Apple’s Brilliant PR: “Up Yours, NBC!”

Rumors were swirling earlier today that NBC wasn’t going to renew its contract with Apple to sell episodes of its TV shows on iTunes, citing piracy concerns and a desire for pricing flexibility.

In a move destined for the PR Hall of Fame, Apple’s people put out a press release this afternoon before any official announcement from NBC, spinning things their own magical way, and basically made the TV network seem like the heinous, greedy, backward-thinking assholes that they must be.

Apple® today announced that it will not be selling NBC television shows for the upcoming television season on its online iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com). The move follows NBC’s decision to not renew its agreement with iTunes after Apple declined to pay more than double the wholesale price for each NBC TV episode, which would have resulted in the retail price to consumers increasing to $4.99 per episode from the current $1.99. ABC, CBS, FOX and The CW, along with more than 50 cable networks, are signed up to sell TV shows from their upcoming season on iTunes at $1.99 per episode.

Oh yeah. Apple goes on to say that, since the contract ends in December, but the fall season begins in September, they will not sell any new NBC shows as of, well, tomorrow, pretty much, so you won’t get screwed halfway through the next season of Heroes. Way to put the customer first (as well as make the other guy look bad)!

Om Malik gets it right with his title: Apple Boots NBC Off iTunes.

EDIT: John Gruber puts it even more harshly: Apple to NBC: Go Fuck Yourselves, You Greedy Morons

Damn.

U.S. Broadband Speed (And Attitude) Sucks

Articles like this one in yesterday’s Washington Post just leave me shaking my head.

In this case it’s for two reasons:

First, because average broadband connection speeds in the United States are 30 (thirty!) times slower than in Japan, and that sucks because we’re paying far too much to the evil telco monopolies for shoddy service and because I like fast connections.

Second, because articles like this reek of the Cold War-era arms race, framing things in terms of a pseudo-competition to have more x than the rest of the world.

National Security Alert Advisory Announcement! OMG! The US isn’t the best at THE INTERNET? Dude, we own the Web. What the hell has gone wrong? Don’t these other countries know their place in the world? Don’t those Japaneseicans and everyone else know we’re supposed to lead in innovation and morality and money and power and health care and everything?

That we’re surprised to find out we’re not the best is one of the biggest reasons we’re not.

Arrogance leading to complacency leading to indignant scoffs of “Buh buh...but how could this be?”

The first line of the Post article doesn’t exactly help our case:

Americans invented the Internet, but the Japanese are running away with it.

Oy.

Tasty Del.icio.us Links Of The Day

Vampire Thursday Edition. What?

• Getting A Form's Structure Right
• 20 Standard + 1 - a photoset on Flickr
• Coffee Drinks Illustrated
• Design Inspiration Gallery - FAVEUP
• FlashDen - Download Stock Flash, Audio, Video and Pixel Fonts
• Creating a Mac-Type Background in Photoshop
• Videohybrid :: watch what you want.
• Bad Science » Pink, pink, pink, pink. Pink moan.

What’s Your Five-Year Plan?

I have a five-year plan.

It involves purchasing (well, renting) an apartment that costs somewhere around $3500 a month.

Dreaming big. But not too big. With the right priorities, with the right decisions, with the right attitude and motivation, anything becomes possible. Five years is enough time to completely change your life.

Five minutes is, too.

Seriously.

You just have to believe it.

(Does this sound like The Secret? God, I hope not.)

This, for reference, is what an iPod looked like five years ago.



Talk about coming a long way in a little time.

The Beat Goes On: Apple Special Event On September 5

It looks like press folks all over the internet (including Ars Technica) have just received official invites to the much-rumored September 5th Apple Special Event.

Popular wisdom (and the invitation design) points to a timely refresh of the various iPod lines for the holiday season (is it really almost Christmas?!), and rumors have been calling for anything from squat new Nanos to touch-screen, OSX-running “true” video iPods, not to mention the perennial “Beatles catalog finally in the iTunes Store!”

There is also a rumor of a major iPhone update coming on the 3rd, because when syncing it to iTunes, a dialogue notes that it will next check for updates on that date, rather than some random date a month or so in the future. I’m not enough of a conspiracy-theorist to buy this reasoning, but I won’t write it off, either, because it seems like the right timing.

On another note, how sad is it that I get excited for these events, even though I own plenty of great stuff and have no intention of buying a new iPod ever again now that I have an iPhone?

Tasty Del.icio.us Links Of The Day

I’m At Home Sick So This Is All You’re Getting Today Sorry Edition:

• The Solaire
• How Addicted to Blogging Are You?
• Taste of The New York Subway
• Facebook and the perils of prodigious sociability
• iPhone Sim-Free
• NewTeeVee Veveo Wants to Bring All Video to iPhone «
• You Know The Battle's Lost When...Top Selling Non iPod MP3 Players on Amazon.com
• In Online World, Pocket Change Is Not Easily Spent - New York Times
• Macworld: Review: GarageBand '08
• Ultimate Web Development Cheat Sheet Guide

This Explains A Lot: Zune Edition

From FSJ reader Sam: (Here is something to help explain that, if necessary)

And as an extra bonus, here’s an iPhone Wallpaper that I made (and which I am using right now):

Tasty Del.icio.us Links Of The Day

Design is on dewall over desink.

• Foundations of Interaction Design
• Design Is Rocket Science
• Invasive Nature of Commercialism
• The Google Exchange
• How I made my presentations a little better | 43 Folders
• The NYT transgresses
• The Web 2.0 Election: Does the Internet Matter in Election Politics?
• Sign of the Times
• Andrew Dickson meets Gary Hustwit, creator and director of the film Helvetica
• Tots getting Internet identity at birth
• Why Raunchy Movie Trailers Are Effective
• Innumeracy Cannot Be Overestimated
• Monoscope
• Make the Logo Bigger!
• Learn: GRPH 210 + Typography
• View Source: Advanced CSS Rollovers
• The First Web 2.0 Burger Joint and 30 Menu Suggestions

Serious Creativity

There are two words guaranteed to destroy even the most energetic creative brainstorming session. Two words guaranteed to make idea generation impossible. Two words that, if uttered (or merely thought), guarantee that whatever it is you do will be complete and utter crap. No joke. No exaggeration. No exceptions.

These words:

Be Serious.

Seriousness has no place in the creative process. It is an idea killer. It is an energy- and enthusiasm-sucking black hole. It (and its partner in crime, Practicality) is the most evil, insulting, and destructive way of saying “No.”

When someone tells you to be serious, here’s what they’re really saying:

• I am scared.
  


• I feel challenged by the fact that you have ideas that I don’t understand and I can’t be bothered to think about how they might be relevant.
  


• I don’t like your idea, or you, but I have nothing productive of my own to add to the discussion, so I think I’ll just shut you down.
  


• Your enthusiasm makes me feel inferior.
  


• Wow, I wish I could come up with something like that.
  


• What will other people think?
  


• I’m threatened by things that aren’t immediately quantifiable.
  


• I feel safer in the Real World.


• You’re making me look bad.


• You’re weird.


• I don’t get it.
  


• I am stupid.


• I don’t belong here.
  

Serious, practical, professional, realistic, objective, unimaginative, boring, hardheaded, worthless, static, uninspired, dead.

Seriousness has no place in the creative process.

Ban the word from all brainstorming sessions. And ban people who insist on saying it from the creative part of whatever it is you’re doing.

Bring them back in—if you must—when you start talking finances.

Tasty Del.icio.us Links Of The Day

How many books did you read last year?

• The moist panties phenomenon
• Joho the Blog: What-if
• What just happened to video on the web?
• Banner Blindness: Old and New Findings (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)
• zipdecode
• Warning! Gmail users beware, fake upgrade emails
• Tripoli - a CSS standard for HTML rendering
• If you're going to read one book this year ...
• One in four read no books last year

Brief iPhone and Google Maps Oddity

I suppose this shouldn’t exactly be surprising, but when you surf to a page on your iPhone that contains one of the new, embeddable Google Maps, like, say, this one from two days ago, iPhone automatically opens the map itself in the Google Maps app, instead of first displaying the page containing it. Tap back to Safari, and the page you navigated to in the first place will finish loading.

This is one of those tricky “is it a bug or a feature?” things that I suppose comes down to user preference, but it seems like Apple got the default behavior backwards. From my point of view, the most important thing to display is the context surrounding the map, especially when it is (as in this case) just one of many blog entries or widgets on a page. If the user wants to see and engage with the map, she can give it a little tap and then it will open in the Maps app.

iPhone Experimental Film Hour

Two new and odd film experiments using an Apple iPhone. Be afraid. Enjoy.

I Am An iPhone



Rainbow

Anti-Phishers Beware: New PayPal Logo

A little bitty FYI for my dear readers. PayPal will soon be changing their ubiquitous logo from this:


To, um, this:


Fair enough. Looks like it’s meant to accompany the new (what else?) “beta” version of their homepage, and it will automatically update on any storefronts currently using the official hosted logos as soon as the change takes place.

Happy, safe shopping!

PayPal is launching a new logo

Dear Kevin Keating,

Soon you'll notice something different: PayPal will adopt a new look in the coming weeks.

As one of our valued PayPal merchants, you are receiving advance notice of our plans. That way, if you have a website, you can prepare to use the new PayPal logos and buttons.

What to do

• If your site features hosted buttons and images with PayPal logos, you don't need to take any action. These will update automatically.



• If you host buttons and images with PayPal logos, we recommend that you replace the current images on your site with the new ones. In a few weeks when the new images are available, we'll send you instructions on how to download them from our website.

Why it's important

We'll be educating all PayPal customers about the new look. By updating your images soon after the day of launch, you will let your customers know you are a current PayPal merchant and it will help them feel safer making online purchases.

Thank you for your business.

Sincerely,

PayPal

Maybe Means No

Back in June, Web Standards-guru Jeffrey Zeldman made a great point about the impracticality of the “Maybe” option in Web invitations.

As data, “maybe” is as useless as a three-star rating in a five-star system—and as hypnotically compelling to users. “Maybe” is a button that begs to be pushed.

Maybe is a magnet for neuroses. It salves guilt complexes and incites passive-aggressive avoidance behaviors.

“Maybe” sometimes means maybe, but it can also mean, “I’m not coming but I don’t want to hurt your feelings.” Or even, “I plan to come but I reserve the right to change my mind at the last minute if something better comes along.” Some people even use maybe to mean, “I won’t make dinner but I’ll come for dessert.”

He’s right. Except he might be too generous.

Here’s how I think the typical responses pan out (non-scientific).



What do you think? Am I right?

Maybe?

Mmm...Bacn...

Not a typo.

Bacn is the word for the new, anti-spam spam email that we Web2.0-ers get daily in the form of “friend requests,” social networking invites, Twitter “nudges,” e-Bills, subscription updates, and their brethren.

Tasty little morsels of content, but they don’t add much substance or nutritive value to our not-exactly-thinning Inbox waistlines.

My advice: I know it can be really, really awesome, but try not to eat too much.

Duh.

(Thanks to Chris Brogan to explaining this already-sweeping-across-the-Web phenomenon).

Curious what 200 calories of the real thing look(s) like? Check out this post from January.

Google Maps Announces YouTube-Style Embedding

There was a rumor a couple weeks ago that this would happen, and today it became a reality: Google has made it possible to embed customized maps on a webpage or blog with a simple copy/paste of code. You can even use the pretty-awesome My Maps feature to create a custom map mashup. Good stuff.

Here’s a quick one I made:

Brothels Near Pahrump, NV
(my old hometown)


View Larger Map

Tasty Del.icio.us Links Of The Day

Tuesday Booze-day Links. (I have no idea what that means).

• Miro - free, open source internet tv and video player
• Jeffrey Zeldman Presents : What crisis?
• Inheritance and loss? A brief survey of Google Books
• David Weiss: Numbers
• Software Progress, Part 2
• Court acquits allofmp3.com site owner - CNN.com
• Windows Is Free
• Videos that can change your organization on Squidoo
• Social Media Daily
• The software awards scam
• 27 iPod Ads on Video with Lyrics. (Complete List)
• What is Art Direction (No. 9)
• Colors of the World's Best First Class Experiences
• Top 15 Torrent Websites
• Teen Marketing: Apple's the Master
• Now, the Clicking Is to Watch the Ads, Not Skip Them
• Bearskinrug, The Homepage
• Managing Humans

Amazon Is More Human Than You’ll Ever Be

Khoi Vinh on changes to the business landscape brought about by the internet:

The effect of the net on commerce over the past decade has been unfair and unkind to a lot of independent enterprises, I admit. But one thing that’s not often acknowledged is that it’s done an unexpectedly good job of rooting out those businesses who are just plain bad at relating to their customers. Even those small businesses who aren’t directly threatened by net-based competition should sit up and take notice, I think, because the net is bringing about a new expectation for intensely customer-focused commercial practices.

Mom & Pop and Brick & Mortar shops are closing down at an alarming rate, it’s true. But Khoi is right that it’s partially (even mostly) their fault.

I’d much rather do business with a machine than a person acting like one.

WARNING: Big Layout Changes Underfoot

Watch out for falling DIVs. Frivolous Motion will be back to normal by the end of the day. For now, subscribe to the feed for updates and close your eyes.

Thanks!

Windows Users Bring Skype To Its Knees

Last Thursday, popular VoIP application Skype suffered a serious outage, prompting even more serious outrage at the service that has become critical to many small businesses and freelancers. eBay, the company that owns Skype, lost some serious market cap due to the outage, and we were once again reminded of the danger of putting ones eggs in a single basket.

But Skype is back up-and-running (and a pretty awesome service, I must admit), and this morning they have published an official statement about the cause of the outage.

Turns out the problem was “triggered by a massive restart of our users’ computers across the globe within a very short timeframe as they re-booted after receiving a routine set of patches through Windows Update.”

That’s right - Windows broke Skype.

Stupid jerks.

NYTimes On The Future Of Advertising

I’ve said it before, but here’s the NYTimes’ take on opt-in advertising:

Now, in a turnabout, advertising is increasingly being presented as entertainment — and surprisingly, the idea of all ads, all the time, is gaining some favor.

We love good commercials and great brand experiences. Come up with something compelling enough - engaging enough, and we’ll watch it and interact and buy stuff.

Make them even better than that, and we will - dare I say it - even pay for them.

I imagine a future in which companies provide valuable content - advertising as product, and product as advertising - and offer it all over, in communities and networks that I already frequent. But it should be there only if I choose to see it. I only want to see ads for a store if I’m looking for a store. I only want to see a video about Wart-Covered Brides From Hell if that’s what I search for. If what your brand has to offer me is engaging, entertaining, innovative, and most of all, relevant, I will love you and tell all of my friends. (From my own post back in June).

When it comes to the Web, there is no longer a hard separation between advertisements and content. Make it true, make it real, and make it fucking amazing.

We’ll do the rest.

Brief-ish: Quote Of The Day

From a comment by stmiller on Ars Technica:

Compare the latest bulky Dell Inspiron to a slick, thin MacBook. It's like Abercrombie vs. Big Lots.

The commenter completely fails at parallelism (at least I think that’s what he’s going for), but the intent is clear. Or not...

Wait...

...is he saying that the Dell and Abercrombie are bulky and rugged, and you can buy tight, annodized aluminum clothing at Big Lots? Or did he mean to say that Apple uses homoeroticism and/or Bat Signals in its advertising?

What’s going on here? I’m losing my mind!

stmiller also says, “Apple products look good.” Look good? Like what? Is he saying that Abercrombie looks good? Or Big Lots? What the heck is stmiller inhaling?

Wait a minute...

Big Lots doesn’t even sell clothes, do they?

How To Be Happy: Two Simple Steps

Step One:

Step Two: Repeat.

Tasty Del.icio.us Links Of The Day

Why is it not Friday?

• Entrepreneuer Assist
• HarperCollins Publishers - Browse Inside for the iPhone
• Dumb But Profitable. 10 Million Dollar Ideas That Shouldn't Have Worked.
• Staying Motivated
• Google launches YouTube-style embeddable maps
• Blog Troubleshooting: “Uh oh! My blog won’t display!”
• Paper battery offers future power
• Our Lives, Controlled From Some Guy’s Couch - New York Times
• New Study Shows that Online Creativity and E-learning Popular with Kids

TV On The Radio...I Mean, iPhone

I know I said that I had no desire whatsoever to watch television or movies on a mobile device (I also said the same about taking pictures). I know I said that one of the big reasons I was getting an iPhone was to be able to read eBooks, not watch YouTube. I know I said I was super-excited about browsing the Web in Safari on the iPhone. I know I said (fairly recently) that podcasts are lame.

But after a month-and-a-half of iPhone use, here’s the truth:

The vast majority of the time I actually use the device is spent underground commuting to and from work. Since the iPhone doesn't do any hardcore local storage of email attachments or websites, this means that I am forced to interact only with information that doesn’t rely on having an internet connection. I say forced, but that’s far too strong a word. It’s a little unfortunate, but the restrictions have opened my eyes to a ton of really awesome stuff in the form of television shows, movies, and video podcasts.

I’m still trying to weed out the good from the lame, and find it hard to constantly find new video to fill my 8GB drive (I’ve got a suitable amount of music filling a bit more than half of it), especially since I’m not one to make repeat viewings. When iPhone asks if I want to delete to save space, I say yes. Every time.

I’ve subscribed to one TV show through iTunes (Damages, which I’m finding oddly irresistible), as well as a bunch of podcasts - some of which I end up keeping, and many more that get sent to the Trash after an episode or two. If anyone’s got suggestions for weeding through the thickets of downloadable video content (particularly free and syndicated), I’d love to hear them.

There’s something really interesting about the mobile content world. I don’t exactly know what it is, yet, and it’s still too difficult to navigate, but something big is sure to break pretty soon.

Tasty Del.icio.us Links Of The Day

Midweek Madness

• Deleting iTunes Tracks from Playlists
• icon | 050
• e e cummings and his iPod: Faith vs. WF again
• The Road to Clarity
• ClearviewHwy
• IM+ for Skype software
• Anti-Grain Geometry - Texts Rasterization Exposures
• What’s on your Fringe list?
• For Many Campaigns, the Little i’s Have It - New York Times
• SEO Speak Translated: The Real SEO Glossary
• YouTube - Me love you long tim.
• 6 Keys to Understanding Modern CSS-based Layouts - Snook.ca
• Are we designers or developers?
• The CSS and XHTML Lab | 456 Berea Street
• Creating Liquid Layouts with Negative Margins
• The Seven Sins of Solutions
• Craziest Captchas on the Web
• Cocoia Blog » Designing Flow’s icon: Our favorite Attractor.

Helvetica: The Film: The DVD: Now Available

Have you ever ordered a $75 limited-edition deluxe DVD for a movie you’ve never seen, three months before its release date?

Yesterday, proving that people like me still do actually pay for things we deem worthy, I did exactly this, by placing my pre-order for one of 1,000 copies of the deluxe limited edition DVD of Helvetica, the feature-length documentary about a font.


Here’s what I’m getting for the $75:

A limited-edition package in a custom box that includes the retail DVD, three letterpressed mini-posters, a color C-print of a still from the film (one of ten different stills) signed by director Gary Hustwit, two love/hate Helvetica buttons, and a letter of actual Helvetica metal type! We might even throw more cool stuff in there too.

Totally worth it.

Get yours, today (or get the regular DVD sent to you a week before its release, plus two cool buttons, for five bucks less than full price).

Dunkin Donuts On My Face

One must take care in writing brief blog posts on serious topics before finishing his iced coffee in the morning, otherwise he’ll end up with misunderstandings like the one that happened yesterday on this blog.

In Dunkin Donuts: Revisited, I brought up the concept of brands that damage themselves by offering new products largely irrelevant to their message and mission, just because customers ask for them in surveys and focus groups.

Matt Thommes, a developer, blogger, and Twitterer, commented on the post in disagreement, and wrote a longer reaction on his own blog. To my surprise, I completely agreed with him. And then I realized that the reason is we are talking about two related, but slightly different things.

Matt’s post correctly states that “your brand consists of your products and services,” not the other way around, and if you do it right, your brand will expand to encompass any new offerings as time goes on. He cites Apple as an example of a company that started in one business (computer hardware), and grew to include another, drastically different business (music and entertainment), and I couldn’t agree with him more.

But I wasn’t exactly clear in my post. I wasn’t writing against necessary expansion and market differentiation, but cases when it is done poorly. I used Dunkin Donuts and Subway as examples, but didn’t really explain why.

The difference between these companies and Apple is the way they go about introducing new products or services. When Apple does it, they throw the full weight of their brand behind the new venture. Both DD and Subway (and other food franchises) run limited, regional tests of new products before deciding whether or not to roll them out on a large scale, and it just feels weak, disingenuous. While I appreciate the reasoning and necessity behind such tests (and the many differences between a computer company and a restaurant), they always feel very much like tests - as though they are using paying customers as guinea pigs. Dunkin Donuts, for instance, is testing lunch food only in Connecticut, and Subway is selling pizza at about 30 locations nationwide (that there’s one in NYC really surprised me, though I admit that the pizza itself was rather tasty, if odd).

As an occasional consumer of products from both brands, it is the inconsistency encountered location to location that rubs me the wrong way, more than the fact that they want or need to expand in order to compete (DD is doing a great job differentiating from Starbucks, by the way). This is something that always annoyed me with McDonalds selling crab cakes on Cape Cod, as well as their brief foray into pizza in the early 90s (in Las Vegas, at least). I really, really liked the pizza, got used to seeing it there and ordering it, and when it was pulled, I felt cheated (especially since I was a child). That’s like Apple saying, “So we’ve been selling music for awhile, but it was just a test in your segment of the market. We’re not doing that anymore.” Brands expand, sure, but for the expansion to be effective, it needs to be consistent.

Some do it right, and some don’t. That’s really what I meant yesterday - that brands should take care not to expand for the sake of expanding, or just because of the results of some survey. They should make strong, well-considered moves and realize that more and more the markets are converging. Once upon a time, it might’ve been possible to conduct isolated trials without the national or global brand being affected, but that time is long gone. The internet has connected people worldwide, and they are talking about your products. They know. They know that you are doing something in one state and not another (and sometimes they want what you’ve got enough to drive cross-country), they know that you can order a “Royale With Cheese” and a beer in Europe, and it’s confusing (not to mention insulting) when you offer Newman’s Own Organic Iced Coffee in Massachusetts, and hawk the same product (or pretty much) as “Premium Roast” in New York.

UPDATE: Matt just posted a related article called Brands Creating Sub-Brands that I definitely agree with.

Dunkin Donuts: Revisited

Back in May, I wrote about Dunkin Donuts Iced Coffee, and the scourge of businesses following the “Sugary-Sludge-At-The-Bottom” method of product afterthoughtedness. This morning I was eating an Apple Pie from McDonalds (at 2 for $1, not a bad breakfast), and thinking about how many companies add products to their offerings without fully considering how it strengthens their brand or message. I’m not saying that McDonalds has done this with their Apple Pies, and in fact, I think they’re a great addition to the Breakfast menu, as well as the Dessert menu. Versatility is a big part of their thing.

But then we have Dunkin Donuts offering pizza and hot dogs and selling Sobe and Gatorade and Snapple, Subway introducing their own version of pizza-to-order, and some idiot asking Steve Jobs why Apple doesn’t put “Intel Inside” stickers on their gorgeous, sticker-free, computers.

The best restaurants (and the ones that command the highest prices) have the smallest menus. Some don’t even let their customers choose. Whatever the chef wants to cook on Tuesday is what they eat.

I don’t care what focus groups and user-testing tell you what people think they want your business to sell. They don’t actually know. If you listen to enough of them them for long enough, you’ll turn your business into a convenience store.

A place where nothing matters but the fact that it is there.

Don’t let brand dilution happen to you. You know better than anyone what your business is and should be. Stay strong. Be honest.

Add value, not menu items.

iMovie '08 Initial Thoughts

I ordered the new iLife '08 suite from the Apple Online Store on Tuesday night, and received the installation discs yesterday (unexpectedly fast!). Around 2:00 a.m. this morning, I decided to give the new (and vastly changed) iMovie a quick, insomniacal spin.

In literally 10 minutes I went from having nothing but a previously-recorded piece of music to a video uploaded on YouTube. No, I don’t mean I was exporting it after 10 minutes. I mean it had been recorded, edited, modified, exported and uploaded within 10 minutes - viewable online 2 minutes later.

Nothing special, as videos go, but the speed of this process is astounding. iMovie '08 might not be for you if you’re interested in doing semi-professional editing (you can use iMovie HD 6 for that, or more appropriately, FinalCut Express), but if you’re a video blogger, podcaster, or YouTuber, I can’t think of a better solution for making quick, quality stuff.

The best part of the new interface is that iMovie acts as a clip manager (like iPhoto does for pics), which means that as you add more video to your library, grabbing snippets from other sessions to remix and quote becomes super-easy. It’s practically copy-paste, drag-and-drop. And that’s easy.



My late-night iMovie test

10 Things I Learned Watching The Entire First Season Of Heroes In A Week On My iPhone

1. Save the cheerleader, save the world is an “if/then” statement.
2. I am not special.
3. It would suck to be a hero named Hiro.
4. If you have to work as a stripper/prostitute/webcam girl to make rent, it’s best (for your conscience) to have an evil alter-ego.
5. I used to really, really like comic books.
6. Having complete control over when to watch a television program is something I will never again be able to live without.
7. Episode recaps are annoying if you don’t have a week in-between viewings.
8. More men than women are “special.”
   
9. It’s a decent show.
10. My iPhone rocks.
    

Tasty Del.icio.us Links Of The Day

Light reading for a lazy Thursday:

• 20 Things I Learned From Tech Support
• 10 things your IT guy wants you to know
• 10 Things the Techno-Retarded Want the IT Guy to Know
• A response to the techno-retarded
• Its Poor Reputation Aside, Our Fat Is Doing Us a Favor
• Jeffrey Zeldman: King of Web Standards
• Study: Food in McDonald's wrapper tastes better to kids - CNN.com
• Why the Web hates Ratner - Los Angeles Times
• The Best 80 Photoshop Text Effects on the Web
• OneWebDay
• Election '08 Chart of Where the Candidates Stand
• Language Log: Define this, you nitwits

Sunshine

I watched Sunshine (Danny Boyle’s newest flick) last night.

I wish I could tell you how it was, but I can’t, because the whole time I was distracted from the dialogue by the Russian subtitles (which, thanks to my having started to try and learn the language, I can read but not understand). I absolutely couldn’t focus on what the characters were saying in English, because for some reason my mind is trained to read the subtitles when they are present. I tried to fight it, but there was no hope.

Primacy of the visual over the auditory? For me at least, in that moment. Kinda weird.

My Morning Commute From Hell

What it says (courtesy Gothamist, who has a great up-to-date writeup of the whole ordeal):

Due to severe flooding throughout the subway system, there are extensive delays on all subway lines. Although buses are running with delays, customers are advised when at all possible to use bus service. The detours are as follows:

1 trains are suspended in both directions between the South Ferry Station and the 34th Street Station.

2 trains are suspended in in both directions between the Penn Station-34th Street Station and the Atlantic Avenue Station.

3 trains are suspended in both directions between the New Lots Avenue Station and the Harlem-148th Street Station.

4 trains are suspended in both directions between the 125th Street and the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall Station.

5 trains are running shuttle train service in both directions between the East 180th Street Station and the Dyre Avenue Station.

6 trains are suspended in both directions between the 86th Street Station and the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall Station.

7 trains are running with delays.

A trains are running local.

B trains are suspended in both directions between the Brighton Beach Station and the Bedford Park Boulevard Station.

C trains are suspended in both directions between the Euclid Avenue Station and the 168th Street Station.

D trains are suspended in both directions between the 145th Street Station and the Norwood-205th Street Station.

E trains are suspended in both directions between the 23rd Street-Ely Avenue Station and the Forest Hills-71st Avenue Station.

F trains are suspended in both directions between the Queens Plaza Station and the Jamaica-179th Street Station.

G trains are suspended in both directions between the Long Island City-Court Square Station and the 4th Avenue-9th Street Station.

V trains are suspended in both directions between the 2nd Avenue Station and the Forest Hills-71st Avenue Station.

S Franklin Avenue Shuttle trains are suspended in both directions between the Prospect Park Station and the Franklin Avenue Station.

S 42nd Street Shuttle trains are suspended in both directions between the Times Square-42nd Street Station and the Grand Central-42nd Street Station.

J trains are running with residual delays.

L trains are running with residual delays.

N trains are running with residual delays.

M trains are suspended in both directions between the Broad Street Station and the Bay Parkway Station.

Q trains are suspended in both directions between the Kings Highway Station and the 57th Street-7th Avenue Station.

R trains are suspended in both directions between the 57th Street-7th Avenue Station and the Forest Hills-71st Avenue Station.

W trains are suspended in both directions between the Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard Station and the Whitehall Street Station.

In addition, due to a police investigation at the Sterling Street Station, there is no service on Wakefield-bound 2 trains between the Brooklyn College-Flatbush Avenue Station and the Atlantic Avenue Station. Also, Brooklyn College-Flatbush Avenue-bound 2 are trains running on the 4 line from the Franklin Avenue Station to the Crown Heights-Utica Avenue Station.

Miss Manners Says I’m Not Rude

And I quote:

Much as she hates to discourage kindness, Miss Manners feels obliged to report that the purpose of curtain calls is to garner audience reaction, not to receive thanks. As you know from real life, people who expect thanks, such as hosts and the givers of presents, do not bow to provoke it.

Naturally, the performers hope that the reaction will be praise, if not adulation, in the form of applause, ovations and roses tossed at their feet. But they must take their chances. And they should realize that when ovations are routine and automatic -- as opposed to having a thrilled audience jump to its feet -- they are meaningless. If you think the performance good but not extraordinary, it is not rude to remain seated while clapping. (emphasis mine)

I think - and this might be me going out on a limb here - that if you take what Miss Manners says one step further, it means that if you think the performance bad, it is not rude to completely refrain from clapping.

Major Mac Update!

Announced today at an Apple Special Event:

Brand New iMac Design





iWork '08 - featuring the brand new Numbers application (take that, Excel!)





iLife '08 - including a completely new iMovie with awesome sharing features, and hot updates to the rest of the apps in the bundle.

Plus a couple other minor updates to the Mac Mini, MacPro, and AirPort Extreme. Apple’s website continues to kick the pants off of everybody - and I absolutely love Apple’s new trend of offering super-helpful video tutorials for their products that began with iPhone. These little videos are totally helpful, totally charming, and some of the best, most innovative branding (call them advertorials) I’ve ever seen.

Dear Windows users, now would be a great time to switch.

TimesSelect To Go Free?

The New York Post is reporting that its decidedly less trashy neighbor paper, The New York Times, might lift its $7.95-a-month paywall on selected new content and archives.

I’ve been enjoying this content free since March, when they allowed unpaid access to subscribers with an email address from an educational institution (as I wrote about here), and it has been awesome. Being able to search the archives of such an important publication and receive more than a few sentences of historic articles and commentary is such a huge benefit.

I think the Times would be taking a great step forward into the Internet age in lifting the fee. Its entire catalog would at last be indexed by search engines, driving traffic to its often very relevant and very authoritative articles - leading to an increase in ad revenue which might offset the money lost by setting its roughly 200,000 paying TimesSelect customers free.

Especially since online ad spending is set to overtake newspapers by 2011, as reported in yesterday’s today’s Financial Times.

New iMacs Today?

Word on the street is that today we’ll be seeing the introduction of some brand new, redesigned Apple iMac computers (possibly in a finish matching that of the gorgeous Apple Cinema Displays), when Apple holds a special press event around 10 a.m. PST. There is also talk of new iPods to hit come September, the death of Mac Mini, and a possible update to Apple’s online service .Mac.

Rumors, rumors everywhere, and nary a truthful think...until later today, at least. Keep watch.

Tasty Del.icio.us Links Of The Day

Monday Morning Before Tuesday Apple Press Event Edition:

• True Story: Man Goes Through Vasectomy to Get iPhone - Gizmodo
• Mac OS X's Mouse Acceleration Problem
• Why We Twitter: Understanding Microblogging Usage and Communities
• Drinks men should just not order. What do you think?
• Amazon.com: Amazon FPS, Amazon Flexible Payment Service: Amazon Web Services
• IE Duplicate Characters Bug - CSS fixes and workarounds
• Flash Sucks - I’m Mike
• John Dvorak isn’t just cranky, he’s cranky and wrong
• 20 Most Popular Sites for Bargain Hunters
• Ebert and Roeper: Searchable Movie Reviews
• Choosing Anti-Anti-Virus Software
• Please Build Me Something Useful: A Letter To Web 2.0 Developers
• Doc Searls Weblog » Fiber sales maze
• Online video is a mainstream media with significant social and viral spreading power: US survey
• GarageBand volume and Pan curves
• Grouping RSS feeds by priority and frequency
• Best Of Color Inspiration: 130+ Green Color Palettes by COLOURlovers

Some Ads Aren’t Totally Awful

Technospot.com has compiled a list of what they call “15 Smart Ads You Just Can’t Miss.” Now, that title is just a tad hyperbolic, but the article is worth checking out regardless.

There’s nothing super-amazing about any of these ads (and I’ve seen many that are much better), but each is a case of the designer taking risks with the brand (and somehow - impressively - managing to convince the higher-ups in the company that these risks are worth taking), and coming up with an effective way of setting the product off from the competition. These are pieces that win design awards and critical acclaim. The trouble, however, is that in the print advertising world there are still so few metrics for assessing effectiveness and ROI, and many (designers, marketers, executives) argue that provocative advertisements work less well than simple, clear, call-to-action campaigns that focus on the features of the product instead of attempting to become a conversation piece.

Either way, some of them are pretty cool, which is its own achievement in an age of corporate boilerplate, crappy slogans, and soulless stock photography. I don’t care if your ad works. Just don’t make it awful, and you stand a chance.

Tasty Del.icio.us Links Of The Day

Holy Linkage, Batman! Happy Friday!

• Troy Wolverton, Neil Cavuto, and the Apple Stock Scandal
• 60 More Places to Get Design Inspiration - Online and Off
• Explorer Exposed!
• No, Internet Explorer did not handle it properly
• Test your web design in different browsers - Browsershots
• The iPhone Site
• Google wary of behavioral targeting in online ads
• Data Visualization: Modern Approaches
• Tango Icon Gallery - Tango Desktop Project
• Free Google for Educators tutorials on AJAX web programming, web security etc
• iPhone Alley
• Free pizza and soft drinks *from an airline*? in 2007? in a terminal? (Yes, it's true...)
• How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life
• A List Apart: Articles: Better Writing Through Design
• A List Apart: Articles: Reviving Anorexic Web Writing
• 10 Rules for Writing Numbers and Numerals
• How to Photograph Bugs and Other Insects
• GRYLLS' THRILLS BOGUS: EXPERT
• Our Far-Flung Correspondents: Swingers: Reporting Essays: The New Yorker
• What is a Nerd?
• Can mirror neurons tell us if something is alive?
• Ten Things Your IT Department Won't Tell You - WSJ.com
• How to Download Free Music - Mahalo
• FCC sets 700MHz auction rules: limited open access, no wholesale requirement
• Design Better with CRAP
• Coding Horror: The Software Imprinting Dilemma
• Pixels Are The New Pies
• The Whys of Mating: 237 Reasons and Counting - New York Times
• Meme Central - Memes, Memetics, and Mind Virus Resource
• Most detailed pictures of Earth ever seen | the Daily Mail

Online Video Hits The Mainstream

Marketers, I think it’s time you started shifting some of your ad-spending budget from television to the Web.

The results of a recent Pew Internet study (as reported by Trendspotting) show that a full 57% of Americans have used the internet to watch or download video, with 19% doing so daily.

One out of five Americans watch video online every single day. That is huge.

They’re also sharing links a lot more than I expected (57%, and this goes up to 67% for young users), and about 13% of viewers are choosing to watch commercial material (a whopping 22% of the kiddie set).

YouTube is, of course, the hands-down leader in this segment, with 27% of all users watching videos there, and commanding the eyes of a full 49% of viewers between 18 and 29.

Online video has made it. There’s no turning back now.

Stealing iPods And Tracking Thieves (And Network Idiocy)

Fake Steve Jobs on the stupid Dateline NBC episode last night that called for Apple to create iPod- (and iPhone-) tracking software and implement other security measures in order to hopefully decrease theft of the ultra-mega-popular device:

… Look, it's not our job to find your friggin iPod if it gets stolen. Does Mercedes go looking for my car if it gets pinched? Is it somehow their fault? Same here. Anyway, um, think about this for a minute. We're trying to sell more iPods, right? Yours gets stolen, we're happy to sell you a new one. We've got a new one that even makes phone calls. Have you heard of it?

Seriously. Stupid Dateline.

Disclaimer: I have no idea why or how I ended up watching this segment on Dateline last night. I haven’t so much as turned the television on in a couple weeks. Very weird.

Elton John Wants To Close The Net

From the Sun Online comes a bunch of drivel from the rather famous but washed up and irrelevant pop star Elton John about why the internet should be closed down.

Let’s take this absurdity point by point.

His Highness says:

The internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff. Instead they sit at home and make their own records, which is sometimes OK but it doesn’t bode well for long-term artistic vision.

Right, because there aren’t bands anymore. Everyone is a solo musician like, hmm, oh I know - Elton John? Truth is, very few of these folks sitting at home are making art in a vacuum. They’re all part of devoted communities of artists and fans who share and critique and promote their own and each other’s work. Giving the power to create back to ordinary people is an amazing long-term artistic vision, if you ask me.

It’s just a means to an end.

Yes, Elton. What isn’t?

We’re talking about things that are going to change the world and change the way people listen to music and that’s not going to happen with people blogging on the internet.

It already has changed. The world is different now. Music, especially, is different now. The iPod+iTunes ecosystem, internet radio, mp3 blogs, peer-to-peer file-sharing, and even (shudder) MySpace have completely and utterly transformed the way we experience music. People listen more (maybe not to your records, though, Elton), people share more, and fans are every bit as fanatic as they ever were (arguably moreso). Blogging on the internet has been a huge force in this, without question.

I mean, get out there — communicate.

This point hardly deserves a response. People are communicating in ways never imagined.

Hopefully the next movement in music will tear down the internet.

Hopefully not. The internet is changing the musical landscape from one dominated by major labels and commercial motivations into a world of self-publishing, artistic freedom, and community. The web has enabled this revolution.

Let’s get out in the streets and march and protest instead of sitting at home and blogging.

Marching worked in the 60s. It doesn’t work today. See: The Iraq War

I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span.

Totally. Because it would be so different than it was the previous couple thousand years of human existence prior to the 1990s. Not.

There’s too much technology available.

No there’s not. There is too much fear, uncertainty, and doubt associated with the tools available that their full potential is rarely realized. Some artists are doing incredible things with technology. Others suck. Same thing happened with the electric guitar.

In the early Seventies there were at least ten albums released every week that were fantastic. Now you’re lucky to find ten albums a year of that quality. And there are more albums released each week now than there were then.

Don’t blame the musicians. Blame the labels who refuse to publish anything that isn’t overproduced crap.

Or really, Elton, blame yourself. Did you listen to your last album?

Tasty Del.icio.us Links Of The Day

Brand New Month Edition

• Side-by-rumored-side: "New" Apple Keyboard Vs. "Old" Version - Gizmodo
• You might be paying $1,000 per MB for SMS
• Ten Questions with Moira Gunn: How Does an Internet Babe* Make the Leap to Biotech?
• Cloverfield: Major Spoilers Ahead
• Free Access to Wall Street Journal and Other Subscription Sites
• Wants For Sale
• A-List Technology Bloggers: What Are They Good For?
• Is Google on Crack? | PBS
• iPhone resources are everywhere | last100
• ISPs inserting ads on webpages.
• BusinessWeek Online: Best Global Brands 2007
• A spectrum of possibilities - The Boston Globe
• creativepro.com
• Chocolate Rain Meme - Mahalo
• Facebook Bankruptcy
• How to Develop a Hit Facebook App: 29 Essential Tools and Tutorials - Software Developer

Google Gets Its Way...Sort Of

As I mentioned yesterday, the FCC was set to rule on the, er, rules for the upcoming 700MHz spectrum auction, for which Google made a set of “demands” that would lead to its participation.

Turns out the FCC figured out how to compromise on this issue, and accepted two of Google’s four stipulations - notably, open applications and open devices. This means, more or less, that any cellphone will be able to run any program (like Google Apps, for example) on any network. Translation: Very Good Thing.

The FCC fell short of approving the other two requests (open services and networks), leading Google to say that “The Federal Communications Commission made real, if incomplete, progress for consumers.”

It remains to be seen whether Google will still participate in the auction (and whether they’ll even be able to win if they do), but regardless, with these two rules in place, the wireless industry has made a large step forward into the future.

Thanks, Google.