kai's blog

Now days, it's getting easier and easier for criminals to decide who, where, what to rob:

• who to rob: pleaserobme.com
• where to rob: 123people.com
• what to rob: blippy.com, justbought.it

anyone wants to do a mashup of all these services + Google Street view so that we know who bought $X goods of what and is currently out of his/her home?

Tags: privacy people location robbery

I've meant to write about China Mobile's Mobile Market(aka "app store") Report for Nov, 2009 when it first came out.

I finally got the chance!

Mobile Market has a approval process. The approval rate in Nov is 49.66%. 40.17% of the rejection was due to basic functionality not working. 29.84% of the rejection was because of apps not conforming to Mobile Market's standards.

One of Mobile Market's standards is no advertising inside apps(see page 6 of the report). Chinese don't have the habit of paying for software & apps. So China Mobile just shuts down one possible revenue stream for developers.

Tags: china mobile china-mobile app-store

Once you sign in your Google account, you can check out Google Experiment for potential upcoming features. I've tried alternate views for search results and really liked the timeline view and the map view.

Timeline view Example: postgresql vs mysql I just want to see the recent comparison between postgresql and mysql. so I can limit the timeline to show only pages from 2008 to 2009. But Google's first result is definitely wrong as the article was written back in 2003.

Tags: google search timeline

The huge news is Google is planning to pull out of China. Is Google going to pull out every service? Here's the big picture of Google ecosystem in China:

Adwords

Lots of companies(eg: export/import biz) in China rely on Adwords to drive traffic and get leads from Google outside of China via Google search and Google's content network. There are companies/agencies in China that provide training/consulting/reseller services on Google Adwords.

AdSenses

Lots of small/personal websites in China rely on Google Adsense to generate a few bucks.

Google Analytics

Lots of sites in China use Goolge Analytics because it's free. There are companies in China that provide training/consultingj/reseller services on Google Analytics.

Google's nexus one is coming out this week. While most of attentions have been focusing on Android-based phones vs iPhone, Flurry shined some lights on the not-so-secret weapon of Apple - iPod Touch(which I own one): iPod Touch Downloads Explode on Christmas Day, Surpassing iPhone for the First Time!

iPod Touch is a great device for anyone that doesn't need a phone or can't afford all the expenses(monthly data/voice plans) associated with a phone. I am talking about teenagers/college students here. I bet many teenagers get their first tastes of apps through the App Store on iPod Touch. I am still waiting for companies to come up with a Andorid-based iPod Touch-like device(zii is supposed to be the one, but it's not yet ready for consumer).

Tags: google apple iphone android nexus-one app-store ipod-touch

Android Development - the good

• Easy to extend/customize existing functions - a few examples:
  • You can write a new dialer to handle calling - in fact, I am using StartContact because the default dialer sucks(no contact search function, need to scroll).
  • Add your application to contextual menu of native functions(eg: handling the calling of a number)
  • You can override the home screen lock. see FlyScreen
• With the backing of Google, Android SDK evolves very quickly( this is really a double-edged sword).

Tags: google android android-market apple-app-store android-development

Recently, there have been a couple of companies(primarily based in China) emailing me about having existing Android mobile apps list on their app stores.

Their proposals are that I submit free apps to their app stores, they'd localize them for free and distribute to millions of users so that I can make a lot of money. Sounds fishy? There are also to other fishy things:

• Use CC instead of BCC in email - so everyone knows who else is being contacted(or spammed).
• Claim to represent a legit and well-known company, but use an Gmail address to send the email. This is so unprofessional. Then I emailed back and asked why they'd use Gmail. Their response is that they have problems with their email system. Oh, good. If you can't ensure that your corporate email to work properly, how am I going to trust your app store?

Tags: email android professionalism sales

Here are my notes from the meetup "Non-Profit, Rural Development, Land Right, Microfinance in China" on Oct 7th, 2009 in Redwood City, California:

A common theme is that the two presenting organizations are foreign NGOs(non-profit organization) in China, so they are not required to partner with local governments. They hand-pick their local partners and provide better transparency on their funds and operations in China. In contract, local NGOs have to work with local governments which have little accountability. Also, there's no tax saving for donors in China for charity-giving.

Tags: china meetup wokai rdi land right microfinance non-profit

G1's shortcoming:

• need to mount SD-card to access its content when connecting via USB. This should be done automatically like iPhone
• no built-in file manager/browser even though it comes with a SD-card
• why does the "red" end call buttom lock the phone? that's so unintuitive as I am used to use it to "cancel" things.
• the screen lock timeout setting is hidden under settings -> Sound & Display
• why isn't there a Google Reader app?
• no auto-complete when I search apps in Android Market
• store all downloaded apps in tiny 74MB internal storage. No way to store them in a SD card(unless you root your phone). A game app can demand 10+ MB storage!

Tags: android t-mobile g1