Of course the selling point is iOS.

I agree that it’d be nice. But think about how that would work, to keep up with the market the TV would need to upgrade it’s hardware at least every three years. How would Apple do that?
Set top boxes? Than why sell a screen?
Modules that plug in? Not very Apple-like, but possible.

Or they would just deliver it with an iPod touch.

My perfect tv would have everything listed in the article but with apps and options for 16,32, or,64 gb of storage for full hd games and other apps or movies.

— Albert Einstein.

Here are some of my thoughts if you’re interested: http://bartkowalski.com/2011/12/path/

Thanks for the great and well thought-out critiques! You definitely spent a lot of time working on this, and the Messenger team really appreciated hearing your thoughts.

I just wanted to write back and let you know:

1) You’re right that startup (especially from a push notification) isn’t fast enough right now. We’re definitely working on making loading faster.

We just released Facebook Messenger 1.5.2 to the Apple App Store today, which includes some good improvements to make startup quicker, but we’re not done yet.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facebook-messenger/id454638411

2) We’re not loading the entire database, either from the server or from disk. We load the last 50 messages at startup, but the current design of the app does load all your friends from disk into memory — this could take some time if you have lots of friends.

One problem we do have right now is that we initially got a number of crashes caused by corrupt database files. To help mitigate this, we do a quick database consistency check at startup, and discard it if it’s corrupt. This also takes time, but we figured it was better than random crashes.

That said, we are also working on fixing this to make all these loads asynchronous and more intelligently do DB consistency checks, and to do a lot less work when opening from a push notification. Please stay tuned!

3) As of Messenger 1.5, we do show (and send) typing indicators when you or your friends are typing. Just look at the top of the screen when you’re in a one-on-one conversation, and it will show “typing…” if your friend is typing.

4) The push notification recommendations you describe are in fact part of Facebook Messenger. They weren’t rolled out to all users at launch time due to performance issues, but they should be rolled out to everyone now.

Thanks again, and do try out 1.5.2 and let us know if it helps a bit. Things aren’t perfect yet, but they should be a bit better now.

I’m not implying that the entire package of the phone is less than the iPhone. I’m saying straight out that their design is essentially flawed. It demands the user learn an interaction model BEFORE they use the product.

That’s not great for a product as ubiquitous as the cell phone. iPhone, Android and Windows Phone 7 have worked hard NOT to have that problem.

There is, however, an even worse problem with the Nokia N9: the software was dead on arrival. There will be no software revisions or third party developers since Nokia is shifting to Win Phone7. The N9 with Windows (the 800 Lumia) looks great! But doesn’t use the Swipe-interface (http://www.nokia.co.uk/gb-en/products/phone/lumia800/).

Thanks for the comment! I hope I cleared up my point.

Wrong. I’m using my scrollwheel right now and it’s backwards. I can’t change it either because the setting is in trackpad settings and I do not have a trackpad so the preferences do not show up.

Have a look at Joel Spolsky’s article about this.

Could be just semantics, of course. But my mind was drawn to comparison with the concept of “nation” visavi “company”…

The ones I use the most is Osfoora HD, Safari and Keynote. This is one thing I miss with the iPad – crucial _applications_ that really matters.

Thanks so much for your comment and thoughts!
And a quick follow up question? What’s your favorite iPad app?

I have noticed that I spend less and less time using a computer at home and instead use the iPad for various things. I still miss a lot of features, especially being able to handle Photoshop files and typing fast, but it really is a remarkable device (one must not forget that it is the content network/App Store that truly makes it what it is).

The unitasking was no problem in the beginning, but as I use the iPad more and more and I am forced to switch between apps (especially when making a Keynote) it really starts to bug me and makes me work slower.

Im quite fond of this redesign that you did, as I too think that the current iTunes design seems a bit out of place when you consider the aesthetics of other apple products. Ones that keep in mind simplicity/function for an optimized usage for the user.Like Frank Lloyd Right once said: Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union. I believe that all users would end up winning if the design of itunes itself was updated.

Kudos

Thanks for the comment!

Är det du som ligger bakom Dreamlords? Man har tyngre namn på twitter än man tror.

It might kill the developers/publishers who don’t adapt to this however.
<3

I hope more old classics inspires new fresh and innovative implementations from companies like these.

M= Motivationen hos besökaren (erbjudandet/produkten som måste framgå tydligt)
V= Value proposition (vad är unikt, vad gör den här siten för mig)
I= Incentive (incitament, extra bonus)
F= Friction (kan vara missvisande rubriker, otydlighet i design eller text, störande bildelement osv)
A= Anxiety (Någonting som besökaren upplever som oroande, tex kreditkorts betalningar på nätet, eller att lämna ut för mycket personlig info)

Så budskap, placering och utförande/tillgänglighet och upplevelse är extremt viktigt för att få en besökare att konvertera. Om man tex vet att det kan upplevas som jobbigt för besökaren att lämna ifrån sig personlig info eller betala via visa kort, så ska man göra det så smidigt och lättförståeligt som möjligt så att det blir en bra användarupplevelse. Man ska också stödja den processen med tex säkerhets symboler, safe and secure payments, och text loggor från betallösningar o banker + hänglås.Man kan också stödja den osäkerheten hos besökaren med testimonials, vilket gör upplevelsen tryggare.

En konvertering kan vara olika beroende för produkt/site. Allt från att få besökaren att signa upp för nyhetsbrev till att ladda ner en trial version av ett nytt program eller köpa en vara.
/mia

business cards

Is very Useful For me…

is Very Nice.

I feel like understanding cloud formations is not the same thing as knowing that cloud height makes clouds look different and therefore more prone to rain. That sounds to me as facts bunched together, ie pieces of recall bunched together?

See my point about ideas being exhaustive? But that might be a price worth paying for longer and better memory storage.

Information based knowledge is exactly what this way of learning would benefit. Now I know you’ve studied cognitive science so I’ll up the language a bit here:
When I say ideas I really mean semantic understanding of a system. All knowledge is systematic in some way, understanding cloud formations let you remember facts about said cloud formations because your semantic memory is a lot more effective then recall (not to be confused with recognition).

This is why I believe that semantic learning (learning ideas instead of just data) is a lot more effective then the classic education system. Certainly not saying that it’s perfect. But according to the studies I’ve seen we tend to remember about 20-25% of the things we learn by classic education and closer to 75% when we use problem based learning. And that’s just problem based learning, without my semantical twist.

I’ll try to find the study again and post it here.

Thanks for the comment!

I personally agree that Ideas are a better for remembering and also a more fun state to reach. But ideas are also harder to quantify and test, and also very heavy on the brain to grasp, ie the brain must use a lot of resources to make the correct assumptions and connections for an idea to formulate.

Also Ideas are often great for grasping the larger picture: “why did the industrial revolution take place?”…while maybe not as handy for small bits of information like “who/when was the first steam engine invented” or maybe even your cloud example.

Maybe ideas are better for some types of subjects while not as effective for others?

The problem for me is that I’m a fan of two things:

1. Super clean designs.
2. Colors and happy outgoing designs. Like for example: http://www.nexon.net/

They collide.

You can quote me on that.

But the driving-part sucked. I just felt it didn’t matter what I did, it ended up the same anyway and I didn’t feel rewarded at all for driving over the monsters/demons/whatever. All I did was hold R2.

Might get it though, but later on.

Hype machine: Engaged!

So? What happened?

Får bli en sån för mig också (*äntligen* går Pro ner i min Kånken, yay)

Hoppas den fortsätter att överraska dig på det bra viset =)

Mvh,
Erik

Successful product = strong brand = more sales. You can never start with a strong brand. And neither Apple nor PopCap did.

Your examples with PopCap and Apple are good but they’re also built up their reputation around this USP. If I buy an Apple product, I except it to be of high quality. If I get a new PopCap-game, even if it might not be fun I know it’ll have a very solid production.

But if I’m to release a new product, as a newly formed company it’s hard to convince the consumer of the greatness of the quality. Surely, if I can keep the retailing alive long enough for it to “set in” for poeple, so they understand it might work.

PopCap and Apple have been around for many, many years and have been able to uphold their quality, so I don’t think it’s just about one product, but more of a company philosophy, as with Valve and Blizzard (to keep things within the gaming industry).

Good post!

I don’t think these services will be interesting from an eyecandy point of view in a long time.

We’ll just have to wait and see. But I to believe it will work (or work better) for some types of games. Especially MMO games as they are already designed to resist lag issues.

I’d say this kind of service might work for certain game genres but it’s not gonna be “the future of gaming”. A lot of genres still has to be played locally. Perhaps if we manage to invent something like subspace communication as in Star Trek, then it’d be a possible replacement for all types of gaming.

For example, for every single unit that has a “jump” or “teleport” ability, the letter you press for that is a J. Or grenades, use G. Anyway, once you have your favourite hero for a couple of games, you’ll know the shortcuts anyway

And yes, there are situations where that sniper wants to use his melee charge – for example, when he stealthed up behind the enemy Shuriken Platform and wants to bind it in melee so the other troops can come from the front and finish it off without being suppressed…

Regarding the complexity, micro managing your troops makes worlds of difference, so I guess Mythic went with the whole “easy to learn, hard to master” thing that worked so well for Blizzard with StarCraft (prime example) and later games.

System-spec wise, my system is about as fast as yours and I play without any stuttering whatsoever – I do have twice your RAM though. No clue if that’s it.

In other news, I found your blog through blog searching for DoW2 – welcome to my feedreader

Well, my opinion is that you should make sure a game doesn’t have shitty copy protection _before_ bying it. That guy should never have bought those games at all, by paying for these games he’s supporting the copy protection crap. Of course he should not pirate the games either.

What he should do, is write a mail to the publisher and clearly state that he won’t buy the game until they sell it without copy protection.

Pirate install usually consists of installing the game, copying a serial from a document or crack program and then copying over a file.
Legitimate install normally consists of installing the game, manually copying a serial (which by todays standards is just insane) and more and more frequently registering online or similar. Worst of are the hundreds of titles that install secondary products such as anti-cheating software or game portal software.

Oh, and the information necessary to perform the install is just as simple for both these methods, for the pirate it’s in a text file, for the legitimate it’s in the manual. So the difference more comes down to taste for older titles and pure time-efficiency for modern ultra-DRM titles.

Thanks for the comments! Keep ‘em coming!

But even if you’re familiar with this, I’d say installning a retail-game is easier and much more comfortable (except for entering a stupid serial key) since you only follow the on-screen information (read: press next, next, next, install).

Other than that; good read.

They say you can’t compete with free, so they must fight piracy. Well, we live in a scientific world where experimenting is essential to find out the truth. Has any big publisher even considered TRYING?

How can you say it’s impossible to compete with free when you never even gave it a shot. You’re still sitting in a pretty good position to provide better and faster services than the pirates and crackers who are just doing this in their spare time.