Category: Spuul

Amazon Instant Video

~ michael_msft ~ 4 Comments

Given the sale yesterday in Amazon Prime, I figured I would get it so that I had access to their movies and their music service. Of course the free delivery thing won’t help me much but figured for 70 odd bucks a year I have lots of new video and audio content. I assume that both product are not as good as Netflix or Spotify and so far that is turning out to be true. Of course Amazon cares more about the overall model than the individual products which means basically that Netflix and Spotify crush it if you just compare the products, which generally is always the case when there is a pure play company versus a conglomerate approach.

What surprises me though is how bad the video app. Given all of their resources one would assume they could make a better app.

As to the VPN issue the app won’t play anything unless I VPN. It also won’t do anything on data – I must be on wifi which I thought odd.

Once you VPN in you must stay VPN’d or it stops working. This is where I have always known that Netflix does really try to GEO block anything cause with Netflix I can disconnect the VPN once the video starts streaming. With Amazon if I disconnect the VPN I get an error immediately. Contrast this with the music app where it appears no VPN is needed at all.

However the video app itself is so buggy. I only use it with Airplay so I can watch on my TV, Amazon is not on the Apple TV FYI, but it consistently would just stop working. If I got notification on my phone the Airplay would stop. Many times the TV would keep running the video without sound and the app would keep playing the video with sound but at different locations. For sure Airplay is not the bug free experience it used to be but on the Spuul app and on Netflix I never see these issues. Once the app goes awry I found I can’t get anything Airplay related working till I bounce the app. Normally if severe Airplay issue you have to bounce the Apple TV.

Content wise there is some interesting stuff. Movies on it that are not on Netflix, TV shows that are also not on Netlfix and of course all the Amazon content which I have yet to look at yet.

All in all a decent value for the money and I assume even more so if I could use the free shipping but it’s silly to me they put out such buggy apps. Silly.

The canary in the coal mine

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Following up from my post yesterday :: http://www.nokpis.com/2015/01/06/thanks-marco/

Some people are acting like none of us can complain about Apple or that there is nothing wrong. So rather than harp on the sensationalist side of things I thought I would highlight where there is real commentary about the state of Apple from a real developer.

Gruber’s take on the Panic post :: http://daringfireball.net/linked/2015/01/07/panic-report

Look no further than Panic. I have been using their software for years and they are very open about the state of things.

Read their latest blog post first :: http://www.panic.com/blog/the-2014-panic-report/

If we could offer traditional discounted upgrades via the App Store, this paragraph wouldn’t exist. This is one area where the App Store feels like one of those novelty peanut cans with the snake inside.

This is so spot on. Hard to have the marketing and sales flexibility one desires when things like upgrades are not easily doable.

Coda was removed from the Mac App Store in mid-October, at the same time version 2.5 was released. Since new releases always generate a short-term sales spike and we wanted the numbers to be fairly representative of “typical sales”, we looked at one month on either side  — September and November.

The results were interesting. We sold a couple hundred fewer units of Coda post-App Store removal, but revenue from it went up by about 44%.

I am guessing they are only leaving the Mac App Store due to technical and pricing flexibility but of course not having to share 30% must be nice. All in all there are still too many issues with the Mac App Store – it is definitely not working out the way Apple intended.

The last couple of months of 2014 got classically “exciting” as Transmit iOS was suddenly flagged by the App Review team for a violation — a well-documented situation, both on our blog, and sites like Daring Fireball and MacStories. Thanks almost exclusively to these articles, we very quickly got a very nice call from a contact at Apple, and the situation reversed almost immediately. Everything ended up just fine.

But I can’t comfortably say “the system worked”. It’s still an awful and nerve-wracking feeling to know that, at any minute, we could get thrown into a quagmire of e-mails, phone calls, code removal, and sadness, just by trying to ship something cool.

I have written about the issue with the review process more than a few times. It really is horribly broken. Reviewers don’t read review notes, they make a lot of mistakes and there is too much time in getting through the issue for each cycle. I really don’t understand why Apple can’t apply some code and thinking to the way the process works. Panic is huge and well known so they have it easy. Folks like us, the mere mortals, have to sit and endure shitty reviewing for each appeal and subsequent follow up reviews. This is why I actually like the Play Store better.

Low iOS Revenue

This is the biggest problem we’ve been grappling with all year: we simply don’t make enough money from our iOS apps. We’re building apps that are, if I may say so, world-class and desktop-quality. They are packed with features, they look stunning, we offer excellent support for them, and development is constant. I’m deeply proud of our iOS apps. But… they’re hard to justify working on.

This one is tough, I don’t blame Apple but it is sad that apps can’t make enough money. People just don’t want to pay. What Panic doesn’t talk about is that the situation on Android is far, far worse. Unfortunately it means one has to come up with other models to make money. I am always stunned when I get customer emails from people who use Spuul complaining about using our free product and having to endure ads. They think there should be no ads but they don’t make any connection to the fact that the ads are how we support a free service. Then you tell them they can upgrade to remove all the ads and they reply that they simply don’t want to pay anything. Okay. Not much I can even say to that. This mentality is all over the app ecosystem.

Panic is just a reminder though that Apple cannot succeed with out developers and their fans but increasingly with the draconian and outdated App Store and the slippage in software quality – Apple risks losing some momentum. It won’t be instant or even easily spotted but these are the canaries – like it or not.

Streaming pile of doo

~ michael_msft ~ 1 Comment

Funny – I just read this :: http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/6215246

Notice that most of the list is not really about making anything better for users.

Back to the post…

As I am in the states I have been messing around with all the streaming services available in the states. Amazon, iTunes, Hulu, Netflix across a variety of devices like TVs, Roku, Apple TV, Sony Blu Ray, Xbox, iPhone, iPad, and who knows what else. Its amazing all the innovation but yet everything is generally a pain in the ass to use and all suffer from edge cases. Nothing is really awesome and nothing works well across all use cases. 

As a precursor to all of this I know the general issue is that the content owners just don’t allow for innovation. It plain and simple how clear that is. So unfortunately I think the whole industry is held back by the owners of the content. This is why piracy is so rampant and in some sense the best user experience because product people can do amazing things with files, networks, and user experiences. Legal services cannot do anything they want and are mostly held back. Such is life. I don’t think this will change anytime soon.

It’s clear to me that even guys like Jason who is building https://www.vessel.com know this which is why they are focusing on user generated content since if they get it right they can do anything they want in reality. Of course there will be markets economics driving some decisions and they have to compete with YouTube while attracting content makers but still the playing field is much less restrictive than real content or shall we say trapped content. I have no idea how vessel will do but I think it will shake the market up some. YouTube is huge but the search experience, the curation and some of the viewing experiences are really broken. They are so big though they don’t care. Vessel has the time, money and experience to make a go of it.

In my own experience of using services while I am in the states I find that the best device to use is still Apple TV but it really could use an update. The remote sucks, the home screen is too cluttered and it needs more apps but the overall experience is better. On a technical note even if I am using Netflix I would rather use it via Apple TV cause it partially deals with one of my Netflix pet peeves which is streaming only and sucks on bad connections. Yes – America is full of shitty connections. However the way the Apple TV works, and it is the only Apple device that does this, the movie is essentially downloading as you watch it which means it does not pixelate or buffer much providing the viewing position is behind the download. If you use the Netflix app, Netflix on the web or Netflix via a smart TV app the streaming only issues will crop up. I need to dig into Roku more but I think it still streams versus downloading. All in all I prefer Apple TV and Netflix.

Problem is though Netflix is pretty shitty content wise. Sure you get the big Netflix hits and a few others but almost all new TV shows are not on it and the movie selection is dim. Which means that as the family gathers around the TV and we want to watch something new – we have being using the Apple TV to purchase movies on iTunes. The selection really is the best for movies and TV shows. Yes it costs money but if 15 of us are sitting in the room and we want to watch a new release, paying 4-10 bucks is still cheaper than going to the movies. So it is actually an affordable deal. Not everything is yet released on it but there is way more new content on iTunes than anywhere else. With Netflix I have to know what I want to watch cause there is no awesome way to sort movies by rating or by other characteristics, it is mostly just genres and then lists in the order that Netflix wants you to see it. I also find that I either want to use the Netflix app on iTunes or I connect my phone to the TV to use the iOS app. The Samsung Netflix apps are shit, the Roku one is okay and the Sony BluRay one is okay. None are amazing. In summation Netflix is the best for streaming, subscription and amount of content all wrapped up into one.

Just a quick side note – Sony makes the worst software ever. No wonder they lose money and are easily hacked.

The big issue I have is Netflix is streaming only. Which sucks if you are on a bad connection, are mobile or want to prep stuff for your kids. There is no way to download anything or cache anything so once you hit the road Netflix is useless. For this I turn to either YouTube or iTunes. YouTube cause I can stream easily on mobile and find lots of kids stuff but of course this is using mobile data. I can’t offline or download YouTube yet. For iTunes I can buy and download stuff and keep it on my device. This is awesome for road trips. It sucks that Apple does this but they can’t seem to figure out streaming. Again this is where any one service cant fit all models well. Netlfix won’t download and iTunes won’t stream. This stuff is not rocket science and it sucks they both can’t figure out how to combine these functions but my guess is that the content guys are part of the problem. I know from my own experience with Spuul that content people can dictate tech or product features. Sad but true.

All this means that there is no perfect service or device – well apart from just pirating whatever you want to watch. I like the Apple ecosystem more than others but it is also ripe for disruption if Apple does not ship a new Apple TV and figure out the cloud. Netflix is obviously the big service for streaming but the inability to control bandwidth, download and sort is such a big miss for me. It will be interesting to see how Netflix conquers new markets with these limitations. Google is in the mix but I honestly don’t use it apart from YouTube – Chromecast is cool and all but Apple TV works better for me. Mostly cause I am into iOS. 

I am sure there a better solutions ahead but the content guys hold the keys I think. So the product guys can innovate all they want but the end result is content is king. The content guys are in the tech dark ages. This is why I am convinced that Vessel is focusing on user generated content first – this way the product can shine.

Merry streaming!

 

Thinking more about the PM and self-managed teams

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

I know I need to follow up on this :: http://www.nokpis.com/2014/08/20/how-i-try-to-product-manage-part-1/

BTW – still loving Desk…

There are so many discussions to have about how to PM – this was a good spot on it as well :: http://www.nokpis.com/2014/11/10/evolution-of-the-product-manager/

I try to encapsulate more about how I do things at Spuul and then I read this article today :: http://www.inc.com/chuck-blakeman/why-self-managed-teams-are-the-future-of-business.html

There is some good stuff in there and it slightly hints at how I try to do things at Spuul but we do try to task manage things some but many times we just have large goals, people to organize around them and dates to try and make. Roll all of them together and it feels like a hybrid of product management with self management. I can see from reading this article it could go a lot further but sometimes the startup mode makes it difficult.

This list is good and I want to try to dig into it more and see how I might put it into play:

1) Form a team around an objective (i.e. 4-12 people)

2) have them FIRST clearly define the desired result,

3) then the process(es) needed to get that result.

4) Then THEY set metrics for steps in the process and

5) for pay based on the result desired (quality, quantity, speed, etc.,)

6) finally THEY decide what happens if the metrics aren’t met and how to move team members along if they are not contributing appropriately.

7) Leadership approves.

8) Run it.

I love the small team thing, the result driven approach and the metrics – something to aspire to. Seems one could apply this to running the entire product team and then see how one could push it across the company.

 

Gotta crunch on this some more…

 

The web is dying

~ michael_msft ~ 1 Comment

There has been a string of posts lately discussing how the web is dying. I just find it weird because folks are acting like the web means using web browsers to view web pages. Seems such a silly notion of what the web is since to me it is just a fabric of connectivity that allows people to use browsers to look at content, it allows people to use apps like Spuul to watch movies or enables small devices to monitor a house from afar. Such a limited vision to say the web is about browsers and web pages.

First article was Farhad, who I like, talking about how the banner ad ruined the web. I get what he is trying to say but I don’t side with it. I think apps are just easier to use for the most part and normally I am holding my phone but I don’t think banner ads force me to use apps. Banners ads have ruined the experience of a lot of web pages but I think people tend to just go to other sites or use the app from the same provider. Not sure a case can be made that banners ads are destroying the web.

As always when tech journalists make such claims other journalists chime in on twitter.

Here is one good thread :: https://storify.com/dreampipe/conversation-with-mathewi-fmanjoo-and-digiphile

Some tweets to refute the advertising claims made about banners :: https://twitter.com/benkunz/status/530189087198572544

This one was funny and Farhad replied :: https://storify.com/dreampipe/conversation-with-benkunz-and-fmanjoo

I realize I don’t look at a lot of sites and the ones I do either don’t abuse banners or they don’t bug me but I know when I do hit a site with a horrid array of banners, popovers, popunders and such – I just bail. I am sure others do but guessing enough don’t to keep everything intact and working.

My premise is the web is not dying and banners exist and work. Like it or not.

Further to this Gruber writes about how apps are part of the web – I tend to agree. The web is much bigger and more successful due to the advent of smartphones and smartphone apps. We could talk a lot about how some experiences might be better as a web page versus an app or how some apps make for terrible apps just like some web pages are horrible too but this is all about user experience. It is not an issue with the web or issues about an app versus the web. Users can vote by using whatever interface they like but regardless it is all the web.

In closing, the web is thriving – no matter how you look at it.

 

Evolution of the Product Manager

~ michael_msft ~ 1 Comment

I am late to posting this but the article about the full stack developer got me thinking about the subject again.

From time to time I get questions and even have coffee with folks wanting to be a PM and asking how.

This article has some good info about the thesis behind it, the education some folks acquire and the experience that helps in becoming a PM :: http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2683579 .

There are so many angles to the role of the PM and of course the startup PM differs highly from the established company PM. Take Spuul for example – we don’t have an eng manager nor do we have a proper PM. We are just too small for this kind of headcount. Other places will have a head of PM to manage other mini PM’s – given this the definition of the PM is quite fluid in my opinion.

That being said, picture in your mind – the PM role in startup land to be a simple Venn diagram – the startup PM is that small spot in the intersection of customers, management and engineers. That is usually where I find myself on most days given the day to day duties I normally encounter.

I am sure there are many other ways to portray this but this is the one that keeps me focused on delighting users, trying to make money and keep a team of product people moving forward.

It’s a delicate but useful dance.

More on the full stack conversations later.

The next, new thing is …. Mobile.

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Great deck by Benedict Evans :: http://a16z.com/2014/10/28/mobile-is-eating-the-world/

Video of the presentation :: http://a16z.com/2014/10/29/how-mobile-is-enabling-tech-to-outgrow-the-tech-industry/

He strikes me as the new Mary Meeker but needs to make longer decks first. 😉

Some good factoids in the deck but the common refrain from Benedict that one easily picks up on is that mobile is the next thing. Sure there will be other inventions and trends – health stuff, space stuff and so on but for the everyday person and the everyday product person the biggest thing to work on is mobile.

A great quote for this:

For the first time, tech is selling to everyone.

and

Everyone gets a pocket supercomputer.

We honestly have not built yet a world that could exist when everyone has a supercomputer in their pocket with fast connectivity.

So people always look at me funny at work when they ask what’s the next thing. I always say making mobile insanely better than it is and figuring out what new things we can do with mobile that we haven’t thought of yet.

Much left to do and to be fair most apps are still pretty shitty.

Other thoughts about Singapore As the Startup Hub

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Added tweet conversations as they come :: https://storify.com/dreampipe/conversation-with-dreampipe-and-bleongcw

From here on out I am calling this SASH – yes. SASH. Saves me some keyboard time since I do a lot of posting from my phone one handed.

I will even add a blog category for it. So it’s real folks.

One of my most recent Singapore posts in reply to TIA (penn olson if you look at their social media account) :: http://www.nokpis.com/2014/10/25/singapore-the-aircraft-carrier/

I am all in on Singapore – just FYI.

I wrote this today – mostly out of frustration :: http://www.nokpis.com/2014/10/29/stripe-is-cool-too-bad-its-not-in-singapore/

But it made me think about it more deeply – something I conversed with Andy on twitter :: https://storify.com/dreampipe/conversation-with-dreampipe-and-andycroll-1

Btw this is the easiest way to get a twitter conversation link – easier than using Storify directly. Use tweetbot to see a conversation and the tweet it to get the link. I am sure other nerds have an easier way – please share.

In many ways Singapore is rocking when it comes to support or in the list of companies who support Singapore that sell picks and shovels to people building startups. I won’t go through the list here but I will point out a glaring omission – the payment infrastructure options suck huge ASS in Singapore. Please someone from banking or the government read this. Let me repeat the payment infrastructure options available to startups in Singapore is horrendous.

Yes I know some companies work around it. They become a merchant, then get some gateway provider to help smooth over the shitty API options from the bank or merchant accounts but it is a serious amount of work and costly. The bill is normally out of reach for most early stage startups. Even if you can afford it you have to set aside capital for it but you may also find you can’t get approved. At Spuul a lot of the banks could not deal with subscriptions for digital goods. Yes – something like that they were hung up on. Pathetic.

Before any of you slam me to say their are options please note that I write this stuff to learn as much as to complain. If you know of better options please spell them out since the purpose of the blog is to learn as much as to share, but I know from talking to real companies, real devs and our own experiences – that this is a hard road to ride on. Very experienced devs and startups are flummoxed daily.

What I don’t get is with Singapore being such a banking center, the government throwing money at SASH, and with all the “accelerators” here – why is no one working on the problem? Could it be that everyone is just waiting for Stripe, PayPal or someone to solve it but no one willing to risk it? Stripe says they are coming but been hearing that for a while. All the braintree stuff from PayPal is really for just US accounts so none of that is helping. So we all wait but sometimes I wonder if it will get fixed.

Anyone with deeper knowledge on the subject please chime in.

Microsoft is only missing the apps…

~ michael_msft ~ 1 Comment

Excellent read here by Aulia :: https://medium.com/adventures-in-consumer-technology/picking-up-nokias-last-flagship-phone-ad6576cf06dc

Bummer it’s on medium…

As I read the article I nod my head and concur that it sounds like a great phone and the camera is amazing. My wife has asked about these phones before cause she wants the best camera but I always warn her that in the end she will hate the phone. Yes HATE it. Why?

That’s very simple. The apps suck.

The Lumia 930 a great mobile device that’s let down by the lack of third party app support in terms of quality if not selection but the popular apps are there and functional and the lack of polish doesn’t seriously affect their usage (except maybe for Path and Flickr, which at this point are just ridiculously bad).

Microsoft will never be able to crank out enough of their own apps to fix this issue. They also seem to be unable to properly prime the pump.

What you see then is a bunch of 3rd rate apps with some of them even being from first rate companies who have been convinced by someone in marketing to build the app (they were promised promotional love by Microsoft). The app is built, probably outsourced, and it works but it doesn’t compare to the same app on iOS or Android. Those apps were written by the core team cause they know that they have to excel – it is where all the competition and customers are.

For this issue we only have Microsoft to blame. They tried to incentivize a lot of devs but they did it the wrong way – they created an open door policy around getting apps built. This didn’t work well cause it was just devs chasing easy money.

What they should have done and still refuse to do is help folks with category leading apps on either iOS or Android to build something for Microsoft.

Let me highlight my own experience with Spuul. Microsoft was willing to help pay for a Spuul windows app but we told them over and over we see no reason to have one – our website works just fine on IE. This flummoxed then because they were focused on pushing windows – we all know now that didn’t go so well.

Then they offered to help coach us with design and said there were even some design resources we could use to outsource the work to but we told them we have our own designer. They seem to think if they help with design that all the apps will look cool but they don’t realize that design is only half of it – you still need to build a great app.

We asked if we could take the design money and use it to outsource the code since we don’t have the expertise on the Microsoft stack. Nope – the money was only available for design.

So we did nothing.

Months later we finally got a phone out of them so we could test our designs some and model app behaviors. Getting this phone was like getting a tooth pulled – it’s funny to me that Microsoft thinks all of us have their phones. They sure seem to hand them out like candy to bloggers. Newsflash – bloggers don’t make apps Microsoft – you need apps more than you need bloggers writing about cool phones that are missing cool apps.

Microsoft is a big company – they could fix this problem. Hand out phones. Design kits and IDE kits. Give every real startup or company with a good app some cash to outsource development to – a starter package of sorts. Offer every certified app a discount on App Store transaction fees and give each app a week of promotion.

Prime the pump in a methodical way.

Otherwise be prepared to keep reading blogs about cool phones that don’t have any cool apps.

Your move Microsoft.

Ps. I will add that even when I approach Microsoft to concur that I will build a Spuul app they still will not put in writing they will promote it. So they offer zero incentives to take a risk. Yes – spending a startups resources to build for Windows Phone is a risk.

Singapore the aircraft carrier

~ michael_msft ~ 1 Comment

https://www.techinasia.com/singapores-startup-scene-is-overrated/

Great article and largely models how I think about Singapore – it is an incredible base for being a global startup and it should be how it is marketed. I still think there is too much focus on local businesses and having your staff all be in Singapore though but it is improving.

We at Spuul don’t get talked about much in the local scene – I think mostly cause we are not great at PR, have never been externally funded and are not very big in Singapore. My guess is there are others out there in Singapore like Spuul who else don’t get much attention since they don’t focus on Singapore but just use it as a hub. At Spuul we are now even exploring our first remote engineering center – guess where we are putting it? 🙂

I also think Singapore is a good hub for foreigners as well given the ability to become a permanent resident, the schools, the family friendly atmosphere and the rule of law. Nowhere is perfect but from other places I have been I think Singapore is pretty damn good.

All the recent activity is just a nod to how important the region is becoming but Singapore in my opinion will do very well as the center of the region for a lot of startups.

Hopefully you will see more global ones in the making.