Cool !
My questions are (in decreasing order of importance):
* The Near app is nifty but has convoluted UI and confusing concepts. Many things such as Gamer Match rating are undefined. Errors are poorly documented and ill conceived (e.g., Duplicated location requests within 60 minutes is not an error, but a cache request, why show an error message at all ?). What does the Near product team plan to do to improve Near in the near term ? What does the Near hope to achieve in the long term ? Is there a dedicated team handling Near, or is this a hobby for the developers ? ^_^
* The integration with games seems to have room for improvement. e.g., It is unclear how to post gifts from games. If it is automated, why alert the users that a gift is ready (since the user can't do anything about it). The flow seems to be inconsistent from game to game. Any plan to standardize the interaction ? Any plans to simplify the gifting flow and other general Near UI further ? If so, what can we look forward to ?
* Under what circumstances would Near fail ? We have seen "An error has occurred" but has no way to find out what's going on. Is it a network issue ? GPS issue ? Skyhook problem ? Near server update problem ? Users who can't use Near can be very frustrated especially when Near seems like a cool idea. Does Near work better in some countries and not others ? If so, what is Sony's systematic plan to address them ? And what can the users do to avoid them ?
* What are the exact definitions of all the Near stats ? We need one pronto ! 8^)
When can we expect a multi-page, detailed online guide on Near to teach users how to maximize their Near experience ? The current online Vita manual explains Near briefly but it contains too little meat from user's perspective. If it's a complex service, take the time to elaborate instead of skimping over the details.