After this sad announcement, I've revisited Earbits. I love the listening experience as I did before.
Sure some technical details where a show stopper for me, i.e. no email account, gamification/social currency had no effect on me and the lack of a proper mobile app.
But I overcame those obstacles: I’ve created a Facebook account for Earbits and I was automatically recording the playlists during the day so I could listen to them during my commute.
I think that the loneliness was far more important.
I never met or connected with other users that were listening Earbits too (I’m in London, UK).
Maybe the traditional listening radio experience was missing; with a DJ, a voice, a brand (Earbits) we can stick on.
It’s one thing asking people to connect with an artist, but clearly it’s another to create an Earbits community.
That said I’ve discovered :
- extraordinary artists
It’s one thing to help listeners to discover new artists, it’s another to help them to discover good new artists! To me that’s the curation miracle :-)
- extraordinary founders
I’ve been inspired by your journey like no other. I really wish you the best for the aftermath of 16 June. :-)
Actually teaching people the meaning of URL never been a big issue to me : they’ve always been able to understand easily by analogy with their home address that a page needs to live at a precise location.
In fact even the naming of a file and the folder structure never been an issue to teach.
Hidding an address does look like spam, not honest, cheating by design because the user doesn't know where s/he is without digging (clicking/taping once or more).
As this information was there effortless, if it become an effort to find out, then people are not going to do it.
One may think that information was therefore not needed on the first place.
One may think twice and say : an information visible effortless might be needed because of its effortless nature. It’s there and part of the context we use things.
By example it’s needed to reassure the usage of something.
Why not starting to hide signs on the roads then. After all driverless cars don’t really need them and for everybody they distract the attention of the drivers.
I can't wait for the WWDC where Apple will allow all developers to submit their app following of course meaningful guidelines that fit a car user interface.
Then Apple can act as a gateway and the automakers cannot put a veto on which app goes to the car dashboard or not.
I think we can learn from the fiasco of Renault trying to create a plateform with their R-link system. In this case the car manufacturer does the filtering of the apps but the rewards are low for the developers :
- antique system : android already 3-4 years old!
- no access to the car data : it's like making a smartphone app without being able to use the camera in your app. So as the user experience designer you're loosing very important data about the context of the user.
- low number of users : not many cars are sold with this system.
(Carplay do not have many users yet but has much more potential of growth than R-link).
I think it’s a great opportunity. Shoutcast has a greater installed base than Icecast. But more importantly a really passionate user base.
However there is broken feature by design on ALL those streaming services: they stop for whatever reason.
As a listener it’s a terrible experience. It’s alaways when you start listening something you really like that it stops.
And you could think it stops because I try to listen on the mobile, so that’s normal. NO it stops even at home on your desktop. When you start listening a stream, you’re 100% of one thing : it will stop but NOT when you decide to stop it.
But it wouldn’t be that hard to build a system that actually use a better caching system and pretend to be live instead of trying to stream a live content.
Listeners already grasped the idea of listening events which are not “live” thanks to podcasts.
In fact what is streamed nowadays is mainly pre-recorded songs/stories. So the notion of “live” is absolutely not necessary unless you’re broadcasting sports or once-in-a-lifetime events.
And then TV / FM does a much better job.
That said, Shoutcast services are mainly non-live type of streams anyways.
So there is a great opportunity to buy the installed base of Shoutcast creators and listeners and Winamp userbase (pro-anti itunes).
The main idea is you change the sofwtare to make it work even when there is no internet connection.
A better caching system needs to be made on the device itself and on the server side.
In terms of monetization, it’s easy: audio adverts have already proved financial success.
It does work only because of their repetition AND their relation with the audience.
The best example of audio adverts are the songs with high rotation counts: they are the adverts of the big labels.
Here you got a system of dedicated listeners that you can target repetitively, endlessly, fairly (you don’t have to stream blocks of minutes of adverts)
Audio ads on webcast radio start to catch up with Radionomy systems by example.
AOL proved they couldn’t leverage that community. I don’t think Microsoft will do any better job as their main focus will be “integrate”.
A strategy that rarely works.
Of course “a non-stop stream even without internet connection“ can happen without buying Shoutcast & Winamp, but what a fantastic opportunity and shortcut for those who can.
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This is an interesting point of view and that it’s not the first time I’ve heard it (especially from indian students who were wondering if they’ve made the good choice coming in the UK instead of France).
However the only trouble on those stories is they were describing France a bit too much like California.
That said many foreigners usually do see opportunities when locals are just blind.
So if there is any attractiveness to France seen by Indian people who believe they can leverage those opportunities, this should be welcomed and probably rewarded too.
Yep. To me those kind of techniques are a warning bell telling me : this website is not worth visiting. I left immediately. If it's such a great essay, it will be repeated somehow, so I will not miss it. At the minima the comments here are usually enough if not more interesting.
I used to hate IAP, especially after my nephew spent hundreds of real money into golds dragons or whatever.
However I changed my point of view as fremium+IAP does solve the problem of being able to try the real app.
From a developer point of view it's only one app to maintain. If further features are added, you have to pay to unlock them.
Also developing a new version of an app always been a headache for a developer : without IAP, the only way is to create a new bundle so you're back to square one when you have to maintain several versions of the same app (which Apple forbid anyways in their TOS).
On any case we never really owned any software anyway. E.g. our copy of Microsoft Office always been a licence from Microsoft allowing us to use their software.
So "App as a service" doesn't seems a bad model and in-app-purchase fit that model nicely.
Now the real problem is the security and as my iPad is used by the whole family, I deactivate the IAP on the settings and only reactivate when I need it.
If somebody want a purchase, s/he need to ask me first. It's not ideal but does one thing I love : it kills the "instant gratification" process. And that only save a lot of money to the whole family!
Bravo! I wish you a lot of success and certainly redirect my friends to it.
I always thought a real shop was the missing link at KS.
I understand KS concern to stop their "service" at the funding level, but from a user point of view, it’s a bit short. And from a creator point of view, KS fees of 5%+taxes+etc. might be a bit steep.
One example is once the project has been funded, KS could at the very least display the link of the website creator without "nofollow".
To me it looks like KS is missing tools to help creators to really understand how they can manage their backers and their fulfilment after the funding. It would give KS so much data in this critical phase.
But it looks like KS is already working addressing this issue. In 2012 they’ve implemented the deadlines for creators and made clearer the refund for failed rewards.
On any case there is an opportunity here for third party services to KS projects that have been funded (and maybe failed as well).
Kickstarter (KS) always defined on their pages that a successful project is a "successfully funded" project.
It’s hard to know how KS can calculate a successful project by the way we understand it : a project that have at least delivered all its rewards and "shipped" the product advertised.
"KS's terms of use require creators to fulfill all rewards of their project or refund any backer whose reward they do not or cannot fulfill."
But KS do not track those data. They are the responsibility of the creator.
Hence the column "successful" just mean "successfully funded". And the column Launched just mean "launched on KS and asking for funding".
I don’t understand why Apple made such blatant mistake.
Originally the clock app wasn’t included on the iPad.
This version of clock is well made, simple to use as this kind of app should be. Not rocket science but alternatives version are clearly missing on the Appstore.
(I looked for one of them that could replicate the one I have on my Android 4 Galaxy S2).
(Re)introducing the Clock app is great, but borrowing the design of very well known clock is a even better.
It fit the trend of Apple reunding well known texture and design. If that trend is good or bad is another question fueled by love and hate feelings.
I don’t understand why Apple made such blatant mistake. The clock app wasn’t included on the iPad and an alternative version clearly missing on the Appstore.
This version of click is well made, simple to use as this kind of app should be..
Borrowing the design of very well known clock is a good idea too.
I miss very often the top box too.
I have learned the relevancy of this top box, but I still miss it very often.
My eyes usually go right to the link with "Official site" tag.
I've heard the effect is called banner blindness.
However I use adblock on every browser. Therefore I have less training than others to ignore ads. When I see one, it just hit me stronger (it's a side effect of adblock).