Starting my day the right way
Always good to be on the road
Twitter locations are being shared
I guess I’ve missed this previously, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that tweets posted with locations are fully shared to Buzz. This is how things should absolutely work, but often times (like with foursquare) you have to click through to see the place rather than simply marking the post.
This tweet was posted via Tweetie 2 with location sharing on … in case you were wondering.
Captcha Advertising?
Take one of the more hated “prove you are human” to the spam assassins and combine it in an ad to earn a consumer response?? WTF!? What am I missing here? This idea is horrible.
Apple and Adobe
I love Steve’s Thoughts on Flash open letter posted yesterday. I’m not going to debate the semantics of this, because I think there’s a very clear point to take away.
Prove flash works in a reliable way on a mobile device.
Apple clearly does not want to be Adobe’s beta. Otherwise Steve is clearly offering a warm cup of STFU:
Actions speak louder than words, Adobe. Do something.
What exactly is Nokia’s problem?
What the hell is happening at Nokia?
They have been in a real decline with no sign of change which is just ridiculous considering their global share of mobile. I’m glad I’m not a shareholder, but if I was I would be freaking out and calling for change … Instead i will just use my iPad.
When Nokia forced the N97 out of the gate early it was, in my opinion, a move made of ignorance. While it is typical for them to release a hardware product that requires firmware to smooth things out, consumer experience had substantially changed since that proactive started. The initial N95 was the same actually. It took a big software update to deliver on the multitasking promise as it shipped without the ability to page memory and therefore needed to close apps constantly as you moved through the device. The N97 continued that tradition and actually shipped with crappy hardware hardware as well. It was barely tolerable with the N97 but people were far more aware of their options (iPhone, Android etc) when the N97 arrived. As a result sales suffered and consumer demand is low … Outside of course of the carrier based low cost phone channel. A place all flagship devices seek …
Now the N8, next flagship is due to arrive and according to aEldar’s review at Mobile Review is yet another disappointment. I’m sure Nokia will make it up by only charging $600 instead of $700 as with the N97.
Nokia’s device strategy is allegedly based on solutions, but their goal of integrating software through Ovi remains another empty promise. The lack of a core suite of reliable services is ridiculous given the amount of time that has passed. I’m not saying this is easy to do, but the company line has been “it’s coming” for far too long … As in years.
Perhaps you think Maemo, oh I mean Meego is the solution? Let’s just look at the stellar track record there. The N900 is the 4th device on the 4th version of the maemo platform. Maemo 6 is DOA and instead Meego will replace. Let’s see how that goes … I won’t be holding my breath. Even if Nokia and Intel pull off a reasonable UX, the services won’t be in place, nor will the apps. Maemo haas been the red headed stepchild within Nokia through each phase it has existed. Instead of creating a dual OS strategy and giving Maemo some real resources, Nokia instead has played it coy and left a lot of the work on the community, which while enthusiastic, remains more hobbyist than anything else. Instead the “effort” has gone towards S60 and Symbian.
I’ve used countless Nokia devices since the launch of Nseries back in 2005. I have loved and actively promoted the brand. I’ve even worked for Nokia in that time through the digital agency I still work for today. Through all that time Nokia has made many broken promises but because they have also stuck to the old game no one else is playing they are losing and badly. It’s great that manufacturing excellence leads to global efficiencies and reduced costs for emerging markets, but where’s the innovation?? Where’s the passion for mobile?
It’s time for a real change.
The iPad
Where to even start …
I’ve been using the iPad since it first shipped and it’s a seriously impressive device. My initial usage like many was over the Easter weekend and I was away with family so while I certainly got a taste, it was not quite the full immersion that followed …
I’ve purchased two iPads. The first to arrive is obviously the Wifi model and I chose to get the 32GB version as it will be used by my wife mainly along with the kids – who love it. When they ship I’ll also have a 64GB 3G unit as my own to use and plan to keep it fairly constantly connected. I’ve been using my old Nokia E71 with Joikuspot as my mobile modem for the iPad while my Mifi is down for the count …
On first startup sadly the iPad reveals it’s greatest weakness which is that you need a computer to get going and of course to sync most of your content. In 2010 this is a ridiculous requirement, but it is sadly still how Apple sees the world. I did not take my Mac with me for my initial weekend of use and had a momentarily panic attack realizing I might not have any way to activate the device and get going. Fortunately my father in law invited me to use his system and within a few moments we cleared the silly dialog and were online. It’s unclear why Apple requires this initial step at all really since I did not sync or register the product through the machine … it seemed to only require a few seconds of connectivity to be ready. Apple was at least kind enough to ship it fully charged.
At home the iPad is truly a stellar device. You can do anything you might want to in a casual situation. I love reading on the large screen and instantly found that the iPad has become my default device for anything online. The speed is awesome! I find it more enjoyable than my few year old MacBookPro for everything and if it was possible to edit photos through some iPad Aperture / iPhoto app, I’d probably use it for that as well. I find typing on the onscreen keyboards to be simple enough. Tapping out email is easy and while it took a few moments to find my ideal seated position, I find I can enter text from most positions now without too much effort. While writing this piece, I chose to pair my old Stowaway Sierra Bluetooth keyboard and have tapped away in the iPad WordPress app. This is actually quite the combination. I don’t really like needing two pieces, but it does meet my current desire to do just about everything on the iPad. 😉
During the week, I’ve commute as I normally do and as regular readers know I have a long enough commute that the usual mobile device battery takes a beating before I even get to the office. The iPad easily crushes this test and I’m only seeing minimal battery loss (unlike the iPhone’s 40+%) and can get to the office with no more than 10% drained … usually considerably more still charged. At the office I’m on Wifi all day (on mail, web, taking notes and reviewing files) and don’t see any reason to recharge, as the battery easily handles my day and has plenty of juice too make it home again with plenty left for some couch time. My only complaint and it’s hard to call it that is that I can’t get on my work VPN. I’m hopeful that the 4.0 OS release and the upcoming Cisco VPN software will enable network browsing so I can more easily access remote files.
Given the obvious amount of touching, you can expect your iPad to look something like this after a while:
As gross as that looks it does wipe right off and I admittedly tend to be more conscious of the hand grease now. That shot obviously caught the light in a pretty clear way.
An easier access to the file system would be welcome, but GoodReader is pretty much handling most of my filing for now. Apple could definitely tune up the business side of the house on this. In my travels I’ve encountered a few other enthusiasts all using the iPad in some work capacity. Everyone gets the initial home use, but we all also want much more on the professional side.
As my kids get a bit older and it’s time to consider a personal computer (not one they share) I will probably have a hard time justifying an iMac over whatever the iPad evolves into. It’s small and powerful and as I’ve seen already completely native to how my kids interact with technology now.
Lazy print to digital conversions
Just because someone offers a solution to take and digitize your print product doesn’t mean it’s actually a good idea. Take Outside Magazine, a magazine I’ve recently subscribed to and enjoy reading. I was excited to see they offered an iPad edition and downloaded the app.
While the app store preview showed a prior edition, I thought that was just for example and yet post purchase I see that the only issue available digitally is the same one – and one I’ve read previously as a subscriber. Even so i thought it would at least be interesting to see how the iPad edition worked…. Not so great. It was obviously an easy conversion … I’m guessing with minimal manual intervention. As you can see below, there was absolutely no thought on how to handle links to online content. In the case highlighted below, there is no way to click on the link or even capture the text. Not cool.
It’s called Facebook
Seth, meet Facebook. Facebook, Seth.
PS If I ran Twitter, I’d build my new ad service about a socially acceptable way for corporate users to build large lists of followers, people who would give permission to get news and discounts and insights from advertisers. Twitter knows who likes what and they have permission from users to be a bridge between the user and those that might want to talk to them. That’s a powerful place to be.
@boxee in @popsci+ on the iPad
I noticed that Popular Science had published for iPad using the Mag+ system and decided to download an issue. So far it’s pretty cool. As you can hopefully tell from the enclosed screenshot, the design is quite clean and very high resolution. It’s not as natural a reading experience as i would have hoped and there’s almost a forced amount of touch to reveal the copy at times, but i still like how this works.
Hello iPad
Getting ready … how about you?
Rapha’s Hell of the North
It’s almost the weekend and I’m thinking about riding … Rapha’s just emailed about a cool ride, though unfortunately it’s in London. UK friends … get on it!
Our homage to one of the great monuments of the sport, Paris-Roubaix, will be an adventure along the lanes, bridleways and dirt-roads of Hertfordshire. Although it won’t have as much pavé (in fact it will be gravé) as northern France it will be tough and potentially filthy. Muddy terrain and bumpy ‘rough stuff’ will be encountered as we celebrate the Queen of the Classics over 100km.
How to effectively kill personalization in your marketing campaign
Having a great start to the day
Cablevision – ABC = No Oscars and Millions of Pissed Consumers
We’ve officially lost ABC on Cablevision today. Thanks Disney. Aside from the Oscar blackout tonight, which upsets my wife more than anything, we’ll lose access to Lost as well the only other show we care about on ABC.
The question I have for ABC is this … If it’s really about the money, how are you able to justify the efficacy of the ads sold for the Oscars with such a substantial portion of the NY Metro removed? Charging for what’s available for free over the air (if we all hadn’t switched to digital) is ridiculous and you should be ashamed.
Google news We automatically control what you must read, know and think.
Google news We automatically control what you must read, know and think., originally uploaded by Rétrofuturs (Hulk4598) / Stéphane Massa-Bidal.
Very cool set on Flickr … More here
Cool history on the Mac Startup and other sounds
The Apple Store Experience – Impressive as always
Over the weekend I took my brother in law to the Apple Store in White Plains to pick up a new MacBook and I was struck by how much of an impression it made on him. The things I take for granted because I already know a fair bit abut technology and have spent my share of time in various Apple stores are simply not the case for the more normal consumer.
Henry was amazed at the in-store engagement – classes, questions, and purchases all around. We flagged an employee to help him and Erick was more than happy to help Henry finalize his selection and even added in a printer. Check out was the usual impressive event as well … no line. The same store rep fired up his iPod touch, scanned the barcodes of the macbook and printer and swiped Henry’s card. Henry was amazed as he signed the screen and his email receipt was sent.
I’ve had this experience quite a few times for various purchases and it still amazes me too. Apple has enabled the point of sale to be everywhere with effectively everyone in the store able to take your transaction. If you’ve purchased before the receipt is in your inbox before you leave the store.
JetBlue Fails Their Own Digital Savvy Test
This morning I read about how JetBlue used Twitter to try and test the agencies pitching for their business. I think it caught my attention as I had a Jet Blue flight booked for later in the day … Well fast forward a few hours to that time and suddenly I’ve got a reason to reach out to JetBlue about my family’s experience today. It wasn’t great.
On the way down to Florida, we were booked in 4 seats in row 1 and our last seat in row 18. Not exactly stellar and something only a computer would do. We had to actually forfeit the row 18 seat and checked our car seat once on the plane in order to make sure the whole family stayed together. Traveling with three small kids can be stressful and not being together only amplifies the potential challenge of keeping everyone calm. JetBlue has said (via the flight attendant) that they’d be looking to reimburse us for the lost seat … I guess we have to wait it out on that one. I didn’t tweet it, but I’m posting it now.
Today was our return trip and while our seats were booked together, we were in the back of the plane. Not ideal, but certainly acceptable -being together was the most important detail. While waiting around for the boarding call, I tried to see if we might move forward a bit (we were booked 2 rows from the back). I waited patiently and politely and stood quite when a passenger was called up from the back of the line to be helped first. Her issue was apparently far too complicated and used up any available time for me. Instead we got a gruff, there are no seats to move around (after the passenger ahead in line moved). OK …
About 5 minutes later the pre-boarding call was announced and we immediately made our way over to the gate door. The JetBlue attendant looked at our boarding passes and gave us an earful about not coming over sooner for the pre-board even though she had literally just announced it. Instead of letting us on the plane, we were asked to stand to the side while other rows for main boarding started. There were at least 3 other families who also found the same experience and all were surprised to find that there wasn’t a pre-boarding and that we were being scolded for not respecting the call (that had just happened).
I’ve traveled far too much to know getting angry with the person behind the desk never leads to anything good for you, but man the families were livid. We all have small kids and definitely need more time to get on the plane, deal with car seats unpack etc. Not today … My family was cool. We got on board eventually and I was able to get the car seat belted for my son, but one of the other families ran into an issue and started to get quite nervous about securing their child safely. Joe (real name) from JetBlue came over to help but got testy with the nervous parent who was certainly pushing to get things resolved. We heard Joe scold the dad by saying “I don’t come to your office and tell you how to do your job, so don’t tell me how to do mine.” I can’t help but think that extra time we all wanted during pre-board would have been exactly what we needed right then.
Back to the original tweet test … I tweeted this as it was happening today – twice. JetBlue? No comment today … tomorrow won’t matter. Let’s not forget this social media stuff is a two-way street, JetBlue. Looking at you, @martysg. Comcast and Zappos don’t need #sneaky hashtags, they pay attention and respond within a reasonable amount of time – sometimes surprisingly fast.
How Google Won the #brandbowl
Unlike the vast majority of crap that ran last night, Google delivered an incredibly focused piece for the Super Bowl. The ad is simple, shows off the product and keeps the brand on screen for the entire time.