Wednesday Website of the Week: Dispatches From The Island

We often put celebrities on pedestals. They don't like the same things we do, or deal with the same problems we do. Well guess what? That's not always the case. Take Jorge Garcia, one of the stars of ABC's hit "Lost." For those unfamiliar, Jorge plays Hurley, one of the more easygoing castaways on the island. (believe me, we're brushing over a lot of mythology of his character over the last five years.)

Jorge has his own blog, Dispatches From the Island. If you're looking for Lost spoilers, this isn't the place for you. Instead, this is Jorge's personal blog of his own experiences, and sure there's some crossover. For example, he recently blogged about his trip to Comic-Con, but he wasn't talking about the Lost panel, instead he was talking about the swag at the event, things that personally excited him, and a look at his hotel room. You realize that like a lot of us, it's the kind of event Jorge would attend even if that whole major TV show gig wasn't going on.

He's one of us. One of the guys who enjoys a trip to a theme park, or a snapshot with Star Trek gadgets. In short, we'll call him one of the good guys. Check out dispatchesfromtheisland.blogspot.com

Why Does Dvice Hate Apple?

There are two major tech blogs, Engadget and Gizmodo. Both have passionate fans, and both do quite well financiallly, especially compared to other blogs. So it's no wonder that awhile back, a third "major" blog came onto the scene: Dvice. Comprised partially of writers from other blogs, and financed by the Sci Fi Channel (Sorry, SyFy now) the blog generally tends to be a day late, and covers a fraction of the news of the other two. 

Both Engadget and Gizmodo do a solid job of covering the major Apple events. They both offer coverage that can be critical or praise-filled depending on Apple's news. That's not quite the same as objectivity, but it's what passes for it in the blogosphere. Which brings us back to Dvice. Yesterday, Dvice ran two stories on the iPhone 3.0, or just 50% more than they ran on an update to Microsoft's Surface. The Apple coverage included the headline "Apple introduces more ways to spend money on your iPhone," and from their other post, "Apple announced an update to the iPhone operating system at one of its love feasts in Cupertino today." I don't know, maybe it's just me, but when you promote and follow diligently Surface, which is in the hands of zero customers, and meanwhile neglect a device (when your name is Dvice) that's in the hands of millions of users, that seems like bad business. Perhaps that's why, despite the strong backing, Dvice is a very distant third to the other two blogs.

Four Potential Positives of a Jobs-less Apple

First a few disclaimers. 1. We do not wish any ill will to Steve Jobs. 2. We have no reason to think his departure is imminent. 3. We're not calling for him to leave Apple, not in the least.

However, when Jobs is no longer with the company, be it next week, month, or decade, there are some potentially positives that could come along with the change:

1. Lower Cost Market Entry
It's been said time and time again, that the average price paid for a PC is falling. Other than the foray with the Mac Mini (let's hope for an update there, soon) Apple has all but ignored this market. Years ago Jobs made the point that luxury automakers are doing just fine with a sliver of the auto industry. His point at the time was to show that Apple wasn't in peril if it didn't have 15 percent of the market. While true, times have changed. No one is sitting around wondering whether Apple will survive these days. Instead the question becomes where can Apple find more growth. Like it or not, the low-end of the market is the answer. Plus there's a practical reason: Apple has created a largely successful ecosystem of iPod/iPhone/Mac. While many wannabe iPods have come and gone, if another company is successful at dominating the growing low-end market, they could potentially launch a legitimate competitor to the whole Apple environment. Without Jobs, Apple would have even more pressure from outside, and from what we hear, more support internally for aggressively pursuing this market.

2. Partnerships
One of the great premises of web 2.0 is the community sharing, and community experience. Companies also realize they can be leaner and more competitive when they work together. Sure, Apple could bury Netflix if they wanted to, but why re-invent the wheel? Partner with them instead. Apple is always set to "go it alone." If Apple does lose it dominance in music, for example, i would expect it to come at the hands of some sort of partnership among many companies, rather than a single competitor. Fortunately for Apple, so far these companies have shown themselves as inept at working together. (See "Plays For Sure")

3. Employee Blogs / Openness
The end of Apple's participation in Macworld will leave a giant void for the Mac faithful, who want to be in on what's going on. One way to satisfy that curiosity, and control the flow of information at the same time would be employee blogs. I think most Mac fans would find it fascinating to read a post from Johnny Ive for example, talking about the trial and error of creating the aluminum unibody. Let's see some videos of testing. Let's see some prototypes. We're talking about revealing this info after the fact, in a manner that would keep the faithful tuned in, and wouldn't reveal anything to put the company at a disadvantage. No one's asking for a three-year product roadmap, just some glimpse into the process of creating the products.

4. iPhone as a (more) open platform
I've seen the future. In five years we may be living in a world in which all phones with the exception of the iPhone run some variant of Android. These are the two mobile platforms of the future. Android will presumably be comprised of many of the concepts described in the other suggestions: several handset manufacturers agreeing/partnering on a single OS, an OS created in an open-source manner, and meticulously chronicled in blogs across the web. Over at Apple, we'll have updates pushed out when Apple says they're ready, and app developers in the dark, with their hands tied in what their apps can do. The iPhone has an impressive processor, and one can assume it will only get better. Consumers will wonder why can this $79 phone have touch capabilities, AND flash, AND copy and paste, and yet the (then) $149 iPhone doesn't?

So there you have it. The best news is, none of these changes would require Jobs to be gone from the company. He could decide at any minute to implement these changes. Given Apple's history though, don't hold your breath.

What do you think? Are there other potential positives of a Jobs-less Apple? Are we off our rockers this time?

The iPhone: Turning a missing feature into a hype machine

There's a lot of buzz about the next version of the iPhone, and frankly, it's been that way since shortly after the phone launched. The word, or more precisely number and letter, on everyone's mind is 3G. Yes, 3G. You would think it was the savior of cell phone users everywhere. Curiously, a year ago, most of the country probably hadn't heard of 3G. Yet a year later, it's the must-have feature for the next version of the iPhone. Which got me thinking: what if the iPhone had 3G to begin with? What would we all be talking about now?

Apple has a knack for (whether by design or not) leaving off a feature, or neglecting to add a feature, and then the lack of that feature actually fuels sales and even more talk about the product. Think back to a time when the iPod didn't do video. The buzz reached fever pitch after the iPod Photo. Everyone was suddenly concerned with when would the iPod play video. So here we are again. If the iPhone had 3G from the start, would rumor sites be buzzing about text copy & paste? (another missing feature) or perhaps an iChat client? It's doubtful these kinds of rumors would fuel the tech blogs the way the lack and perceived need of 3G on the phone has.

3G will not make the phone thinner, lighter, give it longer battery life, or make the UI more intuitive. It won't let you copy and paste text, record voice memos, or easily create ringtones. What it does do is provide fuel for the blogger fire for an entire year.

So what do you think? If the iPhone has 3G networking from the beginning, what would everyone be getting ready for now? Do you think Apple deliberately leaves off features to build hype, or are the media/bloggers to blame/credit?