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A few months ago I created EasyWriter, my first iPhone application. Although it started out as a bit of an experiment, EasyWriter became an instant hit with millions of downloads and a mass of delighted users. The purpose of the application was to let you write emails using a bigger, horizontal keyboard. Apparently Apple took notice because the latest version of the iPhone OS has some of EasyWriter’s capabilities as a built-in feature.

The release of the latest iPhone OS has effectively rendered the original version of EasyWriter obsolete. I’ve received a few emails from users enquiring if I plan to take or lobby for legal action against Apple for doing this. After all, that’s what companies like Netscape and Opera have done when Microsoft integrated some of the capabilities of their products into the operating system. The short answer is: absolutely not.

The instant success of EasyWriter made it clear that iPhone users wanted a feature that Apple had not anticipated. It’s perfectly natural for Apple to respond to this by improving their own software and meet the needs of their customers. Even if the iPhone’s dominance in mobile computing is rapidly approaching the level that Windows has enjoyed on the desktop, there’s nothing that should stop Apple from pleasing its customers. I believe in innovation, not litigation.

Working with giant companies like Apple is very much like dancing with an elephant: Sometimes you can get on top and enjoy enormous success while riding it. However, you have to be ready to respond quickly or you’ll fall off and get stomped when the elephant’s foot comes down. The elephant doesn’t even realize she may be squishing you. It’s up to you to turn every challenge into an opportunity.

So where does that leave EasyWriter? Alive and kicking! A new version, designed specifically for iPhone OS 3.0 is under development. I’m sure that iPhone users everywhere will appreciate the spell checker, Blackberry-style AutoText, and other innovative features. Innovation, not litigation.

Check out Dave Winer’s adventures with a Windows box on Amazon EC2. It reminds me of Jerry Pournelle’s old Chaos Manor columns in Byte: real world narration of adventures in using new and interesting technology. That’s much better than the reworked press release you get in many articles these days. At $93/month for a basic Windows box EC2 is not exactly cheap, but the flexibility and on-demand scalability is intriguing.

Like many site analytics applications, Google Analytics will track how many site users have Java, Flash, and other web technologies installed on their system (and which version). Notably absent from the list are the .NET Framework and Silverlight. I like Google Analytics, but this information is very important for me.

Nikhil Kothari has created a workaround with a snippet of Javascript code that will detect Silverlight and set Analytics variables.

Workarounds – even elegant ones like this one – often end up being maintenance problems. The possibility of something creating an unexpected Javascript error on every page of our website is not acceptable.

Maybe it’s time to check out Microsoft adCenter Analytics

Stephen Walther can save you hours of time with these Essential Visual Studio Tips & Tricks that Every Developer Should Know:

1. You don’t need to select a line to copy or delete it
2. You can add a namespace automatically by pressing CTRL-.
3. Never create properties by hand.
4. You can remove and sort unnecessary using statements.
5. Use CTRL-k+c to comment out code.
6. You can close all documents except the current one.
7. You can open a database by double-clicking the database file in App_Data.
8. You can copy a file or folder into a project by dragging and dropping.
9. Use CTRL-SPACE to perform statement completion.
10. Add new items by pressing CTRL-N or CTRL-SHIFT+A.
11. You don’t need to type file extensions when adding a file.

Highly recommend.

Great insight:

Future creep is not about adding features to your products. At least, it is not directly about that. Rather, it is about adding infrastructure to your products in preparation for features that may or may not be added later. In the future.

As part of the Silverlight 2 announcement, Scott Guthrie also wrote:

Today we are also announcing the “Silverlight Control Pack” – which will deliver dozens of more controls that you can use with Silverlight 2.  We will continually add new controls to the control pack over the next few months (we expect to ultimately have more than 100 controls total).  The first release of the control pack will include controls like TreeView, DockPanel, WrapPanel, ViewBox, Expander, NumericUpDown, AutoComplete and more.  All controls will ship with full source, and with a OSI license that allows you to modify and use the source for any purpose.

Will this kill the component market? Of course not! It will raise the bar of innovation for control vendors. We’ll have to do a lot more than come up with interesting widgets. The good news for Silverlight developers is that we’ll see a wide range of new components from third party vendors. These will go much beyond what we’ve seen in regular component UI widget suits, and help you get more done in less time. It’s an exciting time to be a Windows developer.

Publishing these controls with a very non-restrictive OSI license is a very wise decision on Microsoft’s part. I’m really impressed with the way Microsoft is embracing open source nowadays. I think they’re finally understanding the benefits and finding their place in this brave new world.

A big congratulations to Scott Guthrie’s team for releasing Silverlight 2, a developer’s Nirvana and the way the web ought to be: any programming language you want, a rich and consistent object model, beautiful animation, and integrated design tools. The kinds of things that people have built using Dynamic HTML + AJAX are amazing, and libraries like JQuery makes thinks workable and fun, but having a platform that was designed from the ground up with rich applications in mind will certainly bring web applications to a new level.

There’s just a tiny bit of trouble in paradise… Silverlight 2 has two gaping holes in it:

No meaningful printer support – Sure, you can print a web page, and people like Jonas Follesø are building some very sophisticated work-arounds but those don’t come close the Flash’s simple but powerful printing support. This may be a show-stopper for quite a few applications.

No camera support – Social platforms have suddenly become very important. Facebook has built-in Video, Seesmic is quickly gaining popularity as a conversation site and video commenting tool. Silverlight cannot afford to miss this revolution.

Other remaining issues:

Distribution, distribution, distribution! Flash has incredible ubiquity, even with the latest versions of the Flash player. I hope Silverlight can catch up soon. Windows Update where art thou?

First class Mac support – I hope issues about the Mac version of Silverlight being slow and CPU-intensive have been addressed. I do want to say thank you for releasing the Mac version on the same day as the Windows version, including developer tools. That is very impressive!

So again, awesome release! Beautiful, terrific, a dream-come-true, this-is-heaven, I’m-so-happy, WOW! Thank you, and please keep pushing to complete the vision.

In a recent blog post Robert Scoble addresses the powers that be at Microsoft about why he’s not going to the PDC this year:

But the stone that made the scale tip is that you have employees out there who are attacking bloggers without consequences. That makes me feel unwelcome, which I really don’t need given all my other concerns about attending

A call for corporate censorship of all Microsoft employees who have a personal blog. This comes from a guy who, long ago, in a galaxy apparently very far away, played an important role in making Microsoft a more open, transparent company that embraced reasonably uncensored blogging of its employees.

I’m curious what “consequences” Robert had in mind.

It gets worse: in the comment thread of his post, Scoble writes:

When I was at Microsoft PR told me to never attack anyone who used ink by the barrel. I wonder what changed? Now it’s OK?

The policy that Microsoft (apparently) has adopted is “don’t do anything stupid”, which I personally believe is a GREAT policy. It appeals to common sense, and it shows respect and trust in your employees. 

Robert, your statements go against everything you used to stand for when it comes to empowering bloggers. You’ve become a prima-donna believing that you should be above criticism and that anyone who verbally attacks you should suffer consequences. That’s not the Robert Scoble I used to know.

BusinessWeek has posted a detailed review of the new BlackBerry Storm:

This new BlackBerry is hiding an important breakthrough. Developed in partnership with Verizon and Vodafone, the Storm is a true world phone.

Very nice! However, a few paragraphs later BusinessWeek reveals the Storm’s fatal flaw as a world phone:

The Storm also lacks Wi-Fi, which iPhone users may miss, though access to worldwide 3G data speeds partly makes up for that.

The lack of world wide 3G data speeds make up for that? Not unless you want to spend a fortune on roaming charges. Data roaming is absurdly expensive, and at 3G speeds you could easily rake up thousands of dollars on your next phone bill.

Having Wi-Fi is essential when travelling abroad. Without it, the Blackberry Storm could very well become the most expensive phone you’ll ever buy.

Google Chrome made its debut and has instantly become the talk of the blog world and beyond. Even here in Eugene, Oregon, the local newspaper today dedicated a half page to an article titled “Google redefines the browser”. What is the hoopla all about? A browser that puts tabs above the address bar instead of below it and runs web sites in their own process to prevent one website from crashing all open tabs. If a smaller company had released a product like this, nobody would have ever noticed. Coming from Google, this is headline news in all corners of the planet.

So what is interesting about Google Chrome? It’s not the technical internals like the number of processes or the position of browser tabs. No, this time the devil is in the legal details. The license agreement reveals a lot about Google’s plans and thinking. The original language of Google Chrome’s license agreement contained the following language:

11. Content license from you

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

11.3 You understand that Google, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services or media. You agree that this license shall permit Google to take these actions.

11.4 You confirm and warrant to Google that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the above license.

Wow. In other words, use this browser and sign your life away. It’s all fine print, so nobody will read it anyway, right? Not quite. Some bloggers actually did read the fine print and started making a fuss about it. Google, realizing that this could turn into something ugly, acted quickly and removed the offending language. It’s hard to imagine an enormous company like Google not having an appropriate review process that would catch these “mistakes” if they were unintentional. Especially since the exact same thing happened when Google Docs was launched: Google claimed unreasonably excessive rights on anything you created using Google docs.

No big deal, “mistakes were made” and they were corrected… right? Well, sort of. There is more language in the Google Chrome license agreement that may give consumers (that’s you!) pause:

17. Advertisements

17.1 Some of the Services are supported by advertising revenue and may display advertisements and promotions. These advertisements may be targeted to the content of information stored on the Services, queries made through the Services or other information.

17.2 The manner, mode and extent of advertising by Google on the Services are subject to change without specific notice to you.

17.3 In consideration for Google granting you access to and use of the Services, you agree that Google may place such advertising on the Services.

In other words, Google reserves the right to watch your every move, to keep a record of it, and make money off of your privacy through advertising. Google also reserve the right to change their policy and find new ways to use and monitor your information without telling you. You get a free browser and all they want from you is your right to privacy. Pretty good deal, right? For Google. 

Commercial software companies have a very simple proposition to consumers: you pay some money, and you get to use their software. Google’s business model is all about advertising: You get lots of stuff for free, in return for giving up your privacy, which allows Google to sell more targeted advertising.

I actually believe that this can be a legitimate business model, as long as everyone knows exactly what they are getting and giving up. Frankly, I’m not sure that consumers realize the amount of personal information they surrender when they start using Google’s products and services. Google’s self-proclaimed motto of “Don’t be evil” may appear somewhat ironic if you consider that its proposition to consumers is starting to look more and more like a pact with the devil: you get unlimited free software and services but slowly, bit by bit, you end up selling your soul. No wonder they’re worth more than $140 Billion.