For years we’ve been hearing about the promise of smart pen technology, but it has yet to really catch on. My inner-geek loved watching the video above, yet I’m still very skeptical that this technology will reach the masses. The biggest hurdle in my opinion is the need for specially coded paper. The other is the rise of the smartphone.
Beyond the presented applications to academia and the translation functionality, the commercial examples here are weak.
I still haven’t given up on these buggers - just don’t think they’ve nailed it yet.
A few weeks ago FriendFeed co-founder Paul Buchheit responded to the public’s concern about where things are going with FriendFeed.
There was a lot of chatter about the future of FriendFeed this weekend. The short answer is that the team is working on a couple of longer-term projects that will help bring FriendFeedy goodness to the larger world. Transformation is not the end. Consider this the chrysalis stage — if all goes well, a beautiful butterfly will emerge :-D
I, for one, am interested in seeing where they are taking the service.
After the initial hype died down a lot of the talk has been around FF living in the shadow of Twitter and (now owner) Facebook in terms of the size of its user-base. I have to agree there. I’ve been on the service for almost two years now and only have about a dozen connections - most of which don’t use it.
When FF first came onto the scene it was praised for the bevy of features it brought that other services were lacking. One service frequently mentioned was threaded conversations. I agree that this feature is great, but at the end of the day it’s dependent on people wanting to house their conversations on the service. While in theory the idea of a single place to host and thread your conversations is a good one, you need the community to support it. And a service that is primarily a feed is really not a community. For example, when I post a link to one of my blog entries on my Facebook page I frequently get comments on Facebook rather than on my blog.
But the biggest problem for me with FriendFeed is the user experience. While I don’t have many friends my feed is totally overwhelming. If you think you have a hard enough time keeping up with your Twitter feed, imagine that plus one-to-many-more services that your connection has plugged in to their feed - anything from Facebook, Flickr, Google Reader, Netflix, Posterous, last.fm, Tumblr, Vimeo .... the list goes on. You absolutely need a simple, smart, intuitive UI to bring meaning to this open tap. Currently they just let you segment your feeds - and that’s far from enough.
There is however one great use that I’ve found for FriendFeed - Groups. At work we’ve created a few Groups to share links and have conversations on various topics. It’s a snap to add an article to a Group - and because the group is small and focused it’s the natural place to thread your discussions. It’s been very successful.
What do you think? Would I see the light if I had more users? Am I using it wrong?
Or maybe this is a moot discussion, as the newly transformed FacebookFriendFeed will live up to the early predictions of Silicon Valley pundits and “represent the next big thing in social media”?
In “the olden days” movie viewing was a one-way relationship. The studios pushed out the movies, and we sat in a theater or in front of our TV’s to watch.
With the advent of DVD technology a layer of interactivity has been added to the consumer experience. Interactivity, and all that that implies, is not part of the dna of the movie industry.
This video is probably the most succinct, comprehensive, and entertaining critique of everything that’s wrong with DVD movies. It shows us how, over a decade after the birth of the DVD, the user experience hasn’t significantly evolved. And how they continue to blatantly disregard the consumer.
I just got off the phone with Chase in response to an offer to upgrade one of my credit cards. The key driver for me was the rewards program.
This free plan even sounded better than the one I was paying for on my “prestigious” World MasterCard. I asked the representative to help me compare the other card benefits. She informed me that this new card was better.
“That couldn’t be”, I protested. MasterCard sent me several mailings touting the premium services on the World card, while this new Chase card was really just about the rewards.
I decided to do a little research. Which brought be to the World card microsite.
Firstly, the site is useless. It communicates card benefits as sound bite-rollovers on a 3D interface. A simple text-based list of my high-touch services is no where to be found.
Meanwhile, fluttering birds keep beckoning me after each 3D transition to “register and customize your world”. Customize what world? This crappy 3D one? There’s no information about the value of registering. Simply put, this site doesn’t give me enough information whether I’m a prospect or a customer.
The site reeks of an agency that is more accustomed to attempting to deliver on marketing “wow”, than on delivering consumer value.
Lastly, the visual execution is just wrong. The materials I received in the mail had a sense of exclusivity to them. This microsite feels more like a bad version of Mario 64. It’s just off-brand.
Furthermore the design caliber of this microsite (and the Priceless.com site framework) is amateurish at best. It’s not even worth a design critique.
It’s just hard to believe that the destination for one of the most iconic ad campaigns in recent times.
Went to an amazing gallery opening at 58 gallery in Jersey City last night for the artist John W. Fesken.
Fesken’s diorama’s focus on the macabre. Each series both came alive and became more unsettling with the short stories tacked on the wall next to them. For instance, one Lovecraftian installation of twisted human(oid)s with meat hooks was accompanied by a story about a race that gained their capacity to love by ripping out and eating the hearts of good men.
Fun stuff!
This is the third Fesken show that I’ve seen at this gallery over the past 2 years. All are collected under the title Ehullek Tragedies which seems to be a larger narrative that threads them together.
I just got off the phone with Chase in response to an offer to upgrade one of my credit cards. The key driver for me was the rewards program.