mattmaroon.com - Latest Comments

Re: Palm Pre Review

Priit — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:15:03 -0000

"The ability to multitask so well is the phone’s money shot. A recent example would be me listening to music from the music app, while reading news in the New York Times app. Then I got a call, so my music automatically paused and the phone app came up. After I finished the call, I closed the phone app and the music started again, then I flipped back to NYT and got back to reading. I could have read the news while talking too, but I probably wouldn’t be much of a conversationalist that way."

Really? This is exactomundo how this had worked from the day one on the iPhone.

"Which brings me to my one major gripe with the OS, the lack of customization. Some of the apps have preferences pages, but there’s generally very little there."

Really? This is exactomundo how this had worked from the day one on the iPhone.

"There’s Calendaring, Tasks, and all of the other little frills you expect in a smart phone these days, but the killer app is probably Google Maps, which works with your GPS chip to make it easy to find nearby businesses and get directions. There’s also a memos app that lets you make little sticky notes, a clock app (that doesn’t ship with the phone but installs when you upgrade the OS) a calculator,"

Really? This is exactomundo how this had worked from the day one on the iPhone. Except that GPS thing which had worked from day two.

"Email is only missing one major feature, which is search."

Really? This is exactomundo how this had worked from the day one on the iPhone.

"Palm treats every phone function as an app. Calling, messaging, email, music, everything."

Really? This is exactomundo how this had worked from the day one on the iPhone.

... but very useful reading, thanks, I mean it, seriously.

Re: Palm Pre Review

Mike May — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 23:50:28 -0000

This might be a really stupid question, but is there any difference between Sprint's and Verizon's EVDO network. I went to a Sprint store to look at a Pre and the clerks there were not exactly overflowing with helpful information on the subject. I'm a simple man with simple needs and therefore I've never needed to upgrade from the Treo 700P that has served me so faithfully all these years on Verizon. I'm just antisocial enough not to care whether Sprint's voice network is worse than Verizon's but I am concerned about their data network. Are there any tweaks that one network has over the other that anyone knows of.

Re: 3615683376_422978a68e_o.png (PNG Image, 817×1676 pixels) - Scaled (58%)

Scott Werner — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:30:20 -0000

I'm not sure if expanding on the plans for the iPhone would have helped much unless AT&T made tiered data plans. As it is right now, the only thing you could save money on is messaging, and the options kind of suck: 200/1500/unlimited - $5/$15/$20. Not much of an option there.

Palm should run a program where they buy out your iPhone contract if you switch and sign up for 36 months and the price of the Pre or something like that.

Re: Stanley Cup Finals Game 5

Vicki Maroon — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 23:38:38 -0000

This picture was taken before the game started...during the warm-up period so that is why there are so many empty seats!

Re: Stanley Cup Finals Game 5

Joe Thibault — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:50:55 -0000

probably has something to do with the score. I get really bored of watching goal after goal too.

Re: Stanley Cup Finals Game 5

Justin — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:45:34 -0000

The Pre takes a pretty nice picture imo. My only quetions is, what's with the empty seats?

Re: Hockey Is A Grind

scott — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 08:55:57 -0000

I think your post is absolute bunk.

First, you minimize how popular hockey actually is. Sure, it's the fourth most popular professional sport in the U.S. (not counting Nascar as a sport), but it's not like these guys are nobodies. Right now, the NHL isn't as popular as it once was. Where it will be in 10 years is anyone guess. However, it's not like hockey has never had a transcending figure. Wayne Gretsky is as well known of a name as Babe Ruth or Michael Jordan.

Also, to discredit the grinds of other sports is dishonest. You should watch the fourth quarter of game 5 between the Cavs and Magic. If you don't think Lebron James wasn't grinding as hard as any other athlete in the world, you're fooling yourself or you don't understand the strength and endurance it takes to exert that kind of energy after playing three quarters of basketball.

What type of grind is there in baseball? The season is twice that of hockey and basketball. Tack on another month and a half of spring training, and your season is 7.5 months long. Tack on a playoff run and it's 8.5 months long. Tack on off-season training, and for some players, that's giving up your entire life from age 18-40 to the sport. And what about the guys who are lifetime minor leaguers? They are giving up the same as the guys in the bigs but have nothing to show for it. The AAA veteran making, maybe, $70k probably wouldn't mind having Crosby's $9 million salary.

And while football players only play 16 regular season games, the toll they take on their bodies isn't worth overlooking. They have the shortest careers of any professional athlete. A running back is lucky to make it 8 years before his body is no longer capable of competing.

Re: Why Adwords Won’t Work For Social Networks

mattmaroon — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:01:10 -0000

I don’t think it's fair to compare to the early days of Google because CPC was more or less a new paradigm then, now it isn't. Your second point is very interesting. CTRs are so low that a significant portion may be plain old misclicks. Pretty funny really.

Re: Why Adwords Won’t Work For Social Networks

netsp — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:53:16 -0000

Hi Matt,

Well written. I more or less agree. But I will pick on a few points.

Who uses these ad platforms successfully?
"Companies that make novelty t-shirts, get-rich-quick schemes, and dating sites are buying users."

I would be cautious reading in to that very much. Early on, Adwords was infested with ebooks, get rich quick schemes & whatever else you can put in a sales letter. If you read something like Perry Marshal (early adwords guru) the basic principles (eg, measure & optimise for ROI) are solid, but the context is seedy. The people willing to 'create a virtual product' in response to the availability of cheap & effective advertising & work a business model where >50% of revenue goes to advertising are sort of pioneers.

As Adwords grew, the infrastructure of consultants targeting normal companies & employees with knowledge & managers with confidence was built up. They usurped the MLM ebooks. Google encouraged this because crappy advertisers have a feedback effect on CTR (& eCPM). These days a lot of the $5 CPC bills are picked up by electricians & gardeners.

"What compels someone, who clearly has little or no interest in a product, to click a highly descriptive ad for it and then not purhcase? "

I think part of the answer to this is CTR. Once it goes under a certain amount, you are picking up a lot of outlier cases. Once in a blue moon, I might hit an ad for refinancing (I don't own) or a dog bowl (no dog). Not very often, but when I do it is absolutely no indication of my intentions. Sometimes I click things by accident, especially when I use a different browser (especially Opera for whatever reason). Again not often, but over a year, it'd add up. I guess that in addition ti this, you have outlier people. Once your CTR is low enough (maybe <0.1%), these random clicks become substantial.

This doesn't explain the difference between one ad location & another. But it does explain a correlation between CTR & conversion rate. Maybe.

Re: Hockey Is A Grind

mattmaroon — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:31:14 -0000

Ha. I don't know if anything is worse than curling. At least I can understand how someone might come to play soccer. The only explanation for curling is lots of weed.

Re: Hockey Is A Grind

Schnoodle — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:19:59 -0000

I think soccer is too much of a grind.

As a non-soccer fan, I watched a Manchester United vs Chelsea game in a London pub that was a super exciting game that ended like 4-3 and thought "wow, what have I been missing".

A week later in my hotel room I watched another Chelsea game end 0-0 where there was not even 1 shot on goal the entire second half. It was the most boring sporting event I've ever witnessed. Way worse than even curling.

Re: Hockey Is A Grind

mattmaroon — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:28:13 -0000

Yeah, Pittsburgh would be nowhere. I wouldn't bet too much on that 2-2 though. It's last year all over again.

Re: Hockey Is A Grind

Joe Thibault — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:22:43 -0000

It'll be 2-2 when you get to the Joe.

I also think that hockey takes incredible finesse. Think of another sport that pairs skill of feet and hands so completely? Anyone can run, but hockey institutes a whole higher level of skill, before you can even join a pick up game. It is a grind, and it's the little details that matter so much, like body position and where your stick is.

Which is why it's so frightening to watch, because I agree, Detroit players simply know what's going on all the time. If Pittsburgh were missing 1 of their top 2 (you know who I'm talking about) it would be a completely different game because they could reallocate 3 awesome Detroit players that have been dispatched to deal with those threats.

Re: Hockey Is A Grind

Gareth — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:17:45 -0000

I agree. There aren't many high percentage plays in hockey. It's all about pushing small edges over and over again, making sure you are playing well, trying to exploit small mistakes and psychological edges.

In baseball, the edges are larger, but because a single game has so few 'spots' to press that edge compared to hockey, the best teams don't have as large an edge over a single game.

Re: Hockey Is A Grind

mattmaroon — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:49:11 -0000

Might also be the lack of good soccer in the US. We've got sort of a half-assed league, that's about it.

Re: Hockey Is A Grind

cchjd — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:44:40 -0000

Soccer is a grind too. There must be other reasons as to why you like hockey but not soccer. I'm guessing it's the grind plus shots on goal. Hockey is a grind, but it's also fast paced in that the puck changes possession frequently and each team gets many shots on goal over three periods. Soccer is a grind, and the quality attempts on goal are few, it really wears on viewers that don't appreciate the development of a quality scoring attempt.

Re: Racism In Advertising

jiani — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 08:39:30 -0000

only idiots hankering to the age when they had misplaced and undeserved power continue to wish for lynching. ps its not a coincidence that they are also renowed for the smallest pricks in the universe. similar to fat pigs really.

Re: http://mattmaroon.com/2009/06/01/696/

Steli — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:34:55 -0000

Hi guys,

startupschool is invite only right now - so if you want to check out Matt's interview pls ping me at steli at supercoolschool dot com and I'll send you a private invite!

Cheers,
Steli

Re: We got a new sign at the office today.

mattmaroon — Sat, 30 May 2009 10:32:08 -0000

It's way too early to predict what's going to happen in that race. I'm going to buy the Pre next Saturday, so I'll at least be able to tell you how I like that.

Re: We got a new sign at the office today.

cchjd — Fri, 29 May 2009 20:00:36 -0000

Hey Matt, really enjoy your blog. I want to solicit your opinion: I was thinking of getting a Nokia N97 since the hardware is pretty impressive and beats Apple, Blackberry, etc. hands down, plus the unlocked provider is a must IMO. My only concern is the Symbian OS. With Nokia buying Symbian and going open-platform, do you think their software will soon be competitive with Android, OS X, etc.? And if you don't think the software is worth a shit, do you think the Palm Pre has enough market wiggle room to be considered a solid purchase, IOW, does the Pre have a stable future?

Re: The Pope Is Such A Buzzkill

craigs2 — Fri, 29 May 2009 05:45:51 -0000

Was a good read. I'll be back for more.

Re: If You Brew It, It Will Buble

joseph — Fri, 22 May 2009 10:45:59 -0000

that's what happens when a hobby tries to be a business and alcohol is involved.

Re: Verified Extortion

joseph — Fri, 22 May 2009 10:45:02 -0000

Seriously, it's the never-ending battle between companies with no business plan and their users. Personally, I don't think it's cool for business to impose costs on something that the user otherwise thought would be free together--it's lying. It changes the customer/business relationship entirely so it's no wonder developers are pissed.

Re: Verified Extortion

mattmaroon — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:16:18 -0000

Welcome. A lot of people begrudge others the right to make a profit. I tried not to sound that way, since I don't. I want Facebook to make money so I can keep developing apps for them. I just want them to do it in a way that doesn't feel like a Mafia-style protection racket.

Re: Verified Extortion

mattmaroon — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:13:54 -0000

By calling them extortionists?