Google

Wednesday, May 20
Wednesday, May 06

Google Buys Timefull

I remember reading about Timeful when it first hit the App Store and thinking, “Wow, I think they’re on to something.” I never tried it out because I didn’t want yet another calendar app, quite happy with Fantastical 2. Still, thoughts of a calendar, to do list, life managing application efficiently filling in all the gaps in my schedule stood out to me as an idea from the once-distant, yet ever-encroaching future. Fast forward to this week and perhaps Google sees this as the future as well, acquiring Timeful in a Sparrow-like done-but-not-dead-yet acquihire1. I’m no oracle, but it seems to me the future of time management and to-do apps is going beyond timely reminders or manually entered due dates, but intelligent, automated scheduling of tasks. Google already has the information sources (Calendar, Gmail, your search history), now it has at least the beginnings of the intelligence. It sseems like a great match and I look forward to seeing what comes of the acquisition.

  1. Timeful’s tech (and presumably team) will make its way into Google’s services, but the app itself remains in the App Store, albeit with no updates.  ↩
Wednesday, April 22

Google Gone Carrier

I’ve read a few times in the past that one of the big ideas Steve Jobs (or someone at Apple) had about the iPhone was to release it without ties to any carriers. In other words Apple, ever wary of depending on a third party for core technologies in their modern incarnation, reportedly considered launching their own cellular network. While that seems like an endeavor that only current Apple could afford (pre-iPhone Apple wasn’t quite as flush with cash), I’d easily believe they at least considered it.

Fast forward to this week and now Google is jumping into the carrier game, though not quite in the same way. This week they officially announced what has been rumored for a few weeks or months: Project Fi. Project Fi is really an MVNO1, piggy backing off of Sprint and T-Mobile’s network along with wi-fi calling and some other pretty nifty features to optimize network speed and strength based on where you are. And to top it all off, the service offers a very Google-y pricing model: pay for what you use, no really, even if you thought you’d use more. Ron Amadeo, writing for Ars Technica, lays out a perfect scenario for Google’s pricing model:

Project Fi is great for people with fluctuating data usage though. Take me for instance: most days, at home and at work, I’m on Wi-Fi, with barely any data usage, but there are those months where I travel a lot, and then my data usage spikes. Project Fi would give me money back for the low-data months, while flexing to a larger plan when during busy months. For a person like me, it’s perfect. I don’t need data all the time, but when I do need it, I need it to be fast and plentiful.

Who knows if Project Fi will project fizzle like some of Google’s groundbreaking projects or if it will soar into success like so many others. One thing is for certain, I’m glad we have companies like Google and Apple as the forward thinking companies of our time. They couldn’t be more different in how they approach new technology and initiatives, but having one without the other certainly wouldn’t be very exciting.

  1. Mobile virtual network operator. Essentially they lease carrier towers to provide their network coverage.  ↩

Tuesday, March 03

MacRumors: Google Reportedly Preparing Android Wear for iPhone and iPad →

Bravo, Google. I didn’t expect it, but I’m also not surprised by it. They’ve always been more open to cross-platform compatibility, a position enabled by their ad-revenue based business model. It will be interesting to see if this strategy works against the expected luxury pricing of the Apple Watch.

Friday, February 27

Google Now Won’t Let You Run Empty

Google Maps plus any smartphone is already a knock-out combination that occasionally might cause you to think to yourself, “How did I ever get by without this?”. But now Google is taking it a step further with its automated notification service, Google Now. The ever-evolving contextually aware service now features a Google Now card that shows you gas stations on your route.

Regardless of how you feel about Google’s brand of snooping and tracking, you have to admit that they are doing some pretty incredible things with the information they collect. If you can ignore the privacy concerns (a big “if” for a lot of people, but not all), then Google is bringing a lot of value to their computing platforms. I can see a lot of utility in a platform that collects, analyzes, and protects a lot of information about its users. I just hope Google recognizes the importance of that last task and is able to find a way to monetize their platforms without giving away the farm.