I am a fan of Google+.  At this point the audience is small and popular opinion seems to indicate it's a ghost town.  For me personally though, the two groups of people I most often associate with and care to follow in social media (tech and photography) are actually the two groups of people that have largely embraced Google+.  For the last 3 years I have worked closely with Kelby Media Group and other big names in photography to make iOS apps, including my most recent app tailor made for the Google+ for Photographer's Conference in San Francisco on May 22nd.  

While making this app, in partnership with Kelby Media Group, I created a Google+ SDK that connects to Google+ to power profiles, photo albums, news feeds, and more.  The app is brilliant and works extremely well given the limited API Google offers for Google+. 

User Experience

I am a huge fan of user experience—just read my books and you'll get an idea for how important I think user experience is when it comes to mobile apps. To me, user experience not only makes or breaks an app, but also makes or breaks the impression of the service that app is representing.  

I love Google+, but their mobile app is lacking.  I'm not talking about a feature set, you can have a limited feature set and still have an outstanding user experience.  No amount of features can make up for an app that doesn't feel like it belongs.  As an iOS designer/developer, there are a lot of trouble spots in the official Google+ app that break the user experience for me. 

That is why over the last 5-6 weeks I have continued working with Kelby Media Group (a partner in this venture) to create a Google+ app that provides the best possible service and user experience to iOS users—for both the iPhone and iPad. 

Stay tuned for more information about +me. 

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With Apple's annual summer fan fair and WWDC just around the corner, many tech blogs and rumor sites are expecting iOS 5 and an update on the next generation iPhone. There are countless rumors and opinions on what features and announcements will be made, notifications, hardware redesigns, and more.

For me though, there's one smaller inconsequential tidbit that I'm hoping for and that is the name of the next generation iPhone.  I'm not a fan of calling the next generation iPhone the iPhone 4S, as most tech blogs have seemed to adopt.

To me, it would make much more sense to brand the product as the iPhone 5.  Here are a few reasons why;

• The device will be the 5th generation iPhone.  If Apple went with iPhone 4s and then later created an iPhone 5, the iPhone 5 would be the 6th generation platform which would likely cause confusion with the average consumer on software/hardware requirements.
• The device will likely feature the A5 chip featured in the iPad 2.  A5 chip, iPhone 5
• The first iPhone was simply branded as "iPhone", the second generation was iPhone 3G because it ran on the 3G network. I think Apple created the 3GS not because it was just an iteration, but because creating an "iPhone 3" after having 3G would have made poor marketing sense.  I feel like Apple created the 3Gs to off set the product line so that the iPhone 4 was a 4th generation device.  To me, it makes sense to carry this consistency in the iPhone 5 (as we saw with iPad 2).

Now, I do think like many of the tech sites that the next generation iPhone will be an evolutionary device and not a complete product refresh -- much like the 3GS was an evolution of the 3G.  But, I hope Apple takes this opportunity to sync up the product name with the generation number.

Plus, there is no doubt the next generation iOS version will be iOS 5.  All the more reason to distribute iOS 5, iPhone 5 featuring the A5 chip.

PS --

As a side note, and as a developer I would love a new notification system.  The current notification system reminds of early Windows 95/98 days when a pop up window took focus of your entire OS.  In fact, the current iOS notification reminds me of this historic moment from the first introduction of Mac OS X back in 2000.  (Skip ahead to 3:38 seconds)

Back in 2000 Apple recognized the importance of notifications maintaing focus within the context of an application; 10 years later we seem to have recreated the problem in iOS.  So, as a developer, this is my biggest hope for what we'll see in iOS 5.

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As should be expected with apps announced at 3:00 AM only hours after a large company like Adobe launches a game-changing SDK, over the past few weeks I have been in close contact with Adobe branding teams and the fine folks dedicated to protecting Adobe's intellectual properties.  To be honest, I would have been worried if they had not reached out to me at some point between my announcement and the launch date of the app formerly known as Photoshop Remote.

So what has changed?  Adobe has kindly asked me to rename the app so that "Photoshop" is not directly used in the app's name, and they have asked that the Photoshop Family "P" logo not be used in the app icon.  Easy enough, and I was happy to make such minor changes.

So with that I introduce to you, Remote for Adobe Photoshop

Expect a video demo of the app later in the week as well as some cross-promotions by Adobe themselves on the Adobe blog, Facebook, and Adobe TV.  

You might be asking how Photoshop Remote is different from Remote for Adobe Photoshop. Simply put, in the original app name, the app was using "Photoshop" as the core marketing message.  In the second name, the app's name is actually, "Remote" where Adobe Photoshop is a descriptor of the app's behavior. 

My Advice

If you are planning on using the Adobe Photoshop Touch SDK in future apps and you do not want to receive a cease and desist letter from Adobe's legal team I suggest you follow these guidelines:

1. Indirectly associate your app with Adobe products or brands.  As a rule of thumb "____ for [Adobe product]" is usually OK.  So, instead of creating an app called Photoshop Portfolio, consider Portfolio for Adobe Photoshop, etc.
2. You cannot use any past or present iconography, images, or branding traits in your app icons -- and I mean anything.  It took about 5 app icons before I found one that Adobe approved.  Icons they rejected included the Photoshop Family "P" logo, the Photoshop feather, the Photoshop eye used in pre-CS days, and even a simple icon designed around "Ps".

Look for a video demo later this week! 

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