The Brooks Review

Category: Articles

  • Perspective: A Flash Reality Check

    When the iPhone was launched it was heavily criticized for not including the ability to play Adobe’s Flash content, fast forward 3 years now and the iPhone is facing the same criticisms. Does it really matter if a mobile device can play flash, does it even really matter if a computer can play flash? I think you will be surprised to learn that, no for the most part it doesn’t matter, and in the coming months it will matter even less.

    2007 the iPhone was launched, it was also the day that Flash started to fade into irrelevance. A bold statement, but am I wrong? Most major video streaming sites (exception to Hulu) now serve their Flash video to iPhones using different encoding methods (even some Porn sites do this now – so I hear), or with a custom app (ABC, YouTube). That leaves just a few types of websites that have not optimized for non-flash devices, mainly Clothing, Games and Restaurants.

    I think we can all agree with the advent of UrbanSpoon we don’t need to frequent restaurant websites, and we can get by just fine without some clothing sites on our non-flash devices. That just leaves one major type of element that you cannot view on these non-flash devices: slideshows. Most photographers are still using Flash based slideshows, as they are the easiest for them to build.

    So without flash here is what you truly cannot do:
    – Watch Hulu (which you can’t do even with Flash on mobile devices)
    – Shop at some clothing retailers
    – View slideshows that are made in flash
    Also
    – See any punch the monkey ads
    – Play Flash Games

    Are you beginning to see why I don’t see the importance of Flash?

    If you are like many of my friends and are annoyingly using the excuse that you are waiting for Flash on the iPhone before you buy one do a little test on your computer. There are flash blocking plugins for most web browsers (or you can just disable Flash in the browser), get one and use it for a week. My guess is that other than YouTube you will never miss out on content, and remember you can view YouTube on the iPhone no problem.

    As for the inability to play Flash based games, well the iPhone/iPad have far superior games that can leverage the touch interface. So why you would want to play Flash based games instead is beyond me.

  • Perspective: So You Need a New Computer?

    It used to be that people (family & friends mainly) would often ask me what kind of computer I would suggest that they buy, as soon as 2 years ago buying a computer was a mystery to most people. In the past year I think I have only been asked once and that scares me. The difference is not that people don’t know more about computers (most people know as little as they did when they bought their first computer) the difference is that the price of buying computers has become so low that people are willing to take the chance on a computer because the price is so low (not just talking about Net books here).

    This has me scared – too many people I care about are using crap computers because they didn’t want to listen to me recommending a computer that may be more expensive than what they saw at Costco. So I thought I would write a quick tip list of what to look for and buy when you are getting a new computer.

    The List

    1. Spend as much money as you can afford to spend, and plan on using the computer for 3 years, before you have to replace it. This goes for both Mac and Windows. It used to be common to spend $3,000 on a laptop (circa 2002), now people are buying net books for $399. What they are don’t realize is that price they are paying when they have to upgrade. If you buy a computer on Woot! say a 17” HP that always seem to pop up on the site for around $799, you are buying a computer that is probably already a year old (at least) and usually refurbished. This is a great way to go if you can’t afford anything else, but not if you plan on relying on the computer for work or school, or keeping it past a year or two. Buying the most computer for your buck is of critical importance from the get go, it will make the computer last you as long as possible.
    2. Buy for the screen and processor, forget about the RAM and HD space. I know this sounds silly, but get the fastest processor with the nicest screen you can afford. The RAM and HD can be upgraded later at a cheaper price by your kid, or someone you know that is “into computers” (many tutorials online). You will probably find that you won’t need to upgrade the HD (harder of the two to accomplish) and that for $200 you can max out the RAM and do it yourself in 10 minutes (most laptops, excluding many Macs).
    3. Mac or PC. That is a huge debate and depending on who you ask you are going to and entirely different answer. I will make it simple. There are only 3 reasons to buy a PC at this time. Reason 1: You are a serious video gamer. Reason 2: you or your company has software that has no Mac counterpart and you must run this software on this computer. Reason 3: you have all the latest and greatest Office programs already purchased for the PC (meaning you have Office 2007 for Windows). Unless you meet one or more of those criteria (and really #3 is a stretch) then there truly is no reason to buy anything other than a Mac. If you are buying this as someones first computer it is a no brainer. Macs may look more expense but I have 5 year old Macs that I still use daily – these computers last. In addition they come with all the software you really need out of the box, no worries of viruses. You can learn to use one in less than a day (tested this theory on my 70+ year old grandfather).
    4. Size is the next important factor, should you go laptop or desktop? This is personal choice, but for 90% of the people out there a Laptop will be your best choice with an iMac your second best. If you plan on leaving it on a desk 90% of the time get the biggest screen you can afford. Otherwise by the smallest computer that you think you will be able to use (no smaller that 13”).

    That is it, my simple buyers guide for May 21, 2010.

  • Perspective: Privacy on the Web

    Take a look at most any tech blog over the past month, or the technology section of most major news outlets – one thing is clear privacy on the Internet is a huge problem right now. Facebook, MySpace, and Google have all ran into privacy concerns this month (multiple times for some) – but should this really surprise us? The short answer is no, we should not be surprised – the truth is much more complex than that.

    One thing that we have to remember is that there is no such thing as free. We all use Google Maps, Gmail, Google Search and so on everyday – for free. But it really is not free, Google did not become a billion dollar behemoth by working for free, nor should it. However, like with Facebook and MySpace, Google has decided that its best business model is not to charge users, rather to serve ads and to charge other companies (companies that eventually charge consumers).

    So what does this type of business model have to do with privacy? A lot actually, advertisers know that they are wasting money serving the same ad for the same product to everyone. To spend their money more effectively they need better data on their customers, the more information advertisers have the better job they can do to get you to spend money on their products – more importantly the more data you can give them, the more money they are willing to spend on that data.

    Facebook, MySpace and Google have a lot of data on you. A lot. That should scare everyone, because all that data they have on you (searches, links clicked, stuff shared with friends, ages, income, jobs, where you live) is priceless to advertisers. These companies are faced with making the tough call of how much data and what data they should not be handing over to advertisers.

    For the most part it is a fair trade-off Google Search is the best out there, and what do I really care if they share my search history with advertising companies (so long as they don’t link it to my name) who really cares. The line begins to be crossed when they start sharing data that allows you to be targeted individually and not as a subset. (whereby ‘subset’ I mean to be targeted as say a 27 year old male living in Seattle, instead of a 27 year old male living in Seattle named Ben Brooks). When companies start giving out this type of data is when their users start to get uncomfortable.

    So where then should we expect – demand – privacy on the internet? When you pay for it. Unless you are paying for the service you are using, it is a safe bet that in some way, shape or form your privacy has been compromised. Don’t take this to mean that your identity has been stolen, but rather that the information you are sharing is being shared with quite a lot of people.

    Let’s think about this another way. Right now Facebook has ben lambasted by most of the world for all the privacy issues that are popping up with the site. However, the site is free for all users and makes money off of advertising, the better job Facebook can do with the advertising the more money they make – make no mistake it is money that they want, not you to be happy (unless that leads to more money, which it usually does). Now users are leaving in droves because Facebook in their opinion has gone too far with compromising their privacy. So if Facebook were to offer a paid service, say $5 a month for a completely secure, and private account – no ads – would you be willing to pay?

    What is the price of your privacy?

    It is certainly worth the $5 a month to me, but is it to the rest of the world? I think not, and Facebook I would suspect already knows this.

    The scariest part about privacy issues on the Internet is that there is a growing indifference towards it with most users. People simply don’t care, whether they think it doesn’t matter, or they just don’t realize what it all means, people don’t care about their privacy as much as they should.

    Take this weekend to start caring about privacy, for the same reason that you don’t tell strangers your private info when asked on the city bus, you should stop telling the casual net user as well.

  • Perspective: We Need a Social Aggregator – of Sorts

    With my recent decision to quit Facebook still fresh on my mind, and my growing interest in what Diaspora is doing, I thought I would write about my thoughts on the social networking landscape. I was pretty slow to the party with Facebook, and early to MySpace, which shows you just how wrong I was.

    I have never used either service extensively, meaning I mostly use those services to contact old friends (I usually just grab their email and email them) and to look at pictures of people and what they did, or are doing. I have never used it to regularly post updates, I used to post pictures until Facebook decided that they get the rights to them.

    So now that I am a short time away from leaving Facebook (June 13th, 2010), the question for me now becomes: What do I want from a social network – in an ideal world?

    What I don’t Want

    I have found that they best way to tackle the problem of what you do want, is to start by figuring out what you don’t want.

    I don’t want…

      …to be poked.
      …to have easter eggs hidden on my wall.
      …to be assassinated.
      …to feel obligated to ‘friend’ someone.
      …to not be able to know who can see my information.

    So that is a pretty basic look at what I don’t want. So what do I want?

    What I Want

    I want…

      …to be in control of every aspect of privacy.
      …to be in charge of my own data if I so choose.
      …to be in charge of my own design, though not like MySpace.
      …to be free.

    How to Do It

    This is the real trick, I would like to see something super simple, like Tumblr. Imagine you create a new profile with this new service, we will call it servicename, and you can create a profile at yourname.servicename.com, or you can buy a domain directly from servicename, or add one you already have – much like how Tumblr currently works.

    Non-tech users then have a simple site with all the features at yourname.servicename.com, more advanced users have yourname.com that is hosted by servicename, and expert users have yourname.com hosted on their own servers. Therefore you can keep all your own data on your own server if you want – yet be linked into the entire network of servicename.

    The service then becomes a hybrid Tumblr/Wordpress type system, super easy to setup and yet vastly powerful. This system would forgo building its own update system and photo hosting, instead it would pull this data from sites of your choosing, such as:

    • Blogs
    • Twitter
    • Flickr
    • Picassa
    • Digg

    All we are doing is aggregating the data, presenting it nicely and cleanly. And allowing people that we tell the service are our friends to be able to find the data. We then setup a system whereby it makes it easier for classmates and coworkers to find each other, simply by looking at past schooling attendance and employer data, pulling the URLs and seeing if they match. If the privacy settings allow you to be searched by strangers this way, then you pop up.

    Sounds pretty simple right? It probably isn’t but I would love to see someone try.

    Also I know about Friendfeed, that is not what I mean. I have changed my personal landing page site to pull this kind of data – it is currently rudimentary and I am still looking for an iPad friendly way of showing the Flickr stuff, but you will get what I am thinking.

  • Perspective: The Challenges Facing Microsoft

    December 2004 marked the date that I ‘threw in the towel’ on using Microsoft as my computing platform. Since that date I have been pushing more and more people towards being Apple converts, and criticizing a company that I – that we – once loved.

    Now before I get into the why and how and future of Microsoft; it is crucial to note my bias. I own Microsoft stock, I have owned stock since around 1999, right before the bubble. I don’t own a lot, and I really don’t play the stock market. Anybody who knows me personally would tell you that I am the last person in the world they think owns Microsoft stock, but in 1999 it was the thing to do. That being said let’s get on with this…

    Microsoft is at a crucial apex right now, they may be passed by Apple in market cap, and they need strong sales from the newest version of Office, and Windows 7 to keep their stock from slipping. After being a staple of the mobile phone industry, they currently offer nothing that competes with the triumvirate of Google, Apple, RIM. The Xbox can’t and won’t support them financially, people are moving small server setups to cloud owned by Linux based systems. A storm is brewing over Redmond, and their CEO Steve Ballmer knows it.

    This is nothing that has not been said a million times over – and it will keep being said until the mighty Microsoft roars again. I have been fortunate to grow up with a computer for most of my life, and have lived in the shadow of Microsoft here in Washington State. As such I have a few ideas of what Microsoft needs to do to right the ship and make themselves relevant once again.

    One

    It is time to scale back Microsoft, they are a huge bureaucracy and this is not a business model that leads to the innovation that they desperately need. I am not advocating massive lay offs and down sizing, the beast needs to be broken up. Microsoft should create teams and groups that work on just one thing. Don’t allow in-fighting, give these teams the power to push their product all the way to release.

    Let’s take the office team, I would break it up by the core products: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.. Give these teams the ability to completely rework the app, from the ground up. There should always be design consistency, but the design needs to be flexible enough that it is similar, but specific to each application.

    The ‘ribbon’ toolbar that Microsoft introduced in the latest version of Office is great for new users, who don’t know how to find commands, but terrible for existing users. Clearly there is a better way, and Microsoft needs to give their designers the leeway to find the better way.

    Two

    Microsoft, now more than ever, needs to define what they do, and what business they are in. Right now, as an outsider looking in at the company, it would seem that Microsoft sells Windows and everything Windows, with a side of Office. They are branding everything they do with the “Windows” moniker. This is a poor approach and they need to look like a well diversified, a non-monopoly, in order to gain back the trust and support of their users.

    Microsoft needs to allow their software to have its own brand, it’s all being made by Microsoft but it is all different. Imagine if Apple followed in Microsoft’s naming scheme: the Mac iPod, Mac iPhone, Mac iPad, Mac iTunes, what a terrible thing that would be. Office, Phone OSes, Xbox are all strong enough to stand on their own if you let them.

    Basically: stop calling everything “Windows XYZ”. Stop now.

    Three

    Innovate, innovate, innovate. The entire tech community was delighted to see the Courier concept, only for Microsoft to kill it off later on, stating it was just a concept. I thought the same thing about the Microsoft Surface with its smaller market size for the $10,000 computing coffee table. However Microsoft actually made the Surface, though I have yet to see one in person and as such am still skeptical about the Surface’s existence.

    Right now, no one can imagine Microsoft being the first to market with something like the iPad, that is a huge problem for Microsoft. People should be looking towards Microsoft wondering how they are going to change computing next, instead of looking towards them wondering what they will copy next.

    Microsoft does not and should not get into the hardware business, they should however push their hardware vendors to be better. The best way to do that is to continue making cool concepts providing the software for them, thus allowing the hardware manufacturers to make great devices that support this software. All this is pretty basic, yet we are not seeing it done (by Microsoft).

    Four

    Pull your head out of the sand, and show some respect.

    Everyone knows and expects Apple and Microsoft to trade jabs with one another, they are for the most part playful – on Apples part. Apple knows that it needs Microsoft’s Office suite to stay viable in business settings (though it is needed less and less each quarter), Microsoft however does not need Apple to stay in business. This has lead to a lot of nasty jabs from Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer.

    Ballmer has stated his hatred for the iPhone on more than one occasion. They were not said in a nice competitive tone, but with disdain.

    It would seem Microsoft spends more time mocking what Apple does, then they do, well, doing anything.

    Time to pull your head out of the sand Ballmer, stop criticizing Apple and start being better than them, you say you can be, now it is time to prove it.

    Shut up or put up.

    Last

    Microsoft needs a visionary, they need their own Steve Jobs. Bill Gates used to be that visionary for the company, now he has moved on to charitable causes and Microsoft is left without that visionary. Ballmer is not this person – he is not the guy to lead the company forward. He is the guy to keep the company treading water (hopefully).

    I don’t know who Microsoft should find to give them a new vision, perhaps it is not just one person, perhaps is it is a group of people. Whatever it may be, one thing is clear, that Microsoft needs to find a new visionary (or visionaries) soon.

  • Review: Booq Tiapan Shadow

    I have lived my life obsessed with finding the right bag. Before I purchased Booq’s Tiapan Shadow I had four different messenger style bags that I used off and on, depending on my mood. I decided that if I was to buy a new bag, then I must sell all of the old bags, leaving me with just one bag. This meant careful research into what I want and need in a bag, one bag.

    The search inevitably lead me back to my favorite bag manufacturer (Booq) where I purchased the Tiapan Shadow M. Before I get to the actual review of the bag, I want to share what my criteria were for a new bag.

    1. Small: My biggest complaints with all the bags I had at the time was their size, they were large bags. They were thick and did not fit my new found love for less, less of everything.
    2. Padding: I had three Booq bags and one Tumi, all of them had average protection for my Macbook pro, but all required an extra sleeve on it from RadTech to protect against scratches. I wanted a bag that was padded, that I could drop. I also wanted a bag that meant I could just keep my Macbook Pro in it, without the RadTech sleeve.
    3. iPad: With the iPad in my life I no longer needed a bag that could accommodate a Macbook Pro charger, but I did need a bag that could carry the iPad in its own compartment, while keeping it protected.
    4. Style: I wanted a bag that did not look like crap, that looked like thought had been applied to the design of the bag, yet I didn’t want anything that was non-traditional.

    I used these four criterion to judge each bag that I looked at, and I looked at a lot.

    Day 1: The Tiapan Arrives

    When the Tiapan arrived at my place I had already sold two of my bags, and the last two were waiting to be shipped out. I dove right in and looked through all the areas figuring out where stuff would fit. In the end I found a spot for everything that I really need and got rid of all the excess. From this stand point the bag is a success.

    I head to work and quickly realize that my water bottle does not fit in this bag, I had never considered this. Luckily I drive, and it is not that hard to carry the water bottle in my hands. By the time I get home I am amazed by just how much smaller this bag is than the ones I was using.

    End of Week #1

    Since getting the iPad I have found that my laptop rarely leaves my office during the day (whereas before if I knew I would be gone for more than an hour it came with). Because I was leaving my laptop I found that I rarely took the old bags with me, they simply seemed like over kill. Now with the small size of the Tiapan, I find that I prefer tossing the iPad into it instead of hand carrying it.

    I love the design of this bag, the smoothness of not having a handle on top, combined with the fact that there is a hidden hand hold sewn in really makes me smile. The oversized shoulder pad is excellent as is the seatbelt nylon strap. But the real gem of this bag is the blush interior of the laptop compartment, complimented by some of the best padding I have seen in a bag to date. The iPad fits in the bag perfectly, as does everything else I need.

    Conclusion

    Overall this bag is excellent, especially considering the price tag of $129 (at this writing). I have always been a huge fan of of the bags that Booq makes and the Tiapan is no exception. The Macbook Pro compartment fits my Macbook Pro better than any bag I have seen, it is very snug, yet very easy to take the computer in an out. The bag is small, so if you feel the need to carry a lot with you, then this bag is not for you.

    I look forward to traveling with this bag, it won’t take up a lot of room under the seat in front of me. Which is of crucial importance when you are 6’3”.

  • My Thoughts on How to Save the News

    I recently posted about an article for The Atlantic that talked about how Google is working closely with traditional media outlets (newspapers mainly) to help them survive and become profitable again. This is a very noble cause, but one I am not sure Google alone can solve.

    Why Google Will Struggle

    Google is full of people much smarter than I, however, as evident in their products, they are not on the fore-front of design. Just take a look at their Google News page if you don’t believe me (it looks like a sideways box of Crayons). Google has a ton of smart engineers, and it would seem that design gets pushed to the back burner most of the time.

    For instance which would you rather use:

    Google Reader as presented by Google, or Google Reader as presented by HelvetiReader?

    If you are me the latter is the only way to go, this is the same product with some time and thought put into the look and feel. Saving newspapers is about far more than just monetizing the model, but making it a place the readers want to go to read. It is about balancing ads, design, and readability with the content.

    Whether or not a reader thinks they care about looks, does not matter, because the human eye always cares. We have a natural distaste for products that look like crap, and are drawn towards those that please us visually. One reason people prefer to read magazine articles in a magazine instead of on the web is because most of the time the website looks crappy in comparison to the magazine. In order to move people to prefer the web, content providers need to make their sites more attractive.

    Dynamic Ads

    Let’s take the New York Times homepage as our example, they are using 6-columns (grids) to align their content. Some ads span two columns and some just one. Something that was mentioned by Google was creating what they called dynamic ads, and I rather like the idea of this.

    Ads change in size, automatically rescaling content based on the reader (more on this in a bit) and the amount of money the advertisers are willing to pay. So if an advertiser 1 wanted to have a large ad, perhaps it will span two columns on a homepage, but only for readers making $50k a year and up. Otherwise a smaller one column ad is displayed from advertiser 2, who is paying less for the smaller ad being served to a different target audience.

    In this model both the ads are different (based on the reader) and the sizing is different (based on the amount advertisers paid for the space). This is a traditional model and one that is certainly in place, except for the fact that they are not dynamically set up for an algorithm to automatically change with no human interference, ever.

    This would be a huge benefit for the readers of the site as well. I for one should not have to see impotence ads and rolex ads for quite a while. The ads would be far more valuable to me because they are now tailored for me, for what I like.

    Requiring Registrations

    Linking into the above concept is required site registrations. These registrations should be free, and very quick (1 minute at the most – no email verification). They should require the following information be provided: sex, age range, income range, username. That is all you need to accurately market to people, I would add race, but that is always a touchy subject to get into. (You can get their interests by tracking their habits)

    This registration data would provide advertisers with a deluge of information and would allow the site to track what that reader likes to read. Now you would know several things for targeting ads directly at the user: what they can afford to buy, and what they are interested in. Most advertisers would kill to be able to target ads that directly at people.

    All of this tracking and data collection of course will lead to more data, and with more data we can make more assumptions and better changes to how we direct users around our sites and the ads that advertisers direct at the users.

    Higher Quality Ads

    This is the biggest and most important aspect of trying to turn around news sites. The ads that are being displayed on the web these days are for the most part, terrible. The only advertisers that display nice looking ads are The Deck and Fusion, everyone else’s are terrible, Google’s ads seem to think you want to see more of their crappy text ads.

    Now think about the advertising that you see in Magazines, not the crap that is stuck in the back, but those that are displayed near the front. They spent money making and designing those ads, thought was put into them and it shows.

    The web needs higher quality ads, and it needs them now.

    Any ad that moves or emits sound should never be displayed next to content that you want someone to read. Doing this distracts the reader, and detracts from the content.

    Less is often more, you certainly want to get the reader to look at the ads, but you don’t want them thinking how much they dread your ads because it distracts them from reading what they want to read. There is a fine line to be struck here between ads that draw attention and ads that annoy people.

    River Content Streams

    Another thing that was mentioned in the Atlantic article was content streams referred to as ‘rivers’. This was done to help newspapers rank better in Google searches, given that they are always posting smaller updates to larger stories (instead of long recapped posts that are out of date). This is a phenomenal idea, one that needs to be better used and leveraged to help readers do more then get better search results.

    If newspapers are not already tagging their content, they should be. If all articles are tagged, then why would you not let your readers create their own content page. There have been personal home pages in the past for The Wall Street Journal, but they only let you select sections of the paper. Tags should be the new sections.

    It would be great for people to be able to say I want a page (and RSS feed) that shows me only articles tagged as ‘social media’. You could have your own customized news stream based on what you want to know. The possibilities are endless – the result is a happy customer and better targeted ads.

    This approach gives the reader a reason to keep coming back, it adds value.

    Pretty Pictures

    Photography: this is where magazines and news sites can and should slaughter free content providers such as blogs. Bloggers don’t have the time, staff and resources to go out and get great photos, they are not posting AP and Getty photos, they are posting stock images, sometimes.

    Newspapers (magazines and other news outlets as well) have these at their finger tips, moreover they have citizens willing and ready to hand over their photos and videos of stories as they are happening. Yet this very rarely makes into play.

    News organizations need to do a better job of leveraging visual stories with the rich media that they have at their disposal. Writing an article on a congressional hearing? You should have videos showing the key players talking about the issue, include a slideshow the the key players and the things they are talking about.

    One such news outlet that gets this is The Guardian a U.K. paper that release an iPad App called Eyewitness, displaying one picture a day. This is one of my favorite apps on the iPad, and they are making money off it through ads, yet they don’t bug me one bit.

    The Guardian partnered with Canon to show these images, the Guardian selects the image and writes a caption, Canon has a watermark of their logo, and provides information on how best to recreate the image using professional photography techniques (this is my best guess of how it works). This is a very smart approach, so why has it not been carried out every where?

    Dump The Paper

    All you hear about Newspapers is how they lose money by continuing to print paper editions and deliver them. So get rid of the paper, or raise the price. As of this writing for me to get The New Yorks times delivered to my door each morning it would cost me a little over a dollar a day. That is nothing.

    If you really want to keep with selling paper copies, raise your prices, and cut the production. Make it profitable through pricing, don’t try selling more for less, try selling less for more.

    The Future

    I don’t know the future and I have never worked in publishing, so I have no clue wether these ideas will work. However, my schooling in business, my knowledge of technology, my love of design, love of news consumption, and general frugalness leads me to believe that this is a feasible approach. There is no reason for the media outlets to not try some of these ideas that I have proposed, or the ideas that many others around the net are coming up with.

  • New Server / Host

    If you are seeing this, then we have successfully made the switch to the new host and server at Media Temple. Here’s hoping for a faster more reliable site.

  • Server Downtime

    We had some server downtime last night, BlueHost had to restart the server around 11:00p last night. It was down for at least 45 minutes that I know of. When I contacted them at 10:45p they said it would be back up in a half hour. That was not the case.

    As such I will be looking for a new hosting provider. Sorry about all this.

    [UPDATE]: I have selected a new hosting company (Media Temple) and am waiting for the account to be set up, at which time I am going to get the site moved over. There will be hiccups, but I will do the best I can.

  • Review: Zinio for iPad

    I have been using Zinio to read magazines since 4/21/2005 (according to the oldest transaction Zinio lists on my account page) until the release of the iPad I have only had access to my magazines on my Macs. For the most part Zinio gives you a PDF version of the print magazine, with the occasional video added in here and there. The quality has always been fantastic and their Mac support gets better every year, it is now excellent to use the service on a Mac.

    So naturally when I saw that Zinio had an iPad app that I could read my magazines on, I was to say the very least happy. Very happy.

    Reading Magazines on the iPad

    I use the iPad mostly in landscape view, but I have found that with Zinio I read in Portrait orientation (looking at the pictures in landscape). The initial iPad app was very sluggish, and when you zoomed in the text did not come into focus. Just yesterday Zinio released a new version that speeds the app up significantly, and allows you to zoom in and have nice sharp text.

    Zinio does not stop there, as they also have interactive magazines that you can download, which give you a far better experience then the typical PDF version of the magazine gives you. With interactive versions you get three majors advantages: video, slideshows, text excerpts (more on this in a bit).

    The video is good, and adds a little to the experience of reading the magazine. The slideshows are phenomenal, especially if you subscribe to National Geographic (why wouldn’t you?). In the National Geographic app you get slideshows for the features where you can see some of their amazing photography. One thing that I really love about about the National Geographic slideshows is that when you transition from one picture to the next, instead of the picture showing up blurry for a second, it shows up dark. Half a second later you get a nice vibrant bright image, this strikes me as a much better way to transition then the blurry to sharp method that most people invoke.

    The text excerpts, or more aptly the text button at the bottom of articles is a very handy feature. Pressing the button invokes a text only mode, the screen background becomes white with dark grey text, no ads, or pictures to distract your eye. I very much like reading the articles this way, as it reminds me of the fantastic Instapaper app.

    Overall I highly recommend using Zinio to get your magazines, especially given the most subscriptions are between $9.00 and $19 a year. Forget paying $4.99 and issue.

  • The Verizon iPhone Hubbub

    About 6 months after AT&T and Apple debuted the iPhone back in 2007 people started clamoring for the Verizon version. Every year around this time rumors abound that this is year that Apple and Verizon will launch the iPhone together. I have several friends who have been “holding out” to get the Verizon iPhone, not wanting to use one on the AT&T network.

    I think by now most people know my stance on that line of thinking: these people are idiots. They are not idiots because they want the phone on Verizon, but rather because for the last 3 years they have been using crap phones, waiting to use the phone they really want to use. Some have even been buying new phones to “tide them over” while they wait for a Verizon iPhone.

    The most interesting thing to me about this whole Verizon iPhone business, is Verizon’s stance on the matter. I have never heard or read anything from Verizon (not counting the clueless store employees that always say it is coming soon) that confirms or denies that they are getting the iPhone. This is perhaps one of the smartest marketing moves by a company yet.

    By not saying anything Verizon keeps peoples hopes up, and therefore keeps some of their customers with them instead of switching to AT&T. In fact I would guess that each time one of these Verizon iPhone rumors pops up, Verizon loves it. Not because they so much want it to be true, but because it means that people still like them over the rival AT&T.

    Think about that for a second.

    Verizon is getting massive free PR (good PR no less) every year for about 4-months leading up to the introduction of a new iPhone. They are getting customers to stay with them in hopes that a phone they want really comes to fruition, instead of very easily switching to AT&T. This is astounding.

    I for one hope that they release one for Verizon so that my service quality goes up as everyone “flees” to Verizon.

  • Clueless Managers and Their Technology Bumblings

    Businesses have a huge problem, managers don’t know enough about technology and because of this they are hiring the wrong people to help them manage it. This is more than just who they hire because it effects every facet of business.

    Technology is every where, we scan and email, instead of fax and send. Most businesses rely on mobile communications such as, email, cellphones, wireless internet, instant messaging, video chat, WebEx and more. Who cares if a potential new hire has 30 years experience, but knows nothing about technology (they still email in all caps and check it once a week).

    The saying ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks’ exists for a reason – it is mostly true. I would rather hire a fresh college graduate than the experienced candidate because at least I don’t have to teach them how modern business is conducted. Knowing nothing about technology, coming to a company and expecting them to teach you is akin to coming into a company 30 years ago, not knowing how to write or dial a telephone. No one would hire you then, yet people today are hiring people who know nothing about technology.

    Technology is at the core of every business, the people at the top need to be masters at it. They don’t need to know how to fix it, but they do need to know how it works.

    Some Examples:

    Example 1

    I was recently told about a company where the person in charge of IT was also the Controller/CFO at the company. Now there is nothing wrong with this, especially given the companies size – except for the fact that the CFO knows nothing about IT. And by nothing I mean, this person calls IT to fix every one of his problems – he knows nothing.

    This is a huge problem for obvious reasons, the biggest is the most simplest: the boss/director of any department should be seen as a mentor/smartest guy in the room for everyone else in that department. When you don’t have this kind of hierarchy then you have employees who don’t respect their boss and, by extension, their company.

    Example 2

    Another company that I know well (very small business) has a one person IT department with a boss that acts like he knows everything. This leads to a lot of downtime and problems that go unresolved at the company. as the IT person bullshits the boss with the problems, that the boss may or may not believe, and so he takes it upon himself to fix the problem. Now the boss is very busy, so guess what? The problem is drug out for weeks before the decision is made to bring in outside help for the problem that the internal IT person has deemed impossible to fix.

    Everyone hates fixing IT problems, even most IT support staff. So commonly at a small company like the one above the boss will make it the job of the person they think knows IT the best (by any random metric they so deem). This only exacerbates the issue. Doing this leads to:

    • Prolonged problems as the designated “IT” person has to figure out how to do basic tasks.
    • More problems than you started with, because the new “IT” person Googled and answer and deleted some very important stuff not knowing that this is a critical file.
    • More money lost.

    Example 3

    There is a private club that I know about who had their website redesigned recently. I was very happy to hear that they were doing this – until I saw the site. It was designed “professionally” in Apples iWeb program. Meaning there is no CSS or CMS, just static HTML that renders poorly on anything but Safari. I checked out the “web developers” site and it too was in iWeb. In fact the site (both the web developer and private clubs site) have password protected areas that redirect you to an Apple MobileMe account (only way you can password protect an iWeb site). What a joke.

    This is an example of people who don’t know anything about IT hiring people, yet claim they do. You get what you pay for, every 15 year old and their mom is trying to make a buck designing a site or fixing your IT issues, but you are better off paying a real pro then you are hiring these people. In the end you will never be happy with their work.

    Our managers need basic courses in implementing and maintaining todays technology. This should be done in b-school, it should be continued with employers. Technology is here to stay, it is about time we learn it because the excuse “technical issues” is pure B.S. and we should not have to hear it.

    At the very least businesses need to implement more backup systems. I am never without a backup way to get on the Internet. I always have a backup phone/communication system nearby. You would not just want one 911 operator, what if they are sick? Nor should you rely on just one piece of technology if it is core to what you do.

    Y7E4K3WJTSP5

  • All You Need is One…Monitor

    I have long held that having more than one monitor makes you more productive. For the past year I have been using a dual monitor setup at work where I have a 24″ LED Cinema Display and a 15″ Macbook Pro screen to compute with.

    Today I decided to see what it would be like with only the 24″ screen. I made this decision after looking at the way I use my setup, with the Macbook Pro where it is I feel cramped and cannot comfortable look at both monitors. Meaning that 98% of the time I only use one monitor, the 24″. The resolution is so high that I don’t really need extra screen real estate – I just need to make better use of the 24″ screen.

    A couple of hours into it and I feel liberated. I don’t feel cramped, and I get a little more light and room on my desk.

    Maybe dual monitors that are both huge and the same work wonders for productivity, but having a laptop protrude into your work area and not align with your monitor does nothing for it.

  • Reflections on the iPad's Screen

    (aka The most loved and hated screen)

    One of the most beautiful aspects of the iPad is its screen, glossy, large, beautiful, vibrant color. It is a sight to behold and one of the first things that draws people to the iPad. As gorgeous and wondrous as it is, the screen is also one of the most hated parts of the iPad. Yet there isn’t much anyone can do about it, yet.

    Glossy screens give deeper blacks and more saturated colors (just think back to those laptops of 5 years ago with the anti-reflective coatings and how amazed you were the first time you saw a glossy screened laptop), the consumers have spoken and glare is an acceptable trade off for these beautiful glossy screens. Besides who really computes outdoors?

    I do, or tried too.

    I work from home on Fridays, I live on the top floor of a southwest facing condo with a large balcony. Now in Seattle that means I get sun (if there is sun) all day long, which is great. Since I have a Macbook Pro with a glossy screen I can’t take it outdoors. In the past on Fridays I had spent lunch on the balcony reading my Kindle. Now I have the iPad (wife took the Kindle) and so I went out to the balcony on this beautifully sunny day. Guess what?

    I could not see the screen at all.

    I tried dozens of positions and angles to try and make the device usable. I found a few, but none that were comfortable enough to use for an extended period of time. I came inside and started writing this.

    If you want the bottom line on the iPad here it is: the iPad’s worst feature is also one of it’s biggest marketing features, it is the screen. It is a fingerprint magnet, it is a glare monster, but it is amazingly clear, crisp, vibrant, and beautiful.

    Even with all it’s drawbacks, I would not want a matte screen, nor will I put on an anti-glare film. It is too pretty to mess with.

    I hate this screen for so many reasons, but the good far out weighs the bad.

  • An Ode to Instapaper

    About a year ago someone mentioned Instapaper on Twitter, curious I decided to check it out. Now a year later I don’t know what I would do without it. For the uninitiated Instapaper is a bookmarking service, kinda. The actual purpose is to give you a place where you can temporarily store links to different articles / blog posts that you want to read later.

    Before Instapaper I had a bookmarks folder on my Mac labeled ‘To Read’ and within that folder I saved all the same things that you would keep in Instapaper. The problem with that system is that I was responsible for removing the bookmarks when I was done reading them – a problem that Instapaper solves. You add items to Instapaper by installing a bookmarklet in your web browser (dead simple), invoking this bookmarklet lets you automatically add the page you are on to Instapaper. Clicking to read something in Instapaper automatically archives that link (there is an option to keep this from happening), thus only showing you the unread items. This would be fairly useful on its own, but it adds to its functionality by storing your old links in an archived section.

    You can even star items that you like, allowing others to add your starred items to their Instapaper for viewing (try it with me my username is Showngo). All you have to do is click to add a new folder and then click the link at the top that says ‘add another users Starred items.” Done.

    One often overlooked feature is the ability to create folders within Instapaper for sorting links, and you can install bookmarklets that add links directly to that folder. Very handy indeed, especially if you keep a folder specifically, for say, posting links to a blog.

    For those that have not used the service this all sounds unmoving I am sure, but have you ever tried reading something with an ad blinking off to the side? If so you know how distracting that can be, Instapaper also solves this by allowing you to read a text-only version of the page with a click of the button.

    This of course is all leading to Instapaper’s killer feature: the iPad / iPhone / Kindle integration that developer Marco Arment has taken the time to create. The iPhone app has always been a great way to read your Instapaper items, but add in Kindle syncing and iPad apps – well you really have something special.

    When you read your Instapaper items on any of these devices they are presented with beautiful typography and no adds blinking and distracting you. This is especially true on the Kindle as there is no color display. The apps still allow the display of images (I forget if this is the case on the Kindle now) that are inline as part of the story. In other words you get everything you need and want, without all the other crap distracting you.

    Instapaper in my opinion is a service worth paying for – yet it is free.

  • Microsoft Kin One and Two review

    Katherine Boehret for WSJ:

    Though Microsoft’s Kin One has some polishing to do on its camera and on its social-networking tools, it’s a uniquely attractive device that’s a pleasure to use. I only wish all mobile devices had worry-free backup websites like the Kin Studio.

    Compared to Joshua Topolsky for Engadget.com:

    It’s clear to us from conversations we’ve had with Microsoft that there are people at the company with good ideas about what phones should and shouldn’t do, but we don’t feel the Kin is representative of those ideas. The execution (or lack thereof) on these products makes us legitimately concerned about what the company will do with Windows Phone 7. We can only hope that the similarities between those devices and the Kin handsets don’t stretch much further than the “Windows Phone” label, because in our estimation, Kin is one side of the family that needs to be disowned… quickly.

    Well those are polar opposite opinions.

  • The iPad – One Month In

    Monday April 5th, 2010 at approximately 10:30a I received my 16gb Wi-Fi only iPad. I had just gotten off a plane in Portland, OR – a red-eye from Honolulu to Portland – and drove 2 hours and 30 minutes to Tacoma, WA to pick up my iPad waiting at my office for me. Then I drove another 44 minutes home.

    I unpacked from being gone for two weeks, played with the cat and ate food. Then I did the ceremonial opening of the iPad and plugged it in to my Macbook Pro. Now came the longest hour and a half of my life as I synced the iPad and put music and videos on it.

    For the next week of my life and really took the iPad everywhere with me, showing it off and using it for every possible thing I could. We have all read those reviews, some are great and some leave you scratching your head. I thought it would be useful for people to get a look at how I am using the iPad one month into it. I have broken my usages down by the time of the day as that seems like the best way to go about this.

    Pre-Work (5:45a – 7:30a)

    After I check some websites on my Mac, I read through my RSS feeds (Fever°) and save the ones I want to read to Instapaper. From there I grab my iPad and head to the couch (I don’t like to look at Fever° on the iPad as it is still a little problematic, but usable). Once I hit the couch I go through my apps, here is the order that I read the apps and email links to Instapaper:

    • TWC Max+ (weather info)
    • NYT Editors Choice
    • USA Today
    • BBC News
    • Guardian Eyewitness
    • Reuters Galleries
    • Reuters News Pro

    When I see an article I want to read in any of the above I email the link to Instapaper for reading later. If I have time left before I need to leave for work I try to read articles in Instapaper.

    Work (8:15a – 4:45p)

    This is the period of the day that I rarely use the iPad. Not that it doesn’t have its business uses, just my work day is not tailored towards those uses. I rarely go to meetings – which is a place where the iPad shines. Most days I will use the iPad as a scratch pad (Penultimate) while on the phone and will take it with me to different places I go. If I find myself with some downtime I will flip on the Verizon MiFi and catch up on some Instapaper reading.

    After Work (5:30p – bedtime)

    The iPad shines during this period of time. Spend a lot of time on different websites, reading in Instapaper / iBooks / Kindle / Zinio. I post to WordPress, play games, and control VLC on my Mac mini (hooked to the TV). The entire night is spent on my iPad, rarely do I touch my Macbook Pro.

    Weekends

    Take Pre-work and After work and press them together omitting the ‘work’ stage. That is my weekend usage. 10% is on my Macbook Pro and the rest is my iPad with about 0.5% being my iPhone.

    Would I do it again?

    One thing I think is most telling about a new gadget is to ask yourself if you would purchase it again given what you know today. The answer to this for me is an overwhelming ‘yes’ I would buy the iPad again no regrets. I also would not buy the 3G, nor do I need any more space than 16gbs affords.

    The key to my enjoyment of the iPad is that after work period of time, whereas before the iPad I used to use my Macbook Pro until my wife got annoyed and then just my iPhone. With the iPad it is all sorts of different. I can turn the iPad off and on to start and stop what I am doing in an instant – allowing me to stop reading and focus on a conversation with my wife, picking it up again easily. With a laptop there is always a lag between sleeping and waking the computer – a lag that becomes annoying once you use an iPad.

    Favorite Feature

    Hands down the battery. Apple was not joking when they rated it at 10 hours of battery life. This device has an outstanding battery. While the life is nice, what the battery really means for the user is:

    • No carrying a charger
    • Doing what you want when you want it – you don’t have to save the last little bit of battery life for something that may be important later, because you always have battery life.

    Wireless devices are great so long as the battery is charged. They are worthless once the batteries are dead, or you have to us them tethered to a charger. The iPad makes this a non-issue.

    Worst ‘Feature’

    I had a lot of trouble deciding what I think the worst feature to be, but I think I finally discovered. Lack of privacy is the iPad’s worst feature. I think Craig Hockenberry said it best:

    The iPad was naturally passed around amongst the partygoers. Many people interacted with it during the evening, and I lost track of who had it at any given time. And therein lies a fundamental problem.

    My iPad has a lot of personal information on it: email, business documents, and financial data. When you pass it around, you’re giving everyone who touches it the opportunity to mess with your private life, whether intentionally or not. That makes me uneasy.

    I could not agree more so be sure to read that whole post to get the entire picture. We need better security when we show / share these devices with others.

    Favorite App

    Instapaper. Hands down, the reading, usability, speed are all top notch. This is the best app on the iPad no doubt about it.

    Worst App

    I can’t speak for all the apps, but of the ones that I have tried I hate the Wall Street Journal app the most. This has nothing to do with the subscription pricing, and everything to do with the look, and usability.

    Why do I have to download the entire newspaper for the hour / day? Why does it take forever to download it, NYT and USA Today reloads quickly. Why do you feel the need to nag me all the time to subscribe when I already said no? Not to mention the giant pop up ads. Such an annoying app.

    Moving Forward

    I really am looking forward to the future of the iPad, more so than I am with the iPhone. I think OS 4.0 is going to give quite an amazing boost to the iPad. I think that future hardware updates are only going to make an already fast iPad into an instant iPad.

    Also on another note the iPad has made me want an SSD drive for my Macbook Pro more than ever.

    That’s my iPad take after one month of using it.

  • Why Do Banks Insist Upon Internet Explorer?

    I was just informed by a friend of mine that he has not been able to login to his online banking with Harborstone Credit Union for all of 2010. The problem is that Webkit was updated and now no longer works with the banks system. He has reported the problem and the bank is more than aware of it, however he was told:

    We use a third party company for our online banking, and they have not been able to fix it yet.

    Why the hell not? This is not 10 years ago, the Mac is very popular and gaining in popularity. IE’s market share is now below 60% and you don’t support two very popular web browsers? (Safari and Chrome both use Webkit’s engine) If you think for one minute that it is really not that big of a deal then you are an idiot.

    Last October I decided it was time to switch banks – I made that decision because the Internet banking at my bank (Rainier Pacific Bank, now Umpqua Bank) was ungodly slow.

    So I switched to USAA.com impart because they have a nice iPhone app, and also because I have never heard a complaint about them. They have a phenomenal internet banking service, it is fast and works on everything from my iPhone to Macbook Pro.

    It is not a matter of technical hardship, or not being able to do anything about these changes. It is a matter of companies not caring to help their customers.

    This day and age you should be looking to support Firefox, Chrome and Safari, then Internet Explorer.

    Harborstone, tell your third party company that you want it fixed this week or you are leaving them. Because either you leave your software supplier, or your customers will start leaving you.

  • AT&T's Insane International Data Rates for the iPad

    When I traveled to Japan a few years ago we took an AT&T data card with us and enabled the international plan. The fees were horrendous and almost made it cheaper to lose business than to pay AT&T to stay connected.

    Now with the iPad AT&T is charging $200 a month for a lowly 200mb of data. That is absurd.

    Especially considering this tidbit from John Brownlee:

    What’s most absurd is that since the iPad is sold unlocked, you should be able to just travel abroad, pick up a 3G micro SIM from a local carrier and use their iPad 3G at local rates without a contract. Who is AT&T trying to fool here?

    That would seem logical, and if you have tried this please be sure to write and let me know if it works.

  • WordPress App for iPad is Missing a Major Feature

    Copy/Cut/Paste does not work for many users (including me). This is not good at all. I can’t copy and paste meaning that I can’t compose posts on the iPad (I don’t write them in the WordPress app).

    This is a major flaw and I hope it gets fixed yesterday.