Zune 4.0 Love. Lots of love for the Zune 4.0 software upgrade this week, especially if you were following #zune on Twitter the morning it was released. I’m enjoying the heck out of it, especially the new Smart DJ feature, playing smart Pandora-like streams from both my collection and the Zune Marketplace. I also enjoy the new mini-player mode. Here’s a screenshot with additional Smart DJ thoughts on my posterous feed. Apple affectionados don’t seem to like the attention the Zune is getting, writing up a critical Five Zune HD Myths article. Each of the criticisms in that article are pretty much put to rest by Ars Technica and Gizmodo.
Zune Subscription Love. I mentioned the Ars Technica Zune HD review, here’s a quote that describes my Zune Pass Subscription experience so well that I had to share it verbatim. “Can the Zune HD succeed? That depends on whether users buy into the Microsoft way of doing things—a way that includes paying for a monthly music subscription. Those who take the bait will find themselves hooked (in both senses) by one of the best portable music discovery experiences yet created. The full subscription experience on the Zune is now unbelievably compelling, offering something that feels like more than the sum of its parts—but consumers have so far shown little interest in subscription music services. For everyone else, the new Zune HD is ‘merely’ an excellent media player with a gorgeous screen, HD radio, and 720p output over an HDMI connection.”
Zune HD Love Like. Funny, I continue to carry both my iPhone and (80GB) Zune with me wherever I go. I thought I might have moved exclusively to the iPhone for music and podcast listening now going on 3 months with an iPhone, but the Zune is a far superior experience for both. Do I need a Zune HD? I have yet to see a compelling reason to buy one. I like how Gizmodo summed up the Zune HD in their review. “The Zune HD is the best touchscreen PMP on the market. It's got the most unique vision, the most impressive hardware and the most stylish software. But I'm not sure that's enough. The success of the iPod Touch shows that that media playback alone isn't necessarily enough anymore. People seem to want pocketable computers. I'm left wishing Microsoft could get its Zune team to work with (read: boss around) the Windows Mobile team to put together a media phone. The Zune HD is a great PMP, but it could have been a jaw-dropping, unbelievable phone.”
Real JQuery Cool. Yeah, there are sweet slideshows and other nifty JQuery UI candy out there, but doing things like setting equal heights of multiple content areas is why old dogs like me like JQuery.
Turn right in 500 feet for your Guinness. New Guinness app for the iPhone, with my favorite feature, “Locate a Pint.”
My next documentary will be Art & Copy. There are a lot of really good documentaries out there, the most recent I watched was the heart-wrenching Dear Zachary. This trailer for Art & Copy, a documentary about creativity and marketing looks really good. Sell it, man.
Solar roadways, FTW! This is SUCH a good idea.
Village of Customers. "Godin calls it a tribe. Kevin Kelly calls them your 1000 True Fans. Hugh MacLeod calls it a global microbrand…" I love the global Village of Customers idea. It's certainly been my experience with Sueetie.
A Social Media Strategy Checklist. This is the best post on how to approach Social Media that I’ve seen, with a checklist that should cover everything you need to consider. Like “What are we trying to accomplish?” “Who will maintain our presence?” “How do we measure success?” and other essential questions.
Open Source developer’s dilemma, and a solution. This Open Road piece on how to generate revenue from open source software is spot-on, and has been my approach to Sueetie for some time now. Good examples and ancillary points discussed, but the gist can be summed up as follows. “Developers are the most efficient way to spread adoption of one's product but perhaps the least efficient way to monetize it. To get paid, vendors must learn to separate IT developers from IT operations, and build offerings for both.”
Old School Blogging Tips. You don’t see many solid “How to Blog” posts anymore. Here are 100 ways to blog better. Good stuff. On a related note I began doing some posting on Posterous this week at http://daveburke.posterous.com. To be honest, I have no idea why or how it might be beneficial. I like the subscriber management features and how posts are populated to my Facebook page, Twitter feed, Flickr and so on. Posting by email is kind of cool, as you can focus more on the immediacy of the content rather than its format. But my home is http://dbvt.com. It’s been my home for a long time, maybe a bit like Costner in Dances with Wolves after the first buffalo hunt (tetonka!), “It’s good to spend time with my new friends, but Fort Sedgewick is still my home.” We’ll see where this life streaming stuff leads an Old School Blogger.