Category: Main

Where were you when you heard about Steve Jobs?

~ michael_msft ~ 7 Comments

I remember when I was kid while sitting in a car outside a laundry-mat having a radio station interrupt some music to announce Elvis was dead. As a kid I was a huge fan of Elvis.  I was stunned. All I could think to do was cry.

I was standing outside of Fry’s in Palo Alto waiting for a co-worker to pick me up when I read the tweet. Steve Jobs had just passed away. We all knew this day would come but none of us were ready for it. I was stunned. Sad. Suddenly lonely.

When my friend picked me up I told him and said let’s go to the Apple Store in Palo Alto. I have been needing a new laptop for personal use and figured what better time to buy. So I grabbed a MacBook Air.

For me I will always remember where I was when I heard about SJ and I will always think about him when I use my Air.

RIP

The out of Towners

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

When in Sunnyvale I usually walk to work. Save gas, get some exercise and fit in a podcast or two. This is the same habit I share with my time in Singapore – except it’s cooler in Sunnyvale.

There are a few crosswalks I have to navigate that don’t have a stop light. Usually no one stops but the few times someone has – they are driving a car from out of State.

Is this new post-terminator California?

Back to NPR…

#openhackindia 11 recap!

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

It is monday and I spent fri,sat, and sun helping with OHD India 11. What an awesome event.

Sure there were glitches, hiccups and plenty of chaos but that is also the part that makes it all that much better when the end result turns out to be so awesome. I think there were over 600 attendees, 100 plus hacks submitted, 100’s of helpers, mountains of food, open bar, swag and lots of smiles all around.

Some flickr photos…

more on Twitter… in fact the topic trended for a few days. Some will say due to the issues but I think it was due to how busy the place was and all the chatter in and outside of the event.

All I know is I met a lot of good people there and talked to a lot of them who told me many times how much fun they had.

General list of hacks here

Congrats to the winners, some flying to NY, and a huge thanks to all the people who helped at the event.

laterz!

 

Spotify Singapore

~ michael_msft ~ 1 Comment

Information overload happens a ton these days so I tend to focus on just a few sites and/or podcasts. For information on the mobile markets – I am loving Horace over at Asymco.com. Detailed analysis, candid commentary and the willingness to make some bets as to where things will go. Also been listening to his podcast over at 5×5 – the critical path. It is detailed stuff and worth the listen.

On to Spotify.

I had the first Apple iPod about  a week after it came out. Loved it. Ripped all my legally bought CD’s, had tons of them, and synced and enjoyed my catalog. Awesome stuff. For the time it seemed like the best option.

Then iTunes hit where I could buy CD’s online rather than physically buy them and RIP them. Sure MP3 music stealing, file downloading, was going on but I normally would buy. I just felt like I should do the right thing – pay for my music. I was not happy with the pricing models or the lack of evolution but I stuck with it. However I was making money and willing to buy my music – a lot of people only wanted to steal it – I mean download MP3s.

I went through a time of living in Thailand and not making a lot of cash. So what  happened? I largely stopped buying anything on iTunes and resorted to buying copy CD’s on the streets of Bangkok. Yes – the street. Full of stalls selling illegal shit. Even entire DVDs packed with pre-ripped MP3s so I could forgo the RIP step. It was what I could afford to be honest.

Then I got back to making a living and started pushing the buy button on iTunes quite a bit. However I must admit I was bummed that over the 4-5 years nothing had changed much. iTunes wasn’t streaming, the prices had not changed and the music was trapped on whatever hard drive I had downloaded it to. I had probably 3-4 machines plus extra hard drives full of music I had either bought, ripped or downloaded.

Listening to the new Sublime album right now. #FYI. I didn’t even know there was a new album until I saw it on Spotify what’s new.

I was mildly pleased with Apple’s latest release of iTunes that allowed me to see all the music I had purchased legally and download it. Which I did. I did not take the other option of letting it find music on my drives and get legal copies – why? Well I was figuring something better would come. I had heard about Pandora but was unable to get it to work in Singapore. Also from playing with it in the States – it still felt not like not quite what I wanted.

I still think Apple is doing the right thing and has helped me to explore, buy and listen to legally bought music. To be honest they kept me buying music – the music industry should be grateful.

Then I got an invite for Spotify. I played with it for an hour on my Mac and was hooked. New songs, old stuff and the playlists. Then I saw the pay 10 bucks and then I could sync it offline and to my iPhone. Done. I paid for the year right away. I mean in pure comparison terms it is like if I bought one real CD a month. Since I am prone to buy more than one this was like saving me money to be honest. I love saving money!

Now I search, make a playlist and sync it offline. It is essentially all you can eat music for 10 bucks a month. Sick.

I have a few nits.

I keep getting iPhone errors. Like when I search from the phone and find a CD and then want to make a playlist out of it. My app just crashes.

Or like when I download a newer version of Spotify – it wants to re-download all my lists. That’s insane. Someone fix that ASAP.

But mostly I can’t complain. I keep finding new music, making more playlists and gorging on the catalog. For 10 bucks a month.

I am legally stuffing myself on more music than I can possibly consume. Awesome.

Will Spotify kill iTunes? Some think so : http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/07/why_spotify_will_kill_itunes.html

I am not sure it will kill it but it will make a dent – it has to. Problem is Apple is so strong right now maybe they won’t notice but I can assure you that I will be buying less on iTunes – maybe none at all. That has to hurt a little no?

My suggestion for Apple to remain on top?

Buy Spotify.

Apps or HTML 5 ?

~ michael_msft ~ 1 Comment

I moderated a panel at adTech in Singapore a few months back – all about how the tablet is changing the game for news and media consumption. AWSJ was there and the FT – 2 papers I read at times. I rarely by the AWSJ cause I get it in the hotels or pick it up when I can – from time to time I buy it. For the FT, the pink sheet, I usually pay for the weekend edition. I try to read news less and less so I am not inundated with a constant barrage of mostly useless news and propaganda but I enjoy sitting at a coffee shop with the FT weekend – a relaxing time for me.

More and more I am using my iPad for stuff – banging this post out on it right now. At times I am experimenting with reading on it as well. Using kindle more than I thought I would and even buying some editions of Fortune Mag and such.

One of the talks at the panel centered around HTML 5 versus apps. FT has recently made a lot of noise around their HTML 5 experience around the iPad. For the most part I am impressed with the layout, navigation, speed and even some offline caching – but when it comes to ease of use around paying for a unit of data and the billing experience I would have to give it a big fat #fail.

First off I can’t just buy the FT weekend issue – this is stupid since I can walk to the paper version and buy only the weekend edition. Why am I forced to buy an annual subscription? My guess is because they don’t want to have to manage the billing for just a small amount of money but this is where not integrating with my apple iTunes account makes no sense at all. If they had made an app I would be able to just buy the weekend issue and be done with it. I would also have a nice seamless experience and not have to worry about if I cached enough data for offline reading.

What’s worse though is the form I have to enter for the subscription is so long that I mostly decided just not to bother with it. Of course the FT could complain about margins and such but seems to me they would have collected some money from me rather than no money from me.

So it is not just about apps versus HTML 5 but about ease of use, time and the billing relationship.

Apps win.

What the 4th really means…

~ michael_msft ~ 2 Comments

I have been in the states for a few weeks with the awesome timing of being here when it is 4th of July. For some people it might be the parties, the fireworks, the sports or the food.

For me though it is pretty simple. Time off from work, the family and a chance to ride the machines with my brother and my dad. Amazing.

We took Mosquito Ridge road, dropped down into the reservoir and rode back out the canyon through the national forest land. Nary a car or bike around most of the time.

Give me another week like this and I might be in heaven.

Enjoy the the holiday folks.

For more info on Independence Day go here: http://shanand.blogspot.com/2011/07/independence-day.html

peace…

HP might have a shot…

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Been saying for some time that I think HP might be the only one with a chance to bust into the tablet ranks with something competitive. It won’t be RIM – the playbook stinks and is a big waste of time for RIM since while they work on that their core business is falling apart. Android might be crushing it with phone sales but the tablet stuff looks lacking so far in comparison to the iPad.

However HP sees the reason to control the stack, just like Apple, and given the WebOS assets coupled with their ability to control hardware – HP could ship something compelling.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1762959/hp-touchpad-webos-ipad-ios-android

The latest news might be the smartest move yet – Apple clearly is not behind Facebook with their Twitter move and Facebook might be looking for a chance to back someone else in the tablet arms race.

Looks like they just did with this news – http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/27/facebook-tablet-app-hp-touchpad/

It is pretty smart of both HP and Facebook since FB would love to upset Apple a bit and HP would love to have the jesus app to pull people in. We shall see…

Tidbits from the edge…

~ michael_msft ~ 1 Comment

I have the great fortune of working a bit around the globe and for now I am back in the states for a while. Always fun to be back and enjoy America! Had a nice Friday night with work friends and close friends in the city. Just finished a weekend with mom and dad in Carmel area visiting my lovely grandmother. Had some good food, a cruise of 17 mile drive and saw some old areas I lived as a kid. Always makes me feel nostalgic and a tad bit older. 😉

Walking around San Francisco I feel like things might be on the verge of getting better but yet there are still so many empty spots and apart from the tech industry I still think there is a large air of uncertainty hanging over the economy at large.

What I am continually reminded of though is just the general lack of customer service that I am spoiled with in Asia. Sure – at times Asia can smother you with service to the point you are shooing service people away but I must admit that there is a genuine sincerity with the service in Asia. I miss it.

In Friday I was in a bar where most of the bottled were hard to see. When the bartender asked for my order I said I wanted a Bourbon but was not sure what kind they had. She snapped at me to tell me that I should know what I want when I order. Okay. Wow. Thanks for being so helpful – I guess I forgot I am just a lowly customer.

Then on another day a friend of mine and I swung into the timbuk2 store. We both just felt that the guy waiting on us was very curt and not all that helpful in telling us the options, colors and if something was for order or was in stock. He wasn’t rude but it just felt like we had to tease every factoid out of him. In Asia the guy would have politely gave us the options and would have worked, gently, to bring us to a sale. I mean we were both thinking of spending money on a bag that we probably don’t need and is not the best priced kit but yet we kind of wanted one. We both left without buying a thing. Hardly a good sales guy.

I have other examples but I don’t want to harp on this but I feel like Asia has a slight bit of an edge when it comes to customer service across most channels and I must admit – I love it.