Facebook started with a brilliant idea, just like any other monopoly.
Although Facebook didn't invent social networking, it did a terrific job to execute the idea, grow insanely fast and beat its competitors, just like any other monopoly.
Since Facebook got to a great position, it started doing something, which usually early-age start-ups try hard to avoid - pissing off users, just like any other monopoly. More specifically, as you already knew, it keeps ignoring users' privacy.
One important thing that backs it up is its business, social networking. Social networking is one of those businesses that once you use it, it is way too complicated and expensive to switch to other alternatives. If you already have hundreds of friends on Facebook, how could you easily shutdown your account and create another network somewhere else (which is nowhere for now, unfortunately)? Another good example is Microsoft's territory in enterprise software. Most companies don't even want to get rid of IE6 due to the cost, let along Windows and Office.
The whole philosophy behind Facebook's privacy policy changes is two folds, in my opinion.
First, Facebook is betting that 90% of its users don't realize that they should check the policy, or they don't care. So it makes the default setting to share as much as possible. 90% of the rest of users won't check the policy in detail if it is too complicated to understand. So it makes its policy implicit and complicated and makes policy setting interface extremely difficult.
Second, with its dominant position, Facebook can experiment kicking off bad policies without worrying much of losing users. Think about it, even if the policy doesn't work out eventually, what's the worst thing that could happen? Facebook can just roll back the changes and apologize. It will still have its, I don't know exactly, hundreds of millions of users, even if tens of thousands of them are pissed off so badly and quit. Again, this is just like any other monopoly.
Don't get me wrong. I don't completely hate Facebook. With no doubt, Facebook changed the way we share. On the day any of us created Facebook accounts, we admitted that we want to more or less share something. I also really like a few ideas from Facebook, such as Facebook Development APIs and Facebook Connect. I especially believe Open Graph is a great idea, if it is done right. While Google is aggregating information from the web, Facebook is aggregating information from our lives and our minds. This is HUGE. With this information, Facebook has big potential to really build better web to help people. For instance, I'm a big fan of Aardvark, which I think is a perfect example with which Facebook could make huge difference based on its user base and information. I'm actually surprised when Aardvark was bought by Google but Facebook, maybe Facebook has already started building its own.
It's not very fair to blame Facebook for everything. Its whole business model is based on the number of users and the amount of information users are willing to share, or are forced to share, or share without even being aware of it. Facebook wants to grow and it does what it is meant to do. It depends on the user to accept it or not. When there are no other options, Facebook wins. What Facebook really needs is competitors, good competitors, just like any other monopoly.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Saturday, April 03, 2010
Tough Waiting
Mar. 30th - Received the shipping notification from Apple.
Apr. 3rd 9:30 AM - Called UPS to check again. There is a voice message about iPad delivery, which says that all pre-ordered iPad packages will arrive by the end of the day. I talked with a representative, she told me that the normal Saturday delivery schedule, packages are delivered before noon, does not apply to iPad deliveries today. She can not help me locate or contact the delivery person, but she's sorry that I need to wait at the door.
Apr. 3rd 9:53 AM - Refreshed the UPS tracking page again, found the package actually has arrived in Urbana at 8AM. Nice!
Apr. 3rd 11:09 AM - It stopped raining. I got some work done. A big goose dropped by.
Apr. 3rd 11:30 AM - The status of the package still hasn't changed into "Out For Delivery", so I called UPS again to double check if they deliver packages to business addresses on Saturdays. This time I was told that they do not. So I decided to have lunch first. If the status changes to "Out For Delivery", I will come back.
Apr. 3rd 11:50 AM - Left the office.
Apr. 3rd 12:50 PM - Found the status of the package became "12:03 AM - Exception: THE RECEIVER'S LOCATION WAS CLOSED ON THE 1ST DELIVERY ATTEMPT. A 2ND DELIVERY ATTEMPT WILL BE MADE". So I called a supervisor in UPS. He promised to contact the local UPS center and make the second attempt today, in about 2 hours.
Apr. 3rd 1:10PM - Went back to the building and sit at the door.
Apr. 3rd 1:40 PM - Got the iPad.
Although the waiting is not that pleasant, iPad is so awesome! She is so surprised.
Mar. 31st - Found the package left from Shenzhen, China.
Apr. 1st - The package arrived in the U.S.
Apr. 2nd - I do not want to ship it to my home, for some reason, so package is shipped to the building where my office is. Since the building is closed on Saturdays, I called UPS several times to make sure it will be delivered. I asked if the delivery person can call me once he comes by the building, the answer is that they do not carry phones. I asked if I can pick it up in local customer center, the answer is "we made special deal with Apple, we cannot change anything before the first attempt of delivery". So I decided to wait at the door for the UPS delivery tomorrow.
Apr. 3rd 8:30 AM - Found on the UPS tracking page that the package arrived in Decatur at 5:45am, which is about one hour away from Urbana. Right on track!
Apr. 3rd 8:50AM - I went to the office and sit at the door of the building. It is nice that there is a power plug next to the door, so I can do some work while waiting.
Apr. 3rd 9:30 AM - Called UPS to check again. There is a voice message about iPad delivery, which says that all pre-ordered iPad packages will arrive by the end of the day. I talked with a representative, she told me that the normal Saturday delivery schedule, packages are delivered before noon, does not apply to iPad deliveries today. She can not help me locate or contact the delivery person, but she's sorry that I need to wait at the door.
Apr. 3rd 9:53 AM - Refreshed the UPS tracking page again, found the package actually has arrived in Urbana at 8AM. Nice!
Apr. 3rd 11:09 AM - It stopped raining. I got some work done. A big goose dropped by.
Apr. 3rd 11:30 AM - The status of the package still hasn't changed into "Out For Delivery", so I called UPS again to double check if they deliver packages to business addresses on Saturdays. This time I was told that they do not. So I decided to have lunch first. If the status changes to "Out For Delivery", I will come back.
Apr. 3rd 11:50 AM - Left the office.
Apr. 3rd 12:50 PM - Found the status of the package became "12:03 AM - Exception: THE RECEIVER'S LOCATION WAS CLOSED ON THE 1ST DELIVERY ATTEMPT. A 2ND DELIVERY ATTEMPT WILL BE MADE". So I called a supervisor in UPS. He promised to contact the local UPS center and make the second attempt today, in about 2 hours.
Apr. 3rd 1:10PM - Went back to the building and sit at the door.
Apr. 3rd 1:40 PM - Got the iPad.
Although the waiting is not that pleasant, iPad is so awesome! She is so surprised.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
iPad is Not a Toy. You Do the Math
Apple released iPad. Not too much surprise. It is a tablet and it is a lot like what the rumors said. Did I expect too much? Yes. Am I disappointed by iPad? Not really. Do I lose faith in iPad? Absolutely no! iPad is a great product. It is not just a big iPhone. It is not just a toy. It started changing how a computer should work for most of the things we use computers for.
During his presentation, Steve Jobs clearly defined the market of iPad - it is a "third category" mobile device between smart phones and laptops. This definition again brings back the question that everybody asked before - why do we need a third category mobile device? As for Steve Jobs' answer, the reason is that we need to do "key things" in a "far better" way. I totally buy this rationale. We really need this "third category". It covers the most important tasks, including reading emails, browsing the Web, listening to musics, watching videos, playing games and reading ebooks. It also covers a lot of scenarios where the first two categories are not good enough. These scenarios add up to a significant amount of time of using a computer. All these boil down to a simple math problem:
The reality is that "A" is becoming bigger and bigger and "C" is becoming smaller and smaller. Obviously, this leads to a more and more significant difference. So do the math, then you will realize that iPad is not just a toy, it is a serious and useful device for everybody.
One could certainly argue that even if the difference becomes bigger, I can still use either a smart phone or a laptop to cover it. Yes, of course you can, but iPad just makes it far better than a smart phone or a laptop. It is fast. It is convenient. It has a new human-computer interface, which matters the most.
The keyboard-mouse-monitor interface has not changed for decades. It has been working pretty well, but it is certainly not the ideal one. What iPad provides is a much better interface. In my opinion, the human-computer interface should be as similar as possible to what we do things in the real world, meanwhile leverage computing power to help us do things better. Take the photo app on iPad as an example. It makes photo piles and lets the user to spread/stack up a pile of photos. It is better than how iPhoto works. It is more natural and fun. In the meantime, it helps people share photos, make photo books, organize photos by tags, geographic information, faces and such, which traditional photo albums can not do. This is how a computer should work.
Many people think iPad is a content consumer. I don't think it is true. It is brilliant for Apple to port iWork to iPad, which makes iPad much more than a content consumer. iWork significantly enlarges the use case space of iPad. For example, think about high school students, or even college students. They can use iPad to take notes, read text books, write reports and make presentations. How cool is that?
Is iPad good enough for everything? One can easily come up with thousands of things that iPad can not do. It's true. I can come up with thousands of things that a laptop, or even a desktop can not do as well. Does it prevent me from buying a laptop instead of a super computer? No. Because a laptop is good enough for most tasks. The just unveiled iPad is not intended to replace everything. But for average computer users, it does most of their tasks in a much better way. As for the next generation, or the generation after... I think iPad will become the first thing to think about when somebody needs to buy a computer.
Thirty years ago, nobody could imagine that a computer can be put on a desk, until Apple released Apple II and soon IBM released 5150. Ten years ago, nobody believed that a laptop could be as powerful as a desktop. Today, most of my friends have only a laptop and a big monitor at home. It is way too early to conclude that iPad, tablets in general, won't be the next mainstream personal computing device. Give it time, things will change. iPad has no doubt just started this change now.
During his presentation, Steve Jobs clearly defined the market of iPad - it is a "third category" mobile device between smart phones and laptops. This definition again brings back the question that everybody asked before - why do we need a third category mobile device? As for Steve Jobs' answer, the reason is that we need to do "key things" in a "far better" way. I totally buy this rationale. We really need this "third category". It covers the most important tasks, including reading emails, browsing the Web, listening to musics, watching videos, playing games and reading ebooks. It also covers a lot of scenarios where the first two categories are not good enough. These scenarios add up to a significant amount of time of using a computer. All these boil down to a simple math problem:
The reality is that "A" is becoming bigger and bigger and "C" is becoming smaller and smaller. Obviously, this leads to a more and more significant difference. So do the math, then you will realize that iPad is not just a toy, it is a serious and useful device for everybody.
One could certainly argue that even if the difference becomes bigger, I can still use either a smart phone or a laptop to cover it. Yes, of course you can, but iPad just makes it far better than a smart phone or a laptop. It is fast. It is convenient. It has a new human-computer interface, which matters the most.
The keyboard-mouse-monitor interface has not changed for decades. It has been working pretty well, but it is certainly not the ideal one. What iPad provides is a much better interface. In my opinion, the human-computer interface should be as similar as possible to what we do things in the real world, meanwhile leverage computing power to help us do things better. Take the photo app on iPad as an example. It makes photo piles and lets the user to spread/stack up a pile of photos. It is better than how iPhoto works. It is more natural and fun. In the meantime, it helps people share photos, make photo books, organize photos by tags, geographic information, faces and such, which traditional photo albums can not do. This is how a computer should work.
Many people think iPad is a content consumer. I don't think it is true. It is brilliant for Apple to port iWork to iPad, which makes iPad much more than a content consumer. iWork significantly enlarges the use case space of iPad. For example, think about high school students, or even college students. They can use iPad to take notes, read text books, write reports and make presentations. How cool is that?
Is iPad good enough for everything? One can easily come up with thousands of things that iPad can not do. It's true. I can come up with thousands of things that a laptop, or even a desktop can not do as well. Does it prevent me from buying a laptop instead of a super computer? No. Because a laptop is good enough for most tasks. The just unveiled iPad is not intended to replace everything. But for average computer users, it does most of their tasks in a much better way. As for the next generation, or the generation after... I think iPad will become the first thing to think about when somebody needs to buy a computer.
Thirty years ago, nobody could imagine that a computer can be put on a desk, until Apple released Apple II and soon IBM released 5150. Ten years ago, nobody believed that a laptop could be as powerful as a desktop. Today, most of my friends have only a laptop and a big monitor at home. It is way too early to conclude that iPad, tablets in general, won't be the next mainstream personal computing device. Give it time, things will change. iPad has no doubt just started this change now.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
What To Expect When You Are Expecting - Apple Tablet
As the rumored release date is coming, "Apple Tablet" (let's call it this for now) has stimulated heated discussion and a lot of speculation. It is just a lot of fun to think about what Apple will do.
Just like many other products, two fundamental keys of Apple Tablet are the price and the market. The biggest market problem of Apple Tablet is that it more or less overlaps with existing Apple product lines. The first question people will ask themselves is that if I already have a desktop and a smartphone, maybe also a laptop, why should I buy a tablet? When and where will I use it? Will it be very useful or just sort of useful? What price would I accept to buy a widget that is "sort of useful" or even just a fancy expensive toy? These are all valid questions. So what should we expect from Apple Tablet? Before we think about what to expect, let's start with what not to expect.
Apple Tablet will not be a traditional browser-only netbook. First of all, Apple's strength is not making Web browsers, although Safari is great. Apple's strength is design and user experience. So there must be awesome client applications besides a Web browser. Second of all, 99.99% of the current web sites are not touch-screen friendly. They are not designed for touch screens at all. Even in the future, I don't think websites can easily provide as good user experience as client applications can (note that I did not say desktop applications). I always prefer client applications even if most of the storage and computation is thrown to the cloud, with only a few exceptions of Google's great products, namely Gmail and Google Reader.
Apple Tablet will not be an e-reader. This is not only because Steve Jobs said "people don't read anymore", it just does not make sense for Apple to make a dedicated reading device, because it will need to make another device to provide more later. Kindle is a great innovation and I have been hesitating between buy or not buy a kindle for a long long time. But what Kindle can do is just a small part of personal computing. Maybe Apple Tablet will not be as good as Kindle in terms of reading book, but it will be a reasonable e-reader plus a lot more.
Apple Tablet will not be a Macbook with a touch screen. Apple Tablet will be smaller, lighter and may provide less computing power. It will be easier to carry around. Maybe not much easier than Macbook, but let me give you one scenario for instance: using Macbook when you were in the restroom is awkward, but Apple Tablet will fit nicely. Apple Tablet will also be easier to use, and most importantly, thanks to new possibilities in interface design, it will be more fun!
What should we expect then? In my guess, Apple Tablet will be a revolution that changes the way how mainstream people use computers, including both desktops and laptops. Fortunately, Apple is a company that is capable to do such a thing.
I drew a picture of four main products lines in Apple. iPhone is irreplaceable, because it is the only one you can carry with you all the time. Apple Tablet is under "Fit In Pocket", together with Macbook and iMac, but it is way portable than iMac and better than Macbook. Apple Tablet is just cross the "Enough For Most User" line, which makes it capable to say no to both Macbook and iMac.
John Gruber thought Apple Tablet will be a kind of a replacement of Macbook. When people want to by a portable device from Apple, they will consider either a Macbook or an Apple Tablet, but not likely to get both. I agree with him, but I think Apple Tablet is more ambitious than this - most people will only need an Apple Tablet, maybe plus an iPhone.
First of all, why must we have a desktop and a laptop? For most people, the border between desktops and laptops is vague and there is no need to have both, because the mobile hardware is so advanced and more and more computation and storage is being moved to the cloud. You can store your documents on the cloud, your pictures, and even your musics and videos - remember that Apple has the best online streaming service for movies, TV shows and it recently acquired Lala to stream musics. So in my opinion, the next generation of personal computing should be always portable, even in a house, I want to move my computer wherever I want. High-performance desktop will be only needed for people who want to edit a movie or something.
Why must we use a keyboard and a mouse to talk with the computer? I feel sorry that my mom has to struggle with typing when she starts using computers. There must be some ways that are more natural and easier to interact with computers. This is actually the most exciting thing I would expect from Apple Tablet - a phenomenal brand new user interface. Imagine you could dance your finger on the screen to organize your pictures and emails. Imagine you could make a picture by "drawing" them with your hands. Imagine when you read a book, you could flip a page by sliding your figures on its corner, you could highlight/circle the interesting part by move your finger across them and you could write down your comments and even draw a sketch. Now this comes to what Apple is good at. Trust me, it will change everything.
Ok, talking the keyboard, a really big topic. Not sure if Apple Tablet will have a real keyboard, probably not. If there will be only an on-screen keyboard, I think Apple will make it resizable, so it can fit hands in different sizes. You can also move it to any place on the screen. Once you settle down at home, you can use a wireless keyboard or mouse if you want to. I think this would be enough, except for people who needs to type a lot a lot, like programmers or writers.
Talking about the screen. It will be multi-touch, no doubt. I hope it will be pressure-sensitive as well. In terms of size, 10 inches is the most accepted speculation. I don't care the size that much, since it won't fit into my pocket anyway. Kindle is too small to me. 10 inches is a nice size for reading, at least to me. One big question is how it will make reading books easier. People will definitely expect to use it for reading. I have tons of PDF books and I hate to read them on my laptop. Pixel Qi's multi-purpose screen seems to be a really good idea.
As for network, will Apple Tablet have only WiFi or support 3G, iPhone-like 3G or Kindle-like 3G? If it supports wireless data plan, it must be optional, and probably more expensive than the iPhone plan. I highly doubt it though. AT&T is already struggling to support iPhone users. With Apple Tablet, it's like Hulu@iPhone, I don't think any providers will want to run that risk. How about peripherals? What if you really need a real keyboard and mouse, or a big screen monitor, or a printer? It's easy, you can plug the tablet into a station and most stuff won't even need a cable.
Finally, the price. Price, to be more specific, low price, is very important if Apple wants massive success of the new device. This goes back to the two keys I mentioned in the beginning, market and price. I want to use the "vitamin v.s. pain killer" metaphor, which my advisor often uses to judge research papers. If the product is a "pain killer", high price may be acceptable. But if it is just "vitamin", well, I won't buy it if it is too expensive. Although I believe Apple Tablet will be capable let most people just have one device, the reality is that many people already have laptops and/or desktops. To convince them to switch, the price should make them happy.
Enough is enough. I vividly remember the Macworld 2007 Keynote by Steve Jobs where he introduced iPhone, which absolutely redefined the smartphone industry. Apple Tablet will redefine the game again: personal computing should be like this. I can't wait to see it, can you?
Updates:
Jan. 18th: Apple issues invitation to a media event on the 27th.
Just like many other products, two fundamental keys of Apple Tablet are the price and the market. The biggest market problem of Apple Tablet is that it more or less overlaps with existing Apple product lines. The first question people will ask themselves is that if I already have a desktop and a smartphone, maybe also a laptop, why should I buy a tablet? When and where will I use it? Will it be very useful or just sort of useful? What price would I accept to buy a widget that is "sort of useful" or even just a fancy expensive toy? These are all valid questions. So what should we expect from Apple Tablet? Before we think about what to expect, let's start with what not to expect.
Apple Tablet will not be a traditional browser-only netbook. First of all, Apple's strength is not making Web browsers, although Safari is great. Apple's strength is design and user experience. So there must be awesome client applications besides a Web browser. Second of all, 99.99% of the current web sites are not touch-screen friendly. They are not designed for touch screens at all. Even in the future, I don't think websites can easily provide as good user experience as client applications can (note that I did not say desktop applications). I always prefer client applications even if most of the storage and computation is thrown to the cloud, with only a few exceptions of Google's great products, namely Gmail and Google Reader.
Apple Tablet will not be an e-reader. This is not only because Steve Jobs said "people don't read anymore", it just does not make sense for Apple to make a dedicated reading device, because it will need to make another device to provide more later. Kindle is a great innovation and I have been hesitating between buy or not buy a kindle for a long long time. But what Kindle can do is just a small part of personal computing. Maybe Apple Tablet will not be as good as Kindle in terms of reading book, but it will be a reasonable e-reader plus a lot more.
Apple Tablet will not be a Macbook with a touch screen. Apple Tablet will be smaller, lighter and may provide less computing power. It will be easier to carry around. Maybe not much easier than Macbook, but let me give you one scenario for instance: using Macbook when you were in the restroom is awkward, but Apple Tablet will fit nicely. Apple Tablet will also be easier to use, and most importantly, thanks to new possibilities in interface design, it will be more fun!
What should we expect then? In my guess, Apple Tablet will be a revolution that changes the way how mainstream people use computers, including both desktops and laptops. Fortunately, Apple is a company that is capable to do such a thing.
I drew a picture of four main products lines in Apple. iPhone is irreplaceable, because it is the only one you can carry with you all the time. Apple Tablet is under "Fit In Pocket", together with Macbook and iMac, but it is way portable than iMac and better than Macbook. Apple Tablet is just cross the "Enough For Most User" line, which makes it capable to say no to both Macbook and iMac.
John Gruber thought Apple Tablet will be a kind of a replacement of Macbook. When people want to by a portable device from Apple, they will consider either a Macbook or an Apple Tablet, but not likely to get both. I agree with him, but I think Apple Tablet is more ambitious than this - most people will only need an Apple Tablet, maybe plus an iPhone.
First of all, why must we have a desktop and a laptop? For most people, the border between desktops and laptops is vague and there is no need to have both, because the mobile hardware is so advanced and more and more computation and storage is being moved to the cloud. You can store your documents on the cloud, your pictures, and even your musics and videos - remember that Apple has the best online streaming service for movies, TV shows and it recently acquired Lala to stream musics. So in my opinion, the next generation of personal computing should be always portable, even in a house, I want to move my computer wherever I want. High-performance desktop will be only needed for people who want to edit a movie or something.
Why must we use a keyboard and a mouse to talk with the computer? I feel sorry that my mom has to struggle with typing when she starts using computers. There must be some ways that are more natural and easier to interact with computers. This is actually the most exciting thing I would expect from Apple Tablet - a phenomenal brand new user interface. Imagine you could dance your finger on the screen to organize your pictures and emails. Imagine you could make a picture by "drawing" them with your hands. Imagine when you read a book, you could flip a page by sliding your figures on its corner, you could highlight/circle the interesting part by move your finger across them and you could write down your comments and even draw a sketch. Now this comes to what Apple is good at. Trust me, it will change everything.
Ok, talking the keyboard, a really big topic. Not sure if Apple Tablet will have a real keyboard, probably not. If there will be only an on-screen keyboard, I think Apple will make it resizable, so it can fit hands in different sizes. You can also move it to any place on the screen. Once you settle down at home, you can use a wireless keyboard or mouse if you want to. I think this would be enough, except for people who needs to type a lot a lot, like programmers or writers.
Talking about the screen. It will be multi-touch, no doubt. I hope it will be pressure-sensitive as well. In terms of size, 10 inches is the most accepted speculation. I don't care the size that much, since it won't fit into my pocket anyway. Kindle is too small to me. 10 inches is a nice size for reading, at least to me. One big question is how it will make reading books easier. People will definitely expect to use it for reading. I have tons of PDF books and I hate to read them on my laptop. Pixel Qi's multi-purpose screen seems to be a really good idea.
As for network, will Apple Tablet have only WiFi or support 3G, iPhone-like 3G or Kindle-like 3G? If it supports wireless data plan, it must be optional, and probably more expensive than the iPhone plan. I highly doubt it though. AT&T is already struggling to support iPhone users. With Apple Tablet, it's like Hulu@iPhone, I don't think any providers will want to run that risk. How about peripherals? What if you really need a real keyboard and mouse, or a big screen monitor, or a printer? It's easy, you can plug the tablet into a station and most stuff won't even need a cable.
Finally, the price. Price, to be more specific, low price, is very important if Apple wants massive success of the new device. This goes back to the two keys I mentioned in the beginning, market and price. I want to use the "vitamin v.s. pain killer" metaphor, which my advisor often uses to judge research papers. If the product is a "pain killer", high price may be acceptable. But if it is just "vitamin", well, I won't buy it if it is too expensive. Although I believe Apple Tablet will be capable let most people just have one device, the reality is that many people already have laptops and/or desktops. To convince them to switch, the price should make them happy.
Enough is enough. I vividly remember the Macworld 2007 Keynote by Steve Jobs where he introduced iPhone, which absolutely redefined the smartphone industry. Apple Tablet will redefine the game again: personal computing should be like this. I can't wait to see it, can you?
Updates:
Jan. 18th: Apple issues invitation to a media event on the 27th.
Because of the colorful splatter paint in the post, people start thinking the new device will focus on art creating. Did I expect too much?
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Turn An Original/3G iPhone To A Video Recorder
Video recording is one of the most-wanted features of iPhone 3GS to me. My iPhone is still the 3G release and I don't plan on upgrading to 3GS, since I'm not qualified for a standard upgrade until next July. Before I will be able to upgrade to the rumored iPhone 4G, I think it would be cool to do some video recording with my current iPhone. Fortunately, there are several apps now doing this. I did some research and listed what I found here:
I bought iVidCam. It is pretty good. I especially like its encoding queue feature, with which you can encode videos later when you want to record the next one immediately, and file transfer feature, with which you can transfer videos to computers. The quality is not good, of course, due to both the low frame rate and the low resolution of the camera on 3G, but it is better than nothing.
| App | Resolution | Frame/Sec | Max Length | Features | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| iVideoCamera | 160x213 | 3 | 1 min | - | $0.99 |
| Camcorder | 320x426 | 3-7 | No limit | - | $0.99 |
| iVidCam (Free) | 280x360 | 3-7 | No limit | - | $0.00 |
| iVidCam | 320x427 | 3-7 | No limit | Encode queue, File transfer | $0.99 |
| 3GS :) | 640x480 | 30 | No limit | Fast encoding, more formats | $499.00 |
I bought iVidCam. It is pretty good. I especially like its encoding queue feature, with which you can encode videos later when you want to record the next one immediately, and file transfer feature, with which you can transfer videos to computers. The quality is not good, of course, due to both the low frame rate and the low resolution of the camera on 3G, but it is better than nothing.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Understanding English Mistakes Made By Native Chinese Speakers
Everybody knows learning a new language is not easy. Learning English is especially hard for native Chinese speakers, because English and Chinese are so different in many ways. I think it might be an interesting idea to write down some common mistakes made by native Chinese speakers. It may more or less help native English speakers understand their Chinese speaking friends better. Most of these mistakes make their English looks or sounds strange, while they can usually be understood with enough context. But some of them may cause misunderstanding and confuse the audience. I make these mistakes all the time. I found it is hard to avoid them especially when I talk fast because my brain is not used to these language features. In the meantime, for the same reason, I tend to tolerate those mistakes. For example, I never pay attention to the speaker's using of "he" or "she". So even if the speaker uses the wrong pronouns, I can figure it out who the speaker refers to from the context. That is probably why Chinese people can easily understand each other even when they talk in English with these mistakes. Many things could lead to language mistakes, but I will focus on mistakes related to the grammar differences between English and Chinese.
Using wrong gender of pronoun. This is the most common mistakes, because in Chinese, "she", "he" and "it" are pronounced in the exactly same way. The grammar differentiates "she", "he" and "it", but not very strict. So native Chinese speakers are not used to considering gender of pronouns, specially for "she" and "he". A few of my friends often complained to me that they got lost after I talk for a while, because I often randomly switch between "he" and "she" and they can not follow whom exactly I refer to.
Using wrong verb tense. In Chinese, tense is not used. Instead, people rely on context or some adverbs to figure out the time when the action takes place. For example:
吃 (eat)
烤鸭 (roast duck)
吃烤鸭 (eat roast duck)
吃完烤鸭了 (ate roast duck)
要去吃烤鸭 (will eat roast duck)
正在吃烤鸭 (be eating roast duck)
Misusing singular/plural forms of nouns and ignoring verb agreement. Chinese does not have grammatical number, which causes three common mistakes:
- Misusing singular/plural forms of nouns, like "I have a computer", " I have two computer" or "I have many computer".
- Using uncountable nouns as countable nouns, like "bought some waters".
- Ignoring verb agreement, like "Mike drink milk", "there is apples on the table".
These mistakes could be very misleading when there is no enough context indicating the real quantity.
Mixing definite and indefinite articles. This is another very common mistake even when native Chinese speakers write in English, because in Chinese, we do not need to use articles. You may find native Chinese speakers tend to use "this", "these", "that" and "those" instead of articles, since these words are used in a similar way as articles in Chinese. The most common mistakes about articles are missing articles when they are needed or adding articles when they are not needed. I remember when I was in high school, a lot of questions in English exams are about articles. I would say most of them do not really help me understand how to use articles. This is an example:
Let’s go to ____ cinema-that’ll take your mind off the problem for ___ while.
A. the; the
B. the; a
C. a; the
D. a ; a
Not using subjunctive mood. Chinese grammar does not differentiate the indicative and subjunctive mood, so native Chinese speakers often use the indicative mood when the subjunctive mood should be used. This could be pretty confusing especially when the subjunctive mood should be used to express a hypothesis.
Using wrong prepositions or missing prepositions. In Chinese, prepositions are not very critical in grammar. One preposition could be used in many scenarios for different meanings. People often depend on the context and adverbs to decide the meaning of prepositions. For example, the preposition "在" can be used in these sentences:
在墙上 (on the wall)
在冰箱里 (in the refrigerator)
在床上 (in the bed)
在那本书里 (in that book)
在家 (at home)
在桌子下 (under the desk)
在北京 (in Beijing)
Many English verbs work with certain prepositions, such as "go to", "shoot at", "single out" and so on. This is not common in Chinese either. In many cases. prepositions are just not needed.
http://www.englishdaily626.com has some excellent examples of Chinese-style misusing prepositions:
Chinese Style: The sun rises from the East.
American Style: The sun rises in the East.
Chinese Style: The thief got in from the window.
American Style: The thief got in through the window.
Chinese Style: Let's begin from page 10.
American Style: Let's begin at ( on ) page 10.
Chinese Style: There is a limit in my patience.
American Style: There is a limit to my patience.
Chinese Style: Is your house insured for fire ?
American Style: Is your house insured against fire ?
Chinese Style: This is the key of my room.
American Style: This is the key to my room.
Chinese Style: He is a student of Harvard University.
American Style: He is a student at Harvard University.
在墙上 (on the wall)
在冰箱里 (in the refrigerator)
在床上 (in the bed)
在那本书里 (in that book)
在家 (at home)
在桌子下 (under the desk)
在北京 (in Beijing)
Many English verbs work with certain prepositions, such as "go to", "shoot at", "single out" and so on. This is not common in Chinese either. In many cases. prepositions are just not needed.
http://www.englishdaily626.com has some excellent examples of Chinese-style misusing prepositions:
Chinese Style: The sun rises from the East.
American Style: The sun rises in the East.
Chinese Style: The thief got in from the window.
American Style: The thief got in through the window.
Chinese Style: Let's begin from page 10.
American Style: Let's begin at ( on ) page 10.
Chinese Style: There is a limit in my patience.
American Style: There is a limit to my patience.
Chinese Style: Is your house insured for fire ?
American Style: Is your house insured against fire ?
Chinese Style: This is the key of my room.
American Style: This is the key to my room.
Chinese Style: He is a student of Harvard University.
American Style: He is a student at Harvard University.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Company Trip - Day #3
We visited great scene spots around Lake Tahoe.
We had lunch in Keys Cafe. It is a small place, but their food is quite nice.
We had lunch in Keys Cafe. It is a small place, but their food is quite nice.
We saw this, so we bought coffee there :-)
On the way back, Erik got me addicted to a really cute iPhone game - Doodle Jump. That's my second favorite iPhone game now, after Flight Control.
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