Celebrating Steve (Apple, Inc.)

Steve Jobs (60 Minutes - CBS Interactive, Inc.)

Steve Jobs (iBook - Walter Isaacson - available October 24)

Stay innovative.

-Nick (www.nickselman.com)

This was my dream job growing up. Drawing and building cars for a living seems pretty close to nirvana. (Full disclosure: when I was really young, I wanted to be a gemologist)

Stay innovative.

- Nick (www.nickselman.com)

I watched the story unfold on my Twitter feed from a restaurant in Toronto, as a million thoughts ran through my head. Moments earlier, I was enjoying a fun meal with coworkers when I received a text from my girlfriend saying only "sorry about Steve Jobs". It froze me.

Later that night, I started feeling the same forlornness that was unfolding across the Internet, and my overly-rational reaction was to figure out why I was mourning a man I didn't know personally. So we talked about it.

The timing

Though we react poorly to a tragedy, we can more quickly recover by looking at the positive side of any situation. What Steve Jobs represented was a passion for improving people's lives through technology, and an intense scrutiny of the status quo. I think, in this day and age, we've come to take Apple for granted. Look no further than the tepid reaction to the announcement of the 4S. We have been trained to expect magic from each keynote, when in fact the real magic behind Apple is their ability to make us fall in love with an inanimate object.

I hope that, at the very least, the passing of Steve Jobs helps us to refocus on the man behind the corporation. His intense devotion to technology and entrepreneurship, his passion for improving lives, and his work ethic (right through a tragic illness). You may think this to be a stretch, but each time you use your iDevice to help you find your way or get a restaurant recommendation, that's Steve Jobs behind there, acting as your guardian and your friend.

In that way, I think I knew Steve quite personally.

The magic

I will always admire Steve Jobs for two things:

1. His ability to know what we want and need, even better than we know it ourselves
2. His business prowess and ability to differentiate Apple from its competitors

Consider this: when was the last time that a new Apple product launch wasn't met with at least tempered skepticism?

The iPod debuted at a time when flash memory was the flavor of the day. Disk drives in portable media players were a laughable endeavor. Your mp3 player let you carry around 1, maybe 2, albums worth of songs. All of a sudden, you could carry your entire music collection in your pocket. Paired with iTunes, the iPod was a resounding success.

The iPhone was next to launch to raised eyebrows. You needed an MBA and a pinstripe suit to own a smartphone back then. They weren't made for fun. And they had buttons or a stylus. Just a few years later, iPhone is Apple's biggest revenue generator. The 4S (a phone that listens to, understands, and responds to you!) sold a million preorders, despite it being a consensus flop.

And then there's the iPad-- the product without a market. It transcends our idea of what mobile computing used to be (remember Windows tablets?). It bridged divides between the technology-illiterate and the digital world. It's so unique, that "the establishment" still has trouble defining it (ever try getting 2 TSA agents to agree on whether it's a computer or a media player and, thus, if you have to take it out of your briefcase?). And because it's so many things to so many people, there are numerous applications for its use being developed daily (from cockpits of airplanes to hospital ERs).

I don't think Steve Jobs was a clairvoyant technology CEO, capable of seeing the future of computing. I think he was a mastermind understanding where technology was evolving and how it fits into a marketplace. He was also a marketing genius. Jobs understood that because Apple products were so intuitive, he could focus the message on why we need an iPad instead of what it does.

And then there's the way that Steve Jobs evolved Apple as a company. As of this writing, Apple has been flirting with the #1 spot for market cap in the world. This is no accident or stroke of luck.

The secret is in the way that Apple builds its product ecosystem. I use the word 'ecosystem' for a reason. Each product and service is related, functionally, to every other product in the lineup. Apple doesn't make products that serve a single purpose anymore, at all. I think back to some article I read years ago about how Bill Gates' home, and how he can control music in every room in his house. For about $700, an Apple customer can do the same thing, using an iPhone, Apple TV, and an Airport. And because it all works seamlessly and simply, you don't need Bill Gates' checkbook nor his tech savvy to do it.

This is brilliant for another reason. Consider all the other tablets that various companies have attempted to debut. On their own, they're nice little pieces of technology. The iPad would have debuted with similar limited success if it weren't for the product/service/software ecosystem built around it. Everything from the price point to the form factor of the iPad was, in some way, determined by Apple's previous mobile success. And if you don't understand how brilliant of a tag line "You already know how to use it." is, think about how important a learning curve is to any piece of technology you buy.

The other advantage to building such an ecosystem is how cemented Apple has made its position in the technology space. To borrow a phrase from my industry, they "show customers the pain" of not having Apple products in their life. If you have an iPhone and a Mac, chances are that it's a natural fit to get an iPad when considering tablets. Likewise, if all your Apple products work seamlessly together, you'd be hard-pressed to find a reason to switch to a non-Apple product when time comes to buy a new one. I experienced this first-hand when switching from iPhone to Droid to escape AT&T back in 2009. I must have been Apple's first or second customer to pre-order a Verizon iPhone; and I was one more bad memory away from performing torture tactics on the misfit Droid.

Simply put, Steve Jobs was a business mastermind, and aspiring business leaders (I include myself here) can  learn a lot from him. While the inner workings of Apple are somewhat mysterious, it's no secret what differentiated Apple in the Steve Jobs era: irresistibly simple products that work seamlessly together and enhance lives (and a marketing message that conveys this equally as simply).

Conclusion

Apple's favor among consumers borders on the sort of fanaticism exhibited by professional sports team fan bases. Being an "Apple Person" means constantly gushing about something that jives with you in a way that "just seems right" (Be honest, if you're one of us, you really don't understand non-Apple People and they don't understand you). The very fact that Apple products have descended from the clouds (no pun intended) of confusing technology to become products that people connect with on a personal level is a testament to Steve Jobs and his obsessive control over the entire product experience.

I can say that, without a doubt, Steve Jobs has proven a valuable role model and that if there's any good to come from his passing, it's that we have all been given a chance to reflect on how he has influenced our lives.

Please feel free to leave any thoughts you have about Steve Jobs in the comments below. I look forward to opening a dialogue with you, if that's something you're interested in.

Stay innovative.

-Nick (www.nickselman.com)

I saw this ad on the Long Island Railroad and it instantly brought back waves of childhood memories from family trips. Now that I'm flying every week, I still pause and look out the window of the airport at these majestic wonders of engineering. I suppose I'll never outgrow this feeling of amazement.

These changes were significant for a few reasons. First, many in the tech community will tell you that it addressed every weakness of iOS out there. Second, a streaming music platform called iCloud was announced, and at such a stupidly low price you'd be, well, stupid not to jump aboard.

Finally, and most notably if you ask me, it's hard to ignore that many of the enhancements were really just flawless Apple executions of others' good ideas. This is nothing new to Apple, a company who is notorious for blacklisting new technologies from their platforms until they are fully baked (iPhone 4G? Don't hold your breath). But it marks a notable shift in Apple's strategy from the early days of iOS when each iteration was ripe with innovations that pushed the envelope of mobile devices. To me, this latest release marks a departure from that strategy; instead opting for refinement. A few examples:

• The notification system is an uncanny ripoff of Android
• Tabbed browsing finally makes an appearance (goodbye SkyFire, Terra, and Rockmelt)
• Reader is a Safari-specific execution of Instapaper or Readability
• Twitter integration thumbs a nose at Facebook's expansion efforts
• The Camera enhancements are implementations of the myriad photo effects apps (my favorite being Camera+) and, combined with Twitter integration, shoots Instagram in the foot
• Reminders, just like Camera, replaces to-do list apps numbering in the hundreds on the App Store

My point in saying this is that, for many years, Apple's iOS M.O. has been "there's an app for that." They rely on their developer network to perpetuate iOS's stranglehold on the mobile market (I don't want to hear that Android is superior-- it isn't). Now that Apple is essentially cherry picking the best app ideas and implementing them on their own, they are taking a big gamble that developers will still play ball. Not to mention that Apple takes a cut of every app it sells in the App Store, while the baked-in apps cost nothing.

There's a recent precedent for this-- remember Subscriptiongate. Apple took a huge gamble that publishers would opt to relinquish 30% of their profits for each subscription sold via the App Store, rather than exiting the iPad altogether for greener pastures. And now Apple is launching it's own newsstand app (think iBooks for media), so clearly this is panning out for them. [Update-- looks like they went back on this today]

The only difference, now, is that there's no clear revenue stream coming from their harvesting of app gold. If you ask me, this is not the only thing that makes this move a bigger risk. Unlike big publishing companies, developers aren't bottom-line-chasing sheep. Give them a reason to take their product elsewhere, and they will.

For their part, developers seem to be taking the news in stride. Readability's founder has published this statement on their blog [thanks to my friend H.K. for tweeting the link] stating that mobile development had always been about innovation and the best ideas for consumers rising to the top. But at what point do you stop believing this? Or worse, at what point do developers change their strategy for implementation to maximize adoption and/or profits before Apple gets a chance to sink its teeth into their idea?

I hope the answer is: not any time soon. I look forward to a long shelf life for iOS, and the backbone of this platform is its developer community. But in the meantime, it's very clear that Apple has the chips stacked in their favor, and they know it.

Stay innovative. (please!)

-Nick (www.nickselman.com)

Check out this truly amazing article about a media design firm who developed a powerful algorithm along with a massive data collection effort in order to place friends next to friends on the 9/11 Memorial. It doesn't take a tech guru to understand that is a truly unique example of technology's impact on our lives. It emotionally moves me to imagine families of two victims coming together and finding a greater level of peace, thanks to this amazing concept.

I'm currently working at a client in downtown NYC, and plan to visit this as soon as it is open to the public. Who would like to join me?

Stay innovative.

-Nick (www.nickselman.com)

Here are a couple of products I use every week that I couldn't go without:

Bobble Water Bottle

Bobble is a simple, self-filtering water bottle system. Plop one of these in your travel bag and cruise through TSA, then hit a water fountain in the terminal, and you've avoided paying $3.75 for a 20oz. Dasani. This is also great for having clean drinking water in your hotel room, straight from the tap, especially if the hotel gym doesn't have a water cooler in it.

There are two minor flaws with the Bobble (hey Bobble! read this!), that are entirely manageable given the advantages it brings. First, it's got a puzzle-piece fit with the plastic bottle itself, so you can't use it with a spare water bottle you have lying around (smart, since they make more money off of it). That means you need to carry the entire system with you on the road, rather than just the filter. The second issue I have with it is that when you squeeze out water, the designers inexplicably decided that the air needs to filter back through the filter (rather than having a valve or two on the outside), meaning the Bobble takes about 3 seconds to fill back up with air so you can take your next swig (and it makes an annoying noise in the process). Not great if you're a thirsty, dehydrated traveler.

Dockers Never-Iron Pants

If you're like me, the mere thought of an ironing board makes you cringe. Luckily, the folks at Dockers had us in mind, and designed the Never-Iron pant. The synthetic fabric resists wrinkles so well that I have often pulled the pants straight from a stuffed suitcase and onto my legs-- they are that good. Moreover, the fabric is durable, breathable, and can even resist a mild coffee spill for about 10 seconds (though I wouldn't advise testing this) before staining.

Dockers makes the pant in all of their fits (I prefer the straight-legged D2, as a tall-and-lanky fellow), so make sure you pick up the style that's correct for your body. Additionally, you'll be pleasantly surprised by the color choices, as most non-iron fabrics tend to be muted or dull.

Price: $50 (look for a Dockers $40 of $100 coupon on your favorite coupon website, they come around pretty often)

Nordstrom Smartcare Wrinkle-Free Dress Shirt

If you're looking for tops to complete the suitcase-to-body, keep-your-iron-in-the-closet traveler ensemble, head over to Nordstrom and pick up some of these shirts. As above, the fabric is highly resilient to wrinkles. You will never have to iron and forget about the dry cleaners when you get home from your trip.

The highlight here, for me, is the fit. Just about every clothier offers a wrinkle-free dress shirt, but Nordstrom's Trim Fit really looks sharp on the slimmer traveler. If you don't need room in your shirt for a belly, and hate the bunched-around-the-waist look, these shirts are a must-have.

Price: $50-60

TripIt

This web-based service imports all of your email travel confirmations into a comprehensive trip itinerary. Access TripIt from your computer or from any mobile device (they have apps for all major mobile devices), and you're never more than a click away from your travel plans. Features include delay notifications, auto-generated directions and weather, sync with personal calendars and social network sites, and auto-import from your email (alternatively, you can manually forward all your confirmation emails to their robot). A very affordable premium membership gets you things such as a Points Tracker, alternative flights generator, and cheaper flight monitoring as well as Hertz #1 Club Gold and Regus Gold memberships, which normally cost more than the TripIt Pro membership anyway.

Basic: Free. Pro: $50

TUMI T-Pass Briefcase

TUMI has become the premier name in travel accessories due to their world-class design, superior warranties, and bespoke style. The premium price tag is worth the expenditure, as even the most rugged traveler will have issues outlasting their TUMI products. I really love my TUMI T-Pass briefcase, because it represents a high level of convenience to the travel experience. My favorite feature, by far, is the fold-flat laptop pocket, which means I don't have to pull out my laptop while passing through TSA.

Price: $300-600

Apple iOS products

I won't run down the laundry list of features of the iPhone and iPad, but I do want to point out a couple highlights. First, the battery life on the iPhone 4 is unmatched by any Android or RIM phone. And now that I have one on Verizon, the industry-standard in technology and design meets the industry-standard in reliability, resulting in a business traveler powerhouse. On the iPad, I can't live without iBooks (eliminating the need to carry a physical book) and Videos, as well as a few choice apps that make it a doubled-edged (entertainment machine and business tool) traveler weapon.

For iOS users, check out the following apps: Dropbox, Evernote, TripIt, Skype, Pulse News Reader, Pandora, Camera+, Mint.com, The Weather Channel, Penultimate, and Yelp

There is no shortage of great products for travelers out there, and I've just highlighted the tip of the iceberg that makes my weekly travel a bit easier. Alas, the weather is warming here in Southern Ohio, and I can't stand looking out the window anymore while I write this post.

If you're looking for more product recommendations, check out the following:

• Incase Snap Battery Case for iPhone 4
• Philips Norelco cordless hair clippers
• Bose QC15 noise-canceling headphones
• Microsoft Arc Bluetooth mouse
• Totes mini folding umbrella
• Starbucks VIA instant coffee packets
• Mobile entertainment products: Netflix streaming subscription, MLB.tv subscription, Slingplayer
• The Laundress by JCrew collar and cuff stain remover bar
• Exuvius titanium collar stays

Stay innovative.

- Nick (nickselman.com)

What do you think? Leave your comments or alternatives suggestions in the comments. And thanks for reading!

Stay innovative.

- Nick (nickselman.com)

Here's the article from TechCrunch:

Google: Spam Really Has Increased Lately. We’re Fixing That, And Content Farms Are Next.

In 2 days I had 2 cancelled flights, 2 route changes, 1/0 delays, and perhaps a couple of hours spent speaking with customer service representatives (phone and face-to-face) and travel employees. It's the final of these experiences that prompted some thoughts. This is my space, I'm feeling punchy and under-rested, so here goes.

My first unique experience occurred following cancellation #1. An experienced traveler knows that if you're not at a full concourse-covering sprint to the service center by the time the gate agent finishes "...ellation", you're most likely spending an hour or two behind myriad foot-tapping, watch-staring flyers. And at that point, you have a better chance of a timely resolution chatting with "Peggy" from USA Prime Credit than waiting for a rep. As luck would have it, I was up against several families and tired salesmen traveling to Scranton, and managed to seize spot #1 in line. Given mere moments to size up my choice between two Delta employees, I opted for Valerie (who, at that time, was known to me as the one not screaming at the quickly-lengthening person-snake that she couldn't do nothin' fo' them). After 10 minutes of keyboard-mashing, Valerie had me re-booked into Philadelphia, and a huge hug from yours truly. It was my responsibility, that day, to reinforce the good customer service I had received with whatever currency I had. Think about it: in every other service industry, you tip when you're satisfied. And you complain when you're not (at which point you're hopefully appeased). But airline employees get nothing except general misplaced rage. Remember that, next time you get a middle seat. Is it the flight attendant's fault? Or is it their employers? (I'd argue it's the FAA's for allowing for-profit companies turn their customers into sardines)

Fast forward through some travel delays, and I was safely in Philadelphia and standing in yet another line at the Hertz Gold counter. I'm the example of some fast-and-loose policies that travel companies have utilized in the past to enhance the feelings of customer loyalty. You can get Hertz Gold membership about 1,000 different ways, the hardest of which is by being a loyal customer. Incidentally, I heard a flight attendant this week telling a "Gold" flyer (on this airline, it was the 2nd-highest level) sitting in row 23 (of 23) that mostly she only sees "Platinum" members getting upgraded anymore. Now you tell me, does that encourage loyalty, or disloyalty?

But I digress.

So here I am, standing in a line of pretty important-looking businessmen. The bypass-the-counter service that "Gold" offers was essentially nullified by all the travel delays. It's nearing 10pm and I have a 2-hour drive ahead of me. And I'm holding onto my laurels for dear life, trying to remember that Hertz has placed their employees in this position (for the record, Hertz makes you give your arrival information with a reservation, so that a delayed flight won't result in a cancelled reservation-- fail). And then the counter agent who took care of me said "we just can't get caught up when there's delays". And it's January. In Philadelphia. Poor guy. As tired as I was, I can't imagine he was doing any better, so I smiled and thanked him.

Fast forward a day, and I was in a pickle. Having landed in Philadelphia, and being scheduled to fly out of delay-prone Scranton with a storm bearing down on us, I was sitting on a one-way rental fee for the car and facing a likely additional night in Scranton. Explaining this to Orbitz and both airlines I was flying this week over the phone got me absolutely nowhere. To make an analogy for my blog's intended audience, it was similar to how Apple and AT&T send you in circles when you have a dropped call problem. An excerpt from my conversation this evening with US Airways went like this:

And this is where I lost it. I can't imagine that airlines are feeding their customer service [supervisors] passive aggressive bullshit like this. I had to politely explain that I needed to get off the phone before I started yelling at him.

Fast forward an hour, and resigned to my travel fate, I trekked to the airport to trade in the one-way rental car for another one (expert traveler's tip: if you find yourself having to rent one-way, that fee tacks onto every day you rent the car. Minimize your costs by limiting the one-way to a single day). On a whim, I stopped by the US Airways ticket counter and explained my plight. In 30 seconds, I had what I wanted, and she even checked me in and printed me a priority boarding pass. Moments later, Hertz had me back in my rental car for less money than I was already on the hook for. These two boons to my travel week went by so quickly that I barely had time to savor the victory. Which is perhaps part of the reason why I wanted to gush about it here.

So this all led me to think: what could I learn from these positive and negative experiences that would help me be more successful in future travels? And what I think it comes down to is just human nature.

For instance, I have better results when I get facetime with a real person. I have developed a tactic that I tongue-in-cheekily named "equal parts vulnerable and confident." Identify what you want from the interaction, and make it clear that not only can you not accomplish it without help, but that you also can't walk away until you have it. I don't think this works over the phone, because you can't connect with Peggy personally. And even if they help you, the interaction's conclusion is a hang-up. You can't hug it out with Peggy. But you can hug it out with Valerie.

Another thing I wanted to note is that I tend to derive more success from a hopeless situation when thinking logically about the predicament. Consider a typical fee-related disagreement as I attempt to explain. I, of course, do not want to pay a fee that I think is unreasonable. A company imposed these fees to make money, because they can, and because there are real costs to them associated with customer service that they have to somehow pay for. A customer service agent will uphold these rules because it might make their job easier [to tell you 'no'], they can deflect your disappointment away from them and onto the "rules", and, presumably, because they have some loyalty to their employer. So, the goal in any interaction like this is to find what will offset this. The first bullet is always to reason that "making me happy keeps my business", but I find this working less often than it used to (probably because we know it's crap in a cost-conscious economy). So I've learned to make my interactions more personal and appeal to reps as humans. Valerie told me "I'll take all my hugs" when I told her that her help made me want to hug her. Clearly, she was a friendly person trapped in an emotionally unrewarding job. In that position, who wouldn't want a 10-minute span where someone was praising you for your work?

Economics of customer service. I should write a book!

Stay innovative.

- Nick (nickselman.com)