Digital Living

The "iDrunk" Fiasco

Ada-ada saja. Recent news says that Steve Sheraton, maker of iBeer application that we highlighted a few months ago, sue Carling beer over 'iBeer'.

The background of the story is this: Steve Sheraton created the iBeer application. Carling beer find potential commercialization of the idea, and invite Steve Sheraton to popularize (and commercialize) it together. Steve Sheraton says No. Carling beer then create its own version of the "fun yet actually useless application" -- and name it iPint.

Later on, as the word goes, it happen that iPint become immensely popular. Being able to be downloaded for free, people download iPint and leave iBeer in the dust. Total number of download was 6 million people!

Knowing about such, Steve Sheraton becomes unhappy. He sues Carling beer over iBeer. His logic: 6 million people download iPint for free, which translate to a loss for him at the amount of $12million for his iBeer -- because he sell his software is sold at around $2 a piece.

My view about this: Mr. Sheraton ingenuity in developing iBeer is totally respectable. It is truly genius and original indeed. But perhaps somebody probably "iDrunk" to think that 6 million people would be iDrunk enough to spent $2 on a cute, funny yet actually not so useful application such as iBeer.

If iPint is not available for free, and the other choice is only the $2 iBeer, ... then perhaps not even 1,000 people may be would buy iBeer at $2 a piece!

So, suing the company over iBeer -- which is not a yet a proven application that can be sold and purchased successfully in the market -- seems totally iLogical, iRrespectable, and iStrange.

Without promotion, campaign and branding and hardwork to make the product sold well in the market, it is wishful for someone (who created something) to think that his/her product would just sell by itself. A great massive effort to sell,  promote, campaign a product is always required to make things happen.

On the other hand: why not the offer from Carling beer was taken in the first place seriously?

Since the beginning of time, people that understand the complete cycle between innovation and marketing already "know" that focusing on innovation and creating a product only is not enough. Beyond invention and creation, people must put same great effort in marketing and selling the product too. Only when such big job to invent something genuine, and to sell it successfully to the market is done in tandem, then the real success that everybody dream of could/might happen. (Still there's no guarantee though).

As such: suing a company over something that is not marketed, promoted, nor sold well is totally unbelievable. It might show an early indication that these days too many people uses legal-approach too much, suing people over something that is out of substance, instead of using their working capacity at its best to make their invention, product and innovation successful in the marketplace.

Work hard, instead of "play hard". It takes both innovation & marketing/selling effort to create a product that becomes a complete success.

Of course I am excited and awe by genuine innovation such as iBeer. But I do hope that the world doesn't become iDrunk enough to use legal law to block possibility future innovation forward by patenting and suing over too many things that actually better become part of social commodity as a whole.

History shows that only when society can collectively share some part of its intellectual properly, then the entire society advanced forward, rather than if innovation is being stiffle by "protection" that makes the innovation stagnant.

Case in hand: Disney would not become the huge Disney if it can't create animated movie on top of "Snow White" story -- which is folk-story that belongs to the community. The web would never happen if a physicists named Tim Berners-Lee not created the "http" protocol and "HTML" we're so familiar with today. The firefox browser would never happen if Netscape sues Firefox over its button and display/window approach etc.

Indeed innovation is tough, yet some level of insanity would be required to precisely know when to "sue" something over intellectual property, and when to just contribute some part of such innovation to enrich the intellectual capacity and innovation capability of the world societyas a whole.

Without such wisdom, we are all probably just being iDrunk about money, and forget one key essential essence about business: that the reason businesses and new businesses is being created in the first place is actually to contribute, to advance, and to improve society for the better.

Business and intellectual capacity is a very powerful weapon in the digital and knowledge based society that we live in today. We should handle such tremendous power, capacity and capability with wisdom, and heart. Never with greed.

MacBook Had A New Design!

The MacBook series finally being revealed today, and it shows a totally different aesthetics and handsome new design.

 

The spirit and key ideas behind these new design is really really awesome and great. The detail thought that Apple put into the every element of its new notebook is really something that I truly admire.

They are trying to make:

• The most lightweight, handsome, yet most durable laptop. By using single piece of aluminum to create the casing, Apple intend to create a notebook that is aesthetically stunning, extremely lightweight, yet at the same time durable. This would be in contrast with the "non-durable casing" that HP applies to its notebook a few years go (We got 6 HP notebooks with aluminum case that looks crisp, pretty and clear when it was bought, yet a few months after usage, all of them look cloudy, clumsy and "dirty" although we use it and clean it properly).

• Laptop with the most stunning graphics. By using the NVIDIA super-charged graphics processor, Apple intend to create a notebook with the best display ever -- best in picture quality, and best in graphics animation too. Try using the PowerBook Pro or MacBook Pro screen for work, then you will know that there'd be no turning back. The screen quality if the Pro series is stunning. Even the older MacBook Air screen is not as good as the Pro screens. In the past, such only can be "matched" by Sony VAIO series. (My older VAIO got some of the finest screen, and great screen indeed makes the eye sight and the experience better).Today, if Apple can make its MacBook screen quality great (and as great as its Pro series screen quality), it would be really really awesome.

• Smartest touchpad. Apple completely remove the "annoying" trackpad button, and replace it with a smart touchpad that would allow us to make "tapping hand gesture" to interact with objects on our computer screen. No more twisting our hand around, just because we need to press the right button to interact with objects on our screen. Scroll, click, tap, .. all can be done from where our fingers reside, at the time we need to act. This would be really awesome!

• Most convenient (and self illuminating) keyboard. Apple try to create keyboard that is both comfortable to use (if you ever use the Pro series keyboard, you know what I mean -- it is responding to our typing in a way that almost as great as ThinkPad excellent keyboards in the past), yet at the same time also intelligent enough to make itslef illuminated in low light condition. This would be nice addition, as no longer we would need to "turn on the light" during night flights. Features that is avaialable on my PowerBook and MacBook air, now also available on the MacBook series as well. Such is really nice.

Not only these improvements makes notebook experience truly great and wonderful, it also makes Apple notebook the best notebook ever created, as it gives people the best feel, sense and experience, in every aspect and element it is being touched upon.

Such would make more and more people eventually decisively (or admiringly, or passionately) moves to Apple notebooks.

The era of dull, boring, so-so machine is over.

ps:

• On the aesthetics side, I do really love the black-screen frame. It's pretty! I can't wait to see how the next iMac would really look like. I think -- projecting the "upcoming look of the 'next' iMac' based on this new styling and design -- the next iMac could be such a beautiful desktop machine of its won.

• I still hope Apple eventually would come up with those Apple "NetBook" or Apple "TouchBook" though. Hopefully someday it would really appear. I really believe if Apple ever come out with such device, not only it would really be so great, it would perhaps also would be so much exciting and popular as well. (We'll see how the future goes). :-)

Blackberry Bold -- The Real Device: Definitely Ugly ;-(

On my recent trip, I happen to spent some time in Hongkong, and in one occasion exploring the Blackberry Bold -- the actual device. It was a huge disappointment.

While the teaser and marketing material for Blackberry Bold has been excellent, the real product was totally lauzy.

So many things seems so "wrong" about it: it's too thick, it feels thicker and bulkier than the Blackberry curve, the keyboard is sticky, the pointer is still as uncomfortable as before, and the software "innovation" is really so-so.

I really have a high hope for Blackberry Bold since a couple months ago. Looking at the flashy marketing material, I would expect it to be reasonably sized, with tactical keyboard that is very convenient to type on; I would expect it to be reasonably thin; All in all -- expecting it to be a product that could elegantly provide better alternative to iPhone doesn't feel too much.

Yet, after seeing the the real product, it could perhaps be concluded that if the next product releases from Blackberry still looks like this "fatty thicky crampy beast", the golden era of Blackberry devices might eventually be over.

Joseph C. Wilson -- The Father Of "Modern Office Systems"

While for many Joseph C Wilson might not as famous nor as familiar as Thomas J. Watson, Sr (of IBM), nor Henry Ford (of Ford Motor Company), nor Akio Morita (of Sony), Joseph C Wilson is indeed one of the great innovator of modern office systems -- and modern way of people working/living.

Without his years of struggle to make Haloid -- the small little tiny company that many times almost go broke to daringly pursue its research and vision -- and to make its "crazy idea" of photocopying happening, the photocopy machines, the photocopy business model, and digital modern office systems that modern offices rely on today around the globe would never been happening.

Innovation matters. In many ways, innovation seem indeed change society for the better, either directly through the massive business it created, or through influencing others (in the next generation) via its spirited dream.

If J C Wilson don't build Xerox into reality as it could become, Steve Jobs perhaps would never had seen XEROX PALO ALTO, and Bill Gates probably had nothing to "imitate something from Apple" to become Windows later on. Without such, our would then would have been so much different.

In that retrospect, the great dedication passion and work of Joseph C. Wilson is something that we -- innovators and inventors of next generation office systems -- shall always need to admire and remember.

No modern office systems might have been happening without the initial dedicated work, steps and dream of Joseph C. Wilson. In many ways, he's probably the father of Modern Office Systems. Among the first person that instinctively understand the power of documents, the business model around that document systems, and the power of people working together (through documents that being exchanged).

In the similar tradition of following the amazing struggling years of Pixar, following the story of tiny almost broke yet dedicated and never surrender Haloid to become a gigantic Xerox company, and the entire new business model that it created and invented along the way is indeed very respectable. It's amazing to see how this people who was once considered "crazy" because of their pursued dedication, dream and vision, many years later after their years of passion becoming successful reality, their "crazy ideas" become the new standard of how the world function, live, work and operate .. until today.

Innovation matters. It change society for the better.

Re-Experience "Google" - Y2001

In honor of their 10th birthday, Google brought back their "year 2001" search engine, and allow us to re-experience "Google" as if it was in the past (year 2001).

Here's the link to the site: http://www.google.com/search2001.html. Do give it a try: it's breathtaking, dazzling, exciting, "crazy" and fun!

I tried accessing the site myself just now. Here's how the 2001 Google site looks like:

Notice the old Google logo?

Out of curiosity, I try to search Arvino Mudjiarto. Surely what Google displayed really looks like how it was capable to searched, crawled and displayed in 2001.

It's not as complete, as uptodate (nor as most recent) as Google that we experience today. Yet even such, the Google search & discovery capability already really amazing. For example: I don't even remember that once upon a time I had an email at Altavista (arvino@altavista.com!). But Google does! Google -- at that time -- already "know" about that fact. How amazing ! :-) :-) :-)

Out of bigger curiosity, I try to search Worxcode, the company that we happen to founded in February 20, 2002.

Surely Google can not find the company at that time. (Worxcode was not even born at that time). My conclusion: Surely this is a real "Google 2001 engine" stuff! It's not a "fake".

Such makes it even more exciting :-) :-) :-) because it means we could explore and experiment further to experience many other thing that we would "remembered" (or re-experience back), in the past.

I try to find out what people would find if they search the word "iPod" in 2001. This is what I found:

Notice that Google in 2001 still don't even have capabilities to search "image" at all!

As we can see: in 2001 there's no mention about iPod that is associated with Apple at that time! ... [Apple at that time is still in the process of crafting its cool back in the industry through its iMac, and the iPod probably at that time is still in their "lab"]. :-)

Hmmm ... may be this is the "web search result" that folks at Apple "saw" back in 2001, when they decided to name their new portable player "iPod" ?

We don't know for sure about this fact, but being able to "see that possibility" infront of our own eyes is truly exciting! ;-)

Contrast that with our search for iPod using Google today (2008) :

iPod is totally associated with Apple, these days.

For Google to do something like this during its 10th anniversary is really creative and imaginative.

1. It allow people and society to refresh their memory about how the web looks like, how it feel, the kind of limitation and the kind of capability that it can provide in the past.
2. Such give us all the sense and feel of how powerful Google & the web has become these days, how "lucky" we are today, and how it has all these great progress affect us all in a great way.

This showcase also becomee a great chance for us all to re-experience "our past"; to "reflect back" how the web (and how Google) really looked from the lenses, experience and eyes of the past.

Such experience is truly rare; something that probably we could re-experience once every 10 years, or 20.

Do give it a try everyone.

"New" Exciting Product From Apple?

I saw this picture, and I asked myself: are these a series of a great new upcoming product from Apple??

iTablet

iCamera

I don't know the exact answer. But I do sincerely hope so. :-) :-) :-)

Above pictures are just artist's mockup and rendering of what might be coming out "soon" from the Cupertino lab. Nothing is confirmed yet because -- as as we all know -- Apple never reveal anything, until it finally really released.

That makes this upcoming season/product announcement from Apple truly exciting. I really hope such kind of product would be really be announced. If that is the case, such would be truly awesome.

The Magic Of Google Translate!

If you happen to find an interesting online document that you want to read, but -- unfortunately -- such document is written in language that you don't understand, and (at the same time) when you need "someone" to help translate it immediately for you, you can not find one, then translate.google.com probably is the "perfect solution" to your problem.

This simple, easy to use, yet powerful site basically does one thing very well: it automatically translate URL pages and paragraph from one language to another!

I give it a try just now, the steps was simple:

1. Paste the web address (URL) of the online document that you want to be translated.
2. Select the language to translate it to.
3. Press "Translate".
4. Google will start translating the entire online document mentioned for you.

For step 1 I test it with my blog. This is how the original blog document reads (in English):

 

And this is how the translated document reads (in Bahasa Indonesia) -- after automatic translation by translate.google.com is done :

For a translation done by computer, the result is truly awesome. While indeed there are still a few mistakes here and there, overall the quality of the translated document is almost perfect.

Such application/"tool" could be extremely useful for people who need help with translation of a document (both online as well as offline). While before translate.google.com they can't read nor understand anything about it, now they can.

Having such capability constantly available and accessible anywhere, anytime is truly awesome!

How Microsoft Respond To Competition

It is interesting to see Microsoft response to the iPhone challenge. Instead of tackling it directly, on their website Microsoft advertise something like this:

"Windows Mobile -- Over 20 3G phones to choose from".

Reading such respond, and comparing it to similar approach that is taken by Microsoft in defending Vista, perhaps we can now postulate Microsoft "overall approach" in tackling its innovation and excellence based competition:

• If competitor threatened with perfection, answer such perfection with abundance of selection that only Microsoft can provide.
• If competitor threatened with product/design excellence, answer such excellence with scale of market domination that only Microsoft (currently) had.

That means:

• If other company (e.g Apple) threatened Microsoft domination based on perfection of their new product, Microsoft would try to answer that with selection. They might argue: "Why choose 1 (perfect) phone, if you got 20 variety of phones to choose from" ?
• If other company (e.g. Apple) threatened Microsoft domination based  on excellence of their innovative product, Microsoft would try to answer that with dominating market share that Microsoft currently had. They might argue: "Why choose the (excellent) MacOSX, if dominant number of people around the world uses Windows" ?

At a glance, this seems like a perfect answer.Yet as history repeatedly show, such arrogance could be dangerous. It usually also not last very long. Across time: customer typically would choose the most perfect product, at the most affordable price, with the most excellent innovation around.

If such "wording game" continue being used without significant innovation and excellence being introduced back into the company and its product, eventually customer preference might change, and gradually -- as time goes by, the company's product and existence increasingly become irrelevant.

Case 1: at IBM (1980s)

• During the dominant era of Mainframe, IBM people reportedly used to say: "Nobody gets fired buying IBM". Such is a true statement of that time when IBM was dominant, and IBM Mainframe product is a must.
• Yet few years later, when Mini and PC innovation fast forward at rapid pace, unless Lou Gertsner turn IBM to become the "Watson Sr's IBM" as it once was, the fate and future of IBM was in serious danger.

Case 2: at Microsoft itself(1980s)

• During the reign of DOS, Lotus (at that time the largest software company in the world) reportedly used to say: "The Windows market is minuscle (compared to the DOS based 123 market of that time), that way: Microsoft Excel (innovative) development would definitely have small chance to destroy domination of Lotus' DOS-based 123.
• Yet years later, the innovative Microsoft Excel (which runs on Windows) outpace Lotus 123 (which runs on DOS) in its development, innovation and market penetration, and turns Microsoft to be the new king of spreadsheet and office productivity tool of the future.

Lesson learned:

• Perfection could not be answered with abundance of selections.
• Excellence and innovation can not be answered with (current) domination.

Instead the only thing company can do to ensure its survival in stiff innovative/excellence based competition is perhaps to continuously keep its innovation going; and to keep on producing "perfect", "excellent" product that resonates very well with the market preference and needs.

Only through this the company's leadership in the marketplace could be secured; and only NOT through this the company's future could be risked and jeopardized significantly.

The Era Of "Off The Shelf Software" Might Soon Be Over

The era of software as we know it might soon be over. Trends of the past 2 years increasingly show that no longer software would be sold separately. Instead, software and hardware would merge together, transforming into an appliance that buyers can use immediately.

The latest happening in this direction is with Oracle. Recently Oracle announced its "database machine". Being developed for three years, this machine provides out-of-the-box capability. The database machine will sell for $650,000 and store up to 168 terabytes.

What Oracle does is not totally new. Several years ago, we saw similar initiative being done by Google search. A couple of months ago, we saw innovative appliance initiatives being done by KickFire -- an innovative hardware company that embeds MySQL inside its appliance, and optimize it for massive BI processing.

Sun Microsystems is also reportedly working on an optimized machine that would run its acquired MySQL the fastest.

These are all interesting development that directs us to one conclusion: that no matter it is an opensource software or a closed proprietary software, the era of "off the shelf software" might soon be over. Software might soon attached to a machine where it would run, and software in the future most likely will increasingly re-appear as either an appliance, or as a cloud computing services that the world can purchase, or subscribe to.

Such would be one of the most important trend and development of how the economics of mobile computing, desktop computing and massive computing infrastructure might change into the future.

The First Android Phone Finally Arrive In The US

Finally the first Android phone arrive in the US. Called G1, this phone is being offered by T-Mobile and start becoming available in the market.

For those who get curious how it looks like, here's a peek:

Function wise this phone start to have some unique personality which in the future might differentiate it significantly from the iPhone offering and concept. For example:

1. This phone provides physical keyboard, which shall make it very easy and convenient to type in data, versus iPhone "soft keyboard approach" that tends to be slower (and less easy to do).
2. This phone will support and will provide Adobe flash capabilities, which the iPhone lack.
3. This phone OS is opensource and it can be embedded inside any machine, which is totally in contrast to iPhone OS's iPhone-only approach.
4. This phone comes unlock -- hence can be used on any data network -- versus iPhone's exclusive AT&T network scheme and approach.

Indeed the phone is not pretty as iPhone yet. But considering that the mother of this phone is HTC, we surely can predict (and safely bet) that in the future there would be continuous stream of hardware innovation comes into it.

As for Apple iPhone, if this marvelous phone is kept being locked-in as it is today, the old history of the Mac (vs PC) in the 80's might have a very likely chance to happen again. The ongoing development of Android phone might need to be watched out very very carefully.