Technology

Today is known as “iPhone Day”, where in a few hours all of drooling Apple fans will finally receive their treats – the ones they’ve been waiting for over 6 months.  This day can’t end any faster.

Everywhere I turn, it’s wall-to-wall iPhone coverage.  I fire up my podcasts and even the sports & political podcasts I listen to are talking about the iPhone.  The technology podcasts are the worst – basically forgetting all other technology exists, leading off with the iPhone stories, and then gargling the Apple Kool Aide.  It’s gotten so bad, people are doing reports on people doing iPhone reports.

I fire up my RSS feeds and every blog is mentioning the iPhone, either touting the phone itself or the people who are waiting in line for it.  You see all these pictures and videos spring up about people waiting in line.  I go to message boards like the Buzz Out Loud Lounge, and every freaking discussion topic is about that stupid Phone, or people waiting in line. What’s funny is back in November many called people in lines losers for waiting for the PS3 along with the Wii, but that criticism seems more restrained this time around for iPhone fans.

This has really become consumerism at it’s worst, and you know that Apple is loving every minute of it.  A company can’t buy this kind of buzz, moreover get it for free the way they’re receiving it.  It’s funny to think that all of this hype is for a device that can’t listen to music, surf the Internet or manage your information as well as devices currently out there.  The thing is on a slow network, doesn’t allow you to use any 3rd party apps (since Apple doesn’t understand what more you need than what they’re shoving down your throat), doesn’t let you replace the battery, doesn’t have a lot of storage space to make you even consider replacing your iPod, and worst of all – it costs $600!  My Treo cost me a 1/3 of that and I still was reluctant spending that much, knowing how much phones ware and tear down.

All of these reasons are enough reason to warrant a scoff at the iPhone, but the biggest reason I’m not interested – all of the stupid hype generated around the Apple fans.  I’m not going to buy into Apple worship, Steve Jobs or all of the other acolytes love to hate everyone that’s not using their products.  Their rabid fanaticism is disturbing to say the least, and I’m not going to start foaming at the mouth about a stupid phone.

And yes, I realize the irony in adding to the hype by writing on my blog about how I hate the hype.

Recently I’ve made a decision to stop using Trillian, an instant messaging client that I have enjoyed for over 5 years.  When I discovered it back in 2002, it was an amazing find: a client that enabled me to use all my IM networks with just one program.  At that time it was easy for me to justify sending $25 to Cerulean Studios to purchase the Pro version.  The license you bought it is a bit quirky.  When you go Pro, you get the current version, plus 1 year of support and any software updates.  Ideally, it seems like Cerulean did it with the intention that their pro users are more like subscribers.  The $25 seemed like a good deal and while I would have been satisfied with the version (2) I bought, I was hopeful they would be making more enhancements in the coming months.

Fast-forward to 2 years later, when Cerulean finally releases version 3 in 2004.  The next version looked so sexy and functional that I found myself shelling another $25 to buy the year subscription and get the next version. At this point it seemed like a good deal and I was once again hopeful more enhancements would be made.  Here we are, almost 3 years later and there isn’t even a beta release of their next version.

The latest buzz has been around Trillian Astra.  Announced in late 2005, Astra started requesting alpha testers back in March of 2006, now 14 months later we have yet to see any kind beta (public or otherwise). Astra has been a long time coming, and frankly it’s been too long.  They gave us this awesome preview site in November, and 8 months later we’re no closer to getting our hands on even a beta copy.  As a paying loyal customer of 5 years, I’m tired of waiting.

I realize delays come up and things happen, but when Cerulean has the licensing model that they have – where you get free upgrades for a year – it implies that they make enhancements to their software in a timely manner.  It would be one thing if you paid for a full installation and then rewarded your customers with upgrade pricing, but it’s ridiculous to pay full price each time.  Cerulean expects me to shell out $75 just to IM – yeah right.  I feel especially bad for people who got too excited when their preview site came out in November 2006 and they renewed their subscription – now they’re in danger of not getting a production version of Astra for that year.

The worst part about it is visiting their development blog.  I read about how hard they’re working with development and every week they talk about pushing out a new build to their limited group of alpha testers, then the same insider clique flood the comments with ravings about the latest features.  It’s like standing outside a locked bakery and watching people stuff themselves with cake.  All the while you get the same “we’re opening for beta testing soon” for what is now months.  If anyone dare mentions that no new testers have been invited for months the Cerulean apologists take a bullet for the development team.  “man, leave them be!! those are careful and competent people, buddy.”

As a developer, I understand things take time, but I also understand that in the world of software you don’t work on something indefinitely.  If they’re still adding new features, then the Astra product has a major scope creep problem.  Worse yet, just blogging about how you’re working hard isn’t enough – you have to release something tangible that demonstrates to your customers that you’re working hard.  These closed-off alpha builds aren’t cutting it.  Come on, the Microsoft Vista Development Team thinks you guys are taking too long – at least they’ve had open alphas and betas of Vista.  Not only are your customers now frustrated, but they’re also becoming disinterested.

A few weeks ago, I started using Pidgin (formerly Gaim) as IM client.  It may not be as pretty as Trillian, but it definitely delivers the features most need.  Better yet, they went official with their version 2 release and are making updates on a regular basis.  With all of that for free why do I want to consider shelling out another $25 for empty promises and excuses?  $25 for software I use every day is reasonable, but I’m not going to spend $75+ just so I can IM my friends and co-workers.

At this point Cerulean has lost me as a customer, but if they want to prevent further PR losses they should think about improving their development process:

• Publish some semblance of a release schedule.  People may criticize you if you have to delay it, but at least something is out there.
• Open up testing spots, even if you let them trickle in slowly or give them some kind of limited functionality, it gives people something to get excited about
• Change your pricing model, do away with the subscriptions and reward your longtime customers with upgrade pricing

I’m not trying to pretend to be a great software pundit. I am simply a customer that has enjoyed Trillian in the past but has become disenfranchised due to the perceived lack of progress in the fast-paced world of web software development.  From reading their blog comments, it doesn’t look like I’m alone.

It seems a latest buzz of the Internets is the reaction to an email written by “Radio Daddy”, which somehow has ties to the “professional radio industry”.  Podcasters are basically offended by being called amateurs and “feeble minded children”.

The exact quote (spelling errors and all): “Unfortunately with the ease of producing low quality podcasts and internet stations, children and the feable minded have become the majority operators of these.”

People are up in arms, there’s some interesting comments on Digg, and casters such as Todd Cochrane called people like RadioDaddy “the old guard [that] are not ready for change and the feeble mind that wrote this looks down upon podcasters.”

As a podcast listener and as someone who has subscribed to over 50 podcasts, I have some feedback regarding the Radio Daddy comments: most podcasters are children (or act childish) or are feeble minded.

I don’t mean to be blatantly insulting, and don’t get me wrong – I love podcasts and will choose podcasts over terrestrial radio virtually all the time.  However, podcasting is definitely in an infant stage and still has a long way to go before they can duke it out with “traditional radio professionals”.  I look at my feeds, and with the exception of 1-2 podcasts all of my 1st tier podcasts are either podcast ports of terrestrial shows (ESPN’s PTI & Around the Horn, the Glenn Beck Program), as well as people who have a background in (or backing of) professional broadcasting (Laporte and TWiT, CNet & Buzz Out Loud).

I look at my second tier and notice that they’re all made up of amateur podcasts – people who don’t broadcast/podcast for a living.  And the reason why many of these people will be grouped with the “children and feeable minded” is because they can’t do what it takes to come across professional – things such as:

• Put your ego aside.  I cringe every time I fire up a podcast and the first thing I hear is an update on the host’s personal life and things that have no relevance to the show or it’s subject matter. “Amateurs” need to understand that listeners don’t want to hear about them, but rather hear about their topic.  How many times have you heard Brian Williams lead off NBC Nightly News with “Good evening, my wife and I had a great weekend, blah blah blah.”  If you feel the need to talk about yourself don’t lead off the show with your personal life.  Bring it up in the middle or towards the end.
• This especially applies in interviews.  A friend once paraphrased NPR’s Terry Gross’ reflection on being a great interview: to make yourself (the host) seem as uninteresting as possible.  Too many times “amateur” hosts won’t get out of the way of their interviewee and will end up talking more than that person.
• Organize your show, and tell your audience what to expect right away.  It’s surprising just how disjointed podcasts can be.  There are no smooth transitions and unless you read the show notes, you have no semblance to the flow of the show.  Here’s an idea: lead off with your most interesting topic, followed by the second most interesting, etc.  Then at the beginning of the podcast start with “We have a great show. Today’s topics/interviews…”
• Don’t ramble. Podcasters often take the “no time limits” for granted, thus many podcasts often digress into mindless banter. I’ve heard many podcasts wonder out loud about the length of their podcast.  The length isn’t the issue: if you can provide good, relevant content, then I will listen.  But if you get off on too many tangents, listeners will delete the episodes
• Accept your personality/voice limitations.  Not all of us were destined to be in radio.  Broadcasting and communications degrees help weed out the amateurs – but just as there are those who have natural talent and don’t need formal training, there are those who simply just don’t have the talent for professional radio.  That doesn’t mean podcasters can’t be any less passionate about it, and can’t embrace amateur status.  I love football and would love to play in the NFL, but the reality is that I don’t have the body, training or talent to play any organized football – but that doesn’t stop me from loving it any less, being a fan, and playing at the park with my friends.  Most importantly, I shouldn’t be resentful of those who possess that talent, training and experience.

If you want a good example of what it means to be a professional host, listen to Jim Rome, especially to how he lays out each show/hour and conducts his interviews.  Through his years of schooling and experience, combined with his personality, talent and presence –  Rome is the epitome of a professional broadcaster.

I love podcasting because it provides topical, on-demand content.  Because I’m hungry for that content I’ll often look past the “amateur” limitations, but whoever can find a way to blend the professional presentation & production with the topical and on-demand distribution will have the Silver Bullet of broadcasting that will take over all forms of radio.