Sparrow Mail for Mac from domleca on Vimeo.

The video says it best.

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What better way to get more people using their platform and using it even more than they do now than by (1) making the other platforms—iOS and Android—commodities, and (2) making a device that makes Facebook the operating system?

Speaking of Facebook. If Facebook does want to be web or the platform that everyone uses to communicate then sure, why not expand their “phone app” to enclose the entire phone operating system? And why the phone? Because it is the most personal item, in many cases, that we own and actually carry around. All day. Every day.

Gowalla aimed to tell our story as we visited places by giving others an insight into where we are instead of just me telling you. A point that Facebook doesn’t do at the moment. Not well. Facebook check ins are sort of dead. There is no excitement behind them.

Facebook has nailed communication and helped establish digital links and connections. The connections have been established, but I think it’s fair to say that Facebook sucks at telling that story. Just look at how many times profiles have been revised in recent years. Gowalla could be the missing piece that will add that level of interactivity that is missing.

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About two months ago, my co-founder Scott and I attended F8. We were blown away by Facebook’s new developments. A few weeks later Facebook called, and it became clear that the way for our team to have the biggest impact was to work together. So we’re excited to announce that we’ll be making the journey to California to join Facebook!

Congratulations to the Gowalla team… but I’m sad to see you go. To think of what could have been.

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My first steps towards becoming less busy were all very simple and tactical. I set my phone to do the fewest possible notifications. I get a warble when someone texts me. Besides that, I don’t get a notification when email arrives, when someone comments on a social network, or any of those. And guess what? I’m still responsive. I’m still valuable.

This is a constant battle that I keep with myself. I love trying out new services, but every so often I have to sit down and decide, which ones am I going to actually use, which ones can I delete and how many many actions and notifications can I turn off.

I believe that that at this time Twitter DMs and TXT/SMS are the only notifications that are actually active on my phone.

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This is a must have for any podcast listener with an iPad. It may even be the reason you need to buy an iPad if you love podcasts and still don’t have an iPad.

Available on the App Store

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Here’s all you need to know though: Facebook is building a phone because Facebook has to build a phone. They can say all they want about being everywhere, partnering with everyone, peace and love, yadda yadda. The fact of the matter is that mobile is the future of computing and it’s currently controlled by two gate masters: Apple and Google.

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It’s something that I’ve been guilty of not doing in the past, but now practice as much as possible. In fact, this site was built in the browser and was strict in adhering to the concept. That wasn’t too hard though as there is no real “decoration” around any of the content. But the idea is there.

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I had a very inspirational meeting last night with my GSIX Corp, Inc. business partner, Nery Morales. One of many as is often the case. We reviewed current projects as usual, but as we get closer to the end of 2011 we have also had the chance to spend more time making plans for next year and reviewing all of the opportunities available to us. And that is exactly what inspires me. Not that we have opportunities, but that we are able to build a quality of life to make us happy. It’s not just work, it’s a lifestyle.

It’s easy to forget about the long term goals in favor of short term gains. Last nights decisions were based on what would ultimately help bring us closer to something that would make us happy. Not necessarily what would make the most money. It’s a luxury that often no publicly traded company has and even most privately owned companies. But our young, two-man, operation does.

At this point our creative, entrepreneurial, satisfaction is what is most important to us. And again, not simply for our individual gains, but because as time goes on and there is additional staff depending on us we want to make sure that they are creating their best work while achieving their own desired lifestyle as well.

This quote by Walt Disney comes to mind and seems fitting:

We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.

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I think that John’s criticism comes from the fact that he, as do many of you reading this, understand a large part of Steve Jobs career. That’s to say, you know what he accomplished and understand the great scale at which he did it. And the book doesn’t go into any of that. It barely mentions the topic of accomplishments. I for one wanted more.

But was Isaacson trying to show us something else? The person his family knew? I think that would be fine, except, it might be hard to do without understanding how work too and seeing how one affected the other.

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Jobs understood technology but was not an engineer. He had profoundly exquisite taste but was not a designer. What it was that Jobs actually did is much of the mystery of his life and his work, and Isaacson, frustratingly, had seemingly little interest in that, or any recognition that there even was any sort of mystery as to just what Jobs’s gifts really were.

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Your team will take their cues from you. If you are frustrated and complaining, they will be frustrated and complaining. If, however, you take a bad situation and make the best of it and keep a positive attitude, that will go a long way to keeping the overall morale of your team positive as well. When the complaints do come, don’t ignore them, address them head on and diffuse the situation.

The article in general does a great job discussing how to lead a team, not just making the move from team member to team leader. But this point is the one the find most important for any organization. Lead with passion, enthusiasm, compassion, empathy and authority. Be human and your team will respond well.

And no matter what, don’t forget this:

Throughout this article, I have referenced the move from team member to team leader, but the reality is that even though you may be leading the team, you are still a part of it, not apart from it.

via Smashing Magazine.

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@anildash When somebody collects money in your name w/out your consent with a cut, it’s called something else in many boroughs of NYC.

Continuing the discussions and previous posts on Readabilities recent pivot, I must admit that although I was once I fan of their service, I never stopped to think about the model this way.

I’m sure it was a ‘calculated risk’ that Readability took in order to get things rolling and definitely not done with bad intentions. But I point it out because it’s this detail that still continues to interest me about the company. How do you solve for such a problem? Perhaps there should have been a policy in place that forced money into hold until the publisher was contacted to claim it. The publisher could then have the opportunity to sign up and accept or decline and have the money sent back to the user. Even if that is not the cleanest solution, it would have avoided a potentially sticky situation today.

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Readability was a service that I was once very excited about for what it could do for publishers, but I doubt I’ll convert or even consider the service in its new state. I’m a loyal Instapaper guy myself.

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It’s very hard to get much thinner than the Air and still have a traditional notebook form factor. Take away too much and you essentially wind up with the iPad.So it’s going to have to come with advances in software, in interfaces and new forms of input, like voice and touch, and the continual improvement in battery size, life, and — while we know chips will regularly get faster — how manufacturers deal with heat dissipation and battery life in conjunction with those chips’ advances.

Follow the link below to see Shawn’s original comments to Erica Ogg. But what I wanted to add is that yes, we’ll likely see the gap between the iPad and the MacBook Airs closed in years to come, but that is not all. There will be other changes to the lineup.

What I’m suggesting is a single lineup with a 7″, 11″, 13″, 15″ and 17″. The 7″ (iPad) being just as powerful as the 11″ (MacBook), sans-keyboard, and the remaining sizes having just as much power as the current Pro’s, but with an Air body. The Air and Pro names will be dropped perhaps keeping only the iPad and MacBook names as reference for the different tablet and notebook form factors.

via What Comes After the MacBook Air? — Shawn Blanc.

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Sweet template, full vector shapes and in three different views.

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It’s also sort of the antithesis of everything prior in iOS. iOS is explicit and visual. Everything you can do in iOS is something you can see and touch on screen. The limits are visible and obvious. Siri, on the other hand, feels limitless. It’s fuzzy, and fuzzy on purpose. There’s no way to tell what will work and what won’t. You must explore. I found it extremely fun to explore Siri — primarily because so many of the things I tried actually worked. It’s a completely different interface for interacting with your iPhone. You’re not driving or commanding the existing iPhone interface with commands. There is no syntax to memorize. You’re just, well, talking to your iPhone.

A combination of iPad, touch and Siri is going to create a whole new world of interaction and computing. How much more natural could this system be?

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The event video is now available on Apple’s site. Oh! And check out the sweet new iPhone 4S page.

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As much as we may complain about some of their programs, we are still there using them. I only hope that this means good news for Typekit in terms of resources and good things for the creative suite in terms of integration with the newly acquired service.

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This app seriously picks up where the Apple iPod/Music app left off. It makes adding, syncing and deleting shows a breeze.

Available on iTunes

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Congratulations to the Gowalla team on the launch! Now go download/update the app.

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So let’s be lazy for a second here, and attribute all of Apple’s success over the past 15 years to two men: Steve Jobs and Tim Cook. We’ll give Jobs the credit for the adjectives beautiful, elegant, innovative, and fun. We’ll give Cook the credit for the adjectives affordable, reliable, available, and profitable. Jobs designs them, Cook makes them and sells them.

It’s the Jobs side of the equation that Apple’s rivals — phone, tablet, laptop, whatever — are able to copy. Thus the patents and the lawsuits. Design is copyable. But the Cook side of things — Apple’s economy of scale advantage — cannot be copied by any company with a complex product lineup. How could Dell, for example, possibly copy Apple’s operations when they currently classify “Design & Performance” and “Thin & Powerful” as separate laptop categories?

Like I’ve said time and time again… You will not beat Apple because they are writing their own game.

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Way to go NY Times on both points.

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The conversation basically boils down to this…

What if you invest in your employees and they leave you?

What if you don’t invest in your employees and then they stay?

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I understand that there is a lot at play and it’s not as easy to do, but no matter what business you are in, you’re brand is an experience and your business is customer service. Period.

Windows is sold as an operating system that has a certain experience provided to the user because of its features. But guess what? It’s hardware sucks. Well, the hardware coming from HP or Dell or anyone else. The experience that is built in Windows is lost once you get to the hardware thus reducing it to the “cheaper alternative” as Ben says.

This model sounds a lot like Apple and its sure not about copying them. You can’t beat Apple by doing that. You need to build your own game and for Microsoft it means taking control of their Windows experience.

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Wacom has just introduced it’s latest product, the Inkling. It is a pen that captures what you sketch on paper and allows you to upload it to your computer via USB.

To be honest, I’ve never actually taken to using a tablet. I’m stuck in my keyboard/mouse ways. But I do love pen and paper and although I may not run out and buy this new pen, I do like what they are doing with it and would be interested in seeing it in action.

Inkling by Wacom

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Maybe Jobs picked this seemingly random board meeting in August to formally step down because, why not? Remember, Tim Cook has been serving as CEO for the past eight months. In that time, Apple has remained the hottest company on the planet. In fact, they’ve gotten even hotter.

Arguably the best article I’ve read so far regarding Steve Jobs resignation as Apple CEO. Head on over to Techcrunch for the full piece. This is a bitter-sweet story we are watching unfold before our eyes.

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Those who are concerned about Apples fate in a post-Jobs world fear that this history will repeat itself. They worry that Apple with Steve is successful; and that Apple without Steve is not.

But the Jobs that returned to Apple in 1998 was not the same Jobs that was forced out in 1985. The Jobs of 85 believed that all he needed to do was shape the amazing products that Apple shipped. However, during his exile, he saw what happened to the company that he loved — it lost the ability to ship great products — and he returned determined to ensure that it never happened again. After 1998, he wasnt just interested in building great products himself. He was interested in making sure everyone else within Apple was able to build great products too — to be able to think like he did.

via Ben Brooks.

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What Steve has done over the past 15 years to build up the company is not only found in the software and hardware that Apple has made. His work is also found in the values and goals of the company itself (…)

Steve isn’t holding Apple on his shoulders any longer. He’s built it up so it can stand on its own. And in the midst of all his innovations and ideas, perhaps the greatest “product” Steve Jobs has built isn’t a product at all — it’s a culture.

I think that Shawn is right. The main product that Steve built was Apple. A company that understands technology, design and experiences. He built a company that is able to execute these things and can run without him.

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The thing to keep in mind is this: Apple tomorrow, a week from now, and next month is the exact same Apple from yesterday, a week ago, and last month. Tim Cook wasn’t named “CEO” until today, but he’s been the chief executive at the company since Jobs started this — his third — medical leave back in January, and probably even before that. Whatever Steve’s role is going forward, it’s only different in title than what it has been, in effect, for some time. Whatever it is that ails him, he’s been diminished.

via Daring Fireball

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Intel is quick to acknowledge that the Ultrabook effort was in large part inspired by Apple Inc.’s iPad tablet and particularly its sleek MacBook Air. The latter was recently updated with Intel’s latest microprocessors and has been selling much more briskly than most laptop PCs running Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system.

So… how the heck is it possible for Intel to “lead” an effort for thinner/lighter/faster laptops, something that they are referring to as an “ultrabook”, when it’s Apple that is in fact leading the way?

Intel can spend as much money as they want, but all they are doing is enabling other PC manufacturers to follow Apple. This is not a winning game plan.

The truth is that Apple continues to lead for greater reasons than style or trends. They lead because they are defining their own game! You can not beat them because Apple is playing a 1 person game for which they write their own rules.

To top it off:

Welch said Apple informed Intel that it better drastically slash its power consumption or would likely lose Apple’s business. “It was a real wake-up call to us,” he said.

You shouldn’t have to wait for Apple to tell you to cut down your power consumption.

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For those who work with their mind, Mondays should be for dreaming and planning. They are the morning of the week, and each Monday brings with it a new beginning, a fresh start, and a sea of potential.

It’s true. Mondays are the busiest day of the week. We all seem to plan everything for Monday. That’s when you hear most people say that they will be starting their new diet or job etc.

On the other hand, Fridays are the most relaxed day of the week and that is when I put the most time aside to do my dreaming and masterminding. Not because I think that it’s a better choice, but because it’s easier to make the time. I do, however, force all meetings and conference calls to Tuesday as best as I can. This leaves Monday open, not so much to dream, but to plan and put something into action that I dreamed up the week before.

It doesn’t matter how you do it as long as you do. The thing that pains me the most is having to say that I’ll do something “one day” because it isn’t a real day. It isn’t a day that will ever come unless you make it an actual date.

Make the time to dream and plan.

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I’m currently working my way through a redesign of GSIX Corp, Inc. Without revealing too many details, I will say that HTML5 and CSS3 are a dream to work with. However, using any sort of grid system, no matter how nice they are still feel like a cheap fix. Ok so I’m exaggerating and I actually love the system I chose, but if you have ever worked with one then you’ll agree that this is an issue that needs to be addressed with better CSS.

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I’ve had the chance to use one of the new systems for the past few days, and it screams. Even the people who thought I was crazy last year to replace my MacBook Pro with the Air may have second thoughts now. Apple is saying the updated devices offer roughly twice the performance of their predecessors in various regular use cases technically, the 11-inch models should be about 2.5 times faster, while the 13-inch models should be just under 2 times faster. All I know is what I see — it’s really fast and it handles OS X Lion extremely well.

There was no way I’d ever consider replacing my MacBook Pro when the original Airs shipped. In fact, I doubt many other would have. But with today’s update they are a real beast of machine. In honestly, I’m going back and forth between upgrading to a 13″ Air for the portability or a 27″ iMac for greater power. After all, I do have an iPad 2 to hold me over while I am away from my desk. Both toys are just to tempting not to play with them.

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