Zinio Raises $20 Million

http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/23/zinio-raises-20-million-for-digital-newsstand/

Zinio provides global access to thousands of magazine titles from most major publishers in a variety of languages. The company’s website allows publications to be read online or offline on desktop computers (Windows, Mac OS X and Linux) and mobile devices such as the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, WebOS and Android handsets (they just launched their Kindle Fire offering).

Sketchbook of Susan Kare

The Sketchbook of Susan Kare, the Artist Who Gave Computing a Human Face

“Inspired by the collaborative intelligence of her fellow software designers, Kare stayed on at Apple to craft the navigational elements for Mac’s GUI. Because an application for designing icons on screen hadn’t been coded yet, she went to the University Art supply store in Palo Alto and picked up a $2.50 sketchbook so she could begin playing around with forms and ideas.”

I’ve always been a huge fan of sketching notebooks. It allows for free thinking, sketching, and planning you wouldn’t get otherwise using desktop software. I always have a notebook within arms reach and carry one in my bag. You never know when inspiration will strike. 

Software Complexity

Something fellow engineers and developers can relate to is the issue of the perception of complexity in software. Matt Gemmell wrote an interesting little piece on the subject a while back that I refer to ever so often when I find myself in the “Zone of Despair”.

 ”You have a task which starts off seeming simple, then upon further thought and exploration it becomes considerably more complex (with several nebulous unanswered questions). Then, upon still further examination, it becomes clear that the level of refinement of thought has lead to discovering once again that the problem is simpler than it seemed to be.”

Get your Androids! Only a Penny!

http://www.launch.is/blog/bezos-gone-wild-amazon-selling-every-non-iphone-smartphone-f.html

“Through next Monday, Amazon is selling all non-iPhones for one penny with a new two-year contract.”

Lean Startup

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6659.html

“Most startups fail not because they can’t build the product they set out to build, but because they build the wrong product, take too long to do that, waste a lot of money doing that, and waste a lot of money on sales and marketing trying to sell that wrong product”

Your Time is Limited

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

- Steve Jobs

Thank You Steve Jobs

Thank you for introducing me to my beautiful wife.
Thank you for the opportunity to work at 1 Infinite Loop.
Thank you for building and leading an industry that I am proud to be a part of.
Thank you for leading Apple till the very end.
Thank you for your vision.
Thank you for your inspiration.
Thank you for your persistence, never settling for ‘good enough’, and calling people out for their crap.

Your legacy will live on forever.

Thank you Steve Jobs and may you rest in peace.

Spotify vs iTunes

 A few days ago Spotify made its USA debut and wow wee wow what a service. If you know me even a tiny little bit you’ll know that I am really hard to impress when it comes to apps and/or web services and Spotify knocks this one out of the park. The music industry has been hurting for a LONG time thanks to Napster, P2p, and Mp3s and while iTunes put a bandaid on the music labels, the artists themselves (at least indie ones) have still been hurting. While I can’t say I’ve always acquired all of my music via iTunes or some other legitimate online music store, the process of purchasing, downloading, dealing with DRM issues, backing up and syncing music has been broken for a long time- making it easier to pirate music than to actually pay for it. Last night after two glasses of Gosling’s I signed up for a Spotify premium account. Holy. Shit. All I can say is Spotify will trick you into paying for music again and you’ll feel good about it. Spotify Key Observations • SUPER FAST - searching seems almost too fast. WAY faster than the itunes store hands down. • OTA Syncing - syncing is so seamless  you won’t have to think about it •  An interface that makes sense both on the desktop version and the mobile version • Sharing with other Spotify friends is really easy. You can drop a song in someone’s inbox and they have it! • Spotify seems to have a good majority of the music I like (even the obscure stuff). • Since everything streams (although you can make things available offline) you save A TON of disk space.

How does Spotify stack up against iTunes I believe Spotify just took a shot across the iTunes store bow. With the feature set iTunes Match introduces it might be too little too late. Although iTunes Match is $25/yr vs Spotify’s $120/year for a premium account, the functionality you get with Spotify is well worth it. From my understanding, iTunes Match will find music you’ve previously downloaded (from anywhere) and will match that song to one in the iTunes Library if it exists. In the other corner Spotify removes the need to even think about illegally downloading a song or album. It’s all right there in Spotify’s library and ready to sync. So from a user experience perspective, Spotify crushes the iTunes and the iPod ecosystem. All I can do is hope Apple is paying close attention to what Spotify is up to and continues to innovate the iTunes Match and iCloud system. People like things that are ‘easy’ to do (like illegally downloading music), so if ease of use is backed up by a large music library, an awesome feature set, and is also significantly easier to use that iTunes … that sounds like a recipe for [something]. It’ll take sometime before Spotify is a household name but mark my words in this permanent blog post that will live on the internet for eternity: Spotify will become a household name.

UPDATE: After a week of using Spotify I have noticed that the one important feature it is missing is the ability to browse for music.  You can check out “What’s New” but there is no way to browse music by genre. Essentially Spotify needs a solid music discovery layer. Only a matter of time but this is an area where services like Pandora and Last.fm shine a bit more than Spotify.

I Give Google+ a big ‘Google Minus’

I think it’s safe to say Google Apps users have become second-class citizens at this point. Features like Google Profiles, Google Buzz, and Google Wave have always taken several weeks to months to be introduced to Google Apps users. Google Profiles are still unavailable to Google Apps users and because of this, there are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of users in the world that are not able to use Google+.

Of course, Google’s lack of communication with its users results in several hundreds of duplicate threads on Google help forums were people are trying to figure what they should do. For example, there are many threads were users are trying to figure out how to downgrade their paid Google Apps Business accounts. Google can’t possible want this. If Google wants to keep its paying Google Apps users it shouldn’t introduce a product that could potentially cannibalize another portion of their business. If Google ever allows for Google Apps users to user Google Profiles and/or Google+ … I shall revisit.

The Importance of Being Real

In many different industries, there are people who live by the motto:
“Fake it till you make it.”

Then there are people who are real.

The best thing you can do for something aspiring to “make it” is to be totally upfront and honest with people. Whether you are a engineer, a designer, a manager, a business owner - being real is your greatest weapon. It builds trust.

I recently met with a potential client who needed A LOT of help. From programming  to marketing. From design to fundraising. While I obviously sold the potential client on our company, I also actively recommend alternatives and explained the pros and cons of these other options. People want options and they also want someone they can trust. There is a very clear value in that kind of relationship that will be known to you and your client only if you are being real.

Don’t be afraid to acknowledge missing features or in-experience in your product or service. Use this as an opportunity to highlight your expertise in another area. If your expertise doesn’t perfectly align with what is being request of you and you’re thinking about “faking it” … don’t. This never ends well.

Be real with yourself, the people you work with, and your clients.
It builds a culture of trust.

Like a Fu*king Phoenix

Seriously. Why so serious?

My response to Jeff Lamarche’s and Marcus Zarra’s posts regarding The Daily (and developer bashing) can be summed up into pretty much two simple concepts: 1) Let’s all just get along. 2) Nobody wants to read their news from a carousel anyways. Pretty simple.

The WWDC Non-Attending Developer Survival Guide

Since I unfortunately will not be attending WWDC this year, I have put together a survival guide for those who will also not be there. During the week of WWDC, it will be absolutely normal to feel a significant amount of guilt for not going and even a bit of jealousy when your developer friends are telling you about all the awesome WWDC labs they are attending. Don’t fret. Below are a few things you MUST do in order to survive.

Watch the Keynote
The keynote will start at 10:00am PST. In the past, Apple has had video streams available for viewing the Keynote speech.There is no indication that this event will be streamed but you never know. Typically during keynote speeches that are not streamed, you will want to keep up with a site that is live-blogging the event. I recommend checking out Engadget.com for coverage.

Follow Devs at WWDC
I could easily list of a bunch of of the usual suspects (ahem @daringfireball) .. but I won’t. Instead you should try using search.twitter.com to find people tweeting about the event. I’ll leave it up to you to decide who you should follow but at least this way you’ll get first hand impressions of the event and updates on all the drinking that will most likely happen in the evenings. I’ve seen a few hashtags being used so far including #wwdc #wwdc2011 and #wwdctips

Check out the forums
Anything announced pertaining to iOS 5 will be under NDA but Apple will usually add a section to the forums for discussing things that are under NDA. This section will have a red folder indicating absolute secrecy!!! Regardless, It’s always a good place to go see what people are chatting about.

Meeting up with the locals
Chances are if you didn’t end up going to WWDC this year, you’ll find there may be other developers in your city or neighborhood that also didn’t go. Here in Brooklyn I’ve decided to host a meetup on Monday night so we can chat about WWDC and the keynote presentation.

——-

To those enjoy who are going to WWDC, remember to bring your shorts, sunscreen, and t-shirts. SF is a scorcher this time of year! :-x

Look ma! I’m on TUAW.

A few months ago I started some development work on a new business venture named MagAppZine, While you may already know a bit about my thoughts on magazine publishing, I’m really glad TUAW took a moment to write something about my company.

Peep it here: Making your iPad Magazine

One Year After Quitting My Job at Apple.

I honestly can not believe it has only been a year since I left Apple Inc. It already seems like a distant past life and in that light, I am taking this moment to reflect on how great my time there was and how it has helped further my career tremendously. Before I do so, I should tell you a little bit about my time within Apple. My First Real Job Three days after I graduated college, I helped open Apple’s flagship Fifth Avenue store in NYC. I was hired as a part time Mac Specialist and while the hours were kind of crappy (fifth avenue is open 24 hrs a day), I had a job and that was good. I wasn’t particularly good at sales but I knew my stuff. After one too many late nights of working part-time on the sales floor, I decided I needed to do something with my life. The *Creative* position (now known as a “Trainer”) seemed pretty interesting to me. You were able to work directly with customers and teach them how to use their mac. The really knowledgeable creatives even got to teach pro apps such as Logic and Final Cut Pro to customers. Having a background in Audio, Communications and Broadcasting and a minor in music, I thought  I would be a valuable asset to the creative team. I approached one of the managers to tell her about my interest and the fact that well … I sucked at sales … but I was really good at teaching. I used to do the same thing in college for 3 years while working in the Department of Instructional Technology for Manhattanville during college. I spent a lot of time teaching luddites about email and the web so my head was in that space. Of course, the manager I spoke to immediately shot me down and told me I needed to up my sales in order to go anywhere within the company. I realized I had to take matters into my own hands and went over the manager’s head to a more senior manager who really gave me a chance to prove I had what it took to work in that position and was really willing to listen. Needless to say I had the job within a few weeks. Working as a Creative at Apple was probably the most beneficial experienced I’ve gained during my time at Apple and perhaps even in my entire professional career thus far. Here are a few things I took away from that experience:

• Looking over the shoulder of customers using Apple products for 1.5 years will teach you a thing or two about how people interact with software and hardware.
• Working in this position gave me a true sense for how customers make their purchase decisions.
• Customer service is the most important thing in any business. Without it, the business is doomed.
• Spending 8 hours a day doing this type of training will help you grow super thick skin.

I will admit, the job is not as glorious as it may sound. Sometimes the thought of helping another upper east side millionaire sync their blackberry to their Powerbook Titanium made my stomach lurch. After one too many teaching lessons, I decided it was maybe time to move. Did you get the Memo? Coincidentally, in late spring of 2007 I received an email at my Apple address about a corporate internship opportunity that was happening company wide for retail employees. There were numerous positions posted for various departments within Apple. At first glance, I didn’t think much of it and closed the email. Worked a half day and went to lunch without think about that email again. Later that day, a colleague of mine asked: “Did you see that Audio QA position?”. Do which I responded : “What?” - Then I saw it. An Audio QA Engineer internship at Apple. In Cupertino. Next few months were spent convincing my supervisors and managers that I was the ideal candidate for the position and that they should nominate me for the position. Remember, each retail store was to submit their candidate and the hiring manager at apple corporate would be interview candidates across the nation. So after many interviews, I got the QA internship. I was moving to Cupertino for 3 months to work as Audio QA engineer at Apple. Crazy!! While I was there I got the opportunity to work on Leopard as well as few other projects. Back to Reality Unfortunately for myself and for others in the internship program, reality struck at the end of the 3 month internship. Many of the retail employees participating in the internship thought this was their ticket. Some even bought houses, sold their cars, and generally made decisions as if they had already received full-time job offers. I was then faced with the reality of having to return to my Creative job which by then had become the “Trainer” position. This sucked. I had been living the dream and coming off the high of working at Apple corporate was rough. Depression was a real thing. The Dream Continues After a few months of working back in Apple retail. I had the opportunity to interview for a QA position on the iWork team and flew out to Cupertino again. I remember leaving that interview and thinking to myself - “Meh, I don’t really care if I get that job, the people interviewing SUCKED”.  Then as if the odds of ever getting a job at Apple corporate again were any tougher: I met my manager from my audio QA position in the parking lot in front of Infinite Loop 1 as I was about to leave campus. Told him about why I was there to which he immediately told me he could offer me a position on his team. Turns out some budgeting stuff needed to happen before any jobs to interns would be offered. A few weeks later, my girlfriend at the time (now wife) and I moved out to California so I could work at Apple. She took a job at a recruiting firm and worked with many of the top startups in Silicon Valley. Mothership I can’t really go into too much detail with my work at Apple but let’s just say I played with tested  a lot of Apple prototypes all the time. It was pretty  awesome and most of the people I worked with were great. I learned  a lot about the effort, attention to detail, and careful planning Apple puts into any thing they do. If something doesn’t work, they try something else until it is done to perfection. Quitting The time came however, after 2.5 years, to move on again. A lot of the people around me at Apple were older than me and were already settling down. California sucks as a state and San Jose was super boring. I think that was it really, I was bored with my surroundings and was bored with my job. I wanted to do more with my life and decided that I need to do something greater now. Around this time last year, I walked in to my manager’s office and told him of my decision to leave. Life after Apple and starting my own companies Since then I moved back to NYC with the ambition to build something great. I have started my own development agency working on freelance iOS projects. I have also worked with some friends to build a new magazine publishing platform for the iPad. Although, it has only been a year since I left Apple, my time there feels like a distant past life. Running two bootstrapped startups has been like riding the big scary roller coasters at the theme park. It has also really given me a new outlook on pretty much everything I do. I often miss my job(s) at Apple (especially the steady paychecks) but the creative and personal freedoms I’ve gained from leaving Apple have been well worth it. Two words of advice If you ever have the opportunity to work at Apple, you should under no circumstance should you decline the offer. Also, Seriously - Do what you love, everything else will work itself out.