My good friend Barbara Darrow of GigaOm just posted an awesome rant about Gmail and other Google apps. (“Hey, new-and-improved Google, please fix your apps.”) This was prompted by a Marissa Mayer appearance where she said Larry Page is really focused on products and users, and really wants to streamline everything at Google. (Have you noticed lately, with Page’s one-year anniversary as CEO approaching, the way the people around him are out beating the drums about what a great CEO he’s been, and all the big changes he’s making, and how it feels like a brand new place, and everyone is so excited, etc.? I’m waiting to see which publication gets the big Larry interview for the anniversary. I know it’s not us. We tried, but Larry’s PR person wouldn’t even meet me for coffee. Oh well.) Anyway, here is Barb’s money quote: So what explains the nightmare that is GMail? And, to put it gently, Microsoft Word doesn’t have that much to fear from Google Docs. (This is coming from someone who is not enamored of Office’s bloated feature set.) I don’t hate Gmail as much as Barb does, but I can tell you this. A few weeks of using Hotmail has been a really good experience. It...
Learn MoreFarhad Manjoo makes some really good points in this piece called “Apple Doesn’t Need to Make the TV of the Future” arguing that Xbox already does many of the things that people keep dreaming Apple might do with an Apple TV product sometime in the future. Things like voice commands and hand commands are already there with Xbox and Kinect, and if you haven’t used one yet, you should. It’s amazing. And yes, Microsoft has run ads about this, but for some reason everyone in the world has heard of Siri but not as many are aware of the much cooler things you can do with Kinect. I brought this up during my visit to Microsoft and we talked a bit about why this is the case and the answer just seems to be that Apple is really, really good at marketing. The truth is that Xbox is amazing and it keeps getting better, as happened this week when Microsoft added HBO Go, Xfinity and MLB.TV to its video offerings. Little by little Microsoft is building the future of TV right before our eyes. But: why can’t they make this thing more friendly for regular people? As a friend wrote to me last week in regard to my “Month...
Learn MoreA dear friend just sent a link to this stunning analysis which compares the names of various condoms with the names of various Android phones, and finds a stunning overlap. Desire, Ultra Thin, Sensation, Indulge, Intensity, Wildfire — you get the idea. Nice work. I would note that my beloved Droid Razr Maxx is not on the list, but probably should...
Learn MoreRovio, maker of Angry Birds, tells Bloomberg it won’t create a version of Angry Birds Space for Windows Phone, because the platform is so tiny. “We want to be on all screens, but we have to consider the cost of supplying the smaller platforms,” a Rovio guy says. I don’t really give a crap about Angry Birds, but still:...
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We went skiing in Utah last week. The snow wasn’t great. But we had the most amazing family trip we’ve ever had, all because of where we stayed: the Peruvian Lodge at Alta. If you’ve been there, you know: It’s been around since 1950, and it’s not the swankiest place in the world. A lot of the rooms have just a sink, no bathroom. There’s even a dorm which is basically a big room with 12 bunks in it. (I used to stay there when I was a single guy.) The rooms are small, old-fashioned, and there’s no TV, and the staff are mostly a bunch of kids who are there primarily for the free season pass. It’s a weird, funky, cozy place, where people leave their ski boots in the hallway outside their rooms and wear pajamas to breakfast and you’re basically all kind of piled in together, on top of one another. Gemutlichkeit is the word a German-speaking friend of mine once used to describe the vibe there. Best of all, the place sits at the foot of Alta, which is a pretty tough location to beat. There is nothing to do at Alta except ski. There’s no shopping. No twee little faux Alpine “base village,” and...
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