LIVEdigitally

2nd Annual Mobile Rules! Competition

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Well, last year it was called Web2Mobile, but now it’s called Mobile Rules, but it’s the same thing.  FinNode is sponsoring a competition to help promote some innovation in the mobile space.

Got a cool idea for a mobile app (heck, maybe even a non-iPhone one)?  Sign up here.

Personally, I’m hoping to see some intelligent use of social networking and location-based services.  Too many terrible uses of these technologies in the mobile world to-date.  I don’t need something that tells me my friend is ten feet away from me, or shows me the closest gas station when I don’t ask for it.  Bring my calendar into play live.  Figure out the traffic ahead of time for my route and SMS me if I should take a detour on the way somewhere.  Let me know how many parking spaces are available in a garage nearby when I’ve already bought tickets to the movie in a close proximity.  C’mon, make my life better!

Meanwhile, I’ll reserve the next 160 characters for a mobile update:  shutting down now to grab a drink in the bar downstairs.

First Month with a MacBook

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Just to set the tone properly right off the bat, it’s been pretty good.  Overall, the things I like and use outweigh the things that frustrate me.  Fundamentally computing today shouldn’t be a frustrating experience, but it was exactly that which led me from my ~$2500 (top of the line) Sony Vaio SZ460N (don’t buy it!) with Vista (don’t upgrade to it!) to my ~$1000 (bottom of the line) MacBook.

Now all gushiness aside, while I’ve gotten a lot further into learning how to use OS X, I still find myself wanting some things to function different than they do.  More than anything, it’s the use of keyboard shortcuts and menus.  Yes, there are tons of KB shortcuts (this list was very helpful) that you can learn and gain greater control over the environment, but I find them unintuitive and hard to learn.  Shift-Apple-4 followed by the Space Bar is “take screenshot” – how the heck am I supposed to remember that?? Also, I don’t understand why there isn’t a way to use the keyboard to navigate pull-down menus.  Just seems odd that I can’t push “Alt-F” and use the arrows to find whatever I want.

Switching back to some of the things I do like.  Force-Quit is just great.  Sure, it’d be swell if nothing ever crashed (hah) but it does (in fact, so far I’ve had to force quit iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, NeoOffice, Firefox, and Photo Booth).  With only two exceptions, force quitting has worked – perfectly and instantly.  This is leaps and bounds above the equivalent in Windows (XP or Vista).  I also am impressed with the integration between applications.  If I create an album in iPhoto while working with Comic Life (fun!), the album is there without any needed refresh in either app.  Nice.

Most importantly I feel like I am computing with more confidence.  I am confident that my computer is available within 10 seconds of opening the lid; with Vista I wasn’t.  I am confident that I can close the lid and when I open it, I won’t lose data; with Vista I wasn’t. I am confident that my applications will not stop working when I download some third-party plug-in; with Vista I wasn’t.

This confidence is of huge importance to me, since my livelihood is made by using the computer.  Would I prefer to still have the same comforts of XP?  Probably.  I like QuickSilver, but Google Desktop Search was better.  I like iPhoto, but I prefer knowing where all my files actually are on the hard drive.  iMovie is a better experience than Windows Movie Maker, but it actually is less reliable for me (read why).  Office XP was still, hands-down, the best office/productivity package I’ve used, so I’m hoping that ’08 will be similar.

So, a month later, I’m definitely a happy camper.  The transition is still in-progress, but if you are considering making the switch, it’s not quite the uphill battle I thought it would be (some of these helped a lot).  I would not recommend picking up the same model I use, definitely spring for the bigger HDD and RAM (2GB minimum).  I’m happy with my MacBook, though will continue to wait patiently for my MacBook Touch.

New Theme…

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Been meaning to get around to updating the theme for a long long while now.  Trying some new ones out over the next few weeks til I settle in on something.  If anyone has some highly recommended WordPress themes, please let me know!

My Email vs Spam Dilemma

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For the past few years I’ve used the @livedigitally domain as my primary email.  One method of attempting to curb some spam was by using the site name as the target email address, so I have things like flickr@, sonos@, evite@, etc.  Lots of people do this as a simple way of  (1) auto-sorting incoming emails, and more importantly (2) tracking who is selling our information to mailing lists.  It works well for both needs.  I’ve done this so much that I can’t even track the number of emails like these I use…

Unfortunately, some type of spam/zombie system occasionally uses the livedigitally domain to send out thousands of spams to people.  The emails cover the typical range of mortgate rates, university diplomas, increasing the size of a body part (or two), or my personal favorite, helping men get over the painful humiliation of not pleasing her good (bad grammar is de rigeur here).  The spams come from literally hundreds of different phony addresses such as LizasalonStovall@, DarcypitchstoneCaron@, and others like that.

When the emails go out, lots of people get harassed, and I get a smaller amount of bouncebacks, typically 1500-2500 at a time.  I’ve done a bit of Googling on it, can’t find much of an answer as a method to prevent it from happening.  So what I want to do is at least stop getting all the bouncebacks.  The problem is, I can’t figure out any way to do that, other than turning off the catchall email address I use.  Which brings me back to the opening issue, as it requires my use of the catchall account.

Anyone have any recommendations here? I’m open to all sorts of things, including hunting down spammers and hurting them.  A lot.  But I doubt that’ll happen, so anything a bit more realistic for my pacifist self would be nice.

The "right" way to rev gadgets and pricing

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In case you missed it, Apple announced they were discontinuing one iPhone and dropping the price on the second by 33%, all a mere 68 days after launch. Steve Jobs, the absolute master at generating hype, frenzy, and fandom in the consumer technology industry, dismissed this as “that’s technology.” Apparently a few people disagree (three highlights here here and here). I am one of these people.

In “the old days” all the way back in the 80s and even 90s, most consumer electronics products were cycled about once per year. Much like the auto industry, you knew full well if you bought a 100W Sony receiver with Dolby surround, the next year you’d see a 110W Sony receiver with Dolby Digital. That’s technology.

Jump ahead to today. Most consumer electronics devices still get cycled about once a year-ish, and the updates happen at different, but predictable times of the year. Flat panel displays tend to come out over the course of the Summer and early Fall, etc. Computers and mobile phones, on the other hand, are cycled fairly continuously, but again, predictable patterns exist, both in timing and pricing.

In the past two weeks, I now have two examples of companies (Apple now, Canon previously) ignoring any patterns, and simply “walk all over” their existing customers in the sake of bringing new things to market or dropping prices. These are the kinds of habits that create a chink in the armor of customer loyalty. And these chinks are exactly the moments that create opportunities for competitors.

So my advice to these manufacturers, and any others, is to think very carefully about your existing customers and how they will perceive your glorious news. If you bought an iPod nano last Xmas, you probably aren’t too upset about a new one – it’s been a while. If you bought one last month, my hunch is you are pissed. You might not do anything about it today, but the next time you are looking into buying a product, the competition might just have a chance to attract your attention.

I’m not advocating 3-month leaks on new products with pricing and tech specs revealed far too soon. I get that you have inventory that needs sell-off. But establish some patterns, we’ll learn and follow them. New iPod once a year? Great, no problem. iPhone discount just before the Holidays? Makes sense, we’re expecting it. Need to rush a new model to market to stay competitive? Excellent – set up an upgrade program for anyone who has made a purchase in the past 30 days.

The bottom line is easy: treat your existing customers with the respect and gratitude they deserve – they are the ones most responsible for delivering you your next batch of customers.

UPDATE: To the masses, Steve just did another wunderboy move with fresh kool-aid.  Still not drinkable where I come from, but something is better than nothing, right?

Bug Labs – it's about the space between

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Bug Lab’s CEO Peter blogged yesterday about the “pizza tail“. No, it’s not an analysis of the long tail of pizza (featuring combos such as Peach+Anchovies+Potatoes or Corn+Pumpkin+Cinnamon), it’s an interpretation of Chris Anderson’s Long Tail theory applied to the consumer electronics/gadget industry.

I’ve spent the better part of 10 years designing gadgets for different companies, and there’s an unfortunately sad truth about the lack of successful innovation in the consumer electronics industry.  The key word there is “successful” as there are numerous entrants into the space, from Prismiq to Dash, from Presto to TiVo.  TiVo is a success in that it returned a lot of money to its investors and is still afloat numerous years later, albeit on questionable footing.  Prismiq won best in show at CES in 2003, then couldn’t sell enough units to keep the company alive. Dash is pre-launch, with an uphill battle ahead of them (though I *love* the concept), where they are taking on a rather entrenched industry.  Presto launched late last year, and again I feel it’s a good concept, with many barriers to “success”.

The common ground problem these companies all have to face?  Hardware.  It’s expensive with a capital every darn letter in the word!  Expensive to design, expensive to built, expensive to test, expensive to sell, expensive to support, you get the drift by now.

This leaves the field of innovation in hardware rather thin, thus creating Peter’s “pizza tail”.  In fact, the 4 companies I named above are truly variations on existing categories (TiVo=VCR, Prismiq=DVD player without the DVD, Dash=GPS, Presto=Printer).  When people ask me about the gadgets you can build with BUG, I actually prefer to leave the question unanswered.  I have a few ideas of my own, but I think the space between the categories will be defined by the first generation of Bug Labs’ customers.

I look forward to watching engineers, product designers, and entrepreneurs have the ability to innovate in hardware without facing the ridiculous cost and resource strains it takes to start a gadget company.  Until then, I’ll take a slice with Pepperoni+Mushrooms.  Okay, you can throw a little red onions on there too.

I want a WidgetBlocker

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Saw Ryan’s two-part anti-IntelliTXT rant, and I have to say I’m in 100% agreement with him. Now I’m going to go one step further. I want a full-on end-user-configurable WidgetBlocker. Widgets are unquestionably slowing down page loading, so if how about putting the control in my hands? Here’s my note to my blogging friends:

I, for one, don’t much care who your recent readers were, or what you are listening to on Last.FM (don’t take it personally – it’s just not why I visit your blog). If I want to see your photos, I’ll go to Flickr. I don’t need to see the latest cartoon from GapingVoid (though they are hilarious – but I’ll go there when I want to see them). I don’t care how many feedburner subscribers you have. I don’t really mind your most recent microblog/tweet entry, but do you need it to be in a 250px tall box?

For those of you who need to make money of your blog, fine, show the ads, I understand. But if you are just doing it to get an extra $50 bucks a month, maybe you should think about decluttering a little. At the very least, how about just cleaning up the layout enough that you don’t show ads that look like regular content?

There is a reason for services like My.Yahoo, PageFlakes and NetVibes.  Maybe we can shift the widgetworld into letting people publish to each others’ pages, rather than slow down my ability to read your blog.  So, I’ve gone ahead and registered widgetblocker.com.  Anyone want to build the plugin with me?

Google Blog Search helps make spam blogs earn money

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I was writing a new blog post for Bug Labs this morning, and wanted to take a quick scan for any new links to the company.  The first page of results is basically a-ok, until I sorted by date.  On this page, here is a summary of the results I saw:

RSS Watch

Bug Labs fleshes out BUGbase, BUGmodule details

links for 2007-08-29

Bug Labs BUGbase & BUGmodules

Open Source: Bug Labs Website BUGbase and Module Hardware Details

Bug Labs fleshes out BUGbase, BUGmodule details

Bug Labs: Products

Bug Labs fleshes out BUGbase, BUGmodule details

MAKE: Blog: Bug labs – hardware, first look

Quite a Punch

Of the above list, only three are original sources of content (shown italicized). The three references to the “fleshes out..” article all stem from an Engadget post, which did not make the page.  The other repurposed story links either reference MAKE magazine or Gizmodo.

Google may have improved search and found a killer revenue model with AdSense.  But my hunch is they have singlehandedly enabled more spammers than any other company.  The part that bothers me the most is I have no doubt that they could kill off all the spam blogs from their search results (they are fairly smart people over there).  So why do they choose not to do it? My guess is it would affect their bottom line.

I guess I’m starting to feel like the Potter Stewart on this.  I don’t exactly know how to define evil, but I know it when I see it.

A lot of things are broken, isn't it time we go fix them?

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I got into a great chat with Robert Scoble tonight.  We were talking about what’s interesting to blog about.  Covering “news” has gotten a little stale – any big topic that comes up can get dozens of links on TechMeme alone, not to mention the huge host of blogs who don’t get covered there.  I’m not exactly sure where the conversation train started, but it took us to an interesting spot, which I’ll try to summarize as best as I can.

My advice to Robert was that he should use his influential position within the technology industry to tackle some important topics, things that can actually make a big difference out there.  Here are a few of the topics I suggested:

  • Copyright legislation.  Pick up a copy of Lessig’s “Free Culture”.  If you can finish it and not be utterly convinced that something’s gone wrong in the media and content industries, I’d be stunned.  Simplest food for thought – why is it that the punishment for downloading 10 tracks is assessed at $1.5 million, when shoplifting a 10-track CD is penalized by $1500?  If someone reading this is a person of influence, please help draw attention to this issue, and let’s get Congress (we elect and pay them, if you recall) to put the power back in the hands of the people, and tell the big-5 media companies they need to evolve their business models.
  • Green tech.  I have a 3-month old, and I become more and more aware every day that he will inherit a world in peril.  I don’t have to wear hemp clothing to recognize that we have a looming resource, energy, and water crisis.  Maybe not the next 10-20 years, but most definitely the next 20-50 years.  Why isn’t the technology industry actively pushing to fix things from their side, rather than build endless streams of servers to provide endless streams of content distractions?  Again, how about we call on our government to put power consumption constraints on server farms at a corporate level?  How about we put a simple law in place that would require building owners to use motion detectors on all office building lights after 7pm?  Not hard to do, no massive cost structure, and easily tangible benefits.
  • Privacy Policies. How about holding companies and individuals truly responsible for selling private information to listmongers?  Better yet, actually hold ISPs responsible for spam that comes through their networks?  If we made the fines big enough and put the proper deterrents in place, change would happen (and fast).  I firmly believe we have built more than enough technology to enable better privacy filters, decrease (or even eliminate) most spam, properly block phishing attacks, and cut way down on identity theft online.  But nobody is really incensed to make these things happen.
  • Good old fashioned volunteering.  I also suggested that the next photowalks start or end at a soup kitchen, or a habitat for humanity.  When I get back from Montreal next month, my consulting company will begin taking on non-profit organizations and helping with their marketing strategy and outreach.  I’d love to encourage others to consider their skills and how they can apply them to those who are truly in need.  Not sure how?  Then pick up a hammer and help build a house, or read a book to a kid, or find any other opportunity that interests you – who knows, you might even live longer because you did.

Robert asked why I never blog about these things. Maybe a simple question like that is all it takes to motivate someone into a little more action.

Canon, can you please slow it down?

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Let me preface by saying – I really love Canon’s ELPH digital cameras. I’ve used many competitors’ models, and have yet to find any reason to recommend any other brand higher. Yes, Fuji has some better low-light processing, and yes Pentax has Divx video built-in, but for the masses, Canon just seems to build winner after winner.

But now they are doing too much of it, and I think it’s to the point of potential backlash. My rationale here is that they are making enthusiasts and evangelists like myself frustrated by having continuously out-of-date products. I purchased the Canon SD850is the day it was released, 9 weeks ago. Today it became obsolete. It’s too much, and now when I recommend Canon’s cameras, I always add a little disclaimer pointing out their rapid release cycles.

As a secondary, but important, issue, Canon’s numbering schema became really bizarre this year. The SD line was progressing fairly “normally”, from 100 to 110, to 200, to 300, and so on. Then there was the 700is and 800is, followed by the 750, 850is, 900, and 1000. Today they introduced the 870is and 950is. Here’s the catch – the 1000 is a distinctly inferior model to the 950is, and that’s just my example inconsistency (note to consumers: only buy the “is” line, the rest aren’t worth it).

In my opinion, Canon needs to pull this process together a bit. Here are my specific recommendations:

  • No more than 2 model cycles per year, preferably less. The more you cycle your models, the more you upset your “friendly customers” and the more FUD you create. By having too many opportunities to buy, you are also creating opportunities for competition. It’s not easy to remain top dog forever.
  • Create some kind of upgrade program. I would probably shell out another $50 or so to get the 870is form my 850is. Further, while this might sound hard logistically, it really isn’t that much work, especially if you partner up with some online companies that have the infrastructure. Like, say, eBay or Amazon.
  • Fix the ELPH numbering scheme.  Break up the is and non-is lines, start the numbers over, add a letter to the models, and be consistent.  Whether we all like it or not “higher” model numbers always imply newer/better products.

That’s it folks – again, I still like the products, but this process is at that precipitous edge of becoming frustrating and a bad experience.  Nobody likes to have a $400 item go from “newest” to “not so new” inside of the same season!  I hope my friends at Canon read this and take away something useful from it.

First Week with a MacBook

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Back in high school and college, the provided computers were all Macs, but I always had PCs at home – most of which I built myself. After leaving school I picked up a Toshiba Tecra laptop, and have stuck with Windows-based laptops ever since. I’d put myself into the “power user” territory, with Windows experience dating back to my first installation of 3.0, from floppies. Over that time my feelings about Macs have waxed and waned, but I was always one of those guys who couldn’t ever picture myself switching, not for any negative reason, just that PCs worked for me.

Along came Sony with their VGN-SZ460N Vaio laptop, powered by (and I use the term loosely) Microsoft Vista, Business Edition. In 10 short weeks, that combination has dropped about $1100 squarely into Apple’s hands, and unless some phenomenal shift occurs, I don’t see myself switching back anytime soon (and I’m not the only one). Granted, it’s only a single week, and no, I’m not gushingly in love with OS X or anything, but I am so much less frustrated than I was with the Vaio.

Let’s start on the negatives, the things I (so far) don’t like about the MacBook/OS X:

  • Terribly inconsistent and lacking keyboard shortcuts. I was so used to Alt-F, N for “new …” and there’s no equivalent here. Further, every different app uses a different combination of alt-arrow, ctrl-arrow, apple-arrow to skip words left/right. My friend Michael Gartenberg pointed me to this article on how mouse usage is faster than keyboard shortcuts, but it’s almost twenty years old now and I don’t think it’s accounting for the expertise one gains after 10+ years of doing anything.
  • No hard drive activity light. I’m a big multitasker, and often launch a few applications simultaneously, and however sluggish Vista might be, the HDD light is a handy way to know how busy the computer is. I’ve often found myself wondering if the Mac is doing something, idle, etc.
  • Can’t open the screen to 180 degrees. However terrible (and its terrible) the Vaio may be, it can be opened such that the screen is totally flat. I’m sure the designers had a reason – I just don’t know what it is.
  • Proprietary video connectors and no card readers. What the heck is this silly mini-DVI thing, and where’s an SD slot?
  • Files, folders, and applications. When I install something, why do I have to drag and drop it into Applications? How come ‘save as’ requires two different pull-downs to pick a location to save a file? It just seems like the objective to simplify has created extra burden for those of us who really want an organized file system.
  • Missing NTFS integration. This seems like a bit of a “childish” development decision, OS X is way too incompatible with the Windows file system. I hooked up my Drobo and my Seagate FreeagentGo drives, and neither worked well (if at all). Considering how much Apple is trying to get people to switch (successfully) you’d think they’d make this work properly.
  • Right click? I know it’s there, but c’mon…
  • I also don’t like the iCal/Mail/”meh” combo, but that’s really a comparison of Office, so I’ll hold off for now.

Now for the things I do like:

  • Sleep/resume. Oh my, is this impressive. In fact, coming out of sleep mode is so fast and works so well, the guys in Redmond should be utterly ashamed at how bad a job Vista does. It’s actually a very empowering feeling, knowing that if I need something off the computer, I can simply open it up, and in a few seconds, there it is. All computing should be this elegant and work this reliably.
  • Force quitting really quits. No, OS X is not immune to crashes, I’ve seen quite a few already. But, when I force quit something, it actually goes away, and does it instantly. When I relaunch it, the application loads fresh. Vista again, doesn’t even come close in this regards.
  • Parallels. Despite some weird glitch that had me waste about 4 hours on the first install, it’s otherwise one of the most impressive pieces of software I’ve ever used, on any computer, ever. It’s so well integrated I am surprised it was built by a third-party, and am surprised that Apple hasn’t bought em (maybe MS should!).
  • Battery life and performance. As far as I am aware, this ~$1100 MacBook has the same CPU, RAM, and screensize as my $2500 Vaio, yet it appears to run about 25% faster for multitasking or running comparable applications. The battery is 45-90 minutes longer (easily) and in standby it’s not even comparable. Last weekend I went away camping, and put both into sleep mode at the same time. When I got home, the Mac had about 3 hrs of juice left, the Vaio had shut itself down into Hibernate after having 5% battery life left.

That’s where I am so far. I haven’t really tried iLife or iWork yet at all. I’ve spent most of the time in transition and getting comfortable with the new interfaces. I’m still “uncomfortable” with a lot of the OS X nuances. But I am using a computer that I’d call reliable, and that alone is worth the $1500 LESS I had to spend on the MacBook than I did on the Sony. Check please!