Alex Hardy

Firstly, a disclaimer: I have not actually used a Zune. The remarks that follow are based entirely on information that I have read. I own an iPod, my second in fact. I’m using my third mac - I’m a longtime user and fan of Apple products, since before the good times they’re currently enjoying. I remember when any mention of Apple in the press carried the prefix “beleagured”, an adjective that currently seems to belong to Sony.

However, I’m no fool. I’m not closed to the idea of buying a rival product, if I’m satisfied that product is better. That in mind, I’ll list the pros and cons of the Zune, as I see them.

Pros

• All competition is healthy, and Apple are practically unchallenged right now. Creative are a joke, and Sony’s attempts to revitalise the Walkman brand have been unsuccessful so far.
• Good size screen with nice, bright graphics.
• The sound quality is at least as good as any iPod.
• The wifi feature is interesting - I expect it will prove a hit with schoolkids.
• Xbox 360 integration will boost both products.

Cons

• Microsoft’s David Vs Goliath stance is the most hilarious piece of marketing bullshit I’ve probably ever heard. iPod, like Xbox 360 (which I’ll get to later), is a *good product* which is doing well on its merits. That’s Microsoft for you, ever the champion of free competition and consumer choice. Nobody needs a good product to be “killed”, except its competitors.
• It’s rather big and, it has to be said, ugly.
• Brown?!?
• The faux clickwheel is a disastrous idea. They should have either licensed the patent to build in a proper clickwheel, or come up with an alternative. As it is, it screams “cheap knock-off”.
• It’s well known that Zune is little more than a rebadged Toshiba Gigbeat, which itself was based on an earlier PDA. So, third time lucky then?
• Zune doesn’t work with Windows Vista (yet) because of the release schedule.
• The wifi and radio will slaughter the battery life.
• The usage restrictions on wifi sharing (three plays over three days) are so draconian as to be almost useless. It doesn’t even allow you to share music you’ve created yourself. If they can come up with a way to allow that much at least, it could prove a fantastic way to build grass-roots awareness of unsigned artists.
• The Zune application represents a total reversal of attitude. Having poured scorn on iPod and the Music Store for being a “closed system”, Microsoft have come up with their own. Not only that, but they’ve stabbed in the back all their PlaysForSure partners and customers to do so. Y’know, this is big business, and shit happens, and arguably it was necessary to build a better product. Still. Naughty.
• They’ve grabbed their ankles for the recording industry fat cats, who believe that all iPod users are thieves. Thank you Mr Doug Morris (CEO of Universal), but I buy my music. You utter wanker.
• They’ve picked a bizarre time of year to launch a middle high-end music player, when the market is obviously for mid-range and low-end products (like the iPod Nano and Shuffle) to be bought as gifts. They’ve effectivly handed Christmas 2006 to Apple on a plate.

So, that probably looks like a bit of a hatchet job, right? Almost. I see the Zune in much the same way as I saw the original Xbox when it launched: a poorly executed but generally solid first attempt that will do fairly well in America, but will go pretty much unnoticed in Europe and will be laughed at in Japan.

It will establish a certain but distant second place in the market, and pave the way for its better designed successor (much like the Xbox 360 did) to make further progress. Microsoft have talented people and they have very deep pockets. They can afford to take the time to get it right. Eventually they will, and I’ll consider a third generation Zune seriously before I buy another iPod.

I think I’ll pop into Game in town at the weekend and pre-order a Wii.

I’ll get the obvious, tired joke out of the way. *Coughs* I’m bursting for a Wii *cymbal clash*

It’s a bit of a disappointment that it doesn’t play DVDs (yet). Means that my unloved PS2 remains next to my telly, rather than in a box for a little while longer. Okami might even let it see a bit of action other than playing films.

If the best Sony can come up with is a HD version of Gran Turismo (which I always found about as much fun as watching paint dry) at some point in the future, then the “Wii360″ combo idea looks pretty good to me.

Real quotes from within the advertising, communication and marketing industry.

AdVerbatims

Seeing as how only moments ago I had to explain to one of our designers that he didn’t have to convert a piece of print artwork to RGB just because he was about to email it, I can believe every single one.

I’m using this blog as a bit of a test-bed for the blog that I will have on the ReFresh site. So I’ve made a few changes

• I got rid of the calendar because I’ve decided I didn’t like it much as a navigational device
• I got rid of the search field because with the volume of posts I have at the moment, search is overkill
• I’ve added a “recent posts” list in its place
• I’ve changed to using “pretty” permalinks
• I’ve set up Akismet
• I’ve created a Feedburner account for my blog feed, and I’m using the redirect plugin - it’s a bit of a half-baked solution, but it will do until I start tinkering with the page markup
• I’ve expanded the About me page - a poor workman it is, that blames his tools…

… with Ste last night about the website. He’s read through the dev site as it currently stands, and I’m relieved to say, is very excited about the whole thing.

We talked about values, the image I want to project, and looked at some sites that I think are good examples of the level (not the style), that it’d be pitching at.

He’s going to start work on logo ideas this weekend. This is a strange experience for me, to be a client to a designer. I hope I’m being useful - I’ve got a clear idea of *what* the site will be, but I’m not going to steer him too far in any direction too soon. I’ve brought Ste on board because he does design full time, as opposed to here and there like I do, so his skills are sharper than mine. It also makes sense from a time point of view.

Fun too, to work together on something

It’s kinda exciting - I’m looking forward to finding out what my website looks like!

I send an enquiry about Mint from the website, and six hours later I get a reply from the man himself.

Hi Alex,

All of these things sound fine. The only place you might run into trouble is if you developed these integrated applications and were then to sell them - including the original Mint source code. But what you’ve described sounds fine. Thanks for taking the time to inquire.

Cheers,
Shaun
As Mastercard might put it:

Google Analytics: Free

Mint License: $30

Community vibe and personal support from the horse’s mouth: Priceless

S’funny, I’ve been thinking “Mint or Google Analytics, Mint or Google, (daddy or chips?), Mint or Google…” I’ve had a look around though, and obviously they can co-exist perfectly fine. Like here.

So, both then! Mint for it’s luvly interface, live stats, development community and that I can pull data out of it for my own uses. Google for stuff like Adwords and funnel tracking. I imagine you’d check Mint every day, and have a poke around Google once a month.

I’ve corresponded with Shaun Inman myself - very nice fellow, I asked him if I could track events in a Flash movie the way you can with JavaScript the way you can with Google (as we do on the Foundry site). The answer happened to be no, but it has plenty of other features that make it worthwhile.

At $30, it’s like the man said in Lock Stock: “It’s a deal, it’s a steal, it’s the Sale of the fucking Century!” In fact, fuck it, I think I’ll keep it!”

Quite an interesting article on Vitamin about the ‘Office 2.0′ concept. In a nutshell, that free or subscription based online services may be the next generation of productivity software. I found IT|Redux the other day, which is a pretty thought provoking site on the subject.

Seems to me that between the likes of Google Docs, Backpack, Thinkfree, Zoho etc there’s a real race on to be the dominant player. Where the likes of Google Docs fall down for me is a) their functional simplicity b) arguably, their clunky UI and most importantly c) If you buy into them entirely, if you have no access to the network, you’re completely stuffed as I found one weekend when my NTL was on the blink.

It’s as if (on the free software side) some sort of OpenOffice/Google Docs hybrid with a nice UI needs to appear. Where you can work either online via your browser, or locally in an application based… I dunno… on Java perhaps for cross-platform compatibility. Data replication would handle keeping your local versions of your work up to date with your online copies.

I mention this to the likes of Dave at work, and he scoffs and says “That’s Lotus Notes 1.0.” He’s probably right, but mention Notes to most people and if they know about it, they have Steph’s response:

“Yeah, I’ve used that, it’s an email program.”

Notes is doomed to always suffer this perception. Now that its daddy, Ray Ozzie is a big cheese at Microsoft, it may be though that MS themselves define this new generation and Notes’s vision is fulfilled by its biggest rival.

Office is dead, long live Office?

… for the Foundry Christmas do. Observe:

2 years before I start: Paris.

1 year before I start: Dublin.

The year I start: Altrincham.

Years 2 and 3: Old Trafford (that big marquee thing which isn’t actually all that bad)

This year, the Royal Yacht Britannia. Come. On. With posh nosh, the Queen behind the bar making cocktails while I do my “James Bond” thing in the casino etc, and all the drink our boss can fit in our glasses, this one should be a good one.

Stephanie was reluctant at first, cos it’s all a bit low-key after all, but she decided to come.