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Applications
Thoughts on Amazon’s Kindle Fire
Jan 8th
Back in June 2010, while rumors were circulating that Amazon was developing a tablet device, I wrote a post which suggested that they would be the only company that could create a product to successfully compete with Apple’s iPad. My reasoning was that they were successfully developing a content atmosphere with products like Amazon MP3, Video on Demand and the Amazon App Store with its free app of the day that would compare to Apple’s digital hub. Now that I’ve used the Kindle Fire for a couple weeks I figured I’d share my thoughts about whether Apple should be worried or not.
Hardware
When I first pulled my Kindle Fire out of its box I have to admit that it was bulkier than I expected. Although I owned the first generation of the iPad, I had long since sold it, and so my closest frame of reference was my iPhone 4S. That’s probably not a fair comparison, but I’ll just say the Kindle Fire felt thicker than it should be, at least initially. Over time I’ve gotten used to the heft of the device and, now that I’ve used it for a while, I’m fairly comfortable with holding it.
One way that the Kindle Fire does compare to the iPad is its monolithic form factor with a lack of many physical buttons. The only button you’ll find on the device is located on the bottom bezel next to its charging and syncing port. I have noticed that the location of the button plus the device’s smaller form factor has caused me to accidentally push it (which causes the device to lock) while I’m holding it in portrait orientation from time to time. That issue is only mildly annoying and probably more of a matter of training myself to place my hands further from the center of the device while using it. Over time I’ve noticed the accidental device locks have been less frequent.
The form factor itself has been surprisingly useable. The only other tablet I’ve ever used for a substantial amount of time is the Apple iPad, so I’m used to a larger device. With that said, I think I prefer the smaller Kindle Fire in some cases, most of all for portability. It has also been more condusive to browsing the mobile web without feeling like I’m using a site designed for a significantly smaller device, and that carries over to using apps designed for phones rather than tablets. When using the iPad’s zoom feature to view iPhone apps on it, I always felt like I was using a Fisher Price version of the app (buttons and other UI elements were blown up and felt cumbersome). The Kindle Fire splits the difference however, which means that phone apps work just fine on the somewhat-larger display.
One last potential issue I’ve noticed with the Kindle Fire is that the display does tend to have some temporary ghosting. Every now and then I notice ghosted elements of a different application or of user interface elements that are on the screen frequently. It’s not a huge issue and the ghosting goes away, but it might bug some users. I think it’s important to remember that this device only costs $199 when nitpicking such issues, and when you take that into consideration I honestly think any slight ghosting isn’t a deal-breaker if you’re interested in the Kindle Fire. Additionally, since my Kindle Fire was purchased very early in the device’s life cycle, that issue might be resolved or could be a manufacturing glitch specific to my device. With that said, the problem isn’t significant enough for me to consider returning it for a replacement device.
Apps, Media & Web Browsing
Consuming content on the Kindle Fire is a joy. Because I’m an Amazon Prime member and have used Amazon’s various content services before, all I had to do was login to my Amazon account and I had instant access to my entire music library through Amazon MP3, all of the apps I had downloaded from the Amazon App Store, and all of the books I had purchased through Amazon’s Kindle app. Best of all, access to all of my content was instant because it’s all stored in the cloud so I didn’t have to spend hours syncing everything to the device.
Listening to music on the Kindle Fire through the cloud works well over wifi. I’ve experienced issues with their mobile app for phones such as my previous Motorola Droid X, where-in streaming over a 3G connection produced a lot of time spent buffering. That hasn’t been my experience on the Kindle Fire, however. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m using a more solid wifi connection, but playback has been fairly instant and I haven’t run into the same buffering problem. At this point I haven’t felt the need to sync any of my music to my device which is a testament to the playback from the cloud. If you’re planning on using your Kindle to listen to music I would recommend investing in a decent pair of headphones though, as the internal speaker isn’t anything to write home about.
When I had an iPad my primary reading app was iBooks, but having read on the Kindle Fire I’m happy to say that it’s just as readable if not more so. You have many of the same options as with iBooks, including changing the background color of your book, how big or small the font size is, and the style of font you prefer to read. The reader also has a slew of other handy features, like the ability to search a book or document, make notes and of course leave a bookmark. Navigating pages is pretty simple, just a tap on the left or right side of the screen to move backward or forward a page, or you can swipe your finger across the page to replicate the page turning experience, though it’s not as elegant as the page turn in iBooks (but now I’m just splitting hairs).
The Amazon app store, though easy to use, does leave something to be desired. Although I’m sure the selection will improve over time, the amount of apps developed specifically for the Kindle Fire is lacking right now. There isn’t a great Twitter or Facebook client available yet, though simple apps which link to each service’s mobile website (think more of a bookmark) are available. It has been nice to revisit my collection of Amazon apps that I had on my old Droid X though, and like I mentioned previously even apps developed for phones specifically work pretty well on this device.
Between the Amazon video on demand software and the Netflix app, if you’re looking to watch video on the Kindle Fire you should be pleasantly surprised. Video streams very well in my experience, even when skipping around a video by scrubbing through its timeline. I can’t say a whole lot about the quality because I’m far from a videophile, but for a device this small I haven’t been let down at all. It’s definitely watchable, though I’d recommend some headphones because the sound volume is a bit low at times.
My time spent using the Kindle Fire has re-introduced me to the mobile web in a way. To make up for the fact that I don’t have a great Twitter or Facebook app yet, I’ve been using both services’ mobile sites more. Additionally, to speed up the Fire’s Silk browser I’ve defaulted to a site’s mobile version whenever possible. This doesn’t have a whole lot to do with the Kindle Fire specifically, I have to admit that browsing the mobile web is often an enjoyable experience so don’t rule it out if you’re without an app! Most major websites have put a lot of time and thought into their mobile site, and you can usually complete the same tasks as you can with a full website or app. With that said, I have noticed that the Silk browser is a bit pokey at times. There are already guides on the web for settings you can change to speed up the browser, but by default it’s a little slow. I’m sure that Amazon will fix that issue with a future software update, though.
Recommendation
Overall, I’d have to recommend Amazon’s Kindle Fire. For a mere $199 it’s a heck of a package if you want easy access to your content collection. As is the case with most consumer electronic devices there are some imperfections in software this early in the product lifecycle, but many of those will be fixed in time. It’s hard to argue with a device that offers a lot of the great tablet experience I’ve enjoyed with the iPad at a price point that’s less than half that of the cheapest Apple model. The good news is that these things are flying off the shelf, so if you’re curious about the Kindle Fire just ask a friend or go try one out at a store!
Saving Money With Google Voice
Jul 27th
Let’s be honest, paying $20 a month for unlimited texting is ridiculous. Text messaging uses less data than almost any other service a wireless company provides, and yet it is one of the most expensive. You can read more about the cost of providing text messaging to wireless providers , but one of the more notable quotes from the article is just below.
"Six hundred text messages contain less data than one minute of a phone call. If we put that into dollars and cents, at twenty cents per text, those six hundred messages would cost $120 for the equivalent of a one minute phone call."
So just do away with texting, right? Get a data plan! You can do so much more with a data plan and it doesn’t cost a whole lot more per month than ulimited texting on most carriers. There is one problem, however. Texting is popular. There’s a good chance that you have more than a couple people in your life that love to text, so getting rid of or cutting back your texting plan would mean cutting off communication with them or risking overage charges every month when you exceed your text limit. That’s the problem I was facing, until I implemented Google Voice properly.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had Google Voice for a while and always thought it was a neat service. Essentially how it works is Google will provide you with your own phone number, and then this number can be forwarded on to your actual number (or any other phone number you have). Additionally you can use your Google Voice number to send free text messages on the web or from your phone! I actually prefer using Google Voice to text because I can do it right from so it’s like chatting on an IM client (there are far fewer that way).
To be honest the trickiest part of moving to Google Voice as my primary texting platform was getting the people I text most-often adjusted to my Google Voice number, and training myself to load the on my phone instead of going straight to the standard text messaging application. In both scenarios I applied a bit of brute force, and time. I would suggest starting with just the handful of people you text most often, for instance your family members, close friends and significant other or spouse. The next time you see them (after you’ve set up your Google Voice account, of course) ask to borrow their phone for a second. Just go into their contacts application, replace your current number with your Google Voice number and you’re all set! If you’ve set your Google Voice phone number to forward to your mobile phone number then you can receive calls and texts from them for free. It’s as easy as that.
VoiceMac - A Desktop Google Voice Application
I do have one more tip if you’re planning on switching to Google Voice. I mentioned above that I like texting with Google Voice because the web app makes the experience more like sending an instant message than playing finger ballet on my phone’s small screen. That’s true, but I also think that the Google Voice website is in need for a redesign with some functionality enhancements. One of the most annoying parts of using is that you have to manually refresh the page to see new texts as they come in. There is good news, however! If you’re using a Mac, there’s a cool desktop Google Voice client called VoiceMac that automatically shows you new texts as they come in, just as though it were an instant message in iChat. VoiceMac supports growl notifications as well, so you’ll never miss an important text, and best yet it’s completely free. You can take a look if you’d like.
I haven’t tried any of the Google Voice desktop clients for Windows but a quick Google search shows that there are some available, so don’t shy away if you’re not using a Mac. Now that I’m using Google Voice I was able to pare back my texting plan from $20 a month for 5000 texts to $4.99 for 250 a month, which is Verizon’s bare minimum package. That’s means I’m saving almost $200 a year by relying on my data plan that I was already paying for anyways! If you’ve had success cutting your monthly bills down by implementing free web services please let me know about them in the comments, or if you’re a Google Voice fan tell me what your favorite feature is! I do have a couple of Google Voice invites if you’d like to give the service a try. They’ll be available on a first-come, first served basis so don’t hesitate!
Wunderlist – Restriction Free Task Management
Jul 24th
I’ve used quite a few different task management apps and services over the years ranging in complexity from simple lists in Text Editor all the way up to full-featured GTD compliant apps like . All of the previous solutions I’ve tried have never stuck however, and most commonly the issue was lack of access. Things is great when I’m using an iPad or Mac, but what happens when I need to add a task from my phone? Gmail’s tasks are pretty handy, but what if I don’t have an internet connection? Wunderlist, though neither new or overwhelmingly feature-packed, solves this problem by having an application available for all major PC and mobile devices as well as a handy website - all of which maintain the same consistent look meaning you don’t lose any of the functionality when you migrate from a native application to the mobile website.
How It Works
From a functionality standpoint Wunderlist is fairly straightforward, which is probably one of the reasons I like it. Adding and scheduling tasks is a breeze through its simple but pretty interface, and you can organize your tasks into different lists (for example a list for work tasks and a list for home tasks). Arranging tasks is a snap with drag-and-drop functionality which lets you quickly order tasks and move them between lists. When a task is due you get a handy notification, and Wunderlist has even started sending out emails if you happen to forget to check the app itself so you shouldn’t forget to cross something important off your list.
Additionally Wunderlist has incorporated some cool bits, such as sharing task lists via , another great service to check out if you’re not using it already. When you share with Cloud a unique URL will be generated so you can pass your list around to folks that haven’t caught the Wunderlist wave just yet. There’s also more basic sharing features such as sharing by email, or printing a task list to share by hand.
Bringing the Sexy
Wunderlist’s biggest draw for me from the get go was the look of the user interface. It’s very iOS/Web 3.0 and it’s simply a joy to use. You can customize the background texture between a set of gorgeous patterns, including various wallpaper-worthy wood grain textures. All of the buttons and boxes are properly rounded and have had a healthy amount of drop shadowed clean lines dalloped on top. If you dig that Mac-style application design you’ll certainly be at home with Wunderlist. Best yet, the look of all of the applications across all platforms including the website maintain the same asthetic so no matter how you interact with Wunderlist your retinas will be properly massaged.
A Couple Concerns
There are a couple of small features missing from Wunderlist, however. Since I just gushed about the design of the application including the customizeable background in particular, I must say that I wish there was a way to “lock” the background so that other instances of the app synchronize the changes I make on one and choose that wallpaper automatically. Say for instance I change the Mac application’s background to the black wood grain, I’d then like for that chance to appear automatically on my PC and Android applications. Additionally it seems like the folks at haven’t really decided what to do with Wunderlist’s Inbox just yet. For right now it’s sort of a default list that’s made automatically when you first start using Wunderlist, but it’d be nice if it showed active tasks or provided some additional functionality.
Besides those two very minor gripes I have to say I’m still loving Wunderlist, so if you’re looking for a task list application that syncs across all platforms, ! For the low, low price of completely free what do you have to lose?
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RunKeeper WordPress Plugin
Jul 2nd
I took a walk this morning and had RunKeeper on my mind when I got back home. I've already written about RunKeeper so I'll try to keep this brief. I thought to myself, "wouldn't it be cool if there was an easy way to post my walking activities to my blog?" Well guess what! Through the magic and awesomeness of WordPress and its community (plus a few quick Google searches) I was able to find just what I was looking for. Let's see if it works!
If you're interested in downloading the RunKeeper plugin for WordPress you can . It appears to just be an iframe of your activity on RunKeeper's website, but hey, it gets the job done!
My Fitness App Starter Kit
Jun 15th
As an overall strategy to get a bit healthier I’ve begun to walk. Fortunately, there’s a nice walking trail not far from where I live that the provides, so that’s the first place I head when I feel like getting off my butt. I have a few pairs of different shoes, most of which I’ve tried walking in, and the pair I stole from my brother (a white pair of K-Swiss) seem to fit the bill the best. So I have a place to walk, I have shoes to wear, what else do I need? Some sort of entertainment and information tracking applications of course!
I’ll start off with the obvious one first: This shouldn’t be a surprise to you guys at all, Pandora has been around for a while and it’s awesome. Put in an artist or song you like and you’ll instantly start hearing similar music generated by the music genome project. It’s completely free so that’s good, though you do have to listen to an ad every now and again but there’s a paid pro version sans-ads if that sounds like something you might be interested in. I use the mobile Android application on my Droid X and I have to say, compared to the website, the app seems to play fewer ads. I was listening through Pandora.com last week and there was an ad between almost every song, but on the mobile app I can go through 4 or 5 songs without hearing about the latest developments at Living Social or whomever else has decided to sponsor my tunes for that walk.
It should also be noted that Pandora has a cool new feature that links to your Facebook account. Actually, scratch that, it looks like I’m late to the game on this one (a quick google search shows that this functionality has been around in various forms for about a year). Basically, when I was using Pandora over the weekend I had just come from Facebook and without logging into Pandora I was instantly hearing music I loved based on the bands and artists I had liked. Pretty cool stuff, I’d recommend trying it out! I’ve also considered using to listen to my own music when I’m in the mood for something familiar, but I have to say the streaming experience hasn’t been the best. It’s buffer city. If you feel like listening to songs 10 seconds at a time go ahead and give it a whirl, but I’m going to stick with Pandora or music loaded physically on my device for now.
So that takes care of entertainment, how will I track my progress? Not long ago a recommended a fitness website and mobile application called . At the time I wasn’t into walking let alone running, so I stored it away in an important part of my brain labeled “Someday Apps.” On my third or fourth walk, after it had become apparent to me that this might be something I’d like to do more frequently, I recalled RunKeeper and installed the app on my phone. Since then, I haven’t looked back!
RunKeeper keeps track of my distance walked, including the speed at which I’m walking per mile and fitness information such as how many calories I burn in a session. It also has cool progress-tracking features like achievements for furthest distance traveled in a walk or run, or longest activity overall from a time standpoint. It’ll also keep track of distance and speed traveled during your activity, so every quarter mile a friendly woman will tell you how far you’ve gone so far and at what pace. RunKeeper also has a cool website that keeps track of all of your activities where you can connect with other users in your area and setup fitness groups, but I use it primarily on my phone as a personal record and that suits me just fine. RunKeeper, much like Pandora is free to use but also has a pro version that unlocks more detailed statistics and other excellent features. If you’re interested in taking your mobile device with you during your next aerobic activity I’d use these two apps as a sort of “starter kit” for staying sane on the trail, and if you have any recommendations of your own I’d love to hear them in the comments!
LittleSnapper: An Awesome App for Designers
Jan 21st
I was perusing the Mac App Store a few days ago and noticed an app called LittleSnapper that was said to be an excellent addition to any designer's toolkit, and having used it a lot since then I can vouch for that. I you're into design and have access to the web (which you must if you're reading this) you'll absolutely love LittleSnapper. If you're a designer that works with the web or software, doubly so. It's a beautifully designed app that fills a need you might not know you had, but once it's brought to your attention you'll wish you had started using it months ago. So what the hell is the damn thing??
Say Cheese!
example full-page websnap
LittleSnapper is, at its most base root, a screenshot management program. It sits in your mac's menu bar and anytime you see something cool you can quickly take a snap which is stored in your library. The snaps can be categorized and tagged so you can easily find particulars after the fact, and the best part is that they're all displayed in a -like interface that is full of awesome. Screen snaps can be customized quite a bit, including singling out specific windows to snap and even selecting multiple windows to snap together (that's how I got this picture for my post about Sparrow).
You can also make websnaps with a supported browser like Safari. Why is this cool? A couple reasons. First off LittleSnapper will always snap the entire length of the page, no scrolling necessary. You get a clean look at all of the elements on the page with no browser window cluttering the picture up. Secondly, you can import a web snap right into LittleSnapper's integrated web browser to pinpoint individual elements on the page to snap. That's awesome if there's just one cool page section that you need to make note of. Finally, to top it all off, all edits to snaps are non-destructive, so if you mark a snap up in editing or crop out everything but one element in a page, you can always get back to the original source image.
Inspiration Database
If you're a designer how many times have you been on your computer, saw something cool and thought "man, I could work something like that into a project" only to forget entirely when the time comes to go to work. No worries, LittleSnapper remembers all of those cool websites and photos for you. I can foresee sitting down to start working on a new project and going to LittleSnapper before anything else for inspiration. So far I love it.
I bought LittleSnapper on the mac app store at a discounted introductory price and unfortunately for anyone reading this they've returned to the normal retail price. There is a at their site though, so give it a look and if you like what you see be sure to (with your cash money, of course).
Sparrow: Twitter-Like Email for your Mac
Jan 20th
I've tried a TON of different email clients over the years, including all of the staples like Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple's Mail.app and Windows Live Mail. For whatever reason I never end up sticking with any of them, and after a few days I end up back in my web browser using gmail's web client (which is admittedly great, as far as email web clients go). All of that changed when I found out about , however.
"Sparrow" even sounds like a Twitter client...
Sparrow (left) and the Official Twitter App for Mac
Sparrow is billed as a minimalist desktop client meant for accessing gmail in particular. Instead of a near-fullscreen window displaying your email you get a small column showing your inbox much in the way most Twitter apps display the latest tweets from your news feed. If you want to take a closer look at an email a drawer slides out giving you the full message, including threaded responses much like gmail has natively, and you can also apply labels to messages in a snap. Sprinkle in some and the ability to manage multiple gmail accounts and you have one heck of an email client.
Sparrow is still in beta (currently beta 7) and is completely free with ad-support. I'm assuming that they'll have a paid version down the road that removes the ads, but even the ads are nicely designed so they aren't hard at all to look at. You can also turn the ads off altogether in the app's preferences pane. I have to say I adore Sparrow's slimmed-down approach to email, and its unobtrusiveness has caused me to stick with it for about a month now. I still check gmail.com from time-to-time (it's almost an instinctual habit at this point), but I have Sparrow running all the time on both my macs. and let me know what you think, or leave a comment below with your favorite email client!
Accept Credit Card Payments With Square
Jan 19th
A week ago I shared a video interview Kevin Rose recorded with the inventor of Twitter and the founder of the project, Jack Dorsey. In that post I mentioned that I'd write about Square once I'd had a chance to try it out, and now it's time to deliver on that promise. Square is an awesome combination of hardware and software that makes it possible for anybody to accept credit cards as payment from their phone.
Think about it - how many times have you paid for a friend's dinner or drinks after they swear they'll pay you back, but when it comes time for them to pony up they never have cash on them. Alternatively, if you've ever been in a band or other organization that sold merch, how many times did you miss out on a sale because you couldn't accept a credit card? Square solves these problems, and best of all, both the Square card reader and the accompanying app are completely free!
The Square Reader
The hardware piece of the Square puzzle is remarkable because it's so unremarkable. It's simply small white square (fitting, isn't it?) with a groove in it, through which you swipe the credit card to be charged. The device is about the width of a quarter, and it plugs into your phone's headphone jack. Truthfully there aren't many comments to make here other than to say how tiny it is, and that it "just works" if I can borrow that commonly-used Apple term. It fits perfectly into your pocket and it has become a mainstay in my laptop bag just in case I need to use it.
Square: The Appsperience
Where things get really cool is when you start to use the reader in conjunction with its free app (available for and devices). I tested my reader with both the android and iPad apps and the experience is fundamentally identical. Using the on-screen keypad you insert the amount to be paid, an optional note about the transaction as well as an optional photo if you're selling an item. Next you swipe the credit card through the Square reader (if you haven't received your reader yet you can also insert the card's number using the on-screen keypad). The credit card will be authorized and you can even send an automatically-generated receipt via text message or email to the person who paid you.
I think the receipts are one of the cooler parts of using Square. I absolutely hate managing paper receipts (in fact I'm not a big fan of information on paper in general, it''s too inconvenient), so the fact that you can get a digital receipt in the first place is pretty cool. That said, the developers took things an extra step further by using some of your phone's inherent features to improve the receipts. For example, instead of signing with a pen like you usually do when you use your credit card, you instead input your signature using your phone's touchscreen. Additionally if your phone has built-in GPS and you allow the Square app to access your location at the time of the transaction, it will embed a Google map of where the transaction occurred right on the receipt. That's extremely helpful when you're trying to figure out what a particular charge was for 3 months after the fact.
It should also be noted that you can always review your transactions and receipts at the , so you don't have to worry about accidentally deleting a receipt from your email or text messaging inbox. If you really want to geek out you can even export your transactions to an Excel file for further data manipulation.
How Is This Free?
So the card reader is free, the app is free, AND the website is free. How can these guys make any money off of this? Well, much like with any credit card payment processing system there is a very small percentage taken out of each transaction that goes to Square. The exact fee as of the day I'm writing this is 2.75% + 15 cents of each transaction. To give you an idea of how much that is, if you were to receive a 3 dollar payment you'd end up with $2.77. That's less than a quarter for this awesomely free service. Obviously the bigger the transaction the bigger the fee, but from what I've read these fees are extremely competitive. Plus keep in mind the scenarios I gave at the beginning of this post - these are probably payments you would have never been able to receive without Square unless you made a significant investment in a credit card processing system. I happily let Square take a small piece of the transaction because they deserve to.
Square is truly one of those things in life where you try it once, realize it's the most ballin' thing ever and then become a fan instantly.
Thoughts About Apple’s Mac App Store
Jan 8th
Although CES is in full swing, one of the biggest stories in the tech industry this week was the launch of Apple's desktop mac app store. Similar to the app store already available for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, the mac app store promises to simplify the process of finding and installing new software for mac users. This idea has been met with all sorts of resistance from folks terrified of developers being forced into another one of Apple's "walled gardens" as a result of the tech juggernaut imposing the same content restrictions and profit sharing model associated with their mobile app initiatives. So then, was it worth it, or is this the end of software development as we know it?
The User Experience
From a user experience perspective I think that the mac app store makes perfect sense and executes its purpose wonderfully. Essentially the mac app store is just like the app store experience on the iPad, which isn't a bad thing. From the home page you get access to some of the featured apps, New and Noteworthy apps, the hottest apps and of course Staff Favorites. As a means of app discovery, particularly for normal users that don't really seek out new applications very often, the mac app store is a boon. Within minutes I had already installed my first application (the official Twitter app [], which is awesome and free by the way) and had already clued into many others that I'm looking forward to purchasing in the near future.
Impact on Developers
Those are some of the reasons that I think developers shouldn't have any fear about the mac app store. Since it does such a great job of promoting apps that lots of folks wouldn't ever be exposed to in the first place, the chances of your app's sales increasing are pretty good. There are some geekier users of the app store such as myself, and even I've come across applications I hadn't heard of before. The app store also introduces a more competitive pricing model, and we'll probably see a "race to the bottom" similar to what we saw with the iPhone and iPad stores, but this means that ultimately more units will be sold. It may not be the case that you'll make up the losses in bulk, but if your app offers value you can always stick to a higher price point.
Do I think that the mac app store represents some massive shift in software development for the mac? No. You have to remember that although Apple takes a cut this is also an incredibly compelling promotional avenue, the apps are hosted for free and all of the transactions are taken care of by Apple which takes significant financial burden off of the developers. I wouldn't be surprised if we started seeing more 1 or 2-man development teams start cropping up that focus on creating beautiful mac software just as we've seen with iOS. Plus unlike with the iOS stores you can still host your own application independently and users will still be able to download and use it. All I know is that if I developed mac software I'd be racing to get my application onto the app store, even if that meant I took a 50% cut from its original retail price.
Other Thoughts
One interesting thing that I noticed when browsing the app store is that some traditionally mobile-focused applications were cropping up, such as Mashable's news app [. I've never really even supported singular news apps on my iPad because jumping back and forth between apps to get news seemed like a chore, and I support it even less on the desktop considering there are so many great RSS news readers available. This might be a question I need to posit to you guys - would you run an app that was a port of a mobile application on your desktop? I'm not sure if I'm in love with the idea so far.
How Rdio.com Made My Life Better
Jan 5th
The subheading for this post would be "and why maintaining your brand or product's online persona is so important." I didn't use that in the title because it would have made for one hell-of-a-long title. Here goes.
The Backstory
So a few months ago I wrote a post about Rdio.com. In it I labeled some of the things I liked about the service and some of the things I wasn't particularly happy about. I believe I posted a link to it on Twitter with the hashtag #rdio, and Todd Berman of Rdio came along and read it, which was very flattering. He also took the time to leave a comment, and he helped me out with some of the issues I listed (I have since stricken out my incorrect statements in that post). At the time I was on a free trial of the music streaming service, and to be honest I don't think I would have just let my trial run out without subscribing and paying to continue to use it.
Ever Since Then...
...I've been a paying customer, and I use Rdio literally everyday (in fact I'm using it as I write this). Part of that is because it's an excellent service, one that I've grown to love and become more familiar with over time. They've also added features and improved things along the way, which is awesome. However, another part of that is that Todd took the time to seek out folks using his company's product, interact with them, and provide an excellent online "customer service" experience. The fact that he took the time out to read and comment on some schmuck's blog post gave me the confidence that he was passionate about the company's product and wanted to use customer feedback to improve it in the future.
I'm An Album Guy
Just to recap some of the reasons I've grown to love Rdio, let me first say I'm an album person. I'm not the type of music listener that will just buy a couple of hits from a new album, I like to listen to the whole thing because some romantic part of my brain thinks that an album itself is one complete work. For that reason, Rdio saves me a heck of a lot of money.
When I do buy music I tend to buy MP3s since most of the time I'm listening to it I'm using a digital device of some sort, and if I really need to have a disc I can just burn it myself. Despite that, new MP3 albums are usually around $10, which is twice the base monthly subscription to Rdio. If you're a music lover like me there's a good chance you buy a couple of albums a month, so you can see how the savings would stack rather importantly. Even if you're just a casual listener, MP3 downloads of songs are generally $0.99, so your choice is buying 5 songs from Amazon MP3 or having access to Rdio's entire library. Pretty obvious choice to me!
Discovery
Finally, Rdio has exposed me to a TON of new music that I wouldn't normally listen to. In the past, if the choice was between spending $10 on an album that I may or may not like, or listening to something I already had in my collection that I loved, I'd generally save the cash and skip the album unless it was recommended to me by a friend. However, with Rdio, you can dabble here and there to find new favorites without worrying about breaking the bank.
Additionally it's great for those one-off songs that you just want to listen to because you thought of it. For instance, the other day I woke up with "Jessie's Girl" stuck in my head so I headed over to Rdio and gave it a few listens. I'm not ashamed to admit it. 
