There are only two things that matter in the consumer software business: making an app that (1.) does precisely what’s needed (no more, no less) and (2.) makes accomplishing the primary task so easy it seems like no thought is even required. My week with Day One seems to confirm both of these have been easily accomplished for a task I’ve always wanted to do but dreaded: writing my personal online journal.

I don’t come to this assessment lightly: I’ve tried again and again to start and continue writing my innermost thoughts in a fashion that was easy, felt useful, and was easily manipulable in the past. Sure, a simple text document does the trick but there’s something almost “too loose-leaf” about journaling in a plain old document. First, the discipline of marking up the date information will wear over time. It’s funny, but that extra 30 seconds of typing virtually the same information at the beginning of an entry just becomes a dreaded task. I used to blame my own thoughts for this before I realized we pretty much all think like this.

Secondly, just having enough structure to the entries to easily review them over time is a highly appealing part of the process. We always want to look back on particular periods from time to time, and there’s nothing inherently “attractive” about searching non-visually through a plain text document.

Finally, and likely most importantly, adding an entry anytime should be no more than one click away and all that time and date stuff I mentioned should just get added. If the computer already knows the time then why should I have to enter it?

Click, type, done. That’s the most important part. The rest should be simple, and it is. The calendar interface is a beautiful, logical way to view past entries and they can all be easily exported to text – including time and date stamp. Grab it at the App Store today and give it a short. There’s a reason it’s won so many awards already.

I’ve always wondered if it takes me longer to get past clichéd thinking than others, or less time. I was thinking about this because I read someone’s response to a Facebook post that went something like “I’m wearing shorts today. I don’t think I could handle the weather in [place x] anymore.”

Seriously? Do you honestly believe that? Moreover, do you think any of us believe it? You lived in a colder place your entire life and now, after a tiny percentage of time in this new ‘better place’ you suddenly have no ability to stand the cold temperatures the rest of your friends so stupidly suffer through, year after year (you know, those people with which you associate yourself despite obviously being of superior intellect because you think the only true measure of a person is to identify a warmer climate)?

When I read stuff like that I find myself getting irritated a little; it really seems like a blatant attempt at thumbing one’s nose at someone because they live somewhere colder, as if the writer has really done some amazing thing by simply moving to a warmer place. Let’s face it: it’s far easier to drive your car and your crap to Florida, for example, than it is to toil away in a lab and win a Nobel Prize for physics. So why the open allusion to some amazing accomplishment for which one feels some massive need to take credit?

Why doesn’t anyone ever call out that person and say, “Well whoop-de-do for you! You moved to a warmer place that quite possibly sucks in every other way, yet you think we’re all sitting here simultaneously jealous of you and wondering how we could just hope to be more like you.”

Isn’t it funny how we’re all just too nice to (or perhaps too passive) to respond to this person?

I just took a quick gander at an old Apple iPhone Service Guide that was sent to me, along with a replacement phone, when I called with problems recently.  I never noticed before, but the staples on the white booklet are also white.

Who cares about details like this?  Apple, that’s who.  Despite receiving tons of multipage white documents in my life I don’t think I’ve ever seen a white staple in my life and I doubt I ever will again unless it’s on a document that comes from Apple.

Thank goodness we all have 600 bucks lying around to spend on a pile of soon-to-be-dumped HP products within 24 hours of receiving a super deal like this one.  Thanks a bunch, guys!

With all the hype surrounding Philadelphia Eagles season, from the Dream Team conversation to Michael Vick’s new contract – and Cole Hamels returning to the Phillies for the stretch run – it got me thinking: is Philly about to take the torch of big-winning sports town from Boston?

Then a realized there’s no way the Sixers or Flyers both show up this year.  Guess you’ll have to wait a while longer, you awesome Philly fans, you.

Here is the best article I’ve seen to accurately determine your Target Heart Rate – critical for anyone who’s active or getting active.

DC’s hometown boys make good.

Who carves an Apple symbol into their head when most kids would probably prefer a mohawk?

This kid.
I love this story.

It surprises me that no one has talked at all about Tim Cook joining Apple’s board at the same time he’s stepping into the CEO role.  This has been speculated since Eric Schmidt vacated his seat in August 2009 (see http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125019983643730309.html).  One can only infer that this succession plan has been in place for at least two years despite public pressure for the company to reveal a plan.

Steve J doesn’t do anything without a ton of detail, and you’ve got to believe his press release jab was more than just a passing reference to succession plan demanders.

The big question in the interim is ‘how’s his health?’ and I’m not sure we’ll have the answer anytime before we hear any really bad news.  He will continue to drive product in his new role as chairman and employee – ain’t collecting COBRA alone.  What he has done is provided Cook with a fantastic opportunity to employ brilliant supply chain dynamics that assure Apple’s competitive product advantages give them far more runway and net profit than any similar company in history, and that alone will buy a ton of time even if they lose some of that creative force.  I’d contend much of their unique product DNA will remain intact and what will remain unanswered is how they identify and implement features from here forward.  Theory is there’s at least one more product in the kitty – perhaps 2 or 3 – that are ready to go and waiting for the market to systemically green light them.  When you consider the iPad was around 4-5 years before any touch device was released that wouldn’t be surprising.  There’s touch-hybrid line of computers, some kind of TV-style media device, and loads of cloud products that are at least 80% assured of showing up in the next couple years alone, and their transition to Apple-developed CPUs will at minimum lock their trajectory for several years while they continue to lock-in their adjusted executive chemistry.