New pair of jeans from true apparel
New pair of jeans from true apparel
Some one get me in to cryogenic freezing until this movie comes out…
This could be huge
It’s no secret that I’ve been a Twitter user and a big fan of the service for some time now.
In April of last year, I wrote a post (on my old blog) about getting into the feel of Twitter, the potential for 3rd parties app and enjoying all of my 19 friends that were in my immediate Twitter network.
Then about a month after that, I wrote this post about being addicted to Twitter. That post is interesting to me. I linked to a great post by Dave Winer and I also urged my friend Howard Lindzon to start using Twitter. As you can see from his comment, he wasn’t a user at the time. Now Howard is a very active user, following 140 people and has 975 followers. Pretty cool.
Since my original post, I’ve been using Twitter daily it seems. My network on Twitter has grown and I’m getting more and more from it. More sites are building in Twitter functionality too for games, music, and video. And users are doing more with it too.
I’ve also spent a lot of time with Jack, Ev, Biz & Jason over the past year. They are a fantastic team. I admire their passion and dedication to make Twitter into a global communication utility.
Today Twitter announced a new round of investment. And I’m thrilled to join their board of directors along with our investment in the company.
I spent this past week in Maine with my wife, her family, and a group of friends. We stayed at a beautiful house in the mountains that was decked out with a great collection of A/V equipment. Huge flat screen TV’s, an even larger home theater linked to PS3, a hard drive with 150 movies, Direct TV, etc.
The problem was that it was almost impossible to figure out how to use this stuff. We had a bunch of technically savvy folks, but it took us two days to figure out how to use the hard drive with movies. When we called the owner, he was completely baffled, and advised us to call “the guy who set up the system” who never got back in touch with us.
There is something seriously wrong with this picture. Activating a home electronics system shouldn’t be this hard… it’s “consumer” electronics, after all. If activating a system is this hard, imagine how hard it is to set this system up, or to troubleshoot it.
I think a source of this problem is actually excessive choice and configurability. As is described in The Innovator’s Dilemma companies tend to innovate against the needs of their best customers and most advanced users. But in the process, they overshoot the needs of other consumers who care less about advanced features or endless customization and just want to watch a good movie (ok, I’m paraphrasing the book big time).
The point is that simplicity goes a really long way. Part of the appeal of Tumblr is that it hits you in the face with the few actions that matter (Text, Photo, Quote, Link, Chat, Audio, Video) and when you choose one of these actions, the next steps are stupid simple. There is a ton of customization available to Tumblr users, but the bar for doing this is higher than a service like Wordpress. But the consumers who just want to share their thoughts and a photo here or there have a perfect solution to their problems. Also, we can easily piggyback on the efforts of those who do take a little more time to customize the service (thanks Bill Israel!)
I wish consumer electronics companies would take a page out of this playbook (easier said than done, I know). But wouldn’t it be great to be able to buy a really good “home media center in a box” that is just rediculously easy to install? Isn’t there a better way to control these devices than these unintelligible remotes with dozens of different buttons? Isn’t there a better way to build these devices so that I don’t have to break my back trying to plug the right cords into the right holes, and the back of my media center doesn’t look like a jungle of tangled wires?
I think consumer electronics should be designed with simple-minded guys like me in mind :)
Great article by Tim Keller - (via rmyung)
My friend Kurt on the bagpipes
My view for the week
Please convince me to get an iphone! -
I really want to get an Iphone. Serious. It’s cool, sleek, provides the web at my fingertips, and is the ultimate all-in-one device.
I’ve been reading all these articles recently praising the new 3g iphone. But I keep looking in vain for the things that really matter to me. Maybe I’m too simple minded, but what I really care about is:
1. Does email and calendaring work seamlessly?
2. Can I type quickly and accurately?
3. Can I live with just one device in my pocket?
From what I can tell, the new iphone, with all the new functionality and speed still does not deliver on these. I don’t think text input has been improved significantly. Every time I play with an iphone in an Apple store, I keep hoping that a light turn on in my brain and I’ll figure out how to use the keyboard properly. But those dreams are always crushed and I walk away a little more depressed than when I came in.
I think Apple may be able to make email and calendaring work seamlessly. But I think the proof is in the pudding. Given my skepticism about text input, email and scheduling needs to be really really good for me to consider a purchase. And unless email, calendaring, and text input work, I don’t see how I can possibly give up my Blackberry.
Iphone fans… what’s the answer? Do I need to invest more time into learning the nuances of the iphone’s functionality? Will the new iphone solve all my problems? Are all the other benefits so overwhelming that they make my top 3 priorities less important? Or do I just have to give up my dream of a single device for business and personal use?
I’m thrilled to announce that Rich Miner has agreed to join our panel for the upcoming Berkman Center event about employee non-competes. Rich is a successful entrepreneur. He was the founder of Wildfire and also cofounded Android which Google acquired and is now driving their open source mobile products from Cambridge, MA.
I care a great deal about this issue. If you are concerned about innovation and how Massachusettes treats employees vs California & another states than I encourage to you come to this event.
As a reminder, the event is free (and includes cocktails/reception) but RSVP required. June 19th from 3-7pm.
I hope to see you there. Click here to see full info and RSVP information.