I am all in

foreach(var nextIpad in futureIpadLineUp) {
          if (nextIpad > justReleasedIpad) {
            continue;
         }
          buyIpad(justReleasedIpad);
}

There are certain things in life I don’t get. For some reason, I just do not understand why they are the way they are, and why people regard them as quite important or  valuable. Ok, to give you an example, I never understood Seinfield. I must submit, there’s something about the guy that makes you feel he’s supposed to be funny, but he really isn’t. I could never bring my self to laugh at his jokes. Pretty much every character in that show never made me laugh. To me, it was more like a fancy dress parade. You had decent costumes(Jerry), overly large ones(George),  mental ones(Kramer), and somewhat attractive ones(Elaine). Speaking of fancy dresses, there’s a large number  of designs in fashion I have no fucking idea why designers even bother making them. My wife loves watching fashion shows, and I sometimes happen to be sitting next to her when FTV comes on. We both appreciate good designs and like talking about the subject. But frankly, when I see a size 0 model wearing what seems like a carpet around her neck, with a gigantic hat that eagles could nest, with a top that’s literally a piece of clothe that’s barely covering nothing, you have to ask yourself, what the fuck? First of all, in the real world people come in all sizes, but not 0. Second of all no one wants to wear such ridiculous wardrobe in public, it’s humiliating, not at all appealing. I have never met a professional artist personally face to face in my life. If I do, I would ask him or her to draw a painting of common sense. You see, common sense is the average joe of intellectuality, and in my opinion professional artists never do paintings for average joes. I could never walk into an art gallery and marvel at a masterpiece that costs over million dollars. I just cannot understand why anyone in their right mind would spend that much money on a canvas with paint on it. If you do, you are neither an intellect nor an average joe, you are a freaking idiot. I could go on, but I think I will save some for a later post. To sum it all up, I am glad Seinfield is over(ironically that brings a smile to my face), fashion designers should not design when they are smoking pot, and if you could but did not spend a million dollars on a painting, congratulations you are not an idiot.

I have been thinking lately whether I could come up with an idea that sells. It instantly dawned on me that I certainly can, I just had to make it viral, or… wait for it…, controversial. When you think about it, aren’t they the two best ways to get attention quickly from your audience? To be controversial is to fire up people about something. To be viral is also to make people fire up about something. They only differ in context. Being controversial makes you stand out from the virals. A good example of this is Chatroulette. It started to make people think and talk more about the other side of social media, where the force is a bit darker than the virals. Being viral is the trend, there’s no argument about that. However, as with every business, industry or niche, if it gets too crowded, it will turn into a red ocean, eventually. On the other hand, if it’s controversial, and if it turns out OK, then you may have just created a blue ocean for yourself. There’s no other way but to really do it to see the results for myself.

No that’s not my head of development at work shouting at me to submit my changes. That’s my latest addiction to conquer the entire north west of Sydney, in foursquare. Signed up on Tuesday to see what the hoo ha is about, and after using it for three days I realize now why their user stats are climbing through the roof. Where else can you become a mayor at the civic center, let alone a train station? I mean come on, you can even become the mayor of your work place(given your boss has not discovered foursquare yet). Sit at the table in a restaurant for the first time, check related tweets in seconds to find out what others have tried there and rate as best. See where your friends are close by and catch up for a coffee or a quick beer. The whole idea of earning points and badges and moving up the leader board appeals to the gamer inside me, and I think the fun factor is the key. Take the fun part out and it’s a bit like Twitter with location support. I can see businesses using foursquare for 100 different things, but that’s probably another blog post.

Blogging out from train trip home.

Twitter is not another facebook. Trying to debate or draw conclusions on which one is mainstream at the moment is actually pointless. My opinion is they are both mainstream in their own niche. Twitter clearly is a social medium for expression where as facebook is a social medium for sharing. Regardless of whether twitter overtakes facebook on user numbers or not, it is not really going to make a difference on how they both facilitate social networking.  It will be interesting to see whether twitter will ever have a clear competitor in its niche. I really don’t think facebook is planning on touching down on twitter territory, and twitter on facebook’s. What makes twitter twitter, is the fact that it’s not another facebook. It is the clear differentiator that made twitter appeal to a more gen x community of users. This is the reason why we see politicians, journalists, business owners, academics, researchers etc. on twitter mainly than on facebook. Facebook’s appeal (and also ‘myspace’ if I may mention) is more towards a younger generation who are not really worried about what’s happening in the world outside theirs’. I think twitter has contributed significantly just as much as facebook to social networking. It has started to attract users who clearly were not in the pages of facebook, or didn’t dare to float in myspace.  Not so web savvy mothers and fathers who were annoyed at their kids spending whole nights in facebook and myspace doing their thang, are now following the prime minister and the oppostion leader on twitter.  Facebook’s effort on connecting communities together has been a massive effort on its part. Clearly families, friends and loved ones in different parts of the world can now connect and share with each other easily. These two social networking tools are clearly leaders of two different mainstreams, and I guess rather than trying to compare and contrast them, we should try to appreciate and compliment them for their effort.

This was the topic of the lunch hour today. Not a day goes by wtihout the iPhone coming up in a conversation. . Basically, the way I see it, the developer community is hooked to the app store. And consumers like me would not mind spending on apps that are easy to use, fun and increases productivity. I can’t imagine myself posting a blog while in the bus stuck in Sydney evening rush hour. But thanks to my wordpress app in my iPhone I am posting my very first one right now! I personally believe if you want to write an app for the iPhone, it’s better to write a native one. I find myself trying not to use up network data when using apps, and because most of mine are native ones, I have the advantage of storing things locally and syncing or uploading later. This saves me a lot of bandwidth because I am not chewing it up when I am entering stuff or navigating as opposed to using the web app equivalent. Cellular network bandwidth is still expensive, and you don’t get much for the price you pay. Technologies like google gears will enable us to get around this, but it’s utilization for mobile web apps has not taken off that well. Maybe we might have to wait and see what google’s Android is capable of when it is released. So for now, when I start writing apps for the iPhone, I think I will stick to writing native ones.

Let’s face it, weekends are not great anymore when it’s Sunday. It’s the beginning of a new week and you know what lies ahead. But Super Sundays are different. They are different because they don’t always happen, at least not often as you would like them to. On a Super Sunday you go to your favourite burger place for lunch and enjoy the succulent taste of flame grilled beef with crispy bacon and egg and ceaser salad to go as a side dish. If you haven’t tried caesar salad with your burger yet you should, otherwise you are missing out. When it’s chilly and windy at 4.30 in the afternoon, you just can’t resist the warmth of the best hot chocolate in Sydney. That’s when you stroll up to Lindt cafe on Martin Place, one of the only three in Australia(the other two happen to be in Sydney as well). The best of Super Sundays is super stuff doesn’t stop from there. They keep coming. I mean, how often do you see a swiss going for the sixth Wimbledon title in a row? And not only against any other player, it’s against his archrival the Spaniard. You can’t afford to miss the battle between the king and the prince on the holy grail of tennis, not even if you have to be up at 3.15 am. And wait, what about those guys reaching speeds over 300km/h at Silverstone? You just can’t get enough of the lot driving full throttle in the pouring rain, spinning around on the mirror like track trying their best to maintain the grip, there’s no traction control this year remember? This is all too super to happening on a sunday, but hey, I am not complaining!

The second largest Apple retail store in the world opened up in Sydney on George street last thursday. It is also the largest in the southern hemisphere, plus it has the longest genius bar in the entire world.

I managed to pop in the following day and I have to admit… it is one of the most visually stunning stores I have ever seen. Standing 3 stories high, the entire building is a work of art using glass. You feel as if you have walked into a shrine of cutting edge technology, and one thing apple knows is how to deliver it, starting from marketing all the way up to end user experience. The store itself stands out from everything else i can think of in the city. A guy who has never even bothered to try a mac in his life would get sucked into the store helpless, as if an alien spaceship is using a tractor beam to pull him in.

If there’s one company that has proved focus on branding can get you where you want to be, that’s Apple. My personal belief is branding either makes or breaks a business. Stray away slightly from your branding principles and you could be heading towards disaster. Apple has made significant changes along the way, they are opening up to enterprise software more and more which gives them the edge in expanding their target market, and the introduction of intel chips to their mac range along with bootcamp has given the PC audience an opportunity they never had but always wished for. They have managed to do all this without damaging their brand, and I am a big fan of those ‘mac vs pc’ ads which shows these changes in a really fun way, but most importantly people ‘get it’.

I guess the opening of the new store is a significant milestone for them. Apple is slowly expanding their territory market wise, technology wise and location wise. With vista being the most hated OS to-date(at least by me), and with more and more people getting used to convergence, Apple has a big chance of converting people to their products and platforms.

Soon we’ll be hearing “Once you go Mac, you never go back….”?