And truthfully, it’s not something that can be played down.
Now, I finally got to sit down and read this article that I came across via some onlineawesome ness.
I’ve read a few articles by the “Fake Steve Jobs” before, and they’ve always provided me with comedic relief – and it’s what I’ve come to expect from such a place. But man, this post is just so much more. While he may fancy the post up with a few expletives here and there, the meat of the post bears more weight than a table-full discussion.
Perhaps it is due in part because time is moving toward the early morning hours, but I can’t help to be struck by how much this article resonates inside of me.
AT&T is known as one of the worst cell-phone providers in the States, with people constantly, and consistently having their calls dropped in “high usage” areas like New York City and the San Fransisco area. Unfortunately Apple took AT&T to the top by providing them with exclusivity to the iPhone, and AT&T isn’t doing much to improve their service. Recently, AT&T has come out and decided that charging customers for ‘heavier usage’ is inevitable because an apparent 3% of their users use up approximately 40% network capabilities.
The article had a little bit a lot of bits to say about that, including:
—-
I mean if you [AT&T Rep Randall Stephenson] did understand how to do things, your guys wouldn’t be standing up at Wall Street conferences and complaining about how much traffic you’re getting. Instead, you would be running around like a fucking maniac trying to build out your fucking network and make it the best network in the world — and the only reason you would ever need to talk to me would be to thank me for creating a phone that’s so amazing that it draws people to your shit network in the first place.
—-
Which, to me, really puts things in context. Here is a company – a massive company – that is faced with a problem an issue. They’re at a fork in the road, if you will… one that actually spans a ton of industries. Let’s be real – the face of technology is changing (and evolving), and will always be doing just that. Here, with the mobile industry, is a phone that revolutionized surfing the (mobile) web. A typical user is expecting a desktop experience from their mobile phone any place that they choose. The ball is in AT&T’s court – they can either embrace this evolution and provide its users with what they have come to expect, OR they can suppress their customers’ desires with higher prices, bandwidth caps, thus limiting the capability of everyone involved.
What a world that we live in, that companies can forget that the basis of their business is customer satisfaction. Without us, they don’t have much. They need to listen to us – to really tune in and deliver on what we are demanding. The “mobile web experience” isn’t going anywhere – start now without delay or you’ll just be digging yourself a hole.
Oh, and Rogers – you’re no better. Charging an arm and a leg for a 95gb capped internet package… point made.
Not so big on this fellas… kind of cult-like.
I mean, I know Apple has a cult-like following, but if I ever see an Apple store doing a routine like this… I’m going to have to rethink my position on life.
Especially if they end up making a store that looks like a microsoft store.
Oh shit… They do look pretty similar..
So.. who copied who.. hmm?
Good one.
What a life. db
I want my iPhone to sync via bluetooth with my mac, and this is why:
I’m mildly OCD… but only about my address book. My address book is an impeccable collection of the obvious: names, associated telephone numbers, addresses, email addresses and important dates. It’s essentially my whole CMS – or at least my database for any customer relations. I rely on it (my Apple Address Book) to keep information that I deem important on hand for quick and handy access. And, since I have an iPhone, I am able to keep it with me all of the time.
“Well fine and dandy,” you say, “where’s the catch?”
The catch is that I don’t plug my iPhone into my computer very often. I update it only when I get a new music album that I want to listen to on the road. So, what do I do?
I’ve given Google Sync a go already. And, I do like it enough to use it to sync my calendars. It’s not quite up to par with iCal alone, but I love the fact that it allows me to edit my schedule from any web browser… furthermore it actually adds some functionality to the iPhone that didn’t previously exist without the gCal integration. It allows you to send invitations to events from the iCal app, when previously you were limited to that function from the desktop iCal only. And, best of all – it’s push-enabled. Every addition, edit or deletion gets pushed to my iPhone through Google’s servers instantly.
The contacts sync through google doesn’t do me any justice. It rearranges and messes up my Address Book (the holiest of books) each and every time I give it a try. I don’t want to place blame, but for me to use it, Google will have to reinvent their contacts section with more Apple-like fields – or at least more compatible fields.
So Address Book, Mr. Apple, do me know wrong. Enable bluetooth syncing for the smallest of functions. Allow me to sync my address book, perhaps my notes, and my calendar (for those who don’t use gCal, at least). I mean, I could pair and sync the oldest of phones years ago, why can’t I do so with my iPhone?
How sweet is this? I’ve honestly been waiting for over 4 months for this. It was like a dream to see the Street View car go by, and now that streetview actually got released, I’m so stoked.
The catch and chase model isn’t new to Apple, and depending on what reports you’re inclined to read, you may know that they’re soon to embark on undefined territory once again. This time, reports say, Apple may be in a position to revolutionize the way that we interact with print media.
Now, let’s take a step back and look at what has happened in the past.
Music
Music > digital music movement > mp3 players… {read Music > iTunes > iPod} all of which were (arguably) led by Apple. Now people bitch and moan about how Apple has dominated the market… how they have such a firm grasp on the recording companies, on bands, the list goes on. But, then again, nobody really does anything about it. There are others in the market to sell music, but what do they do differently? Nothing. They may charge a couple of pennies less per song, but they still take the majority of money away from the artists. Are they any better? Why do people pirate music.. because people (or at least I) would rather not pay Apple (although they do have many expenses from a sale – think server costs, bandwith costs, even credit card charges), and I would rather not pay the handsome fee that recording companies charge their artists. I want to pay artists. And it’s just that – I am all about supporting artists, but until they actually receive the money that I’m willing to give them… pass. The industry has to change. It has to change because the model is built on an old system… a system that doesn’t exist today! The cost of producing music isn’t the same as it was 50 years ago, or even 15 years ago. Take a look at John Mayer and his upcoming album that he appropriately named Battle Studies. He’s producing an album by himself (and his band) and doing the work himself. He doesn’t need a giant label with high-paid execs to create an album, and no band really does anymore. An artist does not need to pay these now-obsolete people, but are because the model doesn’t support otherwise.
The problem with [the industry], however, is that the people who should actually get paid are instead screwed. This is a shame. While few of us care about the recording industry, no music lover wants to steal from the artists.
Ohh… the dreaded print media. The story that has been in the news for weeks… months, even. This medium of information is too stubborn, too far back on the curve to change their model, to remain successful and to stay afloat. The internet has changed things, nobody can deny, but not many people know how to approach the issue of changing and even more so, are hesitant to do just that.
So, enter Apple. The same company that brought the music industry to what it is today. Apple has apparently been working on a tablet since 2003.. and more recently news surrounding this tablet has been brought forth. They’re saying that Apple is planning to “redefine print media” by offering interactive media placed on this mystified tablet. Is this by any means a bad thing? Isn’t it a God-send to save a dying bread of media? More people are inclined to purchase a mid-priced tablet that’s transportable everywhere, with content delivered to them, anywhere, than to wait for the paper to come to them in the morning.
So, is this a bad thing? Well… it depends on how you look at it. Apple is doing something that others aren’t…. again. And that’s the thing… with Apple’s secrecy, they’re years ahead… 6 years, in this instance. When Apple comes out of the gate, they fly at mach speed, and it takes 2 or 3 product cycles for others to catch up. Look now! Phones today are just catching up to what the iPhone introduced over 2 years ago – and one cannot deny that the whole mobile industry hasn’t improved because of it all.
Now, this is the thing… the print industry is fighting back (if you want to put it that way). ________
Ad Age reports that the print industry is not sitting idly by while it becomes increasingly obvious that Apple is planning to enter the tablet market. In fact, these traditional publishers are worried that Apple may quickly dominate the industry in the same way they dominated the music industry with iTunes and the iPod.
As a result, publishers are discussing the creation of an industry-wide digital storefront to allow customers to purchase digital content and subscriptions in an effort to bypass whatever solution Apple might provide.
“It’s true that magazine and newspaper publishers are eager to sell digital editions tailored for the tablet and other devices — but they’re just as determined to prevent Apple from getting between them and their readers along the way.”
________
Yeah, Industry, you fight back… but guess what, if Apple hadn’t created the vision, you wouldn’t know where to go. As with any leader, Apple included, there are pros and cons. Yeah, Apple holds monopoly-like market share in a lot of areas, but without Apple, there probably wouldn’t even be a market, or for at least a few more years.
Just to add to my previous post on Google Wave, I came across the following video in my RSS feed today..
Hopefully it’ll shed a little light on how potentially revolutionary Google Wave will be!
So, it’s out. While it’s not quite out to the masses it’s out to the first 100,000 lucky people.
Already the folks over at lifehacker have put up a screenshot Tour of Google Wave, and to be honest, I’m a little bit envious. While I am drooling over certain features like the Ribbit conference call gadget (everyone inserts their phone numbers to a wave and a conference call gets made inline), it’s the potential that really gets me going. As I sit here now, I’ve got 4 google-related tabs open: Google Reader, Calendar, Docs, and Picasa).. imagine a streamlined page…. 1 page that contains all of your ‘online conversations’, your interests and your google related doings. Life will be simpler, no?
But! As the writer acknowledged, such innovations and collaborative tools are only as good as how many of your friends use it. The same holds true for the present, what with the social aspect recently added to Google Reader, the shared-calendar feature in gCal and even so in Docs or Google Talk! You don’t get to use half of the functions of these programs unless your friends are as into it as you.
Soon though, soon. It doesn’t take much to convert people to the good side, and over time I’m finding people to move back to the simple things like RSS, and some of those people will share calendars, and some who will log into latitude every once in a while. It’s a start.
In reference to my recent post, where I claimed all of my pictures were ruined because of some kind of wormy-ish thing in the corner, I have to admit that I ’saved’ a picture or two.
Here they are:
Click for bigs.
Click for bigs 2, I dare you
So Mr/s. Photoshop, this Iced Tea is for you.
And to you, world, I can still take pictures.
Word. Life. db
Technical note: These pictures are HDRs…. aka 5-9 photos taken at different light levels, seperated by an f-stop or so, and then combined to make one photo.
