Andrew, the editor and blogger, at Retrevo dislikes the Apple TV and gives 5 reasons why. These reasons are not good and don’t make sense with just a little bit of research and thought. Here is my rebuttal.
What the Facebook purchase of Instagram means
The news today is all about Facebook spending $1 billion dollars in cash and stock to acquire Instagram and its team. The team, by the way, is only two people, according to Instagram’s website. If you don’t own a smartphone or stay away from the social side of things, Instagram is a photo sharing social network that allows the relatively unexciting practice of adding filters to your photos to make them look old or sepia or HDR or like a polaroid, etc. There are many, many filters. It’s a quick and fun way for the smartphone point and shoot photographer to add some flair to the otherwise mundane. The filters are not what makes Instagram special, it’s the community and its ability to send your photos to other social networks. Why upload a picture to Facebook when you can give it some pizazz and send it to both Facebook and Twitter with Instagram? This network of roughly 15 million users was available exclusively on the iPhone for about two years until about the first of April, 2012 when it showed up on Android as well.
The initial reaction by technology pundits has been one of shock, mostly at the price, and excitement when the two companies who are best at what they two team up. Then came the questions about what this means. The public, by and large, has been not so receptive of the idea. Comments like, “now you can poke in sepia” or “it’s even easier to get a desaturated picture of a sandwich on your wall” and especially “QUICK! Export your Instagram photos and cancel before Facebook ruins it” have been proliferating since the news broke and hour and a half ago.
First things first. Mark Zuckerberg has said that he has no plans to change anything. Is that a guarantee? Of course not. But if he came out saying that he intends to change things, it would be nearly guaranteed that he would. What would he change and why? He just spent a billion dollars on a product. If it’s worth a billion dollars, then it’s pretty good as is. Why make major changes to an awesome product you spent a fortune on and risk losing that sizable investment?
The worry on the part of the average user comes from the changes Facebook has implemented over the years. If they can be faulted for anything, it is that the changes are sudden and, often, without sufficient explanation. People hate change and surprises - put them together and you end up with a mutiny. Facebook is truly the only game in town so its user base is unaffected, despite the complaints. The most recent “disaster” according to users, is Timeline. Timeline is a fantastic features that lets you share your life rather than just a few moments. Let’s say you become friends with someone on Facebook today, but have just reunited with that person after a 20 year hiatus. Timeline allows them to look at your life. People talk about privacy, but it only makes visible things YOU typed and clicked “share.”
Regardless, the potential change has users worried. As far as quitting the site (Instagram) before the merger finishes, that needs to be completely rethought. Instagram is free. Quitting something that costs you nothing before any change takes place does not make any sense. There is nothing to lose. No investment. The investment that is lost by quitting is the network of people each user has connected with in the time they have been using it and the potential connections that time and a new community of Android users will bring.
It will change to some extent. Everything does. It may or may not bet Facebook induced change. It may well be an evolution and a function of time. At the end of the day, you will still be able to take photos, apply filters and share them with people on Facebook, Twitter and any other staple social network that has yet to come along. Do you really care who the owner is on the masthead if the user experience is the same at its core?
The only other thing it means is that Instagram has the full financial backing and power of Facebook behind it. Would you say it is capable of achieving more or less than before?
The last question to answer is why did they buy it? Facebook recently lost a battle for Milk, the Oink app and a piece of Kevin Rose (founder of Digg) in one fell swoop to none other than Google. Oink was a way to rate and rank things around you and was shuttered three months into its life cycle when the parent company, Milk, was acquired. It was about getting Instagram first and adding a premium name product to its portfolio. Facebook is the where people put photos. Instagram is how people take photos. It was a natural partnership.
It was said that 10% of all the photos ever taken, were taken in 2011. More people are taking more photos than ever before and sharing them with everyone they know. This will only make it easier. Relax and let it play out. It will ultimately be a very good thing.
Siri is amazing
By now, almost everyone has heard of Sir, the new virtual assistant Apple has included on the iPhone 4S. I’ve been getting to know her for the last 45 minutes or so and I have to say that it’s amazing. Siri was initially the company that developed the artificial intelligence and launched an app with it. Apple snatched them up and integrated Siri into the new version of iOS and made her available only on the iPhone 4S so far. I refer to Siri as a woman because it is a female voice that interacts with you.
The magic of Siri is that she is conceptual. You do not need to say “What is the weather report for zip code xxxxx?” You can simply say, “Siri, will I need an umbrella on Tuesday.” You can say “Siri, can you send Ty an iMessage?” You speak to Siri exactly the way you would to a human personal assistant. She is able to follow the flow of a conversation. As Scott Forstall showed us at the keynote, you can text me with something like “When can we go to lunch?” When that comes in, I can ask Siri, “what is my schedule like for Friday?” If she responds that I am free all day, I can simply tell her to reply. Even though she left the messages app and went to the calendar app, she understands that it was all to get to a response to your request for lunch.
I found an issue in the much talked about Facebook for iPad app and show it here. It’s small, but exists nonetheless.
Upgrade app from AT&T
If you have an iPhone and you’re looking to upgrade, there are several options. You can visit a store, call AT&T or log into ATT.com and check your account. With over 500,000 apps on the app store, and a long relationship with Apple, it stands to reason that AT&T has made it easier still. The ATT Upgrader app allows you to input your number, last 4 of social security number and billing zip code to get an immediate look at your status. Whether or not you are eligible for an upgrade, you can purchase a new phone from within the app. Even if you are ineligible you are greeted with a message that says, You are not eligible at this time for an upgrade at a discounted price. However, you can take advantage of our no commitment pricing On October 7 when the iPhone 4S launched, this was the easiest way to complete the purchase. Apple’s website was overloaded making a connection to each carrier. The phone number to Apple was not letting anyone through. Anyone with special pricing such as AT&T government or premier accounts was told that the transaction could not be completed online. If the Apple site let the customer in, a carrier would have to be selected, which was the common choke point. Using the AT&T Upgrader obviously connects only to AT&T which alleviates part of the processing problems during high volume upgrades. Of course, it is only built for iPhone customers upgrading to new iPhones. However, if you fall into that category, download the free app and give it a try. You’ll have your new phone on the way in no time.
