Cross-Device Communication

I’m not sure exactly what to call this awesome trend of having our devices (phones, mostly) share information, send information or interact with another device: Cross-Device Messaging? Cross-Device Communication? Cross-Device Syncing? A combination of the three? Either way, it is awesome. It has actually changed the way I do things for the better and allows me to access/watch/transfer things from one device to another. When this happens, many times it feels like magic, I click a button and boom I’ve transferred a map from my computer to my phone and can walk away from my desk and head off to wherever it is I need to go. As I was creating a list of things that fit under this umbrella of device-to-device communication, I broke them down into different categories. Push, Remote Control, Sync and Companion.

Chrome to Phone in action.

Push
Push notifications have become commonplace and fairly standard with most Mobile Apps, especially those that involve social networks and email, where people want/need information as soon as it is available. As a result of all this pushing, our devices have become central hubs for our digital life, whenever anything happens, we get a notification and can take action. More about how awesome push is in my previous post: Push Away. When push technology is applied between devices and not just web services and phones, a whole new world of possibilities open up.

Chrome to Phone
Google’s “Chrome to Phone” was made possible after an upgrade to Android called “Cloud to Device Messaging” which allowed almost instant communication between devices and computers. To get this working, you need an app installed on your phone (to receive, and take action on the “message”) and an extension in Chrome (to send the “message”). What this allows is nothing short of amazing. If I am on Google Maps, looking up a new dinner spot, I simply click the “Chrome to Phone” icon in Chrome, and my phone receives the “message”, a URL to Google Maps, and opens up the same spot using Google Maps on my phone. Magic. You can do the same thing with any URL, your phone receives the URL and opens the browser or the appropriate application that matches the URL. This setup is a must-have for users of Android and Chrome, I use this almost every day, it IS that useful. Watch the video below to see how awesome it is: 

Google Play Store
The Android Market Google Play Store has allowed users to install apps from the web directly to their Android Phones for quite some time now. It feels like magic whenever I do it, seriously: I click “Install”, select a device, then BOOM! my phone begins downloading and I have the app, without even touching my phone. Here’s a quick video demonstrating, ignore the cheesy promotional material and music:

Recently the Android Market Play Store has been updated to allow Updating and Uninstalling of Apps on a device. If I want to get rid of an app, I just pull up the Play Store on my computer and then click the trash can, and boom, uninstalled, simple as that, no hunting through the settings menu or Play Store on my phone for the uninstall button (which isn’t hard to find, but this is still cooler and faster). Same goes for apps, when they’ve been updated, you can click the “Update” link in place of the “Install” or “Installed” button. This is a great way to manage the apps on your device without ever having to touch it.

Google Play Update/Uninstall Apps

AirPlay
I’m going to have to refrain from using the word magic again, even though by most standards AirPlay is pretty magical. It simply works, it IS limited to a few (mostly Apple-only) devices, and I haven’t used all of its features, so I haven’t been able to fully appreciate how awesome and “magical” it is. In my own practice I was able to send music from my phone (iPhone 4) to a pair of remote speakers: my iTunes on my home Windows PC, and my Android phone using a hacky app called AirBubble, which pretends to be an AirPlay speaker. It was pretty cool to have music playing downstairs on the PC and upstairs on my phone and being able to control it from wherever I had service. The "killer-app", I’m told, is being able to send video to your Apple TV from your iPad/iPhone/MacBook and watching it on your TV; and having a Home Theater Receiver (Denon, Onkyo, etc) with AirPlay support, so you can listen to your music on the best sound system in the house. I have neither a sound system or an Apple TV, so for now I’ll take other people’s word for it. This particular example also creeps into the “Remote Control” aspect of multi-device-awesomeness, which I’ll get into in another post.

Xbox 360
Microsoft has really done a great job with the Xbox, knock them for some of their other endeavors, but the Xbox and the Live Marketplace are great customer service experiences (not counting Microsoft Points, which are annoying, still). I imagine most people probably buy things using the Xbox itself, due to their frequent use of the console or by responding to an ad on the Xbox Live Dashboard. When you buy things on the Xbox, it is quite simple: buy it, and then the download begins, unless you are playing a game that requires the internet, either way it is added to a queue to be downloaded when the connection frees up, or once you turn “off” the console for the night. Buying a game on xbox.com, you are presented with a “Download to Xbox 360” option which, upon completing the purchase, adds the item to your download queue. The use-case here, at least from my perspective: “Oh cool, the latest Map pack for Call of Duty just dropped. I’ll buy this here at work (on my phone since xbox.com is blocked) and it will begin downloading as soon as I get home and fire up my xbox.” While not as instantaneously gratifying as installing an app from the Play Store, it adds a layer of convenience to my shopping experience.

Xbox Live Download to Xbox

These are just a few examples in the “Push” category. While some might not change your life at all, they allow us to make devices and the internet work better for us.

What are some “Push to” services that you use?

Push Away

Push notifications have almost completely replaced text messaging and email notifications for me. I used to love text message reminders, but now I get annoyed that I cannot take action on those items. For example, I get a message from twitter, the most I can do is click a link. When I get a push notification from twitter I can read it, then dismiss, or I can touch it, get the full twitter app experience and find out more about that particular tweet, user, hashtags or people mentioned. This gives me a lot of power that a simple text message cannot.

Bank of America recently released an update to their Android app that allows replacing the standard email and text message notifications with push notifications. This is great news since I can change the frequency and/or conditions of the notification without having to load up their site in a full desktop browser. They’ve even introduced their new BankAmeriDeals (or whatever it is called) so that I can receive push notifications with opportunities to save money. This last feature may get obnoxious after a few days, so we’ll see how long I keep it on.

Alarm.com is another example of a company using the full-features of a smartphone to benefit their customers. I have an alarm system that allows me to arm/disarm and change the thermostat in my house while I am away from it. They recently introduced a feature that allows me to set a notification at a certain time at night to remind me to arm my house, this is great as I  often forget to arm the house (which completely defeats the purpose of the system). Another great feature is geofencing, I have the app setup to notify me when I get outside a certain radius from my house, to remind me to arm the house. This even works with 2 phones, you can set the trigger to only notify you if BOTH phones are a certain distance from the house, it won’t bother either if one of us is still home. This is one of the coolest features to me, using my phone’s built-in hardware to help make my life better, easier, safer, etc.

Slice can be setup to scan your email and pick out purchases. This allows the app to notify you when your packages are being shipped, in transit or when they have been delivered. I have been surprised by this app many times when I didn’t hear a delivery truck or see anything in my mailbox. The first time this happened, I had forgotten about ordering anything, I got a push notification that there was a package on my doorstep, I looked at the message with a puzzled look, walked to my door and there WAS a package waiting for me. Awesome!

Another great advantage to push over text messaging is that I am not limited to a single device. I carry 2 phones around one for work (iPhone 4), one personal (T-Mobile G2). As a result I have a lot of application overlap, this is on purpose, since if one phone is dead, or out of service, I can pick up the other and continue my conversation (Facebook/Google+ Messaging). I normally have notifications for personal things (Facebook/Twitter/etc) turned off on my work phone, so that I don’t get a crazy amount of buzzing in my pocket when both phones go off simultaneously, though it is incredibly cool to get notifications in realtime on both devices.

I wish the Mint.com app would implement push notifications, I despise getting their email notifications now that I have tasted the goodness that is push. One disadvantage to push messages/notifications, I can’t go back and search through them, such as with email notifications, granted, I usually delete most notifications anyway, this is a minor issue.

I am glad that application developers and the services world as a whole has noticed the advantage to push notifications. I do wish there was a backup method such as text, for those rare times when I am in an area of poor coverage and limited or no internet. At the same time, it’s okay to be off the grid for a while.

Mobile Web Apps - What I Use

The following is a list of web apps/sites that I use on an almost daily basis on my phone, some of them replace installed applications for me and others simply augment them. I use my phone constantly for web browsing, just ask @alishahunsaker. Visiting the links provided on a standard computer/browser might not take you to the mobile optimized site, either load up this page on you phone or scan the qr codes to go directly there.

Google Reader (http://www.google.com/reader/i, QR) - Google has done a great job of keeping me addicted to Google Reader, their mobile app is fast and easy to use, great for reading when you are away from your computer.

Google Product Search (http://www.google.com/m/products, QR) - This page has a barcode scanner button, so you can scan barcodes and then search online w/o crowding your phone with the "Google Shopping" app, "ShopSavvy" or "CompareEverywhere" which all do the same thing. Not as comprehensive as the installed apps, but it has worked for everything I've needed.

Twitter Mobile (http://mobile.twitter.com/, QR) - Twitter's basic mobile site has been refreshed for newer, more capable phone browsers. Even though I have an installed Twitter client, sometimes I need full access to the entire feed. If I haven't updated Seesmic in a while, I don't always get the full feed of updates.

Gowalla Web (http://m.gowalla.com/, QR) - Gowalla's android app is still in development and has a few bugs to workout (it has gotten a lot better since). The mobile site is fairly reliable and one of the better looking sites/web apps out there. It is integrated with the device's GPS to guess where you are and lets you checking/post to twitter and add new venues. It's still not perfect and occasionally the device can't find me and thinks I'm miles away from my actual location.

Google Docs (http://docs.google.com/docs/m, QR) - Currently the mobile interface allows you to view/edit Spreadsheets, and view Docs and Presentations. Any other files you may have uploaded to Google Docs are visible and will download to the device when clicked. Overall the interface is clean and similar in nature to the full Google Docs experience for browsing files. The only problem I've found is with viewing forms is the browser gets stuck in a refresh loop and I think they should give you an option to view the form or the results spreadsheet.

Facebook (http://touch.facebook.com/, QR) - The mobile site works just as well as the installed (Android) app for viewing Facebook feeds, commenting, sending message, etc. What it doesn't do is allow you to upload photos, which in my case isn't a big deal. Also, you don't get alerts like you would with an installed app, once again, not a big deal for me because I get emais when that stuff happens. Saves space on my phone, does what I need.

Bank of America (http://bofa.mobi/, QR) - My bank has an app on most platforms, based on their Android app, its a simple port of their mobile web site with some GPS features thrown in for good measure. The mobile site supports viewing accounts, bill pay, transferring funds, location finder (w/o GPS). Haven't used another bank, aside from the American Express Mobile site (which is fairly spartan, but reliable,) so I don't know if any others are doing it better.

Check.in(http://m.check.in/, QR) - This site is in beta as of this writing and aims to solve the problem with "Check-In Fatigue". I've been using it for about a week now, it integrates Brightkite, Foursquare and Gowalla into a simple, easy to use mobile site (after I've logged in and connected to the other sites). I fire up the app, it locates me, I select my location from Brightkite's database of locations, then it attempts to match up with the other services and find the same spot using magic. If a match cannot be found it asks you to select the appropriate match from a list of available locations or to skip the service in question. Once the places have been selected for each of the services, you simply "Check-In" and you are done. This really works much smoother than I described here. Only problem is, you don't know if there are any Foursquare specials, if you've become mayor, if you've discovered an item, etc. This is an efficient way to Check-in, but it removes some of the appeal of each service, so I may continue to use a combination of both.

Others worth mentioning but not used as often:
Ars Technica - http://arstechnica.com/
Bit.ly - http://m.bit.ly/ or http://m.j.mp/
Digg - http://m.digg.com/
Disqus - http://m.disqus.net/
Espn - http://m.espn.go/
Flickr - http://m.flickr.com/
LinkedIn - http://m.linkedin.com/
Netflix -http://netflix.com/mobile
PayPal - http://mobile.paypal.com/
TripIt - http://m.tripit.com/