Maybe it is the blogger drama in me (or the depression I am feeling from looking at stats), but I find this to be a big deal and a reason for Apple to be a little fearful.

We all know Android is growing, this is quite evident and in my opinion, the market will turn out just like the PC market is, with Android holding the majority of the market share while Apple maintains a smaller, but very profitable (as well as dedicated) portion of the market. Since T-mobile is the main proponent of Android, though you could argue that Verizon with the Droid has brought Android *out of the dark*, I believe many other carriers will play, “follow the leader” in this decision. There is no way around it, for Android to become a success, there needs to be a great, singular music experience across devices. This is simply expected from consumers due to the superior music experience the iPhone offers.

After using doubleTwist all day today, I have concluded the product does offer a singular experience that consumers have come to expect, due to the iPhone. Syncing is flawless and managing music is simply a breeze, and another plus is doubleTwist is a lightweight on resources compared to iTunes. Purchasing music within doubleTwist and transferring it to my Android phone was also a breeze. doubleTwist is music management for Android devices done right. This puts iTunes in a less prominent position as Android devices become more prominent in the marketplace.

Of course, what I am assuming here is that doubleTwist will become what iTunes is to the iPod. In all reality, this could change over night and it only takes one carrier to break standard and fragment the media manager market for Android.

So am I just off my rocker here or do you think iTunes should be slightly worried?

Now that you’re caught up, I think you readers can take a good guess that the blogosphere, as well as the twitterosphere, has been all up in arms over this. As we should assume, comScore has been taking the brunt of the beating while Jason has been getting most of the praise. After all, Jason is a well respected figure in the tech industry and the internet in general expects all things web to be free. Impressively enough though, even with most of the social media world against comScore, they are still sticking to their guns and touting an amazing amount of confidence in their latest business decision.

Start ups should take note.

Bloggers tend to bitch, a lot. It is easier to bitch rather than praise. It also helps traffic is usually doubled compared to a post that puts a company in a positive light, and since advertisers only care about numbers, it’s only natural that we bitch. So you can expect every product release and feature added will be reviewed in the most negative light possible due to the numbers game. We have seen this play out countless times, whether it be Google enlarging their text field or Facebook changing their design for the fiftieth time, overall response is amazingly negative. Still, very rarely has Google or Facebook decided to change their positions on certain feature or product releases.

This is because they most likely know based off of countless studies and looking at the data that this is the most beneficial decision for the majority of their users and for furthering their business. This leads to a lot of confidence in their decision, even if it seems like the majority is up against them.

So, start ups, instead of listening to bloggers when they trash your latest product, use the numbers available to you to determine if a feature really needs to be changed or added. The numbers don’t lie and while it doesn’t matter much, it earns brownie points from at least me. Even if I do truly disagree with your decision, it shows confidence in your product and what decisions you are making. Changing every feature or adding features at the whim of a bloggers complaint shows you have a weak spine and don’t know exactly where you want to go with your product.

So the take away from this? Have a bit of confidence, don’t take shit from us number obsessed bloggers and show a bit of backbone when releasing new features. I promise, it is most likely in your best interest as a start up to grow and make it as a business in this fast paced world.

This past week has been full of lovely announcements, announcements that have me ringing bells and opening my wallet. Here are a few of the headlines that have made my heart sing:

• NYTimes.com To Be Pay-Walled - Gadgetell
• Boxee Adding Paid Content This Summer - Gizmodo
• Hulu Considering $5 Monthly Fee For Older Episodes - Gizmodo
• YouTube Will Start Charging for Some Videos - ReadWriteWeb

Now to most of you, this might burn a hole in your heart and I can hear the rants now, ”CONTENT NEEDS TO BE FREE!!!! IT WANTS TO BE FREE, rah, rah, rah.”

Feel free to keep shoutin’, because it ain’t happenin’.

Here’s the problem with providing content for free, in very rare cases is it a viable business model and most people aren’t stupid like me. A lot of people are simply not willing to provide this superb (ha) commentary on a regular basis for the paycheck of 0$ a week.  Not to mention, ad dollars are few and far between and the only company that really can pull of significant revenues solely based off of advertisements is Google. Funny enough though, Google can’t even monetize Youtube good enough to make the labels happy, hence the reason they are now charging for content.

We are (in my lovely opinion) reaching a point where startups and even large companies are realizing that no matter how pissed off the customer gets, free simply doesn’t work. Sure, consumers might yell, moan and groan, but guess what? As long as enough people pay, there hissy fits don’t mean a damn thing. It has been proven in the past that if you have a great product that provides value, consumers are willing to pay. Just take a look at Netflix and their streaming service.

It’s time we start accepting the fact that if you want it, you have to pay for it. Of course, you could always torrent what  you want but keep in mind that is illegal, whether you like it or not.

Cheers,

holden@layeredbyte.com

According to TechCrunch, Teens In Tech (which Daniel Brusilovsky, CEO of TIT writes for) has made an acquisition at around $15,000 for a Twitter/FriendFeed clone, Yazzem. The public release also came with a site redesign and future plans for premium features.

It took four months to release this?

To be quite honest, I expected more out of Daniel and his team. The public release offers nothing more for teens that are involved in tech than any other blogging network does. You don’t even get a subdomain, according to a comment by Daniel himself on TC, that is going to be a “premium” feature as well. From the sounds of it, you can get more out WordPress/Blogger and completely for free. On top of that, TIT is poorly designed.

The redesign is not complete and unlike their PR screenshots (smart) here is what the site actually looks like:

You cannot click over on the tabs as of this current writing

No sidebar? come on...

Currently the team page...

In all honesty, this is a pretty poorly conceived public release and is quite embarrassing, especially when you are being covered by many major tech blogs, which some startups would go nuts over (and put to good use).

Teens In Tech is in no way, form or fashion benefiting teen bloggers. It is simply a poorly designed WordPress MU install that requires some CSS edits and very basic knowledge on how to work with PHP/MySQL.

I have been a supporter of the network since the get go and I am sure many others expected a lot more, and all we got was this? Come on now, Daniel, according to the people I have talked to. You’re better than this.

Finally! A place to view high quality music videos from nearly all the major labels. My hopes, dreams, prayers and desires had finally been fulfilled. No longer was I going to have to deal with low quality, illegally uploaded videos any longer! Damn it all, Youtube had done it.

Or not.

Vevo is the most horrid piece of crap I have laid eyes upon. The portal is full of crappy ads, horribly placed promotions and worst of all, crappy video streaming. No matter what connection I am on, whether it be a standard DSL line or a T1 line, the videos always f-ing stutters. I feel like stabbing the computer screen every time this happens. How hard can it be for the largest video site in the whole damn world to figure out how to stream music videos correctly, honestly.

So, Hulu, I need you to save me from Vevo and make my hopes and dreams come true. Please, I am begging you, come out with a music video portal of your own.

In my mind this makes complete and utter sense. Hulu’s value amongest people would grow ten fold if music videos were introduced to the selection and would boost numbers significantly. Not to mention that since y’all at Hulu went the legal route the first time around and are being deemed as a success, labels would not be afraid to embrace you with open arms. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had an orgy over y’all. 

Alright, Hulu, make me proud.

Most of the time though, I do not bother to write about the startups that pitch me. Sadly, this is because they add no value to me or anyone else. Other times, it is simply because I don’t understand what they are trying to do and I don’t have the urge, desire or time to figure it out.

One of these two situations can be solved, and we all know which one.

Startups, its time you start embracing the basics of the web and make some damn videos and here is why.

1. You Control First Impression

First impressions are very important and you can’t give a much better first impression of the product when you make a video demo. If the video demo is impressive, there is a better chance that bloggers will be impressed and be more forgiving of errors when actually using the product.

2. Making The Blogger’s Job Easier

Blogger’s, especially ones that write for top 100 tech blogs, are hammered for time. Between covering breaking news and trying to land exclusives, taking the time to figure out how your product works is the least of their concern. By making a video demo of your product, you save them the time of signing up for an account and trying to figure out what exactly the purpose your products strives to fulfill.

3. Easy To Share

Sometimes bloggers don’t have the time to cover your startup but they know of someone else that can. By making a video demo, a quick link to your video with a subject line of “Check this out!” will be enough for another blogger to cover your startup.

So there you have it, Startups, why you should start embracing video demos.

Seriously, it is unbelievably helpful.

email the author: holden@LayeredByte.com

I had no urge or desire to download music illegally. I do realize that a lot of hard work goes into producing music and sorry to break the news tech bloggers, but free isn’t a viable business model for most companies out there; not everyone can be Google. Plus, it is stealing whether you like it or not, and my conscience can’t handle that I am stealing something. What can I say, I am a pansy ass.

With that aside, that doesn’t mean I am frustrated as hell at the movie/music industry. It is now quite clear to me instead of providing incentives for people to pay for their goods, they will continue to simply punish the current people paying legally.

The latest example of this type of treatment is the movie labels latest tizzy with Netflix over their movie streaming service. If any of you are familiar with Netflix’s streaming service, you will know that many popular movies are served through a streaming deal with movie network, Starz. While the movies aren’t always the best, the content provided is usually good enough to keep me and obviously many others entertained. Supposedly this deal was only made possible due to a loophole in the Starz contract with the labels, a loop hole the labels now want closed.

Great, so now I pay for Netflix, basically to stream, and I can’t get what I want? I mean, I was already getting sub par content through Starz, but I was living with it. Now next to no good content? Even better. I have now discovered three things about torrenting.

1. It’s faster than obtaining my content legally.
2. It’s better quality.
3. The more I torrent fast and quality content for free, the less guilty I feel.

I have invested too much money, too much time and put up with too much crap to be punished for paying any longer. For now on, I will no longer go the legal route until the labels start understanding that limiting content for paying users is unbelievably insulting. I won’t be taken for a ride and its time the execs get that through their head.

I am not asking for free, I am asking for quality content and service that is worth the money I am paying.

Is that really so much to ask? Wait, I’ll answer that for you readers. Yes, it is.

“We need to find someone big to get the word out and support us”.

In another words, they think they need an evangelist. Someone to promote their product to a group of people and sing praises whenever they can logically do so.

At first glance, this might seem like a great idea to have someone with pull to evangelize your product via their personal brand. After all, getting users is your number one priority and having someone bigger than you recognize and promote your product is sign of success. While this all fine and dandy, you should not make an evangelist the center of your community. Here’s why:

1. What’s Mine Is Yours, What’s Yours Is Mine

When evangelists become the center of your community, your startup is basically merging two identities, your brand and the evangelist’s personal brand. Often times, your brand will be overshadowed by the personal brand. Your number one priority should be getting your brand recognized independently.

2. It’s No Longer YOUR Community

It is their community. The people following them will be the types of people who will follow them anywhere. That means if your evangelist decides they no longer want to evangelize your product and pick up and leave, by making them the center of your community, a large chunk of users will follow. No one person in your community should have that much power.

3. The Most Successful Social Network’s Are Not Defined By One

Take a look at Facebook and Myspace. They are the largest social networks on the web today, can you recall a time where either social service was defined by one person and one person alone? Sure, there were a lot of people who would promote Facebook/Myspace but none of them was made the center of the community and sole promoter by Facebook or Myspace. Not one person’s personal brand was associated with their brand, a good thing to do in hindsight.

With all that said, evangelists are not a bad thing. They can be great if done right, and it is quite simple do it right. Just don’t make them the center of your community. Don’t give them special privileges such as putting them in a suggested user list and refrain from telling people, “well so and so is on my network and he/she loves it!” Your community should be defined by all not by one.

Sadly, even though I love Bing, I rarely get a chance to use the fabulous search engine. Why, you ask? Because Google has me within their grasp through their two most popular products, Gmail and Android.

Both Android and Gmail integrate Google’s main revenue driver, Google search, and there is no way I can get away from it.

Therein lies the problem.

Google is restricting my ability to choose what search engine I want to use within their products and I don’t like it. I should be able to choose what search engine I want to use, especially when Google has had their own fair share of issues with default search engines.

In May of 2005, Google filed antitrust claims against Microsoft due to their policies on including default search engines. Whatever happened to be your search engine on previous versions of IE was also your default search engine in IE 7. This was seemingly unfair to Google and is probably the reason why you can now choose your search engine in IE upon install.

Android nor Gmail even give me the option to switch search engines, at least Microsoft did in IE 7.

So when will companies start filing antitrust complaints against Google? My guess, soon.

Android is growing at a fast rate and it will eventually surpass the iPhone in market share (if you doubt me, read some Microsoft vs. Apple history). As Android grows, you can bet a few million that Microsoft will pursue antitrust violations against Google for one reason only, Windows Mobile is failing (shows no signs of improving) and Bing is succeeding. Microsoft has to cut out Google one way or another, and it will be done under the guise of, “making room for competition”.

Google is going to have issues on their hands, especially as people realize that Bing is steadily becoming the better search engine to Google and the sooner Microsoft sues, the happier my search experience will be.

e-mail the author: holden@layeredbyte.com