I just chatted with T-Mobile about the Nexus One phone. Here’s the conversation…

You have been connected to _Kristi J.

_Kristi J:
Hi Eric, welcome to T-Mobile live Chat. I’m _Kristi and I will be happy to assist you. Please give me a moment to review your question.

_Kristi J:
I can definitely understand your interest in this new device. I’d be more than happy to get further information about that for you today.

Eric Burke:
ok

_Kristi J:
You can only order the phone through the www.Google.com/phone website.

_Kristi J:
The phone is being sold exclusively by Google, and cannot be ordered through T-Mobile.

Eric Burke:
but it says I’m not eligible for the $179 price. why is that?

_Kristi J:
The requirements of getting a discount on the phone are set by Google alone, not T-Mobile.

Eric Burke:
do you know the date when my two year contract expires?

_Kristi J:
One of the requirements to get the discounted price is that you are on a single line Even More plan for $79.99/ month.

_Kristi J:
While I am looking into this information, may I ask why you are inquiring about your contract end date?

Eric Burke:
so I can get a better phone. I’d be happy to stay with T-mobile if I could upgrade, but it sounds like I’m trapped with my now obsolete G1 phone.

_Kristi J:
The G1 is not an obsolete phone, and is still being sold by T-Mobile.

Eric Burke:
but it’s running Android 1.6, and as far as I know, won’t receive future updates to Android 2.1

_Kristi J:
I regret that your account does not seem to meet the requirements set by Google to get the discounted pricing on the phone at this time, Eric.

Eric Burke:
what’s my end date, and what is the penalty if I break the 2yr contract?

_Kristi J:
Your contract on the line ending in **** ends on 11/14/2010, and you would have a Termination Fee of $200.00 if the line is cancelled at this time.

Eric Burke:
$200 total, or per phone?

_Kristi J:
That would be $200.00 per line.

Eric Burke:
ok, thanks for the info. that’s all I need to know

_Kristi J:
I’m glad I was able to answer those questions for you today. Thank you for contacting T-Mobile Chat, Eric. Have a great day!

I liked this comment on Nathan Myhrvold’s Evil Genius:

Someone (I am sure it has been done already) should file for and patent the business model they are using. Then sue them, or sell said patent to a patent troll / litigation farm.

Now I feel the urge to read Annals of Innovation: In the Air by Malcolm Gladwell.

My previous post elicited the exact comment I predicted it would:

you do understand that data is not from apple but from the legendarily inaccurate gracenote right? CD names are calculated by the exact number of tracks and track lengths – my favorite are classic CDs – often duplicate names. Also, the data isn’t vetted – so what would you rather, show the wrong one or give you a choice? Now if you want to gripe because you can’t see which one has the wrong spelling of Eleanor Rigby on it, that I can almost see…

Anyway, if you have an alternative more accurate service, file a bug with Apple, maybe they’ll use it…

While I anticipated this comment, I did not address it. Of course I understand where the data comes from. And of course Apple understands this as well.

Given the obvious knowledge that the data is suspect, any reasonable user interface would provide more detail than this:

A user friendly interface might, for example, recognize duplicates, and offer to show additional details such as track names. This additional information would allow users to make more intelligent choices.

On the other hand, as currently implemented, the UI is completely worthless. If all they do is show a list of identical titles, they may as well merge the list into a single item and randomly choose one. Because as currently implemented, my only option is to randomly choose from one of the identical titles.

Summary

In summary:

• We all know the data is unreliable, and Apple knows this as well
• As currently implemented, the UI shows a list of identical names, offering no additional details
• Two possible solutions:
  • Offer to show additional details when there are duplicates
  • Filter out the duplicates and choose one for us

The bad data is not Apple’s fault, but the bad presentation most certainly is.

Good design is more than skin deep. Scratches and dents add character to well-made furniture. Scratching veneered particle board reveals glued up sawdust. If you need cheap ass furniture for your dorm room, well…

Suppose we have three entirely separate programming teams. Each team creates a separate web application using GWT. Each app (A, B, C) has its own Subversion repository, and follows its own release schedule. Version 1.2 of App A might be released in June, while Version 2.4 of App B is released in August. They are completely independent.

From a usability perspective, however, we don’t want to send people to three separate web sites to run each of these applications. Instead, we want one master “shell” application that has a row of three tabs along the top edge. (or some other GUI layout, the specifics are irrelevant). Clicking a tab reveals one of these apps.

Thus, we’d actually have four applications: The “shell” app, and apps A, B, and C.

What is the best way to accomplish this with GWT? As a relative GWT beginner, I don’t even know what to search for. I’d like the shell app to be relatively generic and independent, so we can plug in new apps over time.

Over on Twittch, I use the AddThis service. They provide analytics showing which pages were shared, and to where:

That’s just the chart — they provide actual numbers, as well.

The Problem

I dislike the fact that the AddThis buttons are so tiny, and they are all lumped together in a single dropdown. People have to click once to show the available buttons, and a second time to share the link.

I plan to replace AddThis with a row of larger buttons, and will focus on the most critical sites: DZone (not supported by AddThis), FaceBook, Digg, and Twitter.

My theory is that more people will click and share my comics if the buttons are more prominent. But I’ll lose the analytics, so I won’t really have a way to directly measure success.

Is there a way I can use large, custom icons, while retaining click counts for each icon?

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via picasaweb.google.com

Yes! My Hopside Downs finally arrived today!

Posted via web from Eric Burke

Posted via web from Eric Burke

Posted via web from Eric Burke