"Why is the Federal Trade Commission threatening Apple with a possible lawsuit for abusing its economic power, but not even raising an eyebrow about the huge and growing economic (and political) muscle of JP Morgan Chase or any of the other four remaining giant banks on Wall Street?"

Robert Reich: “Apple Isn’t the Problem; Wall Street’s Big Banks Are the Problem”
(via Daring Fireball)

"When you’re young, you look at television and think, There’s a conspiracy! The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that’s not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That’s a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It’s the truth."

Steve Jobs on media, conspiracy, and giving people what they want.

Part of an interview Steve Jobs gave Wired in 1996. Brilliant. Just brilliant.

Managing What To Get Done != GTD

First and foremost, this is a “call to arms” of sorts. It is primarily directed at myself but if you find it rings a bell with you, then great. I find writing really helps me solidify opinions and thoughts, so here goes it.

I’ll be honest: I’m sick and tired of being in a limbo in regards to a task/project manager. I’m not talking about a team tool (eg. GoPlan et al). I’m talking about software like Things, The Hit List and others. My one requirement: ubiquity, specifically an iPhone counter-part app with seamless syncing.

When Things for the iPhone came out, Things for Mac was still in beta and I was using it. I bought the iPhone version the minute it came out (one of the first native apps back in 2008) and enjoyed the (ignorant) bliss for a while. Then along came The Hit List (THL). Its “realistic” user interface was soothing and the app really fit my GTD™paradigm better than Things ever did. A few months later, THL still hadn’t released an iPhone app, so I gave up and bought Things for Mac. Yes, the whole $50 of it. [1]

I’ve tried countless web-based systems but none feel natural for personal stuff. They’re awesome if you want to add folks to projects and share tasks, but tend to fail for a more natural, personal task management.

About a month ago, I finally gave up on Things and moved everything to THL. I’ve been using it lately and I like it. On the other hand, its developer seems to have a pretty bad “delegation problem” (I shall write a post about that soon) and no updates have been published lately (except one, extending the beta date limit which was April, 30th) and there’s no feedback on any of his sites, twitter accounts, flickr, blog… And moving back and forth between apps/systems is nothing I’d recommend… at all! Besides, the one requirement I have (an iPhone app) THL doesn’t comply with (yet).

Less Pretty, More Done

I don’t mean to diminish the importance of attractive user interfaces in productivity. I know a good UI and UX can really enhance the usefulness and interaction of an app but… I’m sick and tired of trying to find a GTD™ tool that fits my workflow AND looks good. I’m beggining to think this could well be a lost fight. Besides, maybe I should be spending more effort and focusing on actually getting things done than on figuring an *auxiliary* system that looks good doing so. I might just move “back” to TaskPaper and send the rest down the drain. It sure doesn’t look as good (although this theme makes it extremely good looking) as Things or THL, but that might be perfect for someone like me, that spends way too much time researching and picking “systems” instead of actually using them.

Remember “Less is more”? Now go get things done.

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Notes

1. If there software I regret paying for is those $60 bucks spent on Things ($50 + $10 for the iPhone app). As to THL, I got it on a Macheist bundle (that I bought specifically because of it and Espresso). [back to article]

Hulu will never go international…

… unless they find a way to monetize it. And advertisement isn’t it.

PS: Want to skip the argument and go straight to my point? Jump here!

The Setting

Hulu is an awesome *free* TV viewing online service. It allows you to catch up on the last 5 episodes of most TV shows, some movies and plenty of clips extracted from past shows. It’s free, supported by short, in-place advertisement. Unlike the old TV paradigm, some of these ads are interactive or at least give you options so they can be more targeted/relevant to you.

Sounds awesome, right? Well, it’s only available if you’re accessing from within the US. But, but… aren’t these TV shows dow^H^H^H watched internationally? Yes, they are. So why just the US? Well, that’s my point. :)

Revenue Model

TV shows are said to survive from advertisement revenue: popular show = expensive ad slots = profit. Some TV networks have been publishing their shows on their websites. Again, US only. [1] One of the more popular TV shows of recent times [2] is viewed overseas just as much (or more) as in the US. Because some countries delay the showings so much (translations, bureaucracy, etc…) lots of people just end up resorting to the internet and download top quality (HD even) captures for free.

Apparently in 2006, [3] Disney wanted to make Lost available free for streaming, with ads, on ABC’s website. The result? Network affiliates went bonkers, afraid they’d be cut out of the advertisement revenue.

Bottom line: advertisement as revenue model is dead in our modern, high-tech, borderless culture.

International Rights

I won’t risk going into numbers here, but I’m pretty sure a pretty fat and steady income stream for studios is coming from international royalties. TV networks from all over the world are piggybacking on the international success (read: internet downloads) of some TV shows and paying millions to show them and lure their viewers. This model seems to be on the rise. A few years back, a popular US TV show could take months (years?) to get to national networks overseas. Now, they can come within a week of the US showing, including subtitles (where needed) and/or dubbing (ugh!). I couldn’t find any info on how much money is being generated through this but I bet it’s a *lot* (going by the amount of advertisement some of these shows are getting from local networks).

The ironic thing is that these shows are getting popular internationally because all the *free* downloading. Most people would not pay to watch them and would not know about them in the first place if it weren’t for the internet. I could argue on how cable networks are the ones paying for the shows, and how they’re getting money straight from viewers (aka subscription) but I won’t. I won’t because even though we have cable at home, I barely watch any TV shows on TV: they’re never on time, they’re at awkward times, etc… From my personal experience, TV has been for sports and news, and I know this is a generational thing and many more from my generation feel the same way.

Hulu

Hulu is living off the good graces of the studios. They’ve always been between a rock and a hard place. They can’t upfront the networks or they’ll lose their shows. They can’t allow international viewers because it’d screw the networks largest revenue stream. I have serious doubts their ad revenue would be enough to pay off “real” royalties charged by the studios. The studios see Hulu as advertisement *itself*. That’s why you’re only allow to watch the last 5 shows: they wouldn’t want to screw with their other good revenue source (DVD/Bluray sales).

Download, please!

So, if you live outside the US, here’s my (very politically incorrect) advice: download the shows off the internet. Go for the 720p version (HD) which isn’t even available for streaming anywhere. Until studios wake up and allow people to stream HD for free they won’t get my money. I’ll buy the box set of some of my favorite TV shows, but I’ll only do that now that Bluray has been out and offers me HD (versus the “crappy” DVD quality). [4]

The fact that viewers in the US can watch their shows for free both on TV (HD) and stream high quality versions of it and international users cannot is border-line xenophobic. They’re making money off of your downloads anyway, as the show gets international acclaim and royalties go up. Then if you don’t watch them on TV in your country, networks will stop buying the shows. And *that*, my friends, will force US studios to get on with the game and move on from their current revenue models and find much better ways of understanding viewer interest than “TV ratings”.

Want a recommendation? If you’re on a Mac (you should, anyway), get this app that automatically downloads the latest torrent for your favorite TV shows as they’re published (or visit my favorite website for that) and use Transmission to auto-load the .torrent files from the folder to which you told TVshows to download the torrents.

If you really liked the show, go buy a Bluray (or DVD, if you must! *ugh*) and you’ve done your share of “saving the show”.

There. I’ve done my share of contributing back to the internet. Have a great weekend. :)

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Notes

1. In the UK, BBC has their BBC iPlayer… UK-only. [back to article]
2. And by that I don’t mean *best* show on TV! Not my job to decide that… even though I’m a huge fan! ;) [back to article]
3. Source: Wikipedia [back to article]
4. Who would’ve guessed 10 years ago I’d consider DVD quality as “crappy”? :) [back to article]

View high resolution

Mac, iPhone, or iPad? Device Advice for Modern Adventures | Fast Company

The bit about the “battery heat threatening future fatherhood” is pure genius… haha :D

View high resolution

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Gizmodo iPhone Saga | Fast Company

Brilliant infographic! :D

markjardine:

This might have been posted all over the net by now, but I just saw it for the first time. Hilarious.

:>

"The idea that humans, for all their technological might, could be put in their place by this volcano—this obscure, unpronounceable, C-list volcano—was strangely satisfying, even thrilling."

After the volcano: Earthly powers (via marco)

"Websites are looking like web applications that look like websites that look like science fiction that look like Apple that are quickly looking like a design trend of the late 2000’s."

Naz Hamid, Stuck Between an App and a Website (via davidkaneda)

Icebird for iPhone

Clearly inspired by Tweetie while winking at the heritage left by Birdfeed, Icebird is a smooth-looking Twitter client that you won’t be able to use without thinking “Oh, this looks like _______” about most UI details or UX options. But is that a bad thing? Here’s my take.

The Icon

Let’s start with the application’s icon. There’s no easy way to say it: it’s pretty bad. I don’t mean that as in “bad idea”, I mean it as in “bad implementation”. It looks good when at 512px, but too many details on small graphics make them look… err… “complicated”. Icebird’s icon is a play on a birdhouse, an egg and cold/ice/snow. I get the idea but I’ll honestly say: it’s not “dock material”, in my humble opinion. I guess I’m just too used to Birdfeed’s *beautiful* icon and Tweetie’s simple yet smooth look. Add to that how the egg itself looks like a straight rip from Twittelator, and the birdhouse from, well, Birdhouse. Also, not so good antialias.

Bottom line: needs some icon looove. [1]

Inspiration

Now that we got the “bad” out of the way, let’s deal with more important stuff: the UI & UX. Like I said before, if you’ve used Birdfeed and Tweetie, it’ll all feel very familiar. The pull down to refresh, the single tweet view and user profiles are incredibly similar to Tweetie. The absence of a bottom switch bar and the timeline, conversation and direct message design/colors resemble the late (and sorely missed) Birdfeed. To be honest, after getting past the “What a rip-off!!” moment [2] I seriously enjoy having the best of both worlds in one client.

Gripes

I have a few gripes, one of them being the location of the reply button: top bar, on the right. When most actions are at the bottom (eg. conversation, retweet, favorite, etc…) I don’t get why the reply button is at the top. A bad move, from a UX standpoint but clearly easily fixable, should the developer realize it. *wink*

I’d also love to be able to add a “default” list to be opened when hitting Lists from the main screen. Not a huge deal, but I use a private list to keep up with some companies and individuals whom I like to check once in a while but would rather not have them in my main timeline.

On the search area, I didn’t see a way to delete a previously searched term. Not sure if it disappears later, but I’ve been in and out of the app a few times after searching for it and it remains there. I could’ve saved the search, if I wanted, but I didn’t, so…

The timeline “break” indicator (when there’s a gap between tweets) is not too good looking. Same goes for the “unread tweets” indicator on the username on the top left (the little star next to your username, indicating you have new tweets in another section, like mentions, direct messages, search, etc…). Again, these are things that can, and I’m sure will, be fixed/improved.

Customer Care

On launching the app one time, I decided I wanted to do something first and hit the home button, quitting the app mid-launch. On restarting the app later, I got an extremely cool dialog, telling me that they detected the app had crashed the last time it was launched and asking me wether I wanted to send an anonymous report to the developer, with an option to do so always or not now. These little details go a long way in showing that Icebird is backed by a serious developer, concerned about user satisfaction. I’ll be honest: customer support and service really mean a lot to me. I’m not one who needs support that ofter, being the geek I am, but small details that show me a business cares about me as a client mean a lot when I have to pay a recurrent bill/pay for something. After stuff like what happened with Birdfeed, this is a very sensitive point for me (and many others).

I haven’t needed to contact the developer for any reason so I can’t vouch for his direct support, but browsing his Twitter account, I see he’s alert and interacting with customers. That’s a good sign. On a side note, while writing this review, I tweeted about it and got a mention from the developer within minutes.

Feature Requests

A (personal) review couldn’t be complete without a few feature requests that I’d love to see implemented soon.

• Tweetie’s “pull-down-to-check-what-you’re-replying-to” feature
• Ability to delete a tweet
• “Mark all as read”, especially on Direct Messages
• Image uploading options (especially Flickr, including choice of default set).
• Cloud URL shortening integration (plus bit.ly, tr.im, etc…).
• Instapaper support [added in 1.0.1]
• Forward tweet (aka tweet link to tweet, with shortned URL preferably)
• Drafts
• Ability to set a default “list” or a way (not sure how) to have a “secondary timeline” be one of your lists (that would be brilliant!)

With these requests, I’m just confirming the potential of this app. Hopefully, some (or all!) of these features will make into the app… soon! :)

Updates

As I was wrapping this post, I noticed version 1.0.1 hit the AppStore. The changes include Instapaper support (which was one of my gripes), auto-refreshing (which I didn’t think was needed, but is welcome) and a few other fixes and features. Let’s hope they keep the pace up and add some of my feature requests as well… ;)

Final Remarks

The question that might remain lingering is the most obvious one: is this app worth $3.99? For all the things I’ve said so far, I can’t say anything other than: heck ya! It’s a well designed app, catching on the best of other clients while keeping its own identity. Version 1.0 was already much better than a lot of other two-point-ohs out there and the developer seems to be keeping a good pace in its development.

My final remark goes to the developer: please don’t sell it! Keep on improving it but keep it yours. If you do sell it, don’t allow a change of direction or spirit. Stay on it, and own it. Please? :)

Now, if you haven’t already, go buy it!!! ;)

Disclaimer: I don’t (and won’t ever) do many product reviews. They always take me a *lot* of time, research and effort. I’m a perfeccionist and that sucks for reviewing. Having said that, I felt that given the recent news (Birdfeed’s death and Tweetie’s “gone official”) I could use an indie iPhone Twitter client and I think I found one I like. I’m not endorsed or sponsored in any way, shape or form. Also, don’t expect regular product reviews here. I’m just a geek who felt like he could give back some the community by reviewing this app in detail so others could find it, and enjoy it as much as I have.

Screenshots Gallery

Full Flickr Set: Icebird Review

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Notes:

1. I know a few *very* talented icon designers… Not saying that Elias Keppens is not talented, but he could use some general iPhone app icon guidance. Let me know if you need recommendations. :) [back to article]
2. Not trying to bash on the developer here, but sometimes that’s the first reaction to features that are brought from other apps. The fact is there’s a really fine line between “inspiration” and “rip-off”… [back to article]