On the iPad (For Serious This Time)
Piggybacking a bit on Alex Payne’s excellent thoughts* on the iPad I’ve been trying to think about what bothers me about the aforementioned magical device. I understand that I’m not the real market for it; I don’t feel like there’s a void in between my computer and my mobile device needing to be filled. I’m quite device content. But it’s more than that.
At its core, the iPad is predominantly a consuming machine, not a creating machine (at least in its currently presented iteration.) Yes, I understand there are quite a few of those 140,000 apps in the App Store that allow people to create and share, but only under very specific constraints. And not nearly on the level that I can with my laptop.
But the iPad is not designed to fill my desire to create, it’s mainly designed for me to consume the creations of others. It will change the landscape of personal computing and find its way into the hands of a ridiculous amount of people who are very happy to simply consume. My hands just won’t be among them anytime soon. I have too much creating to do.
*Alex Payne has excellent thoughts on just about everything. You should read his site.
If you’re one of the folks lamenting the untimely demise of the clean, simple Twitter favorites site Favrd, thanks to Ethan you can use this handy userscript to make Favstar look like Favrd.
Apparently Hulu will starting charging for certain broadcast content in 2010. I thought I was already being charged in time by having to sit through ads; are the ads not subsidizing the business? Networks still don’t understand the web, nor do they realize that while they can still profit, they might never make the same amount of profit that they once did.
Flickr just added the ability to tag people in photos. Yes, just like Facebook. I can’t help thinking my photo hosting site of choice is having a bit of an identity crisis. Is it for fine art photos of landscapes? Or bad auto mode family photos? Both? That seems like a recipe for killing your team trying to maintain a site that has to please everyone.
I’ve been using Tumblr for the last week to upload my mobile photos. I’m 90% pleased. My only critiques: it’s occasionally slow/down, the iPhone app won’t let me set a link on a photo or toggle whether to send to Twitter, and it auto-inserts “Photo: “ to each tweet, using 7 characters I could better use myself. P.S. 90% awesome is amazing for a free service.
We’re smack dab in the middle of the Age of Immediacy. — J.J. Abrams
A revolution doesn’t happen when society adopts new tools, it happens when society adopts new behaviors. — Clay Shirky
Looks like Gmail Tasks is all grown up now (even though it’s still under the Gmail umbrella, not the standalone product Google umbrella.) Whatever the rain gear, I’m just glad to have it on a mobile platform with a mobile UI. Yay for integration.
[Good designers should] question everything generally thought to be obvious. They must have an intuition for people’s changing attitudes…[They must] be able to assess realistically the opportunities and bounds of technology. — Dieter Rams, 1980 speech to the Braun supervisory board
This Crimespotting map is incredible, especially the slider functionality for changing the time of day and date range. Also, it’s just dang pretty. Stamen Design is responsible, and they have plenty of other data visualization gorgeousness on their site. (via Wilson Miner)
Office Cultures Without Rules
I shouldn’t be surprised that a product/service I’m brand loyal to is born and maintained out of a company culture that runs counter to typical corporate structure, but I am. It’s fascinating any time I see stuff like this articulated so well:
Instead of adding rules as we grow, our solution is to increase talent density faster than we increase business complexity. Great people make great judgment calls and few errors, despite ambiguity…We have found that by avoiding rules we can better attract the creative mavericks that drive innovation…We are mitigating the big risk technology companies face (obsolescence), by taking on small risks (running without rules).
— Netflix, excerpted from 7 Great Reasons to Work at Netflix (emphasis mine)
The whole thing reads like a manifesto for Doing Amazing Things, but the specific ability for a company to grow in size and complexity without an avalanche of bureaucratic muck is rare.
Today’s the last day of Panic’s 50% sale on great Mac software like Transmit, CandyBar and Coda. I use Transmit everyday, and have for years. It’s so good I actually wish the OS X Finder worked more like Transmit.
Hulu’s desktop app lets me navigate the whole site from my couch with my Apple remote. There’s lots of slick UI details, too. Sold. Thank you, Hulu.
Five Technological Advances I’m Not Holding My Breath For
1. My iPhone is not in any way connected with AT&T
2. My iPhone projects movies on the wall and connects to speakers via Airport
3. My iPhone remotely unlocks my house
4. My iPhone is a flying car
5. My iPhone pays off my student loans
I’ve been having fun with the combination of the iPhone’s camera and apps like CameraBag, Polarizer, and the very slick Flickr uploader Flickit. I give you iPhonaroids.
Five Items You Should Never Buy the Cheap Version Of
1. Cheese
2. Printers
3. Dress Shoes
4. Hitmen
5. Kitchen Knives
Traditional Ad Agencies Still Don’t Understand the Web
BBDO CEO Andrew Robertson talking about ad agencies and the web sounds suspiciously like the leader of the “Most Awarded Agency Network in the World” being fascinated by what 15 year olds take for granted.
I think it’s great for agencies to start recognizing that new talent may have more knowledge than existing employees. But if I was a potential client with millions of dollars for ad buys, I’d be more than a little concerned with a strategy that essentially says “the techies can make it happen.” Especially when the “it” portion of that statement is a complete unknown to the agency.
Are Your Running Shoes Worthless?
Despite all their marketing suggestions to the contrary, no [running shoe] manufacturer has ever invented a shoe that is any help at all in injury prevention…If anything, the injury rates have actually ebbed up since the [invention of the modern running shoe].
— The Painful Truth About Trainers: Are Running Shoes a Waste of Money?
Despite all their marketing suggestions to the contrary, no [running shoe] manufacturer has ever invented a shoe that is any help at all in injury prevention…If anything, the injury rates have actually ebbed up since the [invention of the modern running shoe].
— The Painful Truth About Trainers: Are Running Shoes a Waste of Money?
Casey Dukes pointed me in the direction of this fascinating article about what (if any) benefits modern running shoes offer. The research and anecdotal evidence suggest a link between the invention of the running shoe and an increase in running injuries.
I especially enjoy the bit about a new Asics shoe that cost $3 million in R&D and took three more years to create than it took to make the first atomic bomb.
Ladies and gentlemen, that’s marketing at its best.
Everyone, Please Stop Telling Everyone Else How to Use the Web
Quote, “Dear web celebrity who never follows anyone back, I think you’re missing the point of social media.” Oooooh, Twitter burn. And from a self-proclaimed Social Media Rockstar no less.
For the love of the internet, will everyone just STOP thinking they have the market cornered on how I’m supposed to use the web? You don’t. You don’t know. In fact, you probably don’t know what will be the most successful strategy for other people because you’re not them and you don’t have the same needs.
The web is not one-size-fits-all. Please keep your social media shoehorn to yourself.