This amazing video makes me wonder why on earth airline commercials have to be so darn boring. There is just such amazing raw materials to work with. Just love what can be done with the GoPros and the Contours out there. Inspiring.
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The Hardware
I just got my hands on the new Nokia Lumia 800 with the Windows Phone 7 OS installed. The first impressions are quite nice. The phone is surprisingly well designed and built, with a few exceptions like the slinky and fragile cover for the charger port. In terms of build quality it’s not at par with the iPhone 4, which is a piece of art in that sense, but probably one of the best runner ups I’ve seen.
The OS
I have mixed feelings about the OS as I’ve written about before. It’s modern and integrated in a way that I miss in iOS, but it also has a few flaws that I don’t see in Apple’s system. To be fair, Apple had flaws early on too, and the WP7 is a much younger system, so if the engineers and designers at Microsoft really put their noses to the grindstone in fixing flaws and striving for absolute perfection, this product could well be a challenger to primarily Android. I never thought I would say that about anything outside the realm of the iOS-Android superpowers, but there is something interesting about the different path that WP7 takes that makes Android seem… well… a little uninspired.
The Problem of Dual Citizenships
But as much as I love new and different things, there is one thing that really irritates the hell out of me: It’s just too complicated to have dual citizenships in both the Apple and Windows worlds. I still have to invest in one system or the other and set my life up for one of the two. The Apple world works beautifully when you stay true to Apple, and the future of Windows with the upcoming and probably game changing Windows 8 carries some promise in the same direction, but mixing the two does not sound like a good marriage to me.
In some ways it works fine. Google takes care of all contacts and emails that flow seamlessly into my new Lumia, and the same goes for Facebook and Twitter of course. But for me to be able to switch between the two systems smoothly I would want to have Apple’s photo stream for the WP7 phone (perhaps a detail, but an important one once you learn to appreciate photo stream). And more importantly, I would like to have a single market to buy my Apps and other software (content included) from. I realize that this is not likely to happen in the form of being able to log into Apple’s App Store on a Windows Phone, but it shouldn’t be impossible for a company like, say, TomTom to sync their customer database to Apple’s App Store, Window’s Marketplace and Android’s Marketplace; thus having a cross-platform “buy once, use everywhere” philosophy for their products. This would be the fair model as it doesn’t make sense for me to have to buy the product again just because I switch brands on my phone. The same should hold true for other products like books where you shouldn’t have to pay two license fees to read the same book from, say, Kindle’s and Apple’s bookstores. When this works, things become very interesting indeed as you don’t get locked down to either system and could pick up whatever device you like and switch seamlessly.
But until that happens it feels difficult for me to put away my iPhone 4S in favor of the Lumia 800 despite the fact that it does have both magic and performance to it. It IS a quick, well built, smart and even sexy product. And for those of you who don’t mind Windows for your desktop and tablet experience (like I said, Windows 8 does look interesting), this device could be a great choice.
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Ok. So I’m wearing a kimono, at a beautiful Japanese spa halfway out to the Stockholm archipelago, surrounded by an explosion of colorful fall leafs, carrying a small basket in which I’m supposed to only carry around my towel and my slippers. But instead of slippers, my basked is full of tech gear. And instead of bathing my feet in a fish tank (yes, they have one for that purpose) or practicing Qi Gong, we’re coding away on an iOS-app and a web-app, both of which will be taken from start to finish in 24 hours.
This is the 24-Hour business camp, and we’ve just started count-down 7 minutes ago. I’m surrounded by my 4 team mates who are all SWAT-class coders (and one designer), and the other teams are just as sharp. The building is just boiling of brainpower. Very cool.
The clock is ticking now, so I probably won’t have time to write you any long posts for the next 24 hrs, But I’ll be back with an update and hopefully a link to something that works. Wish us luck.
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Click This Image to Read Wired.com's Obituary
I woke up today to the news that one my biggest sources of inspiration, Steve Jobs, is dead; and that the world has lost one of the greatest thought leaders of our time. He will live on in the millions of people he inspired, the amazing leaps of innovation that he led his company to and the legends that always surrounded him and Apple. Rest in peace you insanely great mind, and thank you for everything. I promise to keep thinking differently.
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I just read in tomorrow’s issue of our Swedish advertising business paper Resumé about the forthcoming recommendations for how the pitch process for advertising agencies should work. From a quick look it seems to me to be more comfortable for the ad agencies but somewhat dangerous for the clients.
On The Plus Side
- A quicker process without unnecessary cost will be good for both parties.
On The Minus Side
- The idea to have “workshops” where the parties “talk” instead of presentations of actual creative work would make me worried if I was a client. There is a risk that clients end up with the best salesman rather than the best advertising agency. If it was my budget I would prefer an agency that walks the walk over one that talks the talk any day.
Looking forward to see who takes what side in the upcoming debate. My guess would be that it will be a fight between talkers and walkers.
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