Brianstorm

The Talented Mr Google

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 18:38:00 -0400

Over the past 24 hours, every one of my social networks has exploded with buzz and activity; everyone’s scrabbling for Google+ invites off the back of their recent announcement previewing their latest foray into social media. Don’t get me wrong - I’ve been trying to call in every favour possible to obtain an invite and managed to get one earlier today (thanks @steviehailey!) I’ve now had about 12 hours to take a look through it and to play with all it’s new features. And that’s where the whole thing falls down. New features.

At a first glance, the whole thing is as if someone has just reskinned Facebook. I could go on at length about the things that breed this familiarity, but its already been summed up perfectly by Business Insider in this article. It really doesn’t feel that it has that much new to offer. Yes, there are some nice touches (I’m looking at you Circles and your nice little HTML5 animations) but ninety percent of what I’ve seen in my first twelve hours feels remarkably familiar.

So what’s the key difference between the two? As I flippantly tweeted earlier today, it’s about 700 million users, and that’s the battle that Google+ now faces. Currently there’s no clearly identifiable killer feature that would help tip the balance in their favour and cause a mass migration of users from Facebook. It’s a social network, and for it to be social, the people you want to liase with have to be there, otherwise it’s just a ‘network’. Yes, it’s currently in a very restricted field test, but without my friends, colleagues and other people that I want to be part of those nicely animated Circles being there too, the need to visit again and again, and to invest the time in getting my head round its extensive functionality just isn’t there (of course overlooking the fact that I have a responsibility to do as part of my 9-to-5). The ever on the pulse XKCD summed things up pretty well in their comic yesterday;

The sentiments right (and largely one that I agree with) but for the time being I think the actuality will be the opposite. Right now Google+ is Facebook without being Facebook. For anyone with an interest in tech, or a desire for privacy online, that’s a great thing. For the lion’s share of Facebook’s 700 million users, however, it’s a bad thing - right now, if it’s not Facebook, then the members of their social networks just aren’t on it and it’s just a fantastic piece of development that nobody uses. Without a killer feature I don’t see how that can be turned around in the short term but look forward seeing how Google try to do it. In the meantime, I’m off to check my Circles and see who’s managed to secure an invite.

Email scams

Wed, 25 May 2011 05:10:13 -0400

By now, anyone who has had an internet connection in the past 20 years is well aware of the Nigerian 419 email scams

Today I received this …

Hello,
I am really sorry to bother you with this email but i just want you to know what i am going through right now. I am sorry i didn’t inform you about my traveling to Malaysia for a Seminar,i am presently in Malaysia but unfortunately for me i lost my wallet and other valuables in a taxi. I can easily access the internet for now but i do not have access to phone and i also cannot afford the pay phone simply because i do not have a dime on me at the moment. I want you to please assist me urgently with a loan of £1,300 to sort out my hotel bills and to get myself back home. I have tried the embassy here but they are not responding to the matter effectively,i want you to know that i will pay you back as soon as i return,so kindly let me know if you can be of help so that i can send you the details you will use to send the money to me and i think the best way i can receive the money is via WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER since i still have my passport with me.

Jordan.

It obviously works (or they wouldn’t be doing it) but who the hell are the people who would receive a message like this and think, “you know what, I better just transfer £1,300 to some random guy that I’ve never heard of has he sounds like he’s in quite a predicament”. Come on people.

Apple launches iOS 4.2.1

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 13:37:00 -0500

Apple have just pushed the ‘Go’ button on iOS 4.2.1 for all their current devices.

Direct links for the appropriate version are as follows;

If you’d like to know what 4.2 can do for you (you mean you had a life and didn’t watch Steve’s keynote?!) the you can check out Apple’s concise overview at http://www.apple.com/ios/

What tune will Apple play tomorrow?

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 14:42:00 -0500

By now I’m sure you’re well aware of Apple’s impending announcement that’s scheduled or 3pm UK time tomorrow. All Apple had to do was change their homepage to a notification of the announcement date and time and the Twitterverse duly exploded. Hours later and it’s still riding high in the trending topics.

So what’s it going to be? Well, there are two things I would love for it to cover;

Streaming iTunes
This seems to be everyone’s favourite for what’s coming. The Apple TV 2 is a clear indication of Apple’s (and the world’s!) cloud based strategy - you can stream movie trailers, tv shows, movies, photos, even YouTube videos. Spot the missing link? Your music still has to come from a mac somewhere on your network. An iTunes streaming service would fill that gap. Add to that the success of Spotify, which is now producing more of a profit for labels than iTunes in Sweden and you can see why they’d want a slice of this action. And what about LaLa, who Apple purchased earlier this year. It seems a dead cert. I just want to know how much they’re going to charge me a month to tempt me away from my Spotify Premium account!

Apple TV Apps
I don’t think this will be it, as the focus appears to be on iTunes, but I’d love to see the iOS app platform launch on the Apple TV. We’ve seen through the jailbreak community that the groundwork is there. I’d kill for an iPlayer, Sky Sports or NetFlix app for the Apple TV and I’m sure they’ll come. Whether that’ll be tomorow or not I don’t know. The lack of a developer build of the Apple TV OS to test Airplay suggests that there’s a link, but I think it may be the addition of that elusive streaming music option rather than the launch of a full application platform.

The Beatles
No iTunes rumor would be complete with the obligatory ‘it’s the Beatles coming to iTunes’ classic. I don’t get it - why not just buy the CD and rip it yourself?! :)

Either way, I guess we’ll all know by this time tomorrow! :)

Is optical media dead?

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 08:26:00 -0400

For a while now it’s been pretty obvious that faithful old CDs and DVDs are on the way out. In my opinion, not because they are being trumped by Blu-ray, but because digital distribution is quite obviously the way forward. iTunes, Amazon and other online digital music retailers (and lately services like Spotify, Pandora and Grooveshark) have done it to music; whilst comparatively more fledgling, digital video distribution is making massive ground. Netflix had plans to expand into the UK in 2004 which they shelved to focus on North America, a market which they’ve pretty much conquered with their digital distribution model. Just ask Blockbuster.

In their September keynote, Apple launched the second generation of the AppleTV - a storage free, streaming only box that could fit in the palm of your hand and allow you to stream music, television and movies from your computer, the iTunes store, your iPad or (if for some reason you wanted to) your iPhone. Again, no need for cluttered shelves of VHS tapes (yup, I’m that old!), CD or DVD cases or the hassle of tracking down the discs that are missing from their cases (yup, I’m that disorganised!) Another nail in the coffin of optical media.

Microsoft are playing the same game. The Xbox360 is their flagship in their hope to get a PC in every living room - moreso that their Media Center OS ever was. Whilst Microsoft were high profile supporters of (and investors in) the failed HD-DVD format, I do think this was purely an act of disruption against Sony’s PS3 and the Blu-ray format to divide the market and give digital distribution more time to get a hold of the average consumer. Now they’ve got the Zune Marketplace, Netflix integration and Sky Player all tied in to their media hub. BBC iPlayer should be following if they could just sort out the contractual agreements with the broadcaster. Another nail in the coffin.

In Apple’s OSX keynote earlier this week they unveiled two new MacBook Air models. I’ve never been a fan of the Air. Its low grunt / high price ratio has always made me steer clear. That changed this week. Whilst it could be argued that the 11 inch model is Apple’s stealth approach at moving into the netbook space (a space that Jobs so strongly chided at the launch of the iPad) the pricing and power is now such that I think they’ll sell by the bucketload. And that’s where the next nail in optical media’s coffin kicks in. The Air, like most netbooks, has no optical media drive. Where it differs slightly is in Apples approach to restore media. Other manufacturers have included restore media as a separate partition on the hard disk, or as a restore DVD - in some cases even when the device itself doesn’t even have an optical drive.

Instead Apple have opted for a tiny little USB drive. It definitely costs more to manufacture than a DVD - although it almost certainly uses less plastic. In a computer that’s going to sell in droves it’s going to be a lot of people who won’t have optical drives, nor a need for them.

Don’t get me wrong. It will be a long time yet before we see the absolute demise of this little circular pieces of plastic we’ve grown so fond of since CD’s launch in 1982 and DVD’s in 1993. But it’s definitely entering its twilight years. They’ve seen off other shorter lived formats. (Who remembers Minidisc? And don’t get me started on Sony’s UMD format) but the digital model is without doubt going to get the better of it.

Less is More. And More is Definitely Less

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 20:10:00 -0400

I came across two very interesting articles today which, despite both featuring hugely successful technology companies - Apple and Microsoft - couldn’t have been further apart in their approach and ideology.

First up is Apple. I’ve been a relatively recent convert to Apple and their ‘iProducts’. I feel that everything they make just works. But I’ve always felt there’s something else to it; product reliability and excellent customer service are both great, but why is it that it’s so easy to convince yourself you want the latest product as soon as Steve jobs unveils it in one of his keynotes? Today, via FastCompany I read some excerpts from Carmine Gallo’s book ‘The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs’ which made it a little clearer. Their article includes a retelling of a presentation by Nike’s CEO, Mark Parker, at the ‘Innovation Uncovered’ conference earlier this year, at which he discussed a phone conversation which took place between himself and Steve Jobs shortly after he was appointed CEO;

“Do you have any advice?” Parker asked Jobs.

“Well, I do have some advice,” said Jobs. “Nike makes some of the best products in the world. Products that you lust after. Absolutely beautiful, stunning products. But you also make a lot of crap. Just get rid of the crappy stuff and focus on the good stuff.”

Parker told his audience, “I expected a little pause and a laugh. There was a pause but no laugh. He was absolutely right.”

This is so indicative of Apple’s philosophy - keep things simple and don’t bombard the consumer with choice and options. Something their counterparts in Redmond could definitely learn from. Take their respective operating systems as an example; Windows 7 comes in six different varieties, Windows Vista in eight. If you’re running a Mac, there’s one variety of Snow Leopard - if your Mac is listed on the back of the box, you’re good to go.

That’s it. Straightforward, clear signposting and easily informed consumer choices. It’s the same principle that Barry Schwarz covered in his 2004 book, ‘The Paradox of Choice; Why More Is Less’.

“The more options we have, the more information and effort we have to go into evaluating them, the more likely we are to be dissatisfied with the outcome.”

In essence, reduce anxiety for your customers by taking away the pressures of choice. A lot of parallels to a quote from Steve Jobs in Forbes magazine in 2008;

“Certainly the great consumer electronics companies of the past had thousands of products. We tend to focus much more. People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.”

When Jobs came back to Apple in 1998 he reduced Apple’s core product range from 350 products to 10. These days its still at a modest 30. That’s it. Streamline the choice, remove the pressures of research and decision making. Make it straightforward for the consumer to choose your product. Jobs gets it.

Which is what leads me on to the other side of the tech fence; Ballmer-era Microsoft. Today, to much applomb, Ballmer presided over the Windows 7 Phone launch - the next in a long line of iPhone killers ready to try and get the better of the Cupertino giant. The OS itself looks great and I’m sure will be a success. Whether it will be enough to take a substantial wedge out of the iPhone (or Android) market remains to be seen.

One of the most interesting elements of Ballmer’s keynote was how clearly different Microsoft and Apple’s philosophies are at the helm of two very different leaders. It’s summed up almost perfectly in this photo;

There it is again. Bamboozling the user with options and variations that they need to research, assess and commit to. Then be disappointed with (even if its a great product!). Yes, I’m sure one of the key aims for Microsoft would be to achieve handset ubiquity - it’s worked so well for Android - but do you need to confuse your audience with so many options when the focus at an OS launch event should clearly be on the OS?

Goldman Sachs recently suggested that Microsoft would benefit from carving off its Entertainment and Devices division from the rest of the company, given the brand strength and great consumer relationship that Xbox has built up since its launch in 2005. Even with this segregation I see the same problems creeping in to the Xbox brand - there have now been eight different variations of the Xbox 360 console, all within the one generation cycle. It’s obviously just the Microsoft way.

There’s a lot we can all learn from Apple’s focus - concentrate your efforts on making one thing and do it very, very well - as well as their simplified approach and clear consumer messaging. Steve Ballmer in particular looks like he could benefit from taking on board the philosophy of his namesake at Apple, particularly if he wants to get a slice of his mobile device market share.