Microsoft got the double rainbow guy to do an ad for them…how the hell did Skittles let that one slip by?

Apple’s Letdown

Apple has again made a push for total media domination of your life with their new Apple TV and the introduction of iTunes Ping. Unfortunately, they have fallen short once again where they could’ve blown us away with true multimedia convergence. Instead, they have made strides in several different directions that don’t change the current status quo.

(The hockey puck for your TV)

Apple TV
I have owned an Apple TV for nearly 2 years now. It isn’t a device for everyone, but it definitely has merits that most people would find useful. It’s perfect for streaming music and movies from my iMac and it is great for the occasional movie rental. What it doesn’t do is change the way I consume television. Apple has admittedly qualified the Apple TV as a hobby and not a device that they see being ubiquitous anytime soon. This is thanks to the institution of media box rentals that has been put in place by cable and satellite companies for the past 20+ years. Tivo and Apple TV have proven that it is nearly impossible to compete with what Americans are used to. Nokia has seen the same problem with mobile handsets in America (this is a wholly different debate). While I agree that the current offerings from companies like Apple, Tivo, and Roku leave little to rattle the machine that runs the cable and satellite industry, they do have an unprecedented opportunity to change the game.

The latest update to Apple TV’s OS includes the concept of low-cost TV and movie  rentals. My problem with this is that media ownership is not the issue users had with the previous Apple TV platform. The value play that services such as  Netflix or even a DVR offer is that they take into consideration households with more than one TV viewing schedule. I watch several shows with my girlfriend that we never get to watch together. I may watch the show on the day of broadcast and she may get to it the following weekend. In this rental world our  household will be punished for not being able to be together to watch shows within the rental time period. A subscription based model would alleviate this issue. I can imagine tiered rates for TV shows and even movies. Imagine having the following options for TV:

- $8.99/month - access to 3-4 shows of your choice
- $9.99/month - access to 6-8 shows of your choice
- $13.99/month - unlimited access

This would drive me to pay for services from iTunes while still paying for Netflix. The premium price for the content would be justified in immediacy of the shows availability.

The update to Apple TV also doesn’t even attempt to take out any of cable’s stake in live and recently released content. The rumored iOS/app centric approach to the Apple TV would have started to tackle this issue by allowing content providers such as CNN, ABC, Hulu, etc, their own means of distribution and monetization. Oh well, maybe next time?

 
(They’ve gone gaga over sharing)

iTunes Ping™
Apple is finally trying to get social and iTunes Ping is their solution. They have started to incorporate features from Lala.com which they acquired last year, but Apple hasn’t been able to change their approach to purchasing music and the problem of universal access of owned songs/albums. That said, I do believe that iTunes is socially on the right track. Recommendations from friends and following artists will be huge. Personally, I will be using the social aspects of Ping and then going to Rdio to add the music to my collection their (more on that here).

Recap

- Low cost rentals still a high cost at the end of the month

- No solution for live/recently released content

- Great social functionality for discovering music

- Stale approach to owning music

I had my hopes for this event as I do every time Stevie J takes the stage. I’m not 100% disappointed with the announcements today but I do see great room for improvement on their core offerings. All that said, I’m going to go pray to my Jobs crucifix. All hail Jobs.

Listening to Music with Your Head in the Cloud

This is part 1 of a multi-part series about successfully integrating cloud-based services into your daily life and what it will take to advance these platforms beyond their current offerings. Round one deals with the entry of Rdio (www.rdio.com) into subscription based music services.

Full disclosure: I don’t work for these guys; I just think what they are doing is awesome.

We are starting to see major shifts in how we consume music since the proliferation of the MP3.  The idea of media ownership is now shifting from owning individual files to leasing media on a when-I-need-it basis. Several services have been experimenting with this subscription based media leasing model and the all-stars at Rdio are proving that there is merit to rethinking how we enjoy our music.

Game Changer
Rdio has completely changed the way I consume music. Take a second and think about how you listen to your music now. Do you use Pandora? How about iTunes and iTunes sharing? You could  be transfering your audio library from home to work via an iPod, iPhone or mobile hard drive everyday. I was mixing up all three of these methods before I discovered Rdio. This made for such a less than ideal music listening experience. Now, imagine having access to your entire (or almost entire) music library accessible from any computer, iPod Touch or iPhone in any location. Sounds pretty great, right?

Rdio is a social and cloud-based music service that gives you access to over 7 million songs for $9.99 a month. Built into Rdio are social toolsets that allow you to discover, share and enjoy new music from any computer or certain mobile devices. The method for discovery of new music alone drew me to Rdio but the seamless ability to match your current iTunes library collection and wireless mobile syncing sealed the deal for me.

Read More >

sampurtill:

haukurhomm:

akkeri

(via icanread)

THE TRUTH

Shakiest montage ever. This is the 3-minute recap of St. Lucia and each second of it makes me want to be back there.

Visualizing where I have been for the past year (via Foursquare)

View high resolution

Lake 23rd Street

View high resolution

This is Red Oval Classic Lager. It’s from Trade Joe’s and legitimately only costs $3.99 for a 6-pack. Now, the snobs over at Beer Advocate only gave this delicious nectar of love a C-. I’m not sure they are taking into consideration two important things this beer brings to the table:

1. The unbelievably attainable cost.
2. The fact that this is totally the beer that they used to stock the fridge of the Roseanne Show set. Can’t you imagine Dan Conner coming home from a tough day of whatever it was he did, and crack this delicious can open just as he cracked a joke about how he was going to get freaky with Rosanne in bed tonight?

I bought this beer solely based on point #2. And dammit, I am proud of that.

….remember how goth DJ became near the end of the series…? I gotta stop drinking this stuff.

How I got the Girl

Most of you may know that Julie and I recently took a vacation to St. Lucia. Along with amazing food, weather and water sports, we decided to get engaged. Well, I decided to propose is more like it. For those of you that are interested, here is a quick run-through of how it all went down.

We started off the morning by waking up and hitting the beach to float around and catch some morning sun. With Julie being one of the most energetic people I have ever met, I knew my relaxation would soon come to an end. We decided to pop out on the Caribbean ocean in a couple of ocean kayaks. The water was perfectly calm and blue which added to the backdrop of what I still think looked like the approach scene to Jurrasic Park.

Kayaking lead us to Pigeon Island. A twin-peaked beast of land shooting out of the ocean about half a mile from our beach. This was going to be the location of the proposal, but not yet. There was no way I would trust myself with Julie’s Mother’s ring in a kayak in the middle of the ocean…give me some credit. I digress. On the top of Pigeon Island is a 17th century English fort named Fort Rodney. You can check it out in the background of this photo:

We rested a little bit on the shore of the island before heading back to the resort for some lunch and more activities.

Lunch was a quick sandwich then off to more activities. Julie’s activity: heading back to the beach to sign us up for some jet-skiing action later that afternoon. My activity: a nap. I was trying to stay calm knowing that soon I would be dropping down to one knee and the siesta definitely helped. Julie came and got me when it was time to hit the ocean again, this time with a motor instead of an oars. I knew time was edging in on me if I wanted to get Julie over to the island before it closed, but how can you pass up a jet-ski in the Caribbean? Suffice it to say, we finished up and I persisted that I head back to take a shower. I wanted to be presentable for hiking (and proposing).

After getting cleaned up we headed to the resorts dingy dock (that sounds awesome) to catch a ride over to Pigeon Island. When we got there we began the hike and made it to the fort in great time. Unfortunately, when we got to the top there was a huge tour group taking photos and running around in the fort. I was disenchanted for a moment until I saw a girl wearing an Ohio State t-shirt. I instinctively called out “O-H” to which she proudly and without a second’s hesitation responded “I-O!”. It’s always great to run into Ohioans around the corners of the world. Anyways, shortly after our Ohio moment the tour group left. This left Julie and me on top of the fort all by ourselves. While she was distracted with a posted plaque telling the history of Fort Rodney, I placed her mom’s ring on one of the old cannons that remained on top of the fort:

I grabbed Julie from where she was reading and told her I would explain how they used to make these old cannons work. She wasn’t all that excited but she entertained my enthusiasm and energetically hopped over to the cannon. The sparkle from the diamond caught her eye and for one brief moment in her life, she was still and quiet. She looked at me and asked, “what’s that doing here…?”

I replied by taking the ring and getting down on one knee. Julie kept saying how the ring would never fit, it was too small, what’s going on? My only response was, “Will you marry me?” 

I slipped the (re-sized ring [ask me if you want that story]) onto her finger and she was quiet again. My nerves were going everywhere. I wasn’t used to her being quiet, and now was especially a time when I wanted to hear her excited little voice. It seemed like a fort night but was only a second until she said yes. We stood up there, on top of Fort Rodeny, and let it all sink in. She finally returned to her giddy-self and hopped around for a while. I did my best to get her to calm down so I could snap a photo of her in her excitement.

Just in time and serendipitously an Englishman and his young son climbed up the ladder to the perch of Fort Rodney. He graciously snapped a photo of the two of us standing on what we’ll (ok maybe just me) as the most awesome cannon ever.

I can’t say I have been more excited or sure of something in my life. I don’t get cheesy on these intertubes all that often, but now will be an exception. I still think back to my very first day at Ohio University when I entered Morton Hall, Room 201, for Psychology 101. In a room of 300 fresh, young students I saw this amazing girl. I could have never known she would give me the time of day, let alone a chance at spending the rest of my life pestering and loving her. I also want to say thanks to all of you, the ones that made it this far in the cheese-ball story of how I got the girl. Without the support and friendship each and everyone of you brought us, we’d never be here. This is going to be great.

Now, let’s party.

52 Weeks of UX: Reward the Passionates →

What’s the best way to bring in new customers? That question is posed by almost everyone at one point or another, no matter what product or service they’re offering. The common way to attack this problem is to go out and advertise…to redirect attention to your offering and convince people…