Monthly Archives: September 2011

My Ears Are On Fire

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So… if you haven’t heard, Amazon announced a bunch of new Kindles yesterday. For the most part, I think the pundits have nailed it so a few quick bullet points before I dive into the meat of my post:

  • Awesome prices! $80 for a Kindle, $100 for a Touch version and $200 for the tablet are amazingly low. (Marco Arment points out that the new Kindles (except Fire) are all with Amazon’s ad service in place, though, so if you can’t stand the ads it will really cost $40 more.) I’ve considered a dedicated e-reader for years but may pull the trigger now that all the buttons are gone, the devices look great, and the prices are awesome.
  • RIM is in trouble. The device looks almost identical and supposedly has similar specs. Oh, but the price of the Fire is $300 less. (If Apple is suing Samsung for copying iPads and iPhones, will RIM sue Amazon for mimicking the Playbook?)
  • Chris Espinosa wrote some interesting tidbits on the new Fire browser and how it could be used to gather even more info about you. (We could move middle class salaries forward in this country if we could figure out how to make Google, Amazon, etc., pay for all the data they find valuable and have collected on us for free.)
  • I don’t think this is an “iPad killer.” The media is overwrought with hyperbole and link bait and no headline is link bait like “iPad killer.” Given that, John Gruber and Michael Mace have well-thought-out articles on this topic. Michael’s headline pretty much says it all: iPad and Kindle Fire together could be a buzz-saw in the tablet market, cutting down all competitors in their path.
  • One other thing I want to point out that is particularly appropriate is FAKEGRIMLOCK’s guest post over at Fred Wilson’s blog today. FAKEGRIMLOCK talks about how products/companies with personality win. Seems to be that Amazon, Apple and Google are all kings of personality in the tech world right now. Companies like RIM, Nokia and Microsoft have lost some of theirs.

So… on to my thoughts and these I will focus on developers. I think our world is fracturing into tiny fiefdoms. Sure, today Amazon’s tablet uses either Android 2.2 or 2.3 but in the future what are the odds that it stays perfectly compatible? It will always be something: a unique screen dimension, a feature Amazon needs ahead of Google or one Google doesn’t want at all, a tweak to a “bug” that developers have come to rely on. Something.

And when that happens, it is not write once, run everywhere. It is write once for one platform and then hack in fixes for the others. This is the bane of development.

Is this a problem already on Android? Of course. But I would argue that products like the Kindle Fire (and Barnes and Noble Nook) exacerbate this issue. Look at all the advertising for Kindle Fire. Go ahead, look. There is only one place I have seen that actually mentions Android, and that is the Amazon App Store.

Because of the minimal marketing of the Android brand, Amazon has minimal need to remain completely compatible with the Android core.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It just means when it comes to Android development, we as developers must focus on one platform at a time instead of writing for an OS. We won’t say we write for Android. We’ll say we write for the Amazon Fire.

No Time Like the Present To Make Your Future

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While there are lots of new and interesting things going on in mobile, an article from a college student this morning bemoaning what Congress and the President are doing to help their job prospects caught my eye.

Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana apparently spoke at Georgetown University, saying that 14 million unemployed is the “red menace” but there are limits to what government can do to resolve the issue.

Fred Messner, writing at FrumForum, responded:

While Daniels’ lived up to his reputation, speaking about concrete policy proposals, as a college student I worry about a job in 2014, not a government check in 2054, especially since I’m not planning on getting any government checks at all anyway. Regulatory, entitlement, and tax reform have little to offer us in the short term.

…

I admire his honesty, but is this really the Republican Party’s attitude toward massive, crushing unemployment? Can nothing be done for laid-off workers and future workers (like myself) whose only crime will be timing their graduations badly?

Well, Fred, welcome to the real world. While we would all like to bury our heads in the sand and let someone else take care of our problems, that’s not always possible. Sometimes we have to make our own destinies.

When I went to college, 1991, we were in the worst recession we had had in a while. Everyone at school was bemoaning the fact that jobs were scarce for college students entering the work force. By the time I graduated I decided I would take the bull by the horns and make my own future — I started a company and am still running it, to this day, 14 years later.

Fred, you are in an enviable position. You are likely young and without family obligations. Your expenses are probably pretty low. And because of this you have a distinct advantage: you have a huge run-way to make your own way. Sure, you probably have debts but so did I (~$60,000 in 1997 prices) and so did my cousin (+$100,000 in 2003 prices) and both of us managed to pay them off while starting businesses.

My advice to you: if you are waiting for the government to come through for you, you will have a very long wait. Grab the bull by the horns. Make your own future.

Bringing the App To You

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I have been thinking about a fundamental shift that is starting to occur in the world of software. Instead of you going to the application, the application is starting to come to you.

In the old days, when I wanted to send an email or create a document or calculate in a spreadsheet, you would go to some sort of launch screen, find the application you want to use, launch it and get to work.

It seems in the last few years this is fundamentally changing. It started for me in 2006 when we started working on the BlackBerry. If I created a web link within powerOne, such as how all the help is integrated, it would seamlessly launch the browser and display the content. A simple hit on the back button would bring you back to exactly where you were in powerOne.

But this isn’t really new. You could always do this with email and the Office suite was always linked together, and apps like the old “Works” systems had similar features. Even other apps had an “email” link in them that would launch the email client and automatically create a new address. Internet Explorer and Firefox have always done this.

Given that it was the seamless nature of how this capability worked on the BlackBerry that made me take notice. There was no splash screen, no visible change in app at all, that made this situation unique and started opening my eyes to the possibility]ies.

And as we have progressed through the last few years I am seeing more and more examples. Facebook and Google+ can now seamlessly access my contacts and look for people I know. iPhoto can send pictures to Facebook. The on-device video app can send created content to YouTube. Almost every smartphone and tablet news app makes it seamless to Facebook, Tweet, and email, among other options, a story. iOS 5 will have Twitter integration available to any app that wants it.

To me, though, this is just the start. What happens when all of your apps are integrated seamlessly across the web and device? What happens when you don’t have to deal with files but instead can just say “I want this memory [or comment or post or article or note or contact] over here.”

I don’t hear as much talk of this idea but think the idea of bring the app to you will be a significant driver of innovation on the web and mobile devices as we move forward. So developers… how does your app do this?

Taking Responsibility

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My eldest daughter started Kindergarten today. Laura is an exceedingly bright child who couldn’t be more excited about going to school. She is a fast study, has a strong memory and makes friends easily. I think she will do well both academically and socially.

This past year, my wife and I have made a number of very conscious decisions regarding our childrens’ educations. We considered and applied to a well respected private school but had decided, before she was wait listed, that it wasn’t the place we wanted her to go. At the same time we sold our house and moved to a better school district with a very well regarded public elementary school. She just left for her first day a half hour ago.

School has been a topic of conversation for the two of us ever since we had kids. My wife  is a retired elementary school teacher and I spent five years working with middle schools and high schools in math education. Each of us has a unique view of both the academic world and the business world.

As we have thought about this day, we have come to realize that the modern public education system, as it is today and will likely be over the next twenty years, is not a bad system. It does some things well and some things poorly. Most importantly, though, it must be treated as one piece of the puzzle. Unlike my parents generation Esther and I can’t drop our kids off in the morning, pick them up in the evening, and expect them to receive the breadth of education required to be productive members of society. We need to take charge. We need to be actively involved. And we need to make sure that what they aren’t getting in the classroom they are still getting.

This is a responsibility I am happy to hold.