‘Value is About Balance’

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Kawika Holbrook at 37signals:

Adding something is easy, adding value is harder. Is this thing I’m working on actually making the product more valuable for people? Can they get more out of it than they did before? There’s a fine line between adding value and subtracting value. Sometimes adding is subtracting. Too much catsup can ruin the fries. Value is about balance.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this for a while now. While 37signals raises this conversation about work projects, it’s applicable far beyond the office.

There’s a bigger post on this coming. Stay tuned.

[via Dave Caolo]

Music Files and the Cloud

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Shawn Blanc, comparing cloud music services like Rdio to Netflix:

However, I have a different attitude towards movies than I do towards music. I will maybe watch my favorite movies once or twice a year, at the most. A great album that I love I will listen to every day for months and months.

Movies are entertaining. Music is personal.

And so I don’t know if the paradigm that access is better than ownership has the same effect on our music library as it does for our DVD collection. The music we listen to, in many ways, is a definition and extension of who we are.

All this to say, that what excites me right now is the idea of access and ownership. I want to own my music, but I want to have it available anywhere and everywhere and on each of the music-playing devices that I own.

I totally agree, and it’s the thing that has kept me from really enjoying my Rdio trial membership.

I really hope that whatever Apple comes up with a solution that meets both needs Shawn has so elegantly described.

Kindle Books Take Over Print Sales at Amazon

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Tim Stevens:

The Kindle has been a huge success, no doubt about that, but we are continually amazed at just how big a success it has become. Amazon too, apparently. The company just issued a press release to announce that digital book sales have now exceeded sales of all print titles, both hardcover and paperback combined. As of April 1st, for every 100 print books that Amazon has sold (of any kind) the company moved 105 Kindle books, and no that doesn’t include downloads of free titles.

The tide is turning.

On the Ubiquitous Capture Tool

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Dave Caolo:

Your choice of UCT doesn’t matter. At all. Trust does. If a granite tablet and a chisel works for you, use it. Fancy notebook, iPhone, whatever. Just ensure that you know beyond a doubt that it will be available if and when you need it, 100% of the time. Floating on top of my mess is a ubiquitous capture tool. Thanks to some hard core behavior modification, I always know where it is.

One of the tennants of GTD is “Capture-Process-Organize-Do.” The other is “To each his (or her) own.” David’s bare-bones system is flexible enough to accommodate any work style or process. This is what works for me. Here’s hoping you found it useful.

Apple Inching Towards iCloud?

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Greg Sandoval:

Apple has signed a cloud-music licensing agreement with EMI Music and is very near to completing deals with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, multiple music industry sources told CNET.

Warner Music Group already had a deal in place with Apple, CNET reported last month. The licensing agreements will enable Apple to launch a fully licensed cloud-music service to rival unlicensed offerings of rivals Amazon and Google.

On Fantastical

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My buddy Dave over at TUAW, on Fantastical, a new calendar app by Flexibits:

This handy app lives in your menu bar, providing quick access to your many appointments across calendars (including iCal or Outlook 2011). Fantastical supports incredibly rapid and natural full-text entry for appointments, making it easier than ever to get your events where you need them. It looks great, works well and is definitely worth your time.

Every review I’ve read of this app is positive. It seems to work well, and it looks great. However, I’m not convinced of why it exists. Here are my thoughts, in no particular order:

  • Entering data into iCal isn’t that difficult, or time-consuming.
  • iCal is easy enough to read, as well, especially in week view.
  • Plus, iCal in Lion is rumored to have natural language entry, like Fantastical.

In short, I don’t see why I need another app — no matter how great it is — in-between me and my data. I love the looks of this thing, but I just don’t see it ending up in my menubar anytime soon.

Nilay Patel, on the Lodsys Suits

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Over at This is my next…:

It’s entirely possible Apple’s license already covers app developers and Lodsys is just trying to double-dip, but we simply can’t know that without seeing the license and fully evaluating Lodsys’s patent claims against Apple’s code. I can only assume Apple’s lawyers are busily investigating that right now — and I’d imagine the various iOS developers that received letters from Lodsys are impatiently waiting to hear from them.

Cutting the Cable

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A poor, unnamed Reuters writer:

The number of households in the United States that own television sets is estimated to have declined for the first time in 20 years, according to forecast figures from the Nielsen Co that were released on Tuesday.

The switch from analog to digital broadcast in 2009, the economic downturn and the trend among consumers to watch TV programs across other platforms, including computers and tablet devices, were given as reasons for the shift.

Still, it was estimated that in 2012, some 96.7 percent of U.S. households will own televisions, down from 98.9 percent in 2011.

I’m in the tiny percentage without a television in the home. We use our 27-inch iMac to watch DVDs, stream video from Netflix and Hulu and play music. It gets the job done, without the extra 128 channels of crap we would never watch.

On iTunes, Cloud Services and Dreaming Big

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Shadoe Huard, responding to my thoughts on a best-case scenario for a future iTunes music cloud service:

I think Apple foresees not only the logistical problems they might face, but also all the issues a user’s might encounter. Ease of use seems to play an important role in the way Apple designs iOS software. I think there are too many potential potholes in an entirely cloud based service for Apple to pursue as described by Mr.Hackett. Again, look at what people are saying about what’s currently on the menu.

If iCloud rumors turn out to be about music, I think an achievable scenario might be for Apple to introduce a streaming service over both Wi-Fi and 3G. Content you purchase from the iTunes store could be browsed and streamed over your devices, no uploading or downloading required. iTunes could just browse the index of purchases linked to your account and make them available to you. I could envision movies and TV shows also being available to stream, albeit only over Wi-Fi. A service like this would also pave the way for a subscription service, another popular rumor, allowing you access to a certain amount of music at some fixed rate. Subscription models are definitely gaining traction and Apple is well positioned to make a move in that space.

I like to dream big, what can I say?

Granted, I usually end up disappointed.