Four things I don’t like about Leopard
I really like most of Leopard (the Macintosh’s newest operating system). Time Machine is awesome (it’s already saved my ass once), I like the translucent menubar and the unified UI look, and the Stacks really are handy.
But there are four things I really, really wish Apple would fix in a 10.5.1 release:
- Spaces: I rarely use multiple desktops so I’ve turned off Spaces. However, when I try to jump the cursor back or forward a word (which I do probably at least two times a minute) using Option-Right or Option-Left, Leopard moves me to a new Space! Remember, I’ve disabled Spaces, but it still does this. Very, very irritating.
- Dock: Sure the dock is pretty but prefer my dock on the left so I get more vertical screen real-estate for web browsing and writing. But docks placed on the sides look horrible. They’re on a dark-grey background with a white border around it. Meh.
- (There, I just did an option-right out of habit to jump forward a word, and it moved me to the desktop Space to the right.)
- Cursor: I have a hi-resolution screen on my MacBook Pro (1920×1200). It’s great for everything except the mouse. So I use Universal Access to increase the pointer’s size. But, surprisingly (for Apple), it doesn’t scale the mouse up as neatly as it does icons. Instead, I get an ugly jaggedy mouse.
- Clippings: When you select text on a web page, you can then drag it to your desktop and it creates a Clipping (basically a text file with the selected text that you can only view and copy). There’s so much potential for this and I think deserves some options in System Preferences. For instance, Rich Media like links and images aren’t supported. The icons don’t display the info inside. I don’t know, it just seems like this would be a great opportunity.
Why Is YouTube’s Front Page So Pointless
I like YouTube a lot. I’ve been to parties where the main attraction is people showing others their Favourites from YouTube. (I tend to go to geeky events.)
By far, the most talked-about video in the last few days has been Marie Osmond fainting on live television, after her performance on Dancing With The Stars. Here’s the video, in case you want to watch.
And yet, the front page of YouTube is featuring videos that nobody’s really ever heard of, and certainly barely anyone’s talking about.
I don’t get it.
I figure either one of three things is happening here:
- The “Featured” section on YouTube is fully automated, much like how its parent company, Google, has its Google News lineup selected by a computer. If so, the computer is doing a lousy job.
- Or maybe the people behind the featured videos have paid to be on the front page? If so, it’s certainly not disclosed that this is pay-for-placement.
- A drunk chimpanzee is selecting the videos to feature.
Anyone know why the front page blows so badly?
iPhone and Canada: The Real Story.
FOR DETAILS AROUND TODAY’S ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE IPHONE
VISIT MY IPHONE BREAKING NEWS PAGE
UPDATE APRIL 29
Rogers confirms it has a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada some time this year. That’s all they’re saying. No release date, no pricing details.
UPDATE Tue, Apr 22 08 (9:26):
Someone says they’ve had an IM chat with a Rogers employee who “revealed” May 21 as the release date. [link]
——————————————–
Here’s the skinny on the delay bringing the iPhone to Canada.
First, don’t blame Rogers for the delay. Rogers is dying to bring the iPhone here. The only two networks in Canada that can support the iPhone (GSM) are both owned by Rogers (Rogers and Fido networks). Speculation on the street has been that Rogers has been stalling because it doesn’t want to offer the unlimited-data plan that Apple demands of its other national cell providers.
Not true.
If Rogers could get the deal from Apple, they’d take it.
The hang-up is two-fold:
- Trademark dispute: Between Apple and ComWave, a company that owns the iPhone trademark in Canada for its VoIP products. Apple offered to share the trademark (i.e. “Apple iPhone” and “ComWave iPhone”) but ComWave seems to be holding out for cash from Apple.
. - 3G upgrades: Apple is going to upgrade its iPhone to support the 3G network HSPA, recently launched by Rogers. Forward Concepts analyst Will Strauss leaked this first. Strauss says an HSPA version of the iPhone should be shipped sometime in the first quarter of 2008.
Rogers’ new high-speed network. I’m impressed.
I spent an hour or so with the folks from Rogers this morning to find out about their new 3G network. I have to say, it’s pretty damned amazing. The live full-motion video calling looks like something out of the future. Here’s a detailed video that explains it, pricing, phones, and a demo of the service.
Who wants a free 3G cell phone?
I’m looking for someone in the Vancouver area who wants to try out a really cool cell phone and try out Rogers’ new high-speed network. The phone can do full-motion video teleconferencing, has 30 channels of on-demand and live (!) TV, can stream terrestrial and XM satellite (ugh) radio stations, and lots more.
I tested it out this morning and was blown away. (Video coming shortly.)
So I’m looking for someone with a technology and writing background to try a phone out for 30 days (that’s the catch — after 30 days you have to give it back — sorry!) then email me some brief points about what you liked and what you didn’t.
If you’d be interested, please post in the comments a bit about your experience reviewing technology products. I’d like to give it to the reviewer (you) tonight at the Third Tuesday Vancouver event, so it’s a bonus if you could make it down there.
UPDATE: Tanya Davis has agreed to be my guinea pig. Why not jump over to her post asking for comments about what you think of video conferencing on cell phones?
The Free the Net Movement: Working Toward Free WiFi
There’s a quiet grassroots movement growing in, where else, Vancouver. But this movement isn’t trying to stop clearcuts or educate people on climate change. No, these people are Internet philanthropists. They want to set the wireless Internet signal they pay for — free! So that anyone can use it.
It’s a growing movement called Free The Net. And they plan to take it Canada-wide.
But not everybody’s happy about the idea.
Here’s a podcast of my technology column (which airs across Canada tomorrow) on the topic.
Introducing: Media Release 2.0 (a proposal)
After a brief stint in private radio, I began my career in public relations. I worked for a great little company called The Haibeck Group as director of new media. Back then, Netscape had JUST gotten background colours. People still used gopher. (<sigh> I miss gopher.)
Anyway.
One of the jobs I had to do was to write news releases and send them out to the media.
Then, I had to make the dreaded follow-up calls. Follow-up calls are the worst. Frankly, most journalists who answer these calls are abrupt and even kind of condescending. (It’s why I always take a moment to listen to a pitch and, if it’s not right for me, explain why so they can get some value out of the conversation.)
Today, as the National Technology Columnist for the CBC, I get a lot of news releases, nearly all by email. And it has interested me that, despite all the progress we’ve made in digital media and newsgathering, that the venerable old news release hasn’t changed its form.
There’s the lead paragraph, followed by some bullshit quote from a senior executive (”I’m pleased to announce the blah blah blah…”) and then usually a string of meaningless brand names… er BRAND NAMES… and no real sense of the news value or the real story.
And so, I would like to propose a new format for media releases.
With the kind permission of the p.r. person behind Bell Canada, I have done a revision of their news release issued yesterday.
Here’s the news release, as sent to me:
Bell adds iPod™ and mobile phone compatible
MP3 downloads to Sympatico/MSN Music Store
DRM-free music catalogue playable on a wide range of music devices
TORONTO, October 2, 2007 – Bell Canada today announced the availability of unrestricted MP3 music files on Sympatico/MSN Music Store musicstore.sympatico.msn.ca. Canadian consumers can purchase downloadable tracks playable on a wide range of compatible music and mobile devices, including iPod™ and MP3-enabled mobile phones.
“As Canada’s leading internet service provider and online portal, Bell continues to build and offer the most robust online entertainment portfolio, including music, video and gaming,” said Kevin Crull, President, Bell Residential Services. “The addition of MP3 tracks to Sympatico/MSN Music Store furthers our commitment to offering Canadians the very best entertainment experience.”
Because these downloadable MP3 tracks are Digital Rights Management (DRM) free, there are no limits on the types of music devices or number of computers on which purchased songs can be played. With more than a half million MP3 tracks currently available and more being added every week, Bell offers tracks some of the world’s best selling artists, including The Beatles, Coldplay, Norah Jones, Keith Urban, Gorillaz and The Rolling Stones as well as best selling Canadian acts Nickelback, k-os and Stompin’ Tom Connors. Sympatico/MSN also offers one of Canada’s largest selections of French artists, including Claude Dubois, Marie-Mai, Ima and many more.
In addition to being compatible with a variety of portable music devices, Bell’s DRM-free MP3 downloads can also be enjoyed on a wide range of MP3-compatible Bell Mobility phones.
Bell is offering MP3s from several independent labels as well as EMI artists, which can play on any portable media player or computer and can be burned on to CD, all without fear of viruses, corrupt files, spyware and pop-ups that are often associated with music download sites.
Consumers continue to have the choice of purchasing DRM-enabled Windows Media Audio (WMA) files. Albums in MP3 format will retail for the same price as DRM-enabled albums, while single tracks cost as little as 99 cents.
For a full listing of today’s’ hottest MP3 titles, please visit musicstore.sympatico.msn.ca
* iPod is a trademark of Apple®
About Bell
Bell is Canada’s largest communications company, providing consumers with solutions to all their communications needs, including telephone services, wireless communications, high-speed Internet, digital television and voice over IP. Bell also offers integrated information and communications technology (ICT) services to businesses and governments, and is the Virtual Chief Information Officer (VCIO) to small and medium businesses (SMBs). Bell is proud to be a Premier National Partner and the exclusive Communications Partner to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Bell is wholly owned by BCE Inc. For information on Bell’s products and services, please visit www.bell.ca. For corporate information on BCE, please visit www.bce.ca.- 30 -
For media inquiries, please contact:
Okay. Let’s look at this release.
First, it reads like an ad. It’s promotional in nature and it seems to be really concerned that Bell’s division president gets his meaningless (sorry, Bell, but it’s true) quote in there. Here’s the thing: No reputable journalistic outlet would print or broadcast that quote. It’s pointless. It says nothing.
The problem, I think, is with the form of the release itself.
Today’s journalists and bloggers (they’re part of the media too, after all) are bombarded by more and more releases. Many of them don’t read past the headline.
That’s why this release’s headline:
Bell adds iPod™ and mobile phone compatible
MP3 downloads to Sympatico/MSN Music Store
is flawed. Almost half of the headline is taken up with brand names.
And, frankly, this headline doesn’t say what the real story here is: That Bell is now offering unrestricted MP3 files to Canadians cheaper than anyone else. That is the story here.
And so, here is what I would propose as a new news release format. It contains the bare essentials, in bullet-point form, to catch the eye of journalists. It still includes the obligatory crappyquote from the executive, but it’s written in a simple, non-hyped style.
You can download my proposal for the Media Release 2.o [PDF].
(P.S. It’s a News Release or a Media Release. Don’t call it a Press Release. Presses refer to printing presses, and thus exclude electronic media like radio, television, and the Internet.
Have a look at my proposal for Media Release 2.0 and I’d love to hear your comments.
Putting SaskTel’s voicemail transcription to the test
I’ve been pretty fascinated by SaskTel’s voicemail transcription service. In short, you can pay an additional fee to have your voicemails transcribed into text and sent to your phone via SMS.
Awesome idea.
Regina podcaster and comedian James Whittingham tried it out.
First, have a listen to his recording of his voicemail (attached to this post). Then read along with how the transcription came back:
Hon it’s James calling. This is a message for Tod Mason, Tod Mason. That’s Tod with one D. If you are transcribing. Is this a real transcribing? If it is put 3 slashes now, ///(?). Forward slashes. I don’t care, back slash. Surprisely(?) 3 forward slashes indicates this is a real person transcribing this and if how much do they get paid for this. You got a percentage of that 40 cents of message? Put 2 slashes now, //(?). You get paid ___///(?). If you are happy with what you are doing, you didn’t fail cooking school, put ////(?) slashes now. Testing testing testing, I like to talk about myself. I am James Woodincamp(?), ha, like to see you Woodincamp(?). But that’s not bad. Anyway bye for now. - spoken through SpinVox.
James swears he didn’t add the slashes. Apparently it took about 12 minutes to get back to him.
Turns out — yes, it’s humans listening to your voicemails and typing the text out. James found a news story in which the service’s (SpinVox) co-founder Daniel Doulton said “If you say something new that the system has never seen… it’s able to push that bit up and ask an agent for help. That’s how we train the system live.”
Creepy. And cool.
Rogers will begin offering the service later this fall.
——————-
Update — Daniel Doulton from SpinVox replies:
I’m co-founder of SpinVox, and I read with interest your recent posting on our voicemail-to-text conversion service recently launched with SaskTel. I wanted to clarify a few things about the way messages are converted.
In your post, you wrote “yes, it’s humans listening to your voicemails and typing the text out” – this is not accurate.
SpinVox has developed a sophisticated learning system called the Voice Message Conversion System to carry out automatically the majority of conversions. When the system encounters a word or phrase its does not know or understand, it is able to refer to a human for assistance. The human then trains the system so that word or phrase becomes known to the VMCS for future use. In that way, the VMCS is constantly evolving and learning, increasing in accuracy and speed with each conversion.
But the main point is that while humans do help train the system, messages are converted by machines.
Tod replies: Hmmm…. I think the confusion arose because of the quote you gave to a newspaper, specifically: “If you say something new that the system has never seen … it’s able to push that bit up and ask an agent for help. That’s how we train the system live.”
It would seem that says a human agent does indeed listen to voicemails when the system can’t make out what’s being said.
Case in point, James Whittingham’s “slash test” — see below — which would certainly seem to imply human interaction.
A second point with regards to the added slashes to James’ converted message. The system will insert special characters that the speaker actually says. In this case, slashes are formal parts of web addresses or passwords, so VMCS will convert them if they look in sequence.
Tod replies: But that’s not what he did. He didn’t simply say ’slash slash slash’ — he said “If it is put 3 slashes now” and the system/operator typed “///(?)” afterward.
Unless your engine is smart enough to understand the context and syntax of that sentence (I co-founded an AI company that did this very syntactical analysis and it wasn’t easy!), it seems like you’ve got humans listening, at least to the questionable messages.
Am I missing something?
Why do p.r. people SHOUT so much?
This seems to be a growing trend among p.r. people — using all capitals to describe their client or show or company name. And I don’t get it.
For instance, Telus insists that its brand name be reproduced as TELUS. Which, frankly, is STUPID. Because TELUS, all in caps, implies it’s an acronym. (Perhaps it is: Telephone Expensive? Losers Use Silicon).
The worst offender, I hate to say, is the CBC. Here’s a recent media release from them. Er, us.
CBC TELEVISION’S CANADIAN ANTIQUES ROADSHOW
BEGINS ITS FOURTH SEASON, FRIDAY, OCT. 5 AT 7:30 P.M.Canada’s favourite antiques show, the CANADIAN ANTIQUES ROADSHOW, returns for its fourth exciting season on CBC Television, Friday, Oct. 5 at 7:30 p.m. Host Valerie Pringle and the Roadshow appraisers were delighted by the turnout at this year’s tapings and by the amazing trinkets and treasures-both large and small-that people brought to the venues.
The show visited six Canadian communities: Vernon, B.C.; Lethbridge, Alta.; Thunder Bay, Ont.; London, Ont.; Sherbrooke, Que.; and Charlottetown, P.E.I. Visiting Prince Edward Island marks the CANADIAN ANTIQUES ROADSHOW’s foray into every province, appraising antiques from Canadians across the country. The crowds during this year’s tapings surpassed the previous three tours, proving the show’s enduring appeal.
The CANADIAN ANTIQUES ROADSHOW continues to entertain viewers with interesting local stories, family histories and unusual finds. With an emphasis on Canadiana, the series offers an intimate glimpse into the lives of the people who settled this country and the stories that make it such a culturally rich place to live.
CANADIAN ANTIQUES ROADSHOW is directed by Michael Lewis, Denise Poirier and Christie McDonald. Executive producers are John Brazill and Mark Pederson. It is a production of Wallace Cove Productions in association with CBC Television.
Supporting photography available at www.cbc.ca/imagegallery
Leaving aside the fact that the writer of this released used hyphens instead of dashes in the first-paragraph parenthetical clause (god, I’m a geek), can someone explain why they need to write THE SHOW NAME out in every instance that THE SHOW NAME is mentioned?
No. Seriously.
P.R. people? Why do you do this?
Update: The CBC responded to me about the CAPS issue:
> As for putting the show titles in caps, it’s a way of eliminating any
> confusion. This is the show we’re promoting. Because inevitably, press
> releases will contain the names of other CBC shows, which are bolded and
> italicized, non-CBC shows, which are just italicized–and the show we’re
> actually promoting. We actually have an entire style guide devoted to our
> media releases.
Meh. This distinction is only relevant internally. Journalists don’t know or care that that’s the syntax you’re using.
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