Drew's View

A Week Unplugged

A group of high school sophomores at L.A.'s California Academy for Liberal Studies Early College High School will forego all electronic devices for an entire week:

"I suspect that people will be going crazy," said student Jamila Mohedano, who doubts her own ability to go unplugged without becoming unglued.

Beginning today, the homeroom class of teacher Shannon Meyer will go cold turkey for seven endless days. We're talking no TV. No iPods. No iPhones. No BlackBerrys. No computers, which means no MySpace and no Facebook. And it gets worse. No cellphones. That means -- weep if you must -- no texting.

I know I would have a hard time doing this for any period of time, but I am certain that my high school age kids would rather die.

Article: LA Times: Students Unplugged — The Horror, The Horror!

The White House official photostream

The White House has an official photostream on Flickr. It's fascinating to browse through these photos--really a real-time record of history in the making.

One has to wonder, what is discussed when President Obama and former President Clinton meet in the Oval Office? One of my favorites shows Obama climbing under the Resolute Desk like John-John Kennedy did, while meeting with Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg. But perhaps the most interesting ones show the more ordinary moments, like Obama trying out different desk chairs.

By the way, what do I have to do to get a ride on Air Force One?

Ever heard of Photoshop?

You probably saw in the news that last week one of the 747 airplanes used for the President did several low-altitude flyby's of New York City while being trailed by two fighter jets. The intention was to get some publicity photos of the plane with the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan in the background. Somehow, it did not occur to anyone that some New Yorkers might find this unannounced activity startling.

Perhaps just as surprising, someone thought this was the simplest way to get the required image. The US spent $360,000 of taxpayer money on this photo opportunity. Skott Kelby, the editor-in-chief for Layers Magazine, Photoshop User magazine and the president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, spent less than two minutes creating this composite in Photoshop:

Skott has also made the following offer to the White House on his blog:

Rather than spending $360,000 somewhat foolishly (wink, wink), whatdayasay we work out a deal?

I’m trying to raise money for furniture and household appliances for an orphange in Kenya (run by Americans), and I’d be happy to actually take 90 minutes (or more; whatever it takes), and really do the compositing job right, and all you have to do is buy a freezer for around, say $360. You can keep the other $359,640 or give it to GM.

Sounds like a good deal to me.

Random Thoughts on the Porkalypse

Calling it "2009 H1N1" just does not have the panache of "Swine Flu." Personally, I prefer "Porkalypse."

141 people in the United States (population >304 Million) have the flu. And it has been the top story on every newscast and the front page of every newspaper I have seen for the past several days.

An elementary school near my home closed yesterday because six kids had flu-like symptoms. The district sent notices home that parents should plan for childcare, and keep their kids at home. Now all six kids have since tested negative for the flu, and the school will re-open tomorrow.

I can certainly understand that a flu bug for which no one has immunity is something to be concerned about, but this seems to heading past hype and into hysteria. (Side note: I love it when Anderson Cooper on CNN says "We are not trying to over-hype this," and then proceeds to cover it nonstop for an hour).

But above all, I love the practical tips that are on every newscast, in every article, and on signs everywhere you look: wash your hands and cover your coughs and sneezes. Is this new advice to anyone? Now, the CDC has posted a number of "Social Media Tools" that you can use on your blog or website to share this important advice online:

I swear, I am not making this up. I wonder what the CDC budget was for this.

A Magazine With a Puzzle Buried Inside

I've always been fascinated with complex and secret puzzles (see this earlier post), although I do not always have the patience to finish them. Watching the TV series LOST unfold has been a great pleasure. J.J. Abrams, one of the creators of LOST and Fringe, took over as guest editor of WIRED Magazine's May 2009 print issue. He filled the magazine with an intricate and partially hidden puzzle. One reader has it cracked:

Steven Bevacqua was flipping through the May issue of Wired magazine when he thought he started seeing secret messages. So he spent the next several days following the hidden clues he believed he’d found, using Morse code, alternative computer keyboard layouts and even electrician’s wiring codes to solve the covert brainteasers. Finally he was directed to a hidden Web site, from which he sent an e-mail message to a secret account. A short while later he learned that he was the first Wired reader to solve an extensive hidden puzzle embedded throughout the magazine.

Article: New York Times: A Magazine With a Puzzle Buried Inside

Eye Candy for News Junkies

I am a total news junky. I like to get my news online, but sometimes there is just no substitute for the real newspaper.

I especially like to see what various papers from around the world are reporting, and have long subscribed to email alerts from many of them. But now I have found a better solution. NEWScan shows the front pages of over a dozen daily newspapers, and the images are big enough that you can read all the headlines. A quick scroll to the right allows you to get a feel for what is front page news around the world. This will be a new part of my daily routine.

(via Kottke)

Give your iPhone feedback to Apple

I continue to be amazed at the incredible volume of people who read my post on The Case for MMS on the iPhone. What started out as a rant has become the most-read entry I have ever posted. Based on the fact that most of the readers of that post are new visitors to my blog (who find it via search engines), it seems there are lots of people who share my frustration.

I continue to get lots of emails and comments from readers who want Apple and AT&T to fix the terrible user experience using MMS on the iPhone in the US. Keep those messages coming! In addition, you can provide your feedback directly to Apple via the iPhone Feedback Form. Tell them too!

Garage Sale Follow-Up

I got several notes from readers asking whether it is worth the hassle to sell all that junk on eBay. It most certainly is.

The first time I ever tried it was many years ago. I had a broken digital camera. And when I say broken, I mean BROKEN. I had dropped it on concrete, and it had literally broken into two pieces. I was trying to figure out what to do with it (this was before there was e-waste recycling), and was close to just tossing it in the trash. Then I thought I'd try selling it on eBay. Why not?

I was very clear in the description that this thing was broken, and it ended up selling for over $50.00. The guy was going to fiddle with it to see if he could fix it!

Anyway, now whenever I buy something that I think I am likely to re-sell eventually (for example, a computer, iPod, or other electronic device), I keep the original packaging around. When it is inevitably replaced with a newer model, the old one goes on eBay. I actually sold my old iPhone for more than buying the newer model cost!

Anyway, all the junk I posted last week is gone now. A couple of things did not sell, but overall I took in nearly $500.00. Not bad, considering I wanted to get rid of that stuff, and it only took about an hour or so to list them and ship them!

25 Things

This crazy "25 Random Things About Me" meme on Facebook is incredible. You know you've got something big happening when both TIME Magazine and the New York Times do a trend piece on it the same day.

The TIME piece (25 Things I Didn't Want to Know About You by Claire Suddath) is a tongue-in-cheek look at when sharing becomes oversharing, and also includes this amazing fact: "An estimated 5 million of these notes — that's 125 million facts — have appeared on [Facebook] within the past week."

The NYT article (Ah, Yes, More About Me? by Douglas Quenqua) goes a little bit deeper, exploring the value of the game as a writing exercise, and the fact that having a friend ask you to do it makes it compelling.

I've been fascinated by the meme since I saw the first one a few weeks ago. I must admit I read them all--even ones by people I barely know. When I finally got tagged and took the time to write my own, I found it to be a very interesting exercise. And getting the responses has been fun.

Buying Train Tickets via Mobile Phone

Deutsche Bahn, the train system in Germany, has an innovative new way for commuters to purchase tickets on the go. You can even reserve a seat on the sometimes crowded trains.

After registering with the service, the traveler can visit a mobile site from their cell phone. After specifying the ticket and seat they desire, they receive an MMS (picture message) with a barcode and confirmation of their ticket.

Once on the train, the traveler can show their phone to the conductor, who simply scans the barcode on the screen to verify the ticket.

Besides the convenience, the system reduces lines at ticket booths and eliminates the need for paper tickets and the associated litter problems.

Cool stuff, and another reason to add to The Case for MMS on the iPhone.

A Different Kind of Vacation Message

Danah Boyd is going on vacation for a month, and rather than the usual "I'm on vacation" email auto-responder, she has trained her email inbox to reject all email while she is away.

"I believe that email eradicates any benefits gained from taking a vacation by collecting mold and spitting it back out at you the moment you return. As such, I've trained my beloved INBOX to reject all email during vacation. The effect is very simple. You cannot put anything in my queue while I'm away (however lovingly you intend it) and I come home to a clean INBOX. Don't worry... if you forget, you'll get a nice note from my INBOX telling you to shove off, respect danah's deeply needed vacation time, and try again after January 19."

I'm not sure I could do this. I can't even go without checking my email.

(via Merlin Mann)

The Soap Opera Continues at Tesla

I wrote an earlier post (The Soap Opera at Tesla) that linked to an article that described some of the earlier personality clashes at the car company. Dan Lyons at Newsweek has a new article about the egos involved and the resulting mess: An Electric Car Loses Its Juice. Too bad--sounds like a great car.

(Thanks, Melissa!)

FedEx: Bad. Apple: GOOD! - A Tale of Two Companies' Customer Service.

My son had saved up his money and wanted to buy a new MacBook. He was switching from a Windows Vista laptop that had been having problems, and even after he had enough money, he waited longer for Apple to release new models. Once the new models came out, he was ready to buy. He got online, ordered the computer from Apple's online store, and waited.

Our past experience with ordering from Apple has been good. Even when you use the standard free shipping, the packages come remarkably fast--usually within a couple of days. Unfortunately, when FedEx came by with the package on Oct 21, 2008, just the second business day after the order, no one was home.

This is when the nightmare started.

When FedEx brings you a package for which a signature is required, they leave you a "door tag." It's a note that let's you know when the delivery was attempted, and that they will try again. Checking the tracking info online showed they came by and would try again the next day.

I was home all day the next day (the 22nd), and the package did not come. When it still had not come by noon on the 23rd, I called FedEx. They were very polite and apologetic and said they would "call the station" who would in turn call me back with more information. When a couple of hours passed with no call, I called again and was given a similar story. No one called back. At 5pm, I called FedEx a third time. They told me the station was now closed and there was nothing they could do. Needless to say, I was frustrated.

At this point, I thought it couldn't hurt to call Apple. I called their customer service line, and a nice gentleman named Wayne picked up right away. I explained the situation to him, and told him that I knew it was not Apple's problem, but suggested they might have more pull with FedEx than I. Wayne was genuinely concerned and told me he would look into it with his supervisor. He said if I did not have the shipment by tomorrow afternoon, they would get me a new one.

By the following afternoon, I had still heard nothing from FedEx. The phone rang mid-afternoon, and it was Wayne calling right when he had promised. He already knew I had not received the package, was dismayed to hear FedEx had never called me, and was ready to send me a new Macbook free of charge and even throw in a free iPod Shuffle for my trouble. I had it all the next business day.

The original package seems to have vanished. As of now, FedEx still has not updated the tracking info ten days later, and has never contacted me about it. Wayne at Apple told me not to worry about it--that Apple would take it from here.

Three phone calls to FedEx never yielded a response. A single call to Apple led them to go above and beyond the call of duty and fix a mistake made by someone else.

Now, which company would you recommend to others?

An Update on the Case for MMS on the iPhone

It seems I struck a nerve with my earlier post titled The Case for MMS on the iPhone. That post gets more than twenty-four times the traffic of the next most popular post on my site. Yesterday alone, it was viewed by over 500 unique visitors--that is a lot for my blog, especially considering I posted the article about a month-and-a-half ago. This post is an update, if you have not read the other one, you may want to do that first.

I've gotten a bunch of email on the topic (not all of it polite), as well as participated in lively discussions on other sites. This is clearly a hot topic. I thought I'd respond here to some of the comments I've been receiving and update you with some new info. The following are examples of the types of feedback I've gotten.

Response: "Shut up!"
I am always amazed at how some people seem to think that I should be grateful to Apple for the iPhone and that any criticism is some sort of heresy. One of the most polite examples is the person who said "complaining about this seems akin to getting your first teleportation device and complaining about the lack of trunk space." I just want to point out that comparing the iPhone to a teleportation device is nonsense. There are lots of other devices on the market that do phone, email, web browsing, and so on. I think the iPhone is the best of them by far, and so I bought one. That does not mean I should feel that I can't express an opinion on what I perceive as its shortcomings, nor does it mean I should be attacked for my position. Discourse is welcome, name-calling is a waste of time.

Response: "I don't use MMS, so Apple should not support it"
Just because you do not use MMS does not mean no one does. I personally never use GPS on my iPhone, but I don't disparage it. There are actually a lot of features I do not use on my phone (and it sounds like Apple is adding a bunch more stuff in 2.2 that I am not interested in.) But all evidence points to the fact that MMS is popular. When I wrote the original post, a quarter of US cellphone users had used MMS. Since then, AT&T has reported that MMS volumes in the third quarter were more than double 2007 levels.

Response: "Just email the photo!"
I explained this sufficiently in my previous post. MMS and email are two completely different things. If the iPhone did not have text messaging, no one would be satisfied using email instead. Besides, most cell phone users do not use email on their phones.

Response: "MMS is bad technology"
This comment has come from people who say that the MMS standard is poorly constructed or hard to work with or could carry viruses. To all this, I say "so what?" Much of the same could be said for email, but that does not make it any less useful or fun. Since when has Apple backed away from doing something because it was hard? And besides, virtually every other phone in the world supports MMS--this means is is both a widely-used standard and nowhere near impossible to implement.

Response: "No one wants MMS on the iPhone. You are the only one complaining."
This is simply not true. Since I posted my article, I've been contacted by many more people who agree than disagree. I've seen the same sentiment on other forums. Readers have pointed me to two petitions (here and here) begging Apple to add the feature. And a new site called pleasefixtheiphone.com allows users to vote for the features they want most. Picture messaging (MMS) has been in the top 5 every time I have looked. As I write this, it is in the #1 spot, just ahead of Copy and Paste.

I still think Apple and AT&T need to add MMS capability to the iPhone, but even short of that, there are smaller steps they should take to improve the terrible user experience their customers have with it. Is anyone at Apple or AT&T listening?

The Case for MMS on the iPhone

Apple, it is time to fix a problem that is experienced every day by some of your best customers. It is time to do something about how you and AT&T handle MMS.

For those of you who don't know, MMS stands for Multimedia Messaging Service. It is a standard protocol that cell carriers use to send photos from phone to phone. You may know of a similar technology called SMS or Text Messaging. Well, MMS is picture messaging. You actually don't need to know any of that, because nearly all modern cellphones do not require you to know anything about it. They let you send text messages and picture messages to your friend's phones, and they take care of the technical stuff behind the scenes. Someone with a typical cellphone can take a photo, punch in a friend's mobile number, and within a few seconds, their friend will receive the photo on their phone. Fun!

Picture messaging is a standard. It's been available for over a decade, and is very well established in most parts of the world. According to Comscore M:Metrics, picture messaging has grown 60% in the US over the past year. In April 2008, almost one quarter of mobile users in the US sent or received MMS messages. And that is before the Summer months, when MMS sees even more usage.¹ In perusing AT&T's website today, I could not find a phone they offer that does not support picture messaging. Even the free phones and the phones that do not have a built-in camera are able to receive picture messages. Except for the Apple iPhone.

If you are an iPhone customer (and your account is set up properly at AT&T²), you can not send or receive picture messages. There are workarounds for this, but they are poor. Let's say one of your friends sends a photo to your phone number. Instead of receiving the photo on your shiny new iPhone, you receive a text message that invites you to retrieve the photo from an AT&T website at viewmymessage.com. You get two codes to input into the website to retrieve the photo. Unfortunately, the codes are long strings of characters that are hard or impossible to memorize. Because the iPhone does not have copy and paste, you generally have to jot down the codes to get the message. In any case, it is a multi-step process. The viewmymessage website is simple, but it is terribly slow. It also is not designed to be viewed on a mobile browser. This results in you having to zoom and scroll to get a glimpse of the tiny version of the photo they display. There is no way for you to save the photo. Unfortunately, a large and growing number of AT&T and Apple customers are subjected to this terrible user experience. According to compete.com's site analytics, the viewmymessage site is getting nearly a half-million unique visitors every month, and it's traffic has grown more tha 28% since a year ago.³

Now suppose you want to send a photo to a friend from your iPhone. You can, of course, email it to them. Emailing something is not the same, though. Think about when you are sitting at your computer. There are times that you would email someone, and there are other times that you want to use Instant Messaging (IM). Different messages call for different modes of communication. Sometimes you want the photo to get to them right now. With most phones, you can take the photo, punch in their number, and go. You can not with the iPhone. Again, there are workarounds. If you know what cell carrier your friend is on, and you know the schema that carrier uses, you can construct an email address that would send the photo to their phone. For example, if you happen to know that your friend is on Verizon Wireless, you can attach the photo to an email to <10digitphonenumber>@vzwpix.com and it might get to their phone.⁴ The problems here are obvious: You need to know your friends carrier. You need to know that carrier's email schema. You have to go through the steps of attaching to an email.

Whether you are sending or receiving, being on an iPhone takes all the fun out of picture messaging.

Now, I never like to complain about a problem without proposing a solution. In this case, I'd like to propose a short-term improvement, and a long-term solution.

In the short term, this terrible user experience can be improved by doing the following:

• Make the link in the viewmymessage notification clickable. By eliminating the need to jot down and re-enter codes, the experience could be slightly more quick and fun. The indentifying info could be embedded in the URL itself.
• Improve the performance of viewmymessage.com. Surely, between Apple and AT&T, someone has some server horsepower to apply to this customer-facing site.
• Make the UI for viewmymessage friendly to mobile browser, especially Safari. I would hazard to guess that the majority of traffic to this site is from iPhone customers today.
• Add a way for viewers to save the photo for safekeeping. Being able to forward it to an email address would suffice.
• Set up an email service so I can send photos to my friends' phones. I should be able to send a photo to [email protected] (or something) and have it get to my friend regardless of their carrier. Surely, AT&T can make this work.

The long-term solution, of course, is to add MMS support to the iPhone itself. People are asking for it. If you do a search for "iPhone MMS" on Google, you get over 8 million results.⁵ Many online forums (including Apple's and AT&T's) are filled with people asking for the feature. I would argue that AT&T would want it, because more messaging means more revenue. It could even be released as an app on the App Store, which could mean some revenue for Apple or a developer.

Please, Apple. Add MMS support to the iPhone.

UPDATE 10/30/2008: The response to this post has been overwhelming. Please read an update with responses and new info here: An Update on the Case for MMS on the iPhone

Footnotes:
1. http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/30888/MMS-usage-up-60-per-cent-in-US
2. I had a third chat with AT&T Wireless support today trying to get my Apple iPhone 3G to handle MMS messages the way it is supposed to. It's an awful lot of work to get to a shamefully substandard user experience. This is a long story, worthy of a future blog post.
3. http://siteanalytics.compete.com/viewmymessage.com?metric=uv
4. I say "might" because in my experience this method seems to be highly unreliable.
5. http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=iphone+mms

Tracking the Electoral College

It's that time again! In the final runup to Election Day (only a couple of months away!), I get obsessed with polling data and the electoral map. I've looked at a bunch of sites, and have returned to my old favorite: electoral-vote.com. I checked this site daily during the 2004 campaign. It is run by a semi-anonymous computer science professor. He takes all the latest polling data and updates the map every time a new poll is released (the site has more detail on the algorithm along with an assessment of its past accuracy).

He's made some improvements, both to the site and the algorithm, since 2004. He even now has badges you can use to display the current count:

electoral-vote.com is back on my daily visit list!

Fictional Restaurant wins a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence

Robin Goldstein pulled one over on Wine Spectator magazine. Robin was curious about how Wine Spectator magazine selected the winners of its Awards of Excellence for the world’s best wine restaurants.

Robin submitted an application for a fictional restaurant called "Osteria L’Intrepido," including a cover letter, menu, wine list, and the $250 application fee. Osteria L’Intrepido won the Award of Excellence, was published in the August 2008 issue of Wine Spectator, and subsequently got a call from the magazine's ad sales department.

Wine Spectator was clearly fooled by what could be called an elaborate hoax. But the facts remain that the magazine never visited the restaurant or verified the contents of their wine cellar. Perhaps most embarrassingly, the wine list Robin submitted included a reserve list comprised of some of the worst-reviewed wines from the magazine.

Unsurprisingly, the fake restaurant has since been removed from the Wine Spectator website and the editor has posted their side of the story.

Opposing Views

One of my favorite websites lately is a recent find called Opposing Views.

OV takes tough topics and has real experts state their cases. Their arguments are summarized in quick bullet-points, but you can drill down for more detail. Either side can object to the other side's points, but everyone gets to present their case. Ultimately, you as the reader gets to make an informed decision.

I love this method of discourse, and would love to see this site grow and present a wide range of topics. Some of my favorites so far include:

• Popular Vote or Electoral College?
• Net Neutrality
• Should Marriage for Same Sex Couples be Legal?

I'm having a garage sale!

Well, maybe not a "garage sale," but I did start cleaning out my home office last weekend and found a bunch of technology I don't use. The first batch of ebay listings are up, and I have more stuff to list in the next few days.

I've had great luck over the years selling old stuff on ebay. Electronics seem to sell particularly well, especially if you have the original packaging and documentation. I've even managed to sell some broken digital cameras in the past. I'm absolutely clear about the condition--people buy them for parts or just to tinker with, and it is much better than having them end up in landfill.

In this batch, everything is in perfect working order. Take a look!

Glassbooth - Quiz to help you choose a 2008 presidential candidate

Glassbooth is a site where you can rank issues and take a short quiz to help you determine which 2008 presidential candidate best matches your priorities and positions. I've seen other sites like this before, but there are a couple of things I like about this one. It's very cleanly designed. It has you weight the relative importance of issues up front and constructs the quiz based on that. And it is transparent--you can see how the match the candidates to your positions--with links to the supporting documentation.

Take a minute to take the quiz! My result is below:

(Thanks for the tip, Melissa.)

UPDATE: As some of you have pointed out to me, they now also have a Glassbook Facebook application. Cool stuff.