As I mentioned before, my wife and I finally pulled the plug on cable. We had gone down to a very basic package but realized we don’t even need that since the signal at our house is so strong. We have been on Netflix for a long time and then, with the cable canceled, added Amazon Prime. There are some movies there we don’t get streaming on Netflix, plus free two-day shipping and the potential for the Kindle Lending Library.

It doesn’t mean we don’t watch tv. Most evenings, by the time the kids are in bed, there just isn’t time for a movie. We usually have some tv show queued up. It has been fun to revisit shows from our youth (some of them anyway) and watch new stuff that we haven’t seen before. When they are streamed we are in great shape as we will sit down and watch 3 or 4 episodes of a 20 minute comedy in a couple of hours. We focus on a series, get into the story lines, and literally watch an entire series in a few months.

So when I saw that Hulu+ had come to Apple TV I got all excited. Hey! A channel specifically dedicated to streaming tv shows! That’d be awesome!

Oh, was I wrong.

To be honest, I am not certain what the benefit of Hulu is. I guess if you missed an episode of a current tv show Hulu+ would be there as a backstop. But when it comes to old episodes, it is really hit or miss. For instance, Hulu+ had the last half a year or so of House but was missing earlier episodes. Seinfeld had the last season but only a few episodes per season for earlier stuff or snippets of shows, all of which were mixed together and hard to decipher what was what. I also have heard that you still have to watch commercials on the paid service, but I didn’t get that far as the incomplete seasons was a deal breaker.

It’s a real shame, honestly, as I was ready to throw money at the service.

Here’s what I’d like to see: a service that says for $10 per month you can watch all the movies and tv shows you want. I know that this isn’t really feasible for the studios so here’s the deal I’d try to make if I was running on my streaming service: I will only make available stuff that is 20 or more years old. The studios get to charge a premium for the “current” stuff and a service for the rest. Each month we’d get new content based on what was released 20 years ago that month. It’d be a great deal and provide plenty of excellent content.

I enjoy using Evernote and am a paid subscriber. I store a lot of notes and information in there, stuff that is very easy to share with my co-workers and others that need to know. It’s a great service and their CEO, Phil Libin, has helped start-ups everywhere by 1) meeting with many of them in person and 2) sharing a lot of data and information publicly that most won’t do.

This is exceptional in and of itself but I want to talk about something else about Evernote that might be exceptional as well: it’s lack of product design. In some ways, Evernote is a throw-back to an era when functionality was vastly more important than form as Evernote’s products are nothing special to look at and oddly rough around the edges in many cases.

It seems in the last few years that the emphasis on form has taken center stage. I’m not certain whether that is because Apple’s iPhone and aesthetic has been dominant. After all, Apple loves some good looking apps. Maybe aesthetic emphasis has to do with trying to stand out in a market of 700,000 apps and growing. But whatever the case, it seems that to get noticed these days your app has to be a beautiful, groundbreaking design. Oh, and be highly functional, too.

I have a fairly simple formula here on this blog. On Mondays I almost always write about something personal or some big picture thought. I have been working harder at not working on the weekends so find that by Sunday night or Monday morning my thoughts often drift back to something above the trees.

During the week, though, Tuesday through Thursday, I often find myself posting stuff I think is important. I rarely (in fact I can’t think of a time I ever have) just post to something and not comment. I figure you don’t come here to find the latest news — there are tons of sites for that — but instead you come here because I have an opinion about tech, mobile, product design and development, or running a company. On Friday I try to post about something off beat or fun, some oddity or video or thought that I find interesting.

Generally this formula works but then we have weeks like this. Really, nothing particularly comment-worthy (at least nothing for its own blog post) is going on. I could talk about the Samsung-Apple lawsuit but really, does anyone besides the press really care? If Apple wins, after all, Samsung will have to cough up a couple billion dollar slap on the wrist and then everyone can go right back to where they were before. I could talk about the Mars rover Curiosity. I find it fascinating but I’m not feeling all gushy about it like some people are. Space exploration doesn’t excite me like it should. Probably the most interesting tidbit to me is this whole Mat Honan got hacked thing, but to me all it demonstrates is that systems are strong until they’re not. And when they are not then we need to adjust. (Surprise! Human made systems aren’t fail proof!) Both Amazon and Apple seem to be adjusting their systems appropriately.

For days like this, where there really isn’t anything pressing to write about, I often keep a backlog of articles, stuff that’s important and interesting but not time critical. None of those are inspiring me this morning.

So here we are in this fine summer Wednesday typing away on my daily blog post, kind of aimless. It’s probably as a good a time as any to get to work.

By most accounts Microsoft is struggling. Last week the company posted its first quarterly loss in its history; Nokia is selling hundreds of thousands of Windows Phone devices (not millions); the market share for Windows Mobile, a ten year old OS, is still larger than Windows Phone; and huge questions abound about whether the hybrid Windows 8, be all things to all people, is the right strategic choice.

Microsoft is in a tough place and I believe it is due to one core factor. When you are a product leader your job is to always play feature catch up. In the DOS/Windows days all Microsoft had to do was integrate the latest and greatest features other OS and apps did. It would ensure they stayed in the lead.

But when you are following you have to do something distinctively different to be recognized. Playing feature catch up doesn’t work and you can’t freeze the market by pre-announcing products. That’s the position Microsoft finds itself in now, a role it has never been in before.

It strikes me, though, that the company is still playing by the old rules.

Congress tried to stifle the web with SOPA and PIPA, then in Europe they tried to pass ACTA. Now I’m starting to hear about new laws, being forced on the public as a treaty instead of a law. That’s why I signed onto the Declaration of Internet Freedom. We need the US Congress and international bodies to know that this isn’t acceptable.

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