Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category
Why I’m deeply unimpressed with the new Facebook
Posted by TJ in Technology on October 4th, 2011
Since I’ve been in social media for about 5 years I’m qualified as an EXPERT to tell all of you how you should feel about Facebook. That’s right. Listen to my knowledge!
Ok I’m no expert and I usually stay out of the fray about Facebook whenever they release new changes. This card from my favorite site of all time sums up my opinion pretty well:
Up until recently, the vast majority of the changes made by Facebook made sense to me. Granted, some of the privacy stuff was wonky and convoluted but I understood the general direction of where they were headed. The goal was to make connecting and sharing with your network much easier.
This is the key to where they’re falling down this time: your network. I now see that the moves of the past were towards a broader goal that’s now clear as day to me. Facebook is no longer interested in being a social network where you connect with your friends and family. Facebook wants to be a portal. That sounds very 90s of me, i know, but I can’t find a better word to describe what these changes mean. I now look at my feed and I see a random entry as the “Top headline”. It can stay there for 2 hours or 2 minutes and it just depends but rarely do I give 2 craps about seeing it. On the right I see EVERYTHING that my friends are doing, regardless of whether I know the people their interacting with. And the addition of Timeline, and the cracking open of that API, we’re going to start seeing all of the things I’m doing, saying, and reading elsewhere on the web fed into my facebook profile. They’re wanting to make Facebook THE place to go for all information. News. Deals. Pictures. Comments. Whatever it is, they want you on Facebook to find it. So this is why I call it a portal. Or maybe there’s a better name for it: Google killer. And I’m not talking about Google+. I’m talking about THE Google.
Anyways, while a lot of these changes are pretty nifty on the face of things, it takes away from what I think the core objective of a social network should be: to connect with my friends. My family. My coworkers. But the connecting with the rest of the world? Not interested.
Additions to my blog roll. You’re welcome
Posted by TJ in Technology on June 29th, 2010
Since my blog is becoming yahoo like portal for all things entertainment, I’ve decided to bestow kindness and tens of referrals to a few new blogs I read on the reg.
- Jason and Natalie have a kid — Jason and Natalie have a kid. Watch out everyone. Skelley as a human being is one thing; Skelley as a parent is something else entirely
- The Decatur Project — Meg and Jonathan buy a house. And in what would take HP and I 14 years they will accomplish in 5 months. I hate them so bad.
- Yen Garden — Yen starts a garden. And apparently devotes one entire blog to it? She now possesses two spots in my blog roll. Ridiculous.
God oh god I want my iPhone back
Posted by TJ in Buyin' Stuff, Technology on June 23rd, 2010
It’s true. In the search for truth, I’m perfectly willing and able to risk my geek street cred with the following blasphemous statement:
I hate my android and I want my iPhone back.
Yes, I made a mistake. Yes, 6 months ago my iPhone broke, AT&T wasn’t willing to cut a long term customer a deal on a replacement phone, and I fled in anger for Verizon and an android phone.
I lived the life of a totally contented newlywed: the android and I flirted (in the store), I made my initial overture (how much does this thing cost?), and I finally committed (for 2 years and $100 a month). The honeymoon was brief. I told everyone “We’re so happy together! He (she?) makes me so happy! We check mail, surf the internet, and make stupid comments on Facebook together!”
Everyone believed me. Everyone liked me. Everyone wanted to be me. (perhaps I’m getting a little carried away)
“You really went for it didn’t you Muehleman”
I did indeed. I did indeed.
…
Then the honeymoon ended.
My new phone was slow. Clunky. I didn’t like the email interface as much as the one on iPhone (how is THAT possible given that gmail is by google and the f’ing operating system is by google?). All of the apps were at least a generation behind their Apple counterparts. Pandora crashed. The weather widget was always the last city I was in. I left weird messages on the wrong people’s wall in Facebook (sorry hot girl i had a crush on in high school — [maybe I shouldn't blame this on the phone?]). I could’ve dealt with any of this save for the following three transgressions:
1) The keyboard positively sucks. If you’ve ever typed on an iPhone and gotten used to it, you know the folks at Apple have figured out which extraneous keys to include and which ones to ditch. The space bar is big and easy to hit on the iPhone. It’s tiny and. always. getting. in the. way on the Android. Who uses a freakin comma when they’re typing on their phone? Or need the period button when you can doubletap the keyboard. I’ve had the phone for 6 months and still cannot type on it. And it enrages me everytime I try.
2) The battery life is totally unacceptable. I realize this last part could be due to the phone. But I point the finger at the data synch for always sucking the life out of my phone in mere HOURS. It’s so bad that i had to turn it off. Now I have to manually check for new messages. What is this? 2003?!? We live in the future people. I need my messages now!
3) I love the iPod in my iPhone. That is, I listen to a lot of music and need a great music player. I’ve now tried 4 different music programs on the android and they all piss me off. Some organize music well but the quality is lacking, some create cool playlists but can’t organized worth a damn, and others do none of the above. Playing music on the iPhone was always elegant and easy to manage.
So, here we are. June 23rd. Tomorrow a hotter, sleeker, sexier iPhone comes out. And I’m perfectly willing to accept that this marriage has been a disaster. A foolish, poorly thought through, and expensive divorce.
p.s. one positive thing to come out of this is that I know buy all of my music from Amazon MP3 (please check out their Twitter feed too. You won’t be disappointed) and have officially said screw you to iTunes for buying music.
p.p.s one negative thing to come out of this is that given how much damn money i’ve spent on phones this year, I may end up in a real divorce. Don’t get rid of me PLEASE HP!
My 2009 Phone — With the 1984 Voicemail
Posted by TJ in Technology on February 15th, 2010
I was just talking to my brother Andy when we started to discuss how ridiculous modern voicemail systems are. We live in the age of the smartphone. A phone that can text, email, browse the web, tweet, facebook, take pictures, and prognosticate the gender of my as yet unborn children (there’s an app for that, right?). However, if you call me, and I don’t answer, you’re immediately transported back to 1984. For example, if you were to call me, this is what you’d hear:
- Option 1 — Disconnect: Really? You mean I suffered through the 15 second “I can’t answer this call…” message to be reminded that I, the caller, still reserve the right to hang up on this asshole? Sweet. Good to know.
- Option 2 and 3 — ??: Interestingly enough, options 2 and 3 don’t exist. Apparently Verizon shares my disdain for prime numbers.
- Option 4 — Leave a fax: I thought my brother was messing with me on this one. Alas, it’s true. I could, in theory, leave a fax for someone via this voicemail set up. I struggle to begin even wondering what someone was thinking when they were cooking this up. I imagine it went something like:
- VM Programmer 1: “You know what this software needs?”
- VM Programmer 2: “A stupidly simple interface that gives you one option and one option only? That is, to just leave a damn message?”
- VM Programmer 1: “Uh, no dude. The ability to leave a FAX!”
- VP Programmer 2: “Oh, of course. Because that makes total sense”
- Option 5 — Leave a callback number: “Dear Caller, TJ is now the proud owner of a pager. Please dial 14 if you want to say hi, 45 if you want to say good night, or 911 if you need to speak with him immediately”
All of this just to leave a voicemail?