Monday was a huge day in the tech industry. From the WWDC to E3, there’s plenty to talk about surrounding the new announcements. Spyder Trap has its share of Apple Fans. Together we spent our Monday lunch glued to the live stream of the Apple Keynote in the way others might watch (and celebrate) the Super Bowl.

During the keynote, Apple revealed some significant changes to iOS. As soon as the developer center servers came back online, I installed the beta on my iPhone 4S. So far my reactions have been similar to a sour candy. Sweet, then sour to the point I almost spit it out, followed by slow transition back to a lasting sweet.

Design changes, seen from a developer

While design is the biggest change in iOS 7, I’m not a designer. My observations are through the eyes of a developer. The new fonts and removal of UI elements make for a much cleaner lock screen. The 3d parallax effect on the home screen at first feels gimmicky, but it does reinforce the layered metaphor they’re trying to introduce through all the transparencies in the new designs.
To that point, iOS 7 uses a lot of transparency. Unless an app specifically overrides it, the keyboard background is a blurred transparency of the content underneath. Even some applications, like the phone app, have a hint of the home screen underneath them. Certain nested tables have the previous page underneath them. Transparency is everywhere.

The new font choice, and crisper icons in the top bar, leaves the clear impression this OS was designed for retina. Many non-essential UI elements are a fraction of the size they used to be. For example, the progress for a sending text message is just a pixel or two tall. The data activity spinner is noticeably thinner as well.

I’m not sold on the new icons. While I’m not a designer, I feel like the old icons could have been flattened and fit the new UI just fine. It feels like a petty move Jonny Ive made just to make sure every UI element of the OS was changed under his watch.

In addition, there’s a lot of borrowing happening. The weather app is a near clone of the Yahoo Weather app. At least they were kind enough to give them an Apple Design Award. Most system apps and menus borrow liberally from recent trends seen in Android and Windows Mobile. I’m sure they’ll cry fowl at some point, and their claim has merit, but I’ll leave that to the lawyers.

Control Center

By far, my favorite new feature is the Control Center, a quick access to music, airplane mode, do not disturb, flashlight, camera, alarms, and air play all in one convenient place. It has quickly become a feature I commonly use more than any individual app.

I’m also a fan of the new multitasking menu. I would regularly have to tell people how to switch between apps and force quit development software we are working on. It wasn’t intuitive. The icon, along with a view of the app itself, can be dragged off the screen and the app quits and disappears from RAM.

Upgraded Task Manager

Speaking of RAM, my 4S has just barely enough to provide a quality user experience. Many animations take longer, which at first lead me to believe the resources of my poor little 4S were being pushed to the limit. Since there’s no jerking, or “catching up” though, I believe these slower animations are on purpose, and I’m starting to appreciate them.

It’s a good thing they made the new task manager more user friendly though. If I get really carried away switching between apps, I can notice a small slow down. Usually there’s a bit of a speed up by the time a beta gets to the general release version, but I’m worried about what the experience will be like for regular iPhone 4 users.

That said, I hope Apple tweaks some of their UI before the general release. If you don’t have great crisp photos, the way transparencies are blurred can get annoying. Some UI changes feel like internal petty, ego-driven choices. The prevalence of white in the UI made my black iPhone seem out of place. The new UI makes me realize how much of the phone face is not screen. I find myself hoping the next iPhone is entirely screen on the front.

Bugs, as to be expected

There are still bugs. It’s beta software. While not as bad as the iOS 5 beta, I did have to reformat to get all of my previously installed apps to transfer over from my iCloud backup ok. As many apps start, the top bar looks funny. Siri, while better, is still not the personal assistant Apple tries to bill it as.

While I’m comfortable with the new design, I’m not sure other less digital-savvy users will. I’m already planning on a trip out to grandma’s this fall to help her relearn how to user her iPad. I haven’t been able to try the AirDrop functionality yet (not enabled on the 4s…), and I haven’t yet gotten around to trying the iTunes Radio, but those are really the only new “features.”
iOS 7′s success or demise depends on if you like the new design. As I was considering switching to Android just for a change of scenery, iOS 7 has me ready to stick with Apple a while longer. That’s it though. The new features are minor and will not be enough to win you over one way or the other. This one’s all looks.

A shining light in development right now is mobile.  Mobile development is just plain sexy.  You’ve got apps, tiny programs communicating with API’s and each other, solving a new wave of problems and quickly becoming an integral part of people’s mobile lives.

Problem being, mobile app development is a significantly different way of thinking than web development.  Suddenly you have to worry about RAM, getters, setters, and threads (oh my).  Not to mention that Objective C and Java aren’t the sort of thing you can familiarize yourself with over a long weekend like Ruby or Python.

The thought of both being betrayed by the painful adoption rate of new web browsers and the exciting things going on the other side of a steep learning curve is enough to drive a web developer to binge on pizza bites and a Star Wars marathon.

Mobile Development Has Options, Good Ones

Never fear ye weary web developer, there is another way.  Fun thing about mobile devices, for the most part, they all use pretty modern webkit based browsers.  What’s more, all of them have UI elements that are little more than instances of Webkit that can parse and display HTML5 and CSS3 right in an app.

By simply loading these web views, you can create advanced HTML5 and Javascript based apps and deploy to iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile with far less reworking than working with a given platform’s language of choice.

To top it off, tools like PhoneGap and Sencha provide Javascript based hooks in to system functionality like the camera, accelerometer, and even access to the file system.

Yes, you can simultaneously use all the exciting new features of HTML5 and CSS3 and develop exciting mobile apps for multiple platforms all at once.

I’ve seen the future for web developers, and it is mobile (at least until IE can figure out auto updates).  While not a very shocking statement, it’s a very exciting one.

Yesterday, AdAge wrote about Kraft ‘s DiGiorno brand is launching a flatbread pizza line, and they are planning on using Twitter to do so. DiGiorno will be searching for Twitter users known as “influencers,” then delivering food to tweetups that are attended by people they deem as influencers.

This is not the first time that a product has been used with social media. Some of you may remember when Ford gave away 100 cars for a few months to “influencers” with the hope that positive buzz would spread throughout the social media world and turn into revenue. What real return did Ford get from that campaign?

There are other questions to consider here:

1) What return is expected from the twitter part of their campaign? I have attended a few tweetups; the average attendance in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area is around 40 twitter users. With the reach that Kraft and DiGiorno have, it is possible that more people would show up knowing food was provided. Even if 100 people show up to a tweetup, when does the idea show the ROI Kraft is looking for?

2) DiGiorno’s tagline: ‘It’s not delivery, it’s DiGiorno’. The whole point of the Twitter campaign is to deliver pizza to a tweetup. Does this go against their philosophy and how they have positioned their product?

3) How is Kraft determining who is an influencer? Kraft has hired Minneapolis-based agency Weber Shandwick to ‘reach out to the influential Twitter users who are willing to host tweetups in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Tom Moe, director of marketing for the DiGiorno brand, when talking about what makes an influential twitter user: “(that) is something we’re in the process of working out with the folks at Weber.” Am I considered an influential person on twitter because I have near 500 followers? DiGiorno and Weber Shandwick have an interesting task here.

Will the Twitter aspect of their campaign work? If this shows a high level of success, will other companies follow suit, sponsoring tweetups and other social media networking events?

In recent months, social networking sites Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, have gained notoriety for their ability to help people connect and interact with each other.  Whether you are connecting with a former high school or college classmate, or talking to someone across the world you have never met about a buzzworthy topic, the sites mentioned above are great at bringing people together.

Not too many people think of using the sites above as a way to generate leads on your job search.  They should, and people are taking notice.

This past weekend, Kare 11 aired a story about how social networking can help your job search.  The story highlighted how it is very important to be part of Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.  Many businesses and recruiters are part of these networks, along with many viable candidates for these jobs.  On occasion, employers may not list an open position on a site like Monster or Career Builder.  People that are not part of the social networking scene are missing out on opportunities that may be a great fit for them.

Social media is about being part of the conversation.  The conversation that job seekers want to be a part of is occurring on sites like Twitter and LinkedIn, among others.  In this economy, having every advantage is crucial in having a successful job search.  People that are on these networks are two steps ahead of everyone else.

Before this story aired, some college classmates of mine that were looking for work have come to me for advice.  The first thing I asked is if they are on Twitter and LinkedIn.  The overwhelming response to both was no.  They were not familiar with LinkedIn, which I feel is the future resume.  These social networks, especially LinkedIn, are professionally focused, keeping out the riff-raff that exists on Facebook and MySpace.  On LinkedIn, you are just a couple degrees separated from most people, which allows for a more personal introduction (which you can request).

Last week, I got a request from a college student who is looking for a job at a food retailer to connect her with a contact I knew at this food retailer.  After a message sent by me to my contact, my college student friend and my professional friend were connected and starting a relationship that may lead to future employment.  If both people were not part of LinkedIn, that connection would have been near impossible to create.  It sounds simple, and in most cases, can be that simple.

I have been on all of the above mentioned sites for at least a year, and have met many people that I now consider friends.  Even though my intent has never been to find a job using social media.  There are many people within my friend groups that are hesitant to join these networks, whatever their purpose may be.  Now that large news networks are recognizing the effectiveness and importance of social media and social networking, people may rethink their feelings about social media and become part of the conversation.

Connect with me on twitter: @jasondouglas

Connect with me on LinkedIn: Jason Douglas

Remember just a few months ago when millions of people petitioned against the ‘New Facebook’?  You’re finally getting used to the ‘New Facebook’, seeing that it does have some nice qualities.

The people at Facebook do not like their members to get comfortable.  Soon, users will see a new facebook homepage which according to some, is making Facebook more closely resemble Twitter.

Some of the notable changes:
•    Facebook’s popular ‘News Feed’ will be updated in real-time.
•    Filters are located in the sidebar, allowing you to control who you see updates from (friends, family, network based)
•    Statuses are more than just text and links; they can include pictures and videos now

Those are the big changes that I noticed.  Wired.com has more facebook changes in their blog with screenshots comparing the old and new.
Having the news feed updated in real-time will be an improvement; refreshing for new statuses was a small annoyance.  The filter system has the qualities of TweetDeck; to have high school friends, college friends, co-workers and more in their own respective group should clean out a lot of the ‘rif-raf’ that can clutter one’s Facebook news feed.

Change is good.  I was one of four fans of the ‘New Facebook’ when that was released, and I support the new homepage.  This will only help enhance the Facebook user experience.  Changes like these should be embraced, not petitioned against.

Will this be the last change we see for a while?  Facebook needs to develop a consistency so users can become familiar with everything that facebook has to offer.  With changes every few months, we will always be playing catch up.

What do you think?

Feel free to tweet me: @jasondouglas