mattsnod

PlanCast

2010-03-12T16:41:28Z

Have you heard about PlanCast yet? If not, you probably will, especially after this year's SXSW conference. Just as Twitterwas the "what's happening at SXSW" in 2009, this year, many of the official and unofficial activities are being planned (and broadcasted) via PlanCast.

I think this really has a chance to take off -- not as aggressively as Twitter -- because of its simplicity. Everyone seems to ask, "What's the next Twitter?" Always remember that Twitter became so popular because it's so darn simple. In 140 characters, type something ... that's it. PlanCast has a similar model with some add-ons.

First, it asks just three simple questions: What? When? and Where? By themselves, those are indeed quite basic, but when you type in your answers, PlanCast goes to work by figuring out what you're doing and then later showing else who else is doing the same thing. The "where" calls to Google's mapping API to assign it to an actual place. And the "when" puts your answer in a calendar format. It even works if you type in "tomorrow." You can then have PlanCast post your plans to your Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Mind you, this (and other location-based services) does bring up the issue of online privacy and safety, but I'll be discussing that in my next post. Stay tuned.

Here's my PlanCast.

Apple and Flash

2010-03-08T15:00:33Z

There's been a lot of talk as of late about the battle heating up between Apple and Adobe. In particular, Apple's decision not to support Adobe's Flash plug-in on some of its best-selling devices like the iPhone, the iPod Touch, and the upcoming iPad.

At a meeting with Wall Street Journal executives, Apple CEO Steve Jobs called Flash a "CPU hog" (it is) and didn't build the iPad to support it. Adobe retaliated on its blog, pointing out how the iPad isn't really a good way to experience the Internet if so much of the Web uses Flash (it does).

Frankly, I think this less about Apple's quibble with Adobe and more about their storied tradition of abandoning technologies that, frankly, were on their way out. Apple just sees these demises sooner than most and usually gets pilloried for their efforts. Let's take a look:

Floppy drive: In 1998 Apple officially dumped the diskette with the introduction of the iMac. Thank you!
SCSI: The only thing more confusing than configuring SCSI devices was ... okay, there was nothing more confusing than configuring SCSI devices. I'm serious.
Serial port: Hey, the printer's not printing. Can I unplug the serial port and plug it back in? No, that's worse than crossing the streams.
ADB port: Okay, the Apple Desktop Bus was their fault in the first place. No harm, no foul.
Modem: Anyone who remembers what "baud" is, has no love loss for modems ... or this sound.
Firewire400: It was getting slow, and if you accidentally plugged it in backwards, you could fry your device.
PCMCIA: This laptop cardbus was about as fast as physically shoveling the data onto your computer. Apple did the right thing by dropping it for Express34 and then the wrong thing by dropping that for SD.

Perhaps Flash is just another in a long line of soon-to-be-aging technologies in which Apple is first to recognize their inevitable obsolescence. If you've ever checked your task manager (Windows) or activity monitor (Mac) while running a Web page with Flash, you've seen how much of a resource hog it can be.

PIGS

2010-03-05T19:01:00Z

Gotta love the acronyms and abbreviations sometimes. In this case, we're discussing the ones that have to do with regions and countries. You may already know these:

EU: The European Union
EMEA: Europe, Middle East, Africa
AsiaPac: No-brainer ... Asia-Pacific
BRIC: A very mason-like term for the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India, and China

Well now a new one has emerged to describe the now-debt-ridden European Union countries of Portugal, Italy (sometimes Ireland), Greece, Spain. Yes, you guessed it -- PIGS! How derogatory can you get with these? Okay, they lied their way into the EU, hiding massive mounting debt, but come on! I can't imagine the G20 summit participants sitting around saying, "Okay, let's now hear the plan from the PIGS."

Let's just hope that Spain, Hungary, India, and Taiwan don't get together to form anything.

Digital Breakfast's Fashion 2.0

2010-03-05T03:33:40Z

Last week, I had the honor of being on the panel discussion of Fashion 2.0, a special installation of Gotham Media Venture's Digital Breakfast series, which is one I recommend attending for networking and knowledge exchange. (Side note: Another great one is Bill Sobel's series, known as NY:MIEG.)

At the session, we discussed the fashion industry's slow embrace of social media. The common thread was that the younger designers seem to "get it" and that the old guard, possibly in fear of new technology, tend to snub their noses at it. As fellow panelist and designer Rafe Totengco put it, social media gives consumers a connection to the designers who, until now, have been portrayed as untouchable.

Rounding out the panel was David Reinke, founder of StyleHop, Luke Watson of Andy Hilfiger Entertainment, and Yuli Ziv, creator of MyItThings.com. Peter Fields, partner at Roberts Ritholz Levy Sanders Chidekel & Fields, moderated the panel. Here are some highlights from the event:

Connecting With Clicks

2010-03-03T00:00:37Z

A recent New York Times article talked about how the Internet and social networks are replacing the watercooler as the venue for talk about TV. Anyone who has been Tweeting during a big TV event like President Obama's state of the union address knows that to be true.

Social network chatter has, to a large degree, replaced and enhanced the watercooler talk. What's more, these discussions aren't just happening with your friends and co-workers. They're happening with people you've never met and may never meet. Now that's connecting.

What bothered me, however, was an opinion follow-up to the article that bemoans the loss of real, human connections, thanks to the Internet. I disagree. I've made so many more friends -- real friends -- thanks to social networks. In fact, social networks have helped me and others reconnect to past friendships that would otherwise be lost to time if not for Facebook, Twitter, et al. Furthermore, real connections are enhanced thanks to social media. It helps you maintain your relationships in between those times when you meet face to face.

Follow the Conversation

2010-03-02T21:35:37Z

Too many brands are still trying to bring the audience to them instead of going out to them. How many promotions have you seen where you have to go to www.whatever.com to participate? The best social media tactics from brands are the ones where they're in the thick of it. They're going to where people are talking about [whatever] and getting in on the conversation. They're Tweeting, commenting, forwarding.

Also, far too many promotions and brand contests try to integrate social media merely by having a "Tweet this" logo on the page. That's not using social media to its potential. Who's really going to use those canned Tweets like, "I'm getting the most out of my day by signing up for [BRAND]'s newsletter. Get the most out of your day here:" Who talks like that? And when you get to the site, it's that same Web 1.5 Flash-heavy static content site.

I hate to boil complex issues down to one-liners, but hey ... short atttention spans and all.

You don't want people to come to your Web site. You want them to come back to your Web site.
To get involved in social media, follow the conversation.

This Stupid iPhone Game

2010-02-25T20:39:53Z

Okay, the title is a bit misleading, because the reason I'm sick of this certain iPhone game, FlightControl, is because it's so addicting.

I bought this game on a whim and then got into a friendly competition with a friend of mine who also got it. We went back and forth with high scores until we realized that there would be no end to it. We decided that when one of us reached 1,000 points (planed landed), we'd quit the game. Well, he got there first, but I kept at it until I reached that score. And then I reached 2,476 planes, and he felt compelled to try to beat it. (He has yet to.)

The game has a stats screen that shows you the total number of planes landed. When I saw that I've landed more than 71,000 planes since playing the game, I did some math and realized that I've been playing this stupid game for nearly 17 days!

So now I have to make a touch choice. Do I keep the game, trying for a higher score? Or do I delete it and get nearly three weeks of my life back ... as well as my iPhone battery?

Teens Don't Tweet

2010-02-05T19:49:03Z

It turns out that despite the buzz-building power that Twitter yields for things like Twilight, Miley Cyrus, and the Grammys, only 8% of teens are using Twitter. For a generation which has grown up digital, this is surprisingly low.

But it seems that teens -- the ones embracing texting and Facebook -- are not interested in being public. The online tools they do use let them stay connected but primarily within their own personal circles. This is consistent with a study last year that showed 85% of college freshmen had never used Twitter.

In related news, Facebook’s meteoric rise doesn’t seem to be slowing any time soon. It has just surpassed AOL as the 4th largest Web property in the world. With 469 million unique visitors in December, Facebook is on pace to surpass the #3 spot, Yahoo, within a year. And this from a company that has yet to offer an IPO.

My Take on the iPad

2010-01-29T03:54:54Z

In case you hadn't heard (he said with a fair amount of sarcasm), Apple announced its tablet PC, the iPad, the other day. Since we're drowning in post-announcement commentary, the likes of which we've not seen since we found out who shot J.R., I'll just stick to the top-line stuff here.

Overall, I like it. It's sleek, simple, and ... Apple. While some of the negative post-event buzz has been that it's an "oversized iPod Touch," I say, is that a bad thing? The iPod Touch (and iPhone) is awesome. Why not have a larger version of these mega-hit devices for bigger browsing, bigger e-mail-checking, and bigger content-consuming? The iPad seems like the perfect "schlep-around-with-you-everywhere" device.

PROS:

Super thin and super light
Touch keyboard that's like the iPhone/iPod Touch, only full-sized
Expect some pretty cool iPad-sized apps coming down the pike
Really good battery life
Great new iTunes experience
Cool print content experience, like the NY Times they showed
Fingerprint-less screen

CONS:

No SD card slot built-in
No USB (not even USB micro)
No built-in GPS
No camera
No drag-and-drop file management
No file creation -- only viewing (I'd love to be able to edit documents and presentations with it.)
No OLED screen (seemed an obvious choice at this stage of the game)
No 16:9 aspect ratio for viewing wide-screen movies
Touch keyboard (for those of you who won't give up your Blackberry-style keyboards)

Let's face it, at this point, Steve Jobs could have taken a dump on stage, and people would be ooh'ing and aah'ing, their stock would have gone up 5%, and David Pogue would be fawning all over it. In the end, Apple does do these product innovations pretty well. They haven't stumbled in a long time. Bottom line ... I want one, and so do you.

Tweeting Your Purchases? No Thanks

2010-01-22T19:12:22Z

There's a relatively new service called Blippy that let's you automatically post a message when you make a purchase from a variety of sources (Apple's iTunes Store, Amazon.com, Zappos, and some others).

While this would be a marketer's dream, I can't imagine a majority of people willing to reveal their purchases. It runs a few risks.

It could send the wrong message, either "I'm too extravagant in my purchases," or "I'm too cheap in my purchases."
It could accidentally ruin a surprise gift for someone else. "Mary Jones just bought a new Amazon Kindle," presumably for her husband, Tim, who wanted one for his birthday.
It could help ruin a marriage. "Tim Jones just bought a diamond necklace," which will raise questions with Mary when she doesn't receive said diamond necklace.
It could be dangerous. "Tim Jones just bought an HP laptop," which someone could then steal by profiling Tim Jones on Pipl for his home address and checking Tim's FourSquare updates to see when Tim is at a restaurant 20 miles from his house.
It could be costly. "Tim Jones just bought a yacht," which the IRS will be sure to audit, since Tim only makes $23,000 a year.

I think this sort of thing just has a lot more downside than upside.