
I/O Thoughts - ismavis
http://rustyshelf.org/2014/07/01/io-thoughts/
======
timothya
One of the things that I've always seen as an interesting difference between
how Google and Apple run their developer relations teams is the title that
they give their employees. Apple has _Technology Evangelists_ , suggesting
that they promote the use of certain technologies (typically Apple's own
technology or Apple-supported web technology). Google, on the other hand, has
_Developer Advocates_ \- these are people who actually represent non-Googler
developers internally at Google.

While they may just be titles, my experience has been consistent with their
titles. Apple representatives you see once a year at WWDC, while Google
representatives you see at Google I/O and also at a number of Google-hosted
events year-round, including the regular videos they put out (and the "office-
hours" type Hangouts they have so that you can actually talk to them and get
your problems resolved) - just look at all of the events they have scheduled
on the Google Developer Events page[0] or all of the videos they have on their
YouTube channel[1]. I've also seen a lot of them give talks at tech
conferences, while Apple employees are rarely seen at conferences. And you can
see that Google's Developer Advocates really do talk directly to the actual
teams directly and file bugs against them when necessary on behalf of
developers everywhere. It's a system that has worked pretty well in my
experience.

I will also agree that Google's Developer Advocates don't care too much about
what platform you're using and just want to help you. I've been to a number of
Google-run technical workshops and codelabs, and the people there are willing
to help you with whatever problems you run into, no matter what it is.

[0]:
[https://developers.google.com/events/](https://developers.google.com/events/)

[1]:
[https://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleDevelopers](https://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleDevelopers)

~~~
murtza
The difference between a developer advocate and a developer evangelist is
inbound vs outbound.

Developer advocates are focused on helping address developers' problems.
Developer evangelists are focused on increasing product use and adoption.

That said, the responsibility of these positions mostly overlap. In my
personal experience as a developer evangelist at Marketo, my day-to-day work
has encompassed the function of both titles. My goal is to create a great
developer experience [0] in order to drive platform adoption [1].

Anecdotally, I have noticed a shift towards the developer advocate title. At
Facebook, Dropbox, and Twitter, the role is called this.

[0] [http://murtza.org/creating-a-great-developer-
experience/](http://murtza.org/creating-a-great-developer-experience/)

[1] [http://murtza.org/driving-the-api-adoption-
funnel/](http://murtza.org/driving-the-api-adoption-funnel/)

~~~
_navaneethan
Which category Microsoft will sit on? _Evangelist_ or _Advocates_?

~~~
aceperry
Definitely evangelist, promoting the company product.

------
cheald
> _ever since we’ve had success on the Android platform [Our Apple developer
> rep has] made it very clear that his services are no longer available to
> us._

Wow. That is shocking to me - is that typical of Apple? I know they're very
much about having people their ecosystem, but I didn't realize that there was
this kind of animosity towards people who stepped out of bounds.

~~~
zak_mc_kracken
> Wow. That is shocking to me - is that typical of Apple?

Yes it is. We have a pretty successful app in the iTunes store and as a
consequence, we have privileged access to the entire team, including engineers
and executives who advise us how to word the description of our app and
telling us all kinds of tricks to increase downloads.

A few months ago, we released an Android app and since then, we have fallen
into a complete Apple black hole. The Apple people we used to exchange daily
emails with are not even responding to us any more.

Apple is very, very serious about exclusivity.

And probably feeling very, very threatened too.

~~~
cheald
That's...well, bizarre seems too kind. As an outsider who hasn't ever dealt
with Apple in that kind of capacity, it seems downright childish.

I'm not sure that I was in danger of developing iOS apps any time soon, but
these kinds of tales make me want to run screaming.

~~~
threeseed
How is it childish ? It's business. Apple has finite resources and there are
thousands of amazing, exclusive apps that don't get any direct assistance. Why
would they invest their time if it doesn't benefit their ecosystem.

Also as someone who has worked on some of the most popular apps there is
always the problem of feature equality. Companies don't want to annoy their
customers by only offering features on one platform. So they don't. In which
case you end up with a lowest common denominator of features.

~~~
zak_mc_kracken
> Why would they invest their time if it doesn't benefit their ecosystem.

The problem with this approach is that it only works if you're #1 with a
comfortable lead. Apple is #2 and fast losing mind share, and this kind of
policy is only going to accelerate that trend.

~~~
zwily
It's #1 in the market it cares about, which is "people who spend money". And
that doesn't appear to be changing anytime soon.

~~~
aceperry
It's #1 in the market it cares about, which is "people who spend money". And
that doesn't appear to be changing anytime soon.

That sounds like hubris and arrogance to me. Are you so sure that won't be
changing anytime soon?

~~~
zwily
No, I'm not sure, it's just a guess. What do you think?

~~~
cheald
The data from the last 8 quarters or so shows that Apple's app store revenue
lead over Google is shrinking rapidly. Given Google's rapid gains in both
marketshare and app store revenues, it isn't crazy to think that Apple could
be the underdog before too long.

------
suprgeek
"...is that it highlighted just how insular and superior a lot of Apple
developers act and feel. If you don’t believe me, just join a group of them at
WWDC and whip out your Android phone. Within moments, you’ll wish you had
whipped out something less offensive, like your genitalia instead."

Can relate to this a little bit...A coworker who is completely in the Apple
camp argued fiercely how consistent the iOS keyboard was when I mentioned to
him that the Android one changes case to match the Caps lock setting.

~~~
MBCook
As a die-hard iOS user... that was a stupid argument to be in. There is a
reason Apple does what it does (supposedly to match a real keyboard) but it's
not strong and doesn't matter.

And the iOS 7 shift key symbol stupidity should automatically lose him the
argument.

~~~
bollockitis
> There is a reason Apple does what it does (supposedly to match a real
> keyboard) but it's not strong and doesn't matter.

Wow. Really? That a silly reason for an otherwise indefensible UI decision. I
really wish the iOS keyboard changed case. Ever since iOS 7, I can't tell
whether shift is on or off. Maybe I'm just an idiot, but sometimes I fumble
with it a half dozen times before getting it right. It's worse than trying to
plug in a USB cable.

~~~
MBCook
I see nothing wrong with only showing uppercase letters on the keyboard as
they seem easier to read.

The major flailing is the shift key. Right now it's white with a black arrow.
That means the sentence started with an initial cap. At any other theme, say
mid sentence, it's different again. Mid sentence it's a white arrow on darker
gray.

So, in short: about to type cap? Black on White. Mid sentence? white on dark
grey. Want to do all caps? Double tap it and get a new version.

I'm not sure how these semantics are different enough from iOS 6 to cause
confusion but it does ALL THE TIME.

~~~
patresi
They're not easier to read

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_caps](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_caps)

~~~
skrebbel
Are you sure that prose and single-character button labels have the same
readability characteristics?

The same property that makes "BIG TEXT" more difficult to read than "small
text" might make each individual character _easier_ to read. I'm not sure that
it does, I just don't think your wikipedia page discusses this at all.

------
zmmmmm
> Android is now clearly their platform of choice, it runs on TVs, cars,
> phones, tablets, watches and in your home. The same OS, different screens
> was their message.

This was one of the big surprising take aways for me. The minute Pichai took
over I had the feeling that Android's future was limited - they would keep
investing in it for sure but it would be on a long term road map for
convergence and eventual transition to ChromeOS. I expected to first see
Chrome apps running as first class citizens on Android, then a new SDK for
Android that was all about ChromeOS and then finally a deprecating of the Java
SDK. It always felt to me like internally Google preferred ChromeOS and the
web as a platform and Android was a sort of accidental success that they were
just running with until they could somehow meld it into their pure vision of
computing, as represented by ChromeOS.

So now I'm having to significantly revisit all that thinking, as if anything
Google seems to be pushing Android everywhere and little was said about
ChromeOS.

~~~
fidotron
I got the distinct impression Sundar has changed his tune now he's not
threatened by Android, but instead runs it.

Anyone that had thrown their lot in with Chrome Apps or similar probably felt
this year how Android devs did last year.

~~~
general_failure
This is not some single person dictatorship where Sundar can just call all the
shots. They are so many people vested in Android at Google. I don't think
Sundar has a choice.

I really dislike how everyone thinks the too management can sweepingly do
anything they want. It does not work like that.

------
dewitt
Not directly related to his post, but if you haven't tried Pocket Casts yet, I
highly recommend it. Best podcast app I've ever used, hands down.

~~~
rogerbinns
Do however be wary if you use it in a car. I've found it quite flaky. That
includes randomly stopping for no apparent reason (on content that was fully
downloaded), random crashes, forgetting things (like it was playing a list of
episodes not just one), starting to play 2 hours after I pressed play,
forgetting position and the list goes on.

They were responsive the first time I contacted them (before buying) but
ignored my emails after I had bought and found issues like the above.

If you aren't in a car then you can resolve most of those issues by pressing
the right buttons in the app. However while driving you can't, hence it
mattering a lot more.

~~~
bronson
Agree 100%. Also, it has serious streaming problems. Don't bother starting a
podcast unless it's 100% downloaded.

------
amaks
"Having met a lot of Apple employees, I can’t say the same is true on the
other side. They seem overly obsessed with Google, and are insanely sensitive
should you bring the topic up, or deity of choice forbid, you actually develop
on a Google platform."

It used to be exactly like that in Microsoft around 2010. Microsofties were
extremely sensitive about non-WP devices other employees used. Hopefully
things have changed there since then.

~~~
fortuitous
I was trying to enjoy the company of a friend and his friend turned out to be
an Apple executive and had a lot of passive things to say about the fact that
I had an android phone. the gist was it was too big, not many apps, and other
nitpicking stuff. I couldn't help but think... well gee just try another
smaller android phone, but I wanted to just eat dinner and ignored his snide
comments. They're definitely obsessed from the top down.

IMO, they need to stop whining and give users what they want, a cheaper phone.
That could have stopped android years ago, instead they just sued and became
indignant. As if that helps. You want to talk about a bubble. I fear the day
when apple's revenue drops. I sort of want them to stop bitching and do
something, because that day won't be pretty.

------
joeblau
> None of them care what phone you use, what laptop you choose or which
> platforms you develop for.

Benedict Evans has a very interesting take on why Google has this sentiment.
Basically, it comes down to Apple being about hardware and considering the
cloud dumb storage and Google being about cloud services and the hardware
being dumb glass (not Google Glass, but hardware interfaces). It seems like
Google as a company is in sync, all they want to do is get their cloud
services on as many devices as possible because the real value of Google is in
the cloud. I agree with Benedict's hypothesis and I can't wait to see how
these two companies unfold over the next decade. They currently seem to have
two different trajectories.

------
jgh
meh...I've been in the "Apple Camp" since they released the SDK in 2008 and
I've yet to work with anyone who would find it offensive that someone has
different tastes than them when it comes to their device choices. it really
doesnt matter that much.

That said I'll probably be looking to do more non-iOS work as well in the near
future, I need to expand my horizons again.

------
skizm
You have to remember, Apple is selling all Apple stuff. Google is selling the
web.

~~~
ttflee
Google is actually selling the Ads, IMHO.

------
alttab
Late one night I began watching the room sessions, and after I kinda wrote off
the Keynote I began to see the same level of organization the writer spoke
about. Unification across all applications, platforms, screen sizes, and use
cases was a huge priority and that is a rather radical shift from what I've
seen. They have focus.

------
alecco
How sad it is we are so easily seduced to take sides on a false dichotomy. How
easily we forget our work becomes just a cog on someone else's platform.
Relations centralized, us with the big player, very one-sided.

------
eitally
I agree with everything you wrote -- thanks for taking the time to put it to
paper! Two other things: I've been to five I/Os and this year's keynote was
absolutely the worst in terms of quality of presentation. It honestly seems
like they didn't plan to announce L until it was leaked a couple weeks ago.
I'm glad they did and I think, given the lack of prep, it went pretty darn
well. Secondly, before they started charging $900/ticket, I'm absolutely sure
a lot of locals applied just for swag. I don't think that happens anymore, and
you can tell from what they handed out this year that there will be no more
free phones and tablets. If there is hardware swag, it will be _new_ tech, not
the stuff everyone already has.

Additionally, I was truly surprised at the heavy focus on Android at the
expense of nearly everything else. I think with Sundar in charge we're seeing
a sea change at Google in terms of platform focus, and this is -- while a
little confusing sometimes -- a good thing. It also means I/O is turning into
truly a hardcore developer conference with a unified theme (or several big
themes), rather than a sort of dog & pony show ("Hey, look at this shiny,
useless crap we've been working on!") like in the past (Nexus Q anyone?
Android @Home? Google TV?). There was no mention this year of anything besides
Android platform products & services, except the expected general purpose dev
platform stuff (Compute Engine, App Engine, etc). I was surprised at the lack
of mention of anything enterprisey, nothing about Google+ or identity
management, anything about ChromeOS (just a small plug in the keynote about
schools adopting Chromebooks), or any of their X projects. I at least thought
they'd have some robots there to ogle.

If the keynote was subpar this year, the 'box talks were a highlight. The
speakers were almost universally awesome, the open fora allowed high quality
engagement, and if one topic didn't interest, it was easy to stroll to the
next whiteboard/screen and see if that one did. Jake Archibald's talk on
browser quirks was my favorite.

[http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/speed/script-
loading/](http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/speed/script-loading/)

[http://vimeo.com/77497239](http://vimeo.com/77497239)

Btw, I was fully expecting Android Wear to be a novelty I had no use for, but
I very quickly came around and already find myself talking to my watch, James
Bond style. I completely agree with this Ars post:
[http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/06/android-wear-
smartwat...](http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/06/android-wear-smartwatches-
make-google-glass-obsolete/). My wife & I have a "no phones at the dinner
table" policy but even my kids have been telling me to "ask Google" for
answers to questions. Having the knowledge graph so handy is awesome.

------
bjchrist
Are google glass completely dead now?

------
_pmf_
Could we please not appropriate the generic term I/O for the gimmicky
marketing travesty that is Google I/O? Some people expect an insightful
article about system programming.

------
webwielder
At the end of the day, Apple has always delivered far superior tools,
frameworks, and ecosystem (development-wise). That to me says a lot more than
how friendly the staff is.

~~~
kumarm
>>Apple has always delivered far superior tools, frameworks, and ecosystem

Its easier to make good tools when they need to work on 5% market share (Mac
only)?

Google Tools are free. Apple tools start with you buying their $2000 machine.

~~~
austinz
You can get a Mac Mini that more than suffices for around $600-$800. But
honestly, if paying $2000 was the only way to get a set of Android SDKs and
development tools of the same caliber as Apple's developer offerings, I would
immediately do so. I like the idea of the platform and I believe in anything
that makes it easier for developers to build better applications.

~~~
vacri
Excellent. Now I've bought my mac mini, I can plug it in and listen to it
consume power. I wonder how I can see what it's doing?

Hrm... well, it can come with a monitor... for an extra thousand. Okay,
scratch that, I'll get a cheap DisplayPort monitor... add a couple of hundred
(or if I feel like splurging, get two). Oh, and a keyboard, another $50
(apple-branded, of course, because normal keyboards don't have apple keys).
Mouse? Apple mouse at $50+? Maybe I'll go with a cheap logitech or
something... 4GB memory standard? for a dev machine? OSX has trouble with that
little memory. Up to 8GB for another hundred (or 16GB for three hundred).
Spinning rust will do, but if you did want an SSD, throw on a couple hundred
more.

The idea that mac minis are 'cheap development boxes' is nonsense. It's
cheaper than a decent macbook pro, but it's not a cheap workstation.

~~~
austinz
You can buy the Apple-branded stuff. Or you can buy a KVM switch, a SSD, and
two sticks of RAM off Newegg yourself. Monoprice has HDMI to DVI converters
for less than $3. Upgrading the internals is about as challenging as upgrading
the internals of a non-Apple laptop. It's honestly not that hard.

On the off chance you don't have a mouse, a keyboard, or a display, you can
get a decent mouse for around $5, a decent non-mechanical keyboard for $30,
and a high-quality display for $150. All three of these will improve your
productivity on your laptop if you're not traveling. If you don't have a
laptop or a desktop...how are you developing for Android to begin with?

~~~
vacri
_how are you developing for Android to begin with?_

Well, this requirement wasn't in the original brief. And in any case, you're
trading your own labour and domain knowledge to shave a few dollars off. The
scrounging you've mentioned is only a little cheaper than what I've mentioned
- my point is that it costs more to set up a mac mini for a developer (rather
than a headless server) than the throwaway line presented. Even with your
cheaper, more-effort-given-to-scrounging pricing, the monitor + HIDs alone add
1/3 to 1/4 the price, never mind the ram or ssd.

------
megablast
Great piece, very interesting.

> Overall they just seem more balanced, you can tell that what Apple is doing
> doesn’t keep them up at night.

Eh, I have found the opposite, whereas Android developers will be very
hardcore, almost akin to .Net developers who only use bing. They will only use
Android, and Google, and Open Source, and never pay for anything ever. Even
apps. And beware if you have an iPhone.

Not all, and maybe I am sheltered from the Apple critics because I leave my
Android phone and table at home. And it really depends who you meet.

I certainly see Apple as a very closed company compared to Google, but it
looks like that is changing with the WWDC 3,000 API's announcement, really
opening up the OS to developers. iOS devs can start to do cool things that
Android devs have been doing for a while.

As for the Google anouncements, is TV any different than the last few years?
And they still don't seem to have wearables right yet.

~~~
hyperion2010
I read the sentence you quote as referring directly to the engineers who work
at google, not android developers.

