512 Pixels

Google’s Larry Page, quoted on The Verge:

I’ve personally been quite sad at the industry’s behavior around all these things. If you take something as simple as IM, we’ve had an open offer to interoperate forever. Just this week Microsoft took advantage of that by interoperating with us. You can’t have people milking off of just one company.

Matt Landis, via @marcoarment:

But just days after Microsoft announces that www.outlook.com will integrate to Google’s IM/P solution via Google talk’s XMPP protocol, Google notes its that its new effort at a unified messaging solution (Hangouts which will replace existing Google Talk) will effectively cut off interoperability via XMPP.

The XMPP move is a crappy one, and the new Hangouts is already frustrating to use because of it.

While lots of Google’s services are “open” and available on their competition’s platforms, the move away from open web standards like XMPP is a move in the wrong direction.

I don’t have a problem with progress, but I do have a problem when it’s wrapped in hypocrisy.

(The Verge’s Ellis Hamburger calls it “deeply ironic.”)

While I was impressed with Larry Page’s talk on stage at Google I/O yesterday, the more I think about it, the more I realize that one of his major points — that technology companies should focus on improving the lives of their users, and not destroying each other — is at odds with the actions his company takes on a routine basis.

Yesterday, John Gruber wrote:

Google is a hyper-competitive company, and they repeatedly enter markets that already exist and crush competitors. Nothing wrong with that. That’s how capitalism is supposed to work, and Google’s successes are admirable. But there’s nothing stupid about seeing Google being pitted “versus” other companies. They want everything; their ambition is boundless.

While Gruber’s point makes perfect sense, it lives in a world where people say insane things about companies. Is Google evil? No. Do they send mixed messages to the world? Yes, but so does almost every other company.

Google’s really not all that different from anyone else, but they have painted a bigger target on their back than most.

Nothing pulls this city together like basketball.

If you haven’t unfollowed me on Twitter because of basketball yet, things are about to get a lot worse for you.

This week, Myke and I co-host an episode of our podcast.

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Impressive, and quite funny that it landed on the day of Google’s keynote.

The problem with three hour keynotes is that there’s so much news, it’s impossible to tell what the company wants people to focus on.

During its 17 three hour keynote today, Google announced a ton of stuff, but the new Hangouts is the most interesting one to me. Since Myke and others have left the Internet, iOS, iMessages hasn’t been as helpful to me as it once was.

The Verge has hailed the new apps as “big fix for Google’s messaging mess”, but here on Day One, that just really isn’t that true.

The iOS app is buggy. URLs aren’t always clickable, and I’ve had it crash a couple of times already. It is, however, much faster than Facebook’s Messenger app.

According to that Verge article, Hangouts isn’t built on the XMPP standard, as Google Talk is. While Talk will eventually go away, it’s been the go-to Google chat service for years.

Apple’s Messages.app support Google Talk out of the box. Currently, Google Talk sees incoming Hangout messages, but replies made in the iOS app (or on the web) don’t sync up with Messages.

Now, most people will use Hangout on the web or on their phones, but it’s disappointing to see this half-baked backwards compatibility for those of us who want to use the service via a native application. Google should have either made sure Talk users could send and receive Hangout messages, or have drawn a line in the sand, cutting off Talk-only users from the new service.

If Google and Apple can’t update Messages to work with the new back-end system, I’d like to see Google release a Mac app.

Updated: Apparently, there’s a Chrome extension. That helps.

All in all, I think Hangouts can be a real competitor to iMessage and Facebook Messenger, but as it stands today, it’s a little rough around the edges.

Sadly, that’s what I’ve come to expect from Google.

I’m using Facebook Messenger now to keep in touch with people outside the iMessage universe. I think this will be our new solution.

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This weekend, I picked apart a report claiming that big, sweeping changes could be coming to Apple’s service business.

One of the big rumored changes is a shift toward Apple repairing more iPhones, as opposed to simply swapping out defective devices.

@swgs over on App.net chimed in:

The repairs are completed within 30 mins. iPhone only. Only certain internal parts are available, but they say that’ll be expanded. Stores are to have a Genius scheduled to do iPhone Repairs every hour the store is open.

From your prev [sic] role, I know you have an understanding of how many NTF devices are sent back. This drastically cuts down improper swaps. Not to mention the costs involved to send back an iPhone and re manufacture for a simple home button issue.

While I don’t know if @swgs is an Apple employee or not, his input on iPhone repairs matches what I’ve heard other places. As several people pointed out, iCloud restores can take that long, so a repair might not entail a longer wait than a “replace and restore” would.

His second point is about “NTF” devices. NTF is short-hand for “no trouble found,” a term applied to devices or laptops taken for repair or replacement with no actual hardware issues. Usually, NTFs occur because a Genius mis-diagnosed a software issue for a new one, or swapped something just to make a customer happy. Being able to physically swap out parts could clear prevent a number of NTF phones being sent back.

While I’m sure it significantly cheaper for Apple to repair “simple home button issues” than to have to replace the phone (as the original report stated), but I still think Apple needs to tread lightly here. If Stores can’t keep up with demand, Geniuses should be able to replace a phone at their own discretion, if that’s what’s right (or faster) for the customer.

(And no, I’m not saying swapping a device just to keep a customer happy is good customer service, but it happens.)

In this 60 Minutes interview, Gates talks about his inventions, philanthropy work and Steve Jobs. In a world of terrible news, Gates is a shining light of hope to million across the world.

Why is not May 26 yet?

Is there anyone cooler on near the planet as this guy?