John Oliver explains why, both brilliantly and hilariously.

To comment via phone to an FCC human, dial +1 (888) 225-5322, then press 1, 4, then 0. Below is a sample comment you can read to the person on the line.

“I’d like to comment on proposed net neutrality rules and the open Internet. If a site cannot deliver data properly because it is constrained to a trickle, the site is rendered useless. Internet service providers can use this dynamic to blackmail companies to pay up, or silence online discussion which is necessary for a healthy Democracy, but unfavorable to the company. They can decide who succeeds in commerce and at the ballot box. The whole concept of fast lane bandwidth distribution needs to be banned outright.”

If mobile commerce is the next hot trend, it’s prophet is Jeff Bezos.  Amazon’s phone (the worst kept secret in product launch history) just launched its own phone. 

The most interesting feature so far is called Firefly, which has its own dedicated button on the Fire phone.  Firefly is a built-in image recognition app which can identify product for sale, ensuring your credit card is only a tap away.  Bezos demonstrated the feature with a Nutella jar, but the service also applies to music and video. 

Amazon has also opened up a Firefly API, allowing developers to build Firefly into their apps.  Here’s just one example from the Fire Phone liveblog: buy food or supplements, and import those items’ nutritional information into MyFitnessPal. This could be one way to get companies creating custom apps for the Fire Phone’s app store instead of just porting over their plain Android apps.

Jeff Bezos at the Fire phone launch event

Despite the above snarky title, Amazon can easily make the Fire phone the phone of choice for buyers who want to live in Android-land. 

Here’s how to dominate the Android ecosystem in 3 simple steps:

• Amazon needs to ensure UX is dialed in. Samsung, HTC, and even Google all have their collective heads up their asses when it comes to UX. Read this phablet guy’s rant to see just how much that’s true. Fire is a “kindle in your pocket”, and your tech-phobic mom can wrap her head around that.
• A free year of prime makes it $99 cheaper than the iPhone. But consider an even bolder step: Amazon can really shake things up and subsidize the phone based on increased future purposes.
• Once that’s done, they can make the penultimate move, which is to enable truly ubiquitous mobile experiences. For example, Amazon currently limits video streaming to Wifi on iPhones and other Android phones. Now imagine unlimited streaming of exclusive content from Fire phones — that would make even Apple blink. Even better, what if you place an order on Amazon and the phone enables a “deliver right now to a nearby Amazon locker” feature? It’s not too far fetched to authenticate and open a locker with your phone.

Well, how about it Amazon?

I’m going to take a stab at creating a “dream cast” for a Star Trek: The Next Generation reboot, just as JJ Abrams rebooted the original series.  I realize recasting and rebooting beloved properties is usually a disaster in the making (i.e. the upcoming Superman v Batman). Still, JJ Abrams sparked my imagination.  Can TNG be rebooted and still retain the magic than made the series special?  I’m not sure, but I’m going to attempt to put together a dream reboot cast which exists in the Abrams (or alternate) universe.

One thing to note – some of these characters are different people, precisely because history has changed.  For example, the original series Uhura seemed like a bit of an incompetent intern (“There’s too much interference Captain!”).  The reboot Uhura is a super genius who speaks dozens of languages, pilots vessels, is witty, and prosecutes with precision.  To lesser degrees, Scotty and Chekov were also altered to make the film more exciting.  I’ve taken similar license with these beloved TNG characters, and I hope you won’t hate me for it.  Here goes:

Lieutenant Worf ::  Dwayne Johnson

Worf would be a somewhat different character in the alternate universe where Vulcan has been destroyed. Klingons in the alternate universe are born from an ecologically destroyed homeworld, which the diminished New Vulcan Science Council was never able to help repair.  Worf was thus born into cultural decline, growing up as a marauder. He pledged to enlist in Starfleet after Captain Picard saved his life.  He currently serves as chief security officer on board the USS Defiant, but occasionally has a troubled relationship with fellow Starfleet crew, most notably Lt. Yar, Lt. O’Brien, and Commander Data.  The Rock almost uniquely has the ability to pull off the stoic, yet troubled Worf.  If you’re still not sure, have a look at this picture and see if you too can picture him as the son of Mogh.

Alternate Choice: Vin Diesel

Lieutenant Geordi LaForge ::  Isaiah Mustafa

There’s something about the original LaForge character which never quite sat right with me.  Lavar Burton played a lovable geek, who despite repeated romantic foibles, was able to empathize.  This from a genius who is Starfleet’s preeminent mind in warp field propulsion and the person charged with keeping the pride of Starfleet in perfect working order.  I don’t buy it.  Like Abrams’ Uhura, I’d reboot LaForge into a super genius who’s a ruthless pragmatist, calculating, and executes with pinpoint precision.  LaForge in this universe would be the brilliant colleague whose abilities  you admire, but just can’t seem to reach on a human level.  LaForge in turn is an introvert who seems most comfortable in the company of his toolbox or with Data, who’s similarly awkward in groups.

Alternate Choice: Don Cheadle.

Dr. Crusher ::  Bryce Dallas Howard

Bryce Dallas Howard looks almost identical to Gates McFadden, but that’s not the only reason she’d be an ideal Dr. Crusher. If you’ve seen Howard’s work you know she can play the gentle and caring character who can bring a team together and can hold her own in a heated discussion.  That’s Crusher.  Also, she deserves a shot to make up for Lady in the Water.

Alternate Choice – Christina Hendricks, of Mad Men fame.

Lieutenant Yar :: Adrianne Palicki  

Chief security officer on the USS Enterprise.  Palicki in particular seems like a solid fit for the role of the Enterprise security chief because of her predilection for physical roles, such as Wonder woman (should the film ever get green lit), and Lady Jay in GI-Joe. She would likely play a less campy role in a reboot compared to Denise Crosby, probably something similar to Ripley in Aliens.

Alternate Choice:  Julia Styles

Lieutenant O’Brien – Conan O’Brien

Who better to take on the role of O’Brien than an O’Brien?  While it’s unlikely “CoCo” would take on such a role, he’s the only guy who would bring the comedic sensibilities coupled with brainpower required to follow in Simon Pegg’s footsteps.  In this universe, O’Brien spends his collegiate years at the Daystrom Institute, then later at Starfleet research as a commissioned officer, running the skunkworks/ mad scientist wing of Starfleet. To bring comedy relief to a somewhat grittier reboot cast, the O’Brien character would be radically different from the Colm Meany character. He would be a cross between Scotty, Lewis Zimmerman of Voyager, and Lt. Reginald Barclay – a genius with more brainpower than common sense who’s more comfortable solving warp-field equations than handling a wrench. O’Brien would be a natural fit between the pragmatic, introvert LaForge, and the brilliant but childlike Data.  One possible plot device would be to have CoCo serve under Captain Benjamin Sisko, as chief engineer, only to come in and save the Enterprise with some half-brained theory which just happens to work out in the end.

Alternate Choice – Craig Fergusen, possibly.  

Commander Data ::  Summer Glau

Bet you didn’t see that one coming. Yes, I’m suggesting Data rebooted as a female.  Here’s why it makes sense to me: Noonian Soong always stuck me as an anime-collecting, Aspergers-eque weirdo whose people skills would make him a bit of a loner.  Enter a female Data, who a socially snubbed Soong created to be a companion who could communicate on his level.  There’s an obvious story about transcending your beginnings here, and Glau’s performances in Firefly demonstrate enough range to play a challenging role (which even Brent Spiner struggled to nail perfectly).   Glau is a sci-fi regular, and has already played several characters who are emotionally distant, which should help.  The reboot twist would also open up opportunities for relationship reboots ala Spock-Uhura, between Data and either O’Brien or LaForge.

Alternate Choice – Fan favorite Tom Hiddleston, who looks the part.

Captain Sisko ::  Idris Elba

The cerebral, Shakespeare quoting, steady Captain Picard is the Yin to an irascible, impulsive Captain Sisko’s Yang.  A study in contrasts between the Enterprise and Defiant Captains on the big screen alone makes Sisko worth including, but that’s not the only reason. Benjamin Sisko’s predilection to jump into action, and his troubled relationship with Picard, who indirectly causes Jennifer Sisko’s demise, could provide opportunities for deeper level of character development for both Captains.  Idris Elba seems to be the only guy who can bring the level of intensity to the Emissary.  Watch him in BBC’s “Luther” series, and you’ll see a Benjamin Sisko stuck in the 21st century playing gritty detective.

Alternate Choice: Nobody.  Samuel L Jackson comes to mind, but he would remind audiences of the utterly lame Mace Windu.

Ensign Troi ::  Chloe Moritz

In the alternate timeline, a heightened sensitivity to security would place the Betazoid species in critical positions in the Federation, using their mind-reading abilities as spies, diplomats, or as operatives deployed to defuse potentially unstable situations.  The daughter of Starfleet Intelligence Commander Luxana Troi, Deanna is initially a typical snooty “trust fund baby” who’s just begun her career as an intelligence analyst on board Starfleet’s flagship vessel thanks to her mother’s influence.  The idea here is that over time, the audience watches her grow into her own as a into a skilled officer.  The spunky rebooted Ensign would balance the more experienced officers, and remove the need to introduce a Wesley Crusher character.   Moritz, of Kick Ass fame, seems well suited to the role.

Alternate choice: Noomi Rapace as a more cannon Troi.

Commander Riker ::   Jake Gyllenhall

Gyllenhall has all the qualities of a young Riker. He’s assured, confident, personable, and certainly looks the part.  He’d likely have good chemistry with any of the female leads in a romantic on-screen relationship.  Gyllenhall also has the acting depth balance the cerebral Picard with wit and empathy.

Alternate Choice – Wil Wheaton.

Just kidding. Henry Cavil.

Captain Picard ::  Vincent Cassel

Any choice to replace Patrick Stewart will be controversial. Still, Vincent Cassel has the ability to pull it off brilliantly. He speaks in a French voice instead of a British Baritone, looks the part, would be the exact same age as Patrick Stewart when Stewart first donned the uniform.  More importantly, he’s assured, polished, and has the ability to come off as cerebral and calculating (have a look at the Black Swan to see for yourself).  I’d make the rebooted Picard a bit less of an archeologist, and more of a tactical mastermind. I might even throw in a passing line about Picard being the only person who’s ever bested Data in a game of Chess.

Alternate Choice  – Chris Ecclestone.  He’s grounded in Shakespeare, is a genre work perfectionist, and has the hairline to boot.  Another alternate would be Patrick Stewart, returning as Admiral Picard.  The twist here would be to have Stewart return in a non-field role. A s a mentor to Captain Riker, who’s in command of the Enterprise. 

Ubiquitous computing displacing desktops and laptops is a trend we’re all familiar with, but what if you superimpose software vendor market share over these trends.  See for yourself..

I’ve seen a few of these floating around,  but this one is by far the most succinct and most useful I’ve come across.  Via Tower.

I’ve seen a few of these floating around,  but this one is by far the most succinct and most useful I’ve come across.  Via Tower.

• Every game purchased would be tied to a customer account. This would eliminate current-gen problems like buying a disc, and then being unable to store it or download it from the cloud.
• Because every single game, physical or digital, would be tied to an account, publishers could create a hub to sell and resell the games digitally. L
• Because reselling games would now work through a hub, publishers could make money on resold games.
• New games could then be cheaper.  Publishers understand that they will not make money on resold games, so they charge the first buyer a premium.  In other words, the first buyer subsidizes future buyers. In theory, this would hold prices down.
• Customers would also receive a better return on “used” games, whose licenses would not have to be resold at a diminished rate.

The goal is to introduce a mechanic similar to Blizzard Activision’s subscription game World of Warcraft.  The player pays a fee, installs a game linked to an account, and is limited in playtime only by the number of hours in a day.   The xbox system then “checks in” every 24 hours to make sure your local library of games is updated with purchases.  As you might imagine, customers responded enthusiastically.

Come Forth, Reddit

No, not really.  They actually responded like this:

All this has also been a source of truly inspired comedy:

The White Flag of Surrender

Microsoft quickly rescinded the new DRM policies, returning to a policy of linking game purchases to the possession of physical disc media.  The update can be summarized in three bullet points:  

• An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games.
• Players may trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games.
• Players may download games from Xbox Live on day of release.

Before we can understand what’s driving Microsoft’s behavior, we first need to understand the state of digital entertainment.  Consider this blog post part crisis response for digital media publishers, and part primer on the state of digital entertainment economics.

The Roots of Microsoft – Retailer Discord

First, let’s look at revenue breakdowns by party involved when a new title is sold to an enthusiastic gamer.  Here’s the breakdown:

If we run a bit of napkin-math on a typical 50% profit margin for resold games, with a game sold on average 3 times over, here’s what the respective revenue breakdowns look like:

Pie charts like that above invariably lead to some serious finger pointing.  Microsoft  points the finger at second hand markets to account for inflated game title prices.  For it’s part, GameStop argues that used games are an essential currency accounting for a 17% of industry revenues.

Regardless, the point is that Microsoft isn’t trying to dismantle the secondary market – they’re trying to control it.  In other words, Microsoft is attempting to reorganize the secondary market under a Xbox digital marketplace, rather than allow a middleman pumping out questionable customer satisfaction stats to organize and profit from it.

We’ve Been Here Before:

Microsoft’s response has been basically by-the-book response to the PR crisis, including video responses from the  Director of Programming via Youtube to critics:

What they haven’t done (yet) is consider how fluid customer perspectives can be. Valve’s Steam game distribution platform for PCs was widely dismissed as “destructive” just a few years ago.  Just as Microsoft today is referred derisively as Micro$oft, Steam was once $team. Today, Steam is the dominant player in PC game distribution, and is looking to steal the console market right right from beneath Microsoft and Sony.  They’ve succeeded by effective evangelism supported with obsessive customer-product value alignment.

The Solution is to Leverage Choice 

“Companies need to enable and profit from the collaborative economy, rather than fight it”.  It sounds great in an ivy league, MBA sort-of-way, but how to companies enable and profit from a market dynamic siphoning their profits?

The answer lies in giving customers a clear, unequivocal choice over what they value most.

How to Execute on the Vision

Customers are not a homogeneous mass of protoplasm.  Valve realized many hardcore gamers value frictionless game access over resale value, and obsessively broke down every ounce of play friction.  Valve’s steam simplifies payment, enables social sharing, and allows gamers rapid recovery of all purchased games in case of hardware replacement.   New hardware?  Playing on a work computer? No problem, just log in and effortlessly download games you’ve paid for.  Not everyone buys into the Steam platform.  For those customers who place a greater value on physical media ownership rights, Valve also releases games on physical media.

It’s a win-win.  Customers have freedom of choice (and tradeoffs to make), and Valve doesn’t alienate the retail channel.

The retail channel we’re talking about here.

Nintendo’s e-shop approach is tactically different, but strategically the same: they’ve offered customers a choice (and tradeoffs) based on what they value most. Nintendo is offering customers a direct digital download of the highly anticipated Super Luigi U on June 20th, 2013. That’s a full month before brick-and-mortar retail availability on August 29th 2013.  In doing so, Nintendo is aligning to two distinct markets:

1) Hardcore Mario Bros fans – this client segment isn’t interested in resale value, because they’re not interested in resale. These customers value early access and membership in a community of early adopters.

2) Casual players – this segment is similar to the paperback book buyer. They’re not interested in ownership, but rather in minimizing out-of-pocket cost (vis discount or resale) for a premium experience.

Each segment is getting exactly what it values the most, and everyone (most of all Nintendo) wins. Despite Microsoft’s policy rollback, expect Microsoft to experiment with both the Valve and Nintendo e-shop models as the Xbox One matures.

For reference, let’s have a look at the highest-profile offending device:

No wait, that’s not it. Can we pull up the right image?

Wait that’s not it either.

That’s the one.

So Apple’s lawsuit against Samsung ended in a $1 billion award. Queue the tech press soiling their ishorts while writing up gregarious headlines like APPLE WINS BIG!

Actually, no.  This is a pretty huge win for Samsung, for the following reasons:

1. When a market leader in the premium space goes on offense, the target is immediately elevated to direct competition in the minds of the media.  It’s a classic marketing slip up where the market leader signals to the market that competitor X is a serious threat.  Don’t believe me?  Ok, when was the last time BMW sued Mazda?  Never, you say? Exactly my point.

2. Samsung rakes in 1 billion USD in just over 2.2 days.  Do the math.  This isn’t much of a penalty in absolute terms.

3. Besides, Samsung will (potentially) pay 1 billion USD to secure the #2 spot in the mobile market. That’s a bargain when you think about it in absolute terms. I bet RIM would be in far better shape today if it had infringed.  Same goes for Nokia.

4. Judge Koh orders an injunction on Samsung selling phones in the US? I highly doubt it. Putting aside the logistical nightmare, that would leave  American buyers the choice between the iPhones, Windows phones, and this piece of crap.

5. Just imagine the blowback on Apple if an (unlikely) injunction does come into force. Apple will scramble to put together a generous licensing agreement. Samsung makes chips in the iphone, so they’ll play ball.  It’s probably even money for Samsung in the long term. (Update: it seems blowback is already hitting Apple.)

6. This entire exercise likely puts Apple in the red since Google/Motorola is now suing Apple in turn.

7. Apple was forced to divulge it’s playbook into the public record because the outcome hinged on the jury’s impressions of the trial in addition to the law.  That’s a fail for normally uber-secretive Apple.

8. Oh, and let’s not forget appeals, where “overwhelming wins” more often get scaled back than not.

So don’t believe the hype.  Samsung took a risk, and it seems to have paid off.   The real loser today is Google, who’s ecosystem is under attack, which should raise doubt in the minds of smartphone buyers.  That uncertainty, timed just before the iPhone 5 release, is worth far more than any settlement.