@gordonbowman

What I'm looking forward to in tech this year

• The digital living room. The connected and smart TVs were all the buzz at CES. From Samsung to Microsoft to Google to Roku and others. Yet I think hanging over the head of every announcement was Apple's long rumored TV. The rumors of an Apple TV have been in overdrive ever since Steve Jobs said in an interview that he had "finally cracked it". Did he? Is Apple going to "pull an iPhone" on the cable industry?

• The mobile wallet. The idea that we might be able to use our mobile phones to pay for things offline makes sense. Imagine for a second using your phone to pay for things in stores, coffee shops, taxis, BART, etc. Merging the phone and wallet into one thing seems like a no-brainer. And it’s been happening in places like Japan for years. Will we in the U.S. finally be able to? It's going to take a leader to sort through a lot of mess. To make it happen involves a lot of moving pieces from the handset makers to wireless carriers to banks and credit card companies and finally the retail merchants themselves. Can Google do it with Google Wallet? Will Square try something to push the envelope? 

• The connected car.  Knowing the glacial pace of automotive development, I have been surprised by how quickly automakers have been embracing new technologies in recent years. The dream of a connected car is getting closer to a reality. The announcements out of this year's CES were many: Ford with updates to their Sync Applink, Toytota with Entune, and new releases from Kia, Hyundai and GM. Virtually every car maker is coming on board with new, connected systems after hearing the feedback and demand from consumers. But can the automakers bring the connected car to the masses and not just the high-end, luxury drivers? And can they do so in a simple, safe and easy-to-use way?

• Microsoft & Mobile. Microsoft has been astonishingly late to the mobile party with Windows Phone. Laughably late really. Still dominant in PCs, Microsoft is basically nonexistent in mobile smartphones and tablets ceding the crown to Apple and Google. However, Windows Phone has gotten some rave reviews recently. And through their partnership with Nokia, Microsoft would seem to have the distribution part. The flagship Windows Phone unveiled at CES, the Nokia Lumia 900, seems especially impressive. But does Windows Phone have what it takes to last? Can Microsoft woo app developers? Will it be a Zune (bust) or an XBOX 360 (hit) story for them?

Undoubtedly, these are are all wide open. There are certainly some big ones that I've missed. I mean who would have thought that Google would try to buy Motorola last year?

Some of these may take years to play out. As Bill Gates famously said, 

We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten.

Still, there should be significant progress for each of these this year. And it should make for a very exciting year. 

Also: How Square was Almost Named Squirrel

The Google Reader Redesign

Google has rolled out a new design to Google Reader. Previously announced, this release primarily includes a new design and Google+ integration. 

My friends and family know that I love Google Reader. Over the years I have curated my RSS feeds carefully into a heirarchy that I like. It's a bit messy but it works for me. I have broken my feeds into folders for the startups, entrepreneurs, VCs, etc. that I like to keep daily tabs on.

The general breakdown is like so:

• Startups
• Entrepreneurs
• Big Tech Companies
• Tech News (Hacker News, Techmeme, PE Hub, etc.)
• Venture Capitalists (Fred Wilson, Ben Horowitz, Mark Suster, etc.)
• Design
• Advertising
• Sales
• Sports 
• Financial news
• Investing/Traders

Essentially I can glance at any folder and get a good snapshot of all the blogs and news that I care about and follow on a regular basis. 

A lot of my reading typically takes place within Google Reader itself. Yes, I'll occasionally click through to look at and engage in the comments or explore other articles. But I like having all of them in one place for quick reading and scanning. Since so much of my reading is done within Google Reader, this redesign was pretty impactful to me. And after playing around with it for a few days, I have to say that I'm dissapointed.

I didn't use the sharing features within Reader all that much (only to push to Twitter really) so I am pretty apathetic to the Google+ integrations. Do I think I'll share more of what I'm reading on Google+ now because of it? Not really. But perhaps it will grow on me. 

My beef is mainly in the visual and UI changes. Now, don't get me wrong. I am all for visual consistency. And I have been really impressed with Google's new design across all of their products, including the new Gmail design. 

However, my sentiments on the Reader redesign echo the feelings of Brian Shih, formerly a project manager for Google Reader. Here's what he had to say on the redesign:

In the name of visual consistency, Google has updated the visual style to match Gmail, Calendar and Docs. I have nothing against visual consistency (and in fact, this something that Google should be doing), but it's as if whoever made the update did so without ever actually using the product to, you know, read something.

When you log into Reader, what the hell do you think your primary objective is? Did you answer "stare at a giant header bar with no real estate saved for actual reading"? Congrats, here's your prize:

Shih also does a comparison of old Reader vs. new Reader so we can see the difference side-by-side down to the first subscription (click to enlarge):

As you can see, there is a lot of more room for text and reading in the old design. On laptops and small screens every pixel is important so this space really matters. 

Another more obvious change is the full grey-ing out of Reader. There are now no blue links within titles or posts which leaves a pretty bland, boring reading experience. 

Most importanly, my favorite feature -- the reading pane -- is now gone. It allowed you to hide the subscriptions panel to let you have the full screen for reading. I loved it. 

I am all for the use white space and a clean design. But Reader is a product built to read and read quickly. The old UI wasn't perfect, but it was designed for the primary use case of reading. I hope Google takes more note of this in their next iteration.

Update: I just came across a post by Kevin Fox, a former UX design lead on Google Reader, who has offered his services to restore and enhance Reader while keeping in line with Google's new visual standards. I hope they take him up on it.