Emptyage: Generation X Doesn't Want to Hear It

Earlier generations have weathered recessions, of course; this stall we’re in has the look of something nastier. Social Security and Medicare are going to be diminished, at best. Hours worked are up even as hiring staggers along: Blood from a stone looks to be the normal order of things “going…

(Source: New York Magazine)

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Now THAT’S customer service

Two days ago, Netflix Instant Watch was down for a few hours. In our house, Netflix and Hulu have replaced cable all together. So when I fired up my Xbox and couldn’t access Netflix, I was definitely disappointed. The service was back up and running in a few hours, so all was well in the end. I can’t remember another time when the service was unavailable on Netflix’s end. Xbox Live has been down a couple times (a service, for which I pay about what I pay for Netflix, mind you), but neither are down so often that it’s really a point of outrage.

Yesterday, however, Netflix did something that the whole online services industry needs to pay very close attention to. They gave me a credit on my account because of the outage. I got an email offering a 20% refund on my month’s service. It’s a tiny sum of money in the grand scheme of things. But spread across how many customers? When’s the last time Comcast offered you a credit on a lapse of service? Half past NEVER? I’ve had days of service interruption from Comcast — a much more expensive service — without an apology, let alone a credit to my account. Netflix, an $8/month service, was down for a few hours and went well out of their way to apologize. It was a small gesture of good faith, and if I didn’t already love Netflix for the service they provide, I’m definitely a fan now of how they do business.

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The Zune is dead, long live the iPod

Microsoft has announced that they’re not going to produce any further models of the Zune, their “me too” personal media player and lackluster iPod competitor. I’m glad its gone. Not because I hate Microsoft (because I don’t), but because it’s one less unremarkable, derivative product on the market. Apple haters have a mythos that the market will choose an Apple competitor because people are hungry for choice. This is folly. It ignores the actual truth that Apple is winning the world precisely because people have chosen their products. Apple has approached the entire technology segment from a ecosystem point of view. There was nothing keeping Microsoft from doing the same thing, at the same level of quality, or better. But they didn’t. Instead the Zune tried to compete on device specs in a market segment won on user experience and ecosystem. That’s bringing a knife to a tank battle, even if you arguably have the better knife. 

Microsoft is capable of brilliant things, yet they so rarely seem to live up to that potential. The Xbox 360, for example, is fantastic. I own one. The MS games division makes some great content, which I’ve really enjoyed. They were the first to offer real Netflix Instant Watch capabilities to my actual TV and I’ve had nearly three years of basically flawless service out of both the hardware and the OS. It’s literally revolutionized the way I watch television. The Xbox, when I bought it, did some key things that their competitors didn’t, and it continues to deliver quality content on reliable hardware. Sure, now I can get a similar experience on PS3 or Wii, but why would I change? Microsoft has won me as an Xbox customer and Sony/Nintendo would have to seriously wow me to sway me over to their universe.

The Zune, on the other hand, never offered anything compelling besides some better hardware specs. This is where every Apple competitor seems to be missing the point. You can’t compete with Apple on specs. Period. The actual people buying Apple products (as opposed to tech nerds just writing about them) don’t give a crap about most specs. I don’t care how many GHz are in the processor in my iPad. I simply enjoy that my iPad is fast (and the iPad 2 is even faster). I don’t care about any of the stuff it can’t do because it’s so brilliant at the things it does do. I don’t care if that Dell laptop is cheaper than my MacBook Pro because I don’t want to deal with Windows and I like the Apple industrial design ethos. To try to woo me back on specs or even price is a waste of time because as an Apple customer, what I’ve decided is most important is the experience Apple technology gives me. 

But here’s the thing, Apple’s experience isn’t perfect. I want the clever chaps at Microsoft and Google to challenge Apple to do things even better than they already do. Competition is a good thing. But so far, by my estimation, neither outfit seems willing to truly match Apple’s approach, let alone surpass it. And at this point, it’d take some pretty significant surpassing to uproot the brand loyalty that Apple has earned in my wallet. Just like it’d take some serious work on Sony’s part to get me away from my Xbox. Step it up, folks. Learn the lessons from yet another failed competitor. 

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kung fu grippe: "Stop whining, and eat our delicious poison."

Hear, frakking hear! For a long time, Flash was the only way you could make a website do certain things and frankly, it was never a good way to do those things. Now that list of “crap I can only do with Flash” is getting so short that its relevance has all but disappeared. If I never have to make anything in Flash again, it will be TOO SOON!

margeeka:

…
  1. “Fashionable?” Sure. Because, like most busy people, I suddenly get all Karl Lagerfeld whenever a random ad for an SEO newsletter crashes my browser.
  2. Thinking Flash is the only medium for serving fresh and charming content is like thinking you can’t have a good cheeseburger…
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This makes perfect sense. I think what people are starting to understand is that the iPad is not for everything, nor for everyone. If it doesn’t fill a hole in your digital life, then don’t buy one! Thing is, I prefer products that are not for everyone. I think that all the buzz around the iPad’s debut made people think that it was some sort of wonder product that would be all things to all people — regardless of the fact that Apple told them exactly what it does and doesn’t do from the start. It’s not a laptop. It won’t magically become a laptop because you want to use it that way. And frankly, I think the genius of the iPad (like so many Apple products) is that it actually has focus. It’s not trying to be all things to all people.

And frankly, Apple isn’t to blame for that “laptop killer” perception, in my opinion. If you do real work on a laptop, the iPad won’t replace that. If you thought it would, that’s YOUR fault for not doing your homework. That would be like me complaining that my MINI can’t haul a palette of plywood while towing a yacht. What did you think you bought?

What the backlash does reveal is that Apple has missed a real opportunity: people want a relatively inexpensive touch-screen Mac computer. Count me in that group. That’s what I wanted the iPad to be too. Thing is, I think a lot of people bought one projecting that wish upon it and ignoring what the device really is and really does — only to then gripe about it after the fact. 

I agree with our re-boxer here. The iPad is not something that absolutely everyone will find an essential use for — especially if they’re projecting their touch-screen laptop aspirations onto it. If you have a good laptop, you don’t need an iPad. If you have a good smartphone and a Kindle, you don’t need an iPad. If you don’t travel much, you don’t need an iPad. But here’s my gripe with this sort of backlash. It’s not Apple’s fault you don’t need an iPad. That doesn’t invalidate the iPad’s existence. Get over yourself. 

The last thing I’ll say is that I’ve been thinking pretty seriously about getting an iPad for myself. Here’s why:

  1. I don’t own a laptop. I have an iMac at home. Having some basic, for-fun computing ability on the go would be pretty cool. I have no delusions that it will run Photoshop or InDesign (the tools I use for work) in some sort of useful way. I want to use the internet on my couch on a nice, big screen.
  2. I commute to work by train about three times a week. Our corporate headquarters are 5 hours away. I’m going to be traveling more than I used to.
  3. I do UI for a living. I really do think this thing has a future, so I need to understand it. It won’t be long until our company will need to build iPad apps.
  4. I don’t own an eReader and I’d like to read more. (see #2) 

dbwilldo:

I get this.

Reboxing my iPad (via jeffjarvis)


dbwilldo:

I get this.

Reboxing my iPad (via jeffjarvis)

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Wil Wheaton, duly elected Secretary of Geek Affairs, delivering the keynote for PAX East last week. 

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dbwilldo:

Long but fun.

Chat Roulette Funny Piano Improv #1 (via PianoChatImprov)

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Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn of Pomplamoose Music have once again demonstrated how much cooler they are than the rest of us in this fantastic cover of Lady Gaga’s song “Telephone.” This lovingly made cover just goes to show that A: Pomplamoose is immeasurably talented, and that B: under all her new wave deco aesthetic, Lady Gaga can write a hell of a song.

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If you’re unfamiliar with OK Go’s video goodness, you should really do some quality searching. This is but their latest (and greatest?) flavor of awesome.

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Shedding Facebook friends

I just shed about 80 Facebook friends. Mostly it was people that I just don’t talk to anyway. There’s no malice in it, just a desire for simplification. I’ve still got 160 or so friends in there for now, which is more than I follow on Twitter, but I’m not actually on Facebook much. The way I see it, the lingering benefit is that I can still have correspondence with people over Facebook without subscribing to their updates. Good stuff. I would hope that anybody out there who isn’t actually interested in what I’m up to or what I have to say would go ahead and un-friend me also. I’d much rather be focused on the people I really want to hear from and the people who really want to hear from me. So if we’re still Facebook friends, then you’re pretty thoroughly awesome in my book. And if we’re not still Facebook friends, you’re still thoroughly awesome, I’ve simply changed the channel.

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In 2005, I spent two weeks in Seoul, South Korea visiting several friends who were over there teaching english and making a documentary film. I stayed with my buddy Ryan in Bucheon, the neighborhood these two visit on their scooter in this video. It brings back so many memories, including just how many scooters I saw buzzing around everywhere. That experience in Korea definitely played a key role in getting me into riding scooters here in the states two years later. By far the most exotic place I’ve ever been, I recommend Seoul to anyone looking to experience Asia off the beaten paths of Tokyo or Shanghai.

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Again, for me, this is where Buffy always atones for her sins in the other subjects. Much ink has been devoted to the fact that Buffy has sex, while under age, with an adult man (even though he looks only a few years older). Personally, I don’t mind a show that warns my daughter that, after sex, they can become completely evil bastards. You don’t have to be a genius to unpack this concept. This is generally a part of the larger theme of Buffy that sex is something everyone wants to do, and almost everyone does, but which can have terrible consequences if done carelessly, impulsively, or for the wrong reasons. This is very much in line with the values with which we try and raise our little pup.

Read More http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2010/02/you-let-our-child-watch-what-buffy-season-2-geekdad-wayback-machine/#ixzz0efkZ648L

From this GeekDad article. If I ever have little slayers of my own, I’ll definitely be watching BTVS with them at some point. ()
If you’re not pissing off SOMEONE, you’re probably not as captivating as you could be to ANYONE.

Sally Hogshead, author of a great little book called Radical Careering, has a new book out called Fascinate. She’s appropriately lit up her social media connections about its impending release and has just said on Twitter what I’ve quoted above. I’ve heard this same sentiment from Seth Godin before and I think it’s true on its face. In the world of marketing, you can’t actually please everyone, so trying to do so will only succeed in making your message or your product really boring. But this same sentiment could be easily misconstrued as an excuse to simply be offensive for the sake of grabbing attention. I don’t think this is what Sally Hogshead means, and I know it’s not what Seth Godin means, but it’d be easy for the quick-skimming marketer to think that if they aren’t getting hate mail, then they must be doing something wrong. The thing to understand, I think, is the difference between appeal and offense.

There’s a big difference between what someone doesn’t find appealing and what someone finds offensive, and I think that this is what both authors are really saying in shorthand. Products, services, and marketing should all have focus. Make things for yourself and your fans — for what Seth Godin would call your “tribe” — and you’ll find more success than trying to make some blah blah thing for the faceless masses. In making something for one group, it means you didn’t make it for someone else. That lack of universal appeal is indeed a good thing. But don’t mistake lack of appeal for intent to offend. The number of people who will do business with you because you’re an asshole is probably the smallest tribe on planet earth.

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This kind of sums it up for me at this point.

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Just in case y’all haven’t seen this yet, it makes me laugh and snort.

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