Fluidesign Blog

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Today, an app came out called DataCase that basically makes your iPhone, in effect, a USB key. You can drag and drop files from your Mac or PC to DataCase, which stores the files on your iPhone (all done wirelessly over WiFi). I now keep a copy of my most useful files on my phone, ready to be used wherever I am. TechCrunch posted a detailed review here.

Most iPhone apps have shown to be, well, boring and/or useless. For $6.99, this is an example of a great app that actually saves time. Now, if my iPhone could only recharge itself wirelessly…

As announced today by TechCrunch, Flash files can now be partially indexed by the search engines. While this doesn’t mean that your all Flash site will rank the same as an all HTML equivalent, it is a huge step forward in reducing the most painful part of using Flash. Perhaps we’ll think twice now before simply denouncing Flash for our clients that also want top SEO rankings.

Everyday, we get approached by a new party that wants to develop a social network. Mainly, this is driven by the (somewhat insane) valuations that have been placed on big names, such as Facebook’s recent $15B valuation (that’s B for Billion).

TechCrunch did an interesting analysis today (below) of social networks and their valuation. It clearly shows a huge discrepancy depending on how various social networks were valued. For example, Myspace, the #1 in the US and #2 worldwide (after Facebook passed them in May) is worth anywhere between $3B and $19B.

So what does all this mean? It means that this industry is still very new and still trying to figure itself out. It also means that whatever the exact calculation, social networks that gain traction have a tremendous potential and value!

Congrats to our client, GodTube.com. They just closed a $30M raise on $150M valuation! We worked with them on many components, including their video player, and the award-winning Prayer Wall. We’re excited about working with them and ramping up going forward.

Yes, you read right. I want gas to go to $10/gallon. Actually, I want it to go to $100/gallon.

I’m not a sadist and I don’t own stock in any oil companies. My Dad is not the King of Saudi Arabia.

I am an entrepreneur who knows that there needs to be market opportunity in order for entrepreneurs to pay attention, and be motivated to solve problems. If horses could’ve gone 100mph, perhaps the car would’ve never been invented. If typewriters could “undo” perhaps computers would’ve never been necessary. Today, if gas was still $1.50/gallon, all-electric cars like the Tesla, and hybrid cars like the Prius would not exist.

We are killing our planet by filling 12MPG SUVs up twice a week. Yes, a select few are benefiting tremendously (see Exxon’s latest earnings report here), but the consequence of our current habit is twofold. One, we are causing the planet to warm (I’ll let Al Gore do the heavy lifting explanation on this). Two, we’re creating a huge imbalance of wealth in the world, and oil is already being used as a policital weapon against the “west.”

The more gas goes up, the more entrepreneurs like myself are going to be thinking of creative solutions. Electric cars? Cars that run on water? Hydrogen? Air? I don’t know what the future is, but I do know that it’s not on gas. The higher the price goes, the quicker we’ll get there.

I’ve done a lot of thinking recently on the new technology issues that really impact our lives. Sure, the internet could be faster, our computers could take less time to boot up, and laptops could be lighter and last longer. But, let’s face it, in general, the core of technology works pretty well these days. And because it works so well, we’re free to focus on the little things that would make our lives easier.

Syncing my files, email, contacts, photos, music, and documents is currently my #1 challenge. Between my Mac Pro at work, Windows XP (using Parallels on the Mac Pro), my Sony VAIO Laptop (Windows XP), and my iMac at home, I have four separate computers and two platforms that I need to access my data on. I don’t have time to think about which computer I last used for a particular document, to get the latest version of the document. I also don’t have time, upon purchasing a track from the iTunes store, to manually copy it three other times, and make sure it’s labeled with the correct Genre, in the correct Playlist, etc.

There are many Syncing tools for data out there, and TechCunch does a good job at profiling them here. But they also all have their shortcomings; one doesn’t work with parallels, once is Windows, only. One doesn’t do what it says it will do.

I finally settled on an obscure syncing program, PowerFolder, to get the job done. It’s not the prettiest or easiest to use, but it does work, and it works cross platform, including with Parallels. I also found this amazing program called SuperSync, that syncs all of my iTunes libraries, again cross platform.

These are all good starts. But, when I jump in my car, I’m again at the mercy of what’s on the radio, on my iPod, or iPhone. And all the new music (or photos) I just added to one of my computers isn’t automatically in my car.

I want a service that syncs all of my data, without any intervention from me, to all of my locations, and all devices. This includes a hard drive in my car, syncing over the cell phone network, to automatically add any music track I might add to any of my iTunes libraries.

Far fetched? Not really. Lexus is already building cars that remember any CD you put into them, so you don’t need the CD anymore. The cell networks are the biggest bottleneck, and they really need to catch up with our digital lives. But, that’s a whole other conversation.

This video blew me away and shows what the human mind is capable of. The mind is, well, just one big computer; all we need to do is figure out how to “upgrade” it to have the positive effects of autism without the negative, and the possibilities are limitless.

I recently posted about how Apple is “making customers for life” - and I believe strongly in what I wrote. Apple rarely does things that rub me the wrong way… but here’s one. They’re acting like Microsoft by “updating” Safari on Windows using the Apple Software Update, a tool that millions have downloaded to keep iTunes and Quicktime up to date. Customers have trusted Apple by installing an updater, and that’s exactly what it should be used for - updating existing software on your computer. I don’t have Safari for Windows installed at all, yet I was prompted to “update” it. How can you update before you install for the first time? By trying to dupe customers into installing Safari this way, Apple is eroding trust it has worked so hard to build, and is taking a play directly out of the Microsoft handbook.

UPDATE: Apple released a release to the updater today, that categorizes software into “New Software” and “Updates” - probably in response to this issue. It’s still an “Updater” and I stand by my original point that updaters, by definition, should be used to update existing software, only. Period.

This is the label on Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 that arrived with our Action Pack update. So, basically, this is a full version, but I need a qualified upgrade installed already, but not necessarily on this machine, in order to legally use it - but that won’t interfere with its ability to install or be used.

Microsoft: Get a grip.

Feel free to give me your interpretations of this English-code in comments.