I don’t pay particular attention to Apple’s logos for WWDC, but this years really caught my eye.

I think the logo alone is why WWDC sold out in 2 hours, which is 6x faster than last year. The event sold out by 5:30 AM PST, which sucks for everyone on the west coast that hadn’t woke up yet and the event takes place in California.

The logo may have also possessed a man to offer to legally change his name for a ticket to the event.

An interesting article from Bloomberg has been circling the web the past couple of days. It was written in January 2007 after the original Apple iPhone was announced. Author Matthew Lynn thought Apple’s new phone would never be a concern for Nokia or Motorola and only fanboys would buy the device.

Hindsight is 20/20, but you still read articles that question the new iDevices as they are released. The updates are minor, not worth an upgrade and the same Apple fanboys will run out and buy it. The “fanboy” population has really exploded. Currently one in every three high school students own an iPhone. When I was in high school (15 years ago) no one used a Mac anything. You don’t sell 10s of millions of every version of devices to the “fanboy” crowd. At this point (and I can’t believe it has to be written) but Apple has gone main stream. Most of said articles do cover themselves saying that Apple will sell a “ton” of iPad/iPhone when launched. You don’t have to be on-board the Apple train but at least save yourself the trouble of looking ignorant.

Continue on to read the article in its entirety.

Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) — Few products have been launched with such a blizzard of publicity asApple Inc.‘s iPhone.

To its many fans, Apple is more of a religious cult than a company. An iToaster that downloads music while toasting bread would probably get the same kind of worldwide attention.

Don’t let that fool you into thinking that it matters. The big competitors in the mobile-phone industry such as Nokia Oyj and Motorola Inc. won’t be whispering nervously into their clamshells over a new threat to their business.

The iPhone is nothing more than a luxury bauble that will appeal to a few gadget freaks. In terms of its impact on the industry, the iPhone is less relevant.

If column inches and airtime guaranteed commercial success, Apple would already have a global hit on its hands. For the past week, it has been impossible to open a newspaper or look at a Web site without reading something about the shiny new phone.

Certainly, it looks like a nice piece of equipment. The iPhone combines Apple’s iPod music and video player with a mobile phone as well as having wireless Internet access for e-mail. Instead of lugging around a phone for making calls, an MP3 player for listening to music, and a Blackberry for checking your e- mail, you can do all three on one device. Even better, you only need one charger.

It will be released in the U.S. in June, with a rollout to the rest of the world later, and will cost $499 to $599, depending on how much storage space you want. How many might they sell? Ten million in 2008, according to Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs.

Three Reasons

Not everyone is sold on the idea.

“The iPhone will not substantially alter the fundamental structure and challenges of the mobile industry,” Charles Golvin, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc., said in a report this month.

There are three reasons that Apple is unlikely to make much of an impact on this market — and why it is too early to start dumping your Nokia shares.

First, Apple is late to this party. The company didn’t invent the personal computer or MP3 player, but it was among the pioneers of both products. Yet there is no shortage of phones out there. There are already big companies that dominate the space, all of whom will defend their turf. That means Apple will have to fight hard for every sale.

Next, the mobile-phone industry depends on cooperation with the big networks. Phones — the high-end ones in particular –are usually sold with a network contract. The provider subsidizes the handset in the U.K. and hopes to recoup its money with ridiculously expensive charges for calls and data. Yet Apple has never been good at working with other companies. If it knew how to do that, it would be Microsoft Corp.

Network Opposition

On top of that, its rivals will be pulling out all the stops to prevent the networks offering iPhones. Sure, a big operator such as Vodafone Group Plc would like an exclusive deal to sell the iPhone in, say, the U.K. market. Against that, how much does it want to annoy Nokia — and what kind of incentives will Nokia be offering not to go with the Apple product? There will be lots of tough conversations between companies that know each other well. Apple will find it hard to win those negotiations.

Lastly, the iPhone is a defensive product. It is mainly designed to protect the iPod, which is coming under attack from mobile manufacturers adding music players to their handsets. Yet defensive products don’t usually work — consumers are interested in new things, not reheated versions of old things. Likewise, who is it pitched at? The price and the e-mail features make it look like a business product. But Apple is a consumer company. Will your accounts department stump up for a fancy new handset just so you can listen to Eminem on your way to a business meeting?

Fresh Competition

In many ways, that is a shame. The mobile-phone industry is becoming a cozy cartel between the network operators and a limited range of manufacturers. It could certainly use a fresh blast of competition from an industry outsider.

It may come — but probably from an entrepreneurial start-up somewhere. How about phones with fewer gadgets but better at making calls? Or with never-ending batteries? Or chargers that don’t weigh three times as much as the phone?

It won’t come from the iPhone. Apple will sell a few to its fans, but the iPhone won’t make a long-term mark on the industry.

(Matthew Lynn is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Matthew Lynn in London atmatthewlynn@bloomberg.net.

Original Bloomberg Article

(image credit: eroglamour.com)

When I heard that Sparrow came out with an email client for the iPhone, I downloaded without hesitation. What? $2.99. That is nothing for the products that team has produced. Sparrow for OS X is great. After I downloaded the app I was confused, then sad.

What? No Push notifications? So I only know if I have new mail after I open the app. That is a waste of time. I want to look and see the number in the little red circle on the upper right hand corner of the app logo. If that number is higher, I’m all over it. If not, then I move on. Not having Push at launch is a big miss.

Next up, no POP support. Which means no work email for most of use that don’t use Google Apps for work. This isn’t completely bad (who wants to check work email on the go?) but I don’t want to use two apps for my email.

Sparrow (both PC and mobile) gets rave reviews for the UX. I think there was a miss on the iOS version. Essential there are 3 main screens. The first screen is a list of the mail accounts (much like the native iOS app, top image). The second screen is all the folders and labels for the chosen inbox (bottom image) and the last screen (not shown) is the list of emails. I don’t want to have to go through the middle page of folders and labels to get to my email. After I select an email account I want to see the email. Why the extra swipe?

Overall the app has potential and I assume at some point Sparrow will get Push and POP support, but until then, I’m going to stick with the native iOS mail app.

(Image credit: Sparrow)

SXSW 2012 was my second venture through one of the largest interactive conference in the US. I broke the conference down by the themes that occurred during the week below.

The Weather

The big story for the first 2 1/2 days was the crappy weather. Schedules were based on how intense the rain was between sessions or whenever you had to venture outside. The rain was coming down in buckets and many, including me, did not have the proper attire to swim from venue to venue. The rain was good for Austin and the state of Texas however. The region has had record droughts and a lake north of Austin is 40-feet below average.

Sessions

The interactive sessions were hit and miss as usual. You pick sessions based on the assumed content and the presenters. I skipped a few sessions with known presenters to view some based on content… swing and a miss. The big one I missed was Sean Parker (napster, facebook) interviewing Al Gore. Gore was a surprise to the session but I had a chance to go and skipped it. A surprise was Billy Corgan (smashing pumpkins) being interviewed about the state of the music industry from a business view. Corgan was rather raw and wanted to be challenged. Great interview and I walked in on it by accident.

Most sessions, good or bad, are always better once the Q & A segment starts. There are no subjects off the table and the answers from known web personalities can offer memorable quotes.

Twitter hashtags for the sessions were almost nonexistent after SXSW pushed it hard before the conference.

The Apps

Every year a new set of apps launch at SXSW. Twitter, Foursquare and GroupMe all had their big break there. The theme this year were apps that let you know when friends or potential friends are close by. The most notable of these apps was highlight (logo hurts my head). These apps were a combination of a bit freaky and lame. I am sure highlight and the like were downloaded countless times but I knew few who used it.

After continuously hearing about the new Tweetbot and how great it is I finally coughed up the $2.99 and never looked back. Tweetbot is WAY better than the native Twitter app and well worth the cost. The Twitter app was promptly deleted.

The app that changed my experience was the “winner” of yesteryear, GroupMe. I used it with my colleagues from GSW to organize the 10 of us that were down there. At times the app was a bit overwhelming when you have 70+ unread texts but it was a great app.

The Food

The food was great. It varied from bar food, steakhouses, tex-mex, vietnamese and of course barbecue.

The Trade Show 

The SXSW trade show is often just a race to see how many free T-shirts I can grab before they run out. I acquired 16 shirts this year but loss to a GSW friend who got 27. I felt bad for the booths that either had only one person working it or nothing to give away. Little traffic saw those booths and the floor space is not cheap.

Final Thoughts

This being my second year at SXSW the event was a bit underwhelming, or better put, last year was overwhelming. I learned a ton again but got the gist on how it works and where to go last year. Overall it was a great experience and I hope to go again next year.

Shortly after joining 2Checkout I had my first mission, update the out-of-date site. The objective was to clean up the design and more importantly the navigation to give a clear path for the different audiences that visit the site.

Below is the before and after of the top level navigation on the site. The old navigation provided too many options and were pushing visitors to section of the site that weren’t very helpful.

The new navigation provides three options; Payment Processing (service features), Support, and a new section for the site, Resources.

The old site had a good amount of copy and needed images to break up the the sites heaviness. The new home (below) has a clear statement on what 2Checkout can do for you (or your business).

Next is a look the old and new versions of the Support section. The purpose of this area is to easily find answers to questions and contact information.

The last comparison is of the International Payments page that explains the countries and currencies that integrate with 2Checkout.

Overall the redesign has been a big jump from the past few iterations of the site and initial analytics and conversion data has been promising.

I still remember the first time I read a Paul Carr article on Techcrunch. Carr was just hired by Arrington and wrote a column on the weekends called NSFW, which were great to read but were soooo long (for a blog). Then Paul fell off my radar till the Techcrunch fallout where I started to follow him on twitter, then the stealth launch of NSFW, and now on PandoDaily. Paul’s no BS writing style makes his work fun to read and his tweets fun (below, after the review).

Carr’s second book, The Upgrade: A Cautionary Tale of a Life Without Reservations, chronicles his life as a nomad, traveling around the US and Europe, living in hotels for less than the cost of his flat in London. Freelance writing was paying the bills and stories about his drunken adventures attracted readers. I broke the book down into quarters.

• 1st quarter of book - This book is great, can’t put it down. The book starts in super expensive London and Carr wanting to travel and see the world by living in hotels.
• 2nd quarter of book - Repetitive, might not make it all the way through the book. Drunken adventure after drunken adventure. I get it, you drink, sleep with random women and get paid to submit articles late. Does this story go anywhere.
• 3rd quarter of book - Book pulls me back in. Moves to San Francisco after not thinking he could get a US visa. Life starting to fall apart as the drinking takes over and gets a reputation as the drunken Brit.
• 4th quarter of book - Solid close, want to buy first book. The drinking and global recession catches up with Paul as work and friends start to go else where. After quitting the bottle, a massive relapse almost finishes Paul off. Carr has not had a drink since, and gets hired by Techcrunch.

The book overall was good and the cast of characters are real. References to his first book and how he got to the events that take place in this book makes me wish I would have started with the former. The Upgrade is not a sequel to his first book as both are just stories of events in his life but it would have been better to read them in order.

Now back to Carr and Twitter. After being called out for cussing, Paul tells the person to stop following him. I responded with;

Then Carr responded with;

Exactly what I would expect. Well played.

(Photo Credit: The Disinformation Company, Twitter)

In my last post about eReaders vs paper books I was trying to decide if I wanted to stick with paper books or move to reading books on a device. The decision was to take the jump and get a Kindle Fire. It has now been a month with the Fire, and after hours of reading both blogs and books on the Fire, I can now review my venture into the eReader world.

The “Kindle” experience is much better on the Fire than the Kindle apps available on the iPhone and iPad. After using the Fire I have to believe that Amazon can make the Kindle apps more user friendly and easier on the eyes. But I understand that they don’t want to make the apps awesome, or why would you want to buy a Kindle when you can have a full featured version in an app on your iDevice?

I love the 7-inch screen and overall device size. It could probably be a bit thinner but that is minor. It is easy to hold in your hand, type on and set in your lap while reading. The battery life needs to be improved. It seems to drain faster than I had anticipated.

I still have a problem reading digital versions of magazines. I have tried both on the iPad and the Kindle Fire. Not sure what exactly the hurdle is, but on the Fire just like the iPad, I have this mental block on the layout of magazines and the ease of reading.

The overall app selection is a bit lame. I dont know the number of apps currently available on the Fire but there is nothing that really stands out. I want the Reeder app to read blogs. There are no good RSS apps in the Amazon app store so I am left with using the mobile version of Google Reader.

This is my first Android device and I have to say I am less than impressed. I know many will claim that it is a heavily modified version of the Android OS you get on other mobile devices, but I have played with the android phones and Samsung Galaxy and many of the same annoyances occur. It takes a while to start up and seems like it stutters a bit. The device is slightly slow in response to touch commands especially if you are used to an iPad. When clicking a link in the browser you need to touch just slightly above the link or you will hit the link below it. These individually are minor but as a whole can be a pain.

The one positive feature of Android is it still supports Flash. I am not a huge fan of Flash as a technology, but it is still used on enough web sites that not having the ability to use it is needed. Not supporting Flash is the one drawback to the iDevices, but over time it will die off.

The ultimate conclusion I came to is this. While the Kindle Fire is a nice device and is a better experience for Kindle related services, I now REALLY want an iPad mini. I want the functionality and UX of an iPad in the 7-inch package of the Kindle Fire. If Amazon were to improve their Kindle app for iDevices, it would be the perfect combination.

(photo credit: tomsguide.com)

So I just finished the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson. Overall this is one of the best book I have ever read. How do I know that? Well, I never have been able to stick with a book that is almost 600 pages before. I usually get bored and move on when the story slows down (read: lame). This isn’t going to be a general review of the book as there are hundreds of those. Many of the reviews you can read are pretty accurate. All of the headline worth Jobs quotes from the book have been plastered on blogs, so if you have read the reviews when the book first came out (as I did) there really wont be any huge, crazy surprises. But I was overall impressed with the story and there were a few nuggets.

First, the story as seen from 10,000 feet seems like a movie. Man is given up for adoption, has trouble finding his way in early years. Starts company and becomes multi-millionaire in 20′s. Kicked out of his own company. Comes back to lead two companies to be the biggest in their industries. Dies of cancer as he hits his stride. Crazy.

Some of the small points in the book that I did not previously know or found interesting:

• For as mean as Steve Jobs could be, I was really surprised how often he would cry in front of people. Crying happened for two reasons, when he was really mad and didn’t get his way (childish) and when he was sorry and screwed up (semi-childish)
• The lack of hygiene and his thinking that he could control the side effects (smell) with diet. Everyone else could smell him, you think he would have figured this one out earlier
• Assumed he would not disown his first child after being adopted. It was a strained relationship up until his death
• The favoritism for his son over his daughters and how it was discussed in the book
• Liked the constant back and forth with Gates over the years
• Loved how Jobs completely took over and controlled Apple’s board on his second round with the company
• Sad that Steve waited 9 months after cancer was detected to get surgery. This is just selfish on my part, but image what other products and industries could have been alter by Jobs

One area where the book would have been greatly improved is the inclusion of pictures throughout the chapters. Since Steve Jobs held design so high in the success of his companies, and the constant iterations of designs, a few pictures would have been a huge improvement. There are a section of pictures in the middle of the book, mainly of Jobs with family and friends but few of the countless devices Apple built. Many reading the book don’t remember all of the computers that Apple built in the 80′s and 90′s. Reading about designs was very interesting but a few images of said devices would have been great.

Overall the book was, and I can’t believe I am saying this…inspirational. It literally got me excited to go to work in the morning. I work for a web company, we are in the middle of a site redesign and it was a perfect time to read this book.

If you have not read it and like either Apple, design in general, or good business cases (basically what it is), then it will be worth your time.

image credit: appleinsider.com