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Nov 14, 2010

Storm clouds gathering for a new tech bubble

Phil Powell Technology 0 Comment

Fred Wilson gives a storm warning about another tech bubble:

We have enjoyed an amazing run in the web startup and investing space over the past five or six years. In this sector of startupland, company creation is up, investment is up, there are plenty of success stories, and not all of them are based on quick flips and takeouts. There is real revenue flowing through web companies and many web startups formed in the last five or six years are operating profitably. It has been good to be a web entrepreneur and a web VC, and I think it will continue to be for quite some time.

However, there are a few storm coulds out there that we need to be watching. In particular, I think the competition for “hot” deals is making people crazy and I am seeing many more unnatural acts from investors happening. If it were just valuations rising quickly, I’d be a bit less concerned. But we are also seeing large deals ($5mm to $15mm) getting done in a few days with little or no due diligence. Investors are showing up at the first meeting with term sheets. I have never seen phases like this end nicely.

Nov 8, 2010

Developers don’t rush to new platforms

Phil Powell , , , , Applications, Mobile 0 Comment

Great analysis from Marco Arment about the misconception that developers will instantly flock to a new platform:

A common fallacy is assuming that any new platform in an exciting market — recently, smartphones and tablet computers — will be flooded with developers as soon as it’s released, as if developers are just waiting outside the gates, hungrily waiting to storm in.

In two recent cases, that’s exactly what happened: the iPhone and the iPad. (And probably the Mac App Store next.) So important people, including the tech press, consumers, and many hardware manufacturers themselves, assume that every new hardware platform will be greeted with the same rush of high-quality software.

It’s really worth reading the full article, which proposes that the iPhone and iPad development ecosystem is thriving so much for three reasons: dogfooding, install base and profitability. And he concludes with this question:

Now, consider this fall’s tablet computers. Can you say with confidence thatany of them will address these three needs well enough, and for enough developers, to ensure a steady supply of quality software?

Nov 3, 2010

A hint at Facebook’s plans for tablets

Phil Powell , , Applications, Mobile, Web 0 Comment

Ben Parr summarises his opportunity to quiz Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Mobile VP Erik Tseng on Facebook’s plans for the iPad:

After a bit more back-and-forth between Zuckerberg and me, Tseng stepped in to explain that Facebook is still trying to figure out its approach and strategy for tablet devices. Because tablets are a new form factor, it requires a new approach.

The real hint to Facebook’s iPad plans, though, is that Tseng focused on the form factor and not iOS. This could mean that Facebook’s looking to build an HTML5 version of its website optimized for tablets. At the very least, Facebook seems intent on keeping a consistent experience across all tablet devices.

What’s most telling though, is Zuckerberg’s response when asked about the iPad at a mobile press event:

iPad’s not mobile. Next question.

Nov 3, 2010

Baker ebook Framework

Phil Powell , , , , Applications, Creative, Design, HTML5, Publishing 0 Comment

Baker is an open-source HTML5 ebook framework for publishing books on the iPad using open web standards. From the website:

To design for the Baker Framework you just have to build HTML5 pages with a fixed width of 768px and you can unleash the power of WebKit.

That’s all. Use your favorite tools, test it on the iPad from Safari, refine as much as you want.

It seems to have a workflow – which is being refined – which allows you to easily compile your HTML5 as an application which is ready for submission to the Apple spp store.

Mashable has a short feature on the framework:

“HTML5 is out there,” co-founder Davide Casali wrote us in an e-mail. “Why is nobody really making the convergence between the publishing industry and the web, and why are we confined to those crappy designed epubs?” he asks.

Casali and his team hope their creation will lead to more beautiful e-books and digital magazines on the iPad, and for other WebKit-enabled devices later.

Ber interesting to see how this develops and what gets created with it. I’m sure the fact that it’s being released under a BSD license will encourage plenty of experimentation.

Nov 2, 2010

Editing Flip camera footage in Final Cut Pro

Phil Powell , , , , , , , Editing, Video 1 Comment

I love my Flip camera – it’s portable, instant-on nature makes it ideal for throwing into my pocket whenever I might have something to film in a hurry.

Because it records in an MPEG 4 format though, it doesn’t provide the easiest files for editing. The software provided with the camera is OK for most things (and it’s great to be able to upload directly to YouTube et al), but when it comes to editing which involves anything more complex than just stringing a bunch of clips together, I need to fall back on something more powerful.

Final Cut Pro is my primary weapon of choice when it comes to video, but it doesn’t natively handle MPEG 4 files very well – and nor should it: MPEG 4 is a hefty codec intended for distribution.

So I’ve had to come up with a little workflow to convert that lovely Flip footage into something which will play nicely with Final Cut Pro. MPEG Streamclip to the rescue!

I love MPEG Streamclip – it’s my swiss army knife for doing any kind of video file wrangling. It’ll handle pretty much any file conversion job you can throw at it, and always comes to the rescue when I need to format A isn’t playing nicely with format B.

So, to get that Flip footage working with FCP, it’s just a case of firing up MPEG Streamclip and opening the a source Flip file (once you’be got them saved to a folder on your hard drive). Then just follow these simple steps:

  1. Go to the “File” menu and choose “Export to Quicktime…”
  2. In the “Compression” drop-down choose “Apple DVCPRO HD 720p60″
  3. Select “Make Movie”, choose a location for your output file, and that’s it.

It couldn’t be simpler!

Why the DVCPRO HD 720p60 codec? Well, the native Flip video format is 720p HD, with a frame rate of 30fps – this is the best fit for conversion. DVCPRO will give you excellent quality video without losing too much in the conversion.

Now, to edit this footage in Final Cut, all you need to do is create a sequence using the “DVCPRO HD 720p30 preset, and you’re away.

Nov 1, 2010

The real problem with Adobe

Phil Powell Applications 0 Comment

Interesting post by Edwin Watkeys on why Adobe doesn’t really care about the primary users of their produtcs:

I want to say that Adobe doesn’t really care about you, dear Photoshop or Illustrator or InDesign user, but that’s not really true. They do care about you. But I think they see meeting your needs as instrumental to doing what they really want to do, which is wedge themselves into every nook and cranny of a large organization. You’re their beachhead. You’re their entrée into the enterprise.

[...]

Let’s assume Adobe does release a compiler that renders Flash using an alphabet soup of open-ish web technologies: That would provide some evidence that they do indeed care about helping their users do what they want to. But I believe that the structure of Adobe’s business provides a constant pressure that resists this sort of behavior.

Nov 1, 2010

Microsoft’s strategy for Silverlight has shifted

Phil Powell , , Applications, HTML5, Mobile, Web 0 Comment

Unlike Adobe, Microsoft seem to be understanding that HTML5 is the only true cross-platform solution:

When Microsoft first showed off Internet Explorer 9, its most HTML 5 compliant version of IE to date, in March of this year, questions began to arise about the company’s commitment to Silverlight. Officials insisted that the two would coexist and that Silverlight would be Microsoft’s cross-platform development platform for mobile, Web and PC platforms for a number of years to come, as HTML 5 was far from becoming an accepted standard.

But in the past few months, Microsoft’s backing of HTML 5 has gotten more aggressive. Microsoft is pushing HTML 5 as the way developers can make their Web sites look more like apps.

This is a smart move by Microsoft: they can continue to develop Silverlight as a development platform for Windows Phone, whilst encouraging developers to create cross-platform applications with HTMl5 – best of both worlds, and it won’t cost them anything.

Nov 1, 2010

Adobe shows off Flash-to-HTML5 conversion tool

Phil Powell , , , , , HTML5, Web 0 Comment

Ars Technica report about the recent demo of an Adobe tool for converting Flash to HTML5:

Even though its Flash technology is used as a punching bag by Web standards fans, Adobe has been building tools that embrace HTML5. The company recently released its own HTML5 video player, and Adobe Illustrator and Dreamweaver CS5 now contain a number of new HTML5 export tools.

Now it seems Flash might be joining the party. At Adobe’s MAX conference this week, Adobe engineer Rik Cabanier showed of a demo of tool that converts Flash animations to HTML5 (well, technically it looks like a combination of HTML5, CSS and images).

Yes, it’s great that Adobe are slowly shifting towards the HTML5 camp, but they’re really late to the party. The demo of this tool, although technically quite clever, really is a horrible semantic butchery job. And again, this is Adobe pitching HTML5 as an umbrella term for a mish-mash of modern technologies – even John Nack, the Adobe employee who originally posted the video of this demo, is flagrantly open about this mis-appropriation:

Someone will probably start quibbling with the use of “HTML5″ as a stand-in for SVG, CSS3, Canvas, etc. I know, I know. I use the umbrella term in the loose, commonly understood sense: “Flash stuff without Flash.

Sigh. Is that really how they think about next-generation standards at Adobe? “Flash stuff without Flash”?

Nov 1, 2010

Khoi Vinh on iPad magazine apps

Phil Powell , , Applications, Design, Publishing 0 Comment

Khoi Vinh on the rush of publications hitting the iPad:

My opinion about iPad-based magazines is that they run counter to how people use tablets today and, unless something changes, will remain at odds with the way people will use tablets as the medium matures. They’re bloated, user-unfriendly and map to a tired pattern of mass media brands trying vainly to establish beachheads on new platforms without really understanding the platforms at all.

The fact of the matter is that the mode of reading that a magazine represents is a mode that people are decreasingly interested in, that is making less and less sense as we forge further into this century, and that makes almost no sense on a tablet. As usual, these publishers require users to dive into environments that only negligibly acknowledge the world outside of their brand, if at all — a problem that’s abetted and exacerbated by the full-screen, single-window posture of all iPad software. In a media world that looks increasingly like the busy downtown heart of a city — with innumerable activities, events and alternative sources of distraction around you — these apps demand that you confine yourself to a remote, suburban cul-de-sac.

Nov 1, 2010

iPad Opens World to a Disabled Boy

Phil Powell , , Accessibility 0 Comment

An anecdotal little piece from The New York Times about the iPad as an enabling device for a young boy with a motor-neuron disease:

Owen, 7, does not have the strength to maneuver a computer mouse, but when a nurse propped her boyfriend’s iPad within reach in June, he did something his mother had never seen before.

He aimed his left pointer finger at an icon on the screen, touched it — just barely — and opened the application Gravitarium, which plays music as users create landscapes of stars on the screen. Over the years, Owen’s parents had tried several computerized communications contraptions to give him an escape from his disability, but the iPad was the first that worked on the first try.

There are also some interesting insights about the adoption of the device amongst different groups of disabled users:

For a mainstream technological device like the iPad to have been instantly embraced by the disabled is unusual. It is far more common for items designed for disabled people to be adapted for general use, like closed-captioning on televisions in gyms or GPS devices in cars that announce directions. Also, most mainstream devices do not come with built-ins like the iPad’s closed-captioning, magnification and audible readout functions — which were intended to keep it simple for all users, but also help disabled people.

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