iTunes: Apple’s Fly in the Ointment

itunessux I’ve been excited about the approach of iPaday since I ordered my iPad the first minute Apple started taking orders. I’ll find good uses for it either way, but until today I wondered if my iPad would be the evolved replacement for an iPod Touch and a Kindle, or something more revolutionary.

I hoped it would be something revolutionary, and based on the videos Apple released today, it looks like it will. I think there’s a lot of controlled hype going on right now (for example, I think some of the unit figures being tossed around are beyond absurd), but I also think these videos demonstrate that the iPad is going to be big.

Really big.

The primary goal of the iPad is undoubtedly to expand Apple’s growing stranglehold on the content distribution pipeline beyond music, and further into video and, in a bold and perhaps killing first strike, books. I also think there is hope in Cupertino that the iPad will serve as a roadmap to Macs. After watching the iPad videos, I considered, for probably the twentieth time, whether I should overpay for hardware and accept a crappy OS in the name of convergence, under the Apple banner.

There is no denying that all of the Apple hysteria makes even the most logical eyes prone to view the world in shades of green.

I could learn to live with OS X, even though I find it utterly unintuitive and far harder to use than Windows 7. Plus, I’m convinced that Apple will eventually merge the iPhone OS and the Mac OS, in a final offensive in the three party war for tech domination being waged by Apple, Microsoft and Google. At that point, Macs may actually become as elegant as some wrongly insist they are now.

But I can’t yet take the plunge. Not because of the overpriced hardware. Not even because the deficiencies in OS X.

Because Apple insists that iTunes serve as the control panel, storefront and traffic cop for all hardware and associated content. For anyone other than the casual music fan, iTunes sucks.

Trying to manage a big music library via iTunes is like trying to build a house out of sand. A little bit looks good, but it all falls apart when you try to scale. It’s bloated, slow, feature deficient and just plain ugly.

itunessucks In fact, iTunes needs to be completely scrapped and rewritten from the ground up. I realize that many of the limitations that burden iTunes are intentional limitations designed to maintain and expand Apple’s stranglehold on the content distribution channel. I don’t like this one little bit, but I’m not naive enough to think it will change.

But there are a hundred much needed improvements that could and should be made, without giving up control of the content pipeline.

I wish someone would email Steve Jobs and tell him to get on it. Then maybe I’d go all in.

Biggest iPad App? Safari, in a Webslide

We’re less than a week away from getting our hands on the much-awaited Apple iPad. As iPaday approaches, more and more details about the iPad experience are emerging. Many are speculating on what apps will be the most useful.

ipad

I already know. Safari, which will return us to that most useful jungle: the world wild web.

Yes, I love my iPhone. But let’s be honest. Surfing the web on the iPhone sucks. Epicly. That’s why good developers are making a fortune (99 cents at a time) writing apps that use the network to deliver content in a more accessible and manageable form. By that, I mean as far away from Safari as possible.

I estimate my success rate when trying to accomplish anything substantial on an iPhone via the native web (i.e., in a browser on a regular web site) at around 10%. Most of the time, I either find another way to access what I’m looking for (such as a dedicated app or a laptop), or I just give up. I have talked to many others who admit to similar experiences.

The biggest difference between our iPhones and our iPads will be that the larger screen size will allow us to actually use the web.

Need an example? Here’s one of many: corporate email. I have expressed frustration for years about the insane degree to which my company’s IT department hobbles (my word) my iPhone experience in the name of security (their word). I actually considered making Outlook Web Access my default method of reading email on my iPhone, but the screen is just too small.

That won’t be a problem on an iPad. Yes, I think it is important and good that the iPad will support Microsoft Exchange. But I think it’s even better that I will have another option should I find my iPad excessively hobbled in the name of security.

April 3, 2010 is not just iPaday- it’s the day the web becomes useful again.

I can’t wait.

GoodSongs: Alt. Country Reprise

gslogo

As a part of my online simplification and consolidation project (more on this later), I am moving our music recommendation blog, GoodSongs.Com, to the Music category here at Newsome.Org. We’ll post a GoodSongs music recommendation list no more than once a week, where we’ll feature a wide variety of off-the-beaten path music.

Here’s the second installment of our hand-picked music recommendations.

Purchase links are at Amazon unless otherwise noted.

Drag the River – Indianapolis. Superb cover of the Bottle Rockets gem, off of Live at the Starlight.

Drive-By Truckers – Women Without Whiskey, off the excellent 2001 album Southern Rock Opera. When someone gives me shit about being Southern, I pour a pint of Maker’s Mark down their throat and make them listen to this record. Loud.

6 String Drag – Gasoline Maybelline, from their 1997 record High Hat.

Deadstring Brothers – 27 Hours. This is the song that first turned me on to this excellent band. From 2003’s self titled album.

Southern Culture on the Skids – Funnel of Love. SCOTS channel Wanda Jackson, from their mandatory 2007 album Countrypolitan Favorites. An awesome collection of country covers, done in kick-ass SCOTS style.

J.J. Schultz Band – Speedtrain, from their 2005 record Something to Me. This is a perfect alt. country song.

Baker Maultsby – Pee Dee Man, from his 1998 record Bingo = Sin. This fantastic song by a buddy of mine mentions my hometown, Cheraw, SC. More Baker Maultsby at his MySpace page.

Seigel-Schwall Band – Corrina. Excellent version by this excellent blues band, from their The Wooden Nickel Years (1971-1974) compilation. If you look for this excellent record, be sure to buy the one with Corrina as the first track, and not the other, lesser version that has the same cover and title.

JT and the Clouds – Scattered Leaves. Jeremy Lindsay’s band does his excellent song, from the album Delilah. The best version, of course, being by the Be Good Tanyas.

These are great records, by some fantastic bands. Go buy these records and support people who make this great music.

Artist Notice: I am a musician and songwriter. I do these posts to draw attention to great music in the hopes that our readers will buy these records and allow these artists to continue making great music. If you don’t want us to feature your music, let us know and we’ll take the song file down immediately. On the other hand, if you are an artist who does the sort of music we feature, let us know. We’re always looking for new artists to feature.

Is Something Rotten at the Apple Store?

First, here’s my Apple story. I think Macs are way overpriced, and I think the Mac OS is terrible. Now that I’ve offended those Apple fans that are still in the denial stage, here’s the other side of the story.

I love much of the other stuff Apple makes. The sadly under-marketed and overlooked Apple TV is a wonderful device for serving audio and video to home theatres. I have two (well, actually only one- see below). I think the iPhone is a world-changer as far as phones- and handheld devices in general- are concerned. My kids love their iPods.

Heck, I happily ordered my iPad the first minute I could do so. Even though this dude thinks I’m an idiot for doing so.

The point is that, other than Macs (which, by the way, will ultimately be saved when Apple ports the grandchild of the current iPhone OS to its computers), I am a loyal Apple user. 1 iPod mini, 2 iPod Touches, 3 iPhones, a prematurely dead Mac Mini, 2 Apple TVs, and an iPad on the way.

One of the things I used to cite as a reason to love Apple products was the existence of, and great support at, the local Apple Store. But somewhere between the launch of the company saving iPhone and today, something changed.

Thomas Hawk thinks so too.

A few years ago, my first iPhone stopped charging. I took it to the Apple Store, without an appointment. After a short wait, I spoke to someone at the Genius Bar, and got a new one on the spot. I was happy enough to buy all of the additional gear listed above.

Lately, however, my Apple Store experience has been decidedly less positive.

First, one of our Apple TVs stopped booting, for no apparent reason. It has all of the symptoms of a bad hard drive. We took it to the Apple Store, hoping- but not expecting- that Apple would replace the hard drive at little or no charge. Realistically, all I expected was a good, helpful attitude and a reasonable labor charge to replace the hard drive. After all, don’t hard drives generally have good warranties? Surprisingly, the genius at the Genius Bar didn’t seem to want to diagnose the problem. When we insisted, we left the device to be diagnosed, hoping the attitude was just a blip on the radar. A few days later we got a call saying the hard drive was bad, and we should just buy a new Apple TV. For $229.

So based on my Mac Mini and Apple TV experience, are these things disposable? Seriously, I love Apple products, but based on my experience and the sense I have from talking to others, the failure rate must be enormous. Which, of course, makes support critical.

And, presumably, expensive for Apple. Who has to support that stock price. Hmmm.

Then came the customer happiness-killing blow. My wife, who destroys electronics like Sherman destroyed Atlanta, pays, via ATT, for some sort of insurance that promises to replace broken iPhones. Her ringer silence switch fell off. She went to the same Apple Store to get it fixed. This time the genius told her he could tell that the switch fell off due to water-damage, which is not covered by the insurance plan. While the ATT salesman told her water damage was covered, that’s not the point. The point is that the phone is not water damaged. The darn switch fell off, and Apple is refusing to fix it. Again, the proposed solution: buy another iPhone.

This just sucks. Period.

By itself, I could explain away parts of this. But taken as a whole, and compared to my past experiences, something smells at the Apple Store.

Consultants, Questions and Some Dude’s Secret Formula

As we all know, I have recently moved to WordPress after years of blogging via Blogger and FTP publishing. The move went well, and so far I am happy with WordPress. As noted in my WordPress Process series, I hired Aaron Brazell to help with some of the more difficult parts of the switch. Aaron did a great job, and I recommend him for anyone needing a WordPress expert.

We took the final step of the trip today when we set up the new permalink structure, and redirected the old-style permalinks to the new permalink pages. During the process, I asked a some specific questions about some plug-ins I had read about and a back-up solution, and ended with “is there anything else/different you recommend?”

Presumably in response to this, and no doubt other similar questions he has received over the years (as my job was less than miniscule compared to big corporate gigs), Aaron wrote an interesting blog post, that is a good read for anyone looking to hire a consultant, or anyone else who provides services for a fee. I agree with some of it, but I’m not so sure about some of it.

First, some preliminary matters:

1. In no way, shape or form am I offended by Aaron’s answer, which was a short version of his blog post, or the post itself. Aaron’s post is intended to help those who hire consultants save money. It just raised some issues that got me thinking enough to write this post. In sum, Aaron’s cool by me, and I will without a doubt turn to him if the need arises in the future.

2. I don’t know squat about the business of consulting, as it relates to the stuff Aaron does. So my experience may not be completely relevant to that arena.

3. Having said that, I know a little bit about making a living via the sale of professional services, having managed large practices at two mega-law firms. I can’t help but believe there are similarities.

So let’s look at this a little bit further.

One of Aaron’s points, which I whole-heartedly agree with, is that everyone benefits from clear, defined expectations. If I think I’m selling you something for X and you think you are buying something more for 0ne-half of X, no one is going to be happy. Only those looking for an unfair gain want to go into transactions with undefined expectations. It is, stated simply, a recipe for disaster.

So we all have some concept of good practices that we should try to adhere to. The best laid plans, and all that.

Because, to one extent or the other, market conditions will determine what is and is not the custom when it comes to professional services and the delivery of and price for the same. I can only charge you X for my services as long as there isn’t a giant population of others who are similarly qualified and will do it for less than X.

The qualified part cannot be overlooked, but it doesn’t always carry the day. Falling tides, all ships, etc.

I got a lot of responses to my RFP, and most of them were less than what I happily paid Aaron. He has a reputation as the best. I wanted the best. A deal was made.

Likewise, I charge more than many others who do what I do, having spent 25 years building my personal brand (I’m not going strangle myself with a self-embrace, but let’s just say I have a pretty high profile in the industry). So I’m all about the “getting what you pay for” thing. I’ve preached that sermon for years.

But these aren’t the good old days.

Which means two things. One, most of us have to work harder to keep the same level of business, at least until the economy gets better. And two, questions and requests that used to be buzz kills are now sometimes life lines.

Stated another way, I think there is a middle ground between scope creep and a blank checkbook. And I think there are many, many cases when an open ended question is both unavoidable and appropriate. I recently hired a top notch landscaper, who charged me a lot of money. I told him what I wanted, we came up with a plan and he did the work. When it was done and I could visualize how I might use the new area, I asked the same question: “is there anything else I should consider?’” He said I should think about some lights. I did, and I hired him to do it.

He made more money. I got lights that let us play soccer at night. Good times.

Sometimes you can’t really know where you want to end up until you’re on the journey.

I get open ended questions in my business all the time. Sure, sometimes it’s an attempt to expand the scope of my work or get my time for free. But most times it’s another way of saying “OK, I’ve bought this and that from you and I like it. What else do you have that I might be interested in?”

Show me what else you can do for me.

Additionally, for a fair-minded, reasonably sophisticated person to ask that question shows a level of trust. No one would ask that question to someone he or she felt was only interested in making a quick buck.

So maybe it comes down to the difference between jobs and relationships. In my business, you can’t really be successful in one-off jobs. You need a stable of clients who over time will need a bunch of your services. So when I hear an open ended question or two, I see a horse thinking about entering the barn. It may be different in other fields.

All of this certainly could result in doing work for free or busting the budget, as Aaron points out. It could also be grounds for a new budget. For a new job.

Now about that one dude. The one who won’t take a job under $50K. I don’t know what world he’s living in, but unless he has some secret formula, he’s not living in the same one I am. I know lots and lots and lots of really well qualified, highly sought after people (lawyers, doctors, architects, plumbers, indian chiefs and rodeo clowns) who would be living under a bridge somewhere if they took that approach. Particularly in this economy,

In other words, I want that dude’s job.

GoodSongs: Drunk on Crutches

I really like the new record by L.A.’s Drunk on Crutches. It sounds a lot like early Lone Justice, which is high praise. California rock, with a little country flavoring.

Here’s the excellent Apt. 16 (Purchase via iTunes).

Evening Reading: 3/1/10

Start that Gaming Addiction Now: Color Me Happy looks like a neat little app for kids. I’ll have to get a copy for Luke- on Raina’s iPhone.

The Once and Future M.U.L.E.: One of the best games ever has been reincarnated.

Great Video, Great Cause: This is ~~one of~~ the best music videos I have ever seen. Led by the great Shane MacGowan. Recognize the guitar player near the end?

Speaking of Videos: Camera Plus Pro brings video recording to older iPhones. So does iVideoCamera.

Ain’t I Groovy: And Phototropedic makes your iPhone photos cool.

My Dog Can Kick Your Honor Roll Dog’s Butt: At surfing. Caption inspired by a hilarious bumper sticker I saw today.

Apptic Blast: RunKeeper, already a must-have iPhone app, has been updated and improved. Ground Effect, which looks cool, is free today.

Your Life is an Empty Void: Until you email something to a fax machine.

Speaking of Spam: Answer me this- what is a bigger spam-fest, fax machines or trackbacks? Spam killed fax machines for me (I unplugged the one in my study years ago). 90% of the trackbacks I get are spam. That’s a pity, as trackbacks were the blog version of a handshake.

Cat (Cougar?) Fight: Marcia and Jan are fighting again.

Netflix Sucks Now: Netflix’s capitulation to the greedy movie industry is bugging me. I am thinking about bailing. Sad.

Why Google’s Shot Across Twitter’s Bow Missed the Mark

Erick Schonfeld has three interesting theories as to why Google pushed Google Buzz out the door and into the email client of millions of users, before it was ready for prime time.

I’ve tried Google Buzz, and found it to be pretty uninspiring. I’d been thinking that one of Erick’s theories might be at play. A theory that, if true, is going to backfire on Google. I also came up with a fourth theory that I think plays at least a part in this drama.

The Twitter Negotiating Power Theory

One of Erick’s theories is that Google really wants to buy Twitter, and launching Buzz was a shot across Twitter’s bow, indicating that if Twitter doesn’t come to the bargaining table, Google will use some of its war chest to do battle with Twitter on the micro-blogging front. Certainly Gmail provides Google with a ready-made user base, and you would think that Google could easily be a force to be reckoned with.

The ability to put Buzz front and center in the Gmail email app gives Google a clear path to the stream.

Or does it?

image via TechCrunch

If the Buzz as a negotiating tactic theory is even partially correct- and I’ve been thinking the same thing, it’s going to fail epicly. I’m sure somewhere in the bowels of Twitter Control, the powers that be have been worrying about what Google might do to steal some of Twitter’s stream flow. Google is the potential exit strategy and Death Star for most start-ups, so it gets complicated. One way or another, anyone operating on the web has to keep a constant eye on Google, who could bring pleasure or pain at any moment. If Google came out of the gate with a mature, elegant and at least evolutionary micro-blogging alternative, it would combine naturally with Gmail’s massive user base, and it would be game on.

Which means that the swoosh sound you heard in the halls of Twitter Control on the night Buzz was heaped front and center onto the world’s email screen was a giant sigh of relief.

Other than infesting our inboxes with needless Buzz-related email, Buzz isn’t horrible. But it’s not evolutionary either. It’s just another Twitter clone. If anyone other than Google had released Buzz, it would be almost universally referred to as Butt. As in of jokes.

Stated simply- if this is how Google intends to scare Twitter back to the negotiating table, this effort won’t only fail. It will actually increase Twitter’s bargaining power.

The Toss Apps Against the Wall Theory

I have another theory that I believe may also be at work here.

Google has done some great things, and is, for many, the backbone of the online experience. It owns search, which was its lightning in a bottle beachhead in the battle for the ownership of the web. Ads spring naturally from search and page views, and Google was able to leverage the first to dominate the second.

But after that, there is no denying that Google has had a decidedly mixed record with new projects and apps. It got there with email, because of its search presence, and because Yahoo and Microsoft were asleep at the wheel.

But it has also had its share of failures. Google puts on a brave front, but Google Docs is still, at best, a work in progress. Google Apps looks and acts like a bunch of unrelated applications haphazardly tossed together.

And there have been plenty of others. Remember Google Catalog? That’s OK, neither does anyone else. What about Knol? Lively? Something called Orkut? Dodgeball? Shoot, even Wave, which came out to a parade of hype, seems to have already lost its mojo.

Google has a track record of tossing a lot of stuff against the wall, and waiting for something to stick. Some things do, and some things don’t. It’s too early to tell how Buzz will turn out, but I can say with confidence that it is not now- and is very unlikely to ever become- a threat to Twitter.

Record Review: James Keyes – Ruminations

I get a lot of music submissions, in the hopes that I’ll review the record here or at GoodSongs.Com (which is now here also). Assuming a submission is reasonably targeted to my taste, I listen to at least part of it, though I am horribly backed up at the moment.

Tonight I received a copy of James Keyes’ new record Ruminations (purchase at CD Baby). Something- I can’t say what exactly- made me queue up the record right away, while I was working on something else.

Man, am I glad I did. This is good stuff. Sort of a gritty, but melodic alternative country sound, at least at the start. It reminds me a little of the Hangdogs, which is high praise. But that’s not a perfect description either. It’s alt. folk, with a little rust around the edges. Or something like that.

It’s the kind of music you want to listen to on the back porch, with a bottle of Maker’s Mark in your hand and a good dog at your feet.

And it has range. Maybe too much range for some, but it spans several of my genres.

Hardliner starts off with an Uncle Tupeloish guitar riff and then blends into a Clarence White vibe that I really, really dig.

Two Mirror keeps to the alt. country path, with guitar and harmonica, and a sad story and a subtly upbeat sound. The arrangements on this record are consistently excellent.

It’s All Easy is a gritty folk blues number, that channels good, cosmic Ray Wylie Hubbard. I wondered about the Tom Waits comparison I read somewhere until I heard Dream Endless and Work Song. Either would sound right at home on Heart of Saturday Night. Back when Tom was making great music. And not just random noise, but I digress.

Things take a definite turn off the alt. county path in the middle of the record, with more of a driving, bluesy folk sound. More Son Seals than Son Volt, but that’s OK.

There are still some alt. country moments to be had, though, as James turns in a rocking Slobberbone sound on SSG.

This one will make the jump to a CD-R so I can listen in my truck, along with the vintage Charlie Daniels and bootleg Drive-by Truckers that are already in my CD player. That’s pretty good company.

Rancho Review Ratings:
(5 point scale)

Music: 4
Lyrics: 3.5
Consistency: 3
Artwork: 3
Overall: 3.25
Purchase: @ CD Baby

How to Create a Life Stream Page on Your Blog, With Posterous

We’re really rocking the blog development lately. Yesterday, I showed you how to point a domain to one of your blog categories.

Today, we’re going to create a life stream page, on your blog, using Posterous.

You can use the life stream page we’re about to create for just about anything. You could send all of your life stream content there, autopost it to Twitter, Facebook, etc. and end up with a great, chronological and searchable archive of all of your content. I have Twitter already integrated into Newsome.Org, via the widget in the right hand column, so I’m going to do something a little different.

I want to create a page where I can automatically upload and share impromptu iPhone photos, and maybe some other tidbits from time to time. Notwithstanding the limited chops of the iPhone camera, I find a lot of iPhone photos really compelling, partially because of those limitations. Plus I almost always have my iPhone with me.

But, as part of my ongoing content consolidation and simplification project, I want my iPhone photo stream to be available here, as a Page.

Let’s get started.

Get a a Posterous Page

If you don’t already have a Posterous page, go sign up. Learn how to use it– it’s about as easy as it could possibly be. Theme your Posterous page to have the same look and feel as your blog. You’ll probably have to start with a canned theme and then customize it to your liking.

Make a Content Plan

Next, decide how you’re going to use your life stream page. Posterous makes it really easy to autopost content to the social networks and other sites. With a little work you can make Posterous your content hub and control panel.

Get Any Ancillary Apps You’ll Need

As noted, I want to use my page primarily as a place to upload and share impromptu iPhone photos. A great way to do this is via the iPhone app PicPosterous (iTunes link). It will make sharing iPhone photos via Posterous easy and almost completely automated.

I’m not crazy about the way it forces you do use albums, but it works OK. I do like the fact that photos from each album are posted together. I’ll just do an album for each day. That seems burdensome, but it’s not really. You’d need to name the photo anyway, and this means you only have to name the first one (e.g., 02/28/10) you post each day. Any others can be sent directly to that album.

Embed into a Blog Page with an iFrame

Now to embed the Posterous page you have crated into your blog via an iFrame.

In WordPress

I use WordPress. Here’s how you do it with my theme. The process may differ slightly from theme to theme, but the basic concepts should be the same.

Create a new Page, and name it. I called mine iStream.

If you have columns on your main blog pages, you’ll probably need to use a full width template for this page. Many WordPress themes have this option for Pages. If yours doesn’t, you’ll have to create a Page template. Or change themes.

Add the iFrame code. Here’s mine:

In Blogger

If you use Blogger, simply create a new Page, via Posting>Edit Pages>New Page, and include the iFrame code. Be sure to select the Edit HTML tab first.

I don’t know that many, if any, Blogger templates have full width templates available for Pages. If not, the resulting life stream Page may require horizontal scrolling, which is not good. If I find (or someone provides in a comment) a solution for this, I’ll add it here.

The best bet if you really want a life stream page in Blogger might be to select a wide, one or two column template.

Add the New Page to Your Page Navigation

Once I created my new Page, I added it under the Media tab at the top of the Newsome.Org blog pages.

That’s all there is to it. Looks great. Easy to use. Consolidated.

I like it.

Brother, Can You Spare a Word?

I’m working hard so you don’t have to. If you like what I’m doing here at Newsome.Org, please spread the word via Retweets and links.