PORTFOLIO

PORTFOLIO

ZACHERY BRIDGEMAN

Portfolio Copyright © 2015

This book was produced using Pressbooks.com, and PDF rendering wasdone by PrinceXML.

CONTENTS

PART I. IS MOBLI BETTER THANINSTAGRAM?

PART II. MOTO 360: BEST SMARTWATCH OUT TODAY

PART III. MOBLI’S MIRAGE: PASSINGILLUSION OR NEXT SNAPCHAT?

PART I.

IS MOBLIBETTER THANINSTAGRAM?

unnamed (6)

Or just different?If you’re someone who likes to put a lot of content

out on social media, we’ve got a new app that bringseverything you love to one place: Mobli. Created in 2011,it brings together the photo aspect of Instagram, videosof Vine, but it also includes something relatively new for amobile app: live video broadcasting. If that sounds like alot of functionality for one app, that’s because it is, but inour opinion it’s good enough to get away with it.

We initially questioned how entertaining a live videostream would be. “Seeing the world through otherpeople’s eyes” is a nice idea, but part of what makes apps

like Vine and Snapchat so successful is how they usebrevity. It’s hard to get bored of in 6-10 seconds. But withso many features and streams to watch, that doesn’t reallyhappen with Mobli. Let’s walk you through it.

Background

CEO Moshe Hogeg, who stated the above quote, foundedthe app in Israel. Leonardo DiCaprio liked the idea andinvested $4 million into it in 2012, and other celebritieslike Tobey Macquire and Serena Williams have also boughtin. Then, in 2013, Mobli announced that they raised 60million dollars from América Móvil the Latin Americantelco giant led by billionaire Carlos Slim. According toTechCrunch, today it has around 15 million active users.Why does Hogeg think Mobli will be successful whereother live streaming apps have failed? “Standalone livestreaming apps like Qik were boring. It’s the combinationof being able to post pictures, video AND do livestreaming – the integration – that we think users will beattracted to.”

Interface

The interface won’t be a big shock to you. It’s full ofenergy and uses the scrolling navigation of iPhone’sSafari and Microsoft’s mosaic tiled design. Fortunately,the design isn’t so full of content that it’s overwhelming,and it’s more aesthetically pleasing than Instagram’s onesize fits all approach.

2 Zachery Bridgeman

Using Mobli

Like any social media, if you want to gain followers andenjoy the experience, you have to follow a few inreturn. When you create an account and start the app,Mobli will suggest some for you right away based on theonline accounts you already have set up. You can useAndroid, iPhone, or Windows, and you can set youraccount to private or public by going through thesettings.

When you get to your feed page, swipe down to loadsnew posts—photos, videos, or live video streams. If youjust want to see live streams, you can subscribe to the#Live channel. Just like Vine and Instagram, you cancomment, “heart,” or repost anything you see on Mobli.Additionally, like those apps and Twitter, you can usehashtags to create more exposure for your posts.

unnamed (11)

At the bottom are five buttons—an eye, a star, a camera,a flag, and your own user icon. The eye takes you to yourown feed, including posts in both channels and users. Thestar shows you the most popular posts, suggested follows,and the latest posts of all kinds in its “Now” tab. Thecamera allows you to take and share your own posts, andthe flag shows any notifications, such as new peoplefollowing you. We couldn’t tell you what the user icondoes, because every time we try to click on it this appears:

unnamed

We know that Mobli has tried to create a feature where you

Portfolio 3

can create your own Mobli photo to plug your account onother social media. Perhaps that what this is, which somepeople will love and some people will see as pointless. Asof now, it’s irrelevant, since it doesn’t seem to work.

Which brings us to the pros and cons.

Mobli could be better than Instagram because…

For starters, there’s the obvious reason Instagram doesn’thave as many features. Mobli allows you to apply Filterslike Instagram does, and Mobli doesn’t require you to cropthe photo into a square so that sometimes they aren’t evenusable. You can put them up just how they are. When yougo to share the photo to Twitter, Mobli puts the photoright up, whereas Instagram decides to plug its own name,which isn’t so user friendly.

#xmas #holiday #oregon http://t.co/QIKKqPgla9— Zachery Bridgeman (@zach_attackz) December 22,

2014

And while Instagram has a desktop website, it servesalmost no function. With Mobli, you can use its desktopwebsite to do just about anything you can with the app.Plus, if you wrote a comment you’re not proud of, you candelete it straight from the app, whereas Instagram (Godknows why) makes you go to their site to do so. Don’twant to write a comment at all? Post a pic as a commentinstead. Instagram doesn’t allow that either.

Another reason Instagram needs to keep its guard up isthat while it only allows you to post brief videos, Moblidoesn’t limit your recording times. Tempting, right?

Even cooler, Mobli has a local feed in which you can

4 Zachery Bridgeman

see the photos, videos, and channels being broadcasted orposted in your vicinity, which could be a great way to findout things to do in your area.

And last but not least, you can see how many peopleare viewing your posts, something Instagram probablyshould’ve done a long time ago, and something thatTwitter is doing more and more these days with TwitterAnalytics.

Mobli needs to get better because…

As of now, its’ a bit like Instagram on steroids (whichisn’t a good thing, if you’re wondering). The app tries todo so much that it glitches too often. Users will overlookan app crash every now and then, but if it’s nearlyinevitable, then they aren’t going to want to put up withit for long. On Android at least, Mobli is at times tooslow, and too glitchy in this way. Even in writing thisreview, we tried again and again to click on user profiles,and the app just shuts down. Maybe the app is gainingmore popularity than it can handle. Reliability is at a lowright now.

Second, you have to go to the website to upload aprofile photo, which is annoying, and the cover photodoesn’t load right away. At times you have to restart theapp, then the cover photo appears. And it can be difficultto get to your own profile. These are some basic faultsthat dampen user experience in a big way.

If Mobli can get past these problems, it stands a chanceof knocking Instagram off its pedestal. The latter is alltoo aware of this, since in November it pulled its APIfrom the site, so you can no longer find and invite your

Portfolio 5

Instagram friends or post your Instagram content toMobli. Not the friendliest of competitions.

Instagram’s defense?

Instagram’s API guidelines make it clear that anapplication that replicates or attempts to replace theessential user experience violates our terms of use. We havea team dedicated to reviewing apps and enforcing ourpolicies.

Whatever. We suggest you and check out the app anddecide for yourself. If Mobli can ever figure out how to getrid of its glitches and continues to gain more users, itstands a chance at being a major competitor withInstagram and other social media.

For more information check out this Wall StreetJournal interview with founder and CEO Moshe Hogegbelow:

<div class="player-unavailable"><h1 class="message">An erroroccurred.</h1><div class="submessage"><ahref="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beVbVDr96xM"target="_blank">Try watching this video on www.youtube.com</a>, orenable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser.</div></div>

6 Zachery Bridgeman

PART II.

MOTO 360: BESTSMART WATCH

OUT TODAY

ringo-sanco

ringo-sanco

First off, do you need a smart watch?Since Apple announced the iWatch–sorry, I mean Apple

Watch–the talk of the oncoming wearable revolution isin full buzz. Uncharistically for Apple they’ve announcedtheir offering way in advance of you being able to getyour hands on an actual product, so if you don’t wantto wait you might want to take a look at the Moto 360from Motorola. The watch that broke the mold to bringa circular faced watch crafted in steel, glass and oh sosmooth leather.

DesignFirst and foremost this is a watch, so you have to ask

yourself one important question: Do I want people to seea computer strapped to my wrist, or do I want them to seea watch. For me it most certainly has to look like a watch,it has to look good on my wrist and feel comfortable towear all day. A casual observer in the room glancing atmy wrist shouldn’t see a little computer hanging there,glowing back at them.

The Moto 360 boasts a round display, giving it the shapeof a classic timepiece and looks to match. It looks like awatch and with real leather sourced locally from Horweenin Chicago , it smells like a watch. So Motorola got the firstpiece right and then some.

Engadget

But my opinion means nothing; the real validation hascome in the form of unexpected compliments from 4-5strangers a week. “Nice Watch” they’d say, and I’d say

8 Zachery Bridgeman

thanks while lifting my wrist to let them take a closer look.It is not until the display blinks to life with notificationsdo they realise they just complimented a smart watch.“Ooh, is that like that new Apple Watch” they almostalways ask, “like the Apple watch… sort of” is my defaultresponse.

How it WorksWhen you glance down at your regular old watch you’re

expecting to see the current time, read it quickly and thenget on with your day. 2 seconds later someone will askyou for the time, and having instantly forgotten what youjust saw you’re going to look again at your watch andconfidently exclaim the current time and this timeactually remember it.

What if it were more than just time, what if your watchcould give you almost anything at a glance, in just a fewseconds. Powered by Google Now and with support for 3rdParty apps the possibilities are limitless.

The Moto 360 runs Android Wear by Google and sooperates in a similar way to other Android Wear devices.Raising the watch activates the screen, allowing you toissue verbal commands, swipe through notifications orlaunch apps. Just like a real watch, the interface isdesigned to promote quick interactions, no panningzooming, or complex interactions. Just glance, swipe, tapand get on with your day.

Portfolio 9

Independent

Android Wear is going to be pretty similar across anydevice that runs it, with some minor differences in thedesign and hardware offered in each one. The Moto 360brings a heart rate sensor to the party and keeps track ofhow fast your ticker is beating periodically throughout theday. It’ll also count your steps and give you notificationsas to how far your little legs are carrying you each day.

So what can it do that I can’t already do on a phone?Here’s where a lot of people are asking the wrong

questions and to answer it we have to look backwards.PCs in the 90s could make phone calls, they could runapps and some had touch screens, what could you do on aphone that you couldn’t already do on a PC? Nothing. Infact even now that phones are mini supercomputers manytimes more powerful than a 90s desktop we still keep PCsaround. Why? Because the questions isn’t about what itcan do, it’s about how it does it.

The same story is true of watches when compared tophones. Your phone already does everything a smartwatch

10 Zachery Bridgeman

can do, but for many of those things the watch is muchmuch better. You’ll still need a phone but you’ll findyourself using it less and less as you relegate it to be usedonly for more detailed interactions that need the screenspace or processing power of a phone.

It’s always on you: Taking the convenience of a phoneone step further, a watch is literally always on you, neverburied in a pocket or purse, not left on the counter inthe other room or missing down the back of the couch. Ifyou’re used to missing calls and notifications that problemgoes away, if you’re somewhere loud and can’t hear thephone ringing, your wrist will save the day.

xda-developers

xda-developers

It tracks your fitness: It has a built in pedometer andoptical heart rate sensor to keep track of your activity andoffer notifications when you reach certain milestones. Thedata can be shared with the recently launched Google Fit,for more complete health tracking and to sync the datawith other apps.

Portfolio 11

It orders Pizza (or your fave food from Eat24): Just sayOK Google and then ask for your favorite dish, it’ll arrivepromptly from Eat 24 charged to your Google Wallet.

How about a ride: Saying ‘OK Google I need a ride’ intoyour wrist will initiate a Lyft request for a driver near youto come pick you up and whisk you away to the destinationof your choosing (within reasonable driving distance ofcourse, no one is going to drive you to the bahamasbecause you asked your watch)

Music: With the latest software to land on the Moto360is is now possible to pair the watch directly with someBluetooth headphones, so now you can use it to playmusic directly from the watch to your ears with no phoneacting as the middle man.

Timers and Stopwatches: OK so any old watch can dotimers and countdowns, but people don’t use any oldwatch they use their phones, so yes this is better than thephone for such things, it is a watch after all.

It does everything Google Now does: Answers lots of

12 Zachery Bridgeman

questions, gets directions, weather, flight information,calendar, send messages think Siri or Cortana on yourwrist and you get the idea.

What about more advanced stuff, I’m thinkingJames Bond

We’ve covered what the watch can do out of the box butwhat can the apps do. Well a whole lot it turns out. We’llbriefly cover a few of them here…

If This Then That [IFTTT]: If you already use the servicethen you know it enables you to do millions of things,automatically using very simple instructions: if [thishappens] then [do that]. Some quick examples I’ve set up:

• if [I tap my watch] then [text my significant other “i’mthinking of you”]

1. if [I tap my watch] then [turn all the lights on (oroff)]

2. if [I get an email saying someone is using my paypalaccount] then [Notify my watch]

3. if [I tap my watch] then [make my phone ring so Ican find it (or get out of an awkward date)]

4. if [a stock I’m watching hits a certain price] then[notify my watch]

A quick search of IFTTT reveals over 150 recipes that useAndroid wear so there is a lot you can do with just that oneapp.

Flash Light: Lost in the dark trying to find your phone,just say OK google start Flashlight and the watch will lightthe way, OK it’s not as bright a an LED phone light, butgood in a pinch.

Base Music Sensor: It’s technically a phone app but it

Portfolio 13

notifies your watch whenever it hears and recognisesmusic playing around you. Without having to launch theapp or even ask it to, you can jump into the phone app tosee a list of all the music you’ve heard over the course ofthe day.

Philips Hue: Yes it’s cool controlling your house lightsfrom your watch, yes it’s like living in the future and yesit’s also hard to believe not everyone is doing it already.

Autovoice: What’scooler than tapping your watch toturn on the lights? Talking to your watch and having itdo the same of course. Autovoice can be a little dauntingwhen you first open it up, but if you are brave and wantto have a little more control over everything using yourvoice, then it is well worth a look.

One neat little trick Google added into Android wearis that you won’t need a separate version of your appsjust for the watch. If an app has a watch version, it’llautomatically appear on your watch if you have the phoneversion installed. App developers can also choose to makeseparate version just for the watch if they choose to, butfor most there’ll be no need and you get to save some timefrom not having to search around for and install watchspecific apps.

But aren’t Smart watches clunkyThe minimal bezel on the 360 means Motorola have

managed to get a lot more screen space that you’d expect,but still keeping the watch within the bounds of manyregular watches.

14 Zachery Bridgeman

arstechnica

More watch faces than you can shake a stick atDesigners the world over were quick to jump on the

watch face bandwagon, despite the lack of an officialwatch face API from Google Android wear users can haveliterally hundreds if not thousands of watch faces tochoose from thanks to apps like Facer and Android WearFaces Creator and sites like Facerepo.com.

From classic faces:

Portfolio 15

To themed faces:

and branded faces:

and beautiful faces that update with the weather:

16 Zachery Bridgeman

Minimal faces:

Gold faces:

Portfolio 17

Faces that give interesting social commentary by way ofvenn diagram:

Watches that replicate the feeling of late night neonsignage:

18 Zachery Bridgeman

Fun yet weird faces with cartoon cows:

And of course no watch is worth a dime without a wholebunch of Mickey Mouse faces:

Portfolio 19

Sounds awesome. So what are the cons?You’ll want to charge it every night, just like your

phone, but unlike your phone it has an awesome wirelessdocking station and a night clock that looks amazing. Thebattery will easily last you throughout the day despitesome early fears around battery life, though it doesn’thave anything like the freakish longevity that Fitbitwatches are supposed to have. It won’t be a problem aslong as you recharge it every night, but forget and you’llend up regretting it the next morning.

The processor is a bit old, and you probably won’t noticein general usage, but certain apps like Sleep AsAndroid have run into issues with certain features due tothe way the old TI processor handles power, so other appsmay run into issues in the future.

The flat tire: In the clock faces above, did you noticethe bottom of the circle is missing? Did you mind all that

20 Zachery Bridgeman

much? Yes there is a section missing, some people aremaking a big deal about it. In reality it isn’t thatnoticeable on the actual watch. The upside is that it makesthe watch bezel much slimmer making the overall size ofthe screen larger. The trade off is worth it, the watch looksbeautiful, the ‘flat tire’ is something you just don’t reallysee so so the whole issue is a little overblown.

PriceThe Motorola Moto 360 retails at $249 from Best Buy,

Google Play Store, and Motorola, putting it in a similarprice range as offerings from LG, Sony and Samsung. Butthinking about this in terms of regular watches, here aresome other watches you can get for the same sort of price.If you already own a smart watch but want other awesometech gifts for the holiday, this might help.

SummaryWhen it comes to smart watches, our latest trending

tech accessory, there is none I would recommend morethan the Moto 360. Compatible with Android phones, itsround display is stunning, proving that wearabletechnology can be stylish. Most importantly, the pros faroutweigh any cons.

Portfolio 21

techradar

22 Zachery Bridgeman

PART III.

MOBLI’SMIRAGE:PASSING

ILLUSION ORNEXT

SNAPCHAT?

Let’s admit it: Snapchat is just as fun today as it waswhen it came out back in 2011. The process is silly andsimple, and it’s a quick way to communicate with friendsyou don’t get to see as often as you’d like. Take a funnypic, draw text or do it up in colorful squiggles (and nowfilters), set a viewing time limit, and click send. Easyenough, right? According to TechCrunch the companyreported 700 million “snaps” in May 2014. Obviously, thetrend is stronger than ever.

With Snapchat’s massive success, other app developershave inevitably stepped up to compete, first with appslike Taptalk and Wickr. Now the app developer Mobli,best known for their hit app “Yo,” which allows users tosend a message to friends that just says “yo,” is giving theconcept a go. We recently reported on Mobli’s otherrecent app sharing its own name, which we touted ashaving even more potential than Instagram, if only thedevelopers could smooth out some of its glitchiness. It

<div class="player-unavailable"><h1 class="message">An erroroccurred.</h1><div class="submessage"><ahref="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvlE6e-gLWI"target="_blank">Try watching this video on www.youtube.com</a>, orenable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser.</div></div>

24 Zachery Bridgeman

seems that whereas the app Mobli takes on a lot offunctionality, the creators of MIRAGE, their Snapchatequivalent, have kept things simple, and glitchiness orapp-crashing is not a problem at all.

Like Snapchat, Mirage, available on Android and iOS,lets you send photos, videos and text which “self-destruct” after a short span of time.

What does MIRAGE do differently than Snapchat?

Well, for one, there’s not as much space with which totake pictures. Like Taptalk, Mirage offers you little morethan half of the screen with which to view through thecamera lens, and on the bottom half you have contactsfrom which to choose.

The pictures above show the app pulled up on a Nexus7 tablet as well as on my Moto X phone, which isconsiderably smaller. Some may complain that there’s notenough room on the screen to take decent pictures. Ididn’t find this to be the case. If you think about it, thesquare is about the size of an Instagram cropped picture,so if you’re worried about not having as much space totake pictures, you won’t have any more trouble than youdo taking your Insta-dailies.

Part of how Mirage differs from Snapchat is that insome ways it’s even more snappy. Unfortunately, I thinkSnapchat had the “snappiness” level locked down at justthe right pace. Mirage uses a “one-tap principle” as thevideo at the bottom will explain. If you want to send aphoto or video, you press down on a contact with yourfinger, and when you release they will instantly send. Youjust sneezed snot onto the camera lens and half your

Portfolio 25

face? Too late! Your boyfriend’s mom whom you weretrying to impress is now disgusted by you.

In other words, Mirage doesn’t give you the optiondiscard a picture, take a new one, much less undo a sentpicture. When you put finger to phone you better beready for a snapshot, and heaven help you if youaccidentally send something inappropriate to a contactbubble you didn’t mean to press. I’d imagine it’d be alltoo easy. The irreversibility could be part of the fun, but itseems not too much to ask to have a simple check-mark,x-mark system for sending messages or discarding them.

One small perk is that you can view Mirage’s messagesfor up to 15 seconds, will with Snapchat users can onlysee them for up to 10 before they disappear.

With Mirage you can also quickly send a voicemessage, send a photo to a group of your contacts, as wellas start a “disappearing conversation” with multiplecontacts in a group (a group photo-chat, in other words).

Perhaps the biggest pro for a start-up app of this type isthat your contacts, which are automatically gathered foryou, you can arrange in any order you’d like, and you cansend friends “mirages” without them already having theapp installed. Theoretically, they should receive textmessages with links that take them to a website wherethey can see your photo, text, or clip. If they want toreply, however, they’ll need to get the app. This is good inthe sense that you’ll have something to do when you firstdownload the app, and your experience won’t just becontingent on how many of your friends already have it. Iwill admit, however, there were a couple of people I sentpictures to who did not report getting any text messagefrom Mirage.

26 Zachery Bridgeman

Mobli does make it easy for more people to hear aboutthe app with these stylish, albeit less-than-informativedigital cards, like mine below, you can tweet, share onFacebook, Instagram, or directly email to someone.

Users who reviewed the app so far have given the appmixed feedback, with most of the negative being thatwhen they inputted their phone numbers, they neverreceived a confirmation code allowing them to downloadthe app. Others complained that their contacts weren’tgoing through. I experienced a degree of this, as you cansee from the juxtaposed pictures earlier in the article: thetablet has faces for contacts and phone merely has blueand brown circles where my friends’ faces should be.

Another small complaint is that while Mirage doesallow you to send text, whether over a white backdrop ora photo itself, it automatically centers the text, so that ifyou have it transposed over a photo, chances are it’sblocking a good deal of the photo out. Again, smallcomplaint.

Portfolio 27

MIRAGE Security

Creators of Mirage boast, “Another one of the maindifferences that really sets MIRAGE apart from Snapchatis that Snapchat is just a photo and video sharing app,where MIRAGE is a also communication tool, and is builtaround the essence of face to face communications.”

This sounds nice, but, as CIO’s Robert Martin pointedout, Mobli doesn’t promote Mirage’s security package asthey do with their other app called Mobli. And given thequote above, the developers are looking to portray itmore as a legitimate communications tool than a fun“photo and video sharing app” like Snapchat. If even WallStreet professionals have been known to use Snapchat,shouldn’t there be security parameters set up for amessaging app meant to be even more serious thanSnapchat?

As Martin adds, if you look at the fine print, Mirage’sTerms and Conditions reads:

“You provide your information, messages, and photos tous at your own risk and are responsible for takingreasonable measures to secure your account…We cannotand do not guarantee that information you post on ortransmit to the App will not be viewed by unauthorizedpersons.”

I include this not to discourage you from getting theapp, but to encourage you to proceed with caution. Ingeneral, most of use apps like Snapchat and Mirage tosend self-destructing silly expressions and findings tofriends, and nothing more.

28 Zachery Bridgeman

MIRAGE vs Snapchat verdict

Is Mirage wildly different or better than Snapchat, in myopinion? Not much, not yet.

Is Mirage an enjoyable app I would use, granted myfriends were on it? For sure.

Could Mirage beat out Snapchat one day? You neverknow. It’s still very new. Perhaps developers could focusnow on being less speedy and providing more ownershipor customization in the user’s hands, from colors andfonts to more features like the option to discard badphotos. As of now, it’s not quite novel enough yet.

Should you get Mirage and try it out? Definitely. Youmay like it more than Snapchat. It’s free, it’s easy to tellyour friends about, and chances are they’ll like using it,too. Now when something outrageous happens on Gameof Thrones, you won’t have to Snapchat your outrageousexpression a million times to a million different people;you can mirage a group of your friends all at once.

Check out the video below for a better visual sense andgrasp on how to use MIRAGE.

Portfolio 29

<div class="player-unavailable"><h1 class="message">An erroroccurred.</h1><div class="submessage"><ahref="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1MVCKTlhys"target="_blank">Try watching this video on www.youtube.com</a>, orenable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser.</div></div>

30 Zachery Bridgeman