As I mentioned in my last post, I just got back from the Defrag Conference. One of the first day talks was “This. Is. Sparta: Creating a culture of innovators” by Jay Simons, the VP of Marketing for Atlassian. Atlassian makes collaboration tools for software development teams and is apparently well regarded by those who use their products.

Jay talked at length about steps Atlassian had taken to keep the company innovative. I particularly like #3 on their list of core values, not to mention the statement (apparently from their head of HR) that HR policies are largely BS.

Much of his talk was focused on concepts like “20% Time”, which is very similar to Google’s program by the same name i.e. 20% of an employees time can be spent working on whatever they like. He also talked about other initiatives such as “Lab Week”. During a lab week, an entire team comes together in the style of mad scientists to solve a particular problem. During the week, the entire team wears lab coats.

It’s easy to look at these kind of initiatives and make fun of them. At best, they seem like goofy gimmicks that simply aren’t sustainable in a “real” company, especially not if there is actual work to be done.

At lunch, I happened to be sat across from Vivek Wadhwa. I am a huge fan of his work, and usually find myself vigorously nodding in agreement with everything he writes. His studies on the real nature of entrepreneurship, women in tech and emerging markets (three separate areas, not one big paper) are pragmatic, thought provoking and insightful. The subject of Lab Week came up, and Vivek made a comment regarding whether or not Lab Week (and having folks run around in lab coats) was actually useful or just silly.

You might think my curmudgeonly self would be in the “damn young kids and their silliness” camp, but I’m not.

A number of years ago I had the pleasure of working with a highly creative team at Hasbro Toys. We were working on a new project and they invited several of us to join them in their brainstorming session. We camped out in a room full of whiteboards, large paper pads on easels, tape and a secret weapon: an enormous bucket of Hubba Bubba (full sugar, of course).

At first I assumed it was just a toy-company-being-wacky thing. But as the two day brainstorming session progressed, I started to see that it was an act of genius.

Brainstorming is hard to do right. You often need to cover a lot of ground. You need to bravely explore avenues that may seem foolish at first. You need everyone to forget the preconceived ideas and answers they arrived with, and everyone needs to contribute. Successful brainstorming requires a change in attitude.

Enter Hubba Bubba.

1. If you’re used to corporate meetings, it completely throws you off-guard to be presented with a giant bucket of gum.
2. It is really hard to monopolize a conversation when you have a mouthful of gum.
3. It is much harder to remain formal and guarded when everyone else has a mouthful of gum.
4. Chewing gum makes you thirsty. Everyone has to stop to drink water/soda/whatever, and that means everyone also has to hit the bathroom. This provides natural breaks for every participant, no matter how much they want to be heard.

The net result is that nobody monopolizes the conversation. Ideas flow freely and get kicked around until the right answers present themselves.

And from apparent silliness, magic is born.

I’ve repeated the Hubba Bubba process many times and it has always delivered results.

I suspect the same is true of many of the seemingly gimmicky ideas like Lab Week. You wear a lab coat to work and you feel different. Feeling different can change how you think and influence the way you approach a problem. A different approach yields a different answer, and that’s where true innovation often happens.

Categories: All Business, Concepts & Ideas
362No Comments »http://blog.nicholasnapp.com/2010/11/21/hubba-hubba-no-really-this-is-a-practical-business-post/Hubba+Hubba...+No%2C+really%2C+this+is+a+practical+business+post...2010-11-21+19%3A30%3A55NickN

I spent much of the past week at the excellent Defrag Conference. I honestly don’t know another conference where you’ll find meaningful discussion of traveling to space, solving big data problems and why rooms in Vegas have mirrors on the ceiling (Esther Dyson, Jeff Jonas and Jeff Ma respectively).

The conference is attended by some very smart and influential people (present company excluded), from senior execs to talented developers, press and VCs.

Defrag is organized by the talented Eric Norlin and his equally talented wife Kim. Eric gets startups and every year I’ve attended Defrag (3 now) he does one thing that I think is great: he gives a startup a shot at the brass ring.

How to connect with people at a conference when you don’t know them but have common interests is a poorly solved problem. This year, Eric gave Zerista a shot at solving it.

And boy, did they suck. There’s a big suck and then a bunch of smaller quibbly sucks that you could argue may just be me. But the big one is a doozy.

I arrived in Denver on Tuesday night (November 16th) and got an email asking me to sign up for Zerista:

So I signed up and started creating my profile. When I tried to add a photo, the system belched. I tried a few more times and got nowhere. I’m running a Mac and Chrome browser. Its not exactly an unusual combination but I have seen problems on some sites, so I fired up Firefox. Different error message but the same end result: no ability to upload a photo. On a scale of 1 to 10, being able to have an easy way to recognize someone you’ve never met (like a photo) ranks at least a 12, so I was keen to solve this.

Investigative hat on, I took a look at the Zerista site and they mention that “Zerista Pro is a Mobile and Desktop Event Planner that turns your event into an interactive mobile experience for all stakeholders”.

Aha! Perhaps I can use their mobile app.

Err no. Neither my Nexus One nor my Galaxy tablet can see anything other than a hobbled mobile UI that doesn’t let you edit information at all.

But it’s not as though attendees at Defrag would have smartphones and want to edit things from them

<sigh>

But then another idea hits me. This is a startup. This conference is a big deal for them. They are probably all working 24/7. Yes, it’s 11pm at night (Colorado time) but why not send an email to their support team! I’d never bother with a mainstream product because we all know how that works out, but good startups (and Eric knows what those look like) are all over customer support.

So I did. Short and simple as you see below. I used to run a Customer Support department, so I tried to provide at least a minimum amount of useful information and a clear subject.

After sending that, I went to bed. Defrag started at 8am on the 17th and I was on East Coast time, so I was up early.

I checked my email, but there was no response. Not even an autoresponder saying “We got your email”.

Hmm.

The 17th came and went. I checked the mobile app a few times, but it seemed no one was really using it and the vast majority of attendees didn’t have a completed profile or profile picture. The 18th came and went too. Defrag is only a two day conference, so by 5pm or so on the 18th it was over.

Still no email.

I got up early on Friday, 11/19, to take my flight home. Still no email.

Caught up with my email late last night when I finally got home.

Still nothing.

This morning (Saturday) I got up late to see not one but two emails:

Uhhh, what? I already registered. I logged in several times during the conference. Why are you sending me this now? As I look at this more closely, it seems Redmine is perhaps their support ticket system, so this is perhaps a login for problem tracking, not my account login?

Way to go, clarity.

This email was followed by an even more splendid one:

So yes, I got a message that simply regurgitated the email I had sent 3+ days earlier. You’ll also see the heartwarming “NON BILLABLE” notice in the subject line.

Now I already had the impression that they didn’t give a shit about my business, but at least now I know it’s because I’ve been identified as some kind of freeloader by their system.

You’ll also see that it shows the issue as “New”, which after 3+ days I would argue with, and the priority as “Normal”. Since the conference ended two days ago, I’d recommend they change that to “Low”, or “Ooops”, or “My Bad”.

Seriously? WTF! I couldn’t help but respond, since no-one else seems to be updating my case:

Let me be clear: this is in no way a criticism of Eric. This is 100% a criticism of Zerista and their management team.

If you can’t handle simple tasks like responding to urgent support emails, you don’t deserve anyone’s business, let alone mine.

Categories: All Business, Rants 'n' Raves
3611 Comment »http://blog.nicholasnapp.com/2010/11/20/hi-my-name-is-zerista-and-id-like-to-blow-a-golden-opportunity/%22Hi%2C+My+Name+is+Zerista+and+I%27d+like+to+blow+a+golden+opportunity%222010-11-20+13%3A26%3A51NickN

I’ve spent the past couple of days with a T-Mobile variant of the new Samsung Galaxy Tablet. To cut right to it, I’m pretty impressed.

The key with this device, like the iPad and the super-sized Smartphones that are coming out now, is what you intend to use it for. And for me, it has a lot of promise. The phrase “for me” occurs a lot in this post because that really is the critical point. The Galaxy has had some very mixed reviews, and frankly it reminds me of the negative reviews many netbooks get. This is not a desktop/laptop replacement, but for certain use cases, it works very very well.

My primary phone is trusty Nexus One. I’m all-cloud these days, so Google has my contacts, email etc, and Google Maps has replaced whatever little sense of direction I had. As a phone, it’s great. As a “mobile companion” to keep me organized, also great. I don’t play much music on it, but it’s an okay media player (although better at photos and video). And yes, it’s nice to have a pocket device that runs flash.

But there are some issues. Battery life is a constant concern. Emails are generally kept short and I don’t author documents. Just too much like hard work.

And for me, that’s where the Samsung shines. As a portable “more than a phone, less than a laptop” device. Yes, I know that’s what the iPad is supposed to be. But for me, the iPad is a little on the large size. The Samsung isn’t pocket sized (unless you have ungodly big pockets), but it is pretty light and small compared to the iPad. I wouldn’t leave the iPad in the car unless I put it in the trunk, but the Galaxy is small enough to fit in a glove compartment or side pocket. It also weighs less than a pound, so it is much more like carrying a notepad (yes, a paper one).

Aesthetically there’s not much to say. It’s a black rectangle with rounded corners. Yay. 7” screen, front and rear facing cameras (but no Skype support for video calls yet), stupid Apple-esque connector, and volume/power buttons. It’s also running Samsung’s Android UI, which is a bit of a mixed bag, but overall has some nice touches. The device runs Android 2.2, supports Flash out of the box and has built in 3G.

The Android status tray has been modified to include easy switches for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, Silent mode and Orientation lock. The latter is especially handy as you don’t need to fumble around for a physical switch to lock the device in portrait or landscape. There’s also a brightness control, although the auto mode does a decent job.

The screen is very bright and clear. Good color and decent readability under most lighting conditions.

But back to what I use it for… Yesterday I was on a 4 hour flight that happened to have in-flight wi-fi. I was able to take care of a bunch of emails, send some urgent SMSs via Google Voice, author a couple of Word docs, sketch out a Powerpoint, remote log in to my webhosting company and set up a test Drupal server (not a fan, but that’s another post), all while listening to music.

The flight was packed full and the guy next to me was trying to do the duck-typing thing on his laptop (elbows in, repetitive strain injury at the ready). Before his Thinkpad had even finished booting, I was already finishing some tasks. When we had to put our toys away, I still had 60%+ of battery left.

Apps are generally responsive. I haven’t had many issues with the browser. My only app-related issue is how much pre-installed junk is on the device. I really wish manufacturers wouldn’t do this. Or at least let me uninstall the cr*p I really don’t want. It seems the good old days of Desktop Bloatware are back with a vengeance.

There are some rough edges. The auto-correct doesn’t always recognize password fields, which can make typing in passwords a nightmare. Not to mention that your password appears big and bold in the suggested word panel as you type. There aren’t many good tablet apps yet, although some apps already look good (like Angry Birds). We really need an equivalent of Mujinote for this device. Also, with such a big screen, the text size is simply way too big in many apps. For example, in Gmail, you can shrink the size of the message text, but not the list of messages in your inbox. You could fit a lot more readable stuff on the screen if the font size was smaller.

I also really wish Samsung hadn’t gone the Apple route of proprietary flimsy connector and sealed battery. I don’t care about replacing the battery, but I do care about recovering from a completely locked up device. The latter hasn’t happened yet, but I’m not sure how you recover if it does.

But all in all, for me, it’s a handy device that means I take my laptop to even fewer places, and that’s a win in my book.

Categories: General
355No Comments »http://blog.nicholasnapp.com/2010/11/17/a-galaxy-far-far-away-first-few-days-with-a-samsung-tablet/A+Galaxy+Far%2C+Far+Away+--+first+few+days+with+a+Samsung+Tablet2010-11-17+14%3A55%3A33NickN

I’ve been ambivalent about the iPad since it launched, but finally had to buy one for a project I’m working on.

A few days in, I’ve actually changed my mind somewhat. I still don’t love the device, but the things that bother me aren’t entirely the things I expected.

As everyone else on the planet has already said, it is a spectacular device for browsing media. The screen is great and a good size for photos or video. The lack of buttons and other clutter makes it very easy to use and both my kids like it. As a Netflix fan, I’ve found it to be a decent way to watch a movie and so far it’s the first Apple device I’ve owned in a long time that doesn’t seem to have any wi-fi issues.

It has sold me on both the potential of tablets and their advantages. In many ways it feels like a true cloud device.

But like I said, there are some problems.

I’ll skip all the stuff about SD card support etc. It’s a problem and who knows if Apple will fix it or not.

But there are some other issues too.

A big issue for me is that I’m perpetually in fear of dropping the thing and it feels as though it wouldn’t survive a 2’ drop to the floor. When you have a device that gets warm enough to make your hands sweat, I’m just not sure I want such a smooth finish on all sides.

The iPad is also damn uncomfortable to hold for an extended period of time. For some reason, I am inclined to hold it in portrait mode like a traditional book. My wife does the same thing. But you simply can’t do that for very long unless you have wrists of steel. The iPad is heavy for its size and it doesn’t let you forget that.

Steve Jobs recently blasted 7” tablets as useless, but I’m not convinced. The smaller size and lower weight may just be the perfect combination.

I’m also surprised at how lame many of the iPad apps are. Most of the apps that are labelled as “optimized for iPad” are simply badly scaled, not redesigned. The “2X” button that scales apps automatically also makes most things pretty ugly. The Facebook app looks atrocious — so much so that I went back to the web interface. Given how many iPads have sold and the higher price iPad apps command, I find it odd that developers aren’t doing better at this.

But I think my biggest overall gripe is the dependency on the iTunes desktop app. For some reason, I don’t mind it so much on the iPhone. But on the iPad, iTunes is rapidly becoming the overbearing parental figure that follows you around and has to get in the way of everything you want to do “for your own good”. The iPad feels like a real computing device, not a phone (even though that line is completely blurred), and the dependency on iTunes and a connection to a desktop/laptop is incredibly frustrating.

At times, the iPad feels like a true cloud device, but iTunes kills that baby-sized dream before it can crawl. You switch it on for the first time and have to connect to iTunes on your desktop. You take new pictures, you have to connect to iTunes on your desktop. You want new music, connect to iTunes on your desktop (unless you want to buy all your CD’s again). You want to back everything up, grab your cable… And iTunes itself just feels clunkier each time I use it. When I’m searching for apps, I don’t want to see music or video results. And vice versa. The iTunes app feels like a bunch of pieces that are poorly slopped together, and given Apple’s dedication to the user experience, I am quite sure they could do better.

The App Store app on the phone isn’t much better. It drives me nuts that when I choose something for download, I am automatically kicked out of the app store and returned to the iPad/iPhone’s home page. I was busy buying things — why did you kick me out?

There are lots of reasons why Apple are fighting the cloud, but I suspect the main one is their perception of control. If you don’t think they are fighting it, just take a look and see what the default Apple advice is for synchronizing your Google Contacts. Guess what? They recommend you sync via iTunes. That way, any time you update your contacts, you have to run home and sync two devices — your desktop iTunes machine and then your iPad. But if you head on over to Google, you’ll find that you can actually sync Google Contacts and Google Calendars without so much as looking at a USB cable. For calendars, you can use CalendarDAV or MS Exchange, and Contacts will sync quite happily with the MS Exchange option too. Now I can update or add a contact on my Android phone and the iPad address book app will be updated within minutes. No iTunes required. Same goes for my calendar.

I love the way Apple can sometimes step back and re-imagine how things should be. When they are right, they are brilliant. But iTunes is a sickly dog that needs to be put down. Or at least genetically mutated into some kind of never-before-seen leash-free über-canine that can rule the world. If they don’t make that leap, sooner or later they will get left behind.

Categories: Rants 'n' Raves
353No Comments »http://blog.nicholasnapp.com/2010/10/24/we-pad-you-pad-not-sure-i-like-the-ipad/We+Pad%2C+You+Pad%2C+Not+Sure+I+like+the+iPad...2010-10-24+14%3A43%3A30NickN

I’ve spent the past few hours playing with a Sony Google TV box (the standalone Blu-ray box, not the integrated TV).

To cut right to it, my first impressions are pretty favorable but with some big caveats.

I chose the Sony box over the Logitech because with two young kids in the house, the idea of a full and dainty looking keyboard as the remote just struck me as a bad idea. I really could care less about the Blu-Ray player part (sorry Sony) but I’m not in the market for a new TV.

So let’s begin at the beginning…

Getting Started
Setup was easy. The hardest part was navigating the insane cablenest that lives behind my TV, but other than that it was straightforward. One of the things I really like about Google TV is that it is designed to complement the cable box you already have, not replace it. This is a critical differentiator between Google TV and Apple TV in my opinion, and it allows some interesting functionality. More on that in a moment.

Connect the HDMI out from your cable box to the input on the Sony box. Connect the HDMI out from the Sony box to your TV. Plug in the IR blaster (so the Google TV box can control the cable box) and connect the power. Then you’re off and away. I went through the usual collection of steps to get things set up — optimize the display size, set up the wi-fi connection etc. Then the box told me there was a software update and began automatically downloading it. Several minutes and a reboot later, I was back at the setup screen.

Unfortunately, the update wiped everything I had set up so far, so I had to repeat all the steps I’d already completed. Doh.

There were a few more steps, such as adding my zip code and cable provider, at which point Google TV downloaded the list of available channels automatically.

And then it was batteries in the remote and up, up and away.

The Remote
When I first saw the remote for the Sony, like many other folks I thought it was nutty. It looked cumbersome, clunky and poorly conceived. In reality, it’s really not bad. The device is the same width as a playstation controller, so it fits in the hand quite well. The left hand side has an up/down/left/right/select control that works well for navigating menus etc. The top right has a touchpad kind of thing surrounded by some control keys (activate the Google TV box, picture in picture, menu and go back). Below all that is a qwerty keyboard that’s not at all bad to type with. Overall it’s pretty solid and I think it will survive some toddler chewing, dropping and general abuse. Given it’s relatively small size, it is much better suited to my living room than a full keyboard like the one that comes with the Logitech Revue.

Using The Box
Getting in to using the box itself, it’s quite interesting. The magic of the passthrough HDMI becomes obvious pretty quickly. When you’re exploring menus etc, you can still see the live TV feed in the background (the menus are transparent). When you’re in an application like Twitter or the browser, it’s full screen by default. I have an HDTV, but it’s a few years old and nothing special. However, Text/graphics rendering is good and very readable on every web site/app I’ve tried.

There’s also a picture-in-picture mode, so you can see live TV in a small window while you’re browsing the web etc.

The search is nifty too. Any time you search for something, the box automatically searches the live TV guide and the internet for matching items. Very slick. So for example, searching for “House” brings up a cable show called “House Training” that airs on Saturday, “House” the TV series and “Full House” the tv series, as well as a “search the web” option that would broaden the search. So yes, it really is integrated and it searches the channel guide for your collection of cable channels, as well as everywhere else.

Choosing “House” the series takes you to Hulu-like screen where you can see episodes that are downloadable, purchasable or upcoming on regular TV. Picking the TV option pops up a dialog box to set a DVR recording or switch immediately to the right channel.

It’s hard to convey how well done this is. It is very, very smooth. With some caveats (see below).

Design-wise, I’m ambivalent about the Sony box. It’s like a clunky game console with odd aesthetics, neither one thing (cool and small like Apple TV) or another (odd but interesting like the Boxee box). It’s not a standard form factor and it’s shiny white, so it sticks out like an oddly sized sore thumb. I’m sure part of the form factor is due to the blu-ray drive, but as I said at the beginning, that wasn’t something I was looking for.

The Applications
The box comes with some default apps, but frankly they are a mixed bag. I’m holding my criticisms until the end, but some of the apps are dogs. Yes, I’m looking at you, Netflix. The box comes with a Netflix app, but you can only watch items you’ve already added to your “Watch Instantly” queue. Thanks to the built in Chrome browser, I can do that from the TV too, but it’s a lame workaround for a crummy app. I’m a big fan of Netflix, but they blew it with this one.

The CNBC Real-time app is a great indicator of where this is headed. You get a very nice live video feed with additional data and the ability to play archived clips all within a single app. It looks polished and actually seems useful.

The gallery app is identical to the Android gallery since Android 2.1. Not a surprise since that’s what the Google TV box is running. It works and works well.

Pandora also works well as far as I can see — it was easy to set up and just does its thing.

The other app I’ve played with extensively is the Chrome browser. Again, it’s well done, seems stable and just plain works. It also supports Flash out of the box, so you really can browse the web without any big holes in the experience. HD YouTube clips look great — I can finally watch Annoying Orange on the big screen. All of the sites I’ve visited so far have looked good. There are a couple of minor caveats, but see below for the details there.

There’s also a Twitter client. It’s nothing special, but it works just fine.

And Now For The Bad Stuff

You quickly find some missing pieces and rough edges, but most of them will be easy fixes that I expect to see roll out quickly.

Here are some of the biggies…

The price. This is an expensive box and the current selection of apps don’t justify the price. Obviously I’m paying an early-adopter premium, but the price needs to be well under $200 for this to make sense for most people. The price and the functionality will doubtless change quickly.

Some of the shinier features that were part of the hype are still missing. You can’t install apps, there’s no marketplace access (coming in 2011) and the connectivity to Android phones isn’t available yet. This should all be resolved soon, but I’m ready now!

The setup had a few bumps — it was pretty annoying to have gone so far through setup only to have to repeat everything from scratch after the update. I understand why, but it was a poor start.

The whole keypad/remote is a near miss. They’ve obviously worked hard to combine elements of a desktop keyboard with a typical Android phone virtual keyboard, but there are some real holes.

For example, there’s no kind of predictive text if you’re typing and that gets very old very quickly. Not sure why this was omitted when it’s part of Android and would really help.

Selecting text is messy. You can’t really do it with the mouse/touchpad control as there’s no way to select and drag (you are either selecting or dragging and can’t do both). You can hold down the shift key and use the left hand control to select text, and Ctrl-C will copy whatever is highlighted. However, this would all be much easier with a trackball similar to the one seen on the Nexus One and the select/copy/paste mechanism that is already part of Android. Again, this seems like an obvious omission that would help smooth the experience if it had been left in.

My other keypad gripe is that the Shift key doesn’t latch. What I mean by that is that you have to hold the shift key while you press the letter you want capitalized. This is the norm for a desktop/laptop, but on almost any mobile device ever, you press shift, let go, and the shift key will stay selected until you press the letter you want. It really would be far easier if they’d gone down this path. As it is, holding shift and pressing a key just reminds you how small the keyboard is, and it feels fiddly.

My last complaints in this area are more of a text entry issue than a keypad issue. When you enter a password on most Android devices (and others too), you see the character you typed for a second before it becomes an asterisk. That is _really_ helpful in making sure you typed in the right password. And finally, the software does not automatically capitalize the first character you type, which is also an unnecessary pain.

There are also some inconsistencies and shortcomings in the UI and its functionality. For example, if you happen to use a DISH networks DVR, you can integrate everything right down to the Google TV box knowing what shows you have recorded and including them when you search. It sounds slick. But if you have a DVR that’s not a DISH device, you get nothing. The picture in picture button is also funky. Seems you can only go from live TV to picture in picture — if you are in a Google TV app the button does nothing. I would really like to be browsing the web and then pull up live TV in a window, but right now you can’t do that. You have to switch to live TV, select picture in picture, then fire up the browser. It’s just clunky and rather ruins an otherwise brilliant feature.

As I mentioned, the apps are a very mixed bag. Netflix is by far the worst and I hope they fix it soon. One of the bright spots is the Chrome browser, but there’s no menu bar. This gives the impression that there’s no way to actually type in a URL — you are stuck with searching and clicking the results. After more fiddling around, it turned out that pressing the search button on the remote brings up the URL box, so you can actually just type in any address you choose. However, it’s pretty hidden.

In Conclusion
I think Google TV compares well with other set top box offerings, especially for a v1.0 product. You can clearly see the potential in the direction they are taking and I buy that it is the way of the future. There are some annoying rough edges, but all in all it is quite smooth and parts of it are simply remarkable.

However, Google TV cannot reach its full potential until they let the developers do their thing. This box needs apps, experimentation and an army of people with crazy ideas messing around with it. The sooner Google makes that possible, the better their chances of success will be.

Categories: Rants 'n' Raves
3525 Comments »http://blog.nicholasnapp.com/2010/10/21/great-googley-moogley-fun-with-google-tv/Great+Googley+Moogley%3A+Fun+with+Google+TV2010-10-22+03%3A59%3A31NickN