Promises of Progress

With some of the most ungrateful users there is out there – it’s times like these, I’m glad I’m not in the Twitter systems operations team.

If only you could hide behind a cute #failwhale.

Anyway, Twitter doesn’t owe you anything. You paid nothing. They promised nothing. The beauty of free. And a very good reason why not to rush a business model onto Twitter.

… but three lefts does…

Although, you will probably get a hefty fine, for doing that.

Let’s do a quick case study:

In Denmark, the major public transportation companies have teamed up to provide tickets via SMS. The setup is simple:

1. Send “1 2″ to 1415 (to get a 2-zone ticket, valid for journeys beginning in zone 1)
2. Reply “JA” to the SMS you get back
3. You receive a SMS ticket that you show to the busdriver or the train conductor

If you are waiting for the bus, and you need this information, what do you do? You go to the information site (www.1415.dk) on your mobile browser, right?

Wrong. It’s flash only.

Given that no commonly available phone support native Flash very well (or at all) – please just provide a xhtml alternative.

Ironically, the site features a competition, where you can win — you’ve guessed it — an iPhone!

I smell an old-fashioned approach to marketing. I hope they have a mobile version coming up soon.

If you have asked a web agency to come up with a design for your new website, I propose the following basic test. Pay attention to the order in which they present the site components to you.

• If they begin with the front page – take my advice and do not proceed with that company.
• If, on the other hand, they begin with any other page, (preferably with generic elements) – chances of them being total dorks are much smaller.

That’s at least my claim. Your mileage may vary.

Last week I filled in a Jung Type Indicator test using the javascript Math.Random() method. Now, the result is in.

It seems that Math.Random() is an INFJ personality type. “INFJs tend to be quiet and reserved.” Nuff’ said.

I just had my first real iPhone freeze. Sure, it’s been acting funny a couple of times, but a gentle shut down and restart has always set it straight.

At first, it simply refused to close down the ‘phone application’. So I could make calls, but I could not return to the home screen. Pressing the home button had no result. Trying out my options, I simultaneously pressed the sleep/wake button at the same time as the home button. Normally this would cause a screenshot to be taken. And it did (see below).

screenshot of a white-screen-of-death'ed iPhone 3G

Only – the screen stayed white. 

The phone rang. I instinctively “swiped-to-answer” across the white screen. The phone was working fine – except for the screen that is. I finally made it home, and plugged it into iTunes. Sync was fine. Still a white screen.

Finally I tried a “hard reset” (sleep/wake + home button pressed for 10 seconds). Fine. Power on. Apple logo. And then .. “slide for emergency”.

After plugging into iTunes, the iPhone finally showed the message “iPhone is activated”. Everything was back to normal.

I wonder what that was all about. Please don’t do that again. I need my phone.

This year, I decided to test out moo.com – and make some friends and family happy with some X-mas cards.

The bad part

October 27. Ordered Holiday Cards+Envelopes and a stickerbook
November 3. Stickerbook ships.
November 7. Stickerbook arrives.
November 30. Holiday cards still marked as “printing”. Wrote to customer service.
December 1. moo.com: “Sorry. Your order was corrupted due to poor cropping of images. Coupon?”
December 3. Me: “Thats okay. Can you re-print the order?” 
December 3. moo.com: “Free coupon! Please don’t put text near the border due to cropping. Retry plz.”
December  4. Me (in a hurry): “I have no text in the images anywhere. I’m okay with white borders. Just print it anyway.”
December 9. Me: “Did you get my mail? Are you printing my holiday cards?”
December 11. moo.com: “We totally trashed your order ok? There – we said it. Coupon/refund?” 
December 11. Me (annoyed): “Refund plz”

The good part

December 13. I order a second batch of Holiday Cards. Being stubborn and all.
December 16. Second order is shipped. Express.
December 17. Refund for the October 30. order shows up on my bank account.
December 19. Second order arrives. Cards are looking great!
December 22. The Christmas Cards show up in the mailboxes of friends and family. They like.

How moo.com could let my “corrupted” order sit for more than a month without contacting me, still baffles me. But I’ll still recommend them. Just remember to check your order status.

…guess who wins?

Photo by zαxεr on Flickr

Yesterday I dropped by the humac (the biggest independent Apple reseller in Denmark) flagship store hoping to leave with a Time Capsule unit. After all – the Time Capsule is the #1 selling item on the Apple Store (in DK anyway) – so I kind off assumed that humac would stock them.

The response from the sales clerk was dissapointing: “No units in stock – but I could write you up for one. And we’ll give you a call once we have one for you.” I quickly remembered that I did the same thing in April. I actually have a piece of paper from humac, confirming that I have reserved a Time Capsule and that they would contact me. I have heard nothing from humac. No calls. No e-mail. Nothing.

“No thanks – I really don’t have time for that” I quickly responded and left the store.

In the afternoon, I went onto apple.com and ordered a Time Capsule (and some other stuff). The delivery estimate was Dec. 1 – Dec. 5. Around evening I received a shipment confirmation. The delivery estimate was now Nov. 25 – Nov. 28.

Just before lunch today I received a SMS telling me that my 2 parcels from Apple in Netherlands had arrived.

My conclusions:

• Physical shops will only survive if they have the goods in stock (or can get it faster that others can provide it).
• It is probably not fun being an icelandic owned company at the moment.
• I hope that the norwegian newcomer to the danish market, Eplehuset, have already learned that lesson. Maybe I’ll drop by their new shop, when they open and see.
• Apple knows how to pick logistics partners.

Anyway – I have now learned not to bother with physical shops with regards to Apple kit.

3D Secure is also known as “Verified by Visa(TM)” and “MasterCard SecureCode”. Like a lot of people, I really do not like how it is implemented - mainly due to bad UX. Normally, when I shop with a Visa or MasterCard – I’m sent (via the danish payment hub PBS) to my own online bank, where i enter a OTP.

Just the other day, something had changed in the process; I was now being presented with a page from PBS. Acting on a hunch, I took extraordinary measures to confirm the authenticity of the site. Everything checked out – It was legit.

“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.” I thought – and continued.

Create your “Verified by Visa” code. Create my what now? Could you please tell me the purpose of this before you start asking questions. 

The user experience was terrible. With popups and mixed languages. “Write a personal statement, that will be shown, every time you shop in a participating online shop. It’s safe for you to enter your code, when you see your personal statement.” 

I quickly entered by “personal statement” that contained <script> tags.

But – to my astonishment, the “Personal statement” was accepted. 

The common phishing site has better user experience than this.

Back when I was a child, you had to dig up crayons and glue if you wanted to make a personalized greeting card. Nowadays there are sites like moo.com and zazzle.com, that will let you be creative without getting paint on your finger. Just dig up your favorite photo and upload it – and if your credit card has money on it, you’ll receive your very own holiday cards in the mail a couple of weeks later. Me like. But does it work.

I’ve tried MOO.com, (UK based) which I’ve heard great things about. Their ordering and design interface (great UX and lots of ajax) certainly leaves the impression, that these guys know what they are doing. Received my stickers within 9 days, and while they are not flawless (mostly my own fault), they are most certainly usable. My christmas cards were ordered on October 27, but they are still marked with status “printing” under order status. It seems that the business processes are not as smooth as the ordering interface. I’d better contact MOO.com customer service.

I’ve tried the book-print-on-demand Lulu.com, (US based) which so far has been a disappointment. Only one of my 2 orders have been delivered (now 40+ days under way). It seems that the priority shipping option is a must for international deliveries. I’d better contact Lulu customer service.

I really hope that my luck with these on-demand printers change soon.

Update 2008/12/13: How about a custom propaganda poster