Occasionally, there is some situation that you do not want to answer calls from a particular person. So, many cellphones provide "blacklist" function -- you put a phone number into this blacklist, and your phone will ignore calls from this number.
It seems that my Android phone does not directly support this function. But, you can get pretty much the same result by using the following trick: open your phonebook, edit the contact you want to block, choose "Send calls directly to voicemail", done!
I heard the latest Android (Android 2.2?) has the blacklist function. It will be a useful function to many users.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Behavior-targeting of Display Ads
This past week, Google announced the quarterly report. Display Ads and Mobile become a significant part of Google revenue source. For Display Ads, Google revenue is $2.5 Billion in the next 4 quarters. Excluding fee paid to partners, it is estimated that Google will earn $2 Billion in the next 4 quarters.
Display Ads was actually born earlier than Search Ads. But Search Ads is much more effective than Display Ads because it captures user intent. That's why Google Search Ads is so successful.
In the past few years, however, display Ads is catching up because behavior-targeting technology. Among behavior-targeting technologies, data is the core part. With user intent data, display ads can be much more effective.
According to a report, Rocket Fuel can lower their eCPA as large as 64%.
Here is the breakdown for different verticals:
• Automotive: 64% lower effective cost per action (eCPA)
• Retail: 24% lower eCPA
• Travel: 37% lower eCPA
• CPG: 50% lower eCPA
I believe that display advertising has a bright near-future as long as it deals with privacy issue well.
Display Ads was actually born earlier than Search Ads. But Search Ads is much more effective than Display Ads because it captures user intent. That's why Google Search Ads is so successful.
In the past few years, however, display Ads is catching up because behavior-targeting technology. Among behavior-targeting technologies, data is the core part. With user intent data, display ads can be much more effective.
According to a report, Rocket Fuel can lower their eCPA as large as 64%.
Here is the breakdown for different verticals:
• Automotive: 64% lower effective cost per action (eCPA)
• Retail: 24% lower eCPA
• Travel: 37% lower eCPA
• CPG: 50% lower eCPA
I believe that display advertising has a bright near-future as long as it deals with privacy issue well.
How to improve the battery life of your Android phone?
I bought a new Android phone, mainly because I’m not quite happy with the battery life of my old phone. After searching in the market for a while, I noticed Ericsson Xperia X10. The ads says that its battery is rated at up to 8 hours of talk time, and up to 415 hours (17+ days) of standby time. So I bought it.
It is a very cool cellphone. But I noticed that I had to charge the battery almost every day, without any heavy use. It is far from the advertised “415 hours (17+ days) of standby time”. So I did some research and tried to improve the battery life of my new phone. After some tune-up, my phone now can stand by for almost 5 days without heavy use. It is a great improvement, isn’t it? Although it is still far from its ads.
So, what did I do? I did the following things:
1. Turn off its wi-fi, bluebooth and gps service when you do not use them. It seems that this is the most critical part. From the “battery usage” provided by Android, I noticed that wi-fi really used a lot of battery.
2. Download and install “Startup Auditor” application from Android Market. You can use this application to prevent some applications from running when you turn on the cellphone. Your cellphone usually will start up a lot of creepy (and useless) applications when you turn it on.
3. Turn of the Synchronization function of your gmail and facebook applications. Frequent synchronization uses too much battery.
4. Download and install “Andvanced Task Killer” application from Android Market. You can run this application from time to time and kill some applications. When you open an application and then return to the “homepage” of Android, this application is usually still alive and running in the background.
If you are not happy with the battery life of your Android phone, you should try those tricks out!
It is a very cool cellphone. But I noticed that I had to charge the battery almost every day, without any heavy use. It is far from the advertised “415 hours (17+ days) of standby time”. So I did some research and tried to improve the battery life of my new phone. After some tune-up, my phone now can stand by for almost 5 days without heavy use. It is a great improvement, isn’t it? Although it is still far from its ads.
So, what did I do? I did the following things:
1. Turn off its wi-fi, bluebooth and gps service when you do not use them. It seems that this is the most critical part. From the “battery usage” provided by Android, I noticed that wi-fi really used a lot of battery.
2. Download and install “Startup Auditor” application from Android Market. You can use this application to prevent some applications from running when you turn on the cellphone. Your cellphone usually will start up a lot of creepy (and useless) applications when you turn it on.
3. Turn of the Synchronization function of your gmail and facebook applications. Frequent synchronization uses too much battery.
4. Download and install “Andvanced Task Killer” application from Android Market. You can run this application from time to time and kill some applications. When you open an application and then return to the “homepage” of Android, this application is usually still alive and running in the background.
If you are not happy with the battery life of your Android phone, you should try those tricks out!
Sunday, October 10, 2010
from semi-smart phone to smart phone -- my two-year experience with AT&T
My current cellphone is an LG Vu from AT&T. I bought it at year 2008, just before the first iphone was shipped. I am quite happy with this phone -- it has all necessary functions I need (bluetooth, internet browsing, big screen, friendly user interface, etc). But after two years, the battery deteriorates a lot and I have to charge it almost every two days. Last week I decided that it was time to get a new phone, so I ordered a SonyEricsson Xperia X10. This is a very powerful Android phone.
A lot of things happened in the last two years, especially in the IT industry. From LG Vu phone to Xperia Android phone, I clearly see the changes. Two of them are especially interesting:
1. My old LG phone has an application called “AT&T Mall”. You can browse and buy music, pictures, games and applications from AT&T through it. Sounds familiar? It is very similar with Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android market. But it did not get success as big as those two. In my new Xperia Android phone, this “AT&T Mall” is gone and now it is Android market.
2. My old LG phone has an application called “MySpace Mobile”, which allows you to access your MySpace account easily. Remember MySpace? Now everybody is talking about Facebook. Accordingly, I can not find MySpace application in our Xperia X10 now (of course, you should be able to install a MySpace application through Android market). Instead, Xperia has a Facebook application supporting your addiction to Facebook.
What do those tell us? A good idea does not necessarily lead to good business, and the roaring wave of internet business is so unpredictable.
I’ll post a review on my Xperia phone when I get more experience with it. So, stay tuned :-)
A lot of things happened in the last two years, especially in the IT industry. From LG Vu phone to Xperia Android phone, I clearly see the changes. Two of them are especially interesting:
1. My old LG phone has an application called “AT&T Mall”. You can browse and buy music, pictures, games and applications from AT&T through it. Sounds familiar? It is very similar with Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android market. But it did not get success as big as those two. In my new Xperia Android phone, this “AT&T Mall” is gone and now it is Android market.
2. My old LG phone has an application called “MySpace Mobile”, which allows you to access your MySpace account easily. Remember MySpace? Now everybody is talking about Facebook. Accordingly, I can not find MySpace application in our Xperia X10 now (of course, you should be able to install a MySpace application through Android market). Instead, Xperia has a Facebook application supporting your addiction to Facebook.
What do those tell us? A good idea does not necessarily lead to good business, and the roaring wave of internet business is so unpredictable.
I’ll post a review on my Xperia phone when I get more experience with it. So, stay tuned :-)
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Cookie of WiFi at Starbucks Coffee
Recently, Wall Street Journal has a series of articles about behavior targeted advertising industry called What They Know. I sometimes go to Starbucks to use Internet. A few months ago, Starbucks decided to offer free WiFi inside the coffee shop. I am curious what cookies (browser cookies, not eatable cookie) Starbucks WiFi tries to set in your user browser if you use Starbucks free WiFi.
So I enter a Starbucks coffee chop, clear all Internet browser Firefox cookies, visit the wikipedia.org website (WSJ reports that wikipedia does not set any third-party cookie on the user browser), which will be redirected to Starbucks WiFi start page. I accept the Starbucks Term of Use. Then I check the cookies in the browser and find cookies from 7 sites are set. 2 of them are from Starbucks site, i.e., coffeblogs.starbucks.com, and starbucks.com. The other 5 are from third-party, google.com, facebook.com, addthis.com (sharing and bookmarking service), ads.jiwire.com (mobile advertising), and tags.jiwire.com.
Overall, I think behavior-targeted advertising, a.k.a. personalized ads, is a good thing to Internet. It's a win-win-win for users, publishers, and advertisers. For users, they will see more relevant ads and coupons. So ads will become more useful and attractive to users; for publishers, they will make more revenue from advertising, thus produce more high-quality contents, survive and thrive; for advertisers, they will reach users what they really target at, thus improve their ROI (Return On Investment). But I agree that the Internet advertising industry should develop a better way to provide transparency and control to Internet users, although I think 90% and maybe even higher percent Internet users do not really care about behavior-targeted advertising and privacy.
Many people are happy about the free WiFi offered by Starbucks. I hope Starbucks can continue this free service by making some revenue from behavior-targeted advertising.
So I enter a Starbucks coffee chop, clear all Internet browser Firefox cookies, visit the wikipedia.org website (WSJ reports that wikipedia does not set any third-party cookie on the user browser), which will be redirected to Starbucks WiFi start page. I accept the Starbucks Term of Use. Then I check the cookies in the browser and find cookies from 7 sites are set. 2 of them are from Starbucks site, i.e., coffeblogs.starbucks.com, and starbucks.com. The other 5 are from third-party, google.com, facebook.com, addthis.com (sharing and bookmarking service), ads.jiwire.com (mobile advertising), and tags.jiwire.com.
Overall, I think behavior-targeted advertising, a.k.a. personalized ads, is a good thing to Internet. It's a win-win-win for users, publishers, and advertisers. For users, they will see more relevant ads and coupons. So ads will become more useful and attractive to users; for publishers, they will make more revenue from advertising, thus produce more high-quality contents, survive and thrive; for advertisers, they will reach users what they really target at, thus improve their ROI (Return On Investment). But I agree that the Internet advertising industry should develop a better way to provide transparency and control to Internet users, although I think 90% and maybe even higher percent Internet users do not really care about behavior-targeted advertising and privacy.
Many people are happy about the free WiFi offered by Starbucks. I hope Starbucks can continue this free service by making some revenue from behavior-targeted advertising.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
What is Droid Incredible and EVO 4G?
Today, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled a new version of iphone, although it had been leaked by Gizmo in April. Video chat is the new feature not leaked before. On the other smart phone camp, Android, there are some also hot products released recently. One is Droid Incredible on Verizon network. Last Friday, when I visited Palo Alto Verizon store, it was told to be sold out. If you order that day, you may get it in late June. It should be mentioned that Droid Incredible and Droid, released around holiday season last year, are quite different. For example, Droid Incredible has no physical keyboard while Droid has. Moreover, Droid is manufactured by Motorola, and Droid Incredible is manufactured by HTC. Droid Incredible is more like Nexus One than Droid.
The other is Sprint EVO 4G, which uses Springt 4G network, the first 4G wireless network in US. Interestingly, both EVO and Droid Incredible are manufactured by HTC, who also manufactures Nexus One and the very first Android phone G1. It should be mentioned that HTC is not Foxconn, which manufactures iphone, although both HTC and Foxconn are companies in Taiwan.
I also heard that right now the number of sold Android phones is larger than the number of sold iphone number, which is not surprising since there are many versions of Android phones on the market, while there are one or two versions of iphone on the market.
The other is Sprint EVO 4G, which uses Springt 4G network, the first 4G wireless network in US. Interestingly, both EVO and Droid Incredible are manufactured by HTC, who also manufactures Nexus One and the very first Android phone G1. It should be mentioned that HTC is not Foxconn, which manufactures iphone, although both HTC and Foxconn are companies in Taiwan.
I also heard that right now the number of sold Android phones is larger than the number of sold iphone number, which is not surprising since there are many versions of Android phones on the market, while there are one or two versions of iphone on the market.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
iPad is not an e-reader
Apple's iPad will go on sale in early April, very soon. The comments about iPad is mixed. One thing I definitely think about iPad is that iPad is NOT an e-reader as Amazon's Kindle, Sony ereader, or Barnes Noble's Nook. It may be an e-reader in the future, but not right now. I would consider iPad as a mixture of TabletPC and Netbook (for iPad with wifi functionality).
The reason I think iPad is not e-reader is mainly iPad does not use e-ink or other alternative technology to make reading experience much like reading physical books.
iPad uses LCD technology. I agree that LCD is better than e-ink in that 1) it is colored, not just black and white, so we can view nice pictures, play games, etc. 2) it has multi-touch screen. I hear that in the near future e-ink could not support neither color nor touch screen.
But an e-reader should have two basic features as a reading gadget. One is to make eye more comfortable and reading experience is like that of reading a physical book. iPad uses LCD, much better than CRT. But as an avid reader, I still feel my eye is tired after reading pdf on LCD for an hour. I have no such feeling after reading a physical book for an hour.
The other is that readers can use ereader to read it outdoors, such as during a picnic in a park, or when relaxing at a sunny beach. Do you have the similar experience with your smart phone that, in the sunshine, it is very hard to find who is calling you, what is written in a friend's email, or take a look at the picture you just shot? E-reader should let you read anywhere and anytime.
The reason I think iPad is not e-reader is mainly iPad does not use e-ink or other alternative technology to make reading experience much like reading physical books.
iPad uses LCD technology. I agree that LCD is better than e-ink in that 1) it is colored, not just black and white, so we can view nice pictures, play games, etc. 2) it has multi-touch screen. I hear that in the near future e-ink could not support neither color nor touch screen.
But an e-reader should have two basic features as a reading gadget. One is to make eye more comfortable and reading experience is like that of reading a physical book. iPad uses LCD, much better than CRT. But as an avid reader, I still feel my eye is tired after reading pdf on LCD for an hour. I have no such feeling after reading a physical book for an hour.
The other is that readers can use ereader to read it outdoors, such as during a picnic in a park, or when relaxing at a sunny beach. Do you have the similar experience with your smart phone that, in the sunshine, it is very hard to find who is calling you, what is written in a friend's email, or take a look at the picture you just shot? E-reader should let you read anywhere and anytime.
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