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Author Archives: Jeremy Toeman

The Third Age of Gadgets nears its end

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The iPad TabletMac MacTouch iSlate will supposedly launch next year, and with it comes the end of an era.  For that statement to make any sense, I should probably backtrack a bit and give a little explanation.  While considering the impact of this product (should it even exist beyond the labs in Cupertino, that is), I’ve been thinking back on the history and evolution of gadgets.  Incidentally, I’m only considering electronic gadgets, but not including computers (or laptops) nor kitchen-related items (pretty much everything in the modern kitchen is some kind of gadget).  I’ve grouped them (in my own mind) into three major phases, and in pure Tolkienish geeky wonderfulness, I’m calling them Ages.

The First Age

Definition: For sake of discussion, I’ll define the First Age of Gadgets as starting with calculators and LCD watches (and, of course, calculator watches).  Sticklers will quickly point out something I’m missing, but in my opinion that’s when the concept of “gadgets” really got kicking.  These products (1) required batteries and (2) did one thing, typically pretty well.  These early gadgets were typically fairly functional in nature, not very gimmicky or showy.  They were also workhorses as compared to modern products – you can drop most “old school” products and not fear for significant damage (probably directly related to LED or single-line LCD outputs).

Timeframe: roughly the early 1970s all the way into the 1990s. That said, many products came out in the ’90s that would still be considered First Age gadgets, per the definition above.

Defining gadget: tie between Walkman and Game Boy.  Both effectively defined a product category, and still do to this day in most respects. It’s far too easy to argue that the iPod is just a “modern” Walkman, and ditto for the DS/PSP.

Memorable gadgets: Mattel Football, Atari 2600, NES, Speak and Spell (the first DSP was inside it), the Polaroid instant camera, and HP calculators (they could graph stuff!), DiscMan (also great, but not as revolutionary as the WalkMan).

The Second Age

Definition: In a nutshell: USB connectivity and/or card reader integration. Slightly more detailed: the Second Age of gadgets is about products that were able to connect and/or share data with a computer (but did not include WiFi) and/or cell phones.  Gadgets started becoming a little more pervasive, a little more mainstream, a lot more pop culture. In addition to the gadgets themselves, the category of gadget accessories really began to boom (chargers, carrying case, rechargeable batteries, etc).  This was also the dawn of the gadget blogs. I asked Peter Rojas, founder of Gizmodo, if he could recall why he launched the site: “It was an experiment, something Nick and I started almost by accident.  I don’t think either of us thought blogging would become as big as it did. People are a LOT more interested in gadgets now than when I started Gizmodo in 2002 – it’s become part of pop culture.”

Timeframe: late 1990s to mid-2000’s.  Obviously there were definitely earlier cell phones and we still have completely disconnected gadgets coming to market today, but this is still a fairly definable time.  Interesting, I referred to this timeframe in another “look back” kind of post last year.

Defining gadget: tough call, but it’s the iPod. No other device was so utterly perfect at the concept of end-to-end interaction between the device and the computer.

Memorable gadgets: TiVo, Motorola StarTac and RAZR, PalmPilot and Palm V, Sony PlayStation, Rio mp3 players (especially the Karma), Casio Exilim and Sony U10/U20 digital cameras, Creative Nomad Jukebox, Garmin Nuvi.

The Third Age

Definition: Internet access and connectivity. Devices had either built-in Internet access, or some hybrid method of interacting with the Internet to share content, data, or services.  In many cases Third Age devices are simple evolutions to their predecessors, but some innovated distinctly enough so that there’s no blurry lines.  Just as the USB-only devices evolved to a point of wacky ideas, we’ve already seen the same thing begin to occur in the current era.

Timeframe: mid-2000’s to 2010.

Defining gadget: This is a debatable call, but I’m going to go with the BlackBerry. It truly ushered in the notion of a converged device with phone and Internet access, and was the major game changer of usage behaviors with regards to mobile devices.  Obviously the iPhone has had its own impact, but one could argue that (1) the BlackBerry is a clear success, and (2) the iPhone might never have come out without it.

Memorable gadgets: iPhone (see, it’s there!), Xbox 360, Harmony 880 remote, Slingbox (disclosure: I built it, so I’m biased, but I think it belongs on the list!), Sonos (disclosure: I have worked with Sonos in the past, but again, I think it’s hard to argue that any other product has so well integrated the Internet and personal media and home gadgets), Eye-Fi (like it or don’t, but it certainly opened new concepts), the Flip, the Kindle. Oh, and of course the Twitterpeek (just kidding).

The Fourth Age

Regardless of the iSlate, we are at the brink of a new generation of gadgets that utterly change the way we think of technology and mobility. Internet access and data synchronization/sharing will be considered ubiquitous and pervasive across new devices.  I consider gadgets like the FitBit right on the fringe of what I’m talking about – designed for a connected life, but don’t focus on a typical way of being used. My expectations for what I’m calling the Fourth Age of gadgets center around three major changes and improvements in displays, inputs, and power.

Displays: I assume we’ll be seeing flexible display surfaces (folding, roll-up, etc) that change the way we physically interact with a device.  The concept of a hard, flat screen (even a touchable one) seems very outdated to me. I think the real revolutionary tablet will be the first one with some form of flexible display (and my money’s on Apple for making this happen). I also foresee better use of microprojectors to remove the need for an on-board display at all.

Input: Next generation products should have inputs much more interesting than just a keyboard.  Let’s assume the concept of gestures is one good starting point, but it really needs to be taken further than the pinching and scrolling effect.  I’m also anticipating more use of optical recognition (like Natal uses) to simple “watch” the user control a device – gestures are even more interesting when you don’t have to touch a screen. Voice recognition and input is basically already here, but yet to be fully put to work (thanks David for that suggestion). Another is more interesting uses of accelerometers and motion sensors, where a gadget is interacted with simply by how you move it around.

Power: I consider batteries, even the most modern Li-Ion ones, one of the key deficiencies in gadget design. Batteries create massive inefficiencies in cost structure, environmental impact, and product usage. As a stopgap solution, I am a fan of the wireless charging concepts, but that’s really just a big bandaid in my opinion. We are right around the corner from making rechargeable fuel cell based devices very feasible. This is a good step, but I’m anticipating some more monumental leaps.  As per my thoughts on flexible displays, I think the materials sciences engineers out there are cooking up some very innovative solutions to make gadgets last longer, weigh less, and be notably cheaper to produce.

For a little sanity check, I asked Josh Topolsky, Editor-in-Chief of Engadget, his opinion:

“I think we’re just starting to scratch the surface of what’s possible in mobile computing (non-laptop, non-traditional computing, that is). Smartphones are in their infancy, tablets are non-existent; what we’ve seen in demos only just begins to show the potential in this space. When manufacturers can add the horsepower and bandwidth needed to those devices without sacrificing battery life or design, our perception of computing will shift dramatically. Multitouch interfaces and UI concepts that involve more than just moving boxes around on a screen will completely upend our ideas about how you interact with the machine; gadgets like the iPhone and Surface have already sparked that fire. In just a few years (say, less than five), I expect that using a laptop or desktop computer will seem quaint, or worse: antiquated.”

Personally, I’m excited about the future.  I’m just ever-so-bored of the current state of gadget affairs.  The iPhone has just sucked the life out of real innovation, and everyone’s playing a pretty boring game of catchup, with the occasional attempt to one-up Apple.  The problem is the giants of CE are acting like big sluggish organizations, and the cost structures have been prohibitive to enable startups to find easy paths to success, with few exceptions to these rules.  Hence why we in the Third Age we have One Phone to Rule Them All.  But 10 years ago we’d have bet on Sony, not Apple, to lead the revolution.  I wonder who will lead us on the road ahead (and if we’ll see it at CES 2010?).

Droid Users Expect Things the Google way: Unsupported and Free!

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There’s an interesting analysis at VentureBeat hypothesizing that Google Checkout is to blame for poor Droid App sales. My theory on why Droid users aren’t purchasing apps is because we (I have an HTC Droid Eris) are simply not trained to spend money on things the way iPhone users are.  While there are a lot of things that can be done to improve the overall Droid Market experience (this warrants it’s own post), I think it’s more of a cultural issue.  Google has trained us all so well to expect everything to be free, that I think this culture extends to the Droid experience.

First, let’s take the opposite perspective, and start with the iPhone.  The iPhone operates in many ways as an extension of the iTunes/iPod experience.  iPod owners have been trained for years to expect to spend $0.99 per “thing”.  It’s actually quite amazing how much Apple has changed the value of a dollar (much as Starbucks has changed the value of three dollars by equating it with a latte).  As users became accustomed to getting something for a buck, the App Store simply ushered in a new category of what you can get for a buck.  This is actually bad for pretty much everyone in every established industry (especially gaming), and I think has created a highly unsustainable economic model (again, a topic for another post, but in a nutshell think “the visible hand” forcing in the price of a dollar).  At the end of the day, the model on the iPhone app store has an average price set at $.99, and free is not the “Default” way of getting an app out.

For a second example, I’ll point to all the dumbphones out there. People spend literally billions of dollars with add-ons to these phones.  These come in the form of ringtones, ring-back tones, wallpapers, and yes, Apps.  On my old Samsung Alias I had purchased several games (including the worst version of Stratego I’ve ever seen), and none of them were a mere $0.99.  Why? First, there’s a walled garden of content, the carriers highly control what apps get to what phones, and for how much.  Second, the carriers are taking a huge piece of that action, so they are highly incentivized to not let apps get cheap. This model is equally unsustainable, as supply is highly regulated and with unregulated options (Droid, iPhone, etc) now on the market, consumers will opt for those alternatives that have both better performance and cheaper apps.

Now, more poignantly, taking a specific look at the Android Market. The user interface is terrible. Searching sucks (especially considering it’s powered by Google of all people!). There’s no control whatsoever as to which apps get in. Apps are known to crash your phone. Further, there’s only a fraction of “big name” publishers involved. There’s no clarity as to how you actually buy something. And with the fracturing of Android as a platform, not all apps are even guaranteed to run on a given phone! It’s as if the entire experience was “in beta”, only nobody’s overseeing the process.

So now onto Google and Free Stuff.  On the Internet, most things are free. Even really really good things, like real-time traffic maps, multiplayer gaming, web site traffic statistics and analysis, email, etc.  While I view companies such as Yahoo and Wired as the pioneers in delivering consumers free things that they really ought to have paid for, Google is the all time world champion at making valuable things valueless.  So what happens when Team Free delivers a phone with an App Store? It becomes the Free App Store.

Now I trust that you don’t exactly need to be Michelangelo to paint the above picture.  Combine the backlash against the appearance of “unjust” economics around paid-for models with the poor experience of buying an app (which may or may not work) with a huge proponent of making everything free, and you’ve got the Droid Market as it stands today.  And I don’t see any “big picture” stuff that’s going to change this anytime soon.

LG W53 "smart monitor" review (and a giveaway)

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I’ve spent a few weeks months playing with the 23″ LG W53 “SMART monitor”, and in a nutshell, it’s a darn fine unit (full unit acquisition disclosure at the bottom of the review).  When I first got it I had already been using a cheapo generic 23″ as an extension for my MacBook, so I really had a good way to do a side-by-side comparison.  I found the colors more vivid on the LG, the UI for controlling the monitor was more pleasant to use, and it simply looked a lot nicer on my desk.

As a disclaimer, I am by no means an expert at picture quality – with regards to how it appeared, this is purely a layman’s perspective.  My generic display had a bit of a dull-looking finish to colors, whereas bright colors on the LG seemed much more vivid.  I did try to set the default settings to appear similar (contrast, tint, etc), and watched a variety of content from movie trailers to simple desktop apps. There was also a “Cinema Mode” which looked good as well. The LG won hands-down, but in order to not sound all gushy about it, it wasn’t exactly a VCR-to-HDTV kind of difference in picture.  But if I had to choose, I’d choose the LG.

In contrast to picture quality, I actually do know a thing or two about user interface design (maybe even three), and considering how terrible most TV/monitor menuing systems are, the LG sports a nice touch.  Buttons & on-screen controls line up well and make sense.  Also, they have a little motion sensor so as your hand approaches the buttons, they light up – this might sound frivolous, but for those of us who like to keep as few extra lights on/visible as possible, it’s definitely a plus.

Lastly, the unit’s finish was much better than most of the other monitors I’ve seen at similar price points. While I’m not personally a huge fit-and-finish person, I do appreciate it looking a tad more professional on my desk.  This probably wouldn’t sell me on the unit either way, but if you are narrowing down amongst multiple options, having something look nice sure doesn’t hurt.  I actually ended up purchasing a 37″ LCD from LG for my home in large part due to the “high end feel” of their displays.  In summary, if you need a new/additional monitor, don’t want to break the bank, and want something that looks and feels good, I’d take a peek at the LG (on Amazon for ~$230).

Disclosure

I did not purchase the 23″ monitor, it was sent to me by LG, and I am permitted to keep it.  There were no stipulations, payments, or other parameters on the unit.

Now for the giveaway!

In addition to the unit for my desk, the gang at LG gave me one to give to the readers.  I’ve decided to use this as an opportunity to learn a bit more about who reads the blog.  If you are interested in winning the free monitor, just fill out my little survey between now and 12/31/09.  I’ll pick a winner randomly (note: you must live in the USA to win).

Note: the contest is over, the winner has been picked.  Thanks for your participation!

Let the blogging recommence

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Between the family & kids, the job(s), the venture(s), and everything else, I’ve let blogging slip.  For shame.  I’ve been sitting on a few different reviews and other pieces, all 80% written, for weeks and weeks now.  For shame.

But no longer!

And now, in beautiful non-sequitur format, here’s a montage I put together of all the times in the show Arrested Development where they do the “her?” gag. 

Let the great experiment begin!!

How-to: Figure Out What Twitter Lists You (or someone else!!!) Are In

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Twitter Lists are all the rage. The shiny new object. The hot new thing.  For at least the next day or so… They’re a practical way to manage people you follow, and, of course, yet another mechanism to drive one’s ego and other forms of self-indulgence.  Especially since they aren’t even open to all Twits Twitterers yet.  But supposedly everyone’ll have access soon enough.  So let’s assume that by reading this post, you have access to the Twitter lists feature.  Not sure?  Go to Twitter.com, log in, and look for “lists” on the right of your screen.  Can’t find it? No lists for you!

I logged in today and found I’ve been added to TEN (10) lists!  Yay for me!  Is 10 good? I have no clue.  I’ll give it a resounding maybe.  But they like me, they really really like me.

The cool thing is, lists are public and totally fair game.  So not only can you easily follow anyone’s lists of amazingly cool wonderful people who tweet better than the likes of you or I, but you can also easily find out what lists someone is on.  Why would you want to do this?  Well, other than the obvious game of figuring out who is the coolest kid in school, it could be a great way to find lists of people that are relevant to you/your industry pretty quickly.  Here’s the simple 3 step-process to find out what lists someone is on…

  1. Get the twitter name of the person you want to stalk know more about.  E.g. “jtoeman”.
  2. Cut a hole in the box.
  3. Go to the URL http://twitter.com/that twitter name you got in step 1 above/lists/memberships. For example: http://twitter.com/jtoeman/lists/memberships
  4. Read list.
  5. Think about the words you are reading.
  6. Enjoy a cup of coffee with some freshly steamed milk (organic from sustainably farmed cows if possible).
  7. Watch an episode of Glee.
  8. Try to remember why you were looking up people on Twitter in the first place.
  9. Profit.

Hope this was helpful!

The TwitterPeek is Real? Cmon! No, seriously?

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As a “connected gadget guy” I had heard a few rumors that Peek (the company blissfully unaware that people generally do like BlackBerries, and I don’t much care that it’s on Oprah’s list – the future is smartphones and it isn’t slowing down anytime soon) was coming out with a Twitter-only device. I scoffed at most of these comments, as it sounded so… odd. As I stated about the WikiReader last week, in the mobile space converged devices are hands-down beating out single purpose devices.

But I saw a tweet today claiming it’s real, and I did a quick Amazon search, and lo-and-behold – it’s real! But to think that there’s a market out there for a Twitter-only device is just plain puzzling.

Let me break it down a bit:

  1. Twitter use is, for the most part, technologists and some celebrities.  Both groups have smartphones, primarily iPhones and BlackBerries, which have fairly rich Twitter integration.  Neither will purchase a new device that does Twitter only.
  2. New-to-Twitter people are still getting warm on the concept (well actually mostly they are just dropping the service), and wouldn’t buy a new gadget.
  3. This leaves us to the “if and when Twitter gains mass acceptance” market.  Let’s discuss some more…

I’m still far from sold that Twitter hits mainstream adoption. Granted it’s being splattered across virtually every media one comes across, it’s still lacking in its ability to get widespread use by widespread users.  This is very different from “people know about this Twitter thing because of Oprah”.  Right now, most people who encounter the service do not become regular users.  It’s still quite a few steps away from the masses actually using it.

Which makes it even more steps away from the masses buying a device that does nothing but Tweet.  Sorry to poo-poo on a new gadget (again), but I can’t help but feel that this is yet another case of a lack of market definition prior to building something (costly).

By the way, on the chance/assumption that this is exactly the same Peek as before, only more Twitterized, then at least I feel a little bit better that there wasn’t a crazy amount of time investment to build this thing.  But if that’s the case I can’t understand why they’d turn off the email service?  Too much crazy going on for me here to comprehend.

As a last p.s. – whomever was supposed to launch this thing shouldn’t have let Amazon list it early… Kinda spoils the surprise.

Recovered: The long-lost TechCrunch50 Videos

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AudienceOkay, the title is completely misleading, these were never lost, I merely forgot to actually post them.  Been busy, sorry bout that.

This was my first year going to the TC40/50 event, and I had a pretty good time.  The demopit was full of a lot of interesting (some not-so-much) companies.  I watched a few of the on-stage presentations as well, and it’s clearly a “sign of the times” that there were no Earth-shattering new startups unveiled. No offense intended, there were some very good startups, but I didn’t see anything that I thought was going to change the way I think about the world or technology…

But that said, here are some of the demo’s I had a chance to record:

oDesk:

yourversion:

360desktop:

h2tran:

moonit:

ecycler:

yourtour:

sulantra:

I took a handful of pictures as well, here they are.

WikiReader sounds great. If only…

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If you didn’t hear about it, a device launched this week called the WikiReader. Appropriately named, it’s a small gadget that gives you access to Wikipedia.  It’s $99, has no WiFi (the entire Wikipedia site is effectively downloaded via SD cards), and does nothing but Wiki. Which, as I started to say, sounds great, if only…

There weren’t way too many other ways to do exactly this AND it weren’t another single purpose device! This thing seems like it was dreamed up in a lab by someone back in 2004 and brought to market 5 years later. What’s next, CitySearchEr and PocketEvite? There’s such a radical amount of momentum in favor of multi-purpose devices that I am stunned this got to market. Here’s a list of all the other devices that already do the exact same thing, and more:

  • ANY smartphone. Not just the 40 million iPod touch/iPhones, but all the BlackBerries, Windows Mobile devices, and oodles of Symbian, Android, and other phones.
  • Many dumbphones. It may be a terrible experience, but even my little Samsung Alias has a Web browser and EVDO connectivity.
  • The Kindle.
  • The Sony PSP and Nintendo DS.
  • All netbooks and laptops.

In fact, the only two categories of devices I can even think of that do NOT have Wikipedia access (the real kind, through the Internet) are most GPS units and the misbegotten Peek. Neither of which are exactly the industries I’d be betting on either.

So how about analysis from another perspective – potential market. By the way, since I managed to anger the entire tablet community with a recent post (all dozen of you! hah, i kid, i kid!!), please note that when I say “no market potential” what I *actually* mean is “extremely slim” but that just sounds silly if you repeat it often enough..

  • College Students – nope. They all have or want iPhones and/or laptops. At any time when they’d need such a device, they have another device that will do the same thing. And it’s just not sexy enough to win for materialistic/emotional appeal.
  • High school students – nope, see above.
  • Travelers – nope. They rent GPS devices and have phones.
  • Businessmen – what? come on.
  • Mommies – per the wife: “and why do i need that??”
  • Reality show contestants, zookeepers, and carnies – hmmm

For my final point on this topic, if i consider the $99 for a WikiReader vs $199 for the “small” iPod Touch, it’s basically a no-brainer.  While one could argue the Touch is 2x the price, the reality is those who are dealing with the discretionary income to buy an portable Wikipedia device are barely, if at all, impacted by its price point.

I’m sorry to be such “a hater” on the product, and recognize that there are a bunch of people out there who put a crazy amount of effort in making this happen. I just wish organizations like yours would seek external product marketing counsel before bringing something like this to the market.  Someone, somewhere should have been making a go-nogo decision once you had the concept figured out, but before investing the actual energy in finalizing things.

Our new Disclosures policy (plus some commentary)

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In an interesting move, the FTC has created a seemingly arbitrary set of guidelines that apply to “the bloggers” and “facebooking” and how they disclose paid-for-posts (PDF file with the actual guidelines are here).  I call it arbitrary because, well, it is, but I actually applaud the concept – just not the execution.  I agree with the overall philosophy that there are too many undisclosed “paid-for” content spots happening in the new media landscape. But it’s not just the bloggers. In fact, I’d further state that blogs should be pretty low on the target list.

For example, products are being placed in video games, movies, TV shows, magazines, etc, with little-to-no disclosure to consumers.  When I see a character in a movie using a Dell laptop (or MacBook, etc), I wonder how it got there. I wonder how much screen time it’s “supposed” to have.  I wonder if the camera pauses on the Dell logo if that was in a contract, or an artistic decision.  I shouldn’t have to wonder.  Paid placements should be disclosed somewhere (hint: end credits), for all media, not just blogs, facebook and inevitably tweets. By the way, here’s a handy-dandy guide to paying for placements in a movie.

I think it’s even more relevant for mainstream media than for new/personal media.  In the personal media landscape, say this blog for example, it is the individual’s burden to build trust.  We have to earn it by our content, thoughtfulness, tone, frequency of writing (oops), etc.  The moment we break trust, it becomes hard to rebuild it.  So if a new mommy blog comes into the public eye, then it turns out the whole thing is a paid advertisement by a big brand, with no disclosure, odds are there will be a significant drop/plummet in readership.  This, in turn, will cause the brand to end their association with the blogger (no traffic = no ad spend), thus ending the cycle.

Further, to what end must we carry disclosure? Does a film critic need to state they were given free tickets to the movie?  If so, why? Do people out there really think a free movie ticket is going to change the tone of the review?? Of course not. But what if that critic works for a TV network who carries advertising by a studio (or magazine, etc), when those huge ad dollars are at stake? Maybe it’s more important to disclose the blatant paid relationship and clear conflict of interest there, as opposed to the remote possibility that some movie blogger  got a free bag of popcorn.

I’m much less concerned about pay-to-post/tweet than virtually any other medium. Which is why I really call foul on the FTC policies.  It seems to me like yet another example of the government creating watchdog efforts on individuals and small businesses, but letting the huge players continue to get away with shenanigans. I highly recommend reading Jeff Jarvis’ commentary here (disclosure: I was not paid to include the link to his website. ah, now didn’t that just help make the post flow so much better?).

Accordingly, here are the official LIVEdigitally disclosure policies:

Disclosure Policies

  • At no time in the past, nor at any time in the future will LIVEdigitally accept payment to write a blog post. Unless said payment is sufficient to cover the outstanding balance of Jeremy’s mortgage, in which case we will take the check (and disclose it). Please, big brands, send this check!
  • Due to deep industry connections, it is safe to assume that many of the products reviewed or discussed were given to us for free. That said, at no point in the past nor future is there an exchange of “product for post”.
  • At some times LIVEdigitally will write about clients of Stage Two Consulting, however this is not a part of any business relationship, it is entirely at the discretion of the individual writer. NO incentives whatsoever are associated with these blog posts.  These relationships are always disclosed in the post.
  • At all times we attempt to identify 100% of disclosures where any potential relationship or perceived conflict of interest would arise.  Failing to do so should be considered an oversight, not deliberate, and you are welcome to leave a comment on any post if you’d like clarification.

Why Newspapers are like Creamed Spinach

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When I was a kid we had regular meals at my grandparents’ house. Much of the food was delicious (in my memories if nothing else), with the glaring exception of my grandmother’s creamed spinach. Granted, it wasn’t there with every serving, but when it came, I shuddered. I literally couldn’t stomach it, and played little tricks to “hide” it on the plate, the table, the floor, or, best of all, someone else’s plate.  I hated it, and it’s the only food to stand out in my memory as something so loathed.  But I’m sure everyone has a similar dish, or possibly even an entire food group, they disliked when they were children.

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the demise/impending demise of newspapers (an event some people seem almost giddy about), and I’ve come to realize that it does far more than sadden me, I find it pretty scary.  You see, the one thing a newspaper did unique to all other news media is it effectively “pushed” stories on you, like it or not. Sure you can turn the page or even a whole section, but the process of reading the format necessitated people reading content they would not otherwise choose to read.

unbalanced-newsOnline readers and aggregation services do a good job at pulling together the content sources an individual selects, but they do nothing to deliver unasked for content. This is a problem.  As people are becoming increasingly dependent on these tools, they are becoming increasingly resistant to consume any content which does not appropriately hit their filter.  Further, the ability to simply click click click away makes it all-too easy that readers will abandon content mid-stride (how many readers did I lose in that sentence alone).

Analogy time!  Giving people the ability to complete select, filter, control and govern their news streams and sources is like giving children the ability to select the food for their meals. Just as in news people are flocking to gossip rags, trade publications/blogs, and other narrowly filtered selections, children would eat meals consisting of sweets and snacks.  Neither are healthy.  Just as children need their brussel sprouts, cauliflower, spinach, broccoli and other never-selected items, adults need to be exposed to news content other than of their “liking”.

google-news-balancedWe live in an era with unprecedented access to information, yet at a time when people are considered less informed than in recent generations.  And to be clear, this problem is spanning multiple generations (not just the youth), multiple geographies (yes coastal folks, you’re probably worse off than your “flyover” state cousins), and all other demographics. If I can make one simple recommendation it’s to pick a given news source you might not naturally prefer, on a topic (hint: international news) you might not always care about, and insert it into your news streams.  I may not have liked that creamed spinach my grandmother made, but thankfully my parents had enough good sense to make sure a few bites of it did not get hidden under the tablecloth.

Signs You Live in the Silicon Valley Echochamber

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Your home page is one of: TechMeme, Yhacker news, Friendfeed.

You debate the merits of various URL shorteners.

Hearing that teenagers think Twitter is stupid, yet they send ~500 texts per day is somehow disconcerting to you, and challenges some core beliefs you have about the world.

You (a) have a tag cloud on your blog and (b) it actively contains any one of: Louis Gray, Scobleizer, Cloud Computing.  (note: it was pointed out to me that this seems like a possible slam on Louis/Robert – it’s not. Having their names in your tag cloud means you write about them a lot as a topic. So unless you are them, it’s echochambery)

You think you are “good at Twitter”.

You believe that writing a blog on a topic for more than 6 months makes someone an expert at that topic.

You think the iPhone sucks and the gPhone rocks in comparison (note: I may not personally own an iPhone, and I may make jokes about it, but even I know it doesn’t suck).

You tell friends or family when someone more popular than you retweets something you wrote (whether they care or not).

You can easily define the difference between the types of posts written on ReadWriteWeb, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, and Mashable.

You are surprised to learn that AOL has over 10 million paying subscribers.

You lament over the failure of the “Semantic” Web.

When you hear the following first names, in your mind they have direct associations with specific individuals: Mike, Jeff, Pete, Erick, Marshall, Rafe, Justine, Brian, Fred, Ron, Louis, Robert, Chad, Veronica, Jeremiah, and Gabe. You might also guess at a Paul, a Dave, a Sarah, and a Chris.  And, of course, a Jeremy.

You believe yourself to be “very” aware of news as it happens. But this is specifically because of Twitter trending topics.

You still say “(subject) two point oh”.

You see absolutely no reason whatsoever not to put all of your personal information into sites like Facebook, Google Health, Mint, Dopplr, or LinkedIn.

You can name one (or multiple) competitors to Twitter.

You (a) have more than 500 twitter followers and (b) know exactly how many you have at this moment (+/- 10 people).

You use terms like “Tweeple”, “Social Graph”, “Real-Time Web”, “Microsyntax”.

You look around very carefully before dissing “industry heavyweights” out loud (though rarely ponder why they are so powerful).

You think Spymaster, KDice, and Tap Tap Revenge are “popular video games”.

You know precisely what Google Wave is.

You know how much FriendFeed and iLike were acquired for, but cannot (without research) answer questions like “how much does the war in Iraq cost US taxpayers?” or “in a nutshell, what is the conflict in Darfur actually about?”.

What we really want out of new operating systems

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With Snow Leopard set to debut tomorrow (except for all my industry friends who already have it that is), I’ve been pondering a lot as to the true value of new/improved operating systems.  In a nutshell for SL it seems to be $30 to improve the overall performance of existing Leopard installations.  That makes sense as a value proposition (for only $30, my $1000 laptop will perform better than it does today? count me in). Windows 7 is coming soon, which seems primed as a substantial improvement over Vista (insert cheap shot here), and again I ponder as to the alignment between market needs and product offerings.

My basic assertion is we’ve reached a plateau in the cycle of improving computer/OS/Internet experiences, and the investment should be more oriented on basic performance and reliability, as well as dramatic improvements in simple ease of use. As a simple assertion, it’s my belief that the average computer user (PC and Mac) is still challenged to perform tasks as “basic” as locating downloaded files, upgrading software, and virtually any kind of networking function.  And for those of you reading and slowly sticking your nose in the air in a mocking fashion, your snobbery does not benefit those who use computers day-in and day-out, and in the long run is costing you time and money.

Here’s my target list of what fixes would help the bulk of computer users today and tomorrow:

  • Expert Mode.
    The steepest challenge in most systems is helping novices while empowering expert users.  When it comes to as big a system as the core OS to a computer, the challenge is close to insurmountable.  As a result, features that many people would want to use are buried into hard-to-find places or unknown keyboard shortcuts (command-shift-3 to screenshot? come on). In the short term, letting a user “flip a switch” to go into expert mode after getting comfortable with basic OS usage could be the easiest way to improve overall usability.  Then, all sorts of helpful tooltips, modal alerts, and more could be used to help new/novice users learn the basics.
  • firefox-downloads-screenshotThe Download – Save – Install sequence.
    Good examples: Firefox extensions and AIR applications.
    Bad examples: everything else.
    I am still stunned at the complexity of most installers, and I’m not even talking about the poorly designed installation wizards.  The number of ZIPs, SITs, DMGs, RARs, and more that sit on desktops and download folders without getting opened is awful and reflects poorly not on users, but on the developers who built these systems.  I get it that we need protection against viruses and malware, but can’t there be a smarter way to deal with this?  Yes we can.
  • Taking Screenshots.
    If making screenshots was as simple for people to use as it should be, my hunch is tech support costs for application developers would drop dramatically.  Instead, it’s a highly buried feature in both Windows and OS X, and it doesn’t look like that’s going away anytime soon.
  • Integrated support for removable storage (semi-permanent vs not).
    There are literally hundreds of millions of removable storage drives, both USB thumb sticks and external hard drives.  Yet almost no basic set of applications have native support for the concept of a “semi-permanent” drive (one that sits on your office desk, for example, but not at home).  Sure most apps can use data on these drives, but it’s always in a semi-dysfunctional manner.  iPhoto, for example, retains thumbnails on the local hard drive, but at no point informs the user that the full resolution image won’t be available until the drive is reconnected.  There should be utter clarity to the user, at all times, as to which files are where, and how to properly manage stuff.  For a follow-up example with iPhoto, I should be able to “move” folders/events to removable drives (as my iPhoto Library is the biggest space consumer on my hard drive), and it should act smartly about it.
  • Browser speed!
    Okay, this is happening in Snow Leopard anyway, but I still wanted to iterate it.  The bulk of time spent on computers is inside the browser these days, so the more the browser can natively be fast, the more productivity we have.
  • File sharing.
    I fundamentally believe that Finder and File Explorer still represent the worst aspect of computing. Watching people try to upload photos to sites like Tumblr is such an easy example of the brokenness of it all. The analog of folders/file folders is simply broken, as is the entire concept of what files, shortcuts, applications, etc are. If tied in to my earlier comment on “expert mode”, then the creation of a “novice” file browser could be a huge step forward.  In the interim, the more the OS can help promote local search, the better.
  • photo-82Webcams.
    Everybody (and I use the term fairly literally now) wants to use webcams. Whether its for dating, remote working and productivity (disclosure: Team Apart is a client of Stage Two Consulting), or staying in touch with friends or family, the webcam is probably the most useful accessory I can think of.  So why did it take me over an hour to get my father’s working with Skype? Whatever needs to happen in regards to drivers, API, and other common technology components to make Webcams work all the time needs to happen, and soon.
  • Backups.
    Both Windows and OS X include backup capabilities.  Both are better than they’ve ever been.  Neither are good enough.  If I had to make a wager on impending individualized technology crises, I’d bet that a lot of good people are going to suffer some serious data loss in the coming years.  Backup should be more than just “an option”, but an annoying, pestering reminder that prevents users from doing much without properly configuring backups.  Further, backup should be enabled on a per-file, per-folder, per-application basis (like Time Machine does, but even moreso).
  • Automatic Document Saving & Versioning.
    Technically this really lies within Office applications more than the OS, but it could happen at any level.  The entire concept of “saving” a file is ridiculous.  When you write on a piece of paper, it’s “saved”.  You can opt to discard it, which you’d have to pro-actively do.  If you want to easily retrieve it from a stack of others, you might put some special tag or label on it, or put it in a specific drawer or file cabinet that you have, which you’ve probably organized fairly easily.  Electronic files must work the same way! The entire concept that one could write a document, then accidentally click a single button to destroy hours of work is utterly idiotic. The mere act of typing a new document should save, and every edit you make should also save, and every version of every edit should be retrievable (especially considering apps like Stickies and sites like WordPress do this natively).  Instead of renaming documents, there should simply be a visual timeline and an easy-to-use slider that lets you use Time Machine-like visuals to see prior versions.
  • e-Wallets.
    If the computer guys want to stop the mobile guys and social networking guys from owning my transactions, they need to step it up soon.  A built-in wallet to more rapidly enable e-commerce and microtransactions is a logical evolution of the operating system, not a third-party Website.

Unfortunately there seems to be a bit too much energy into “video desktop backgrounds” instead.  Ah well, one can dream.  Any other “basic wants” people have to improve computing, please share in the comments!