Yesterday I installed on my Motorola Droid what I can definitely consider the most innovative application that should be available by default for any touchscreen smartphone: Swype.

What is Swype? From Wikipedia:

Swype allows a user to enter a word by sliding a finger or stylus from letter to letter, lifting only between words. It uses error correcting algorithms and a language model to guess the word intended. It also includes a tapping predictive text system in the same interface. The creators of Swype predict that users will achieve over 50 words per minute, with the CTO and Founder Cliff Kushler claiming to have reached 55 words per minute.

It’s basically an input method that makes way easier and faster to type a text in any edit box. Here is a video that shows how it works.

You know what? After I installed it yesterday I’m still wondering why it is not the default input method. You need just a bit of practice (really a bit!) and it works great (both in English and Italian). If  you want to get it for your Android phone (OS < 2 ) you can easily get it from the Android Market, while if you have a Droid/Milestone or a Nexus One, you can get it from the following link:

Swipe for Motorola Droid and Nexus One

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As many of you maybe don’t know, my background as an engineer is in the field of video coding and digital communications (ten years ago I also published an article on “fractal video coding”, not sure anyone ever read it…) , so I always kept an eye (in particular in the past) on everything related to research and development in the field of video technologies.

Since the  years spent at the University in the 90’s, both the israeli Radvision and the italian Aethra were two companies students watched carefully, both deeply involved in designing and developing innovative solutions in this field. Now it looks like a consolidation process is going on, since Radvision announced yesterday that they bought some important assets of the company, in particular related to intellectual property and technology. Here is what Radvision’s CEO Boaz Raviv actually said:

First, it is important to understand that we are not buying an operating business because Aethra has not been conducting any business for many months due to their financial difficulties. Rather, we are mainly buying intellectual property and technology assets. We plan to integrate these into our existing product portfolio to create a more complete solution portfolio. Based on this, we expect to start shipping products based on the Aethra technology at the end of Q2 2010 after we have integrated the endpoint technology and product designs with our SCOPIA product portfolio, completed testing and certification, and ramped up operations.

On one side, I’m very happy about the deal (around $10 Million). I always admired Radvision, a company built around a mix of innovation, strong technology and smart minds, a company that, when I was a student, I was definitely looking forward to working for. On the other side, I’m sad to hear that a very smart and innovative italian company like Aethra (actually a 30+ years old company!) was struggling due to financial difficulties, something other “old” companies in the field of telephony / telecommunications are dealing with. The cause? Lack of a strong and differentiated customer base and, sometimes/probably, managers with lack of vision. I don’t know much about this specific case, but sometimes being a 30-40 years old company doesn’t help. And they have been lucky enough to have Radvision as a partner already.

In conclusion, I look forward to watching what’s next and what new innovative products this deal will bring to the market. If you are either into the video communication business or a seasoned user of video conferencing solutions, stay tuned

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A few days ago I read about the new click to call service for Facebook launched by VoIP Company 8×8 (US only), “8×8 Connect”. Both Om Malik and Andy Abramson shared their thoughts on the service, so I’d like to add my 2 cents to the discussion, being click to call the main business my company is embracing and since it is slowly becoming the #1 revenue source for us. First of all we must define what click to call means. From Wikipedia:

Click-to-call (CTC) refers to the process of converting web-based traffic into direct telephony communication between an end user and some other entity. CTC originates out of the older PC2PC telephony whereby a client is downloaded onto your own personal computer to “talk” to the same client downloaded into the other party’s PC for the conversation (with vendors such as Net2Phone).

It is important to highlight that we can define a few different types of click to call, depending on how these are offered to the market.

Consumer Click to Call

In this case, a person who is subscribed to a certain VoIP service, has the ability to place a button on his website/email to let others call him/her to the phone number provided by that VoIP service. In most cases this phone number is linked to an IP phone or a Softphone. Moreover, people using that click to call feature usually have to use their PC to make the call. The call is free for both the customer and the user.

Business Click to Call

It is similar to the previous case (service offered by a VoIP provider) but the users have now the ability to use it through a call back. This means they can insert their phone number into a form and the system will call them back and connect to the company. A company agent will be likely taking the call from an IP phone. The company will be charged for the call.

Premium Click to Call

In this case users of the service will get some sort of benefit from using it: call to a lawyer for a consultancy, call to an “expert” to get advice and so on. It could also be a way to engage a prospect. In this latter case, the example made by Andy in his posts fits very well. Think of Linkedin offering a service like that, similar to the “InMail”, but through a phone call…

Mobile Click to Call

Most of the times we are referring to a call activated by clicking on a link placed on an app / browser of a smartphone / mobile phone. The user is charged for the call, unless a toll free number is called. In the latter case, sometimes different toll free numbers are used. Usually no VoIP is involved.

Lead Generation / Customer Engagement Click to Call

This is the market where my company operates with Sitofono. In this case a business that wants to engage more users online and convert website’s visitors into customers, activates a click to call service like Sitofono. Free for the user, paid (flat) by the business. In this case the business hasn’t to be subscribed to any VoIP service since the click to call service calls their regular phone number and 99,9% of the users use the call back capability (no PC to Phone since just less than 0,001 % actually use it). Some providers charge per call (pay-per-call) so depending on the number of lead opportunities the service created (not Sitofono, for various reasons). It is important to point out that in this case the placement of the button is crucial since the more calls the business receives the higher the probability to finalize a deal is. For this reason this type of click to call can be splitted into a few sub-types

The list above is not exhaustive, but it covers most of the options available in the market. The monetization strategy for those various click to call options is different and it usually depends on a mixture of elements: target market, available features, target users and so on.

All that said, let’s get back to the Facebook case. Facebook is the biggest social network worldwide where users tend to use a few different methods to interact with each other, mostly through comments to notes/images/wall posts etc., messages, chat sessions and, last but not least, there is an important role played by “pull information“, where users post news and info to their wall or their fan/product page where other users can consume them. The service introduced by 8×8 offers a new for people communicate on Facebook, something that could be used in place of a normal phone call.

The final goal is clear. 8×8 President Dan Weirich confirmed it in the press release:

“Many Facebook users are small business owners or employees in larger enterprises who will use this application in their personal and business lives and will hopefully look to 8×8 when seeking business communications solutions in the future. Making this technology available to a wider audience is something we believe will help 8×8 establish itself as the pre-eminent brand for next generation communication solutions.”

In a word, advertising. Their main business is to provide communication solutions to businesses and enterprises and Facebook is a great way to reach out a wider audience. Good move. I like it because my company does the same with our Sitofono. Owners of Sitofono can place their service on their fan/personal page so that others can see it and, hopefully, get it for their business too. Different business model behind it, different products, but same way to get the most out of Facebook. Here is an example: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cagliari-Italy/Continuita-Territoriale/62498776632?ref=ts

There is a downside, though. The problem is the context where a service like this from 8×8 has been placed. People on Facebook will never use a service like that to call each other and, most importantly, from everyone who comes across their homepage.

On Facebook, taking care of privacy is rule #1 and this service certainly doesn’t help. Andy suggests that a service like this could make more sense on LinkedIn (Premium click to call described above). I agree, but with LinkedIn in the middle. It could be a great alternative to the “InMail”, a service that LinkedIn charges for. I bet that also on LinkedIn most people would rise huge walls to protect their privacy and most calls would end to a voicemail.

Despite this, I can confirm that companies that use Facebook at its best, are getting calls from our Sitofono, so it all depends on how people use the service. I don’t think a click to call placed on a normal Facebook profile would be used too much, but the story is different if we talk about a company/brand that use their page for marketing and promotional purposes. And this could make the difference for 8×8 Connect, too.

In conclusion, I’ll keep looking at this space very closely and I look forward to seeing more and more people using services like that on Facebook, despite I think that most Facebook users will still use it in a different way and trying to take care of their privacy carefully. What do you think?

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Yesterday I started using Foursquare seriously. I installed it on my Droid and tested it in a few location in Milan.

As you can imagine, I don’t think there are too many Foursquare users in Italy. I created a few new venues both where I live (Sardinia, the island…) and in Milan and saw that both a few US visitors and italian users created many venues in Milan, too.

The main point is: why is Google not offering a service similar to Foursquare or GoWalla? I asked myself this question yesterday while I was having lunch in a pretty popular restaurant in Milan. I saw it was not listed in Foursquare so I decided to add it. Unfortunately I didn’t remember the name of the street, so I went to Google Maps on my Droid and searched for the name of the restaurant. I don’t need to tell you that I found all the relevant information about that venue and could easily fill the missed fields in the new item I was creating in Foursquare….and for a while I searched for an option like “Add to Foursquare” on Google Maps…

The point is that Google Maps + Google Latitude could potentially provide everything to build a way, way better service than Foursquare, with advanced presence capabilities. That being said, why is not Google pushing it? Will Google ever buy Foursquare or a similar service?

The value in Foursquare is, in my opinion, all the users’ usage history, the places they visited, the comments they left and the frequency they visited a certain place. That is a big value in terms of advertising, data that Google is a master in leveraging. On the other hand, Foursquare can’t provide the huge database of venues and businesses Google maps relies on, a tremendous value that could take Foursquare to the next level.

What do you think?

….TweetCaster!

After having switched to Android (check my posts on my new Droid/Milestone here and here) one of the apps I missed the most is my faithful SocialScope, the best app to manage Twitter and Facebook available for BlackBerry. So a question arised: is there a Twitter app for Android that is comparable to SocialScope in terms of features and usability?

After some research, I downloaded (and paid for) Twidroid. It seemed to be the best: multiple accounts, lots of settings, support for the latest features introduced by Twitter, easy to use and so on. Then I downloaded Seesmic. Despite it provides a lot less features than Twidroid (no multiple accounts, no new retweet feature etc.), I found it much more usable and I liked the user interface better (and it is free, too). Moreover, less buggy. Twidroid is incredibly buggy (found a lot of users complaining), lots of unexpected exits, graphical issues and so on.

Last but not least, I came accross a review of TweetCaster for Android. While I knew it already for BlackBerry, I was surprised to read that it was not available for Android yet but it was going to be tested by a bunch of beta tester. In a nutshell, according to the reviews, very promising.

After some Googling I found a link from which I could download and install the app (not official, I guess…). Guys, definitely the best. All the advanced features you need are there, very usable and polished, it works very well for both a power user like me or for the “average” user. Multiple accounts, trends, search pad, threads, lists, favorites, themes and so on. Really very well designed and implemented.

You can check a few screenshots thanks to DroidDog at this link.

I look forward to the official release, hopefully available on the Android Market, too. Would I pay for it? Yes!

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One week ago I shared my first impressions about the new Motorola Milestone (the EU version of the Droid) I got to review. Now, one week later, I have a lot more to write since I started using that smartphone intensely everyday.

For those who missed my first review, you can find it here. In particular, I remind you I come from a BlackBerry Bold, so I’m trying to find out what the Droid does better and what doesn’t. Here are a few more thoughts about some aspect of the device.

Keyboard

In the other post I wrote I was missing the BB keyboard. I have to say that after a week I’m missing it less, since I’m fully getting used to the physical keyboard the Milestone offers. The only downside is, I repeat, it is a Qwertz, so I still have difficulties in remembering where “z” and “y” are located. Except for this little issue, after a bit of practice, Droid’s keyboard works very well.

On the contrary, I still find the virtual keyboard not that intuitive. Lots of typos, I can barely use it very slowly. I also installed an app called “better keyboard“, but it doesn’t help that much since it would be perfect for those who write in one language only, but in my case I have to switch from ITA to ENG and vice-versa very often, something that in the long run makes you loose a lot of precious time.

Battery

I have to say the Droid drains a lot of battery. During normal usage, I hit 12 hours since my latest recharge, but if I start making and receiving a lot of calls, battery duration drops tremendously. I’m using a very nice tool called BatteryTime Lite, that shows the exact time you get in case you use this or that functionality only. Now I have 30% left, and this apps tells me that it’s equivalent to 80.59 hours idle, 1.37h talk time, 1.18 web surfing etc.

I also installed a few widgets that let my easily and quickly switch Bluetooth and Wifi on or off, in order to optimize the battery’s consumption. Last but not least, I have to say that battery duration is getting better overtime, thanks to the complete charge-discharge cycles.

GMail

While push email works very well, the GMail app suffers of a big problem: you can’t save attachments. For word documents, if you have Documents to Go installed, you can open and save them from there. For other files, like .mp3 or .wav files, pdf and images, there is no way to save them. I haven’t found any way to do anything but preview them, at least. Any idea?

D-Pad

In my previous post I wrote I missed my old, faithful trackball on my BlackBerry. Now I can say I have something very similar to it: the D-Pad. It’s located on the right side of the Keyboard and it lets easily scroll up/down/left/right, making it easier to move around. Love it.

Browser

Last time I said that web surfing on the Droid was much better than on the BB Bold. Now I have to say this is even more true. I downloaded a very powerful browser for the Android platform, Dolphin Browser (version 2 released yesterday), and it makes web surfing even better and powerful. It also provides shortcuts to quickly open Google apps and commonly used websites as well as the ability to share links with the major social networks. Very fast and usable, big thumb up.

Any comment? Any useful tip from experienced Android users? Please stay tuned if you want to know more about my new gadget, a new post is coming out very soon

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It is official, today FREETALK Connect has been announced and this is a date you should bookmark since a revolution starts today.

Thanks to FREETALK Connect, any small and medium business with up to 50 users, can add the power of Skype to their telephony system, bringing inbound and outbound Skype calling to any office phone. Jim Courtney, who is collaborating for In Store Solutions, the company behind Freetalk Connect, well summarizes the main features provided by this innovative appliance:

accepting inbound calls made via Skype, a Skype Online number, a SIP client, Asterisk (IAX2) or the PSTN, via either an analog line or a VoIP service provider.

• incorporating Find Me, Follow Me features

accept calls on local analog phone lines, local or remote VoIP phones, mobile phones anywhere or remote PSTN-accessed phones – all provisioned within the PBX.

placing outbound calls over Skype, SkypeOut, a SIP-connected VoIP service or an analog PSTN line.

managed voice mail including consolidation of voice mail and email into one mailbox

This innovative piece of hardware and software comes from the partnership between InStore Solutions, the company popular for providing high-quality audio devices for Skype (I reviewed one a few months ago and another one, the Freetalk Wireless headset, will be reviewewd soon) and Jazinga. From the today’s press release:

FREETALK and Jazinga collaborated in designing the FREETALK Connect, featuring a do-it-yourself (DIY) technology approach that can be configured in less than 15 minutes, enabling users who are not tech savvy to use it without formal training. This new class of DIY communications system allows anyone with basic knowledge of computers to install and maintain the office phone system.  SIP, Skype and traditional PSTN phones can be plugged into the network, and the FREETALK Connect auto-detects and configures them. An onscreen wizard guides the user through setup. Adding users and administering the system after install is equally simple.

I’m really looking forward to trying it out, I have a few ideas in mind that will definitely leverage the powerful engine inside this great device. If you want to get more technical details, follow Andrew Hansen on Twitter.

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via 9GAG

Yesterday I received a Motorola Milestone (the EU version of the Droid) for testing purposes kindly offered by a local store. Faithful readers should be aware I’ve been using a BlackBerry Bold lately and definitely loved it. At the same time, I’m a geek and early adopter so I’m very curious to test this Milestone and will keep you posted with my comments and opinions. Let’s start, after 24 hours.

Display

Droid’s display is huge, twice the one of the Bold. I can’t but be happy about that, the UI you get is wonderful.

Signal / Radio

The Motorola Milestone/Droid is a REAL phone, the audio quality and reception is way, way better than the BlackBerry. I always complained about voice quality (my wife who has a BB herself complains everyday, too) and the Droid’s voice is way ahead, hands down.

Battery

I’ve been using it for the past 24 hours, and I can say battery duration is almost similar to the Bold. I used some tricks to extend the battery life of the Droid, so I did for the Bold. Will keep you posted on this item.

Keyboard

The Droid has a physical and a virtual keyboard. I still prefer the BlackBerry’s one, but I practiced a lot on it so I must give the Droid one more chance. Moreover, don’t ask me why, the keyboard of my Milestone is a QWERTZ and not QWERTY…

Push Email

The Droid offers push services for Google Apps. This means GMail pushes new email in realtime. Since I have all my accounts on GMail, I get push email. The BlackBerry has a wonderful red light that flashes to notify you about new email, while the little green one of the Droid is not that useful…

Browser

Not comparable, way, way better on the Droid. Moreover the Milestone, unlike the US Droid, has multitouch, so the browsing experience is definitely awesome.

Twitter

I’m using both Twidroid and Seesmic, both very well designed. Twidroid is a bit better in terms of features, plus it supports multi-account, while I prefer Seesmic for the tabbed approach. Both lack of the ability to easily open a new tab for one or more lists.

Facebook

Thanks to the huge screen, it provides a very good user experience. The Android FB app looks very well done, nothing less than the latest version I’ve been using on my Bold lately.

App Store

The Android Market is huge and installing/buying apps is straightforward. RIM has still lot of work to be done to make their BB World comparable…

What I’m missing from my Bold so far

• The red, flashing light
• The trackball/trackpad
• The keyboard
• Socialscope (best social media client for BB)

What I DON’T miss from my Bold

• the hourglass (painful…)
• slowness
• the fact I need to pull the battery often (twice a day lately)
• voice quality

Will keep you posted, stay tuned for the second episode of “Droid does, BlackBerry doesn’t”.

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Today I came accross an interesting interview to Amit Singhal from Google, lead developer of Google’s real-time search. He explained how a “tweet” is ranked by Google and why a uses has a higher reputation than another user.

Amit’s analysis is pretty clear: the approach used by Google is very similar to the one used for PageRank, the popular algorithm Google uses to rank websites.

In the case of tweets, the key is to identify “reputed followers,” says Amit Singhal, a Google Fellow, who led development of real-time search. (Twitterers “follow” the comments of other Twitterers they’ve selected, and are themselves “followed.”). ”You earn reputation, and then you give reputation. If lots of people follow you, and then you follow someone–then even though this [new person] does not have lots of followers,”

While it makes sense, I disagree on the overall approach. If I put a link on my website/blog post/online article, I’m explicitely “endorsing” the content at that URL. This way, if that website is linked a lot of times by many different other websites, its pagerank will be affected positively.

On the contrary I follow a Twitter user, I’m not explicitly endorsing him/her, neither necessarily paying attention to what he/she tweets. At the same time, If I follow a certain user and I have a lot of followers, this doesn’t mean that if “my reputation” is very high I should give “more” reputation to the user I’m following.

All that being said, when we designed my company’s realtime Twitter search engine Tweefind, we chose a more complex but accurate way to assign a rank to a Twitter user, that takes into account almost 30 parameters and followers/following contributes just a bit to the total rank. This is because we give more value to how Twitter users engage and participate to conversations, how much their tweets get retweeted and how much they get involved in the Twitter experience.

To say it in other words, I don’t think my rank should be higher if I get followed by Techcrunch, Mashable, Alyssa Milano or Robert Scoble, but it should be affected just in case those (for example) users interact with my twitter stream, favorite my tweets, retweet my content and so on. That’s what matters on Twitter and I’m honestly a bit concerned that Google is not taking all this stuff into account. This post by Google Operating System somehow confirms this approach.

What do you think? Is Google not telling everything about how they rank tweets? Let’s start a discussion, leave a comment down here, I’m very interested to know your thoughts on this subject.

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