Why are Google's products disjointed?

I like Google, it's my search engine of choice and I use Google Apps for my personal domain such as email hosting. I use a few of their other products to like blogger, which you can see I use for this blog. Indeed Google have a great range of products that work extremely well and importantly the vast majority of them are free. Google is also an innovative company constantly looking at new products to offer, Google Wave and now Buzz have been released to expand the ever growing portfolio of products.

In my role as a Solutions Architect I am now quite frequently coming across large companies considering moving from Microsoft to Google for some of their key infrastructure services. Just last week I was at a meeting with the London Metal Exchange who are looking to move from Microsoft Exchange to Google Mail. For many it is a tempting proposition, with very little initial cost and a manageable monthly fee, especially when you consider you don't need servers as it is all Cloud hosted which means you don't need to worry about storage, backup and resilience to name a few. Being a Google Apps user and having worked with the Enterprise I have to say I am not entirely convinced it works for every type of business. Where Google seems to fail is on the simple day to day administration. An example of this is when a woman gets married, it's often the case that she takes her husbands name. In Microsoft Exchange you simply go into Active Directory and change her surname. A new email address with her new name will become her default but you can also keep the original address for people that reply to messages from the old address or don't know her new address yet. If you take the same situation in Google Apps. They suggest you backup all the email from the original account. Delete the account and then create a completely new account with the correct name, then import all the original email. Then you have to add the original email address as an alias. The Microsoft way takes all of 40 seconds to do but dependant on the size of the users mailbox and your Internet connection speed could take a very long time of which the user cannot access the service and any mail sent would be lost.

Now when you consider businesses using Google will also most likely have Active Directory you now have two places to manage instead of one, to me that doesn't seem efficient. But it's not just Google's applications not being able to integrate with Microsoft's products that leave them lacking but it's Google App's lack of integration with Google's own products. I decided to take a look at Google Buzz as I wanted to see how it would be different to Google Wave. Unfortunately I couldn't try either Wave or Buzz. The reason was because I use Google Apps. When you try to login to access Google Buzz it asks you for a Google Mail account. So I entered my email address which is the Google Apps one to find that doesn't count it has to be a @gmail.com address. The same went for Wave. Personally I cannot see why Google Apps users can't use these applications. After a bit of research it seems Google will be bringing these applications to Google Apps users but in a few months time. There reasoning is that they need to make modifications so that they work at a business / enterprise level. Fair enough I can see that but I'm sure I am not alone as just being a public user that wants his own domain name for email and blogs. Google Mail doesn't let you do this, so Google give you Google Apps for free. Problem is you cannot access these new products, simple says Google, set up a gmail address so you can try them out. That doesn't work though as suddenly your emailing all your friends with a different address. Again Google has an answer to this, forward the new gmail address to your Google Apps address. And this is where we come back to the problem about using Google Apps in an enterprise environment, it all feels disjointed.

Turn your iPhone into a Tesco Clubcard

A classic example of over engineering. I would imagine that most people are like me and carry their Tesco clubcard in their wallet right next to their debit or credit card. Tesco in the last year added the clubcard keychain to members in case you didn't want to carry a clubcard in your wallet. I'm not sure why you wouldn't but in Tesco's defence I do see a lot of people using them.

Tesco obviously wants to get into the digital age as they have now released an iPhone App that allows you to enter your clubcard details into the phone and convert it into a barcode that can be scanned in at the till. For some reason though it can only be used where a the till is operated by a member of staff, it will not work at the self service tills.

I'm not sure why you would use this App, unless you want to look like a complete (you pick the word) getting your iPhone out and passing it across the till. But in case you do here is the link.

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/tesco-clubcard/id351841850?mt=8

Microsoft Arc Mouse Versus Explorer Mini Mouse

I decided to treat myself to a new mouse. My requirements were simple, a wanted a mouse that would match my Apple Keyboard aesthetically when on my desk but also be portable enough to take with me when I am working out of the office.

Well to match the Apple Keyboard it needed to be white and it needed to be stylish. Luckily for me Microsoft of all companies have produced the perfect match - the Microsoft Arc Mouse.


The Microsoft Arc mouse is a wireless laser mouse running off two AAA batteries. The benefit of the Arc Mouse is that it is nearly a full size mouse which means it is comfortable for long periods of use. However it works well as a notebook mouse because to turn the mouse off you simply fold it in half making it more travel-friendly.The mouse uses a wireless USB receiver that's thumbnail size. This receiver is so small that when plugged into the USB port on my Apple Keyboard it cannot be seen unless you flip the keyboard over. A clever feature of the mouse is that there is a small, magnetic cradle on the underside of the tail portion that folds in, to hold the tiny USB receiver. When the mouse is collapsed, the tail portion secures the receiver, ensuring you will never lose your adapter when traveling. You also get a small pouch with a magnetic clasp to protect the mouse when it's thrown into your bag.

The quality of the mouse is very impressive, it feels very study considering that it is an arc shape as opposed to the solid mouse you normally use. The hinge mechanism also feels very well put together. Straight out of the box, it felt very sensitive and a bit fast for my taste. On the other side, users with cramped work spaces, like a small table in a coffee shop, will be able to make good use of a little bit of space. However you can adjust the speed. Once adjusted it handled nicely. It cruised across a desk surface smoothly on three glide pads, and the laser is precise. The only drawback I have found with the Arc mouse is that the side 'back' button is just to far forward for me to reach with my thumb, it could do with being a few millimeters back.


When I bought the Arc Mouse I noticed Microsoft advertising their new BlueTrack technology. This new tracking technology which is only available from Microsoft claims to let you use a mouse anywhere and work with confidence on more surfaces than ever before. BlueTrack combines the power of optical with the precision of laser, allowing you to mouse on virtually any surface—from a granite counter top to an airport bench to your living-room carpet. This sounds a great feature for a Notebook mouse. Unfortunately the Arc Mouse doesn't use this technology and they don't make a white mouse with the BlueTrack technology. However I was interested to give this technology a try so I purchased the Microsoft Explorer Mini Mouse.



The Microsoft Explorer Mini mouse is like your traditional notebook mouse, it's wireless running off a single AA battery. The USB adapter is depressingly large, compared to the tiny adapter that comes with Arc mouse. Again this adapter connects to the base of the mouse to turn the mouse off when transporting the device. Compared to the Arc mouse though it uses a snap in holder as opposed to the magnetic holder, so the supplied bag with magnetic clasp definitely comes in handy to ensure you don't lose the adapter.

I have to say I am impressed with the BlueTrack technology, the mouse has worked well on practically every surface I have tried. I can see this as a real benefit to mobile workers where you sometimes don't have a choice of surface to work on. I have a glass desk at home and have found that optical mice don't work what so ever, laser is okay but judders a bit, but BlueTrack actually works.

One cool but totally useless feature is the under-mouse lighting which illuminates an arc shape at the base of the mouse in a cool blue halo for about 10 seconds. The little BlueTrack logo also illuminates. This happens when the mouse is first turned on and activates again if the mouse has not been used for awhile.

I like the mouse, it is comfortable and feels well made, there is a twist to the right of the body which for me at least makes the phone fit snugly into your hand. However compared to the Arc mouse the quality does not seem in the same league, I think Microsoft have used cheaper plastics in its manufacture. It feels smaller than the Arc mouse, but that's because it is.


Overall I like both devices, but out of the two devices I have to say the Arc mouse is my favourite. The BlueTrack technology is impressive but on a normal office surface it doesn't have that much of an edge on the laser in the Arc mouse. On other surfaces the BlueTrack wins hands down, but for me 90% of it's use will be in an office. I like the look of the Explorer Mini mouse, even the blue light effect which makes it look like its floating, well for 10 seconds anyway. I think the how the USB adapter fits into the Arc mouse is clever and when compared it makes the Explorer Mini mouse look dated. It's a nice looking mouse but it still looks like a standard mouse, the Arc mouse looks more modern and most importantly it comes in white and matches my Apple Keyboard.

Technology is like Buses

... it really is, you wait for one and then three turn up at the same time. Last week Apple demonstrated their latest offering the iPad, which is due out March / April. Steve Jobs presented this device as a new breed that fits in between smart phones and laptops. The way Steve described this was as if Apple had invented this class of device in the pioneering fashion Apple likes to portray. Well just like buses there are a range on these tablet / pad devices all coming out in the near future. Asus have one on it's way, HP have the slate and MSI have a new tablet to name a few. Most of these will use Windows 7 and Google are looking at pushing Chrome out to some of these devices to. Most of these share similar hardware to Netbooks.

Today I was pointed to the JooJoo as a rival to the iPad. Now name aside (I agree it'd not good) this looks an interesting proposition especially when you compare the Tech Specs to the Apple iPad. The obvious difference is that the JooJoo comes in at a similar size and weight to the iPad but has a 12.1 inch multi touch display as opposed to the 10 inch iPad. Though 2 inches might not seem much different but the JooJoo runs this at 1366 x 768 which can show true 720p videos. Now I know Steve Jobs told us all that the iPad plays Hi-Def videos but there lies the difference. The iPad can play them but it doesn't display them at 720p and that's because at 1024 x 768 the ipad's screen us not Hi-Def. The JooJoo claims a 9 second boot time from cold using it's own bespoke browser based operating system. The rest of the Specs are similar to the iPad but where the JooJoo differs is that it uses a 4GB solid state drive rather which is a tad small when compared the smallest iPad at 16GB, I think most people will be purchasing the 32Gb or 64Gb versions. It does however have a camera for video conferencing.

These devices are primarily designed as a Internet browser device and this is Where the JooJoo puts the iPad in its place. It does this by supporting Flash 10.1 which will no doubt bring a more enriched browsing experience.

As with most of the specs even the price at $499 is similar to the iPad, so this does look a little tempting. Though you have to wonder if there will be any third party applications to further it's capabilities. The iPad is a let down in it’s present state but you know they can and most likely will change that as time goes on. I would just worry that the JooJoo would be the same as it is out of the box 6 months after it is released.

To check out the JooJoo follow the link below. In fact if you are in the Us, you can pre-order one now. https://thejoojoo.com/

Citrix take the Smart Phone to the next level

For some time now if you want a Smart Phone you had a choice of either an iPhone, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry. Recently Google have come on the scene with Android and Nexus One. As for what you chose either comes down to what you company gives you or what you like personally. For me I had several Windows Mobile phones until I moved over to the iPhone, and have become a big fan. When you actually look at all these devices they are all much of a likeness of each other with only slight differences that may sway you towards a particular one.

However a new take on the smart phone has appeared on the scene, well a concept model anyway called the Nirvana Phone. This offers something very different to the competition. Citrix in partnership with Open Kernel have given the Nirvana Phone the ability to allow users to access their corporate virtual desktop and applications hosted on Citrix Xen Servers, from any location. The phone doesn't supply a simple RDP client like on the Windows Mobile Devices or available via the Apple App Store. The Nirvana phone has an adapter for docking to full-sized displays, keyboards, mice and other PC-type peripherals. You can even use the phone as a touch pad as the phone has a touch screen.

Nirvana phones will offer mobile workers a complete "virtual desktop in your pocket," allowing them to take their desktop anywhere without the need to carry around a full laptop.

I think this looks interesting, this video demonstrates the phone in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVcAajvMMYk&feature=player_embedded