In the battle to beat the iPad lets take a look at the Kindle Fire and weigh up its chances. Has it got the guts for glory?

Amazons seven-inch Kindle fire is more akin to the Blackberry Playbook than the iPad in size. In fact, it’s about the same size as a decent novel. No surprises there coming from Amazon, considering they now sell more ebooks than hardcovers.

Firstly consider the cost, at just £130 it is almost £220 pounds cheaper than the cheapest iPad. At that price there’s also far less concern about loosing it, sitting on it, spreading jam on it or getting mugged for it. That makes it affordable to a much bigger audience.

Then there’s the operating system: Running Android it’s sharing a platform with the majority of the smart phone market. That should let users hook into the Android store and benefit from 1000’s of apps. Another reason, in my view, why the Playbook is a less attractive device and the Kindle Fire is more of a threat to Apple.

The device itself is basic, with 8GB of storage, a 7” display and no onboard camera, microphone or 3G connectivity. You certainly get what you pay for, but if your looking for an eReader that taps into the Amazon marketplace and gives you access to the Android app store, then you should be content to put up with a lower spec device than the iPad.

If anything is going to give Apple a run for its money, it has to be this. Windows have failed to make any kind of meaningful impression and the much-hyped Playbook is very disappointing in my opinion. A device like the Kindle Fire could be perfect for turning the masses onto tablets, and could even see the balance of power edge away from Apple. Maybe.

It’s looking unlikely that we will see this device launched in the UK before Christmas, which is a shame, as I can think of a few people, my parents and children included, whom this device would be perfect for. If you happen to be in the States you can grab one on 15th November or thereabouts.

Previously, on the Critical Path….

Everything I ever wrote on mobile, or a really specific article on Android vs iOS and 101 ways to count market share.

If your wondering where to start, or considering building an iPhone app to promote your organisation, these 10 key steps will help you get started. Often the hardest thing is figuring out where to begin and the pitfalls your going to want to avoid. Find your purpose, understand how to add value, keep it simple and the path will be considerably smoother.

More Critical Path ideas on Mobile, apps and digital marketing:

Mobile app building tools

Android vs iOS

One of my own apps, the No.1 rated free business apps (for a while)

Digital engagement strategies

It’s the weekend so here’s a quick weekend post on the new LinkedIn app.

First things first: It’s an app, it’s for iOS so it lives in the iTunes store. Pretty simple, so far and so simple to find I wont even bore you with the link. It’s also free, so there is no need to worry about app to cash value ratio calculations. Worst-case scenario you can just delete it and pretend you were never foolish enough to download it in the first place.

Once it’s downloaded, fire it up, enter you LinkedIn username and password (or register for an account if for some bizarre reason you haven’t already and your good to go.

The load screen does a little song and dance, which serves no purpose other than to allow the developer to brag to his mates in the pub about the great song and dance load screen he made for no apparent reason. That fanfare sets the scene and presents you with four key options.

Updates: Does what it says on the tin and provides you with a flow of your LinkedIn updates.

You: All your personal information, recent activity and connections.

Groups & More: A window into all of your groups.

Inbox: Errm, your inbox.

The UI is really well designed and thought out and all four sections are well designed and deliver just what you would expect. The only issue I had was how to get back a level (you press the arrow at the top of the screen). This really is a great example of an app well done, and a pleasant surprise among a sea of mediocre user interfaces and dubious usefulness out there.

With over 425’000 apps now available to download it would be nice to see some control mechanism that rewarded quality and pushed apps like this to the top of the pile. You could argue that the ratings systems does this organically, but in my experience ratings are often no more than bitchy remarks by rival developers / businesses and do little to give a true indication of quality.

This is a great app. If your still using LinkedIn, and have an iOS device then you should probably stop reading and download it now. When you have done that, you can read my post about maximising your LinkedIn profile and turn yourself into a kick-ass, digital savvy, networked professional. While your at it look me up and Link in to me. Im always keen to connect and share ideas, thoughts and recommendations.

The good people at Mashable posted yesterday on 4 tools for building a mobile business app.

According to Mashable “Affordable do-it-yourself alternatives give all companies — even those with minimal tech expertise — a way to create their own apps”. And whilst that may be true in spirit, in practice I think it means a flood of poor designs, poor usability and frustrated downloaders.

With the exception of Red Foundry’s offering, all the platforms have in common, the ability to build and distribute apps out of the box. WISIWIG click to play style tools are often great, but rarely have the stability of a properly coded program. Remember the web pages that MS Word used to create? Heavy in code and light in quality. I think we are witnessing the early days of the web all over again, and whilst those days were exciting they sure produced a lot of rubbish.

My first corporate app was a huge learning curve and taught me just how difficult it is to build a quality product. From selecting an initial idea from hundreds of others, to wireframes, mockups, UX design, coding and testing to the app store take time, a great team, and a significant level of knowledge. So whilst it’s good to see the barrier to entry reduced, I think people need to go into this with open eyes and understand a partnership with an experienced development house is going to bake a much tastier app that and out of the box solution.

Drop me a note for some industry insights, check out my other posts on mobile or my friends at the Chelsea Apps Factory for more mobile development insight.

After yesterdays post on the City and Colour I started rifling through iPhoto to see what other images I had created using an iPhone. I was quite pleasantly suprised to pull together a number of travel pictures taken over the last 18 months that I thought were worth sharing. Messing around editing pictures on your phone is a strangely calming way to while away the time waiting to board a flight / jet lagged at 0400 / stuck in a job that sucks, and  iPhone and apps aside, it’s as good as free.

Heres a link to gallery of some of my recent iPhone travel snaps on Flickr hope you enjoy them.

Greate article in wired magazine comparing the reach of iOS v’s Android when ALL iOS devices are counted. Whilst the guys at Nielson are calling a princely 20 million iPhone sales last quarter they neglect to mention  the other iOS devices that brings the number of iOS compatible devices sold to nearly 37 million. Which is a lot in anyones money.

If like me you are campaigning for marketing budget to roll out apps this is a big deal. Depending on your industry (professional services in my case) you probably want to cover off the major smart phones. RIM have a trillion interfaces and a terrible apps store which in my optinion make them better suited to mobile web solutions. Android and iOS both have blossoming app stores where getting something in the top 10 will makes a huge difference to download figures.

Considering it costs pretty much twice the proce to develop for iOS and Android a better understand of compatible devices is no bad thing. So thank you Wired for bringing the matter to my attention.

All those years of watching Top of the Pops every week and finally I too have a number one – app that is. I launched the Salary Checker app last week and at last count it was the No.1 free business app in Australia and Singapore, No.3 in Malaysia and No.7 in the U.K. where we have yet to do any marketing.

After some significant toil we (My Team + Think Tank) have our first iPhone app in the shops and ready to roll. It is a free offering that checks salaries for 20 counties around the world in a number of disciplines and roles.

Using data from the Robert Walters global salary survey the “Salary Checker” focuses on your current location using GPS and allows you to select a range of role types based on experience, qualifications, permanent or contract employment and sector. Robert Walters have been publishing the salary survey for over 10 years now and have the longest standing study on this subject in the recruitment sector.

Pulling it all together was considerably harder than I would have imagined as job titles vary across the world making consistency in the database and subsequent navigation difficult to achieve seamlessly. Kelly-Anne at Think Tank worked tirelessly on this, and spent many late nights up to her elbows in data. On the plus side, if there is ever a pub quiz question on earning potential in China you want to make sure she is on your team.

So if you want to know how much you are worth in Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore or 17 other countries go to the iTunes store and download the very free, very useful salary checker today.

Are apps taking over the world?

Mobile Beat announced today that the Apple app store has just cruised over the 300′000 available apps mark. Just consider that for a second, a little over two years ago there was no such thing as an app, certainly not in the way we think of them today. At a staggering rate of 359 apps per day, developers the world over have filled the store with the great, the weird and the completely useless. How did we ever survive without them?

I was discussing technology and how I became involved recently (my first, pre computer move many years ago was to art school).  I remembered my first computer, huge Laptops that you had to boot from a floppy and the very first humungus cell phone I ever saw. My children have never known life without these things and ever since they have shown an interest in technology, or at the very least Angry Birds, there have been apps.

So are we going to continue developing apps across four platforms (assuming someone actually buys the new Window phone) or should we be thinking about mobile web and html5 as the communications platform of choice. Most apps are just a fancy interface layer between a server full of data and the consumer, so are we just kidding ourselves when we say apps are the most exciting communication medium since the Internet?

Cards on the table, I love apps and currently have three in development for the organisation I work for. When the call came through for number four It really made me think about the journey I was on and gave me a glimpse of the monster I could so easily create.

I love interface design and rarely get a chance to get my hands dirty these days, but after a night of wire framing, slicing and dicing I reached a point where I felt I could achieve everything I needed with a cross platform mobile web design delivered on the DAY CQ5 CMS platform rather than an app. The designers have been briefed and are now beavering away to make my wireframes reality.

It’s either going to be a stroke of genius or a moment of madness. As my days in art school taught me, if your not willing to experiment with mixed media your never going to move forwards. Watch this space for for news . . . . . .

Data Crunch:

• Apple allows 70% of revenues from the store to instantly go to the seller of the app, and 30% go to Apple.
• The App Store opened on July 10, 2008 via an update to iTunes.
• Mobclix’s data shows that in the past 24 hours, Apple added the 300,000th app to its App Store.
• The number includes both free and paid apps available for downloading.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/App_Store
http://venturebeat.com/2010/10/16/apples-app-store-crosses-300000-apps/

On a  a recent business trip to Shanghai and Singapore I found myself Travelling without a camera. Although I don’t usually have any free time while I am away, I always like to record the world around me as I pass through. Frustrated I began to use my iPhone 3G to record the journey. The images were ok, but I knew they were never likely to make it onto the wall at home due to their low quality.

I began to think of them more as postcards, and found myself sending these home to my children and friends instead of longer emails. I checked out the app store to see if there was anything more creative I could do and found PS Express by Adobe. From then on I began to see things in a different light and found myself tring to create small snippits of photo art, rather than documeting my journey.

Photoshop Express really couldn’t be simpler to use. It provides basic control over exposure, contrast and saturation as well as crop, border, tint and special effects tools. For me the special effects have been done before, but the flexibility of the other tools allows you to re-imagine almost every aspect of the image.

The attached Slideshare presentation shows some of my favourites from the last few weeks. Alternatively check them out and download them (under the creative commons license) at The Critical Path on Flicker.

I rashly promised the world a review on my shiny new Novatel MiFi 2352 earlier in the week, then realsied I was (as usual) totally overworked with no hope whatsoever of writing a tweet let alone a blog post. That made me feel bad, and led to this micro review of my micro sized MiFi.

Size isn’t everything

Out of the box the thing is smaller than a small thing. Well smaller than my iphone anyway, and needs the battery fitting PDQ to weigh it down enough so as it doesnt blow away. I got a white one, although was expecting black, but thats not going to spoil things for me.

Set up up and away

Not a single instruction in the box. Not even the url of the Novatel website help department. Still,  by the power of Google Instant (oh yeah – it rocks) I was looking at the pdf in about 10 seconds. I bought an unlocked version from the internet and inserted a Vodafone SIM on an iPad tariff.

The only problem I had was finding the APN (Internet, username web) and selecting the CHAP authentication type. I was still up and running in less than 20 minutes and getting a decent 1.7 mb from my desk.

On the road

The next day I took the train down to Brighton to see the nice guys at Site Visibilty and happily emailed, websurfed and downloaded document on my iPad all the way there and back. I was particuarly impressed that unlike the 3G dongle I have which has a fit everytime I loose conectivity the Novatel keeps on trucking on and reconects without any trouble.

So far, so good. A happy camper as they say