Newman Zone

After more than four years, Schematic and I have decided to go our separate ways. For someone who never saw himself as a nine-to-fiver, it’s been a hell of an adventure and a first-rate education. I was the fifth person to join the New York office, and now it numbers over a hundred. I started as a Senior Software Developer and I left as Vice President of the Multimedia Platforms Group (MPG). At one time, Schematic’s MPG group boasted some of the top Flash talent in the United States, if not the world.

At Schematic, I had the privilege to work on the best projects with the brightest talent. People like Robert Reinhardt, Danny Patterson, Joey Lott, Andrew Cummins, John Lindquist, Roger Braunstein, Geoff Stearns, Todd Anderson, Carlos Zumbado, and Justin Stander, to name a few. The experience of working side-by-side with Danny and Joey on Vongo is something I’ll never forget. Joey Lott’s impression of Borat, years before the movie came out, was priceless. I also remember driving through Minneapolis with Danny when a freak hailstorm nearly destroyed his SUV.

The best part about working for Schematic was that we got paid to do exciting, cutting-edge work. What more can you ask for?

• Vongo - My first project for Schematic was a Flash desktop application for Starz. We built this Emmy-nominated movie subscription service before Flex, ActionScript 3.0, or Adobe AIR even existed. And long before services like Hulu, Boxee, Netflix Watch Instantly, and iTunes movie rentals came on the scene. I was proud that not even Adobe realized the front end was authored in Flash.
• NBC Video Player - Joey, Danny, and I re-teamed to create a skinnable, rebrandable Flash video player for all of NBC Universal’s web properties. The player supported full-screen mode before it was added to the Flash API. Another first: we persuaded Akamai to cache the Flash Remoting AMF packets. When the player launched, the CPU on the origin server never exceeded 10%, despite millions of hits.
• Vogue.TV - Schematic’s second Flex project assembled a huge team to create an online entertainment network for Vogue magazine. Firsts: deep-linking, state management, Yahoo Maps, SMS, image uploads, video downloads.
• Core Performance - Built for a high-tech fitness training center, this is still one of my favorite projects because it broke so much new ground. The touch-screen Flex application runs on diskless Linux devices mounted on gym equipment, and communicates with a Java back-end using an XML socket server. Because the application runs 24/7, we went to great lengths to ensure that memory is properly released during garbage collection.
• Cannes Touch Wall - This massive 12′x5′ multi-touch, multi-user wall at the Cannes Lions festival wowed the attendees. It’s a credit to Schematic CEO Trevor Kaufman that he never once doubted that Flash Player would be capable of rendering this experience. Great use of the Flex framework, Adobe AIR, RFID, and multi-touch middleware from NUI.
• VEVO - This site promises to be to music videos what Hulu is to movies and TV. Despite an aggressive schedule, we delivered multiple Flex-based video players that integrate seamlessly with YouTube, Google Analytics, TuneWiki, FreeWheel, and many other vendors.

I’m indebted to everyone I’ve worked with at Schematic, but I especially want to thank Nick, Trevor, Andrew, Hyo, Chris, and Yvette for all their guidance and support over the years. In particular, I’m grateful to Robert Reinhardt for taking a chance on a guy he met at a conference and convincing Matthew Rechs to offer me a job.

As I look for the next great opportunity, you can reach me at “paul -at- newmanzone -dot- com” or through LinkedIn or Twitter.

Last Friday, the New York Times reported that the FCC is investigating Apple’s rejection of Google Voice:

“As part of its investigation, the F.C.C. focused on whether the decision to reject the Google Voice app was made by Apple alone or in consultation with AT&T. Industry analysts and others say AT&T has been increasingly concerned about the possible loss of revenue that could result from the Google Voice service.”

In its letter to Apple, the FCC mentions pending proceedings regarding handset exclusivity, and asks “What role, if any, did AT&T play in Apple’s consideration of the Google Voice and related applications?” They also ask:

“Please explain AT&T’s understanding of any differences between the Google Voice iPhone application and any Voice over Internet Protocol applications that are currently used on the AT&T network, either via the iPhone or via handsets other than the iPhone.”

Good question. Does AT&T understand that Google Voice is not a VoIP app? The commission continues:

“Do any devices that operate on AT&T’s network allow use of the Google Voice application? Do any devices that operate on AT&T’s network allow use of other applications that have been rejected for the iPhone?”

In other words, why is Google Voice permitted on AT&T Blackberry smartphones and not the iPhone?

The FCC is not the only one who’s fed up with Apple and AT&T. Today, Apple announced that Google CEO Eric Schmidt is resigning from Apple’s Board of Directors. From the tone of the press release, it sounds like Schmidt was invited to leave, but I’m sure the feeling was mutual.

I admit, Google Voice is a bit geeky. Most people think it’s a replacement for Skype. It’s not.

Skype enables you to place calls from a computer using Voice over IP (VoIP). When you initiate a Google Voice call from a web page, GV calls your phone and connects you to the number you dialed. (You can also place a call by phoning your Google number and pressing 2 at the prompt.) The confusion results because Google Voice also lets you make international calls at rates that are competitive with Skype’s.

One feature my wife just discovered is that Google Voice also lets you make free long distance calls within the continental United States. For example, let’s say you don’t have long distance on your land line. You can use Google Voice to make long distance calls and you’re only charged for calling a local number (assuming your Google number is a local call).

So why is AT&T afraid of Google Voice on the iPhone? You don’t save any cell phone minutes by placing long distance calls with Google Voice. Some have speculated that it’s because GV offers free SMS, which cuts into AT&T’s bottom line. But there are plenty of other iPhone applications that offer free text messaging.

Is it because Google Voice lets you make cheap international calls? Skype does this too - without using any cell phone minutes.

The only possible conclusion is that AT&T is simply afraid of Google Voice’s potential. It’s a preemptive strike against Google, and it will fail for the same reason the RIAA’s lawsuits failed to stop music piracy. You can’t stop progress.

If you want to know more about placing calls with Google Voice, check out the following video:

To add insult to injury, the Google Voice developers whose apps were unceremoniously yanked from the App Store this week are now getting “flooded with refund requests from customers.” Because Apple retains its 30% commission, even when the buyer receives a complete refund, this will increase the financial hardship to developers like Sean Kovacs.

Everyone blames AT&T for the demise of the Google Voice apps, but Apple made its own bed by giving AT&T complete control over what does and doesn’t appear in the App Store. Clearly, this is a tipping point for Apple. Prior to this week, I was holding out for a Verizon iPhone. At this point, it’s clear that Apple is a big part of the problem, and a new carrier won’t solve anything.

For more on this, see:

• Yeah, there’s an app for that. But for how long, and at what cost?
• There’s No App for That
• iPhone devs killing future apps over Apple policies, pricing
• The Emperor’s New Clothes

Back in April, I recommended Sean Kovacs’ GV Mobile app for the iPhone. Today, I learned that Apple has removed GV Mobile from the App Store. While I’m glad I purchased the app before this happened, I am disappointed because this means I can expect no updates to the product I paid for.

Then I read that Apple rejected the official Google Voice app six weeks ago, even though similar apps exist for the Blackberry and Google Android.

While I love my iPhone, this anticompetitive behavior on the part of Apple is starting to smack of United States v. Microsoft. Beyond all the ethical, antitrust considerations, it’s just bad business. Customers will not purchase applications if they can be yanked from the App Store on Apple’s whim. If the app no longer exists, you get no updates and you get no customer support from its developer(s).

I know iPhone developers whose apps have not been approved. Or whose apps have been approved and then subsequently rejected. There’s little or no explanation from Apple, leaving the developers to guess what prompted the rejection, revise and resubmit the app, cross their fingers, and hope for the best.

It’s time for Steve Jobs to write another open letter. This time, instead of pleading with the record labels to end DRM, he needs to convince his own employees to free the App Store from its Draconian policies. The excerpt below, in Jobs’ own words, could just as easily apply to what’s now happening with the App Store:

“If anything, the technical expertise and overhead required to create, operate and update a DRM system has limited the number of participants selling DRM protected music. If such requirements were removed, the music industry might experience an influx of new companies willing to invest in innovative new stores and players. This can only be seen as a positive by the music companies…Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace.  Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly.”

Mr. Jobs, tear down this wall!

Browsing a UPnP share in Boxee

I finally got my two favorite apps working together: Boxee and Simplify Media. Last night, I installed Simplify 2.0 on my Mac Mini and iPhone 3G. In Simplify’s announcement of 2.0, they list “Broadcast to UPnP devices” among the new features. Since UPnP works with XBMC, I figured it might work with Boxee, although it’s really aimed at external hardware like Sonos and Roku.

After enabling UPnP sharing in the Simplify Media Preferences, I fired up Boxee and started poking around. Turns out, you can locate the Simplify share by choosing Settings > Media Sources > Network Sources > Add New Source. Boxee scans your network for available devices. If it doesn’t find anything, click Rescan Sources. For me, at least, Simplify showed up as a source called Music. Next, drill down, select a folder to monitor, and click Add Source. I selected All Playlists. Boxee prompts you to name the new source. I replaced the suggested name and clicked Add.

The only hitch is that, once you enable the Simplify source, it doesn’t appear with cover art like the Music > Artists section of Boxee. Instead, you’ll find it in Music > Browse. Still, if you absolutely have to have your iTunes playlists in Boxee, this is a pretty good workaround.

UPDATE (4/26/07): GV Mobile was approved by Apple and is now available on the App Store.

One of the iPhone apps I’m eagerly awaiting is GV Mobile. If it lives up to its promise, and Apple deigns to approve it, I will soon be able to use GV Mobile to make and receive calls using Google Voice.

If you haven’t heard about Google Voice, it’s a rebranded (i.e., Googlified) version of Grand Central, which Google purchased in 2007. As a former Grand Central user, I was able to upgrade my account to Google Voice last week. Since then, I’ve been slogging through the documentation and trying out its features.

At first I was skeptical — why do I need another phone number? — but I’m becoming a convert. The premise behind Google Voice is simple: One phone number and one phone number only. When you sign up, Google Voice generates a local phone number for you. Since I live in New York City, my Google Voice number starts with the 646 area code. Whenever someone calls this number, Google Voice automatically forwards the call. Based on rules I create, using individual contacts or groups,  Google Voice rings either my work, home, or mobile phone — or all three.

If this were the only service Google Voice provided, its appeal would be limited. (Frankly, this is about as far as I got with Grand Central before losing interest.) But Google Voice offers several other features that are quite compelling:

• Google Contacts —  Google Voice shares your Gmail contacts, adding the ability to edit Google Voice settings for each contact. You can even create custom voicemail greetings for different groups or contacts.
• Call Presentation — When someone calls your Google Voice number, Google Voice calls you. If Call Presentation is enabled (it is by default), Google Voice gives you four options. You can take the call, send it to voicemail, listen to the caller record a voicemail message, or accept the call and record it. The ListenIn feature is nice: while you listen to the caller recording a voicemail message, you can press * at any time to pick up. (Remember answering machines?)
• Call Screening — To some extent, this is the telephonic equivalent of Captcha. The first time an unknown person calls your Google Voice number, that caller is prompted to record his or her name. This filters out automated telemarketing and junk fax calls.
• Visual Voicemail — You tell Google Voice how to notify you when a caller leaves a voicemail message (text, email, or both). To listen to voicemail, you can phone your Google Voice number or use the web site. Google Voice even transcribes your voicemail messages for you, although this feature still needs some work.
• International Calls — This is the feature that should give Skype a run for the money. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to place these calls on the web site, but I’m hoping that VoIP or Gmail voice and video chat support will be added in the future. Until then, you have to call your Google Voice number, then press * followed by your four-digit PIN number. You’ll need to add credit to your account with Google Checkout, but the international rates appear to be similar to Skype’s.

Of course, Google Voice still has a few drawbacks:

• Contacts — You can add and remove contacts from groups, but you can’t move contacts from one group to another. Nor can you add or remove more than one contact at a time. Since I created a new group for my Outlook imports, I cannot easily move them to my Friends, Family, or Coworkers groups. Fortunately, Google does provide a way to suggest features if something doesn’t work as expected.
• Internet Calling — Because you have to call your Google Voice number to place an international call, you cannot rely on Google Voice as a cheap alternative to roaming while traveling. In other words, you cannot make calls over the Internet with Google Voice.

Since Apple, to the surprise of many, approved the Skype app for the iPhone, one can only hope they will also approve GV Mobile. I’d like to see Google offer its own, free iPhone app for Google Voice, but since Google is also behind Android, I’m not holding my breath.

If you’ve ever used Firebug to debug Flash and Flex applications in a browser, consider using Danny Patterson’s FirebugTarget class instead. It hooks into the Flex Logging API, so the debug statements are omitted when you export a release build.

I also discovered that you don’t need Firebug and Firefox to take advantage of it: Google Chrome also has a JavaScript console. Simply choose Developer > JavaScript console, or press Ctrl+Shift+J on Windows. The JavaScript console opens in a new browser window. Very handy. 

You even get different icons for error and warn. Just remember to open the JavaScript console after you’ve loaded your app in Google Chrome.

The folks at Boxee have done it again. The new Boxee Remote app for the iPhone, which finally got approval from Apple, far exceeded my expectations.

Like Apple’s own Remote app for the iPhone — could this be the reason for the approval delay? — the Boxee Remote enables you to control Boxee from anywhere in your home. (In my case, Boxee is installed on a Mac Mini connected to an HDTV.) I’ve tried other iPhone remotes, such as Air Mouse and Snatch, but nothing handles Boxee better than Boxee Remote.

The difference is Boxee Remote’s intuitive Gesture mode. After a little practice, you can use it without looking at your iPhone. Dragging up, down, right, and left navigates the Boxee application. If you flick the Boxee logo, it scrolls a list on Boxee, much like flicking a list of artists or contacts on the iPhone.

If you click “Now Playing,” you get a thumbnail preview of your media, a volume slider, and a play/pause toggle button — even in photo slideshows. If you click the thumbnail, a second slider appears, enabling you to jump to another section of a song, movie, or television show. For me, at least, this feature doesn’t appear to be functional yet.

Check out the following video for a demonstration:

I bought an HDTV and a Mac Mini last year for two reasons: to watch high-definition cable TV, and to view services like Netflix, Vongo, and Joost on a big screen. Since then, Vongo disappeared (Starz made a deal with Netflix instead), Joost discontinued its stand-alone application, and Hulu emerged as one of the most popular video sites. Suddenly, full-length movies and TV episodes were everywhere. Even the big three networks got involved: you could watch every episode of “Lost” on abc.com in streaming HD video, and it looked amazingly good on a high-definition television.

Then there was a flurry of set-top boxes: Apple TV, Roku Netflix, Blockbuster OnDemand, SlingCatcher - you name it.

But the promise of TV/Internet convergence seemed no closer to reality. After all, who wants to buy a different set-top box for every service? And who wants to visit a dozen different web sites to find the movie or television show you want to watch?

Enter Boxee. Finally, a company that gets it.

What’s the big deal about Boxee?

• Ease of use - You can navigate using a keyboard, a mouse, an Apple Remote, and (soon) even an iPhone app.
• Content aggregation - You can watch video from ABC, CBS, Netflix, YouTube, CNN, Comedy Central, Joost, and many other web sites without using a browser.
• Downloadable content - Boxee includes a built-in BitTorrent client (rTorrent) and a torrent RSS reader.
• Podcasts - You can stream audio and video podcasts, although you cannot yet subscribe to them.
• Internet radio - You can listen to SHOUTcast and Last.fm (no Pandora yet).
• Captioning - You can enable subtitles from OpenSubtitles.org and lyrics from LyricWiki.org.
• Social networking - You can see what your friends are watching, rate movies, TV shows, and music, and recommend content to your friends.

You can do some of this in iTunes, Apple TV, Front Row, or XBMC, but to do it all in one place, you need Boxee (watch demo).

So is Boxee the next killer app?

The short answer is, not yet. But Boxee is still an alpha product, and it’s arguably better than the competition, including iTunes 8 and XBMC, upon which Boxee is based.

And because Boxee is open-source, there’s a good chance it will get the features it needs to put it over the top. Here’s my wishlist:

1. Add true fast-forward, rewind, and scrubbing. Right now, you can only skip backward and forward 30 seconds at a time.
2. Add a resume feature for movies and TV shows, so you can pick up where you left off.
3. Fix the Music section. I’ve had Boxee for over a week and it’s still indexing my iTunes library.
4. Enable manual editing of media files (and expose file names and directories to power users). Boxee is pretty good, but it wasn’t able to find an Otis Redding documentary from 2007, and it misidentified half a dozen MP3 albums. Right now, Boxee thinks Frank Sinatra is Frankie Carl, and George Harrison is Mose Allison, and there’s no way to manually override media titles and box art.
5. Add search! I’m sure this is on Boxee’s roadmap, but when you have hundreds of artists, scrolling with a remote is tedious.
6. Add playlist support. Boxee has already said this is coming, but I hope they also include the ability to generate playlists on the fly.
7. Add a toggle fullscreen button. If you’re using a remote, you don’t want to fish out the keyboard just to press Cmd+F.
8. Get rid of the firewall nag every time Boxee starts up.
9. Add more screensaver options (e.g., box art, now playing, recommendations). The default screensaver is giving me the willies.
10. Add built-in support for CD and DVD ripping. Maybe a Handbrake plugin?

You can make your own feature requests by visiting the Boxee forum and support sites. Or send them a tweet.

I have high hopes for Boxee. As alpha software, it’s already simpler, stabler, and easier to use than other HTPC solutions. It can only get better.

Of course, there’s one problem Boxee will never solve: making it easy to connect to your TV. Unless they build a Boxee set-top box.