Social Networking

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Google+ For iPhone: Needs a Bit More Time In The Oven

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 The Google+ app has replaced the Calculator on my home screeen

 

Google finally released an iPhone app for its Google+ social network. However, there are a few things that are missing - things that make it hard for me to depend on the app for my mobile social networking needs.

 

Photo Problems

The good news is that I can take a photo on the iPhone and upload it directly to Google+, which is great for random daily shots. However, the pics automatically go into its own album.  If I have an existing album that I want to add photos to, I can't.  Also, I can't create an entirely new album and add photos to it.  These are all things that I can do in the Facebook app, and really helps to keep track of photos taken during a trip.

 

Post Management

Tagging people in posts is totally borked. It brings up a list of random users that I may or may not be connected with, instead of prioritzing people that I've already added to circles like the desktop version of Google+ does.  This is especially inconvenient when commenting on posts whcih a large amount of existing comments.

When I'm Twitter, I'm a constant retweeter.  I believe in spreading info that people have already provided, which also gives them credit.  Unfortunately, I can't do that in the Google+ app. I can vote up (or +1) posts that I like, but I can't +1 individual comments. 

 

Other Annoyances

Most icons within the app do not change at all when you press them.  If I press a button, I can't tell if the app has frozen, if the app didn't register my touch, or if the app is just taking its sweet time to load. It's incredibly annoying.

 

 

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Spotify: You Get What You Pay For

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 If you're thinking about Spotify, pony up and pay the $10 / month. You'll get access immediately instead of waiting in the invite queue for the free version.  My (short) adventure with the free version is below.

I have a beta invite to the free version of Spotify, a music streaming service that just debuted in the US. Basically, Spotify lets you stream music from a huge library.  There is also a paid version, but I wanted to give the free version a try.

I downloaded the app on my PC and allowed it to connect to iTunes.  I installed it on my iPhone and I was able to see all my iTunes playlists - cool!  See I can see all of the songs that I've put into playlists, I can stream them, right? Especially since I own them?  Apparently not with the free version.

 

 

It turns out that the free version of Spotitfy is only useful for streaming Spotify's catalog on a PC or laptop, or downloading music that you already have onto your iPhone.  The latter is is exactly what you can already do with iTunes, albeit this is a wireless solution.  In other words, the free version is useless.

I upgraded to Spotify premium for $10 a month.  For the price of an album, I can stream from the Spotify catalog on my iPhone, as well as replace iTunes as the syncing device for my purchased music.  The best hard is that the songs queue up quickly over 3G, so much so that it feels like the songs are stored locally on the device instead of Spotify's streaming servers.  

There's also the option to download songs locally if you'll be without internet for a while. This is good if you can predict a bad internet connection - but how often does that happen? My advice is to always keep a core selection of songs on your phone, and use Spotify to access songs that pop into your head during the day. That alone is worth $10 a month.

Bottom line - you should expect to pay for a great service, and Spotify is just that.


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NASA Tweetup STS-135: Day 1

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As I blogged earlier, I've been lucky enough to be selected by NASA to participate in a two day meeting of 150 of NASA's twitter followers, celebrating the final space shuttle launch. Atlantis is scheduled to depart at 11:20am on Friday July 8th.

For realtime updates, follow me on Twitter at @ShareefJackson or on my Google Plus account at gplus.to/Shareef

I am crashing after a fabulous day at the Kennedy Space Center press site.  I've participated in an exclusive look within the NASA complex headed by people that actually make things tick. 

The full photo album is located on my Google Plus account,( see my previous blog post for details on Google Plus and why I won't be heading to Facebok much anymore) I'll be sharing four key shots below.

Check out our agenda below.  It's pretty hectic, but filled with lots of interaction with scientists, astronauts, and other NASA employees. And yes, I need to be there around 5am tomorrow. I'm in Orlando, which without traffic is just over an hour travel time.  With the traffic of the last shuttle launch EVER though, I'm guessing at least two to three hours.

 

Astronaut Doug Wheelock was kind enough to pose with me in front of space shuttle Atlantis.  This is the closest that non-NASA workers are allowed to the shuttle.  We will experience the actual launch from much farther away - about 3 miles from the launch pad.

 

 

For a while, it began raining.  Actually, it became POURING.  Like, Biblically. Luckily it cleared up later, and it gives me hope that there will be no rain tomorrow during the launch attempt.  Here is a shot I took from the press tent of the Vehicle Assembly Building covered in rain.

 

 

Speaking of the Vehicle ASsembly Building, it is HUGE.  I can see why Michael Bay used it to film from scenes from Transformers - it's the only indoor place that can fit a robot, in my humble opinion. I had to lay on my back to capture the amazing height of this structure.