The Cloud as a filesystem, not an OS

I like desktop applications. I like how fast they feel compared to Web apps, even when you have a really fast connection. Yet, there is no denying that the convenience of having your information in “the cloud” can’t be beat. Especially when you have a multi-computer and multi-phone environment, as I do.

Recently, the application that I use the most are not those that are in the cloud, but the ones the use it. My current favorite on the Mac is Dropbox. It transparently lets me keep the same files across computers. Using some trickery, this allows me to have the same files and settings between my MacBooks.

This integration with the cloud works even better on the iPhone. The lack of filesystem (from the user point of view) stops you from thinking about files in regards to where they are saved, and lets you mentally associate the files with which application uses it.¹

Some desktop applications that deal with the Web manage to create an experience that is just as simple. Tweetie and NetNewsWire are better ways to experience than the original Twitter and Google Reader web apps. You get all the speed and native look that desktop applications provide and still take advantage of being able to log-in anywhere and have all your data.

iPhonesque Sony ad from 1964

While browsing the Vintage Ad Browser I came across a Sony ad for their portable AM-FM Transistor Radio. It was published in Life Magazine on June 12, 1964 and instantly reminded me of the original iPhone image on Apple.com

iPhone and Sony FM radio

Of course, there are only so few ways you can hold a device, but I still think this two are near identical.

Na’vi is the new Klingon

After watching Avatar, I was particularly interested by the language spoken by the alien beings. Turns out that they created a whole language for it. Its creator even posted some of the rules.

Sh.rt Ur.ls are the new thi.ng

With this post I’m trying out Google’s new URL shortening service http://goo.gl/. It currently only works with the Google Toolbar and Feedburner service, but surely they will soon make it available for everybody.

In my case, it’s substituting Twitterfeed, a service that grabs a RSS feed and can post it to twitter or Facebook. Since I already use Feedburner to handle my feed, I want to see how much faster the posting to twitter happens.

Jenna Wortham on the NYTimes Bits blog writes about how this entrance by Google is going the affect bit.ly, the current market leader. They where very quick to announce a Pro version that allows the use of custom urls.

I actually bought http://»rm.com/ a few months ago. Not that my media empire needs a shortening URL service, but I do believe that short URLs are going to become as important as normal domain names.

Finally, as if waiting for a cue, Inside Facebook writes that Facebook is testing fb.me as a short Url.

Droplr is a quick and easy way to share files on the Mac

Droplr is a quick and easy way to share files on the Mac.

I’m a little perplexed with this app. It really doesn’t do anything revolutionary. For that matter, 99% of its features are easily reproduced with either one or a few apps already installed.

However, it makes it extremely easy to share, and it does it well. Just grab a file, picture, text or Url and drop in on its icon, and it returns a ShortUrl (customizable btw).

In case you’re wondering, here is a picture of me perplexed http://drp.ly/3FF4t

Deconstructing the Publishing Houses stupidity

This week the WSJ reported (here and here) that Simon & Schuster, Lagardere SCA’s Hachette Book Group and HarperCollins are going to delay eBooks releases for a few months after the hardcover comes out.

Needless to say I believe this is a terrible idea. But as I read some of the executive’s comments, I found myself talking back to the computer screen just like I do when I drive.

From an article by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg on the WSJ:

“The right place for the e-book is after the hardcover but before the paperback,” said Carolyn Reidy, CEO of Simon & Schuster, which is owned by CBS Corp. “We believe some people will be disappointed. But with new [electronic] readers coming and sales booming, we need to do this now, before the installed base of e-book reading devices gets to a size where doing it would be impossible.”

Where do I start?

1. The right place for the e-book is after the hardcover but before the paperback.

   False. eBooks and physical books are not perfectly substitutable goods. If you must, release a hardcover edition eBook first and then cheaper paperback version later. It’s very safe to assume that once you buy an eBook reader you’ll try to buy and read all your books on it.

2. We believe some people will be disappointed.

   Oh. So, you know consumers (not “people”) will be disappointed. You guys are aware that you aren’t a public institution, right? If you decide a policy, the consumer (again, not “people”) doesn’t need to go along with it. Do yourself a favor and google New Coke.

3. But with new [electronic] readers coming and sales booming, we need to do this now …

   Yes, because the best thing you can do to prepare yourself for a disruptive new technology is to treat it as a second class citizen just before its numbers explodes.

But the brilliance doesn’t end there, here is David Young, chief executive of the Hachette Book Group:

“We’re doing this to preserve our industry,” Mr. Young said. “I can’t sit back and watch years of building authors sold off at bargain-basement prices. It’s about the future of the business.”

Again, let me inhale deeply:

1. We’re doing this to preserve our industry

   No you’re not. You’re doing this because you’re afraid of change and have no idea how to make the same kind of money in this new environment. The transportation industry didn’t die when horse-drawn carts where phased out by motor vehicles. But you’re right, those companies that didn’t recognize the change are history.

   As George Carlin said:

   The planet is fine. The people are fucked.

   The book publishing industry is going to be fine. You’re fucked.

2. I can’t sit back and watch years of building authors sold off at bargain-basement prices.

   I know it’s a figure of speech, but delaying a book format release date is not really getting off your butt and innovating yourself out of this situation. BTW, there are lots of books sold at bargain-basement prices in current analog bookstores. You should look into that before getting all high and mighty about eBooks prices.

3. It’s about the future of the business.

   Exactly. The business. Your business. Writers are not going to disappear. They might even find ways of selling directly and -gasp- bypass publishing houses completely. Indeed, it’s time you think about your future.

From the WSJ, Brian Murray, chief executive of News Corp.’s HarperCollins Publishers:

Earlier this year, the Harper imprint of HarperCollins delayed until Dec. 26 the e-book edition of Sarah Palin’s “Going Rogue.”

A quick search on http://thepiratebay.org shows that the eBook is available there. In the digital world, the alternative of something not officially available is not the analog world. It’s piracy.

“We have to believe that delaying the e-book edition helped hardcover sales,” he said.

Hey, whatever helps you sleep better at night. I also have to believe that Michael Phelps won 8 gold medals because I didn’t get a chance to compete.

Being an MBA grad, I can relate how having your head stuck up your own behind can make it difficult to notice new trends. But c’mon! executives in these companies have seen the writing on the wall for years. In many cases they can ask within their own parent companies to learn how all this affected the music, movie and TV industry.

I know there is no easy solution when disruptive forces shake your industry. But repeating the same mistakes of the other media industries is inexcusable.

Barnes & Noble Nook eBook reader review roundup

Overall it looks like very solid hardware on software that’s not ready. I imagine this has a lot to do with why it missed the holiday season.

Engadget:

the Nook is an intriguing product launched by a powerful force in the world of booksellers, but the initial offering feels long on promises and short on delivery. With the right software revisions, the Nook could be a tsunami, but as it stands right now, it’s only a mild swell.

Gizmodo:

The hardware is fully baked, but as I have mentioned the software isn’t.

Technologizer:

The Nook has the potential to decisively trump the Kindle, but I want to see if Barnes & Noble’s upcoming software update fixes the issues I encountered before I declare any winners.

Since it’s only available in the US, I’m not very concerned with the Nook vs. Kindle decision process. What’s really holding me back is deciding between the Kindle and whatever Apple could come up with.

Quick guide for picking the best chart depending of what you want to show with the data.

Quick guide for picking the best chart depending of what you want to show with the data.

The death of the printed book is closer than you think

Arvind Narayanan’s on why ebooks are going to take over soon:

The Kindle seems to be following roughly the same adoption curve as the iPod. Barely two years after it was first released, everyone my age has at least played with one or knows someone who has one.

While the Kindle’s brand awareness and mind-share seems be following the same path, it needs to deal with a significant obstacle: even if the price drops to zero, many users aren’t yet convinced it’s better than physical book reading. Almost everyone that saw an iPod for the first time knew they wanted one, it was just deemed too expensive until the iPod mini was introduced at $249.

Now, from the point of view of authors (which Arvind kinda is), it’s a completely different story:

Amazon shares 35% of revenue with the author for self-published books. In one sense that’s unfairly low: Apple for instance shares 70% of revenue with app publishers. Still, it is five times higher than royalties from a traditional book publisher.

If it becomes more financially attractive for middle of the curve authors to give priority to ebooks, in addition to the potential democratization of book publishing:

With ebooks, someone who thinks they are a great writer doesn’t have to wait and beg to be discovered—they can find out for themselves by self-publishing, promoting their work on Facebook and Twitter, and seeing what kind of response they get.

You now have a technology adoption that is being driven by content exclusivity.

Bookmarklets for text manipulation

When I got an interview with Opera a year ago, I switched from Firefox 2 to Opera 9.5. Initially I thought that the “extensions withdrawal” was going to be hard but after a few days I realized that CoLT was the only one I really missed . Copy Link Text (CoLT) copies any text you select plus the URL where its located. This is great for blogging, saving links for research and answering emails that require a lot of links¹.

Update: Welcome KFG Links and Minimal Mac Podcast visitors, glad you find the bookmarklets useful.

In case you’re also using Quix, you can add the group below to your Command File for improved versions of all the bookmarklets.

You can also grab my whole Command File, which incidentally I made following Merlin’s post.

Now, back to reruns.

Enter the Bookmarklets:

One of the reasons I didn’t miss extensions that much was because most services I was using where already bookmarkets (or had one). Bookmarkelts are basically bookmarks that perform an action with the content in your browser window.

Famous ones include: Share on Facebook, Tumblr and Bookmark on Delicious. My personal favorites are Read Later, Post with Tweetie and Readability.

In any case, after some head-scratching I modified some existing bookmarklets to make them work for me:

• Text Select: It grabs the text selected, the page URL and the page title and pop’s up a dialog box with the content you can easily copy. If no text is selected, you will get just the URL and the title.

If you select this very special text on a website and click on the bookmarklet you would get:

Page Title
http://website.com/address
this very special text

Markdown

I made a couple that format everything in markdown since I use it to blog and write most of my documents.

• Markdown Text: page title link and selected text as quote.

  [Page Title](http://website.com/address)
  
  >this very special text
  

• Markdown Link: selected text as link.

  [this very special text](http://website.com/address)
  

• Markdown Title: you guessed it.

  [Page Title](http://website.com/address)
  

All you have to do to save these bookmarklets is grab the underlined name and drop it in you bookmark bar. You can also right click and select save link to bookmarks in some browsers. In Opera, I assign shortcut to each one and just type tc on the URL bar to use it.

I hope somebody find these useful. They are a lifesaver for me.

Interact with Twitter during presentations

With Tweet Bubbles you can get floating notifications from a hashtag or user:

TweetBubbles is a tool which can make your presentation more exciting by live feeding Twitter during events or seminars.

Keynotetweet lets you post something when a slide comes up.

Simply add text inside the tags [twitter] and [/twitter] in the presenter notes section of a slide and when that slide comes up in the presentation the script will grab that text and send it to Twitter on your behalf.

I can see a very cool presentation being done by using these tools.

“So I bought it, but I bought it, for the first time, with misgivings.”

From Paul Grahams Apple’s Mistake:

So I bought it, but I bought it, for the first time, with misgivings. I felt the way I’d feel buying something made in a country with a bad human rights record. That was new. In the past when I bought things from Apple it was an unalloyed pleasure. Oh boy! They make such great stuff. This time it felt like a Faustian bargain. They make such great stuff, but they’re such assholes. Do I really want to support this company?

I totally relate to this with my recent Apple purchases. It used to be that I loved what I bought. I was proud and happy to be called a fanboy. But recently, I just make sure it’s the best option (it still usually is) and keep my bragging to a minimum. It’s how I used to feel when I bought something from Microsoft.

I’ve mentioned before that Apple needs to be careful with how they deal with the techie crowd. The geeks where the ones that influenced those around them by saying that Mac’s weren’t only cool now (circa 2002), but better. If they continue to turn their backs to geeks on the iPhone, their bottom-line won’t get hurt, but their mindshare will.

Regarding eReaders and eBooks

ll the recent talk about the different new eReaders misses one crucial point: it is not about the devices, it is about the future of books.

Consider for a second that books haven’t basically changed in the last few hundred years. Even things we take for granted online, like hyperlinks or recommendations do not remotely exist on books today. We use this concepts up until we purchase a book, but as soon as we open it, it’s back to the the 19th century. No wonder millennials don’t read as many books as their parents.

Of course the literary purist in me believes that incorporating technology into books affects the essence of reading. The ability to think, imagine, and contemplate in silence a story, a phrase and, most important of all: an idea. Nevertheless we need to recognize that clinging to the “good old way” is the easiest route to drive that “way” to obsolesce. If you don’t believe me, ask Polaroid and Kodak how the film business is doing.

The new direction digital books will be able to take the reader should be as exciting and unpredictable as the Web browsing ride over the past 15 years. Imagine margin notes that are easily shared with twitter or Facebook, allowing you to experience a book in a social way. All the insights of a book club without the inconveniences. Or maybe being able to jump from the fictional book you’re reading to references of that historical era, or the character’s inspiration or just facts about the author during the the period the book was being written.

Do you think DVD extras are great? Now imagine what authors could package-in with the books. From commentaries to deleted chapters chapters, giving them (and their publishers) the ability to complement a book with whatever they feel will make the content more value, is likely to result in more good than bad.

If you don’t feel compelled to buy any of the current eBook readers, don’t worry. The device that will make your bookshelf look like a vinyl record collection in the eyes of your children is not out yet. The Kindle is not the iPod of ebook readers. It’s the Rio.

The device that is going to bring digital books to the masses is not the one that better recreates the analog experience. It will be the one that remixes sequential printed pages into something made of bits and pixels and gives authors more tools to tell a story.

5 word reviews of Apple’s updates

• iMac: O so beautiful, but desktop.
• MacBook: Practical and bang for the buck.
• Mac mini: Unless media center, buy iMac.
• Magic Mouse: Must try before you buy.

In App Purchases

With Apple allowing In App Purchases for free apps, the era of Shareware for the iPhone has begun.

I have seen somebody who has seen the future

I have seen somebody who has seen the future. The 10/GUI touch interface concept is nothing short of brilliant.

My thoughts on touch interfaces for the desktop from last year are quickly becoming obsolete but relevant.

Fix Apple remote issues with Snow Leopard

Thanks to some poking by other smarter people, I managed to make the Apple remote work again with 3rd party apps (Boxee, Plex, Hulu, etc) on Snow Leopard.

Quick instructions:

1. Go to System/Library/CoreServices
2. Move Front Row.app and rdc.app to another folder. (You may need to Quit them from Activity Monitor).

The Apple Remote will no longer launch Front Row or control the volume, which allows you to use it on other apps. Of course, this is a fugly hack, please don’t use unless you understand the consequences.

The link blog

I couldn’t resist any longer. I’ve tried to post more regularly on robertomateu.com but at the end of the day, there are a lot of snippets of information and links I want to share. After reading Shawn Blanks post regarding link posts, I decided to start linkblogging again. Let’s see how this holds up.

How Barbara Streisand and her cat defend #FreeMediaVe

One Friday, when I was about 12, I attempted to escape from my school by jumping over a fence. My school had recently changed the rules for picking students up, and I couldn’t just walk outside to wait for my parents. This meant that they would have to endure a 45 minute car-queue to pick me up. Which meant that picking up my little sister at her school would take even longer. All of this snowballed into a situation where our monthly trip to the beach had absolutely no margin for error with regards to time. This was unacceptable to my Mom.

That day, as the final bell rang, I followed some older kids on their escape/smoking route. As we arrived behind the gym it became obvious that the final hurdle was a 3 meter fence. I should mention that my sport of preference is swimming, mainly because the only athletics required is a jump into the water. Hence, my climbing was painfully slow. The other kids must have never heard about the “leave no man behind” doctrine, because a minute later I was alone. That’s when Brother Ignacio uttered -“Mr. Mateu?”- from below. I was sure my mortal life was going to be over soon. Not only was my Mom going to kill me over being late, but she was going to do it again when she found out I was expelled.

Surprisingly, Brother Ignacio just told me to get down and wrote my name down on a pad. He then turned and walked briskly away. It seemed that the new rule had driven most of the high schoolers to exploit all the known escape routes, and a massive “prison-break” was taking place.

Let me assure you that Brother Ignacio didn’t have any issues with me spending the rest of the afternoon on detention. Yet, the total chaos taking place in different parts of the schoolyard made it impossible for him to concentrate on any one case. He was simply trying to monitor the situation as best he could.

Censuring the internet is similar. It’s very hard to do. You have to block keywords, URLs, IP addresses and do hackie things to pollute DNS server connections. In a way, it’s much more difficult to censure half-way than to completely lock it down.

The upcoming chain-link fence of Venezuela

Over the past two weeks I’ve being trying to write a post about tools that get around an Iran-style Web lockdown of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and news sites. The recent #FreemediaVe circus on Twitter and its response by the government only reinforced my belief that some sort of Web censorship is on the horizon. However, the more I researched about the technical aspects of blocking traffic on the Web, the more I began to appreciate the political implications it would have internally and externally.

Lets be clear, the Venezuelan government has the technical capability¹ to establish a fairly competent internet censorship model². Be it a complete-control model like Saudi Arabia, a more flexible version like China, or a simple site filtering system like Norway. The state controls close to 90% of all broadband traffic through the re-nationalized telecommunications company. This is helpful if they are monitoring quietly at the moment, but making other internet providers and mobile operators comply with some sort of centralized system would not be a surprise to anyone.

The tough decision the government needs to take is what type of censorship it would go forward with. However, this is a political decision and its implications are considerable on the lives of urban Venezuelans³.

NoticieroDigital and Aporrea together, on Youtube

The current media control scheme in Venezuela is incompatible with internet censorship because the “enemies of the revolution” are not as clear to pinpoint. Unlike TV signals and cable channels, you don’t eliminate NoticieroDigital’s presence online by just blocking their URL. Most of their videos are hosted on Youtube for example. But if you block Youtube, about a thousand Aporrea videos disappear too.

The democratization of media on the internet means that completely opposite political views coexist on the same services. This happens every day, on Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Hi5, Blogger, Wordpress, etc. The same tools that pro-chavéz individuals prefer to use online to express their views would likely fall under the censorship wall.

This a consequence of the Cute Cat Theory:

Web 2.0 was created so that people could publish cute photos of their cats. But this same cat dissemination technology has proved extremely helpful for activists, who’ve turned these tools to their own purposes.

Barbara Streisand and Cute Cats to the rescue

All this time I have being imagining the problems activist on both sides would face with some sort of online censorship. Yet, if the political views of Venezuela’s internet users are at all similar to the real-world, then 40% of them are Ni-Ni’s. They are apolitical and don’t really care too much one way or the other. Unless you mess with how they share party pictures, funny videos, use of social networking sites, etc.

Once you start censuring, everybody is affected. Anti-Chavéz, Pro-Chavéz, Anti-Anti, Pro-Anti, Mets fans that read NYtimes, European football followers that read the BBC; there are so many permutations of non-political content that coexists with political content on the same services, that you end up affecting a lot of people. As a result, everyone tries to find a way around it.

The Streisand effect defines this situation as:

The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.

Once you find a way to post your cute cats pics, you can do the same to post a picture of a National Guard shooting at crowds. By blocking something online, the government is going to push most internet users towards exploiting the system downfalls. That’s why China’s censorship model puts so much effort into trying to make foreign services comply with their censorship rules and also encourage local services.

The Boiling Blackberry

If the China system is sustainable on the long term, why then can’t Venezuela apply a similar model? I see three main reasons:

• Internet users and censorship grew up hand-in-hand in China. I’m always amazed about how Chinese individuals are mostly unaware that any censorship exists at all. It’s a typical case of the boiling frog, you only notice if it’s very sudden. They sometimes mention that some inappropriate Web sites are not allowed, but to them it doesn’t seem to be censorship, just protection.
• Although there was some important growth in local web services early on the decade, Venezuela currently lacks any real local alternatives to the basic Web2.0 services: photo sharing, blogs, social networking.
• Blackberry: The growth of Blackberry devices in Venezuela has been phenomenal⁴. It’s used by the cool kids, the opposition political parties, the local government and all journalist. By design, nobody (not even RIM in Canada) can see what goes on within the Blackberry Mail and Messenger walled garden. Any real attempt to censure communications in Venezuela needs to start by shutting down all local Blackberry Services providers.

Everything is going to be alright. Not really

Is everything is fine then? We have nothing to worry about, right? Yes we do. Remember what I said above: the government can, and probably will, establish some sort of online censorship. It will not work as expected for the reasons already mentioned. Nevertheless, they will be able to monitor a lot of traffic. And if things someday really heat up, they can disrupt most important Web sites for a considerable period of time. Next week I’ll point to some services to keep handy if Iran-style blockade happens and you want to post to Twitter, your blog, etc. But remember, just follow the cats.

Just to finish my escape-from-school story, I eventually got outside and told my parents what had happened. Without knowing what to say my mom just stammered -“Well, uh, next time …”-, and my always proper Dad just added -“don’t get caught”-. I believe that recommendation is still valid.

Careful Apple, you’re becoming an Oppressor

Over the past few months developer frustration over the App Store has increased considerably. Not because things are getting worse, but because they aren’t changing, at all. The main the problem seems to be lack of clear rules with regards to why, what, how and when iPhone applications get published in the store.

Update: (01/08/09): The FCC sent letters to Apple, AT&T and Google inquiring about Apple’s rejection of the Google Voice app. This is going get interesting.

My big concern is that the App Store is such a money-maker, that most developers will just look the other way. The whole situation gives me the feeling of businessmen during right-wing dictatorships¹: It’s business as usual (99¢ fart apps) as long as you stay out of the way of the dictator (Apple). Problem is your most creative and important developers don’t tolerate this environment. The see themselves as: The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.²

Don’t doubt for a second that these developers would put ideology over numbers and stop developing for the iPhone. That’s exactly the reason why many of them moved to the Mac from Windows in the first place.

Here’s a sampling of some of the developer comments and situations going around today:

stevenf.com » I’m furious with Apple and AT&T right now, with regard to the iPhone

There’s been no indication that Apple want to do anything to resolve the problems with app store policies that have been laid bare a hundred times over. There’s no indication of anything, as a matter of fact. Nothing. After a year. It’s a black hole yawning back at us.

One Bad Apple » Newsweek.com

With iPhone, Apple decides which independent applications will be allowed, and it can pull the plug on any application at any time, without explanation—as happened in July to several developers of iPhone apps. “I spent four weeks trying to get through to Apple via e-mail and phone calls, and they wouldn’t return my messages,” says Cyrus Najmabadi, developer of an iPhone application called Now Playing, an online movie-theater guide that Apple yanked in July after receiving a complaint about the program.

From The Top » The Emperor’s New Clothes

As with many other serious iPhone developers recently, we’ve made the hard decision to kill all but one project in progress, and stop investing any resources in creating new applications. We’ll continue to sell and fully support our existing iPhone offerings, however we’re already moving to platforms which show signs of real viability.

Where do I sign up? » by Justin Williams

More important than the money is my enjoyment as a developer. I no longer enjoy building software for the iPhone because of the bureaucracy and infrastructure that surrounds it. I can build great software for the Mac without the headaches and bullshit of dealing directly with Cupertino and their AppStore.

It’s about killer apps. Not just number of apps.

The effect of developers moving to other platforms takes a long time to register. But it does happens very fast once it starts. I love my iPhone, but if Instapaper, Tweetie, 1Password and Comiczeal were to move to Android, that would be reason enough for me to switch.

Apple should know better than anybody that it’s not about how many apps you have available in your platform, it’s about how great they are. I’m pretty sure they understand this, and soon we will have another Steve Letter addressing the problems with AppStore and the planned improvements.

Updated personal logo

I love articles that show the design process for a website, UI or icon. Since I recently updated my twitter avatar and website favicon with a new design I thought it might be cool to show the different stages.

Design process:

For creating most of my graphics I actually use Keynote. I think it’s because CorelDraw 7 was the program in which I learned. As a result, I’m a vector kind of guy.

I usually start with a rough idea and duplicate the slide when I reach a design I like but want to keep experimenting with. Otherwise I make another blank page and move from there. If I need to do something that requires image editing I copy it to Acorn, and then copy back. That’s how I removed the small piece from the m.

A simple update:

To be fair, I’ve been using the concept of combining my initials in one letter for a while. So it was on the back of my mind at all times. For some reason, I keep ending there. I just like a lot how both letters fit together, and I’m not the only one.

Looking ahead I want to add a little color to it. Maybe find a way for it to work better with my pic, since I believe that personal twitter accounts look better that way.

Episode IV: A new blog engine

I have the same problem with my Web sites as I have with my Moleskines. Whenever I get a new one I spend hours setting it up. Making sure everything fits perfectly and looks great. But then, I open it, and draw a blank. Nothing I write is up to standards for the site. So then, I procrastinate the next blog post, get frustrated and eventually leave it at that.

Acquired taste for writing

If it doesn’t come naturally, and I’m not that good at it, why do it?

I have a confession to make: I didn’t particularly like Radiohead’s OK Computer the first time I heard it. It has since become my favorite CD. But when I first heard it, it was too complex. I knew this was because I was too used to commercial rhythms. Before that I had rebelled against my classmates love for Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Guns and Roses by becoming a reggae fan¹ (I know, I know). Point is, I understood that there was something beyond the 4/4 time and basic chords. So I listened to it again. And again. By the end of the week, I liked it. By the end of the month, loved it. A year later, I was enjoying my dad’s Pink Floyd’s CD’s.

I need to believe that good writing is the same way. It’s complex and not easy initially. But if you stick to it for a while it will grow on you. Because it’s what you want to happen.

Are you talking to me?

After listening to Merlin Mann and John Gruber podcast about blogging, it became very obvious that I also didn’t have an ideal reader in mind. Most of the time I just try to write something that mimics what some of the bloggers I look up to have already written. Which very quickly leads to disappointment because they have already done it (written about it, commented, etc) in a much more elegant way.

The format

The easiest and most fun way to blog for me is the tumblelog. Where you either link or quote, and then comment. But it’s difficult to consider it writing. It also is arguable how useful these links are, especially with sites that make it easy for popular stuff to float to the front-page like Techmeme, Reddit and Digg. Most likely I won’t be able to contain myself and post links regularly. But I won’t consider this writing.

This time it’s personal

I’m going to keep the focus on tech and tools. It is what I’m passionate about, and either way, I’m still thinking about it all the time. What I’m going to change, is my idea of the target reader. I’m going to concentrate in thinking about people I know (@federicoa, @carlosmherrera, @navjotpawera). Hopefully this will help keep my feet on the ground regarding topics, depth and insights that are expected.

The tool

If there is something about the new site that I’m happy with, it’s the new engine behind it. I’m using Jekyll (Update: the blog is now hosted on tumblr, feel free to laugh at me). For the reader, the only difference is that the site should now load super fast. That’s because it’s a static web site with a bunch of html files². The site is generated on my Macs³ with a command line tool and I then rsync it to my server. The whole process is geeky, straight forward, and once setup: completely uninstrusive for concentrating on content. I’m writing this post on TextMate using Markdown, the date-stamp and the link come from the name I give the file.

Well, let’s see how it works out this time around. Fourth time is the charm, they say.

All of this has happened before, and I will watch it again

Although Battlestar Galactica’s final episode turned out a little too religious for my taste, I still enjoyed it immensely. All in all, the writers managed to create one of those universes that I’ll miss and probably revisit in a few years (like Firefly). One thing I specially enjoyed was how a lot of the story fitted together in end, which was surprising after learning this:

I do feel good that the process I always believed in and really defended — about feeling the story instinctively as you go through it, and not being tied to, “Oh, we know exactly how it’s going to end up”

Ronald D. Moore finale Q&A (NJ.com)

This “don’t over-plan” attitude reminded me a lot of:

Details reveal themselves as you use what you’re building. You’ll see what needs more attention. You’ll feel what’s missing.

Getting Real: Ignore Details Early On (37signals)

Good example of how by focusing at the “problem” at hand and not just imagining all possible upcoming ones, can actually help in creating something even better.

So say we all

All your screens belong to the browser

The Safari 4 beta got some people talking about how some it features would make a perfect fit (or not) for a touch device. The features in question are Top Sites (basically Apple’s implementation of Opera’s Speed Dial) and Cover Flow. Although this could perfectly true, I believe these features reflect more what’s coming into the AppleTV than into the iPhone or “iPad Tablet”

A recent patent regarding the AppleTV makes it even more compelling. With a Wii-remote like controller to point at things in the screen you can see how interacting with busy applications like a browser becomes viable in a set-top box. Having Opera already installed on my Wii, I’m more than convinced of the usability and usefulness of this.

Browsing on your TV is no more unnatural than watching youtube on your desktop. Notice how with notebooks most at home browsing has shifted to the sofa in front of the TV. I don’t think that an internet browsing AppleTV will become the center of your home browsing. But I do imagine something like this happening:

You are watching TV and chatting with a friend on your mobile phone. Somebody sends you a link and instead of opening it in the phone you “pass it along” to your TV screen. You can now continue to chat, share the link with anybody else close by (hopefully the link is SFW) and shift you attention back to the original video on the same screen.

The irony of integrating functionality into one device could be that by being able to do everything, they end up encouraging the use of other devices that are better at each specific function.

iPhone 3.0 preview thoughts

Some notes from today’s Apple iPhone OS 3.0 Preview (Quotes from: MacRumors)

• In-App Purchasing: Allows developers to sell additional content from within applications. Highlighted uses include magazine subscriptions, eBooks, additional levels and items for games.

Apple keeps 30% comission, so it makes sense that they want to encourage developers to sell even more. As long as it’s not music.

• Peer-to-Peer Connectivity: Find other devices running the app via Bonjour over Wi-Fi of Bluetooth. Good for gaming, but also other applications for sharing data.

I’m concerned for Nintendo DS. May the PSP rest in peace.

• Third-Party Accessory Apps: Allowing accessory manufacturers to create applications to interface with their hardware accessories.

Huge market opportunites and very cool. Just the idea of a compact external keyboard makes me reach for my wallet.

• Push Notification: Rather than using background processes that hamper battery life, utilize third-party server to push badge, text, and audio alerts from applications.

Better late than never. Useful for some apps. But they need to release iChat pronto. Messaging creates important network effects.

• Turn by Turn: Apple will allow developers to use CoreLocation for turn-by-turn GPS directions.

Nice. Don’t have a car, but I can see how GPS sales will be affected.

• Cut, Copy and Paste: Available across all apps. Shake to undo or redo.

Welcome to 1993.

• Landscape keyboard: Available in all key applications, including Mail.
• MMS: Picture messaging now available.
• Voice Memos: Record notes, lectures, interviews, etc.

Yawn. 3rd party apps already dealt with these.

• Spotlight Search: Available across all applications. Systemwide search available from main home screen by flicking to the left.

Very welcomed. But I’m sure we still haven’t seen the full scope of the springboard updateds.

• A2DP Bluetooth: Support for stereo bluetooth headsets.

Not that relevant yet. But wireless headphones could be the future.

All in all, nothing groundbreaking. But this was a developer event and the announcements are very important for the. But still, I think a lot of people are sleeping a little bit better at Palm.

iTV killed the cable box

After moving to Norway I finally broke down and bought an AppleTV. I’m loving it. While I rent a couple of movies a moth, I mainly use it for TV Shows: The West Wing, South Park, The Big Bang Theory, Psych, Mad Men, etc. And although I have converted some “alternative method” downloads to play on it, I’m mostly buying them from iTunes store.

Still two Media Players and an App have caught my attention recently:

SlingCatcher:

Goes for $299. Being a Slingthingy, it streams from other slingboxes, which I really don’t care for. It also streams video from your Mac or PC, so you can be watching Lost on abc.com, SNL on hulu.com or even videos on netflix.com and you can see it on your tv. Quality appears to be great. You can play any content you put on a USB drive, which makes a very useful when you get most of your content from bittorrent and other alternative sources.

WD TV HD Media PLayer:

Goes for $129 (but you can find it at BestBuy for $99)

It only plays content from a USD Drive, but that makes it pretty straight forward. The UI doesn’t seem that elegant compared to the SlingCatcher though.

Boxee:

Free software, invite only now.

Boxee is an media center software for Win/Mac/Linux and AppleTV ¹ . Boxee fixes most of these issues in a easy way, you can play content from Hulu, CBS, etc. It also allows you to stream Divx, and other formats from your pc, mac that live on the same network. Boxee also adds a SocialNetwork layer on top of all this, don’t know how useful or cool it is. But it has the buzzword compliant feature.

You can always just connect your computer to the TV. But that would be uncivilized, wouldn’t it?

HTC Dream seems like a Snooze

After looking at some leaked shots of the HTC Dream running Android, I’m going to venture and say that this device is going to be as successful as the Moto ROKR E1. While I’m excited about the possibilities of the Android platform, the pics flying around from the device are pretty boring. Especially if you compare it to other phones from the HTC Touch family.

I think HTC is delivering on Google’s practical-yet-unsurprising spec sheet. And they are learning a whole lot doing it. The breakthrough device will come in a couple of months when HTC delivers their own branded handset, and reap the full benefits of its sales.

Notify Me

I’m loving the iPhone 2.1 update. Finally the OS, the apps and even mobileme are all working as expected. Sadly, the mobileme push mail issues have been so unreliable that I have defaulted to using the free Mail2web exchange service as my primary mobile email. The calendar sync features are still worth the investment imho, especially since I just upgraded my dad’s account a family plan for $50.

So, now that I have everything just working, am I satisfied? of course not. Now I want more features! But seriously, there one big thing missing to make the iPhone push mail really useful: a notification screen.

Right now when you get a sms or voicemail, a popup lets you know in your locked screen. But if you get an email, nothing. Not even an icon in the top bar. Hence, if miss the new email sound (which is not modifiable btw) or the vibration that comes with it, you won’t now until you check the email. This, in a ways, beats the whole idea of a push email.

There is a jailbreak application called IntelliScreen that provides a solution for this. But I felt it slowed down the iPhone a bit (no scientific tests where done). But there could be an Apple solution in the horizon. According to some patent documents:

The iPhone team’s filing instead proposes a more properly formatted notification panel — in one of approximately a half dozen potential layouts — that would not only remain visible once the phone is unlocked, but actually provide direct links or buttons to the missed communications. from Appleinsider

This will probably come when the notification service feature is made available to developers. Which hopefully will be sooner rather than later. And once available, the iPhone would be able to provide a push email experience that my crackberry friends expect.

Mobile Friday

Smartphone Is Expected via Google - NYTimes.com

Apple’s iPhone has shaken the cellphone industry, partly because of its design, but mostly because AT&T and Apple have allowed owners to download any number of applications to their phones. That freedom to individualize a phone’s functions has helped increase the popularity of the iPhone.

Bull. The iPhone is one of the least configurable devices out there. It is the best thought out design and OS. But the apps, while great, are so limited in its interaction with the OS that to talk about freedom is kinda ridiculous.

BlackBerry Bold: the DEFINITIVE hands-on review

Yep, we’re pretty impressed with the Bold, and we hope the final software updates which will be released prior to launch will iron out a few of the wrinkles noted during our testing.

Speaking of iPhone competitors, the Bold is turning out to be a very nice looking phone. Both in design and interface.

Palm Treo Pro: Palm Treo Pro Revealed (Lookin’ Good)

Wow, check out the Treo Pro, previously thought to be the Treo 850. It’s safe to say Palm is plunging ahead with the Centro’s industrial design, but the stark (glossy?) black and white color scheme with the phone/end orbs make it slick, rather than kiddie cool. Unfortunately, the Palm OS (new or othewise) for is nowhere in sight, just Windows Mobile.

Last but not, actually yes, least. Palm seems to be about to launch their I’m not dead yet Treo. Good enough design, but Windows Mobile?, I’ll spare you the rant.

Here we go

Today I start at Opera Software in Oslo, Norway. I’m really very excited about this. I was planning to write something deep and philosophical about it. But really, all I have to do is show up and work hard in what I believe in.

Easy enough no? We’ll see

We are never satisfied with the current version

Did Steve Jobs demo a Flash-enabled iPhone 3G? - iPhone Atlas

Hmmmm. This does look peculiar.

On current iPhones running OS 1.1.4, and in the iPhone Simulator included with the iPhone SDK, nationalgeographic.com renders with a picture of a cheetah and the message “This presentation requires Flash. Download free Flash player.” On the keynote-demonstrated iPhone 3G, however, the site renders the same cheetah image without the “This presentation requires Flash” message. Interesting.

Firefox 3.1 (Shiretoko) planned features draft - Mozilla Links

While the concept looks kinda nice, I’m still not convinced that this is a useful approach. I do think that Mozilla’s mobile concept of “infinite space” is much more useful as we continue to open more tabs simultaneously.

Visual tab switching and tab searching/filtering were both tried for Firefox 3, abandoned for other more critical features, and are being considered for 3.1. Ctrl+Tab, a extension developed by Dao Gottwald implements both of them displaying a thumbnail of the opened tabs when pressing Ctrl + Tab to switch tabs.