A quick heads-up that I’m speaking at a webinar about using Sencha Touch and PhoneGap to build really big, complicated mobile applications. If that interests you, you can register here.
It’s free, and the webinar is this Wednesday, May 2nd, from 2pm—3pm eastern time (that’s 11am—12pm for us pacific folk).
…is that it’s very easy to do it for 14 hours/day.
I know a lot of you are anxiously waiting for part two of this series. I’m going to publish it eventually! It’s not an easy post to write, and I had to scrap another draft an hour ago. Someday…
In the meantime, I present a follow-up to part one, where we discussed the absurd price difference between an iPhone and a Windows Phone in Canada.
I’m sure by now you’ve heard that I moved.
I switched my HD7 to an American plan this weekend. That’s a fun story in and of itself, but it got me thinking about how much trouble I’d be in if I had gone the Rogers/iPhone route.
For one thing, Wind has fantastic roaming rates. This has been very useful, since I gave my number to a bunch of moving and relocation contacts before leaving Canada, and had to keep it to stay in touch with them once I arrived. You can’t really beat 20¢ per minute.
Were I still on Rogers, these calls would have cost me $1.45 per minute. That’s over 7 times as much!
It gets even uglier if you look at text. Wind doesn’t charge anything for incoming text messages — even here in the US — and they still only charge 15¢ outgoing. Rogers charges 75¢ each way, so for one incoming and one outgoing message, Rogers is 10 times more expensive.
Of course, worst of all is data. Assuming no prior arrangements are made (though Wind wins there as well) Wind charges $1/MB. A little high? Yes. But Rogers? A whopping $10.24/MB.
Unreal.
Do you know how much Wind charged me to cancel my contract with them? Nothing. Even though I signed up for a 12-month promotion, they don’t consider that a contract and it cost me absolutely nothing to cancel my “plan” 3 months in.
If I had gone the iPhone/Rogers route, it’s a whole other story.
I would have signed up for a 3-year plan on a brand new 4S, and I would have done it about a week before Rogers (slightly) lowered their early cancellation penalties. That wouldn’t have applied to me, since the new rules are only effective for contracts starting on or after January 22nd.
Under the old scheme, I would have paid the lesser of of $400 or $20 times the number of months left in my contract ($400 is lower), and the lesser of $100 or $5 times the number of months left in my contract ($100 is lower). Plus tax.
All told, I would have been out $565 for my early cancellation.
I was really happy with Wind. I heartily recommend them to anyone in the Canadian cities they cover. But I am really, really happy I didn’t go with Rogers.
(Earth Hour happens every March 30th. People like me turn off their lights and gadgets for an hour because they feel super-guilty for leaving them on all the time.)
The single best example of building a brand that I’ve ever seen happened during Earth Hour 2009.
I was on a date with my now-wife, and we were enjoying a romantic dinner at a trendy Ottawa restaurant called Absinthe. (Wonderful place — the dessert menu is to die for.)
We observe Earth Hour every year, and we were a little disappointed when we realized we’d be stuck at a restaurant when the hour started. Restaurants are full of lights, you see, and turning off your lights is like Earth Hour 101.
Anyway, we’re at a small table for two, near the back of the restaurant. Dinner had just ended, and we were ordering desserts. (If you ever go to Absinthe, promise me you’ll get a dessert. They’re fantastic.)
As the clock drew nearer and nearer to 8:30, there was suddenly a good bit of hubbub about the restaurant’s staff. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but they were bringing something to each table. At first I thought they might just be bringing patrons their bills, but that couldn’t be right, there were too many at once. Finally they got close enough that we could make out what they’re carrying, and-
Oh. Candles.
They were bringing candles to each table. Not just the tables that had people sitting at them, either. There were candles everywhere; I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many in a room that size. And the waiters were lighting them, too.
As our waitress dropped off an armful of candles at our table (already lit! How did she carry them already lit?) she casually remarked:
“We’re going to turn off the lights for Earth Hour.”
Sure enough, when the clock struck 8:30, off went the lights (or at least so dim as to appear off; I’ll admit I don’t quite remember if they were all the way off or just really, really dim). The restaurant was more or less completely dark, save for the light from probably a few hundred candles.
It was a beautiful sight. From our small table for two, near the back of the restaurant, we could see what seemed like an infinite wave of tiny flames, flickering in all directions. Giant shadows lept across the walls and ceiling; I could hardly believe the transformation.
Our table was no different. By now our dessert had arrived, and we found ourselves sharing probably the best crème brûlée I’ve ever had — by candlelight.
It was absolutely perfect, and it’s one of those memories I wouldn’t trade for the world.
Now, where was I again? Oh, right: Branding.
Nobody remembers “good”. If your restaurant or your product or your blog is just “good”, it’s not going to get any attention from anybody. The way to build a name for yourself, the way to build a brand, is to give your patrons/users/readers something really special. Something remarkable.
Aside: You could argue here that being “good” for a really long time is a perfectly viable branding strategy. You would be completely right.
Coca-Cola has built their brand on bringing consumers the same really good (but not remarkable) experience hundreds of millions of times. So if you have hundreds of millions of chances to impress your clients or bosses or shareholders, you can make lots of good experiences add up to a remarkable brand. Otherwise…
Let’s look at what Absinthe did to make my Earth Hour 2009 so special.
First, they put in a lot of effort. I know, you’re probably thinking “Dan, all they did was dim the lights. I can do that right now with very little effort.” But let’s really think for a second about everything that had to happen for that night to play out the way it did:
I’m not going to say this was some huge, Herculean effort, but it didn’t just happen all by itself. Someone cared enough about making my Earth Hour special to take responsibility for it, and to lead the charge on the big night. This is absolutely essential for a remarkable experience.
And second, they didn’t ask for permission. This is especially clear in the wording our waitress used. “We’re going to turn off the lights”. Not “Do you mind if we turn off the lights?” nor “Sign this waiver so we can turn off the lights”. Can you imagine how lame that would have been?
Remarkable experiences happen on their own terms. Nobody opts-in to being amazed by something.
Yes, this adds risk, and yes, it means the same experience won’t delight everyone. The art of the perfectly-crafted experience lies in how well this risk is assessed, and how well you know your audience.
Absinthe got this exactly right. They knew they could count on their hip clientèle to enjoy the novelty of the experience. They decided that they weren’t risking much by the possibility of alienating a few folks well after the dinner rush. The surprise and lack of control were well thought out, and a key aspect of the overall experience.
This is the part of the post where I give you some key takeaways you can use right now to improve your brand today.
Sorry. I’ve got nothing.
I don’t worry very much about branding in my day-to-day. That’s going to change a little with the new gig. Working on a product that touches millions of people every day means I have a huge opportunity to impact a major brand.
I’m really excited for this aspect of my job, so I’m going to start thinking about branding a little more. I promise I’ll share what I learn.
In the mean time, what branding advice do you have to share with me?
I was hoping to write a real post this week — ideally a follow-up to part one of the why I switched to Windows Phone saga — but my duties related to last week’s news have left me little time for writing.
Instead, here is a short list of things I have learned since deciding to move from Ottawa to California:
Jokes and life endangerment aside, I’m still really excited to go. I’ve submitted my visa application information to Netflix’s team of lawyers, who will submit it on my behalf. I’ve also been in touch with Netflix’s relocation team, who will help me move a bunch of my stuff to California, and set me up with a car and a place to live for a few weeks while I make more permanent arrangements.
This whole process is completely new and exciting to me; I can’t wait to see how the next few weeks play out!
* Several people have tried (and utterly failed) to convince me that “there’s nothing to worry about”, as sharks only inhabit the southern regions of the California coast. (If you want a source for my 1-in-8 math, I counted 14 references to California out of 113 entries in (this list.)
** Fun fact: Snakes are my third biggest irrational fear. As you may have guessed, sharks take the top spot. (Heights are second.) Interestingly, I’m not afraid of spiders, despite the long list of infamously frightening varieties that are found in California.
You may have noticed that this blog has been a little… quiet, lately. In fact, at 28 days, this is the longest gap I’ve ever left between posts. And if you follow me on Twitter or Google+, you’ll notice I’ve been silent there, too.
What gives?
Well, I’ve been very busy with something I had to keep very secret. And now after a month of emails, phone calls, flights, worrying, and jumping up and down, I have an announcement to make:
I’m moving to San Jose and taking a job at Netflix.
I’ll let that sink in for a moment.
…
Ok, now let’s answer all the common questions:
Yes.
Macadamian has been a huge, positive influence on my life. It was my first software job, and I have about a million memories of my time there that I will cherish forever:
Those last two stung a lot. But the show went on, and Macadamian continued to do bigger and better things. I have no doubt that this trend will continue in my absence, and I’m so glad to have shared in its success for the past five years.
Yes. (And yes.)
I’ll be flying out sometime at the end of March; my darling wife will probably join me a few weeks later. The plan, for now, is to rent out the house — so if you’re looking to rent a townhouse in Gloucester, give me a shout. I’m also selling my car.
I’ve lived in Ottawa for my entire life. I will miss it immensely, and I will visit often. I’m starting out with a temporary visa, so I have a few years to figure out what the next few will look like. It’s both unbelievably exciting, and unimaginably scary.
In short: I couldn’t be more thrilled.
Yeah!
I’ll be joining the Discovery Engineering team as a Senior User Interface Engineer. I’ll be responsible for any Netflix app that runs on a TV: game consoles, bluray players, Boxee, you name it. It’s going to be a blast.
My day-to-day will be mostly JavaScript, as the interfaces for those platforms are written in HTML5. I’m absolutely stoked to help craft an experience that will be seen by millions of users. I can’t wait to see what my team comes up with in the coming months and years!
This is a very exciting time in my life, and it’s been killing me to keep it under wraps. Going forward, I’ll be a lot more noisy about the daily joys and struggles of preparing to move across the continent, and to another country.
And hey, if you ever miss me, just sign into Netflix and fire up your favourite flick. I won’t be able to watch it with you, but I’ll do my best to make sure you enjoy it :)
Do you ever have trouble focusing?Do you ever wish you could get just a little more done in an afternoon?
Do you ever procrastinate on your next task because you have a meeting in 20 minutes?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then congratulations! You’re human. And like every other human being (even the ones that lied and said no to all three questions above), you aren’t always as productive as you could be.
That’s ok! It’s impossible to be productive all the time. Nobody’s perfect, every day has its natural ups and downs.
But sometimes you just need to be really productive, just for a little while. How do you give yourself that little extra push?
I’m about to share a little routine I’ve been using lately for just that purpose. It’s easy, it’s fun, and it’s worked really well for me so far. If that sounds like something you want to try, here are the steps:
A second monitor is useful for all kinds of reasons, and completely necessary for this routine to work. It doesn’t have to be nice, it doesn’t have to be anywhere near as big as your primary monitor, you just need more than one screen.
All of them.
Your dock or taskbar, your IM client, your mail client, your calendar, whatever browser you have your Google apps in, your Twitter et al.; if it flashes or has a notification of any kind, that counts. Second monitor.
Thing. Singular.
This is a great trick for doing one thing at a time. It won’t help you multitask, because multitasking is unproductive. If you have several things to do, pick the most important one. If they’re all important, flip a coin.
This is the most important step. You can’t skip it.
You can listen to any kind of music you want, but you have to be able to set a finite limit on the number of songs played. Radio is no good, neither are apps like Pandora. I use Grooveshark, you can use your iTunes library (or open-source equivalent). Anything that lets you queue up an arbitrary number of songs will do.
The number of songs you line up matters a lot. You’ll see why in a second. For now just choose a dozen songs you really like and press Play.
Completely off. Unplug it if you have to.
Now, here’s the subtle but key rule in this routine: Don’t turn your second monitor back on until the music stops.
No exceptions.
With your distractions completely blocked out, start working. Whatever you do, don’t break the subtle-but-key rule: as long as there’s music playing, that second monitor stays off.
If you’re blocked and you need to check your mail to figure something out, make an assumption and carry on. If you’re bored and you need a break, just sit there and rock out until that gets more boring than working.
Read your mail. Answer your IMs. Catch up on Twitter. Whatever little things you need to do that aren’t actual, real work.
When you’re ready to get more done, go back to Step 3.
My favourite part of this system is how well it scales.
Need to get more done? Listen to more music. Meeting in 20 minutes? Put on 20 minutes of songs. Lots of email today? Stick to shorter playlists.
Your brain will grow accustomed to the “music on, notifications off” mentality. As soon as that second screen darkens and your ears start picking up sound, it’s go time. When the music stops, you know it’s time to sync up with the rest of the world.
This routine has worked wonders for me for the past few weeks. Do you have a routine to share? Why not try this one and tell me how it goes?
I haven’t forgotten about that Windows Phone post. It’s coming. This is a small interlude while I get it juuust right.
Every Tuesday for the past four weeks, I’ve written up some super-geeky browser trivia on Google+. If upcoming jQuery releases and Opera are your thing, you should follow along! The posts are public, you don’t need a G+ account or anything.
I think I’m going to keep this up for the foreseeable future. The research-and-report format is surprisingly fun, and it’s filling in all kinds of gaps in my browser history knowledge. I have no idea if anyone is reading the trivia, let alone enjoying it, but sometimes you just have to do something because you want to do it, you know?
After three and a half years, I’ve parted ways with my iPhone and taken up a Windows Phone. There are a lot of reasons — two posts’ worth, in fact. Today we discuss the big motivation: cost.
It’s no secret that Canada is one of the most expensive places in the world to own a smartphone. That’s why, when my iPhone 3G broke down not long ago, my first thought was: “Great. How much is this going to cost me to replace?”
Well, by my calculations, $2836.98.
The up-front cost for a 16GB iPhone 4S, on contract, is $219.22. $159 for the phone + $35 activation fee + applicable taxes. (I’m doing all these calculations with Rogers, but the numbers vary only slightly with the other iOS-friendly Canadian carriers.)
The monthly plans are the real killers. Unless you think you can get by on 100MB of data per month, you’re looking at a base price of $52.35. That nets you 500MB (not great, but enough for my needs) with 200 minutes, and unlimited SMS. However, that doesn’t include such luxuries as caller ID and voicemail.
These features are sold as add-ons, either à la carte, or through “value packs”. The only sensible option through Rogers is their iPhone Value Pack, which adds:
This will run an additional $12/month, bringing our monthly bill to a total of $72.72 after tax. Add that up over the course of the three-year contract, and we hit a total of $2617.76. With the initial phone costs, we’re back up to $2836.98.
This is outrageous! Keep in mind that that’s a very low-end plan (500MB data, 200 minutes). There’s no way I’m going to commit to that. I have a mortgage.
Wind Mobile is a new(ish) carrier in Canada. They offer much better packages at much cheaper rates than the big carriers. The tradeoff here is that they have much less network coverage; their network only exists in five Canadian cities. (I’m fortunate enough to live in one of them.)
They have a 12-month contract promotion on right now for their Oh Canada plan. Unlimited voice, SMS, and data, for $29/month. Yes, you read that right, and yes, it includes caller ID. (Voicemail is an extra, to the tune of $5/month.)
After tax, that’s a monthly bill of $38.42. Over three years, that’s a grand total of $1383.12. (This assumes I can find a similar promotion when this one ends, or dial back my plan to keep roughly the same costs — easy, since this promotion’s features far exceed my needs.)
This is great, but Wind uses a fancy new network protocol that isn’t compatible with the iPhone. In fact, they only sell Blackberry and Android devices, which I just can’t seem to like.
What’s a geek to do?
I’d used a Windows Phone before, and it was one of those fish-to-water things (more on that in part two). When I was in Vegas for MIX, my workplace was kind enough to loan me an LG Optimus 7. The OS offers much of the polish that BB/Android lacks, the kind of polish you can’t give up after 44 months of iOS.
The features are close enough for my needs. It’s an easy transition.
Unfortunately, not very many Windows Phones are compatible with Wind’s network, and they’re hard to find in Canada. It turned out my only options were the Dell Venture Pro and the HTC HD7. The HD7 is a newer model, and we had one at work that I could try out for a week, so that became my target.
The only Canadian carrier to have ever sold the HD7 was Bell. Bell and Wind use completely different networking technology, so even if I could track one down, I’d still be stuck with unreasonably expensive plans.
I needed the version of the HD7 sold by T-Mobile, and American carrier whose network is compatible with Wind’s.
I found a seller on eBay with a new, still-in-the-box HD7. He would only ship to the US. Not a deal breaker, but definitely an added cost.
Including the price of the auction, the fee to unlock the phone from T-Mobile, the conversion from USD to CAD, the pick-up fee at the American UPS store, tax coming back into Canada, and the toll booth in between, my new phone cost me $366.64.
Setting my new HD7 up on Wind was relatively painless, though there is a one-time $25 fee for the SIM card. All in all, the phone, setup charges, and plan for three years totals $1749.76.
That’s a savings of $1087.22 over the iPhone package outlined above.
I like Apple’s devices. The hardware is well-designed, iOS is beautiful, and I was very, very happy all those years with my 3G. But to me, there is no way that an iPhone is worth nearly $1100 more than a Windows Phone.
§
Stay tuned for part two, where I discuss why it felt like the right time to leave iOS.
click to enlarge
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P.S. If anyone’s looking for CES coverage, here’s what I’ve got:
The big news of the day is that RIM announced a new version of its Playbook OS. Looks good. Coming in Feburary.
I was led to believe (along with half the rest of the internet) that Microsoft would announce a new XBox at their keynote. Apparently this did not occur. And apparently Ballmer’s final keynote was a bit of a let down. Still, the Metro update was neat.
There are also a ton of cool-looking devices being thrown around. Nokia and Samsung did pretty well, and I’ve heard a lot of buzz about Vizio.
Finally, here are some interesting people to follow if you’re looking for CES news for the rest of the week:
On Twitter, I’d recommend @miguelcarrasco for steady updates, and Mashable’s @film_girl if you want to completely drown in techie minutiae.
If Google+ is more your thing, you should circle +Mohamed Mansour for a whole bunch of reasons, useful CES highlights notwithstanding. Also, +David Bates is on location, and I’ve been enjoying his coverage thus far.
That’s it! Time to head back to the rink.