Daryl Baxter.

Netflix and their bemusing past year.

A great read of how Netflix did a severe trip up one year tomorrow, and is only now starting to recover.

“I messed up,” Hastings wrote. “I owe everyone an explanation. It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming, and the price changes… In hindsight, I slid into arrogance based upon past success. We have done very well for a long time by steadily improving our service, without doing much CEO communication.

I remember reading about Quickster, and then how it only took around a fortnight that they completely binned the idea. Crazy.

Source.

Tim Cook at the D10 Conference.

As i’m having trouble sleeping in this mad heatwave, I stayed up for the 2AM Interview between Tim Cook at D10.

This is a conference that is now in its 10th year, it’s a great 3 days of interviews from all walks of technological life. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs had a joint interview a few years ago which was a brilliant highlight which should be seen on YouTube as soon as.

The above are only highlights of an hour show, but it gives you a great idea of it.

A website analysed what the interview gave, especially the bits of Facebook and ‘other’ Apple TV.

All in all it was enthralling and really shows that he knows that after nearly 14 years of being at Apple there won’t be any ‘massive’ changes undertaken unlike how the Forbes article from last week gave that impression.

And i’m getting the feeling this year’s WWDC is going to have a fair few surprises that will be much more than iOS 6 and Lion.

Source.

Prototype iPad with 2 dock connectors on eBay.

As a manufacturer needs to, they prototype all possibilities, a lot could change someone’s mind if they actually use a prototyped product rather than staring at a drawing.

So today someone has, somehow, obtained a prototype of the first gen iPad with two dock connectors.

I faintly remember reading about this around the time it was released 2 years ago, and hoping it would appear on subsequent revisions. Since then, i’ve grown to appreciate the on screen keyboard, and not really see the point.

As all prototypes seen on eBay, this won’t last long, so make sure to click the link below quickly!

Source.

Facebook Camera, The End Of Instagram?

I first signed onto Instagram way back in August, and I thought it was a good idea, but i could do the same thing on Twitter without a filter.

When Facebook announced they had bought Instagram, a lot of friends suddenly signed up and jumped on the Instagram bandwagon. By the way, this just shows how much of an influence Facebook can incredibly be.

I’ve been using it a lot more since i actually know people this time that i’m following, and i’ve started to use it much more than Twitter now, which i’m only using as a kind of RSS Feed.

But yesterday as i’m walking through London town, i read that Facebook have brought an app of their own, much similar to Instagram.

At first it was confusing, why have two similar products, of which one is in the processes of being officially acquired?

But then i realised of two things, they’ve been trying to redo photos on Facebook the same way Timeline has been to profiles, and it’s the start of the transition.

Now, viewing photos on a PC has changed significantly in the past year. Instead of clicking on a photo and being able to easily go to the album, a black background surrounds the selected photo, and dependant on the privacy setting, it’s either going to be the only photo you see, or you’ll see an album.

Also uploading photos. The feature that has stood out for me has been facial recognition as soon as the photos are uploaded. To be fair, 80% of the time, it’s tagging a robot as a lad i know from years ago, but the idea is still promising.

This would be the work of Sofa and Push Pop Press, acquired a little over a year ago, and presumably started work on the Facebook Camera app.

Anyone you know uploading photos on a mobile device from Facebook knows that to even think of uploading an album you may have stored on your device is just asking for trouble.

Then the ‘transition’ i spoke of.

I believe that as soon as the Instagram deal closes, which is, all the investors and board members agree and go through all the paperwork, it’s not a simple ‘yes we’ll buy you’, these two apps will merge, bringing Facebook’s users over to Instagram, and when a user is clicking the ‘Photos’ tab to their left, they’ll also be given a link below to an ‘Instagram’ app, which will be able to import all your photos from your account, to your Facebook profile.

Maybe we’ll see this by the end of 2012, but i don’t believe we’ll be seeing 2 apps this time next year.

How Tim Cook is changing Apple.

An article came out today on Tim Cook’s 10 months as the CEO:

For their part, most Apple employees seem more than satisfied with Cook. He often sits down randomly with employees in the cafeteria at lunchtime, whereas Jobs typically dined with design chief Jonathan Ive. It is a small difference that speaks volumes about how employees can expect to interact with their CEO. At Apple, Jobs was simultaneously revered, loved, and feared. Cook clearly is a demanding boss, but he’s not scary. He’s well-respected, but not worshiped. As Apple enters a complex new phase of its corporate history, perhaps it doesn’t need a god as CEO but a mere mortal who understands how to get the job done.

What a lot of people don’t seem to understand, is that at the end of the day, Apple is a manufacturing company. They will have had roadmaps for the next 3 or more so generations of the iPhone, iPad etc way before Steve Jobs passed away, the major features planned obsessively and finding ways to achieve it with sublime efficiency. Right now, Apple is in great hands, and we’ll be looking at the fifth generation of the iPad with the same magic that has been there since the beginning.

This article, even though some sections give quotes that would give a reader or Apple fanboy worrying thoughts, such as

“I’ve been told that any meeting of significance is now always populated by project management and global-supply management,” he says. “When I was there, engineering decided what we wanted, and it was the job of product management and supply management to go get it. It shows a shift in priority.”

It’s pointless. Again, Apple is in good hands. 

But then later in the article, this quote appears when talking about the Apple Top 100 meeting from this year in mid April:

One veteran executive was “blown away” by what he had seen, says someone this executive spoke to afterward. Reports another person with access to top-level Apple executives: “People came away totally comfortable with where the company is headed.”

When the new major product does eventually appear from Apple, that’s when i’m curious as to how it will be presented for its first time. Will Tim Cook describe and show all the details? Will he give a demo?

As yet, we haven’t seen this, only 2 appearances of upgrades from existing products, then handing it over to Phil Schiller or Eddie Cue etc.

But with under 3 weeks to go until WWDC, and ‘a whole lot to look forward to in 2012’, i’m looking forward to this with great anticipation.

Hey Google+, Scrap the Social Network, take Skype head on instead.

Google + has always been a like/dislike relationship with me.

I first used it when it was in beta, and for a couple of weeks or so, it was ok, but i thought it was irrelevant.

Then i saw Google Hangout.

At this point, you were able to watch a YouTube video in the same hangout, but that was about it. But it showed promise.

I then decided to get rid of it, mainly as i knew one person who was using it, and i couldn’t justify using Facebook, Twitter, and now a 3rd social network. It only had hangout as its trump card, and if they had that as a separate app, i’d definitely use it.

Around a month ago, i decided to go back, to solely promote this blog, and see what had changed.

Apart from a refreshed UI, not a lot.

But it wasn’t until earlier today that i used Hangout, and the amount of features are mind boggling.

Here’s a couple that caught me eye:

• Join an existing hangout, so in a way, you’re becoming a live audience member to an indie TV Show, which i think is brilliant.
• Not only watch YouTube synchronously, but draw Doodles, play games, share Google Docs, and have 9 people join one hangout.

The reason i used Hangout earlier was because I need a service that not only does video conferencing to 3 people, but able to show rough sketches and videos.

Skype did the first point well, but only on the desktop. If you try this on an iPad or iPhone, you can only participate in an existing call, and only hear and see the recipients, but they can only hear you.

Maybe we’ll see an update that will fix this, but for now, it’s a bit crazy.

I proposed that if the other two join Google+, we can use it solely for Hangout.

So one lad is directed to the Google+ main page, and the first thing he says is this:

Straight away with this point, alienation smacks Google+ around the head a thousand times over, and all these potential users miss out on Hangout.

We then try Hangout, and after using top hats, it’s brilliant.

But, the UI for a Hangout on an iPad is so confusing, we decide to go back to Skype and hold up pieces of paper on the screen.

Hangout really has the potential to become a rival to Skype, FaceTime, and any other video conferencing applications, but if it’s only going to be a feature of Google+, it’s a wasted opportunity.

I still don’t see the point for Google+ as a social network, people are used to Facebook because, going back 5 or so years, the reason it exploded was because it was user friendly, and it catered to all age ranges, which MySpace failed to do.

I’ve always and will continue to believe, that if Hangout becomes a separate app on all devices, brings the features of a doodle feature and the ability to watch a video and comment at the same time, it’s got huge potential.

With Google + it’s dragging a huge weight behind.

And Now For Something Completely Different.

Today, instead of a site or channel that catches my eye, it’s a documentary on a place that has been the home for Morcambe and Wise, Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, Only Fools and Horses, the list goes on.

That’s the BBC Television Centre.

It’s a kind of landmark really, as so many classic shows have been filmed, thought up of in here, and it’s a great shame that it’s to be sold off in a couple of years.

So yesterday, I was shown to a documentary on BBC Four about it, from its creation, to it’s untimely near end, told by many people who have had the honour of working there.

Brilliantly for me, it starts with a red car that is in a favourite series of mine, so for me, it was a sign that i had to watch it throughout.

And i’m glad i did.

If you live in the UK, enjoy the following link.

If you don’t, watch out for it.

Link.