acts can be traced uniquely to a device.
2. Creating multiple identities for different services of Google network is probably the easiest possible solution. Don't use gmail for the account which is used for youtube or google+. While google may create correlation between devices, browsers and applications used in association with time of use, it will still create sufficient doubt to protect your privacy.  Several users share devices, two or more identities used from the same device may actually correspond to multiple users.
3. Change your service provider to another supplier, even though it appears feasible, it reduces your choice to possibly sub optimal offerings. Therefore, i prefer chosing a different browser and a new account to access these services.

Privacy is and will remain important, frauds are common, in both real and virtual world. Protecting personal information is a must and creating slices of information that cannot be correlated is probably the only possible solution.

What do you think? Will this work?