December 6, 2011
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Reuters:
What happens is that when you order a Kindle Fire […] it comes with your Amazon account information preloaded, along with “1-Click” ordering. That means anyone who is holding that device can place an order, whether it’s their account or not. No prompts come up to confirm the purchase or ask for a password.So that means that the itchy fingers of toddlers can click way, including the 3-year-old daughter of Scenic Labs founder Jason Rosenfeld. He says his daughter was using the device and clicked on an image of a children’s product that appeared on the screen because it was in his shopping history — he had browsed the item while holiday shopping on his PC.
I admit, I chuckled a little reading this. Of course a kid is going to tap the pictures.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Marcelo Somers:
Get out of the box. Stop thinking there is a magical process to getting a job if you follow the rules. Hone in on 3-5 companies that you’re passionate about and get creative. Meet people, find employees of the company a year before you are graduating and send informational emails through LinkedIn. Go to industry events. Heck, send them a 20 foot tall painting in the mail((Credit to Merlin Mann on Back to Work for this idea.))! Do all of this with the intention of learning more, not necessarily getting a job, because if you wait until you need a job, it’s too late.
I agree with the two main points here. There is no magical solution and if you need it, it’s already too late.
I will add this because I’ve seen it so many times in the last 17 years as a technology journalist: Don’t burn your bridges on the way up. It’s a long way down if there’s nobody to help you when you fall.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
The Daily Cartoonist:
As a general rule, as long as the cartoonist isn’t light-boxing, I try to give them the benefit of the doubt. Even the ones cited above can be excused when looked at individually (the ‘nationalized’ cartoons are easy word gags based on the topic of the day). Collectively, however, the matter gets harder to explain away. Only Jeff knows for sure and the only on-the-record response he’s given me was that “it’s a coincidence.”
All of the examples seem a bit too close for my liking.
Regretsy, the “fail blog of hand crafts,” recently notified users that it wouldn’t be able to give donations as part of its Christmas gift fund-raising effort because the program ran afoul of payment service PayPal’s terms of service. Regretsy explained the fallout in a lengthy, occasionally profane blog post, casting PayPal in an unfavorable light – inflexible, humorless, bureaucratic and – during the Christmas-season, positively Scrooge-like in its behavior:
Apparently we made the mistake of using the “Donate” button, which Paypal is now claiming is only for nonprofit organizations to use. They froze the account, which also includes Zazzle money that we use to make emergency gifts. That money isn’t in issue, but what the hell! Might as well keep everything!
Following the predictable howls of outrage from the assembled throngs, PayPal has reversed course. In a blog post entitled, “Regretsy Issue Resolution,” PayPal director of communications Anuj Nayar explained that PayPal has released the funds it had held and was trying to work with Regretsy to make a donation to help their cause:
We appreciate that this can be an inconvenience, but we have a responsibility to all our customers – both donors and recipients; and buyers and sellers. In this instance, we recognized our error and moved as swiftly as possible to fix it.
Whenever you bring up Apple or any of its products, the conversation inevitably goes to market share. So much so that it seems clear to me that some people believe that Apple thinks about market share when it releases products. I don’t believe that at all. I believe Apple’s endgame is to make the best product it can. That’s it. Everything else — profit, market share and sales — come because of that.
Making the best product has many complicated aspects to it. You have to think about usability, functionality, design and thousands of details in each one of those categories. Apple thinks of them all and addresses them before a product comes to market.
There are basically two ways to bring a product to market:
Look at the successful product in a market and copy that product so your company can share a piece of that pie. The pie being market share and money.
Look at the successful products in a market and understand that they are not fulfilling the needs of users. You then focus on user frustrations and problems, and you fix those. The end result is a new product that people will want to buy.
Option one gives consumers a choice. However, option two gives users a new way to integrate technology to make their lives better. There’s a huge difference.
People talk about competition and how its healthy in an open market. I believe that to be true. However, what we have now in the technology market is not competition, it’s copying.
Competition is when a company looks at a product or market and comes up with something radically different than what is currently being offered. It’s up to them to convince consumers that what they have will help solve a problem and make things easier for them.
Sadly, that doesn’t happen very often. What we see more of these days is copying. Samsung sees the iPad and copies it as best it can to steal market share and money away from Apple.
Technology companies these days are scared to death to make a product that varies too far from Apple does because they fear being left behind. Some companies even go so far as to say that Apple’s inventions were inevitable — if that’s the case why weren’t they done before?
Why did it take Apple to enter the MP3 player market with the iPod to change the way people thought of those devices? The same thing happened with the iPhone and again with the iPad.
In each case, Apple’s competitors copied those products as closely as they could, without bringing the wrath of Apple’s legal team. That didn’t always work.
Clearly Apple takes option two when developing its products. After the success of the iPod, I believe that Apple knew it had a really good chance to dominate the smartphone market and there was no question at all that it would dominate the tablet market.
That trend won’t change. If Apple enters a market, I think it knows the product is different enough from the beginning that others will follow.
Apple is not motivated by the same things that drive other companies. Market share and profits are a result of making great products. To do that, you can only have that one singular focus.
Part of making a successful product is making it usable for your target audience. That, apparently, is something that Amazon completely missed with its new Kindle Fire.
“Amazon.com’s new Kindle Fire offers a disappointingly poor user experience,” said usability expert Jakob Nielsen in his report. “Using the web with the Silk browser is clunky and error-prone. Reading downloaded magazines is not much better.
It’s no surprise that one of the main observations in the study is that everything was just too small. Repeatedly tapping on the screen and never quite getting to where you want to go.
“You haven’t seen the fat-finger problem in its full glory until you’ve watched users struggle to touch things on the Fire,” said Nielsen.”
Being able to navigate the Kindle Fire’s small screen isn’t the only problem. It’s also a heavy beast. According to Nielsen, the Fire is “unpleasant to hold for extended periods of time. Unless you have forearm muscles like Popeye, you can’t comfortably sit and read an engaging novel all evening.”
That’s not good for a device that’s actually meant to be used to sit and read for an evening.
While they do serve different markets, the iPad’s design is sleek, light and its 10-inch screen allows users to easily navigate full Web sites. Apple’s device also gives users lots of power and the ability to run complex apps and games.
Like most other companies entering the tablet market, Amazon has a long way to go.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Businessweek:
Lazaridis said at the time the PlayBook was worth continuing because the tablet market is still “in its infancy and that “based on the positive response to the promotions that are underway in select markets, RIM believes this strategy will accelerate adoption” of its new operating system and help built the application ecosystem for devices planned for 2012.
RIM failed to plan for the future while it controlled the smartphone market years ago. Then it lied to its users, and the market, by saying the PlayBook was planned all along. It didn’t take a genius to see that the PlayBook was thrown together at the last minute to mitigate a threat from the iPad.
Unfortunately for RIM, users were not as stupid as the company thought they would be. If the PlayBook is an albatross, it’s because the co-CEOs strapped it around their own necks and then tried to ignore the stink.
Nobody is that stupid.
December 5, 2011
Written by Jim Dalrymple
AppleInsider:
Microsoft’s Windows 8 is still a year away, but IDC is already predicting that the new release will be “largely irrelevant” to conventional PC users and that its ability to sell tablets will be “disappointing.”
You didn’t need a market research firm to tell you that, did you?
Written by Jim Dalrymple
The Register:
Computer scientists have discovered a weakness in smartphones running Google’s Android operating system that allows attackers to secretly record phone conversations, monitor geographic location data, and access other sensitive resources without permission.
Well now, there’s a feature the iPhone doesn’t have.
[Via Daring Fireball]
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Photojojo:
Simply put, our sheepishness turned to sheer addiction (the good kind, not the itchy-skinned paranoid kind) — and we started taking our iPhone Telephoto Lens with us everywhere.
Yeah, it may look funny, but if it takes great pics, it would be worth the investment.
[Via TiPb]
Fuse Powered Inc. and Rebellion have announced the release of Judge Dredd vs. Zombies, a new game based on the popular comic book character. It’s available for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad (it’s universal) for 99 cents.
Judge Dredd is THE Law in Mega-City One and he is none too pleased when zombies invade. Help him punish these unlawful undead invaders with the “Lawgiver pistol” and a devastating arsenal of powerful weapons. Increase your “Law Meter” by slaughtering the zombie horde and earn credits to unlock new guns and upgrades.
The game uses “single-stick” controls and has 30 levels across three episodes. You can upgrade Judge Dredd’s weapons, get equipment upgrades with different combat advantages, and get commendations and stars as your skills improve. It also features Game Center support with 16 achievements to collect.
Written by Peter Cohen
Business Insider:
“Some of the concepts we wanted were transparency, openness, representing a very progressive upscale, and a feeling of having one Heineken,” said Heineken VP of Business Integration John Kennedy. “So it’s very tied in with design elements with our offices in Amsterdam, New York and around the world.”
If there’s one thing that could convince Jim Dalrymple to expatriate from Canada, this is probably it.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
The law firms of Sianni & Straite of Wilmington, DE, Eichen Crutchlow Zaslow & McElroy of Edison, NJ, and Keefe Bartels of Red Bank, NJ, have today filed a class action complaint in Federal Court in Wilmington, Delaware related to the unprecedented breach of the digital privacy rights of 150 million cell phone users. The complaint asserts that three cell phone providers (T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T) and four manufacturers of cell phones (HTC, Motorola, Apple and Samsung) violated the Federal Wiretap Act, the Stored Electronic Communications Act, and the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.The carriers and manufacturers last month were caught willfully violating customers’ privacy rights in direct violation of federal law. A technology blogger in Connecticut discovered last month that software designed and sold by California-based Carrier IQ, Inc. was secretly tracking personal and sensitive information of the cell phone users without the consent or knowledge of the users. On Nov. 30, 2011, the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary said in a letter to Carrier IQ that “these actions may violate federal privacy laws.” It added, “this is potentially a very serious matter.”
It wasn’t hard to see this coming.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
I’m convinced that the people who actually write for magazines, edit them and publish them have never actually tried using their iPad versions for more than a few moments. If they actually did try to use their publication’s app as the actual means to read each issue, things would have to improve. Right? RIGHT?!
Justin Williams tears apart GQ, Esquire and Sports Illustrated for their poor implementation on the iPad. He also offers 10 solutions magazine publishers could use to help themselves.
The iPad should be a great device for reading a magazine, but publishers take old school thinking into a new medium, and that’s just not going to work. Remember all of those subscribe cardboard ads that would fall out of your paper magazine? Publishers are looking for the digital equivalent of that.
What they will find is that many of their users will just stop downloading and subscribing.
The first rule of any business should be “don’t piss off your customers.” Many publishers are failing.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Typing the same things over and over? Get TextExpander from Smile. You’ll save time and tedium by using short abbreviations to insert frequently-typed text. Use it for email addresses, company names, boilerplate paragraphs — there’s even special snippet libraries for correcting typos or coding HTML. The more you use TextExpander, the more uses you’ll find for it. Get a free demo of TextExpander: if you’re not using it, you’re wasting time.
Written by Peter Cohen
Electronista:
Dell on Monday confirmed that it had stopped selling the Streak 7. The tablet is no longer available online and is withdrawing just months after Dell axed the Streak 5. In a statement, it said it would still be involved in the mobile space but conspicuously referred to the Streak 7 in the past tense, suggesting it was being phased out.
It’s a capitulation for Dell, which says it’s still dedicated to the mobile market, just not in the US.
If I were Michael Dell, I’d just shut the whole business down and give the money back to shareholders.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
I looked through the images and was impressed with the photography. When I got to the one of the dog and the navy seal, I felt it tugging at my heart.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Shirley Wibisono:
Indonesian police named Research In Motion’s country director a suspect for negligence Monday after a BlackBerry promotion turned chaotic and left dozens injured and others knocked unconscious.Andrew Cobham, president director for Research in Motion (RIM) in Indonesia, and British security consultant Terry Burkey were named as two of four suspects in the incident at a Jakarta mall and could face five years’ imprisonment.
Just when you think things can’t possibly get worse for RIM.
December 4, 2011
Hey, RIM – if you’re wondering what to do with all those unsold Playbooks, maybe it’s time consider how Atari handled its glut of E.T. cartridges.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Matt Alexander:
I have no doubt that QNX is promising, but why on Earth would you push it when it’s not even compatible with your flagship email software? Why would you build Android emulation when you’re looking to develop your own App Store?The whole project screams of mismanagement, and it’s time to stop. Stop trying to peddle subpar products to the unsuspecting Christmas shopper, stop advertising it, and stop defending it.
I only disagree with one thing Matt said in this article — I don’t believe RIM will mount an offensive in the coming months. It seems to me the problems with RIM come from the top and until the co-CEOs are replaced, the company doesn’t stand a chance of making a comeback.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
I’d like to thank Fantastical for sponsoring this week’s RSS on The Loop.
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Try Fantastical now for free, or purchase it from the Flexibits Store or on the Mac App Store for only $19.99.
December 2, 2011
Written by Jim Dalrymple
CNN:
Most of Gowalla’s employees, including founder Josh Williams, will move to Facebook’s offices in Palo Alto. The team will work on Facebook’s Timeline feature, which launched at this year’s F8 conference and is gradually rolling out to Facebook’s 800 million members.
Probably a great deal for Gowalla.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Erik Sass:
But cash flow remained absurd, with revenues of $3 billion in 1983 and $2.3 billion in 1984, netting Escobar alone at least $1.3 billion in profit.Around this time he bought a Learjet to fly cash out of the U.S., and the Cartel’s expenses included $2,500 per month for rubber bands for bricks of cash.
That’s a lot of rubber bands.
[Via Matt Alexander]
Boing Boing’s Rob Beschizza offers this helpful PR tip in comparing four different wireless carriers’ statements about CarrierIQ. Click through for the image.
From RIM’s advisory this morning:
As previously disclosed, RIM has a high level of BlackBerry PlayBook inventory. The Company now believes that an increase in promotional activity is required to drive sell-through to end customers. This is due to several factors, including recent shifts in the competitive dynamics of the tablet market and a delay in the release of the PlayBook OS 2.0 software. As a result, RIM will record a provision that reflects the current market environment and allows it to expand upon the aggressive level of promotional activity recently employed by the Company in order to drive PlayBook adoption around the world.“RIM is committed to the BlackBerry PlayBook and believes the tablet market is still in its infancy. Although a number of factors have led to the need for an inventory provision in the third quarter, we believe the PlayBook, which will be further enhanced with the upcoming PlayBook OS 2.0 software, is a compelling tablet for consumers that also offers unique security and manageability features for the enterprise,” said Mike Lazaridis, Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “Early results from recent PlayBook promotions indicate a significant increase in demand across most channels. We look forward to continuing to grow the installed base of PlayBook users and to attracting more and more developers to expand the volume of applications, content and services that leverage the power of the industry leading QNX-based platform.”
In other words: The PlayBook sucks balls and the only way we can get rid of the warehouse full of product is to give it away.
