Put that [insert electronic device name here] down!

Don't worry. Though the title of today's post is a homage to Glengarry Glen Ross, I'm not going to tell you that iPads are for closers. I *am* going to gently suggest that you should do exactly what I did today, which was to switch the electronic devices to "sleep" or "off" and do something outdoors. I am going to sound like your mother, father, or uncle and tell you to take advantage of this spring day. OK, it's not technically spring. But, it is the first beautiful day of the year that happens to fall on a weekend. Instead of writing about Democrats, Republicans, Apple, Android, the Sequester, or something else, go for a walk outside. Your iPad and even your computer will be there when you get back. (It's OK to take your iPhone with you, but promise not to take it out of your pocket. Don't even take a picture. Use your memory. It's pretty good to actually remember things outside of your photo stream.)

Today, the sun renewed me. It reminded me of how much I enjoy warmer weather. Here's hoping that you get the opportunity to do something outside that gives you that same feeling.

Square and the Art of Disruption

This week, my firm is beginning to implement credit card payments via Square. I have been following Jack Dorsey​ since he rose to prominence with Twitter. I believe that Mr. Dorsey will be one of the entrepreneurs who push the global economy forward over the next decade. He has managed to make complex concepts simple, whether via the 140 character limit of Twitter or the straight-forward pricing approach of Square.   

Because of Square, small businesses no longer need multiple banks charging them (us) inexplicable and exorbitant fees to accept credit card payments. I hope that Square's approach will disrupt the credit card processing industry. Disruption innovation is a term of art coined by Clayton Christensen, a professor at Harvard Business School. It is defined on his web site to mean "a process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up market, eventually displacing established competitors." Disruption is discussed at length in Professor Christensen's book, The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail​. A classic example of disruption is the personal computer industry disrupting the mainframe computer industry. Disruption is often marked by smaller profit margins for businesses accompanied by massive benefits for consumers (such as quality products at lower costs.)

The best companies will often try to disrupt their own products before other companies disrupt them. Apple did not hesitate to produce the iPhone, even though doing so effectively killed ("disrupted") its lucrative iPod business. Philip Elmer-Dewitt provides an excellent analysis of this on his CNN Money/Fortune blog. Companies must be wary of becoming too reliant upon any one product, as it makes them ripe to be disrupted by an upstart.  

I hope that Square will force banks to re-think their approach to credit card processing and the expenses that they charge small businesses. If Square does disrupt the larger banks, it will benefit small businesses, which in turn will benefit consumers.  

Where is Your Email Application Located on Your Mobile Device?

I have been thinking alot about the optimal location for the email application on my mobile device. Historically, I kept Mail.App on my iPhone's dock (the same went for my iPad.) I viewed the dock as being the perfect place for the app, as I could see and access my mail whenever I turned on my device. Having the app on the dock allowed me to remain productive and responsive, even when I was out of the office.

As time progressed and my practice became busier, I began to re-think how often I wanted to be reminded of my unread email, especially outside of business hours (a concept that became more nebulous over time). By being reminded that I had unread messages at 7 am or 9 pm, I actually began to feel less productive. I felt that I would never be able to respond to all of the email that I received, which was disheartening. Things got so bad that I considered removing my work email from my iPhone so that I could have some downtime to spend with my family and friends. However, I felt that this would have been an overreaction. I needed to figure out a solution to promote my work-life balance.

I removed Mail.App from my dock and moved it to the second screen of my iPhone and iPad. By moving the icon to the second screen, the number of unread messages would not be staring me in the face every time I picked up the device. However, I could check my mail when I wanted. Simultaneously, I had to re-train my brain that it was ok not to check my email every time I turned on my iPhone or iPad. This location has done wonders for my email psyche.

I highly recommend watching Merlin Mann's talk at Google about the concept of Inbox Zero, which is a great discussion of how to develop a system to deal with email. Moving Mail.App to my device's second screen helped me to achieve at least some of the goals that Merlin discussed.

Needs and Desires

On Friday night, I watched the brilliant documentary "Searching for Sugar Man." The story surrounds Sixto Rodriguez, a folk singer from the 1970s known as "Rodriguez" who made two critically acclaimed albums, neither of which sold well in America. After his record company dropped him, he returned to working construction in Detroit. What no one in America knew was that his records were selling extremely well in South Africa. Like Bob Dylan was to the civil rights movement, Rodriguez was to the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa. His albums were selling more than Elvis Presley's albums in South Africa. To paraphrase one of the statements from the documentary, if you went into a middle-class home in South Africa in the 1980s and looked through the albums in the house, you would inevitably find the Beatles' Abbey Road, Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge over Troubled Water, and Rodriguez's Cold Fact. 

Despite the significant international record sales, profits/royalties never made their way back to Rodriguez in Detroit. (Where the royalties actually went was never sufficiently answered by the documentary.)  After an extensive search by two South Africans in the late 1990s, Rodriguez was located in Detroit.  They found Rodriguez living in a somewhat run-down house in Detroit warming himself by a wood-burning stove. He had continued to work in construction doing the jobs "others wouldn't do" according to his daughter. He was brought to South Africa to perform concerts, where he was greeted as a national hero. After selling out six concerts in South Africa, he returned to the same home in Detroit that he lived in before he "re-became" a rock star. He gave away the profits from his concerts to his friends and family.    

What was remarkable was the humility expressed by Rodriguez in the face of his stardom. He chose not to remain in South Africa, where he could ostensibly live the life of a touring musician. He chose not to sue his prior record company for lost profits. He apparently had everything he felt that he "needed" in his old Detroit residence.  

All of this led me to wonder about the concept of a "need" as compared to a "desire." Whether it is the newest mobile phone, computer, automobile, or clothing, we are often made to feel that this is something that we "need"-- something that will make our life richer and more fulfilled. However, how often does the rush that comes from the purchase of one of these items wear off all too quickly? How many purchases in the past year have made you feel "better" after a month (or even a week)? I'm not suggesting that Rodriguez's monastic-like lifestyle is one that we should emulate. I can tell you that the last computer and automobile that I purchased are two of the best purchases I have ever made. However, I am suggesting that before you look for fulfillment in something you plug into the wall, fill up with gas, or wear to the office, you may want to think about the concept of what is a need as compared with a desire. Think about exactly why you are making the purchase and understand what you are looking for from the product. If you make that purchase, know exactly which category it belongs and enjoy it for what it is.

Innovation and the Grateful Dead's Wall of Sound

I have been thinking a great deal about prior attempts to bring about technical innovation and what constitutes "successful innovation." My thoughts wandered to the Grateful Dead and their Wall of Sound. A picture of the Wall of Sound can be found here. It was a behemoth of a sound system. Each of Phil Lesh's bass strings had its own speaker. Legend has it that after the Grateful Dead ended their Wall of Sound tour (it only lasted for a part of 1974), the audio system served as the foundation for a hundred other smaller sound systems. 

The Grateful Dead has released some of its best archival recordings on CD. A few of these focus on the Wall of Sound. One is from the Dick's Pick's series. (Dick's Picks, Vol. 24: Cow Palace, Daly City, CA 3/23/1974). This is the first show where the Wall of Sound was used. Another is from the "Road Trips" series. A link to the recording is here. There are a few other "unofficial" releases, some of which can be found on archive.org. (The Dead permitted people to audio record their shows, so archive.org contains many of these recordings.) Given that I wasn't at any of the Wall of Sound shows, I don't know if these recordings accurately capture the sound. My suspicion is that you had to be present to get the full sonic experience. 

The question becomes whether the Wall of Sound was truly an "innovation." I don't believe that any other band has attempted to create such a sound system since the Dead retired their Wall of Sound. There were many practical reasons not to do so, some of which were explored by members of the Dead and their crew in this video.

However, I contend that an attempt to push the limits of sonic technology constitutes innovation regardless of the long-term success of the project. The Wall of Sound is a historical curiosity at worst. However, it also serves as an inspiration to other bands/musicians/people. It represents an attempt to move the live concert experience forward. It represents a break from the staid status quo. As with many things Grateful Dead, their Wall of Sound is a questioning of well established principles with the hope of doing something new, different, and beneficial for their fans. The best technology companies take similar approaches for the benefit of their customers.  

The Benefits and Shortcomings of the Doxie One Scanner

Every once in a while I get caught in the product feedback loop. Late last year, many of the podcasts to which I listen and many of the tech web sites that I visit were discussing the Doxie One. I already had purchased a ScanSnap S1500M for my office, but was hoping to find something a bit less pricey that my wife and I could use for our house to cut down on our paper files. I went to Doxie's site where they told me that the Doxie One was "everything" that I needed to go paperless for "just $149." Sounded good to me, so I pulled out the credit card and just a short time later, it was delivered. 

Because it scans to a 2 GB SD card (included with purchase), the Doxie does not need to be connected to your computer to work. It can also be powered by batteries for "plug-less" use.

After you have scanned your papers/images, etc., you can either take the SD card out the Doxie and insert it into your computer (or even your iPad via Apple's camera connection kit) or connect the Doxie with the SD card to your computer via USB, in which case the free Doxie software (more on that in a second) will read the contents.

Sounds like a great product, right?

Wrong.

For me, the two most critical aspects of a scanner are (a) how easy is it to use and (b) how clearly does it scan? Let's look at each of these aspects.

Ease of Use

The Doxie doesn't have a "start scanning button" on it. The only button on the machine is the power button. To start scanning, you insert the paper into the feeder and then the Doxie pulls it through. The problem with this is that it doesn't give you the opportunity to insert the paper in an even way into the Doxie. If one side of the page is grabbed by the Doxie, it will create a crooked (or worse, illegible) scan. I found scanning 8 1/2 x 11 pieces of paper to be somewhat difficult. It was much easier scanning smaller items, such as pictures and receipts. Thus, if you plan to scan bank statements, tax forms, or other types of regular-sized papers, the Doxie may prove a bit difficult. However, if you plan to scan your old photographs or receipts, it may be the right scanner for your needs.  

The Doxie One, powered on.

Clarity of Scan

Once I became comfortable feeding papers into the Doxie, its scan quality was quite good. I have provided a scan from the Doxie below. As you can see, it provided a clear representation of the paper. The words are legible (to the extent that my handwriting ever is legible). Additionally, I was pleased that a scan of a piece of paper with handwriting was only 10 kb in terms of file size. If you truly intend to go paperless, files can accumulate quickly, which makes file size a critical consideration. 

This is a scan from Doxie. it took me two actual scans to get this centered enough to work. 10 kb file size.

For comparison's sake, I have also included a scan taken with my Scanner Pro app for my iPhone 5. As you can see, the scan with the iPhone has a bit of a yellow hue to it. Black pen was used on the paper, but it appears almost blue in the scan. However, the text is faithfully reproduced. The file size is significantly larger than the Doxie, as the Scanner Pro app created a 250 kb file (25 times the size of the Doxie file.)

The Scanner Pro app was fairly easy to use, though I cannot imagine scanning numerous documents at any given time with it. It is perfect for the occasional scan that you need to upload to dropbox or email to a friend. Also, keep in mind that the Scanner Pro app is $6.99, while the Doxie is $149. Thus, the question you have to ask yourself is whether the Doxie is worth 20x the Scanner Pro app.  

This is via the Scanner Pro app on my iPhone.

Conclusion

The Doxie One is a mixed bag. I found it moderately easy to use. It produced a fairly high quality scan with a small file size. However, the scanner did feel a bit overpriced at $149. It certainly isn't meant to replace a high capacity scanner, like the ScanSnap S1500M. I could imagine this being a good entry-level scanner to determine if going paperless is a viable for you. It permits scanning regardless of location. Also, if your main computer is an iPad, it would allow you to try to move toward a paperless home. However, the Doxie One would not be a good scanner if you planned on scanning a large volume of papers at any given time.