Category Archives: notes

Plain, Plain Space, Barley

February 19th, 2013

As you may have guessed from the lack of posts, I’m busy. After leaving Viddler and taking some time to get things in order; I’m busy building Plain, Plain Space, and our first product Barley.

Barley has been a smash hit and it isn’t even publicly available yet. We’ve been overwhelmed by the response. We’ve had interest shown by people and companies in every Internet-connected country on the globe. Literally. Designers and developers are building templates, importers, SDKs and more for Barley already.

We just put out a teaser video, check it out.

My blog will be back in full swing when we convert it to Barley.

The advantages and disadvantages of feature roll outs

December 19th, 2012

If you’re a member of a fairly popular web service you’re probably becoming more and more familiar with feature roll outs.

A feature roll out is when a new feature is added to a service for a certain number of users at a time and, after some duration of time, every user on that service ends up with the new feature. This process could take hours, days, weeks.

There are a lot of reasons a company may need or want to do a feature roll out. There are also reasons a company may want to avoid doing them. Lets first look at why a company may need to roll a feature out.

Some features on these large-scale platforms are incredibly taxing on the technology infrastructure of a service. Say, for instance, that YouTube released a feature that allowed its users to re-encode all of their videos into a higher quality than they previously allowed. YouTube has billions of minutes of video. If every one of their users were allowed to do this all at once they’d bring YouTube’s infrastructure (world-class though it may be) to its knees.

Twitter’s recent roll out of a feature that allows its members to download all of their tweets in an archive is another example. While certainly not as intense as video encoding, gathering up tens-of-thousands of tweets and creating a neat and tidy archive of them does take some horsepower. They’ve decided to roll this feature out.

Another, slightly more technical, reason that a company may need to roll out a feature over time would be that they split their traffic onto many different web nodes. Or, actual web servers or clusters of servers. Each of those web nodes being updated at exactly the same time would bring the service down for a short period of time. High-capacity, “always up”, networks like Twitter can not afford to have downtime across all nodes at once. So they may roll out a feature so that their service remains up and running and they only have to pull down one node at a time, moving the traffic that would normally go to those nodes to other nodes temporarily, to update it with the new feature.

But why would a company want to roll out a new feature even if they didn’t need to? There are many advantages and I think one of the best ones that is often overlooked is hype. Remember when Instagram rolled out web profiles? It took the better part of a week for everyone to get their web profiles.

If you don’t see your profile yet, be assured that you’ll see it in the next few days. We’re rolling out profiles to everyone on Instagram over the course of this week.

A week. Even with 100,000,000 users a week in internet-speak is just about one year and three months. But with a certain number of users getting their web profiles each and every day they got an amazing amount of word-of-mouth for free. “Yay! I got my web profile!!” followed by a link on Twitter from a huge percentage of users. If for no other reason then to have Instagram on everyone’s mind for an entire week it was worth rolling this feature out over time rather than giving it out relatively immediately to everyone.

Another advantage worth noting is that by rolling out a feature the company is able to monitor the progress, effectiveness, and use of the feature and has more of a chance to correct things as the feature rolls out. If a feature has a direct impact on the stability or cost of running the service then rolling it out over time gives you a better idea of how well the feature is doing at attacking that goal. If a feature is brand-new and the company wants to see if users will A) use it and B) figure out how to use it correctly – by rolling it out you can get some sense as to how users interact with the feature. This is very advantageous.

Why would a company want to avoid feature roll outs? Announcing features that users do not have yet is always risky business. It is almost never a good idea. Some of the risk falls on user awareness. If a user learns about a feature and gets excited to use it and can not use it for a week they’re likely to forget about it a week later. You’re also likely to create higher expectations for a feature than you’re able to deliver on. I’m sure the Instagram users that got their web profile a week after they were announced had a slightly less excited response at getting them than the ones that did in the first day or two.

Feature roll outs are sometimes a necessity, sometimes a tool, and sometimes a bad idea. Choose carefully.

Any other advantages or disadvantages? Chime in on Hacker News.

How Flickr can eat Instagram’s table scraps. I’m Instagram’s table scraps. And so are you.

December 18th, 2012

Before I even get started; Flickr can not stop Instagram at this point. Flickr can not beat Instagram in terms of hockey-stick-growth. Even with Instagram’s recent policy changes Instagram is on a trajectory to hit the nearest star and Flickr nor Bruce Willis can stop them now. But, to succeed they do not need to win – they just need to capture as many Instagram-escapees as possible.

Flickr has long since been very good at a few things; sharing, licensing, and interoperability. It is one of the reasons Flickr was included in Anil Dash’s The Web We Lost; Flickr’s API is world-class and the entire Internet can benefit from its rich offerings.

Instagram being bought by Facebook was the first step in the wrong direction in the eyes of many web veterans. And there are more and more web veterans every single day as the web gets older. Web veterans are people that know better. Web veterans know that Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram aren’t the Internet. In fact, they are the antithesis of the Internet. These companies do whatever they possibily can to pigeon hole people onto their websites for as many hours throughout the day as possible. The rest of the web, the real web, tries to solve a problem for people while playing nicely with every other service out there.

Flickr made the first big step in capitalizing on Instagram’s move to Facebook last week when they debuted a brand-new iOS application that has gotten rave reviews from web newb and veteran alike.

However, Flickr is too expensive for people casually sharing a filtered photo from their mobile cameras now and then. Yes, you can use Flickr for free for up to 200 photos but I think just about anyone with a Flickr account would much prefer to have all of their photos available all of the time.

If Flickr were to change their model just slightly – one from a pro backup and catalog solution to one of sharing – they could easily win a ton of accounts that are falling off of the Facebook/Instagram table on a daily basis. Perhaps creating a cheaper account-type that costs, say $5 or $7 per year, would be enough for the web veterans (again, there are a lot of us) to completely jump ship from Instagram and pony up. This way, we would never have to worry about advertisements, creepy data collection, or wondering if our data will ever be trapped on someone else’s servers. And believe me, this isn’t something that is terrible difficult for Flickr to give a shot. They have everything they could possibly need already in place to do this.

Flickr, you’ve already made one step. Take the next step and bring us all back home again.

[discuss on Hacker News]

 

Goodbye Viddler

December 17th, 2012

Working at the same company for six years is a privilege that many do not get to enjoy. I’ve been extremely privileged to be able to do just that at Viddler from early 2007 until now.

My relationship with the Viddler team actually began before my first day as a team member. My friend and ex-coworker Mike Stickel and I ran a small company called ChanceCube that did some consulting for Viddler long before I ever thought I’d end up working there full-time. In 2006 the small team at Viddler was focused on creating a Flash-based video player that included comments that popped up along the timeline as you viewed a video. Mike and I helped Viddler conceptualize the UI for that player.

In 2007 when I visited Rob Sandie and Donna DeMarco in what was then a closet-sized office in Jordan Hall at Ben Franklin Tech Ventures near Lehigh University I saw that they had built what Mike and I had helped them design and it was way beyond our own expectations for how good it really could be.

It was during that initial visit that I knew I wanted to be part of the Viddler team.

Since that cold, cold day in January 2007 everyone at Viddler has worked very hard to first build a cool product, then build a viable business, an incredibly good team, a very reliable platform, and ultimately a sustainable company.

At every step in the evolution of Viddler and from every member of the team past and present I’ve been able to learn so much. It was a privilege to serve on the Board of Directors, to help recruit great talent, and to work with Viddler’s largest customers to accomplish their online video goals. Each of the various roles that I tried, and both succeeded and failed at, were challenging, fun, and worth the effort.

I feel it is time to do something different. I’m ready to do something new. I have many interests and the world of web video was only one of them. It will take a few months before my new team and I are ready to share what we’re working on but I’m very excited about what’s next.

Why I’m shutting Nilai down

December 12th, 2012

Nilai began as a labor of love for me. For a few months I’d spend an evening or so per week tapping out some code while watching a basketball game in my home pub. It was a lot of fun to work on and experiment with.

While the day job got in the way of me being able to make Nilai as truly great as I wanted it to be I ended up finding Nilai incredibly useful. I used it every day. But then, some really great new services began popping up such as Pocket and Kippt.

Fast-forward to today. I have little or no time to make the updates that I’d like to make to Nilai so I’ve decide to shut it down. If you go back to why I built Nilai in the first place, it was because I wanted a bookmarking service that would be around forever. So I’m going to keep the service running for a long time (because I still tend to use it every day and I know quite a few other users do too) but the service will no longer accept new sign ups and existing users will no longer be required to pay for their account.

Since Nilai’s users pay per-month I’ve already begun canceling the next scheduled payment from all users. If any users would like a refund I’ll gladly provide a full refund for every month you’ve already paid for whether you’ve used the service or not. If you want to continue using Nilai every day you may do so for as long as I keep it running. If you want a refund or an export of your data simply send me an email. Thanks so much for trying out this hobby with me. I had a lot of fun doing it.

If you’re looking to fill the void that Nilai did, I suggest using Kippt. Recently I’ve begun using this service and the team there really seems to care a lot about making the product truly valuable.

A short Microsoft Surface review

November 16th, 2012

Me, in June:

Actual judgements about the hardware aside (since, unsurprisingly, these aren’t yet on the market) this looks like the best work to come out of Microsoft since the Xbox 360. This isn’t me grading on a curve either. I’m not giving them extra points for finally making something that looks like it could be good. I’m saying that this device actually looks like it could be a great, viable, product line and could bring Microsoft up-to-speed on many many fronts.

You could say I was optimistic yet skeptical. Like many other product debuts at Microsoft I actually thought the Surface may never see the light of day. But it has. They’re shipping them. They exist. Yesterday, while at Viddler HQ, I was able to play with a Surface for a few minutes.

I could have played with it longer. But I wouldn’t want to. The Surface is terrible. Even if you’ve never picked up an iPad or an Android-powered tablet you would think the Surface is pretty slow, hard to use, and heavy; three things a tablet device should probably never have said about it.

I know, I know, some may think because I’m such an Apple fan boy that I wouldn’t like the Surface even if it was truly great. Remember, I said “this device actually looks like it could be a great, viable, product line” for Microsoft. And I think it still could be. When playing with the Surface yesterday I said that I thought it still belonged in a lab – not being sold to the public.

When I first grabbed the Surface the running joke in the office was “Open Mail.” At least two people told me to open the mail application. I tried. After waiting about a minute for the mail application to launch I gave up.

Then I tried Word. Surely this should be a simple, easy-to-use version of Word where I would launch it and immediately be able to begin typing, right? Wrong. Tapping on Word opened up a version of Windows 8 that looks like Windows Vista and then launches Word just like you would see on your desktop computer. Once the canvas loads where you can begin typing the cursor pops up and sits there, flashing at you, waiting to be used. Only, there is a problem, there is no keyboard.

Like the iPad, a physical keyboard does not come standard. The Surface has a few optional keyboards that could be purchased with it but they are pretty expensive and since this is simply a testing unit for Viddler our Head of QA decided we didn’t need the physical keyboard. Arguably, though, the physical keyboard is one of the main reasons why someone would want a Surface.

Anyway, back to Word. So the traditional, desktop version of Word is sitting there – cursor blinking – and there is no keyboard. I’m used to how iOS and Android work so I thought that simply tapping into the area where I’d like to type would be enough for the OS to know that I’d need a virtual keyboard. Only, I’m in the part of the OS (the Windows Vista-looking part) that isn’t smart enough to know this. So, after a few moments of panic, one of my fellow Viddler team members had to run over and show me that there was a button to ask for the virtual keyboard. The entire experience was really quite jarring.

Next, I opened Camera. Camera is one of those applications on Surface that you have to figure out how to use by experimenting. There is no apparent way to do anything. Not even take a photo or record a video. Rather than there being any interface for the application the entire Surface becomes a window to the world around you. Which seems nice in concept but I found it very frustrating. To take a photo you tap the screen. OK, that seems discoverable enough. But, how do I view that photo after I’ve taken it? How do I share it? How do I send that photo to my mother? Well, going into the Photo library application doesn’t show you the photos you’ve taken with the Camera. So that’s not it. Oh, the video I shot with the Camera? That isn’t in the Videos app. This is what you have to do; you have to five-finger pinch within the Camera application to pull up a “slideshow” of your photos/videos that you’ve taken. This is not-so-discoverable.

By this time I was fed up with the Surface. I poked around a bit more and only got more and more frustrated with the device. For instance, I didn’t find a single application that supported portrait-mode. So the device had to be in landscape all the time. Obviously Microsoft intends on you using this thing, kick-stand out, sitting on a desk with the $129 optional physical keyboard attached.

As of today the Microsoft Surface isn’t a tablet. It is a thin PC that still needs a physical keyboard that runs a pretty cool touch OS that should be called Metro and an ancient and terrible OS called Windows. And it is heavy.

Follow me on Instagram. Or, why web profiles are a big deal for Instagram.

November 9th, 2012

Instagram recently released web profiles for all users. Of course, your Twitter stream has probably been full of people linking to theirs recently*. Oh, here is mine. You may have seen so many people mention their Instagram web profile that you’re sick of it.

But don’t underestimate the importance of this feature to Instagram’s growth. Think about how many times you’ve seen people say, on Twitter or Facebook or their blogs, “Follow me on Instagram, I’m cdevroe.” Celebrities, with tens of millions of Twitter followers, had to ask their audience to launch Instagram, go to the search users pane, and type in their usernames there. And some usernames aren’t so typing friendly. Obviously some did that, but some didn’t.

Now, though, anyone can link to their Instagram profile. And rather than only a small percentage of people from Twitter following them on Instagram they will probably get a much larger portion of their audience to do so. This is big. And it isn’t just about follows either. People can like and comment on photos from these profiles too. So interactivity on Instagram is skyrocketing.

I think Instagram’s growth rate will increase with these web profiles in place.

* Instagram, like many other wildly popular social networks, released this new feature to all users over the course of about a week. There are many reasons for doing this not the least of which is the computational power you’d need to generate 100 million web profiles. However, I also see this as a sly way of having your users trumpet a new feature for you. It is free marketing. If everyone got their shiny new web profiles on the same day Instagram would have gotten one days worth of press about it. By releasing them over the course of a week they got a full week’s worth.

Why did Disney only pay $4B for Lucasfilm, ILM, and Skywalker Sound?

November 1st, 2012

When I first read the news that Disney was acquiring Lucasfilm, ILM, and Skywalker Sound all in one deal I tweeted that I didn’t understand how all of these companies – along with the rights to Star Wars, partial rights to Indiana Jones, Lucas Arts and much, much more – were only worth $4 billion. But I may have figured it out; George Lucas knows they are worth more but wants Disney, and only Disney, to takeover the reigns. And, Lucas will make boatloads of dough on this deal too.

I’m not alone in wondering though. Jason Kottke:

Crazy. A non-Lucas non-prequel Star Wars film will hopefully be pretty great, but the purchase price is puzzling. Only $4 billion?

According to my research Lucasfilm, ILM, and Skywalker Sound have a combined team of thousands of employees. No doubt some of these will not be making the transition to Disney. But this is a solid workforce.

Take a look at ILM’s Wikipedia page. That is some filmography. At my count I see at least three if not five blockbuster releases per year. Depending on how those deals were structured, I’d be surprised if ILM didn’t get some sort of royalties for some of those films long after they’ve debuted. Not to mention the work done on Bluray/DVD releases.

And ILM’s pipe seems pretty full too. They have nine deals in the bag all of which are pretty high-budget projects.

And, even though Skywalker Sound is relatively small, they own the IP for THX and work on arguably the best films released each year. Perhaps they too can structure sweetheart deals.

So Disney, without a doubt, got a steal of a deal. But, we have to look at this transaction a little differently than just looking at the face value because Lucas took half of the money in Disney stock.

The $4 billion was split; half cash, half stock. Disney is promising to make Star Wars a much more international hit. As it stands, a huge percentage of the revenue from Star Wars comes from toys bought in the US. Disney can bring Star Wars to China, Japan and other nations where toys are a huge hit. Just not Star Wars toys. And, presumably, they can do something special in all of their parks worldwide to bring people into the parks. They can also fund, manage, and distribute new Star Wars releases, movies, games, toys – and George Lucas doesn’t have to lift a finger.

Brian Warner:

The fact that Lucas is taking half the deal in stock is a sign that he sees this transaction as an investment for the future, instead of just a quick way to cash out. Considering the fact that Disney’s stock is up more than 32% this year, from a low of $38 to a recent 52 week high of $53 per share, Lucas’ payday could increase by hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars.

So Lucas now owns 40 million shares of Disney. Effectively doubling his personal net-worth with a single signature. Some analysts project they will bank more than $30B on this sale in short order. Their stock is already up two points (that’s $1.8B in market cap) and it isn’t even lunch yet. To Lucas that’s $40M more than he expected. So I guess Lucas knows exactly what he’s doing.

My island on this ocean

October 1st, 2012

Me, over four years ago:

As it stands I post what I’m currently doing to Twitter, I am testing out Pownce with mobile blogging, events, links, and files, I post mobile phone photos to Flickr (as well as the occasional screenshot), videos go on Viddler, bookmarks end up on Ma.gnolia, tasting notes end up on Cork’d, and my thoughts on Apple products find their way to TUG.n.

What a difference four years can make! Pownce, Ma.gnolia, Cork’d, TUG.n, all gone. Flickr rarely gets my attention. Twitter is still here but is changing policies more often than I change my shirt. Viddler, I’m very proud to say, is stronger than ever but is certainly a much different service than it was then.

The Internet is like the open ocean and what we publish seems to be on a life raft simply going along for the ride. Yet our personal websites seem to be like small islands in this ocean. Sure, their beaches may change from time-to-time but the island remains – like a beacon to all travelers that we’re still here – somewhere to always come back to as these rafts take on water and eventually sink into the deep.

This environment forces me to rethink, yet again, how and where I publish on the web. This internal debate seems to be one that keeps coming up, over and over, year after year, as the ocean of the Internet ebbs and flows.

Should I simply post everything that I publish directly to this site and nowhere else? Do I cross post things to this site and also onto other services? Do I simply link back to this site from those services? Do I syndicate to those services with their own accounts (like I do now on Twitter and Facebook for this site)? Do I post some content here and some content elsewhere?

Believe it or not, and you may think I’m crazy, but these questions plague me all of the time. I constantly struggle with this. And I never seem to muster the conviction to make a hard choice and so I’ve got content everywhere; Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, the brand-new App.net, Flickr, a little on Google+, and so on.

Why does it take conviction to limit myself to only posting on this site? Because there is a pull and a need to share this content with as many people as possible. With nearly 2,000 followers on Twitter, a few hundred on Instagram, friends and family on Flickr, etc. it is hard to limit the exposure of this content. I want people to see what I’m publishing. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t. This site, as it stands, only has a relatively small audience. Some of my posts get views in the single digits, others, in the hundreds of thousands. So I can never really be sure how many people are paying attention. That is why it takes conviction. I have to be OK with the fact that maybe, just maybe, no one will notice. And maybe, just maybe, no one will care.

I think I’ve gotten to that point. Even as I write this I’m coming around to the idea that I don’t really need anyone to read this post. And if they do read it I’d much rather them read it here than on Facebook or Google+. Whether or not I choose to publish here on my site or elsewhere doesn’t really matter at all to anyone but me. And I want to publish to my site. So I should publish in a way that makes me happy, right?

There is an upside to making this a hard, line-in-the-sand choice. If anything I post is shared around the web it will point back to my website. My island. Some have built up enormous followings on Twitter and Instagram. What happens when they go away or change? I’d much rather people remember me for my website than for my Instagram stream.

So what does this mean? Well, I’ve thought about it. And I’m still going to tweet. Though probably far less. Twenty-five thousand plus tweets so far and counting. My entire family and most of my close friends are on Twitter. And, using Twitter Lists, I’m able to get a lot of value from this service. Far more than any other. However, I’m done with Facebook, Google+, Flickr, ADN and Instagram (even though I love Instagram). Everything that I publish is going to be on this site. Follow, don’t follow, it is up to you.

 

Do you deal with this struggle? I’d love to read about how you’re dealing with it on Hacker News.

 

Some have asked if they’ll be able to stay subscribed to this site via Twitter and Facebook. Yes, you will. As long as their policies allow for it. And also RSS if you’re a nerd like me.

Make an app, game, movie, music budget

September 25th, 2012

People make budgets for everything. Vacations, new cars, gas, a new home, gym memberships, etc. Some even budget in a morning coffee from their favorite barista everyday before work. Why is it, then, that some still have an issue with paying for an album on iTunes?

Most applications on the App Store are only a few dollars. The most expensive application I’ve ever purchased for the iPad or iPhone was somewhere around $10. There are more expensive apps, sure, but the median cost of an application is even lower than $10. So why is it that some would rather put up with free applications that don’t work well (or not having any applications at all) rather then to pay for a good one?

Going to the movies with your loved one today costs anywhere from $16 – $30 (depending on where you live in the US). And that is just the ticket price. And you don’t own anything when you leave. The big screen experience is certainly worth it for some movies but, if you’re like me, you probably have a decently-sized high-definition television hanging on the wall in your living room. Imagine taking that money, spending it on a movie in iTunes, through Amazon, or on Netflix or YouTube, and having a few friends over.

Again, I ask, why is it so hard for people to part with a few dollars for these things? I think, among other factors, it is because of how easy it is to pay for them. People are afraid to tap a button and spend $2.99 no matter how good the app is. Or $10 no matter the Rotten Tomatoes rating of the movie they haven’t seen. They’re afraid of losing track of how much money they’ve spent on applications, games, movies, and music only to turn around and realize they’ve spent their lunch money.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Just make a budget. Like you do for other things. Set aside a few dollars per month – I’d recommend $10 – and use that to buy the apps, games, movie rentals, and music you want. Well-made apps are worth their sticker price. Watching movies at home (without worrying about getting letters in the mail from the MPAA) is a fantastic experience. Buying music is quick, easy, and supports the artists. These innovations (and the hard work of the people behind them) help make your life more productive, easier, and even more fun.

Stop being so afraid of spending a few dollars. You’ll be happier.

Notes about the first-run iPhone 5 experience

September 21st, 2012

Today I’m receiving an iPhone 5 that is Verizon-ready. I’ll be upgrading from an iPhone 4 on AT&T. Below are my live notes, as they happen, during this experience. It should be fun!

Notes, in order. (the page will refresh automatically when I publish new notes)

Waiting for the FedEx guy to arrive. I’ll bet he sees a lot of smiling faces today.

I looks like people on Instagram are getting their iPhones now. The stores opened at 8:30am EST.

BTW, we’re receiving two iPhones today. Both 16GB. One white for me. One black for the lady. I know my choice of white is somewhat controversial but I  really miss my original iPhone and the white iPhone has a “metal looking” back.

I’d much rather wait at home, with a coffee, in my sunroom than inline in front of an Apple Store. I waited in line for the original iPhone at the King of Prussia Apple Store and for the iPhone 4 at the White Hall, Pennsylvania Apple Store. Although, waiting in line in Paris looks nice.

Why buy one or two iPhones when you can buy four and a keyboard?

Name drop alert: While waiting for the original iPhone I let my friend John Gruber cut in line. Here, also, is a link to my “liveblog” then. Should I dig up a photo?

OK, OK. A photo of Gruber. Doing his own blogging.

Just a note… that was in June 2007. He no longer needs to wait in line for iPhones. He gets them directly from Apple before everyone else does. He’s earned it.

I’m getting a bowl of cheerios with a banana cut up in it. You guys.

OK. That was delicious. I added some honey. So, no more notes until the FedEx guy arrives. If you want to leave this page, feel free, I’ll tweet when I resume.

“On FedEx vehicle for delivery.”

Just saw this dude post an Instagram photo from his iPhone 5. Had to link to it. As you know, I love taking black and white photos.

I see, on Twitter, that people are giving their delivery people gifts (wine, a free lunch, etc). Great idea.

Remarkable photo of the iPhones that are being delivered today.

I found this video of a bandwidth speed test on a new, Verizon-powered, iPhone 5 on LTE. 19Mbps upload speed??? I never knew.

Pretty good example of how much bigger the iPhone 5′s screen really is. Look closely at this photo. Even though he didn’t upgrade Instagram yet (which takes advantage of the taller screen) you can see down to at least the first comment under the photo. Whereas before you could only see down to the number of likes. With an updated Instagram you’d be able to see much more I’d imagine.

I hope my delivery guy is this excited to deliver my phone.

Sorry, had to link to this.

11:20am: Arrival

There will be no unboxing photos here. I’m now going through Verizon’s included “Getting Started” pamphlet.

Opening the white iPhone 5 first. This one is mine. I’ll let Eliza open hers when she gets home. First, a quick back up of the iPhone 4 via iTunes/iCloud. Just to be safe.

While the iPhone 4 backs up one last time:

  • Wow, this iPhone 5 is light. Very light.
  • It feels better in my left-front pants pocket than the iPhone 4 did.
  • The headphones are also remarkably light.
  • They fit in my ear perfectly.
  • I’ll be using the included “square” to keep my headphones tidy in my laptop bag. Thanks Apple.
  • The included Lightning cable is at least 6″ longer than the included USB cable with iPhone 4.
  • Having the headphone jack on the bottom of the iPhone sounds like a bad idea but in practice it is fantastic.
  • The sides of the iPhone sparkle like jewelry. In a good way.
  • Did I mention it was light?

OK. The iPhone 4 is done syncing. Time to activate this sucker.

Connected the iPhone 5 to my Macbook. A very simple setup appears on screen. Language, location, Wifi setup.

After logging into iCloud the most-recent back up I can restore from was yesterday. That’s good enough for me since I spent the day setting up the iPhone on iOS 6 on Wednesday, clearing out old apps, deleting photos, etc. That should be good enough.

Time remaining: 3 minutes. (I never believe these types of progress bars, do you?)

While I’m sitting here, though, I’m wondering about switching my phone to Verizon and Eliza’s still being on AT&T until she gets home. We’ll see.

Looking at iTunes’ default label of “Colin’s iPhone” made me realize I have to name this thing!

Some background on the names of my past and present devices:

  • Original iPhone: Norrin Radd (after the Silver Surfer)
  • iPhone 4: Riker (after “number 2″ from Star Trek)
  • iPad 2: Hurley (from LOST)
  • Current Macbook Pro: Hanauma (after Hanauma Bay in Hawaii)

I’ve got some thinking to do.

Wow. So after the restore is completed it then asks for my iCloud password, whether or not I want to use Siri, and then asks my App Store password so that it can – wait for it – download all of the apps from the App Store.

So the iCloud backup is nice. But it doesn’t make restoring any faster than restoring from iTunes. In fact, restoring from iTunes is probably much more quick.

While the iPhone 5 downloads every app I had installed…

  • Taking photos from the Lock Screen is nearly instantaneous.
  • Switching from the forward-facing to the rear-facing camera is lightning fast.
  • The facial recognition feature is great.
  • The photos, and screen, amazing.

Just used Siri for the first time to get directions to the hotel we’re staying at this weekend. Flawless.

So far Siri is three-for-three. Directions, sending a message, asking for help.

I wasn’t going to comment on performance until after all of these apps downloaded and installed but even with that going on, and using Siri, the iPhone 5 is not able to be compared to the iPhone 4. In fact, it feels faster than my Macbook at every single thing I’ve done so far. Zero lag.

(I’m sure in 2 years this iPhone will feel slow. Weird.)

I have sent a few messages with the iPhone 5 but haven’t received any back yet. So I don’t know if my phone has been truly switched to Verizon yet.

Just did FaceTime with my brother in North Carolina while he was driving in his truck. THE FUTURE.

More re: FaceTime: I walked outside, away from Wifi, and it automatically switched to Verizon and kept the conversation going.

While the apps were downloading I went outside and shot some photos. I’ll use Image Capture to get them to my Macbook to live blog them. Now, I’m syncing with iTunes to get music, books, and app data to the iPhone. Its a whole process man.

Oh my goodness. Because 21 of the apps I had on my iPhone 4 were updated between yesterday and today all of those apps are now being replaced. Meaning that the iCloud backup versions of the apps were not the latest update. Interesting.

Is stupid awesome a thing? Because that is how great the headphones are.

WordPress refuses to display the photos correctly. Sorry. Coming soon.

I won’t even show you how poorly the iPhone 4 took this same image. It is too embarrassing.

Unedited. Unfiltered. Unprofessional.

More flowers, of course. Please realize these were “run into the yard, snap a photo” experiments. Stay tuned to my mobile photos category over the next few weeks for true art.

Seriously. Anyone that shrugged their shoulders when I asked them “Do you use Siri often?” has got to be missing something. Siri is life changing.

Just found the new Weather app view due to the taller screen. Awesome.

Instagram is not iPhone 5 ready. (They move into Facebook’s offices and get all lazy and stuff.) :)

The rear-facing camera is a huge improvement over the iPhone 4. This is a welcome update considering that I take a lot of photos at arm’s length.

Just powered-down the iPhone 4. SADFACE

I want to keep the lens on this iPhone from getting too scratched but I don’t want to buy a case. Send all suggestions via Twitter or email please.

Notes on iOS 6 for iPhone 4 and iPad 2

September 19th, 2012

In case you don’t follow me on Twitter; (really, how can you live with yourself?) earlier today I tweeted a few notes about iOS 6 on my iPhone 4 and iPad 2. I’ve taken those tweets and put them below.

  • iOS 6 note: The new Maps application is pretty fast even on the iPhone 4.
  • iOS 6 note: Clicking “App Store” in Passbook lead to a blank screen for me.
  • iOS 6 note: Love love love the new Phone features. Being able to reply with an SMS with two taps is awesome.
  • iOS 6 note: Change your “Reply with message” messages in Settings > Phone > Reply with Message. Just customized all three.
  • iOS 6 note: The new App Store layouts are such a welcomed change. Screenshots of app are readily available now.
  • iOS 6: Don’t forget to download the new YouTube app. Because the old one from Apple is gonzo.
  • iOS 6 note: The new YouTube app forces landscape video viewing. All is right in the world.
  • iOS 6 note: How to preview a song in the iTunes Music Store is still not apparent. You have to click the number. I never understood that.
  • iOS 6 note: Song previews continue to play while your browsing around. Makes for a much less jerky experience.
  • iOS 6 note: Six versions too late, but… you can now attach a photo/video to a Mail message after you’ve begun writing. Huzzah!
  • iOS 6 note: Shared Photo Streams appears to be dead simple. Looking forward to using this on vacations with friends.
  • iOS 6 note: With Passbook I suddenly have the urge to go to a movie or book a flight to try it out.
  • iOS 6 note: Unsurprisingly iOS 6 does not make my iPhone 4’s screen any taller. I guess I have to wait a few days for that.
  • iOS 6 note: The new “share screen” is also available from any Messages attachments. It used to just be “Save image…”
  • iOS 6 note: iOS 6 on an iPhone 4 runs faster than its predecessor. Even camera readiness from Lock Screen is quicker.
  • iOS 6 note: No matter how loud I yell at my iPhone 4 Siri refuses to listen.
  • iOS 6 note: You “agree to terms” at least 3 times. In iTunes before the download and on first run and a confirmation button. I AGREE APPLE.
  • iOS 6 on iPad 2 note: The clock app is droooool worthy. Wow.
  • iOS 6 on iPad 2 note: Mail is much, much faster. It checks and downloads new email instantaneously.
  • iOS 6 on iPad 2 note: Since the built-in YouTube app is gone. And Google’s isn’t iPad-ready. There is no good YouTube app for iPad.
  • iOS 6 note: To use iCloud tabs you must turn on Safari in Settings > iCloud. And also use Safari on your Mac/PC.
  • iOS 6 note: iCloud tabs works even if Safari is closed on your Mac. It remembers the last opened tab.
  • iOS 6 on iPad 2 note: 3D maps work. And they are amazing.
  • iOS 6 on iPad 2 note: I’ve never seen New York City like this. It is surreal.
  • iOS 6 note: The Yelp integration in Maps is really awesome.
  • iOS 6 note: Something new to me, Street View is gone. 3D maps are good. But Street View will be missed.
  • iOS 6 note: Apple uses the term “200 new features” fairly loosely but this is an excellent upgrade. Recommended for all.
  • iOS 6 note: The Pull-to-refresh animation is way too fun.

As of this writing – 5:45pm – Passbook still doesn’t work yet.

A fork of the Recent Photos widget by Asad Iqbal for WordPress

September 19th, 2012

I’ve been planning on figuring out a simple way to show the latest photo from my mobile photos category on the sidebar of my site for a while. Today I did a quick search for a plugin that would simply add a widget that I could drag/drop into place to do exactly that.

I came across the Recent Photos widget by Asad Iqbal. Asad hasn’t updated the plugin in a little while so it didn’t work for me out of the box. I also made a few slight revisions for my use (mostly removing a bunch of inline HTML). I’ve created a fork in a Gist of the widget and I plan on making a few more revisions. Feel free to use the code or fork it yourself if you find it useful.

I like Amazon and the Kindle

September 11th, 2012

I don’t mention Amazon or the Kindle as much as I mention Apple and the iPad on my blog. But don’t let that be any indication of my ignorance of how good the Kindle product line really is.

Eliza has had a Kindle for a long time. Loves it. Adores it. Prefers to read on it more than any other way. And in my limited time playing with it I can say that if it wasn’t for my having an iPad firmly in my grip about 18 hours out of the day I too would own a Kindle for reading.

When the Kindle Fire debuted I purchased one for the Viddler team to use for QA purposes. I had it shipped to my house so that I could do a little testing of my own. And, for a day or so, I gave the Fire a run-through. I wasn’t impressed.

I wasn’t impressed because the Fire was heavy, scrolled slowly, and the content catalog was lacking. So, effectively, it was a heavier, slower, reading device. But that isn’t what Amazon had in mind for the Fire all along.

I think the recent Kindle press event really shows what Amazon’s true vision for the entire Kindle line really has been. An affordable device line that helps you purchase content on Amazon no matter where you are.

I don’t totally buy into Bezos’ rose-colored ideals that Amazon really is trying to create Kindles without any profit whatsoever. He said so himself when he said he didn’t believe in the razor/blade approach wherein the manufacturer of the razor loses money on the razor in hopes of selling blades in bulk. But, they’re obviously slicing the sausage pretty thin in hopes of being able to break even on the positive side with Kindles. The prices speak for themselves. Amazon wants to sell content. A lot of it.

I think the graph that Bezos showed of the growth of book sales on the Kindle in comparison to physical book sales was very telling. The way people are buying books today is on the Kindle (the devices and the applications on iOS/Android). And, in just a few years since the first Kindle, people are buying more books through the Kindle than any other way. So, investing in the Kindle line seems like a no-brainer to me.

I suppose I’m writing all of this to say – I’ve always admired Amazon even though I don’t say it as much as I say that I admire Apple. I like the Kindle even though I don’t say that I do as much as I say that I like the iPad. I think Amazon is investing in exactly the right spot for Amazon and they’re making excellent products that are stiff competition for every company in this space including Apple. And I think that’s great.

How to tear down the walls of your echo chamber

August 22nd, 2012

Everyone has an echo chamber that they’ve unwittingly built up around them. Your interests, friends, environment, and location are all factors in determining what your experiences are, what you know, and what you don’t know. It can be limiting.

How can you tell if you’re in an echo chamber? Ask yourself; Is your experience and knowledge more diverse than it was five years ago? Do you know everything there is to know about a single topic such as Apple or Anime? Do you listen to podcasts, read the blogs of, and follow the tweets of the same few guys? Do you see the same headline (or worse, sponsor) more than four times a day? You get the point. You’ve built up a few walls around yourself and things are beginning to echo a bit.

Shake things up. Tear down the walls. Here’s how:

Travel. Don’t go on vacation and just visit the touristy areas. Sit, eat, chat, and work with the people of the area you travel to. Learn what it is that makes business, marketing, and sales thrive there. Come back with ways you can improve how you do business. (Visit the touristy areas too, though, and Instagram the crap out of them.)

Go to conferences and meet ups. No doubt you’ll hear new perspectives from the presenters but also be sure to intentionally speak to people who don’t do exactly what you do. Ask them questions about how they do business, what lessons they’ve learned, what skills they have, and what their favorite hobbies are.

Work next to someone different. Have you had the same job for more than a few years? That’s great. You should consider yourself fortunate. But you have to mix it up and you don’t have to quit to do it. Work at a coworking space or a cafe a few times a week. Sit next to someone different. Feel their energy when they’re getting stuff done. Teach them how you do things. Bring the lessons you learn from them back into your company. Everyone will benefit.

Periodically delete your RSS subscriptions. Or, perhaps, you use Twitter Lists now instead. Whatever the case, once-and-awhile go through and delete the sites that deliver news and opinion pieces. If you read someone’s opinion long enough their opinions begin to form your own. Break out of that habit. Read the counter arguments. Or ditch them altogether.

Take a break from what you already know and follow something brand-new. Do you know everything about the new iPhone being released next month? Do you have an App.net account? (So do I.) This is OK. It is good to know what’s new. But don’t forget to learn from the past or from something new. Something way out of your “wheelhouse”. What about following something super local but important like the growth of your community, the efforts to build new parks in your town, celebrate the centennial anniversary of a nearby bakery, or help a friend build a new business that you know nothing about? Take a break. Follow something new.

Watch 90% less television. That’s it.

Get offline at least one night a week. The Internet is awesome. But it will be awesome tomorrow, too. Get offline one night a week (meaning, from 5pm until you go to sleep don’t touch the Internet in anyway on computer, phone, TV, nothing) and do something you need to get done. Grocery shop, clean your house, repair something, play a board game with a friend, go to a museum, walk around your town and speak with your neighbors, plant a garden, cook a new recipe (twice). Remember; seeing something on-screen is much different than feeling it with your hands, smelling it, or tasting it. Get out there.

Our echo chambers won’t kill us. But they certainly limit our own perspective. And, in reality, our experiences are what make us different, valuable to a company, and fun to be around. Tear down the walls of your own echo chamber and see what else is out there.

Have more to add? Consider chiming in on Hacker News.

How I use lists on Twitter

August 16th, 2012

The way I use lists on Twitter is pretty straight forward. I hand-curate about a dozen lists into categories of things I’m interested in. Over the years I’ve seen people complain that they don’t want to do the heavy-lifting of managing these Lists. But I’ve found that lists is a feature that has kept Twitter valuable to me.

I think it is interesting that I’m seeing more and more people come around to the idea of using lists to retain value as Twitter grows, albeit slowly.

It used to be that following every Twitter account that you’d like to keep up-to-date with was enough. For the first few years it was manageable to keep up with. But that quickly changed as Twitter exploded and the amount of content and correspondence on Twitter increased. I’m assuming this was one of the main reasons Twitter created and has maintained the lists feature. Today, Twitter is used as a RSS replacement, a way to keep up with companies, software updates, photo sharing, location sharing, news alerts, weather alerts, celebrities, friends, family, and even used to communicate in place of SMS and e-mail in some cases.

If you want to get value out of this huge content river on Twitter you need to divide that river into smaller streams just to keep it manageable. Until Twitter comes up with a better way, at least.

Alex King just recently started to create a few lists. Here is how he chooses what accounts he follows:

My “following” list on Twitter is made up primarily of people who I know in real life (who aren’t too verbose on Twitter), with a few choice “entertainment” gems. I like it this way, it keeps the noise to a level where I can generally keep up with folks I care about.

I’m a little more strict than Alex. I only add Twitter accounts to my Following list of people I know and interact with on a daily basis and, in most cases, are geographically near to me (the main exception being family spread out all over). It is how I get the most value out of Twitter. When I check Twitter I would like to see what is most important to me and that, as with most anyone, is family and friends.

Everything else that falls out of those rules ends up in a list. And I’m pretty strict about what goes into my lists too. However, I am more willing to throw an account into a list and check lists periodically than I am to ever follow an account directly.

So, what lists do I have? Believe it or not, I’m still trying to come up with the right mix. I’m always switching up lists, their names, purpose, what accounts go into which list, etc. In fact, I’ve done it enough that the Twitter API won’t allow me to add accounts to or delete  one of my lists so I have a duplicate, empty list that just sits there. I’m pushing the system to its limits apparently.

I’ve come up with a few lists that have stood the test of time. About 4 of them. But I have 8 or 9 other lists that still haven’t settled. I have some obvious ones for news and software updates but I also have some not-so-obvious ones for interesting accounts I come across. I had written out some of my lists and their descriptions in a draft of this post – but I’ve removed them because I believe everyone’s way of categorizing things is different. It is probably why Twitter hasn’t provided you with any default lists.

There is a list that I’ve recently created that I’d like to tell you about: Scratch. Scratch is a list that I am now using to throw just about everything I come across into. Especially in the real word. See a Twitter account of a restaurant? Add it to Scratch on the go. See a Twitter account that seems funny but you don’t have time to read them all now? Add it to Scratch. Then, when you get time… go through and prune the list. Putting the accounts that you ended up liking into their proper lists or following them. The others, like restaurants that you didn’t like, delete. I’ve found it useful, you may too.

I suppose my favorite part about using lists is that I can check Twitter whenever I want without the feeling that I’ll be overwhelmed and distracted by tweets. I can choose when I want to be distracted. When I want to sit down and catch up on Twitter I can go through a few of my lists depending on my mood. Like the contrast between picking up the newspaper or starting to watch TV and flipping the channels. If I want to check up on world affairs I can do so without seeing Stephen Fry’s photo of a baby otter. Isn’t he cute?

This is how I use Twitter’s List feature. I recommend more people taking the time to do the same.

 

Side note: Many Twitter clients, including Twitter’s own clients on iPad and iPhone, do a terrible job implementing the Lists feature. The best client to use on iPhone, iPad, and Mac has been Tweetbot. I recommend it highly.

 

Orographic clouds

July 8th, 2012

Photo by Richard Jones.

Lately I’ve been fascinated by orographic clouds – which are clouds created by Earth’s terrain forcing large amounts of air up into the atmosphere. You can think of these clouds as the result of a speed bump that these mountains create for air as it moves over Earth’s surface.

The reason this phenomenon occurs is due to an interesting way that air “cools” when it is moved up in the atmosphere. It is called adiabatic cooling which occurs when the pressure around the air decreases rapidly and the actual temperature of the air itself remains unchanged. Interestingly, if the opposite were to occur – where the pressure increases – the air would be “heated”. This is one of the principles that govern the way the engines in our cars work.

Photo by Tom Kelly.

Browsing around the web you can find tons of photos of orographic clouds happening all over the world with stunning results. These clouds ended up on my radar because of this video from these clouds happening in the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland.

Living in the fairly rough terrain of north eastern Pennsylvania it will now be my own personal pursuit to find this happening in my area and capture it.

The way we handle linking

July 3rd, 2012

For the past week or so I’ve been publishing Daring Fireball-style links for the links category (or as some call them, the link list). I’ve been going back and forth on whether or not to link this way for years. (The things geeks worry about.)

Readers find these style of links much more beneficial. Especially RSS feed subscribers. And, indeed, it does seem less “spammy” when you’re linking readers directly to the sources rather than to a webpage of your own. Though, this site very, very seldom has any sort of advertising or affiliate links – it can still seem spammy. When linking to something the full credit for that something should go directly to those who published it.

I’m not the only one who was mulling this over, on 1 July Stephen Hackett made the switch.

The problem with advertising

May 8th, 2012

The problem with advertising is that the customers will always be the advertisers and they will always want value for their ad spend and value typically comes from compromising the viewer’s experience.

Countless well-meaning, tasteful, and respectable people have taken a swing at making friendly advertising that is both respectful of the viewer and valuable to the advertiser. The problem is that it very rarely works out in the long run because well-meaning, tasteful, and respectable people really do not like “the business” advertising. And viewer-friendly advertising is often of very little to no value to the advertiser.

The business of advertising is a numbers game. When well-meaning, tasteful, and respectable people start out trying to change the world of advertising they typically look at those numbers as they should – they look at them as people. People that don’t want to be swindled or bothered or nagged. People that are at the current web page they are viewing because they really like the blog post they are reading, the newspaper column they are reading, or the video they are watching. People that actually do not like advertising.

So the well-meaning, tasteful, and respectable people say to themselves “I’m one of those people. I don’t like ads. But people that write blogs for free and want to do it full-time need to make money somehow so let’s make a great ad network that sells unobtrusive advertising that people will love.”

Noble. But this business plan isn’t based in reality. This plan can only work if the ad network’s brand is as strong as the brand of the sites in its network. And even then it is questionable whether or not the network can sustain advertiser value longterm. The Deck seems to have success in this area because simply being an advertiser on The Deck comes with some credence. But in my experience this is the exception.

Once the initial novelty of the idea for a viewer-friendly ad network wears off everything comes down to the pageviews and the click-throughs. If the click-throughs are high the pageviews can be lower. If the pageviews are high – and they usually have to be very, very high – the click-throughs can sometimes be not as important since advertisers will typically hope to make up for them with brand recognition of some kind.

And then there is the repeat advertiser problem. If an ad network can bring in brand new advertisers every few months then they needn’t worry about having repeat advertisers. So they needn’t deliver on value. “Your campaign wasn’t all that great but thanks for trying.” And then they simply move onto the next company with $5,000 to spend. The problem is eventually the black books of the individuals running the network will run out of companies to call. Then they have to deliver. Every single month.

Viewer-friendly advertising can work in smaller numbers and with direct relationships with advertisers. However, once an entire “network” of brands are involved it slowly will move away from the relationship between website and brand and move towards the numbers.

Ad dollars will always move towards the latest and greatest thing. The thing the kids love. So newer ad networks with novel ideas on how to do advertising will all typically start off pretty well. Any company with a decent advertising budget will take a crack at whatever the latest fad is. Make no mistake, the same people that will buy your 120×120 pixel well-designed, well-meaning, tasteful, and respectable ad will buy a pop-under ad. They don’t really care about your high-brow morals in the world of advertising. They will go to where the value is. And when your network doesn’t produce value for them in a certain amount of time they’ll stop buying your inventory. Simple.

Patrick Dryburgh nails it in his post about leaving FusionAds:

I hold nothing against the guys running Fusion now. They’re in a tough business, and need to produce page views and sell those page views and then produce and sell some more. So, I get why they need to take money from companies or sign on publishers I don’t think represent the initial vision.

Fusion Ads has to compromise because in the world of advertising there is money in compromising. The more you’re willing to let go of the viewer as the customer and the more you’re willing to give up their experience the more money you’ll make.

Several times in my life where I’ve made the bulk of my income on advertising. Each time I always thought there was a new and better way to do it. A way that didn’t feel so icky. A way to make the viewer and advertiser the customer. It simply isn’t possible. If you’re thinking about starting an ad network of some kind I’d strongly suggest you reconsider.

Responses to tweets about Instagram

April 4th, 2012

Warning: The following may contain some strong language. I’ve tried to clean up the tweets a bit though.

Last night, after a whirlwind trip to New York City on business and just before crashing like a rocket into bed, I pulled up Tweetbot to see what was going on the in world. It turns out Instagram for Android came out and some people were going a little crazy.

I thought some of the tweets were pretty funny so I thought I’d respond to them here. Here are my responses in no particular order.

Fair enough. I’m so glad people that have Android devices can now use Instagram.

Yes, Victoria, the most important parts about Instagram are photos of yourself and hashtags. You’ve got it all figured out.

You know, back in 2007 when I bought the first iPhone I thought to myself: “Why am I buying this phone? It doesn’t have Temple Run or Instagram on it.”

The next logical step for Instagram is to work on house phones, yes. I realize Rodney was being sarcastic. And I appreciate his snarkiness. Good on ya Rodney.

Oh Ashlee, you make this too easy. So, Apple’s cameras suck but your Android device takes a photo so small that Instagram can not use it? Got it.

Yung is onto something here. Girls, be sure to use Instagram’s bokeh effect tool to “cover up all dem bumps on ya face”.

As she tweets about things we don’t care about on a social network that tells us things we don’t care about.

Hey Timmy, THE BIG YELLOW ONES THE SUN!

Hey Mollie, meet Timmy, and THE BIG YELLOW ONES THE SUN!

Something being less exclusive is like something being more unique. But you knew that right?

The best part about “Savage”‘s tweet is that he somehow managed to type this on a computer on the web. The shift and apostrophe keys are notoriously hard to find on computer keyboards.

Exactly the same as Facebook. Zuckerberg is probably furious.

Twitter was definitely built specifically for the purpose of sharing photos, yes. Actually, Chet, while I’m responding to you, you may want to check out my post Instagram is a network, not a camera.

I love hashtags.

Straight thuggin.

I agree Patty. It went from like 25,000,0000 people using it to like 30,000,000 people using it. Totally not cool anymore.

Wow. “Useless Android users” Carolyna? You sent this tweet using an iPhone. An iPhone has spell check. And you chose to type in “Remainder” instead of remember and you called a Blackberry a “black burry”. Maybe you need an Android-powered phone?

Wisdom indeed.

You called it Asierra. Instagram is dead in the water.