I’m one of those guys who thinks the “I’m a Mac” ads are very clever, and funny, and the fact that I’m writing this from my MacBook is in part due to the “Cult of Mac.” Score one for Redmond with their new Windows Home Server ad campaign. It consists of Daily Show-esque videos (not terribly funny), and this satirical gem:
It certainly looks like Microsoft is selling branded hardware, which is a big step in the Apple direction. Is this one of Bill Gates’ last acts, or one of the first from the new regime?
About two weeks ago when everyone and their brother was going on and on about how Hulu had added HD videos, I decided to sign up for their beta and check it out for myself. My invitation rolled in last night, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could watch a few recent episodes of The Simpsons. The video quality is very good for TVOIP, but to describe it as “HD” is absurd. I propose that we label it HDTYT: “Higher Definition than YouTube.”
All kidding aside, what Hulu promises (TV episodes on demand, in good quality, with limited commercial breaks) is what I have always wanted. Two things need to improve before this will be widely accepted, I think. First, more episodes, and more shows. Of the admittedly small number of TV shows I enjoy, there were 6 full episodes of The Simpsons, and about 30 short clips of both The Simpsons and Futurama. Second, there are three advertising breaks as you watch a given episode, and Hulu runs the same ad all three times. Cats and laser pointers are funny strictly in intervals greater than 30 minutes, but wax lame when viewed more frequently. Actually, watching that commercial again on YouTube makes me appreciate the video quality at Hulu a bit more.
Turns out that the Web UI guru is not impressed with us plebes:
on the Web, most people are bozos and not worth listening to
Furthermore, he states that
Facebook is the “Iron Chef” of the Internet
Hmm… I have to admit that I like that analogy, though from his explanation I’m not sure he uses Facebook or watches Iron Chef.
So I’m installing Internet Explorer 7 on my PC so I can test Common Kitchen on a multitude of browsers, and the first time I run the program I see one of those little bubbles pop up from the system tray:
WHOA! What just happened? Microsoft tried to underhandedly change my default search engine (to Live.com no doubt), and then Google thought they would help me out by monitoring attempts to change that setting. I appreciate the sentiment, but I honestly don’t remember telling Google they could do that.
Turns out this is part of the “Google Toolbar” package and I missed it in all the fine print. In my book, both companies are awfully close to evil here…
Pandora, the music discovery platform that I use nearly every day and love, has recently started showing ads from Jameson’s new ad campaign: customized t-shirts with your name instead of the first four letters of their name. Now, I’m not in the market for that sort of shirt, but I do know a nifty application of the web 2.0 when I see one…
It would be interesting to see the final numbers from this campaign - I wonder how many people will order. I imagine we will know if it is incredibly successful, as there will be copycat campaigns everywhere (personalized Captain Morgan shirts first, probably).
I dislike MS Office, both because of the price and the bloated feature set, and have tried and hated most of the alternatives, including OpenOffice, Google Docs and Spreadsheets, and Zoho. OpenOffice is free, but poorly constructed, and thus solves the wrong half of the problem. Google D&S (and all the other online html-based office suites) make efficient working impossible and simply don’t export well.
That leaves iWork, which I can no longer ignore because Apple just added a spreadsheet app. The price is right at 5 licenses for $99, and if this new “Numbers” is anything near what Scoble is hyping it up to be I think I may finally settle on a productivity suite.
Marc Andreessen has just posted the best constructed argument I’ve read (yet) for writing a business plan to make sure your idea is competent, setting out to execute it as planned, and then letting your audience/market direct your final product. We are currently in the execution phase over at Common Kitchen, although our business plan says we will be entering the user directed chapter in a month or so…
Now this is a conference I wish I had attended, fortunately there are various notes available online…
Daniel James (of Three Rings fame) dropped a few numbers, some of which start to explain the lavish decor of the company’s new offices: $350k/month in revenues, $250k of which is from virtual goods. As a recovering Puzzle Pirates addict, I can tell you that their product is top notch and I am pleased as punch that they are doing so well. It’s not due to me, however, because aside from an initial virtual currency purchase of $20 I have made far more Pieces of Eight than I have spent. My pirate is many times a millionaire, with nearly everything the game can buy, but I have witnessed the other side of this virtual coin. The secret to their success seems to be retaining casual players and rolling out new features approximately monthly to provide constant stimulation to the game economy. Many players, especially the younger ones, will therefore spend at least the normal subscription rate ($12/month) to keep up with the Joneses.
John Vars, CEO of Dogster, had a few comments on extending virtual gifts to the real world. On his social network it is possible to send a virtual bone to a dog-friend, and for a little more have a real bone arrive in the mail as well. I imagine we will see some similar feature on Facebook in a few weeks or months, as Hot or Not already facilitates flower deliveries to prospective dates…
Valleywag (and others) have commented on the launch of StartupSearch, a new directory site tracking people, money, and traffic in relation to Web 2.0 startups. Interestingly the site has been “sponsored” by a VC firm through June (its future unknown after that), so it does not need to index itself yet.
Their definition of “startup” seems to include just professionally funded companies, although it seems advantageous to get your company on their ASAP for the exposure. When we have a logo and a better “coming soon” homepage I will put Common Kitchen in there and see what happens.
