Leaving Blogger

It didn’t take very long, but I finally grew annoyed with Blogger. The Blogger bar permanently affixed to the top of the blog was the straw that broke the camel’s back; though its presence seems perfectly reasonable, I just couldn’t bear looking at it.

And although Blogger’s functionality is “sufficient,” it’s just no fun to use. Wordpress, by contrast, are constantly adding polish to the user experience of the CMS.

But maybe I’m just seeing greener grass — time will tell.

Open Letter to LiveScribe: Please Sync With iPhone

Dear LiveScribe Product Managers:

I really love my Pulse smart pen. One of the most valuable affordances it’s provided me is the peace of mind I have, knowing everything I’ve written is safely backed up on my computer (and in the cloud), after I’ve synchronized.

It’s certainly replaced my normal notebooks, but I find that I’ve also started leaving my laptop behind more frequently. I often bring it along “just in case” I want to capture a thought or other information that I’d likely want to share.

In a fantastic feat of accomplishment, the Pulse actually also played a part in “permitting” me to leave my laptop home, when I set off to a two-week vacation.

All of this is just great.

On the other hand, however, I’ve been finding that I’d like to synchronize and/or share information that I’ve written down with it sooner, rather than later. Of course, I could easily install the sync software onto my laptop instead, but then I’ll be back to being tempted to bring my laptop along for the ride - what a step backwards.

But there is an answer: iPhone OS 3.0‘s External Accessory framework.

This new API will allow third-party devices to communicate with iPhone / iPod Touch devices via either the dock connector, or Bluetooth. This, naturally, opens the door to “on the road” syncing with the cloud, without the use of a personal computer. And, really, isn’t the “untethering” of the human from his PC one of the fundamental goals of paper-based computing?

Please, oh please make this happen!

Best Regards,
John Lianoglou

Sticks and Stones - A Framework for Naming Apple's Device Software

As evidenced by my recent post history, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the upcoming iPhone OS 3.0, Apple’s rumored “netbook” device, and generally evaluating Apple’s products from a product design perspective.

Although Apple’s revenues are driven largely by hardware sales, it’s the software running on that hardware that actually delivers the value. After all, Apple doesn’t have exclusive access to any hardware components that aren’t also available, in some form, to their competitors. Sure, there are some chips they create in-house, but these components certainly have direct competitors in the market. A variety of vendors produce comparable touch-screen technology, graphics chip sets, and the rest.

Apple has long touted software quality as their products’ key differentiator, and they’ve been aggressively developing their operating system (I’ll delve deeper into this particular term later on) as the centerpiece of their software ecosystem.

This common software code base is presently powering Macs, iPhones, iPod Touch, and even Apple TV.

This is brilliant.

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Reflecting on iPhone OS 3.0 Predictions

I’m going to call my prediction a bust.

While technically managed to I land a 50/50 hit rate on my specific feature predictions, I had predicted that — when all was said and done — today’s announcements will have revealed features that declaratively positioned the iPhone OS as a capable netbook OS product.

Specifically, I was really expecting the application switcher, so I was a bit bummed.

In retrospect, however, this doesn’t conform to known Apple announcement behavior. Neither to their secretive practices, nor to their marketing talent for focusing with razor-sharp clarity on a particular message.

Today was about the product they have on the market: the iPhone.

The announced features all basically add up specifically towards making the iPhone a better smart phone.

That said, many of the features announced today will certainly contribute towards a wonderful netbook product. I’ll discuss which ones in a later post — stay tuned.

18 Mar @ 01:26: After having personally watched the Spotlight demo portion of the video, I’m going to actually award myself a half-point on the arrival of a new application launcher; Spotlight’s search results lead with apps whose name contain the search text.

Crystal Balling iPhone OS 3.0

So here’s the very first of what I’m sure will be many Apple announcement predictions I shall make on Uncarved.

Rather than get carried away nitpicking on specific features that will or will not be announced, however, I will instead offer a prediction about what I anticipate to wind up being the the common thread to them; their long term purpose.


My prediction:

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MS Retail: UR Doin' it Wrong!

Microsoft has recently announced that they will be entering the retail space with their own stores. Clearly they feel a need to compete with Apple’s success in their retail endeavors. But, in a seeming effort to remain depressingly consistent, they’re once again stealing from the surface and ignoring the treasures below.

AppleInsider published a piece covering the story, and included a couple of photos taken in a private 20,000 square foot mock-up retail store constructed on Microsoft’s campus.

The piece includes this wonderful photo, showing a customer that we can only assume is a PC, pushing a shopping cart around the store:

We can infer immediately from this photo that the people designing this customer experience seem to think that shoppers will actually be pushing a shopping cart around the store.

Think about that.

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Something Magnificent and Frightening



Another fantastic piece by Gruber.
> This is what everyone contemplating a new creative endeavor craves: that in the moment it turns real, to get it right. To frame it in such a way that the very act of framing propels the project toward an inexorable destiny.