Philtered

Microsoft finally fessing up? [ 17 days ago ]

>> Filed under Marketing

Microsoft’s Photosynth looks cool from the demos and video’s that I’ve seen, but when I visited their site tonight I got the following message:

Photosynth not cool enough yet

Is Microsoft admitting they aren’t cool because Photosynth works only on a PC and not a Mac? I thought they were trying to change that perception with a new ad campaign. Maybe not the best choice of words?

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Flaky buyers on eBay and Craigslist [ 21 days ago ]

>> Filed under Technology

I’ve been cleaning out my house and selling things online, but I’ve started to have a lot of frustrating experiences with flaky buyers on eBay and Craigslist.

I always expect people to be flaky on Craigslist because 50% the people who reply will ask if the item is still available (and then never respond), 40% will give you a low-ball and sometimes insulting offer, and the remainder may actually be motivated to buy. This is my anecdotal evidence at least.

On eBay there is supposed to be an explicit commitment to buy when you win an auction, but twice in the last month I’ve come across buyers who don’t pay and never respond to me. This is especially annoying because eBay has a 2 week process to re-list an unpaid item (and to recoup the listing fee).

I would prefer if eBay maintained an active credit card or PayPal account for buyers and automatically charged them when an auction ends. Without this, how can sellers have confidence in a buyer? We Especially now that sellers can’t leave negative feedback for buyers.

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The debut of my 3G iPhone [ 58 days ago ]

>> Filed under Technology

This morning I upgraded to the 3G iPhone. I waited in line with BrianP at the Chestnut Street Apple Store in SF. The line didn’t take very long and I bought one of the few remaining 16GB models available (the Chestnut store won’t have more 16GB models until tomorrow).

A few initial reactions to the 3G iPhone:

The device lives up to the hype, and the day 1 activation disasters will soon be forgotten (if they haven’t been already).
The in-store activation process was a headache and the salesperson had to call AT&T because I had a corporate discount on my monthly bill. Apple should push AT&T for a more simplified activation process. The only reason lines were as long as they were is because activation with AT&T is so time-intensive.
3G internet is super fast and well worth the upgrade.
The Apps store is awesome and there are a handful of standout applications.

My favorite applications thus far:

Loopt: allows you to add your friends and see where they are on a map at any given time (by using the built in gps). It’s on the spammy and creepy side, but fun as long as you only allow people you trust to connect with you.
Yelp: uses the gps functionality to find nearby restaurants, bars, shops, etc. Ranks them based on distance away and rating of the establishment.
Facebook: I like theFacebook iPhone app better than Facebook.com, mainly because it doesn’t contain all the spammy and distracting Facebook apps (super wall, super duper wall, ninja vs pirate, etc). I’m left wondering why the iPhone Facebook app doesn’t have the Loopt functionality. It would dominate the iPhone social networking if it did.
A few other stand-outs are the NYTimes app, the iTunes remote, and Twitterific.

I’m surprised not to see apps from WSJ, Friendfeed, Gmail, Google Reader, Google Docs, Amazon, ESPN, and Yahoo Fantasy Sports. This leaves the door open for someone else to define the iPhone app category leader.

Now I have to list my v1 iPhone on Craigslist. Anyone want to buy it from me?

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