An optimist dreams of a better world

Since the iPad has launched I have seen a surge of educational apps that make the iPad, the perfect device for education. Apple eventually saw this trend and started promoting education category just like games category (in US app store). I was lucky enough to have some of my educational apps featured in this promotion. Apple even provides 50% discount to educational institutes for purchasing apps in bulk.

Now that the rumor has it Apple is going to have an event that will focus on eTextBooks and education, I am excited that this might be the next big thing for education, book publishers, teachers and of course developers.

I have watched young kids discovering all the features and function of an app on iPad intuitively. Some young kids have amazed me by their know-how of the apps that even I did not know. This just proves that iPad is kid’s best friend ever, and if we see an iPad in every home (just like the idiot box) in near future, I won’t be surprised.

If iPad 3 is going to have retina display, I’m sure I’m gonna love reading on the iPad (I still prefer reading on my iPhone!). If we get a feel of real paper like printing on iPad, it would be the best thing to happen for eBooks. Interactive ebooks (audio, video, animations, notes etc) with practice exercises with progress tracking could easily help to master any topic in any subject and it would  easily revolutionize the education completely.

It just happened that we recently made an app for English learning called English LaunchPad which includes some of the ideas from the future of the education.

The problem education has suffered so far is to teach how to self-learn. Once a student is taught to self-learn, he/she really needs no teacher. One can go on the infinite journey of exploring any subjects one is interested in. Most students fail in education because they are forced to learn without evoking their interest. iPad could provide the opportunity where students are given everything they need and allowed to explore whatever they are interested in.

For decades technologist have been trying and hoping to revolutionize  education and have failed. Perhaps, the time has come!

For years, I have tried to talk to computers and I have realized that they simply don’t get it.

I have tried over a dozen of desktop and mobile apps to see if computers understand what I say. Apps from Google, IBM, Microsoft and many other apps from small developers. None could understand what I say, including Apple’s. The accuracy was less than 50%. I had given up on the idea that computers can understand what I say.

But with Siri’s introduction, Apple is poised to change it forever.

The initial reviews are pretty impressive and I have started thinking about how Siri and iPhone will change the way we interact with computers once again.

Apple has previous changed the way we interact with computers again and again. From command line inputs from keyboards and graphical user interface with mice to touch interface on iPhone. Siri will enable humans to directly talk to a computer and get things done.

As Siri is still in beta. What Siri is capable of doing now is just the tip of iceberg. Its just beginning of the great future ahead. We would be seeing a lot of new apps coming from Apple that would integrate with Siri. Some examples are Reminders app, Movie trailers app, Newsstand app and so on. While third party app integration will soon be a reality, till then Apple will be making a lot of Apps that Siri would be interacting with. I am sure Apple is non-stop working on making Siri the only thing that would do everything.

Its interesting that how Apple has always been thinking of our mothers and grandmothers. Typing on keyboard to get things done is really hard for old people. Mouse is better, Touch screens are lot easier and Siri would be the easiest way ever to interact with computers.

I would not be surprised if Siri would soon become part of desktops and tablets. With its integration with desktops and tablets, Siri would soon become the de-facto standard of interacting with computers. I wouldn’t say that keyboards and mice will disappear, but users will move away from them as much as possible. Just like most people prefer mouse over keyboard, a lot of people would choose Siri over keyboard and mouse.

I would assume that Siri will take quite a good amount of time to become mature. When Siri is mature and robust, Apple would eventually figure out third party app integration with Siri. If that happens, there would be explosion of the apps that would integrate with Siri. And  with that Apple will write another chapter in the history of computers and the way humans interacted with them!

Indians were on the verge of loosing their patriotism. Most smart Indians have flown their mother land, mainly because they have given up on India. After a long long time, behind Anna’s voice, all Indians have came together to say what was suppressed for decades.

Being an young Indian, like most other young Indians I was hopeless about the situation in India. Because of the corruption India has suffered so much for decades that no matter how smart Indians are, India still remained an underdog when it came to living standard, progressiveness and general competetiveness index.

When we start accepting corruption as way of life, a nation can not rise to higher levels. Corrupt minds have the vested interests in keeping the society corrupt. Corrupt society is a falling society. Its doomed to fail. People in corrupt society can not live a happy and a life of dignity. The very purpose of living gets confused. A society that has lost its way will eventually destroy itself.

It was pity that while young generation was frustrated about it, it did not know what to do. There was anger,frustration and a feeling of revenge for betrayal. When a well educated well performing young professional finds out that to get a voters ID he must pay bribe; its humiliating.

Under Anna’s leadership everybody vented their anger, frustration and the feeling of betrayal out. And government has finally understood that. All people have got their hopes of a better India back. They have started to dream of a new India. An India where people would be honest and kind. And where people will live a normal life of happiness and dignity. When a farmer will walk into a government office and apply for ration card his job will be done without any harassment and promptly. All politicians will do the best thing for the country and not for their bank balance. A country of discipline will create citizens which know how to exercise their rights and same time how to behave responsibly.

Can I dream of a new India?

Until 2006 I was pretty much a PC guy with a Nokia phone. Co-incidently in that same year, I bought my first laptop. It was Dell. (It still works fine. Although it got repaired by Dell on four occasions, in which its motherboard, LCD screen and graphics card got replaced.) My IT manager at work was shocked that I spent $2K on a Dell Laptop. He strongly suggested me return the Dell and get a Mac.

I didn’t consider his suggestion even for a minute. I didn’t really know much about Mac then.

And then I bought iPod. That was the first Apple product that I bought. Immediately I was in love with this tiny little device and the amazing way it worked. Since then I started discovering about Apple.

Interestingly at work I stopped using Windows and switched to Linux. But at home I was still a PC guy. And then in January 2007 I saw Steve’s Keynote when he introduced the iPhone. I was completely blown away. I started discovering about Apple and Mac feverishly. And eventually decided that Mac will be my next computer. Came year 2007 and I was a owner of a MacBook Pro. It still works fine, except its SuperDrive got replaced.

My life changed a lot after that. I took sabbatical from my day job and was in search of enlightenment for an year.

By this time, I was a certified Apple fanboy. And then came the App Store. I launched my first apps and immediately got huge success that I never had to return to a day job. I was self employed. Thanks to Steve.

This year, I started my own company in India. When iPad 2 was launched in USA, I ordered two of them. But alas, Apple rejected my order. They wouldn’t send it to a freight forwarding address and hence I couldn’t ship it to India. And Apple was yet to announce when iPad 2 will be available in India.

I wrote to Steve. Expressed my frustration on Apple Online Store policies and how as an Indian app developer I was at a disadvantage. I told him that I wanted these iPad 2s immediately at my B’lore office for testing my upcoming apps.

In 24 hours, I got an email from Apple developer relations manager informing that the my email to Steve has been forwarded to him and he wish to help me. Later he called me on my phone and assured that he would do his best to help me. In next 24 hours my iPad 2s got shipped!

The total turnaround time was only 48 hours after I wrote to Steve. This kind of events are unheard of in any organization in an industry. But this is very very often for an Apple enthusiast to have his email to Steve replied or action taken upon.

After Steve resigned today, I was a little surprised, but all were seeing it coming. Fortunately enough, Steve will remain as chairman. As long as Steve is alive, am sure he will be involved in Apple some or other way. Till then, an Apple fanboy like me will remain at peace.

I am forced to write this article. For over two years since the launch of Android Market by Google, a huge number of competing Android markets have emerged. And almost everyday, yes everyday, I get an email asking to launch my Android app on their Android App store.

Vodafone, O2, Orange, Cisco, Amazon and ton of small players, they all want their app store.

The Goggle’s Android market itself is so poorly managed that very less Android developers are profitable. Google is big company, and they have the horsepower to make Android developers successful, they done a horrible job of promoting Android apps. And when everyday new Android market pops-up, you start wondering whats going on.

So, I gave a try to launch my apps on Motorola app store, Amazon appstore and Orange app store. And unfortunately, they all just suck. Their developer portal is so abysmal that it can only be renamed as crap.

1. The dev portals do not support multiple users, so if you are working as a company, you have to share all your credentials among your employees, and your employees would know your how much you are making, its just annoying.

2. Create, Update, Delete, View. These are the four basic operations needed for each app. But they do very poor job on this that become next impossible to update an app or remove it from the portal.

3.Reporting: Except Apple and Google nobody else provides real time or daily reporting. So you have to wait for weeks to know how  many apps you sold. If anybody is serious about selling apps, they need a realtime data or atleast daily reporting to make strategic decisions to promote their app successfully.

4. Payment terms: Well, they don’t really want to pay you or want to delay it as much as possible. The terms are so erratic that you need a great deal of patience.

5. Bugs: These App stores are so desperate that they haven’t gone thru enough testing. Even Googles Android market is so full of bugs that I daily receive 10s of emails saying they are not able to download the app or they don’t know why their payment has been declined.

So, the conclusion.

All those who are planning to launch a new another Android app store, please stop. I am not giving you my apps.

Aum Shanti.