Sometimes it’s hard to convince PC users of the benefits of Apple computers and Mac OS X.
Since their computers are hardly personal, and just tools, and essentially lacking style and personality, they don’t understand, can’t grasp, cannot fit in their brains the concept of an interface that has been obsessively designed to fit, to function, to form an environment that accepts and welcomes people.
Maybe the iPhone will solve this problem. Check out what this Time reviewer says:
The user interface is crammed with smart little touches — every moment of user interaction has been quietly stage-managed and orchestrated, with such overwhelming attention to detail that when the history of digital interface design is written, whoever managed this project at Apple will be hailed as a Michelangelo, and the iPhone his or her Sistine Chapel (Steve Jobs can be Pope in this scenario). If you’re not a reviewer, chances are you won’t even bother to look at the manual. Translucent, jewel-like, artfully phrased dialogue boxes come and go on cue. Window borders bounce and flex just slightly to cue the user where and how you’re supposed to drop and drag and scroll them. When you switch the phone to “airplane mode” (no electronic transmissions, for use on planes) a tasteful little orange airplane slides into the menu bar, then zooms away when you switch out again. (This was so pleasurable that I repeatedly entered airplane mode while using the iPhone, even though I wasn’t actually on an airplane.) As soon as my phone realized it belonged to someone with a nonsense-name like Lev, it started correcting typos like “Leb” and “Lec” to match.
That’s the zen of Apple taken to a whole new level.
Umm … really … can we please just say richer?
more socioeconomically advantaged
From the Freakonomics blog.
The first reviews of iPhone are starting to come out. Saw this on the NY Times:
On the iPhone, you don’t check your voice mail; it checks you. One button press reveals your waiting messages, listed like e-mail. There’s no dialing in, no password — and no sleepy robot intoning, “You…have…twenty…one…messages.”
I so so so so so hate voicemail. But this makes it much more email-like … which is a quantum leap.
[tags] iphone, voice mail, email, john koetsier [/tags]
In a discussion on the burning question of “who Bill Gates really is,” we get the following brilliant insight:
“Bill Gates is the proxy for how Microsoft will be remembered. First and foremost, he’s a businessman. He’s not an inventor or technologist, per se, and I don’t think he would claim to be. He’s fundamentally a geek.”
Greg Papadopoulos, CTO of Sun Microsystems
Count me confused.
Is 3 negative articles in one day a coincidence?
Holy mother, what on earth is going on here?
Could it be an extremely Windows-centric empire of analysts and business media is absolutely terrified that their comfortable bread-and-butter Windows hegemony is dissolving in front of their eyes?
I guess Linux was bad enough – it wasn’t in the MSCE textbook but at least it was technical, and needed user handholding, and ensuring lots of expensive tech support and high-end analysis was required.
But Macintosh! Is iPhone at last the trojan horse that will take Apple into the enterprise, just like iPod has in the home? The very prospect has Windows weenies running scared:
After all, the horde carrying the forthcoming Apple phone won’t be barbarians; rather, the very folks doing the work, and worse, some may well be the boss.
IT departments like devices like Blackberry’s with centralized command and control. They hate things they don’t bring in, that they haven’t first subdued with strong corporate chains. And they fear Apples’ recent success.
Their fear is both justified and unjustified. On the one hand, corporations don’t change their systems and applications overnight. On the other hand, a real alternative is slowly taking shape.
However things go, this outpour of vitriol and epidemic of trembling knees is pathetic.
If Scoble says it’s good, it’s usually worth a look. So when Scoble says that ClipBlast is a “killer video search engine”, I thought I’d check it out.
One thing I’ve been looking for lately is video footage of Alexander Ovechkin’s lying-on-the-ice backhander goal from last year. We’re talking ice-hockey, in case you’re wondering.
Here’s what ClipBlast gives me:
That contrasts rather poorly with plain old Google:
The first two results are direct links to the video; the other results are directly related.
Not very “killer” to me.
[tags] scoble, video, search, clipblast, google, hockey, john koetsier [/tags]
Every time I see something like this in the mainstream press I think: clueless.
There’s little question the iPhone pulls a lot of great wireless functions and applications into a very cool package. But most of those features aren’t exactly new. Google Maps for mobile? Practically any smartphone user can download the application to his or her device.
It’s not about: is it possible. It’s about: is it elegant, simple, natural, obvious, easy, beautiful, friendly. Most importantly: is it normal. Does it just feel normal to surf the web on your phone, locate and listen to music on your phone, to make make phone calls even.
(In case you’re wondering why Linux isn’t mainstream, that’s why. The answers are no.)
That’s Apple’s primary genius. Not always to be first – but almost always to make wizardry easy, even commonplace … while still being elegant and sexy.
It’s hard to believe that people at major weblogs and web content companies don’t know this yet, but Microsoft Word and the web don’t really see eye to eye:
(At least for people on non-Microsoft browsers and platforms.)
Today I trashed Creating Passionate Users from my bloglines feeds – holy mother that sucks.
Those who have followed the blog know that Kathy Sierra had some nastier-than-usual trolls in her audience whose words and actions seemed to be threats against Kathy’s physical and emotional wellbeing. You can find the details on Wikipedia. Most of the issues were resolved reasonably amicably in the subsequent firestorm of media and blogosphere attention.
To be honest, however, I’m really disappointed that she totally dropped the blog after this incident. I can’t help but feel there was an act of surrender here, a capitulation.
I say this knowing that I’m not really aware of what she personally went through, and at risk of causing even more pain. I don’t want it to be seen that way and I don’t wish anything but the best for Kathy Sierra.
She is her own person and needs to do what’s best for her. My opinions are my own and probably should mean nothing to her. But it sure feels like she raised the white flag.
And I can’t help but be disappointed by that.
“People do not care about facts, they care about stories.”
Was just reading Eric Enge’s interview with Seth Godin, and that little tidbit resonates. It resonates strong.
It explains a lot about media and their stories, it explains a lot about successful and unsuccessful marketing, and it explains a lot about good presentations versus bad presentations.
The challenge: deliver the facts you need others to need wrapped in a story that is too compelling to tune out.
[tags] seth godin, interview, eric enge, john koetsier, marketing, facts, stories [/tags]
Seth Godin fingered this post at The Messaging Times about buzz.
Key point: it starts with the people who want the buzz to spread. It starts with the people who are building/creating/growing/nurturing the product/process/market/widget.
Buzz starts in the hive. No buzz in the hive – no buzz on the street. You gotta drink your own koolaid, eat your own dogfood, be passionate about what you want others to be passionate about. If you can’t, tear it down and start over.
Makes me think …
[tags] buzz, marketing, hive, seth godin, marketing times, john koetsier [/tags]
Not a single person has passed through my office and seen the cover of this book without touching it to see if, in fact, the cover has duct tape stuck to it:
(It does not.) But it is bumpy and tactile, just as if it was.
And the book is very, very good.
Having endured years of chronic neck pain in my life, I know something about the need to intentionally relax your muscles.
I saw a good tip today intended to help prevent near-sightedness, but a major side-benefit (or perhaps the main benefit) is muscle relaxation. I find that I tend to get a little more stressed, hour by hour, at the office, and that results in tensing my muscles, locking up my joints, and making me more likely to have neck or other joint pain.
Here’s the tip:
Poor distance vision is rarely caused by genetics, says Anne Barber, O.D., an optometrist in Tacoma, Washington. “It’s usually caused by nearpoint stress.” In other words, staring at your computer screen for too long. So flex your way to 20/20 vision. Every few hours during the day, close your eyes, tense your body, take a deep breath, and, after a few seconds, release your breath and muscles at the same time. Tightening and releasing muscles such as the biceps and glutes can trick involuntary muscles like
the eyes into relaxing as well.
And here’s the source …
Since when is speed the most important factor in a browser’s performance?
Safari 3 is the fastest browser running on Windows, rendering web pages up to twice as fast as IE 7 and up to 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2, based on the industry standard iBench tests.
Like others, I was a little underwhelmed by Apple’s WWDC conference. Safari for Windows was a surprise, but not the kind of wow I was hoping for. The big thing that is bugging me, though, is selling a browser on speed. Maybe that’s just because I’m a Mac user, but is IE or Firefox slow for most PC users? Do they feel slow?
I haven’t heard that from any of my friends who use PCs.
My only guess is that the average non-technical PC users junks up his PC (and his browser) with all kinds of plug-ins and toolbars – which could make IE feel slow. Safari will win that comparison simply by virtue of not being compatible with anyone’s toolbar.
But I doubt anyone on a reasonably modern PC with a fairly clean IE install is terribly worried about browser speed. I just don’t see it.
This has got to be the most ridiculous opt-out page in the history of permission marketing:
First name, last name, job role, department, industry, company name, address, city, state/province, zip/postal code, country, phone, fax, email, and comments.
Unbelievable. Email address and UNSUBSCRIBE is the max expected.
Better yet is a link in the email that includes your email address and automatically takes you to a page that processes the unsubscription and lets you know.
Welcome to Sparkplug 9, John Koetsier's blog on technology and social media.
