Microsoft still clueless with Zune?

Paul Colligan says that Zune (Microsoft’s unreleased new portable media player to compete with Apple’s iPod) has no podcasting features and points that out to me.

Sad that Microsoft still isn’t getting that big-company power will come from letting your customers participate, not just consume. It’s funny, cause some parts of Microsoft are getting it (the Windows Live Writer editor demonstrates that).

What’s funny is that Paul says this makes Zune great for kids. Hmmm, you should have seen what Patrick listened to all week long on our off-the-grid thing last week — Podcasts.

I hope that Microsoft is holding back some podcasting stuff for announcing at launch. But, I won’t be suprised if they don’t get it, either. At least Apple got on the podcasting consumption bus more than a year ago. It’ll be interesting to see which company gets on the podcasting creation bus first.

More learning from Kiko

It’s interesting, when we did our off the grid camp last week Richard White, who worked on the UI of Kiko, showed up. Clearly a very smart guy (and his new timing app already had other customers who didn’t even know Richard before last week).

But I had no idea that Kiko was going to be such an interesting story this week. Just goes to show you that I don’t recognize interesting stories that are sitting in front of me.

Anyway, I found his post on the failure of Kiko one of the most interesting I’ve ever read. Highly recommended reading for any entrepreneur (or, really, any employee of any company, since we’re all responsible for keeping our companies running).

Oh, and James Robertson says he likes Google Calendar but admits that he doesn’t work in a corporate office.

I like some of it too. So, now that I’ve bashed it I’ll write something soon about what I like about it.

But, it still isn’t there for most companies to use. But that shouldn’t make Microsoft celebrate and rest on its laurels. It’s pretty clear that Google is going after the general Office worker with a range of apps. The next few years should be interesting to watch the big boys duke it out.

It’ll also be interesting to see what entrepreneurs, like 37Signals (we use their stuff at PodTech too) do to change the game under the feet of the big elephants.

I note that competitor 30Boxes founder participated on the comments on Richard’s post. AirSet also emailed me and told me that its calendar works on mobile phones (but, not, alas, my SmartPhone).

Maybe I should get together with Scott Mace who keeps the Calendar Swamp blog and do a whole show on calendars so we can show you what the do well and what they don’t do well.

Thank you Dave Winer: now I can read TechCrunch on my cell phone!

I was having breakfast with Guy Kawasaki when Dave Winer called. I hit ignore cause it’s rude to talk on the phone when you’re having breakfast. Anyway, when the breakfast was done I listened to the voice mail where Dave told me about a little experiment of his http://techcrunch.scripting.com (try it on your mobile phone, compare to the original TechCrunch).

Now, a little bit about that first. A few days ago I was complaining to Dave about various bloggers who make their blogs impossible to read on cell phones. TechCrunch was one of the worst. It takes two minutes to load and even then it isn’t really usable due to having to scroll around the navigation stuff.

So, what did Dave do? He said that he could give me a server-side-RSS version.

This rocks. Rocks. Rocks. Now I can read TechCrunch while walking around tonight’s TechCrunch party.

I hope Dave wraps up this server-side aggregator and gets every blogger to implement it so I can read every blog on my phone.

Thanks Dave for scratching my itch.

Does Kiko predict more Web 2.0 failures?

I was reading Don Dodge, former executive from Alta Vista. He’s seen his share of failure so I always learn something from him. Anyway, he links to an interesting analysis of why Kiko (a Web-based calendar) failed.

Heck, I’m nearly being forced to use Google Calendar and I really really really hate it (sorry, I’m an Outlook addict). If Google can’t get me excited about its calendar there’s no way that I’ll use a calendar from a company I’ve never heard of, don’t trust. Sorry. That’s the entrepreneur’s challenge. Google can win me over just by sheer momentum. Translation: my boss will say “you vil use Google and you vil like it.”

Actually I’m making Google sound worse than it is, but I need a calendar that synchs with my SmartPhone, that lets me work offline, etc.

A friend who works at Google says that they aren’t even using Google calendar internally right now. I hear that Google’s employees hate the Oracle-based solution they are currently using, but that Google Calendar needs more work to be usable for an enterprise.

I can tell you that is true. I’m using two calendars. One in Outlook, one in Google. Why? Cause the rest of the company is on Google.

Anyway, back to the headline. Does it predict more failures?

Yes.

There are simply too many companies chasing too few users.

I can not keep up with the flow in my email box. I’ll share some of that with you real soon.

Getting the cool kids to try your technology isn’t the same thing as having a long-term business proposition.

It’s my challenge too. If I don’t get an audience and keep it I’ll be laying myself off someday after our VC money runs out (that’s what I did last time the bubble burst).

Onward.

Note: some of these things will win. That’s why we all play the game. Google survived the last bubble&burst. Who’ll do that next time? Not Kiko.

Will I get one of these Zune?

They’ve gone Zunecrazy on blogs.

Just tell me the format I need to encode my videos in so that folks who have a new Zune can load my lame stuff up.

Patrick not welcome at LinuxWorld

Ahh, when the Open Source folks wonder why using Linux isn’t “cool” you have no further to look than this sign for the reason — any conference where I can’t take my son and walk around is just something that’s going to have a hard time impressing me (hint: we both went to MacWorld with Dave Winer and then walked across the street and bought a Mac):

Thanks to Scott Beale for the photo.

Another data point? I haven’t been in Second Life since they told me my son isn’t welcome. Why not? Cause our time together is limited and might as well do things that let us play and learn together.

A big reason I am buying a Mac is so I can use iSight and iChat with Patrick (it’s a lot better quality if you have Macs on both sides of the conversation).

If you want me to use your technology you better figure out how to get Patrick first.

Anyway, everyone knows that 12-year-olds are a lot cooler and more up-to-date on technology than fat, white, 41-year-olds.

Aside: it’s nice as a manager to get photographic proof that your employees are working instead of playing Pacman or sitting on the beach. Damn, Irina and Eddie are getting some cool interviews lately! (That’s Craig Newmark, founder of Craig’s List, sitting behind Irina, and she’s interviewing Cmdr Taco, founder of Slashdot). Nice new Sony camera, huh?!?

Why did Boeing’s wifi service die?

Three words: Lack of power.

I flew SAS flight to Copenhagen 1.5 years ago and paid my $30. But I could only use the Wifi service for two hours because my laptop’s battery wouldn’t last longer than that.

Om Malik opines that this is a time when listening to early adopters didn’t pay off.

Sorry, normal people will do without wifi if they have to pay $30 for two hours.

But, I was talking with some of Microsoft’s Dynamics managers and employees a few months back. That team does a LOT of travel back to Copenhagen. You’d think they would be very active users of the wifi.

I was suprised to learn that they enjoyed the 10 hours “off the grid” where their employees and managers couldn’t talk with them.

Anyway, what killed this was cost. When I met with the Connextion team they told me it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to outfit a single plane with wifi.

The profit margins in the airline industry are razor-thin, if they exist at all (many domestic airlines are losing money) so there was no way they would invest in something like this, especially in the face of rising fuel prices.

I’m sad to see it go.

Monkey-proof wifi

No, it’s not Google’s wifi network in Mountain View (although that could probably use a money-business-resistant design). Rather it’s a wifi network in India, cobled together from thrown out USA junk.

One of their main design constraints? It has to put up with abuse from monkeys.

Hmmm, I have a router to donate. Wonder where I can drop it off? Anyone know which Silicon Valley Computer Recycler is best to use?

Why I don’t write about video games

My brother, Alex, writes for Computer World. Now, you’d think that his obscure little blog would be safe from 14-year-olds everywhere. But, he posted his thoughts about Xbox vs. Play Station 3 and the kiddies show up and start bashing him.

Here’s the quality of the commentary that’s showing up:

“Let me just say Alex Scoble is incredibly naive one sided, retard, You sir have revealed your stupidity in this pointless article. Xbox360 is yesterdays news. You’re reading up on way too much Xbox crap, because if you get your head out of your ass and research a little, you’d know there are thousands if not millions who would plunk down $600 for a PS3. (What the heck is Microsoft thinking releasing external HD DVD drive? Who’s gonna buy it???)”

Oh, boy. That kind of commentary makes Slashdot’ers anonymous cowards look downright erudite.

What the 14-year-old fanboys totally don’t get is there’s a new gameplaying market out there that’s going to prove many many times bigger than the 14-year-old market.

You’re looking at it.

That’s Kim Sacha who has one of the world’s highest scores on Zuma on Xbox 360. My son totally thinks that game is lame, but Kim has introduced me to a whole subculture of people who play Xbox 360 games that you wouldn’t expect to see.

One thing about these women? They have money. And time. And they kick ass.

That’s Kim playing during my party. She played the entire game through, losing only one guy. It’s a joy to watch someone like that.

Hint to the guys who want a big HDTV screen: bring your women over some guy’s house who has an Xbox 360. Let her play Zuma for a few minutes. Then watch what happens.

One downside of doing that? You’ll never be able to play your Xbox without getting her out of the house.

Yes, Maryam, I’m talking about you.

Shhh, don’t you DARE tell Maryam that they released Pacman on the 360. I’ll never get to play if you do.

As to the kids. Patrick says the Xbox 360 rocks. To tell the truth, he took it home while we were moving the big screen and he hasn’t brought the thing back. Sigh. I might have to buy another one.

My brother is right. The games are what sells the console. But there’s more to the Xbox too. Media Center is gonna be important here (you can play your pictures, audio, video that’s kept on a PC somewhere else in the house on your Xbox through its Wifi connections).

It’s stunningly sharp. Every kid who came over and played this summer was jealous.

I just hope those kids don’t come over and flame me. Go talk to my brother.

Hint to the kids: if you think this kind of evangelism impresses anyone, keep doing it.

Linux’ achilles heel: fonts

I was just reading David Berlind talking about Tim Bray’s use of Linux over the past couple of weeks (he’s going back to the Mac). I know what keeps me on Apple and Microsoft OS’s, though, and it might not be what you expect.

What keeps me from using Linux? Three things: readability. Fonts. Aesthetics.

Geeks don’t think they matter. But at Gnomedex I could always pick the one or two Linux users out of the crowd instantly. Why? Their fonts looked ugly and weren’t as readable.

Maryam’s new Mac’s fonts are blurry compared to Windows too, but they still are a HUGE advance over anything I’ve seen on Linux.

Why is this? Because font designers like Matthew Carter don’t work for free. One typeface might cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop. Even millions. Hinting fonts takes a LOT of technology (Microsoft has at least two teams that I know of working on font and reading technologies).

It gets even worse if you’re Chinese or Russian or Japanese (I hear there’s a few people living in those countries). Why? Their font families take longer to develop and are harder to do. When I visited Bill Hill (his team developed ClearType and commissioned most of the fonts you see in Microsoft’s default pack on Windows) he was raving about his team’s work.

Why is this important? Name the #1 thing you look at most on your computer screen. For me it’s the characters on the screen. If one OS has better looking characters than another (Windows Vista has a whole set of new fonts coming) then that OS will win with most users who aren’t geeks.

This is the #1 reason why Linux hasn’t seen any significant adoption on the desktop/laptop yet.

Fix that problem and you’ll see a serious third competitor for everyday consumers.

But the problem is that Matthew Carter (and other typographers like him) don’t do their work for free. That means Apple and Microsoft will win this game.

The best fonts win.

Oh, and Microsoft, you better hold onto Bill Hill. If he goes to Google then I’ll know Google is building an OS.

Bill told me that the guy who decided to invest in fonts on Windows was another Bill. You might have heard of him. I think that decision will turn out to be the smartest “keep Windows important” move Gates ever made.

Vote for Valerie on Valleywag’s Web 2.oohhher contest

Hey, Valerie Cunningham sits right next to Maryam at Podtech. I’ve never been so close to a Valleywag Web 2.ooohhher. Vote for her. Oh, boy. Can’t wait to get into the office this afternoon (I’m home enjoying the Half Moon Bay wifi, while waiting for our locks to be finished).

Update: Vote for Tara too!

Blog reading tips

Someone I met today was talking to me about reading blogs and said “I wish bloggers made links pop up as new browser windows.” Or something like that. Hated using the back button.

I said “did you know you can shift-click on links to get them to open up as new Windows?”

Later I was talking to a guy who is working on a report on blog usability and I realized just how unusable my blog is for non-geek users. No “home” link. No “about me” page. Why not? Cause I figured most of my readers are Web-savvy and can figure these things out. But, I get a lot of accidental visitors due to search engines, so I shouldn’t make that assumption.

I was talking with Dave Winer this morning and I was complaining to him about how badly most weblogs behave on mobile phones. He said that he gets it now that he uses a Blackberry and wants to read more blogs on his mobile device. I think I’m gonna make good on my threat to out them on my video show.

But, I was wondering what tips do you have for reading blogs?

Yeah, my #1 tip is to learn to use an RSS News Aggregator. That makes reading blogs a lot more pleasant (and productive!)

But, are there other tips?

One thing I do is on Google I add the word “blog” when I’m searching for something just to see if there’s a blog. For instance, looking for a trucker who blogs? Just search for “trucker blog.” Here, I did it for you.

What other tips would you tell to people who are just starting to get into the blog world?

HelloWorld to take on YouTube? Nope says “BlinkTest”

When people send me stuff I give it the “BlinkTest.” Named after Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink” book.

What is my impression after the first 10 seconds? Especially in comparison to something I already know about. It’s those first few seconds that really count. It’s why I like WetPaint and PBWiki (I tried about five others and the first 10 second experience sucked in comparison to these two wiki tools).

Here, let’s try with “HelloWorld,” a new service that lets you post your video up to the Web for free. Open your browser. Visit HelloWorld. Look around. Have a friend time you and only give you 10 seconds. Close your browser. Do the same with YouTube.

Now, what are your opinions? For me I saw a lot of things that looked like ads on Hello World. I didn’t see any on YouTube.

On YouTube I saw examples of videos done by real people. On Helloworld I didn’t see any examples that demonstrated to me that there was a community there.

For me the new Web is about technology COMBINED with community. Heck, even the old Web was about that. Ebay. Craigslist. Today Digg.

On YouTube I saw a simple statement of purpose. I even remember it without looking “Broadcast yourself.” What about HelloWorld? I can’t remember one. I do remember seeing stock quotes on HelloWorld. Huh? If I want stock quotes I’ll go to Quicken or Yahoo Finance. They don’t belong on a video service page.

Portals are dead. Even the one Podtech thought it was building. Dead. Dead. Dead. (PodTech is moving away from the portal model, by the way, in the site redesign we’re doing. Instead we’re going to a “microsite” model where one URL is for one thing).

John Dvorak is right about YouTube (damn, I never thought I’d be using the words “Dvorak” and “right” in the same sentence).

You wanna beat YouTube you gotta pass the BlinkTest. Next! Who wants to submit something for the BlinkTest?

Rule #1: Don’t pull down posts

One thing Microsoft will have to learn on its own (I used to play one of the cops internally against people who tried to do stupid things like pulling down posts that pissed off someone) is never pull down posts. Especially if you don’t want someone like Mike Arrington to notice. That’s called breaking into jail, for those of you keeping PR scorecards at home.

ScobleizerTV progress

Well, almost everytime I ask someone about the domain name of the video show I’m working on they ask “why don’t you just call it RobertScobleTV or ScobleizerTV or something like that?”

I initially hated that suggestion because, despite my reputation of being an egotistical baaahhhssstttaaarrdddd, this show should be about other people. I learned the power of aiming the camera away from myself and toward other people. Not to mention that if this is only about me it’ll never scale and build value. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past five years is that getting more people involved in something is not only more fun, but builds better businesses. Ala Weblogs Inc, Digg, Slashdot. Etc. It’s why I haven’t taken to the videoblogging form of “aim the camera at your face and start saying stuff.”

I also look at today’s Rocketboom and see that they are trying to use the camera to expose evil and improve the world. I doubt my show will get as good, but hell, it’s nice to see a high bar to reach for.

But the feedback is so consistent and persuasive that I’m now considering it rather than something else like geekbreakfast.com or something equally lame. MrandMrsGeek.com and EdgeCase.tv were a couple that were being thrown around for a while here before the chat room killed those. Mercifully. Maryam killed “geekier.tv.” Like I said, committees suck all life out of projects and names. I’m almost ready to fall back on a descriptive name like “VideoShowHostedByAFatWhiteGuyWhoThinksHeIsAGeek2006.com.” You can take the boy out of Microsoft but you can’t take the Microsoft out of the boy.

Anyway, now that I’m full time I’m starting to put together a plan. We’re working on a design, getting the server setup, have already a couple of interviews done with a ton more under development (are you announcing something in the next few weeks? Email me and let’s see if we can get it on video).

Frequency? Once a week to start, but ultimate goal to move it up to at least once a day.

Format? This is the Web, not TV. So why are we worrying about staying in a preset timed format? I’m not. If something takes an hour, why not take it? On the other hand, if what you need to communicate only takes 50 seconds, why take longer?

I’m thinking more in terms of chunks of video that’ll be sent out via RSS rather than one long video with several segments. If there’s a segment you really aren’t interested in, why should you be forced to wade through it just to get to an interview you might like, or vice versa?

What are the chunks I’m thinking of?

1. Cool services/products to try. Five new things to try that you probably haven’t tried yet. For instance, before last week I hadn’t tried Dodgeball.
2. Popping the bubble. A short rant on something technology related. Like DOPA.
3. No particular demographic. Something fun with no particular demographic in mind. A cool YouTube video. A Carl Franklin Song. That kind of thing.
4. Getting deep with unusual tech business geek. Interviews with geeks and CEOs. Already have one excellent one with the CEO of Printing for Less in the bag.
5. Tech tea time. Getting together with several geeks over tea to talk about the issues of the week. Or, maybe, just get into an argument about programming languages like we did last week.
6. Blogs we dig. Or is that Digg? Anyway, I have a few blogs that are killer that I haven’t talked much about yet. You know, like Kiruba Shankar, who is helping plan a BlogCamp in India.
7. Digital Divas. Maryam and a few other smart people at PodTech want to do this videochunk.
8. Podcast and videoblog news. Cool video blogs from around the net. Not just Ze Frank, either.

Anyway, looking for ideas. This is still in the “mix the cement” stage, so it’s really easy to change things. If it’s lame, tell me that too. I’d rather hear that now than in a few weeks when we get the first show up.

Why don’t positive blogs outweigh negative ones?

Seshadri PV asks a good question: why don’t the more than 3,100 Microsoft employee blogs get more attention, on balance, than Mini-Microsoft?

Human nature. We like shit disturbers more than we like people who are calm, rational, nice, and who post code on their blogs.

It’s not a fair world. The deck is stacked against Microsoft. For the same reason I root against the NY Yankees. We wanna tear down the big guy.

I told a friend the other day the marketing challenge for a big company is to appear small and the challenge for a small company is to appear big.

It’s why a $250 camera worked wonders for Microsoft and why a $4,000 camera is working wonders for PodTech.

Web 2.0 logo generator, but where’s the stickr generator?

I found this over on Steve Rubel’s blog. It’s a Web 2.0 logo generator. Meant to be a parody. But I like it! Too bad you can’t order stickrs for your laptop there. But, no, then it’d have a business model. Can’t have that!

Believe it or not, there’s a company that actually sells that free swag that you can get for free by hanging out in San Francisco on Friday evenings. Or Mike Arrington’s shindigs.

I hear they are doing thousands of dollars in the stuff per month. Damn, I have about 80 T shirts — maybe I’ll sell them on eBay to raise funds for my Windows Vista supercomputer.

By the way, I’m collecting stickers for my new 17-inch Mac. Who has some good ones? Here’s the laptop stickr pool over on Flickr.

All the cool kids have stickrs. Except Patrick. He is such an Apple fan boy that he thinks that defiling an Apple product by putting a stickr on it is sacrilegious.

Snarfware, RSS for eBay and Craigs’ List buyers and sellers

I should ask my ex to try this out: Snarfware.

Looks like a great way to track your sales on eBay and Craigs’ List. I don’t do much selling on either of those, though, so it’s hard for me to judge whether this is useful.

Anyone else try this?

Funny: Windows Vista song

Speaking of Carl Franklin. This is funny: the Windows Vista song. Ted Pattison wrote most of it. I read about it in eWeek.

One of my favorite experiences is when I planned a bus trip for a bunch of Visual Basic programmers back in the mid 1990s and Carl sang “My Darling Clementine” for hours. There’s a wikipedia entry for that song. Turns out Carl wasn’t alone in singing those lyrics to a number of different melodies (he did everything from AC/DC, the Who, Beattles, Cher, to a ton of others). You can get a sense of what that bus ride was like by listening to Best of Clementine.

.NET Rocks folks recommend podcasting gear

One of my favorite podcasts is .NET Rocks which is done by Carl Franklin and friends. I just saw that they analyzed a bunch of hardware and found a kit that works great for less than $500.

PodTech uses some $1,500 specialized recorders but our folks are doing a lot of recording (and they get banged around a lot) plus we donate them to good events so they can record their sessions. I’ll cover those in a future video.

How about you, what do you use to podcast?