Team Netflix! Still!
Posted: October 25, 2011 Filed under: Technology | Tags: Cable Sucks, Netflix 1 Comment »OK, I understand why Netflix putting out bad quarterly numbers and forecasts would be anathema to Wall Street. But remind me again why should I be mad at them as a customer?
I judge everything Netflix does relative to the competiton, especially the cable companies. By that standard, even with the admittedly ham-handed price increase a little while back, Netflix is still way ahead of the game.
For me, as someone who’s not a true hard-core TV watcher or movie buff, my streaming-only Netflix sub is still a prime example of a “good enough” product at a reasonable price. I can find a good program to watch now and then without subsidizing 95% of a package of channels that I’ll never actually watch. I also don’t have to install a poorly designed set-top box that serves no purpose but to lock down my TV and screw up its usability in the process, and on and on. (The Netflix sub is also cheaper than paying for content on an a la carte basis through iTunes.)
Yes, Netflix has made some mistakes. They have their work cut out for them in making up for that strategically. But as a user, if I have to choose who I want to win between Netflix and its nearest competitors, it’s not even close.
Steve Jobs Tributes and Links
Posted: October 6, 2011 Filed under: New York, Technology | Tags: Innovators, Steve Jobs Leave a comment »I was in Times Square this morning and happened across this nice tribute by Nasdaq for Steve Jobs, founder of what is easily that stock exchange’s most famous listed company. (Also Nasdaq’s most highly valued listing and one of the most actively traded.)
Of course, as someone who loves technology, I’m very sorry to hear of this great innovator’s passing. I’m sure a lot of ink will be spilled on the topic the next few days, some of it pure bloviation, some of it truly insightful. I’ll try to link to some of the stuff that I like in the list below, updating it as needed over the next few days.
- My Roscoe Labs co-founders and I have written a post on our company blog about how Jobs inspired us as developers. We’ve also turned our homepage into a Jobs homage for the moment.
- Slate’s Bill Saletan has written a great column about why we should interpret the death of Steve Jobs as an urgent reminder of the importance of becoming organ donors. Sensible, practical advice here. No navel gazing.
- The Onion has weighed in with some humor that I think the great man — no stranger to the use of an occasional strategic f-bomb — would’ve appreciated. “Last American Who Knew What The Fuck He Was Doing Dies”
- The Atlantic recounts — and ultimately defends — Steve Jobs’s rough personal edges. Their piece includes this anecdote, which strikes me as scary, funny, and impressive all at once:
When engineers working on the very first iPod completed the prototype, they presented their work to Steve Jobs for his approval. Jobs played with the device, scrutinized it, weighed it in his hands, and promptly rejected it. It was too big.
The engineers explained that they had to reinvent inventing to create the iPod, and that it was simply impossible to make it any smaller. Jobs was quiet for a moment. Finally he stood, walked over to an aquarium, and dropped the iPod in the tank. After it touched bottom, bubbles floated to the top.
“Those are air bubbles,” he snapped. “That means there’s space in there. Make it smaller.”
- I love that the sneaker company New Balance has posted a Jobs tribute on their website. Their shoes were part of Steve’s famous public uniform for his Apple keynotes and other appearances in the last decade of his life.
- In his latest column, Tom Friedman of the New York Times uses Steve Jobs’s passing as news hook to argue for better policies supporting startups in the U.S. He also deftly points out the importance of entrepreneurs to society as a whole.
- NPR has dug into its archives and re-posted a 1996 interview of Jobs by master interviewer and host Terry Gross, of Fresh Air. The timing on this one was crucial, coming in the period when Steve was still “in exile” from Apple but about to return.
