We don’t listen to albums now; we listen to collections of songs. – Tom Silverman

After what felt like the end of my search yesterday, I couldn’t help but feel like all the music that I’ve collected over the past few years in my iTunes library is going to sit stagnant as I adopt any new service. Apple has yet to release a “cloud/streaming” option, but perhaps when that comes it will be the best solution for me. For now, here’s my take on a few services that I have frequently used and a few others that I checked out…

Pandora is a great quick-fix, supplemental service. You pick a song, artist, or genre to search for and it creates a playlist/radio station of similar songs. It automatically saves that playlist/station until you choose to delete it. You can add items to the list to vary what it plays, like/dislike songs, but other than that there’s not much to it. Mobile versions available. Free (Ads, Limited skips, 40 hours/month) – Premium $36/year

Grooveshark is good for creating quick playlists of music you like by selecting it from current playlists or searching for it. Just like Pandora and several other services, you can favorite tracks and save lists. Free (Ads) – Premium $3/month or $30/year

Last.fm is an excellent site. The biggest appeal for me here isn’t the music service itself, but its scrobbler. Last.fm is linked with nearly every other service out there. You connect the service to Last.fm and then any song you play on another service is sent to Last.fm and is automatically added to your profile. This is useful to keep track of your listening habits, to display your history with various blog widgets, and to use with Last.fm’s own recommendation system. Last.fm is vast. You can buy tracks, add them to your library (collection of music), find recommended music, “love” tracks, tag tracks, create playlists, keep a journal, find events, look up charts, etc. Mobile versions available and there are many plugins you can find to incorporate Last.fm into nearly anything. Free – Premium $3/month

Hype Machine & We Are Hunted both are pretty similar. They both claim to have the latest emerging music and they are both pretty limited, but they both have a place in the music service list. Both of these sites, along with TheSixtyOne are excellent places to find new music. They all seem to pretty much focus on emerging indie stars. Free

Rdio’s biggest advantage over another service, MOG, is that they allow you to scan your iTunes library to automatically add “all” of your music to your Rdio collection (it was only able to match a third of my iTunes collection). You can create playlists, keep a running queue, see new releases, recommendations, and top charts. Invite only. $5/month Unlimited Online Listening – $10/month Unlimited Online & Mobile Listening

Until Google or Apple decide to finally come out with some sort of cloud/streaming solution, I have decided to settle on MOG as my go-to service. MOG is sort of a cross between Pandora and Rdio. What made me switch from Rdio is that I actually found every song I was searching for to match a playlist of current chart toppers that I had made in my iTunes library. I also really like the Radio slider. When you pick a song/artist to play you can use a slider to decide if you’d like the auto-created playlist to be comprised of that artist alone or if you’d like to stir it up Pandora-style and add music from similar artists. I found this to be the perfect blend of having the music I love in one place while having the option to introduce myself to new music that I will most likely love as well. The more I played around with MOG, the more I grew to love it. Here’s a few things worth mentioning… the pop-out window/player, I’m going to mention the slider again, Last.fm scrobbling can be enabled, you can pick nearly any artist or any song and actually find it available, you can create a queue, pick favorites, create/share playlists, and keep a blog. Also there is what seems like an endless list of playlists from both users and artists. The one feature I’m missing is the ability to keep a library/collection and scan my iTunes, but these are features that support says are coming. It’s one of those things I keep thinking I feel I need because I’m used to it, but at the same time I’m pretty happy with just picking a song, adding a little variety and giving the thumbs up or thumbs down as I go. 3 Days Free Trial – $5/month Unlimited Online Listening – $10/month Unlimited Online & Mobile Listening (Includes Ability To Listen Offline)

Of course there are hundreds of options out there, but these were my favorites… with the exception of Spotify, but sadly, it’s not available in the US and I’m too sore at it to give an explanation of its features.

Share/Save

I would take the printed version over the online version any day, but the iPad version versus the printed version? I have a feeling the iPad version will win me over. It’s the same layout and great design with added bonuses. This is another one of those apps that will make me get the iPad. Imagine what other magazines could do with it. Popular Science would be another good tech magazine to do this. What about National Geographic embedding short videos when you click on a photo so you could see more? Or giving a voice over if you wanted to hear fun facts? Bon Appetit could upload videos with each recipe or how-to videos in sections where they explain unique cooking techniques. Sports Illustrated also comes to mind… of course there are sections I wouldn’t want to “come alive,” but what about including clips from games? Or mini-sports games in the app. The possibilities are endless.

I hate to say it, but if print is on it’s way out in the future… jumping on the mobile bandwagon seems like it could save a lot of magazines and newspapers. Of course, that might speed up the process, but I can’t help but think we’re headed that ways anyways. This might actually be a good stimulus to get more people reading magazines. For all those people with short attention spans who can’t take the time to read, maybe interactive reading apps like this could get them to read and find out more about what they are looking at.

Who knows. All I know is, this makes me want an iPad even more. I’m waiting a bit to see what Android Froyo does with tethering (through my DROID). I’m pretty curious about Google’s plans. My only concern is – if Google creates a tablet will all these apps eventually come to Android?

Check out WIRED’s iPad App video below.

Share/Save

The gadget geek in me is jumping up and down, but so is the designer side of me. It’s very cool to read about and look at photos of past technology, crazy inventions, and (what were) futuristic ideas. At the same time, it is amazing to compare the designs from various dates such as 1874, 1940, 1972, and 2010. Design and the technology printing those designs was constantly changing as well. People were creating new ways to share ideas and information. Layouts changed from plain, standard column text to full page ads and articles with lots of photos and flexible regions of text.

Something that everyone should check out: Popular Science Archives

Share/Save

If you have a phone that runs Android as the OS, I suggest you try SlideScreen. It’s probably not an app that I would have found, had it not been for a recent Gizmodo post, SlideScreen Android App Replaces Homescreen With Beautiful Information.

SlideScreen can either run as a home screen replacement, or as an app that you just call up when you want to use it. There are three main sections on SlideScreen’s “home screen.” The upper section features updates to your email, phone, text messaging, and calendar. The middle section slides up and down and features local weather, time, date, battery power, and a few other icons that would normally be found in Android’s default status bar. The bottom section features stocks, Twitter, and Google Reader updates. At any time you can move the middle bar up to make the bottom section fully accessible via a cycling menu. You can also move the middle bar all the way down to cycle through your top section of personal updates.

The home button can be set to go to your default Android home, or made to go to the SlideScreen home. The menu button, with one touch, brings up your app library with a small area at the top to set 8 shortcuts. With a second touch of your menu button, SlideScreen brings up a choice of Phone or SlideScreen settings.

While it is very slick and a beautiful app, it still leaves a lot to be desired. If we’re adding Twitter support, where’s Facebook or instant messaging support? And where, I ask, is support for the regular Email application. I use Gmail which is nice on SlideScreen, but I also use Email to sync with my nonGmail addresses. Those addresses also happen house my business email. I’d also like some control over how much space each line item takes up, what color they are, and the order in which they appear. Hopefully the developers continue to add features and customization options.

All in all, this app is beautiful. I tested this app via the free version and used it for all of 5 minutes before purchasing the Pro version for $6.99 from the Android Market (SlideScreen). Take a look at the YouTube walkthrough (below) that Larva Labs has posted.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUu8Qevx-Hg

Share/Save

I have an iPod Touch and have used many free and paid apps which I have purchased through the App Store. I also unlocked my iPod Touch for a time and took the chance to use some apps through Cydia. Recently, I bought the DROID and have been using apps which I purchased from the Android Market. On occasion, I also use mobile web apps.

In a location where phone service is not always available, I use many an app that does not rely on having service. Mainly these apps are for passing time (playing games) or catching up on a little reading with apps like Kindle for iPhone. A good majority of the apps I use on my phone or my iPod do require an internet connection whether it is wireless or 3G. For those apps, I wouldn’t really mind if the apps were replaced by web counterparts. A few web services that I use now (Xpenser, Meebo, Facebook) either only have a web app, or are inferior apps on either iPhone or Android OS and I would rather use the web interface. Some apps lack a user friendly, attractive UI and I would much rather just see development go into a web interface. If it’s something I use frequently, it’s quite simple to bookmark a web site on my phone’s desktop to return quickly.

A clear upside that I can see to a movement towards mobile web apps is that HTML5, CSS etc. is much more accessible than the development tools necessary to create apps for certain app stores. It would most certainly bring an increase in development and the web apps would most likely be accessible from all phone OSs. It would be nice to see apps that were just as good on Android as they are on the iPhone.

Of course, there are many downsides as well. First, it would be hard to charge for web apps, although I suppose there could be subscription type fees applied. Second, like the current stores, there would be an overwhelming amount of shovelware out there and would most likely open the phones to web delivered virus attacks. You would also need a signal in order to access the apps and at first, page transfers will be slower than moving around in native apps.

Native apps are preferred for now, but I’m guessing there will be a big increase in web app development next year, especially as the divide between phone OSs continues to grow. If developers could make a web app that could compete with similar apps across the various app stores and find a way to make a profit, it could start a wave of innovative new web apps that everyone could benefit from.

Share/Save

I’m very skeptical of having to pay for tweets. The first concern that came to mind was that I doubt many people would want to have to pay for tweets to begin with. Yes, there are some obsessive fans out there, but what if they are fans of 50 celebrities who all start charging for access to their tweets? I’m guessing each update would be a few cents, but that could certainly add up quickly. Next, what is to stop certain people from aggregating tweets of several people and releasing them under their own account? They could follow a few celebrities themselves, retweet the tweets and then charge a lump sum so that their own followers would then get the updates of a number of celebrities. I’d rather follow and pay for one stream instead of pay for 50 individually.

I can certainly see charging corporations a small subscription fee for tweeting. Many companies are benefiting greatly through both sales and customer relations as a result of their social media interactions, including Twitter. If Twitter wants to make money, it seems like it would be much easier to charge people a subscription fee instead of charging to view individual streams. Of course, as soon as they start charging subscription fees, I’m guessing many will decide to go with other microblogging services to get their link, news, and status publishing fix.

Twitter Japan To Introduce Paid Premium Accounts Next January

6 Reasons Why Twitter Japan’s Subscription Model Might Work (In Japan)

“Misunderstanding”: Twitter Japan Now Says There Won’t Be A Subscription Model (Update 3)

Share/Save

A Few Statistics For You To Consider

• There are more than 200 million active users, with 100 million of them logging on at least once a day. More than 66% of Facebook users are outside of college and the fastest growing demographic of users is those 35 years old and older.
• The average user has at least 120 friends. (This is especially useful when you consider the term, ‘viral marketing’. When a person becomes a fan, everyone of his/her friends sees that they are a fan. Each “John Doe became a fan of Suchandsuch” has a link, “Click to become a fan.”)
• More than 1 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, videos, etc.) are shared each week.
• Facebook is currently translated into over 50 languages with 40 more in development.
• Every month, more than 70% of Facebook users engage with Platform applications.
• More than 10,000 websites have implemented Facebook Connect sites since its general availability in December 2008.
• More than 30 million active users currently access Facebook through their mobile devices.
• There are more than 150 mobile operators in 50 countries working to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products.
• Internet users do not need a Facebook account to see Facebook Fan Pages.

(Stats from public Facebook Factsheet.)

What Can You Post? How Customizable is it?

Facebook Pages are almost entirely customizable. The only parts that you cannot change are items that you wouldn’t want to change because users are very used to seeing the standard elements (profile photos, “the wall”, different boxes, etc.). At the start you have the standard tabs: Wall, Info, Photos, Discussions. You also have Reviews and Events. Of all of the tabs and boxes, the only ones that must remain are Wall (where interactions take place) and Info (website, hours, phone, etc.). You can add as many as you’d like and customize anything as you’d like. For example, on my Facebook Fan Page I have the Wall, Info, Extended Info (services, payments, etc.), Photos, Hello! (welcome page) and Boxes (with blog info, Zazzle store, etc.).

More and more applications are being built that can simply be added to pages. For example, do you sell your crafts through Etsy? You can display items from your store right through an Etsy app. Do you sell shirts, mugs, or bumper stickers on Zazzle? Display them with the Merch Store app. Want to accept donations right on your Facebook Page? There are apps for that as well.

There are also apps (Extended Info and FBML) that allow users to insert HTML, Markdown, or Textile code to included photos, galleries, Flash, videos, etc.

Administrators and users (if allowed) can easily post photos, videos, and comments. Administrators can also send updates which go out to all of their fans.

Have an event coming up? A sale or customer appreciation barbeque? Simply create an Event with time, place, photos, description and allow users to RSVP right through Facebook. Users can also ask questions on the Event page and comment with suggestions. Any users that are sent the Event will receive a reminder of the Event several days before it happens and will continue to see it until the day of the Event.

Several Ways To Get The Word Out

• After June 28, 2009 small businesses will also be allowed to get a vanity URL. For those that don’t know what this is, it’s a custom link to their page, for example facebook.com/companyname.
• Don’t like the facebook.com in there? Make a subdomain with your own hosting and send people that way. List it on your business cards, newsletters, or newspaper advertisements. For example, I use facebookpage.mepriestley.com for my Facebook Fan Page.
• When you publish your FB Page you have the option to “Suggest to Friends.” They will automatically get a link to become a fan. Once they become a fan, all their friends will see that they are fans. If you have a group of people that are friends (say classmates of Oxbow Highschool) will see your company in their sidebar and it will say “5 of your friends became fans of YourCompany. Become a Fan.”
• Use other social media or internet means. Link your FB Page to your Twitter account. What about your LinkedIn account? No idea what I’m talking about? You could also send out an email newsletter and include the link.
• Finally, Facebook gives you the option to “Promote Your Page with an Ad.” This works much like Google Adwords. Facebook ads are Pay-Per-Click. For each click you get, you pay a small fee.

Finally – Why not? It’s free! Another good point that I’ve read in the articles below is that, your competitors are joining. Whether you like it or not, there are companies that are joining and users are listening and interacting with them. Where are you?

Not convinced yet? Just do a few searches for Facebook on Google, or turn on the news to see what an impact it is having. Here’s a few articles for you to consider if you are so inclined:
1. Is a Facebook Page a Complete Social Media Strategy? by Adam Ostrow – Mashable
2. HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Facebook by Dan Schawbel – Mashable
3. 5 Tips for Optimizing Your Brand’s Facebook Presence by Steve Coulson – Mashable
4. Is Social Media Making Corporate Website Irrelevant? by Adam Ostrow – Mashable
5. Facebook Profiles Will Appear in Google Results Next Month by Pete Cashmore – Mashable
6. What Are the Top Performing Brands on Facebook? by Adam Ostrow – Mashable
7. How Charities Are #FindingTheGood With Facebook Pages by Alison Driscoll – Mashable

(Why are all my links from Mashable? It’s the “Social Media Guide.”)

Share/Save

www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_iN_QubRs0

Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, speaks on TED about changing media. I’ve posted his talk above: How cellphones, Twitter, Facebook can change history.

The talk itself is very interesting. I was a little surprised at how much time was spent on how media affected a few isolated events. The talk repeated the same message that I’ve been reading in articles all over the internet lately. That’s the idea that media has gone from a one-to-one relationship to a one-to-many and finally to the many-to-many relationship that we have today. At one time people could talk to one another. Then TV networks, radio show hosts, or columnists could reach out and deliver a message to a broader audience. Today millions of people can literally communicate with millions of other people with all sorts of different messages. Not only can a person talk to a person, but an organized (or unorganized) group can interact with another group thousands of miles away if they’d like to. Shirky states that we have had the “largest increase in expressive capability in human history.”

Shirky mostly touched on Twitter and a tiny bit on text messaging. I didn’t actually catch any mention of Facebook. I think it’s just assumed that it’s included as one of the biggest networks that people can communicate through. I thought one specific quote was especially interesting.

These tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring. It isn’t when the shiny new tools show up that their uses start permeating society, it’s when everybody is able to take them for granted.

It seems that this is entirely the case. Most people are still acting like Facebook is a brand new network, when really it’s been around since the beginning months of 2004. It just seems new and exciting because everyone and his brother is now a member. Or Twitter. Twitter is already three years old. It wasn’t until the end of 2008 or early 2009 that Twitter really started being dropped in conversations. In either case, both networks are now mentioned daily, if not hourly on news stations and throughout personal conversations.

As Shirky says,

The question we all face now is how can we make best use of this media even though it means changing the way we’ve always done it?

As I had touched on in a previous post, Social Media -- Where Is It Headed?, more and more people feel the literal need to get involved. This of course leads to what Shirky touched upon -- more and more of the “producers” of content are amateurs. Every second, people are connecting to new networks and adding content to those to which they already belong. Are we going to hit a breaking point? How are we supposed to filter this media, or are we?

Share/Save

Every time I sit down to update my networks, I am surprised at how long it actually takes. Between posting photos, posting videos, publishing blog posts, updating statuses…not too mention actually generating the photos, videos, and posts. As always, the more work something takes, the harder people try to figure out a way to make it quicker. Such is the case with the our new social media commitments.

Brian Solis, principal of an award-winning Public Relations and New Media agency writes a number of excellent articles on social media. One in particular, The Social Media Manifesto: Integrating Social Media Into Marketing Communications, is especially valid for this post. Surprisingly, even though it was written two years ago, it seems to precisely describe our current relations on the internet.

Monologue has given way to dialog…Content is the new democracy and we the people, are ensuring that our voices are heard…Those who participate will succeed – everyone else will either have to catch up or miss the game altogether. Engage or die.

Of course that is in regards to marketing. Companies will most certainly go under if they don’t grasp this new technology. But even in a broader scope, I think everyone is starting to feel this pressure, little by little. The more they have pressure, the more they will want to interact or feel left out. More and more I’ll find myself say, “Have you heard from John Doe? I saw his pictures posted on Facebook, seems like he’s having a good time.” If they aren’t already on Facebook, the reply has gone from “What’s Facebook?” to “Man, I really need to join that soon.”

But what if people don’t have the time? It takes too much effort…or it’s too confusing to them. What happens then? It seems that companies are taking care of that. Of course they would. It seems the more social media interactions they can get their hands on, the more they can establish trends, customer satisfaction, buyer needs, etc. Such gives way to the incorporation of Arduino and RFID tags to do the digging for them. Ovens automatically tweet what is prepared, plants tweet whether they need water, trash cans could communicate exactly what you are throwing away, GPS can map where you are traveling, so on and so forth. Applications already in place such as DandyID, Lifestream, and many others can list almost every social network activity that you take part in while you’re doing it. Biometric Facial Recognition software is now being incorporated into programs such as iPhoto and Picasa to identify and tag people in photos. It’s only a matter of time before you can snap a photo with your cell phone and it will be able to identify people in the room and pull up their social profiles. Think I’m exaggerating? We’ll see. In the article, 7 Technologies Shaping the Future of Social Media, Mike Laurie paints a pretty good picture.

What really gets to me is what he touches on at the end of his article, Mind Reading and Natural Language Processing. Sad thing is, it is probably not far off. They are already deep into developing technology that will allow people to just think what they want to say and a computer types it for them (Brain-Computer Typing). Next comes being able to control that computer by thinking what you want it to do and concentrating. Final step is simply thinking what you want to do and the computer interprets your thoughts automatically without much effort. Why wouldn’t the next step be to make not only computers work this way but phones, ipods, etc.? Think I should tweet how crazy this is and your computer does it for you. It sounds outrageous, but it’s just around the bend. It’s already available to some people with limited motor skills.

My question is…does technology that does the work for you actually constitute social media? I think the greatest thing about social media now is that people make an effort to communicate more with each other. Not just each other, but even a broader population then they normally would. Even corporations are listening with increasing interest to what people have to say. In another article by Brian Solis, The Definition of Social Media, he describes the basics of social media:

…a shift in how people discover, read, and share news and information. It’s a fusion of sociology and technology transforming monologue into dialog. It is an evolving phenomenon that has captivated some, intrigued others, and is feared and underestimated by many.

Brian Solis offers two definitions which he thinks could replace the current Wikipedia definition of social media. His first one is closest to the current one:

Social media describes the online tools that people use to share content, profiles, opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives and media itself, thus facilitating conversations and interaction online between groups of people. These tools include blogs, message boards, podcasts, micro blogs, lifestreams, bookmarks, networks, communities, wikis, and vlogs.

So I guess even if computers take over doing our interactions for us, it still constitutes social media. But where is the fun in having our computers communicate for us, without any effort whatsoever? Will we still feel that same euphoria that comes from interacting with another human being?

Share/Save

The other day, I watched the trailer for the new game, Red Dead Redemption. It’s a Rockstar game that is set to be released some time this fall. From what I’ve read, it is basically Grand Theft Auto, but set in the West during the late 1800s. Usually I’m not into stuff set in the “old West,” but the graphics caught my eye right away. If the graphics are already that good in the trailer and it’s supposedly a huge, open world game from Rockstar, I couldn’t help but be excited. I posted it on Facebook and hours later I get the comment, “You spend so much time in worlds that don’t exist.” Of course it was a joke, not a jab or anything, but I started thinking about why I instantly felt like I had to defend myself.

I’m surprised that given what a digital world we live in, video games still receive such harsh stigma. I’ve loved video games since the first time I played the text game, Zork on our first computer, a tiny Apple II when I was 5. From there I went through several gaming systems including the Turbo Grafx 16, several Game Boy models, several Nintendo models, a Sega Genesis and every one of the Playstation models (PSX, PSOne, PS2, PSP, PS3).

I think the reason that I love video games so much is the challenge. I think another big part of the appeal is that it is the perfect blend of art and technology. Two things I’m very interested in. As time goes on, the challenges get harder and the graphics only get better. The art is no good if the programming isn’t smooth, but even that is making huge leaps. Last year produced some of the best video games I’ve ever seen (Little Big Planet, Bioshock, Metal Gear Solid 4, Grand Theft Auto 4, Fallout 3, SKATE, Burnout Paradise, Uncharted, etc.). This year is supposed to be even better. When you think about how much time and work goes into creating a game, I don’t see how anyone couldn’t appreciate it.

Even my uncle, who is a carpenter by trade, but a programmer in his spare time, appreciates the games. He can’t believe how much the quality of the games improve over just a few months. The worlds are becoming huge and the details are becoming much sharper. The highlights, the shadows, facial expressions, movement of plants in the wind, it’s all advancing at a crazy rate.

I think it’s funny to say that I “spend too much time in worlds that don’t exist” because I only ever have time to spend a few hours ever few months. Before last week, the last time I had saved my game was in the first week in January. That’s 4 months of not even touching a video game. And that’s my average. Every now and then I get into a game for a few days, for a few hours at a time, but that’s usually when I first get it. I’d love to spend hours playing and actually finish a game or two, but I don’t like to steal away from quality time with John, friends, or other family. And in no way do I believe the worlds exist or any of that. I’m not one that dresses up and goes to conventions or meetings or the like. For me, video games are amazing works of art that let my brain take a break while at the same time, making it work extra hard. Instead of bills and appointments and anything else, I’m thinking how to get to a checkpoint while avoiding disaster or in which order to complete quests, etc.

I also am extremely picky when it comes to games. If I play at someone else’s house or at an arcade, I don’t really care how bad the graphics are or how horrible the script is. It’s an entirely different case if I’m the one buying the games. If I’m going to play a game, I need to buy it. Renting just doesn’t do it for me because if I’m going to start it, eventually I want to finish it and I don’t like having a deadline over my head. If I’m going to buy it, it at to at least have an 9/10 if not 10/10 rating. Sometimes I give in if it’s 8.5 or 8.75 if little defects won’t really hurt the gameplay (like the Guitar Hero/Rock Band games).

Now I’ve tried things like Second Life and gaming online, but it gets old quick. I had a friend who played 1/3 of an entire year on World of WarCraft in college. Now that’s “living” in the world. I just like to visit. I am also someone who likes to game on my own. If people want to watch that’s fine, but if there’s some sort of puzzle or such, I want to tackle it. There’s no challenge in Second Life. It was very cool at first to see what people were setting up, but where’s the challenge? I’d rather get some mental stimulation from a game from time to time and spend all the time I can with friends and family, face-to-face.

I will always love video games. They will only continue to improve and they will only get more difficult. It’s a challenge that’s fun and entertaining and can be turned on and off whenever I like. If you’re skeptical, I suggest you give them a shot. And if you’re going to, at least pick a decent game on a decent system before judging it too quickly. I’ll guarantee that you’ll walk away with at least a tiny bit of appreciation.

Share/Save