Apple and the Myth of Working Beautifully: Part III

My battle with my iPhone is settling into a series of guerilla skirmishes. A little fire-fighting here and there. I still have the syncing of contacts from either outlook (which I'd prefer not to have to use) or gmail (which itunes insists I don't know my password to) to tackle, for example.

But I thought I'd update you on the issues I had on the day I first used my iPhone in anger. On Friday I headed for London for a day of meetings - in several locations.

I travel by train. On my Nokia N73 I am able to check gmail and use twitter (via slandr) facebook, linkedin etc as pretty effective mobile versions. And these work all the way down the line between Huntingdon and London (barring the tunnels, of course).

But all the way down on Friday with my iPhone I got no signal. Safari said it couldn't reach anything - so no internet.

Arriving in London I wandered through King's Cross station and picked up the Cloud automatically - big thumbs up apple/O2. That worked a treat.

But as soon as I was away from wifi I got no 3G. No internet. Importantly for me; no googlemaps.

I ended up asking a copper for directions when I arrived at Waterloo station on course for a meet at the Young Vic. Haven't done that for a long time! Thanks iPhone.

I texted twitter for help (in the hope I'd find some wifi later to pick up the answers). Text and calls were working. So why no internet even at 2G (or 2.5G) speed?

Among the responses I got from fellow iPhone sufferers were:

"richjm @davidcushman If you get normal signal, chances are it's not the 2.0.1 update. 3G coverage is sketchy. Good around the City, Livp st though"

Chris_Reed @davidcushman is your network setting right? Might be just set to O2 not O2 3g? general>network>enable 3g on. Sorry if it's granny ...

otoburb @davidcushman settings->network->wifi. Disable it and then 3G should lock on. Make sure 3G is enabled somewhere under General->netw

And there was outpourings of sympathy/fun-poking too, of course.

Bear in mind that the people I tweet with are a fairly early-adopter technically adept bunch (certainly compared with the general population). Apple should have a little wobble at this. No one was able to solve my issue (Apple seems focused on enablijng self-help networks rather than centre-out customer services, so it relies on my fellow geek).

I stumbled on it myself, through frustrated experimentation ( I can't call it play, it wasn't any fun). If you can't get the internet on your iPhone try this: Reset the network settings. To do this, choose Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings.

And finally the beast came to life.

I popped into a Starbucks on Saturday morning to check the O2 claim about free wifi there. I could fine none. No surprise really as it's a T-mobile hotspot. Happy to be corrected though so if you know how I can get free wifi at Starbucks on my iPhone, post away!

I wandered into the my local O2 store to fill them in on my experience. Lots of sympathy but I was also told in almost these words: Apple doesn't want us to get involved in customer service. They want us to sell you the box.

Staff aren't even allowed to open the iPhone boxes - so they weren't even aware about the secrets of inserting the sim card.

One final criticism of the iPhone for today: I can't text with my thumb on it - which means I can't text and walk. That's a hardcore (read killer app) mobile phone function.

I'm getting used to the touchscreen typepad and starting to like it and what it can do... but it's not a joyful journey.

• Apple And the Myth of Working Beautifully
• Apple And the Myth of Working Beautifully II

Guest Post: Khris Loux on the threat of free widgets

I met Khris Loux at Widget Web Expo (having heard him speak at Widgety Goodness). Khris is making the widget revolution happen on a daily basis at his company JS-Kit. He has a POV about how free widgets carry a threat to publishers' own business models and proposes greater transparency as the way ahead.


I'm delighted to host the following guest post from him.

Every first year economics student learns that “there is no such thing as a free lunch.” However, a growing number of widget providers would have publishers believe otherwise, promising powerful services at zero cost.  But these services require teams of developers, real data centers, and serious bandwidth. No economy-of-scale can change the fact that these inputs aren’t cheap.  So how do all these “free” services get paid for, much less provide the return that entrepreneurs and investors expect?
In some respects, the silence from most service providers on this question is completely understandable.  Business models are still “under construction” in this space and companies have no incentive to share with rivals.

On the other hand, there exists the strong possibility that some providers keep mum on such details not to protect competitive information, or because they don’t have an answer, but because they know their publisher & visitors won’t like that answer - that they plan to monetize the publishers’ content, visitors, traffic, SEO, ad space, or some combination thereof, once they’ve become embedded in publishers’ sites.  Breaking this news too early stifles adoption -- better to wait and grow.

While this strategy is understandable, I wholeheartedly disagree because “teaser services” are ultimately self-defeating.  The conflicting interests they usually conceal always come to the surface eventually and, when they do, trust suffers. The JS-Kit strategy is one of openness, rapid innovation, and great services and support while keeping focused on creating, not controlling.  This strategy is not without its own risks.  It requires open communication about our business model [50/50 ad revenue sharing] and straight answers to questions about control over data, users, traffic and SEO.

As you well know “free widgets!” talk is cheap, which means that we have to demonstrate our commitments by building openness into our services themselves. We have a long way to go, but here’s a summary of our commitment to publishers and how we’re making it real.
I'd appreciate your feedback on our direction.


You control your data - Data Portability

We think publishers should not only have access to the content generated on their site [via RSS, APIs] but the ability to change providers as seamlessly as possible.  That’s why we where the first third-party comment service to release “Sync” which automatically updates all new comment data directly into the blog platform in real time [Blogger, WordPress, more soon]. This gives publishers the flexibility to revert, or opt-out, at any time without loss of data or risky and time-consuming conversions.  We see Sync as a powerful feature in itself and as a signal that we are willing to compete purely on the basis of innovation.

You keep your Visitors – OpenID

While mobility and choice are important to publishers, they are valued by end-users as well. The era of “walled gardens” is ending and open standards for cross-domain user identification and content portability are gaining momentum.  We believe that this is a good thing for sites and visitors alike.  As a first step, we have chosen to back OpenID as the only solution for all JS-Kit services.  Of course, we support publishers’ existing login systems, but we will not trap publishers into our services by offering an alternative proprietary login.  Proprietary logins only benefit the service provider by capturing publisher visitors.  These logins cannot be re-used by the publisher with other services and are next to impossible to convert to a new system.


You keep 100% of SEO

Another area where publishers are rightly concerned about service providers’ motives is control over traffic and SEO.  Many “free” service providers use the publishers very own content to entice traffic to their “community” site.  These community sites offer the promise of increased return traffic yet in reality they are just vehicles to show ads or, more audaciously, offer to sell the traffic back to the original site as a lead!  In each case, the publisher has traded their creative content and hard-earned traffic without receiving a penny in compensation.

You keep your traffic - No JS-Kit Destination Site

Our public commitment is that JS-Kit does not provide a destination site and, if we did in future, it would be opt-in for our publishers.
Our philosophy is that the “point” of aggregation should be where the visitor is, not yet another destination competing for finite traffic.  JS-Kit’s newly launched Visitor Profile lets users follow whatever threads interest them, but it’s designed to bring tools and information to the community on publishers’ sites rather than siphon this traffic to a JS-Kit hosted domain.  On the in-bound side of the traffic equation, publishers shouldn’t have to worry about SEO for the content that originates on their sites.  JS-Kit recently launched an upgraded SEO solution that gives every publisher full SEO for the comments on their site– 100% to the publisher.


Distributed services are revolutionizing the way web sites are deployed. 

They drive down the cost, risk and time required to launch rich, interactive websites and enable new, cross-site and social networking applications that benefit both visitors and publishers.  And there’s much more to come.  Different providers have different understandings of the opportunity and of the role they should play.  JS-Kit believes that the greatest opportunity lies in the role of a “trusted third party” that enables and defends the interests of both publishers and visitors. 

To do this, we build new services, features, business models, etc. - that avoid possible conflicts of interest and address these conflicts openly when they do arise.  We’ll continue to push for respectful dialogue about issues of control and ownership and will continue to deliver technologies that win through openness, innovation, and world-class support vs. lock-in.


Khris Loux, CEO  JS-Kit
khris@js-kit.com
http://js-kit.com

Apple and the myth of working beautifully, Part II

I finally got my hands on an iPhone yesterday - the 16GB 3G version. And while the unboxing was a very fine experience... (see qik video with this post) most of the rest was not.
First things first; in store. I got a tip off that phones were in so I headed off for an 02 shop (I won't name the location to protect the uninformed) and avoided the queue nastiness that has put me off in the past.

See Apple And The Myth of Working Beautifully

Experience so far, good (cartoon, right, by Hugh). Asking questions of the staff revealed some flaws in the training (I'm being charitable).

To be fair, my first encounter was with a young girl labelled 'trainee' and wearing a iPhone promo t-shirt.

I asked about contracts and tariffs. She knew nothing about the costs of data. Pretty critical on the iphone you might have thought?

When a more senior colleague could join us they claimed the 02 iphone contract meant you could use wifi free whereever wifi is available. "Mcdonalds" she quoted (it's free there anyway) and Starbucks (which I think there is a deal in place with).

I assured her it was not possible that they could have done a deal to offer everyone's wifi for free. It's not an issue for me - just an odd and misleading claim to make while selling an iPhone.#

Signing up was easy enough.

And so the evening, and trying to make the bleeding thing work.

Instructions say simply connect to computer and iTunes will do the rest. What iTunes does is tell you nothing is going to work for you, sucker, because you haven't got a valid sim card in.

I know, I was kind of hoping you were going to tell me how to instal it since there are no instructions.

The 02 site and phonelines couldn't cope with the demand for help, so I went to ask my twitter pals.

Turns out there is a piece of card rattling around in your box with some archane heiroglyphics on (no words) which purport to show you what to do with an odd-shaped slither of metal - the sacred key that opens the secret door to sim card placement. A case of apple being blinded by its own brilliance.

Here's some of the tweets that followed:

Latest live from Qik [qik] - Iphone 3g http://qik.com/video/150269

• f'ck me. how stupid can o2 be? no instructions on how to open iphone or insert sim. genius
• otoburb @davidcushman It's that picture on the black insert with the strange looking metal piece.
• @otoburb er? ah thankyou.
• bellhead @davidcushman in the US they have the SIM already in them (done way upstream).
• btinternet downloaded itunes 7.7 at a stately 180kb at best. stand by my post re apple and the myth of working beautifully
• rmmarshall @davidcushman So good to hear someone else who isn't falling into the fanboy irreality trap.
• if i should die before i finally start this iphone, who would like it left to them
• ilicco @davidcushman thanks, but you can take it with you. also, if you want proper 3G, use JoikuSpot on a Nokia N82 and WIFI your iPhone
• hadn't appreciated iphone comes with watching paint dry app pre-installed
• @rmmarshall nokia would die before making it this hard to make a phone call!
• spanx @davidcushman iPhone tip. Turn 3G off unless you're using the Internet on the move. It's a battery killer.
• @spanx cheers. how's it done?
• spanx @davidcushman It's under the system settings thing. Badly needs a one-click 3G switcher app.
• rmmarshall @davidcushman It's such a UScentric idiom - they don't get phones. Like the paint dry app analogy - 59p from the appStore!
• technokitten @davidcushman ooh I'm feeling left out! I want a 'watching paint dry' app too ;)
• hmm a flaw. iphone opens itunes then insists on installing new version, without auto closing itunes first. dumb.
• golly. now its restart time. this better be worth it mr jobs
• apple. the walls of the garden arent meant to be for banging my head against
• superb. itunes install failed. now trying to repair
• ok. lets try a second restart. am very bored now
• finally itunes opens up. cant access some synch or other. i should try later?
• @gapingvoid thank you. apple and i aint buddies 2nite
• andrewgrill @davidcushman you should have bought an E71 ;-]
• 6consulting @davidcushman May I suggest placing it in the blender? seems to have worked for others!!
• neilperkin @davidcushman thanks for keeping me entertained whilst working at home :)

Daddy, is that your googlemaps?

My 3-year-old daughter pointed to the sat nav in my car this morning and asked: "Is that your googlemaps daddy?"
I told her it was very similar.
She said that when she is an adult she wants a car with googlemaps.


I told her it was possible there would be no cars when she is an adult (what with the price of oil, global warming et al) and that she might have to use something different.

Her answer? "No! I don't want a lorry".

The future of tech-driven personal transport sits beside me...

How to adapt to survive the 21st century

I believe in evolution. That is, I believe in complex adaptive systems which use relatively simple rules to create immensely complex outcomes - such as the weather, the economy, ideas, messages, the internet, ourselves, and life on Earth. They do this by a process of iteration, selection and amplification.

I have discussed (The Perfect Storm: A Fourth Element) how I believe it is no coincidence that the fastest growing company in history (google) exists at the same time as the internet: two complex adaptive systems are coming together (the economy and the internet) to fan the flames.
We are looking ahead into a golden age. And you will be part of it; If you adapt to survive.

One outcome of evolution is that there are always casualties - things that get dampened out of existence rather than amplified to success. Don't be a diplodocus. (image shared via flickr by cpurrin1)

I have a handful of simple rules for success for individuals driven by the idea that in order to adapt to survive in any given environment the first and primary requisite is that you are living in that environment (told you these rules were simple...)

So I always suggest:

Write a blog: Discover how easy it is to be a publisher, how easy it is to create and share content, how easy it is to form groups of shared purpose in networks of trust, how easy it is to find relevant content and for relevant people to find you. More.

Build a widget: You have to start by trying to guess who might choose to share your widget or be enthused or impressed enough to pass it on - which raises a whole bag of questions. More. Discover not only that we are all publishers now, we all distributors, too - and all of us are advertisers.

To which I'll add:
Join a social network: Discover the easy-to-use tools that are making group-forming ubiquitous (more on why this is so critical here).

What tips do you have? What other advice for individuals and groups do you have to help them adapt to survive in the networked world as it comes to dominate the 21st century?