Paul Jacobson

Update: I thought I’d try get in touch with Kalle Ojala (he is in the video below) and chat to him about plans for the Ovi Suite on other platforms after my rant below. Turns out it is a good idea to actually reach out to the people working on the developments I am ranting about and doing a little research before publishing the rant.

I will hopefully have an opportunity to chat to Kalle in some format about plans for the the Ovi Suite on the Mac (Linux is apparently a little tricky) and I’ll publish a follow up post.

I am going to keep this post here as a reminder to myself just how wrong I can go sometimes. It seems that I was off base just based on my initial interaction with Kalle today. One of the dangers of being an impulsive blogger and not a trained journalist!

Update 2: The FAQ on the site (look under “Learn More”) has been updated with the following:

6. Are you also going to release a Nokia Ovi Suite for Mac?
Yes, a version of Nokia Ovi Suite for Mac will be released at some time in the future.

7. How about Linux?
Nokia Ovi Suite has the tech enablers, but building an linux support for Ovi Suite is not in the scope currently. Naturally we are constantly following how the desktop operating system markets evolves.

Nokia has just launched Ovi Suite 2.0 beta which is intended to replace all those other versions of Nokia PC Suite which you may have for all of your phones. The new desktop software has a new look and has pretty much been designed from the ground up. Here is a little background from the Nokia press release:

We’ve changed the direction and thought about what would be the ideal Nokia desktop app for our users. We’ve analyzed existing apps, looked how different people use them and really started to think what the primary use cases users need are. Then we started drawing, designing, usability testing, planning, implementing, and testing a totally new Qt-based Nokia desktop application, which we now bring to you for Beta testing: Nokia Ovi Suite 2.0, a fresh start to Nokia’s desktop presence. With Qt we were able to make the UI look fresh and light.

Fabulous. The new software looks fantastic. The catch? Well, despite having started from a clean slate, there is still no version of the Ovi Suite for anyone other than a Windows user! So this means no software update via your MacBook or Linux machine (yes, more and more Nokia devices will be able to update over the air … one day, but still). There are other apps for Macs which allow you to update Maps and so on but Mac users are very much second class citizens and Linux users are those cousins from another country with bad personal hygiene who you pretend are on another planet – they just don’t feature.

The reason for the emphasis on Windows compatibility in the past has been that the majority of users are Windows users and so receive the lion’s share of the developers’ attention. This held water, to a point, but now that Nokia has rewritten the application using, even in part, the cross-platform Qt development environment (or whatever it is classified as) I don’t accept that rationale anymore. Jbernardo pointed this out in the discussion forum:

Since Nokia bought Trolltech, a qt based multi-platform application should be easy, right? You’d have Mac, Linux and Windows native versions with the same codebase!

This is the sort of development decision I’d expect from a startup with a very limited development budget, not an organisation with Nokia’s resources. So why are there still no versions for Mac and Linux users? This is just nuts. If anything Nokia is giving Mac users fewer reasons to buy its products. As you know the iPhone 3GS released recently and as a Mac user, it is very appealing. I was sitting with my son a couple nights ago waiting for him to fall asleep (lots of thinking time) and I was comparing the N97 and the iPhone 3GS. The two devices are pretty evenly matched as I see it and the one thing the iPhone 3GS has over the N97 (and any other Nokia device) is its compatibility with my MacBook. You plug it in, it syncs, updates and does stuff seamlessly. I’m looking forward to getting a N97 but I do wonder how easy it will be to sync with my iTunes playlists, my contacts and calendars via iSync and so on. I can understand why Mac users go to the iPhone immediately. If there was at least a Mac version of the same software that Windows users used (let’s not forget Linux users either) then I would be secure in the knowledge that there was a bridge between my phone and my MacBook that covered my bases. Heck, even Apple has an option for Windows users through iTunes (ok, once again sorry for you Linux users who are forced to come up with some other solution).

Unfortunately I am not in a big enough demographic to get any real attention from Nokia. Linux users can whistle for any real attention (they’ll probably look to Android for their smartphone goodness). What will it take for Nokia to develop an Ovi Suite for all Nokia fans or is Nokia just not interested in us non-Windows users? Doesn’t seem like it at all.

The Kindle DX was announced just over a year after my post about paper newspapers being a generational thing. Although I have this feeling that the Kindle DX is going to seem very clunky and antiquated in the near future, this model, more so than its predecessors, heralds the end of paper newspapers as the dominant format for newspapers. That may seem like quite a bold thing to say and I am sure many of the responses to this sort of statement include talk about Sunday morning papers and the fact that no device could quite match the feel and usability of a newspaper. The simple fact is that newspapers are struggling and the costs of producing and distributing paper newspapers is high, as is the environmental cost.

Consider the Kindle DX’s suitability for newspapers, books, magazines, textbooks and more. The Kindle DX already presents a range of options and benefits for publishers and consumers alike. Mashable has the following to say in its post:

Most interesting to us, however, is what the company is doing with a number of universities and newspaper companies to make its device more widely available. Amazon has signed on The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe to offer the Kindle DX at a reduced price in exchange for long-term subscription commitments, while 5 universities are launching pilot programs where the Kindle will be offered to students as a replacement for textbooks.

Specifically, the newspapers are using the Kindle to expand their distribution to areas where they don’t currently offer home delivery of the dead tree paper. According to Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., Chairman of The New York Times Company, “By offering a subscription through the Kindle DX to readers who live outside of our delivery areas, we will extend our reach to our loyal readers who will be able to more readily enjoy their favorite newspapers.”

You can’t help but think about the possibilities the Kindle and future devices like it offer. Just take a look at this demo:

One of my favourite features is built-in PDF support. I have quite a few PDF ebooks on my MacBook but my MacBook is hardly the ideal device to read ebooks anywhere but at my desk or at a table. A device like the newspaper in the Microsoft concept video below (28 seconds in but it is worth watching the whole video) would be a real improvement on the Kindle and satisfy hold-outs for paper newspapers but one thing that is clear is that the publishing industry must change. Paper publications are wasteful and inefficient.

Here is that montage video:

I just recorded two videos which I posted on blip.tv and on Seesmic. I won’t go into much detail because I’d like the videos to speak for themselves. The conversation that sparked these videos is on Sue Rutherford’s blog. Start there and then continue here …

I then went along to Seesmic and posted this video as a comparison of the two services. The process of publishing the first video was considerably more drawn out than posting the Seesmic video. I first recorded the video in iMovie, started to export it as a reasonably big mp4 video file, stopped that and exported it as a smaller video file, re-encoded it as a mp4 file again and then uploaded it to Blip.tv where it now resides (well after two failed attempts to upload the video to Viddler).

The Seesmic video below took about 30 seconds longer than the video duration to record and post and I don’t think the video quality is much worse …

So what are your thoughts about video blogging? If you use Seesmic, why not post a response below (under the text based comments field). Of course text comments are welcome!

Technorati Tags:
blog, seesmic, viddler, video, blip.tv, video blogging, thoughts

So says Bev “Feisty Female”:

If you haven’t heard about the Rocking the Daisies Music Festival you’ve been hiding under the wrong rock! Now in its third year, this is the coolest festival by far and the fact that it’s eco-friendly to boot, is commendable. (Their pay-off line is PARTY HARD, TREAD LIGHTLY.)

Bev’s question for a couple people (myself included) is what I would take along to this eco-friendly music festival. These are the five things I would take along:

1. My mobile phone for updates;
2. My camera for stills and short videos to be edited and posted later;
3. Possibly my MacBook (although I tend to go a little light at these sorts of events);
4. Sunglasses, sun cream and maybe even a hat; and
5. My iPod (I know it is a music festival but my iPod has my own personal music festival for those moments when I need some familar inspiration (the iPod would probably necessitate the MacBook to charge up and sync).

Technorati Tags:
feisty female, feistyfemale, rocking the daisies, bev, eco friendly

There was a brief discussion the other day on Twitter about LinkedIn and who uses it. I’ve been using it more and more lately, mainly to find out more about people I am dealing with (most of the people I deal with lately seem to be on LinkedIn in varying degrees) and to connect to people I work with.

I’ve started thinking about upgrading my account from a free personal account to a paid business account. The business accounts offer quite a bit more than the personal account. My question to myself is whether I am using LinkedIn enough to justify the $19.95 per month (or even the $199.50 per year). What I would really like to see is a post or discussion about the value of a business account and what difference it makes to a user. Do I need to be a power user to benefit from a business account? Is the correct question even whether I am using it enough to justify the upgrade? Should it be more about upgrading and reaping the rewards?

Are you using LinkedIn? What do you think? I think I am going to post this question on LinkedIn and see what people there think too.

Update:

I found this video on the LinkedIn blog which I am watching at the moment. This comes on the heels of news about LinkedIn’s $1bn valuation:

Technorati Tags:
linkedin, premium, business account, upgrade

I love my MacBook and would like to say that I couldn’t see myself ever using anything other than a Mac but there is still a little doubt about such a statement.  As anyone who follows me on Twitter knows, my MacBook’s hard drive crashed a week or so ago so badly that the data is irrecoverable (all 155 GB of it) and my only real hope to avoid disaster is to access my backup of my core documents from my external drive through Time Machine.  It also helps that I can recover much of my iTunes library from my iPod and my mail is all accessed via IMAP using Google Apps.

So when the final prognosis came back on my ailing MacBook I was told it would basically take about 2 to 3 weeks for a new hard drive to arrive and be installed.  2 to 3 weeks!?!?  Holy moley, that seems to me to be a long time to wait for a hard drive.  As I understand it these components need to be ordered from The Core Group which is the local Apple distributor and the gatekeeper of all things Apple.  The problem with this is that local Apple retailers/suppliers are dependent on this company for their stocks and it can take ages to receive anything.

Because of the delay I went and ordered a new MacBook which Core apparently had in stock.  I was told it would arrive either by Friday or Monday and once my preferred retailer, C3, confirmed my payment via EFT, I could pick up my spanking new MacBook and start recovering my data and get back to work using my productivity toolbox.  It now turns out I will have to wait another day or two before I can collect the MacBook and start my recovery and it struck me that a Mac is probably not the ideal solution for a business because of these sorts of delays.  What if I couldn’t afford to get a new MacBook while the “old” one is being repaired (actually, I can’t really afford one and had to make a plan to get back to work)?  I would be stuck and losing money daily.  While Macs are awesome machines and in my ideal world I would outfit my whole office with Macs, when they eventually go down (and they do … eventually), you had better have a solid backup plan (both meanings intended) or you may as well close up shop and go home for the rest of the month.  It isn’t just hardware supplies that take forever.  Last year I ordered the Leopard upgrade DVD and if I remember correctly it took about 2 months to get the DVD (I maintain these sorts of things should be handled by download).

It shouldn’t take more than a couple days to order, receive and test a new hard drive.  It shouldn’t take a week to get a new machine.  It certainly shouldn’t take 2 months to upgrade software.  These sorts of delays can make it difficult to switch to a Mac because the loss of revenue that would occur while waiting for a new part would far exceed the cost of the repair/replacement and could justify simply getting off the Mac bandwagon altogether.

I was chatting to my wife about this and how I probably wouldn’t recommend a total Mac solution for a business in SA and she pointed out that if more people in SA used Macs there would probably be bigger stock levels and reduced delivery times.  Even if this was true, it is a Catch 22 situation because I don’t see more businesses moving to Mac without faster response times.

(I emailed C3 to ask them why my order has been delayed further and I had a meaningful and positive response within 15 minutes to say the delay was on the supplier’s side.  If only the supplier responded as quickly and as helpfully as the fantastic people at C3)

I guess this is just another example of the dangers of having a monopoly which has a small and captive audience – there is no incentive to speed up delivery times and delivery better quality services.

… something, I am sure.  I don’t like predictions for the new year.  People often think they have a handle on what will strike it big in the new year and they are rarely right.  Industry analysts in particular don’t really have a clue and probably pick predictions from a hat and add a couple new buzzwords in an effort to sound knowledgeable.  Bah humbug!

Here are a couple things I would like to see happen this year.  They aren’t predictions but if I turn out to be right, I told you so.

• My son will smile at me and he will start to sleep for the 5 or 6 hours (or more!) he sleeps at my mother in law;
• I’ll start my new part-time gig in just over two weeks and that will prove to be a challenging and life-changing experience for me and my family;
• This year’s iCommons Summit is in Sapporo, Japan and I look forward to going;
• I plan to build stronger ties to people in the iCommons/Creative Commons ecosystem (there are some really amazing people working in this space) and become more vocal about the possible uses of Creative Commons licenses in many areas of our culture, not to mention contributing towards a greater awareness of legitimate uses of content subject to copyright;
• The emphasis of my law practice will change from more run of the mill stuff to a stronger new media advisory role;
• We’ll see Google Android devices and I will start thinking of things to sell so I can buy one, just before I come back down to Earth and decide to wait a couple months;
• Neotel will talk more about the stuff it has under wraps while other providers surge ahead and present a decent alternative to Telkom;
• Did I mention my son will start sleeping longer hours?

There you have it.  The things I’d like to see happening this year.  They might happen, they might not.  This list may also grow and shrink depending on how I feel about things.  Other than all this, I will continue to blog, try out new services, develop my ideas about the Social Web (and whatever else pops up this year) and work harder at building a better life for my family.

(Image: Isaiah’s Lips Anointed with Fire taken from Wikimedia Commons – it is in the public domain)

Tags: 2008, predictions, wishlist, things, stuff, ideas, family, baby, icommons, creative commons, commons, google, android