Category Archives: Design

It’s the Software, Stupid!

Posted on September 27, 2011 by payne

I recently got Kellie a new all-in-one printer/scanner/copier for her office.  After years of buying HP printers, I got tired of their crappy software.  I have no idea why they insist on a multi-hundred megabyte distribution just to support a … Continue reading →

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The Coming Bits and Atoms Disruption

Posted on September 21, 2011 by payne

I’ve written recently about the entrepreneurial lottery, and the long odds for many pure-software Internet/consumer/mobile projects.  For the reasons outlined, I’ve been shifting my entrepreneurial energy away from these projects. Instead, I’ve been working on “bits and atoms”, or as I think … Continue reading →

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Incremental vs Big Bang

Posted on September 27, 2010 by payne

Is it me, or does Twitter seem to do big feature upgrades (e.g. New Twitter) while Google/Amazon/Facebook do things more incrementally?  I know the big guys occasionally do big updates, but I always notice new little features here and there. … Continue reading →

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iPad Quirks

Posted on April 22, 2010 by payne

For all the hype, the iPad still has a few quirks/drawbacks.  My list: No camera. What doesn’t have a camera these days? Can’t charge from most USB ports. They don’t put out enough power, you have to use a wall-charger. … Continue reading →

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Your on-line presence is more than your Web site

Posted on September 18, 2009 by payne

Five or ten years ago, your Web site was your entire on-line presence, simply because there wasn’t any other place to deploy content and functionality. Today, that’s not the case at all: with the proliferation of platforms (Google, Yahoo, Amazon, … Continue reading →

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Email, Evolved

Posted on June 1, 2009 by payne

I have a long-running discussion with a number of friends:  what’s next for email? After all, email hasn’t changed much in the past few decades.  Email readers have gotten slightly better over the years, with improved multimedia handling, searching, threading, … Continue reading →

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Who’s obsessed about your product details?

Posted on April 1, 2008 by payne

Great products rarely come about through committee design.  I’ve never seen it myself — behind every great product, there’s always been one or two obsessed people. And it’s not enough just to be obsessed, you’ve got to be obsessed about details. … Continue reading →

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Amazon Kindle: how’s this all going to come together?

Posted on November 27, 2007 by payne

I currently lug around:  a phone, a MacBook laptop, an iPod, a small camera, and way too many cables and power supplies.  Amazon’s Kindle is interesting, but adding an eBook reader to my pile doesn’t help.  This is really about … Continue reading →

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Amazon Kindle’s “simple power”

Posted on November 24, 2007 by payne

I haven’t (yet) played with Kindle, Amazon’s new book reader. But it looks like they made a brilliant design decision: instead of connecting to the Internet through a host PC, the Kindle includes built-in wireless network access through Sprint’s EV-DO … Continue reading →

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