Category Archives for Culture

The iTunes Music Festival is Scheduled for 2012

This year’s iTunes Music Festival is scheduled to begin September 1 in London and run 30 nights. The festival is a celebration of iTunes and since the tickets are free, a way for Apple to give back to its customers.

First held in 2007, the iTunes Festival is sponsored by Apple and held at London’s historic The Roundhouse in North London. Past performers have included Adele, Paul Simon, and Amy Winehouse.

For 2012, Apple expects to include 60 artists including One Direction, Usher, and Norah Jones. Plus, as in past years, for those that can’t attend the event live, each show will be presented live for a limited time on your computer with iTunes, or on your iPhone/iPod touch and iPad with the iTunes Festival app. »

I didn’t know Apple sponsor their very own music festival. I guess I should have though, because they 1.1 million “likes” on Facebook for the event. Cool.

Survey Results: Boredom is the Top Reason People Play Mobile Games

MocoSpace surveyed gamers to learn why they game on their mobile devices.

  • 34%: The games are fun.
  • 32%: I’m bored, so I kill time.
  • 10%: I like to compete.
  • 9%: To meet new people.
  • 6%: To try something new.
  • 3%: I’m always on the go.
  • 3%: To flirt.
  • 2%: Connect with my friends.
  • Less than 1%: Connect with my family.

What I wanna know is how do you flirt while gaming? Is it like they do it in World of Warcraft (How I Met Your Mother reference)? People really do that?

While the old person in me (at a spritely 34 years old) would love to criticize students for playing games on their mobile devices instead of actually paying attention, I do realize that I would have been doing the exact same thing if I had an iPhone or iPad in school. So it’s probably good I didn’t. »

Irresponsibility scores.

A Second Steve Jobs Movie Production is Announced

If the independent film with Ashton Kutcher to play Jobs isn’t enough, then here’s another Jobs film that stands a better chance of catching critical acclaim.

Academy Award-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin has signed on to write a film based on the life of Steve Jobs, according to an announcement made today by Sony Pictures and posted on Deadline.

Sorkin is set to adapt “Steve Jobs,” the authorized biography of the late Apple tycoon written by Walter Isaacson, former CEO of CNN and managing editor of TIME. Published in October 2011, shortly after its subject’s death from cancer, the book became an instant international bestseller. It was critically acclaimed upon its release, but its protractedness was an issue for some readers. Sorkin would have to condense more than 600 pages worth of interviews with and insights about Jobs in order to come up with material well-suited for a two-hour movie.

And I, as well as my fellow Sorkinites the world over, don’t have doubts that he ever could. He’s done a fantastic job adapting “The Accidental Billionaires,” Ben Mezrich’s rather awfully written story about the founding of Facebook, into “The Social Network,” for which he won an Oscar in 2011. Entrusted to a scribe whose impressive résumé includes “The West Wing,” “Moneyball,” and the upcoming HBO drama “The Newsroom,” “Steve Jobs” is in more than capable hands. »

I reckon the more Jobs films the better. He’s a tough subject, so it will be easy to disappoint Steve’s fans, some tech pundits, geeks everywhere, and a few everyday people who are not obsessed with Apple. With another film in the works, chances are more likely that one Steve Jobs film will be worth watching.

The Cybertexture Egg Tower

Cybertexture Tower

A cylon would feel right at home.

For more reasons than I can count, this is coolest (and biggest) egg I’ve ever seen.

This “Cybertecture Egg” by James Law is scheduled to be built in Mumbai India, pushing the limits of architecture and design. But its not just the shape that makes this building remarkable. James Law is known for “Cybertecture” – his special brand of architecture for the 21st century that brings together architecture, environmental design, intelligent control systems, and evolutionary engineering. These buildings of the future are highly conceptual and pushing the limits of what a “green building” entails. »

Well, it’s ambitious, to say the least.

iPhones and iPads are a Big Part of Modern Medicine

It’s no secret that smartphones are our personal assistants. Now, they are becoming our nurses.

We’re only scratching the surface with the solutions we have available today. Scientists from Korea’s Advanced Institute of Science technology recently finished tests which proved those touch-sensitive displays you use every day on your iPhone can theoretically be used to detect biomolecular material as efficiently as more traditional medical testing equipment.

In plain English, this means the smartphone you’re already using could be used for blood analysis, cancer screening, diabetes checking and all manner of other tests. If this research is extended then every doctor the planet using a smartphone will have use of a complete medical testing lab in their pocket. »

The medical practice as the world has known it the last 100 years is in for a complete redo.

Exploded Settings Icon Tee Shirt from Cocoia

Click the shirt to check it out »

An app developer’s uniform.

Whether you’re an engineer or a designer, the Exploded Settings Icon shirt by icon designer Sebastiaan de With is an excellent way to don your profession. Rendered faithfully to the iPhone / iPod touch ‘Settings’ icon, it’s now available after popular demand at WWDC 2009. Professionally silkscreened with white ink on on a blue American Apparel shirt made of 100% cotton. »

My thanks to Cocoia for designing this.

Microsoft Drinks Apple Koolaid

I searched the keywords “Apple Koolaid” on Twitter. In the short list of the top 20 people who came up related to the subject, Microsoft was the 19th. You’re free to speculate what this means, or just read the title for this post to tell you what I think. »

Windows Phone, Microsoft Office, Windows Live, Bing, and Internet Explorer are all represented with Twitter accounts, and they all are on the top 25 people related to “Apple Koolaid.” Of course, the way Twitter updates the trends constantly, this is not join got stay as such all the time. 

Never Leave Your Faithful Users in the Lurch

37Signals’ Jason Fried wrote a short piece in the May issue of Inc. Magazine. He tells how his company launched the newest version of Basecamp, the popular online project management web app. I’ve used Basecamp a few times on projects in the past. It is a good tool, and like all good tools they need to get majorly updated every now and then. But Basecamp’s update was so significant that many loyal users complained…. How did 37Signals respond, and what did they learn from their problematic predicament?

Out with the Old…

Basecamp has a large user base as far as online tools are concerned. 37Signals isn’t going to let that die simply by keeping up things as they are. What they built five or so years ago isn’t going to cut it for the next five years. They are going to take advantage of the new; what makes technology great in the here and now.

But 37Signals didn’t seem ready after they made their significant changes and launch of the new and improved Basecamp. Many users were not charmed or happy with the new interface. This is where 37Signals made a judgment call: Jason Fried tells in the Inc. article that in retrospect they would have had considerably less complaints from their loyal consumers (small business and the like) with the new Basecamp had it “not been so inviting.” Older experienced users that were happy with Basecamp ‘Classic’ needlessly switched on the new to give it a test drive, and afterward they realized they didn’t want the new to replace the old. Basecamp Classic was where they belonged with their large ongoing projects.

But the new Basecamp didn’t let users revert to the older version.

Where 37Signals Put the Blame

Jason concludes they should have encouraged their users to try out or read up on the new Basecamp but not to make it so easy for users to make the switch from the old to the new. Had they given happy Basecamp Classic users pause before they flipped the switch, they might have understood that the new was not for them at the time. Then, they would have made the switch at a later time when they really wanted the new Basecamp and it didn’t interfere with ongoing business.

Jason is right in one sense. No one wants to be told that “the new is the best thing ever” only to find that it’s “simply different” in actuality. Basecamp users felt they had a lot to learn about the new Basecamp, and that would slow down their current active projects; losing their momentum. Basecamp customers complained because their anxiety rows very quickly.

Not all customers were bothered by the new. New customers were happy. 37Signals got well over 10,000 new users in a short window of time thanks to the new. So launching the new was not a mistake, and, I think, while Jason’s point that the elder users ought to have been more prepared still stands, it was not the real problem.

Jason put the burden of the problem back on his customers—some of his most loyal customers. Surely you see the dilemma here.

The real problem: Basecamp was not able to give back the Basecamp Classic user interface upon demand.

Vimeo Did It Right

About four months ago or so (at a time when business would be slower for many companies), Vimeo introduced their new web interface to their users. If you want to tour the new design, there offered a page that demonstrated the new features, and a video that made the new look very appealing to the eye:

However, Vimeo understood many of their users would need more time to adjust. They have many exceptionally loyal and happy users with the old—why rock the boat?

So Vimeo made the best decision possible under these circumstances: they made it an option for users to switch back and forth from the old version of Vimeo to the new and back again. Loyal users could dabble and go back to the familiar at any time they pleased.

I have not heard one complaint about Vimeo’s transition. Users were excited about it and it has attracted new users that see Vimeo making the effort to keep up with web standards.

37Signals Will Lose Customers’ Respect

37Signals gets a lot of things right in their impressive online tools, but it’s poor logic to say “we simply should have given our users a fair warning about making the switch.” This is to say, “We don’t honestly care about all the concerns our loyal users may have. We’re interested in new customers and expanding.” Backwards compatibility doesn’t seem all that important or relevant to Jason Fried.

In contrast, Vimeo made the statement through their plan to support the old and the new, “We care about all of you—the old and the new. We’re here to care for each of our customers’ legitimate concerns. Some people need the option to go back. We know it will mean more work, but we’re going to make it possible.” Last I checked, last week, you can still use the old Vimeo—four months after the new Vimeo launched—if you like.

Vimeo has gained a lot of respect from old and new users simply because it seems they care about their users. Not only that, but they don’t talk critically about their users in a magazine. Jason Fried shuffled a lot of the blame off of 37Signals in the Inc. Magazine article. I don’t know that he intended it so, but consciously or unconsciously, that’s how it read, and that’s how the writer of the article pitched Jason’s point of view. That’s all that matters.

IMHO, that is why Basecamp is only a good product by a decent company, and not a great product by a great company, like Vimeo.