As part of my day job, I investigate applications for faculty to use. Some were interested in Google Picasa. It seems like a nice alternative to iPhoto, especially as it links nicely to Google’s Web Albums.

However, that last part we could  not get to work. The application would not sign in to Google’s services. As with anything internet related, I suspected our proxy/firewall. As required by law, we implement a filtering package here to prevent inappropriate content from being viewed.

I first used an IP to bypass the filter- used to check out blocked sites for whitelisting and verifying problems with the proxy. Picasa worked fine without the proxy in between. I used Wireshark to run a packet capture, and verified that Picasa was attempted to connect directly to Google’s servers instead of going through the proxy.

So I proceeded to see if I could find out way. I located a post on their help forums talking about the issue: from January 2009! I could not believe that this has been around for over a year. And their help is a joke. They have forums and a few FAQs for helps. But no way to report bugs or even contact their support.

This is why I am really souring on Google. Their services and applications are pretty cool, but if anybody has a problem, good lucky getting it solved. This happened with the Nexus One earlier this year too- there was no way to call or get help for the phone.

I am still amazed that an application can be written in 2010 without using the proper APIs to use the system proxy settings. Especially from a web centric company like Google. To me that speaks of bad planning and design. And the set up of the support website just further hurts the whole experience.

Apple has finally added multitasking, and so much more, to the iPhone OS. Ars Technica reports all the details. The highlights:

– Multitasking using the home button. While I was wrong about only one app being allowed, I was right about the home button being the primary interface. This sounds fantastic. Audio apps can even use the previously iPod only pop up controls. There are only ways for apps to “run” in the background. For location based apps, they can be woken up when positions change. For games, they can “pause” and be idle.

– Folders on the home screen. Another welcome addition. Instead of managing pages upon pages of unorganized apps, they can be put inside a folder. I can already see this for less used apps and games.

– Unified inbox in Mail. Yet another FINALLY. It will make it so much easier to manage more than one account.

Some of the other things are interesting too. Game Center will be great for game developers- a kid of XBox Live system. iAd will be wonderful as adding advertising can be a pain. And the enterprise features are awesome- especially the remote installing of apps.

A good update. I was hoping for some sort of printing option though. Maybe that will come later.

One final note- if you install the 4.0 release on an iPhone, MobileMe’s tracking system will not work. I don’t know why, but it won’t. Hopefully that will be fixed for beta 2.

According to AppleInsider, Apple is adding the ability for third parties to multitasking. They say no details are available, but its a “full-on” solution.

This is very exciting, as it will fix the biggest flaw of the OS right now. As AI points out, its not a technical problem, as many Apple apps (iPod, Messages, etc) run fine in the background. Its a political problem. The current arguments for it (battery and resource usage) are red-herrings, because they both apply to the Apple apps as well- and the decision to use them are up to the user.

I’m very interested in seeing how Apple manages this. I expect the home button to be the primary means of interacting, with only one third party app allowed to run. There will also be a requirement to have a menu bar icon to alert the user that there is an extra app being run.

Regardless of how its done, this is great news for the platform. Once less reason to use the Andriod platform. The next thing to change: unsigned apps.