I like it. It’s catchy and well-executed with a clear message. I like the fact at the end it is simply referred to as “Windows Phone” instead of “Windows Phone 7.” Now if Microsoft would simply forgo having multiple hardware vendors and simply create THE “Windows Phone” they’d be on to something.
Jason Schwartzman is great. This video with him introducing the New Yorker app for the iPad has a very Wes Anderson vibe to it, which is to say: it’s fantastic.
Excellent point from Dave Newman on probably the biggest shortcoming of .NET:
The .net community operates in a non-collaborative vaccuum.
So why is this is the case?
There’s also Paul Cowan and the horn project. They’re trying to solve dependency management in .net. It’s a really hard problem and probably the largest barrier to real collaboration right now.
Having worked with other frameworks with dependency management like Java and Scala/Lift with Maven and Ruby with RubyGems, I have to emphatically agree. From compiling someone else’s code to going from your dev box to deploying a .NET solution, dependency management for .NET sucks. I blame Windows.
Bonus points for referencing Fight Club:
As Tyler Durden once said: You are not your programming language. You are not the web stack you’ve learned. You are not your text editor you write your code in. You are the all crafting, multilingual developer of the world!
From the Jesse Burke’s experience of using Groupon for her business Posies Cafe.
At the same time we met many, many terrible Groupon customers… customers that didn’t follow the Groupon rules and used multiple Groupons for single transactions, and argued with you about it with disgusted looks on their faces, or who tipped based on what they owed (10% of $0 is zero dollars, so tossing in a dime was them being generous).
In short, people are cheap.
If you are considering using Groupon for your business, Jessie summed it up best:
After all of this, I find myself not even willing to buy Groupons because I know how it could hurt a business (side note: service industry businesses do quite well with features like this because it is just the cost of time – you are not paying for a product for resale. Resale, in my opinion, get hit the hardest).
Update:
Read a bit more here from Redfin.
This is the policy I follow when buying. As an added bonus, it’s less wasteful. A higher-quality item will not only last you longer but you will want to keep it longer.
As the grandmother of our VP of engineering, Sasha Aickin, once said: When you buy something cheap and bad, the best you’re going to feel about it is when you buy it. When you buy something expensive and good, the worst you’re going to feel about it is when you buy it.
Well-done commercial. It focuses on 2 of the Kindles strengths over the iPad: price and readability in sunlight.
Post-apocalyptic world in episodic form? Count me in.
Update:
The show is called “The Walking Dead” not “The Living Dead.”
BMW unscripted is a series about people, talking about their life, passion and joy with the brand BMW.
I have kind of exceeded the speed limit a little bit. Am I supposed to say that in this recorded part?
I could connect with this car because it has a special spirit. It has a soul. And when I first drove it, I thought “woah!” This feels like it’s carved out of one piece.
This is going to be me in 30 years, cherishing my 2001 E39 M5.
At a minimum, skip to 1:30 in where you’ll hear “Third gear.” and then listen to the glorious exhaust note of the inline 6.
UPDATE:
Bill Marceau, the creative director from GSD&M of the BMW unscripted series ( contacted me and offered a better quality version with no subtitles (the original vision I suspect). I’ve made it available here.
For reference, the version posted by BMW on YouTube is available here.
With less than a week to go before Apple’s “special event” scheduled for September 1, the rumor mill has been flying per usual. Of course, Apple typically employs a fall event for its annual refresh for iPods. As previous noted, it is also expected rumored Apple will update the Apple TV to run iOS and rename it iTV. Given the rumors about a $99 price point, I talked about the possibility of a package for $299 which includes an iPod touch as a remote. Kevin Rose and others have been discussing remote options. Kevin suggests the the iPad will be “preferred input device for the iTV.”
It goes without saying all iOS devices will serve as remote controls for the iTV.
The real question is: what’s the default remote control that ships in the box? Is it an iPod touch?
If the price for an iTV is $99, it won’t come with any type of touch-screen device. It will have a “normal” remote control — a rectangle with a bunch of buttons. In Apple’s case, that’s a scroll wheel and some buttons. It *might* have a gyroscope ala a Wiimote but even that is pushing to cost boundaries.
Which bring up another point: why would Apple price the iTV at $99? Other than market penetration and the mucho iTunes Store sales that would come with it, I don’t know. It doesn’t fit their premium pricing model. If it does come out at $99, do NOT expect a revelation in the remote department.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the $99 price point rumors turn out to be false and we see a single $229 to $299 SKU. The $229 model would have a remote with a screen perhaps not unlike an iPod nano while the $299 model would have an iPod touch (or something essentially equivalent) for a remote.
One possibility I do not expect is any type of trackpad. If the remote has any touch capabilities, it will be with a screen.
From Marc Hawthorne’s The Mark of a Great City:
My all-time favorite songwriter is Mark Kozelek
Ditto.
Hawthorne visits many of the places in and around San Francisco Kozelek has referenced in his songs over the years. A piece best enjoyed by Kozelek enthusiasts for sure, but I had a blast reading it. Just plain fun. One of my favorite parts:
I know an old woman ran a donut shop
She worked late serving cops
But then one morning, baby, her heart stopped
Place ain’t the same no more
Those lyrics are from Glenn Tipton on Sun Kil Moon‘s album Ghosts of the Great Highway. It turns out the “old woman” was Eleanor Ahn and the “donut shop” is Bob’s Donut & Pastry Shop.
After reading partway through I was so intrigued I opened up Google Maps and ended up mapping out all the places Hawthorne mentions. Check it out here.
It’s that time of year again. We’re getting close to the annual iPod updates and with that there continue to be rumors flying about an Apple TV update. Let’s review the relatively old rumors:
The latest round of rumors peg the video at 720P instead of 1080P or 1080i. Not surprising honestly. That a _LOT_ less data to push.
Also, the name will be changed to iTV.
I’ve already been thinking since last summer it is a no brainer to move the Apple TV iTV to iOS. As a set-top device it is made for it. I wouldn’t even have to be that “good” out of the gate to get massive adoption. Same App Store model but throw on Netflix and Hulu and some games and you’re done. Apple would sell a truckload.
I’ll throw in my own prediction for what we might see from Apple if they do launch the iTV:
In addition to the $99 option with a simple remote, I expect to see a $299 option with an iPod touch. That’s basically no saving over buying an iPod touch separately but I bet it would still sell like hotcakes. Think about it: iTV running iOS with App Store support and an iPod touch thrown in for just $299? Sounds like a bargain to me. I think Apple would see sales split about 50/50 between the $99 and $299 price point. The other beautiful little bit of the $299 package is Apple would insert not just 1 but 2 iOS devices into a household with each sale. Wrap your head around that.