So I just read this article from the New York Times – http://nyti.ms/ancxqC – and there’s this line at the end: “the Library of Congress renewed its approval for cellphone owners to ‘unlock’ their phones or lift controls that restrict use to one particular wireless carrier” (emphasis mine).

Surely Steve Jobs & Co. can’t be happy that in one fell swoop the LOC has given the A-OK to jailbreaking your iPhone. But the second element, seemingly limiting Apple’s ability to offer exclusivity to select carriers, is even more interesting.

Certainly Apple would like to keep it’s negotiating leverage over the carriers – that’s why AT&T continued to provide an unlimited data package when they clearly preferred pay-for-what-you-use options.

Some will argue that more competition is better for the consumer. But were it not for Apple’s leverage, iPhone data would have been capped a long time ago. I think this still holds true even if more carriers were in the equation.

Apple may be a dictatorship, but contrary to a vocal minority, it’s mostly a benevolent dictatorship. When the dictator has leverage, that can result in a net positive for customers. But when the leverage is taken away, the competition may not make up the difference.

Apple – iPhone 4 – Learn about the high-resolution Retina display.

The Retina Display on the iPhone 4 is kind of like the first time you watched HDTV.

“This is all?  Really?”

Then a week later you went back and watched something in standard definition, and it was all fuzzy and hazy and you could even read the score of the game or make out anyone’s face.

That’s what it’s like.

Five years ago, I packed up my belongings, finished what few classes I had remaining at MSU, and moved to Chicago.  At the time, it wasn’t exactly an easy move.  I was starting a graduate program in the city, but I was leaving behind my family, my friends and my girlfriend for a place I hadn’t spent more that about a week and a half total in my previous 22 years.

In hindsight, it ended up being a pretty good call.  While in school, I started to get involved in online advertising.  Eventually I wound up doing agency work in the city, despite flirtations with a few opportunities in Colorado.  I was fortunate to get involved with a lot of interesting work, and I’ve had the opportunity to work with a lot of great clients.

But last year, I got the feeling that there was something more I wanted to do.  I began to think about going to law school.  For those of you know have known me for a while, this isn’t entirely a surprise.  It’s something I had considered at various times throughout my life.  But this was the first time that the puzzle pieces really seemed to fall into place.

I’ve loved doing the internet marketing work.  I’ve been able to learn some of the more technical aspects of how the internet works, and it provided an analytical challenge in going through the data to find answers to the questions we were coming up with.  And, frankly, I’ve found it fun.

Along the way, I started to see that there are a lot of legal ramifications when we’re talking about doing business online.  And considering the rate that technology changes, these legal issues aren’t getting any simpler.  They’re only going to get more complex.  There’s going to be a need for sound advice when it comes to what you can and cannot do on the internet – that’s something I think I can provide.

Hence, law school.  Like I said, it’s something I’ve thought about for a very long time.  And last fall, when I started to think about it more seriously, I came to the realization that there was never going to be a better time for me to do this.  At some point I’m going to meet a girl, get married, have kids, have a house payment, a car payment…it’s tough to see law school fitting into that life.

I'll be starting law school at MSU this fall.

So on August 1^st I’ll be moving back to East Lansing to attend law school at Michigan State University College of Law.  It’s a move that makes sense a lot of different levels.  Obviously it’s a place that I’m very comfortable with.  I won’t have the issue of getting used to a new place in my first semester of law school – getting settled in will take days, not weeks.  Also, MSU has a very strong intellectual property law program that is led by a scholar who is well-versed in online legal issues.  I really felt like the extracurricular options MSU Law would give me a great opportunity to get involved in cyberlaw issues while I am in school.

No doubt, it’s tough to leave Chicago.  I don’t know if I ever would have imagined getting so accustomed to living the urban lifestyle.  I’ve met a lot of great people in my five years.  I’ve had a lot of fantastic experiences.  Still, there are things I’m looking forward to back in Michigan.  Seeing my family on a more frequent basis is on of them.  Places to run that isn’t the lake shore trail is another.  And of course, opening the next chapter of my life – new experiences, new people and new challenges.

I think this time, I’ve tried to make a concerted effort to appreciate what it means to go through the academic process.  Studying for the LSAT, organizing the materials for applications, taking visits – I’ve really tried to enjoy these things.   I this time I have a much clearer picture of what I’m looking for on the other end.  When running the race, it helps to know where the finish line is.

I’ll be finishing my work by mid-July, and I’ll be moving out of Chicago and back to East Lansing at the end of the month.  Then I’m taking a trip to Colorado to decompress for a week before starting orientation the third week of August.  It’ll be here before I know it.

I picked up an iPad on Saturday, and I wanted to give some of my initial reactions after a few days of using the device. Of course, I’m writing this post from the iPad. Take that all you people who say that it’s not a creation device!

- So far, I really haven’t had many situations where not having Flash has been a significant issue. Maybe I’ve been sticking to sites that I know have video converted to HTML5, but seriously – YouTube, Vimeo, NY Times, ESPN are all optimized for iPad. And i really expect this will only get better.
- Typing is both easier and harder than I expected. Easier in that when in landscape mode, you really can pretty much type as though you were using a real keyboard. You don’t have to slow down, the iPad response time is really spot on. But it’s hard because it’s tough to get the iPad in a good position to type. Apple has the stand up case, but I refuse to use a case.
- Yes, iPhone apps work. No, they don’t look all that great. Very pixelated. iPad apps are where it’s at.
- Some people though the iPad would be the savior for traditional media. But it’s clear from the NY Times and WSJ apps – as well as the fact that magazine publishers are charging for apps AND for each individual issue with no annual subscription – that traditional media just doesn’t get it yet. They will, because eventually one company will come out with an app that changes the game, and everyone else will follow suit. But it’s not there yet.
- The eBook readers are very cool. As in, I bought the iPad thinking the iBook and Kindle apps were nice-to-haves, but now I would consider then must-haves. Primarily I’ve been using the Kindle app, simply because there is just a much larger selection of books for the Kindle app. Apple really needs to work on getting more books into their application.
- I still have not downloaded any of the iWork apps. I’d like to get Pages, because I’ve heard of people writing their blog posts on Pages and then copying over to WordPress. I’d like to give Pages a try on my MacBook too, because I’ve heard good things from many people.
- The battery life is very impressive. I’m on day two since charging, and with normal use I still have 32% battery left. Also, it really stays very cool – in contrast, about 10 minutes on my MacBook gets that thing up to fried egg temperatures.
- 250 MB of data really isn’t much. At my usage rate, I’m further ahead to get the unlimited data plan. But I’m glad I have the 3G. I can’t imagine not having always-on connectivity with this thing.
- Eventually, this thing is going to have to get a camera. I mean, why the heck not?
- How is there not a Facebook app for this thing? SERIOUSLY?!
- At first, I thought this could be a primary computer for many people who don’t need a full computer to create stuff. Now I’m not entirely sure of that notion. Not that it can’t be done, but i still need more time to come to a conclusion.

You can ignore this.

www.ghownsog.com

I have a lot of respect for Nike’s approach to the Tiger Woods situation.

They didn’t shy away from it. They embraced it.  They recognized it as an opportunity.

They realized that with every mistake, there is reconciliation.

I don’t condone what Tiger did.  But I respect him for facing it like a man.  And for having the chutzpah to do an ad like this.

…No thanks.

From Engadget, a review of the JooJoo tablet computer.

Money quote:

…[R]egular-sized YouTube and Hulu works, as decoded by the CPU, but full screen Hulu is jittery, and a 720p YouTube clip is like watching a slideshow. In one of the biggest moves of irony, JooJoo has actually implemented a hack for YouTube where you can view a video in Flash or in “JooJoo” mode which is a straight playback of the MPEG video file every YouTube video harbors. What does this remind us of? HTML 5, albeit with a less elegant implementation.

This is a classic Apple trade-off – the choice between offering something that doesn’t have a good user interaction, or just not offering it.  In this case, Apple chose not to offer Flash, banking on the assumption that in the long run HTML5 is going to be a better experience.  Personally, I think it’s a safe assumption.

This isn’t to say that it isn’t a risky assumption.  To an extent, it is.  Early success of the iPad is partly predicated on what you can do with it now vs. what you might be able to do with it later.  And the public wants instant gratification.

But I look at what happened with the iPhone.  The iPhone had a web browser that didn’t load Flash.  And what happened?  A lot of major web sites were reformatted so that video could be viewed by iPhone users.  Apple banked on the rest of the web changing, and a substantial portion of the web did in fact change.

The same thing will happen with the iPad.  The current web (and application marketplace) has not realized the potential of what the iPad can do.  But, in time, it will.

Video of the Flash experience on JooJoo below.

(h/t Gruber)

I just got back from checking out the iPad at the local Apple store.  A few things:

• While I certainly wouldn’t call it heavy, it definitely isn’t light.  I wouldn’t want to have to hold it along the edge for a long time, however when I held the device with it’s back in the palm of my hand, it was a bit more manageable.
• Pulled up ESPN.com on the iPad.  It rendered the mobile version, but that was because someone before me had already opened ESPN.com.  So I’m not sure if that’s how it initially rendered or not.  But when I switched it over to the normal version, wow.  Video renders in HTML5.  And all I want to say about that is that Flash can go to hell.  HTML5 video was very cool, very seamless.
• Viewing the web in portrait mode instead of landscape mode was awesome.  Those who use an iPhone are already used to this on a smaller scale.  But to see it on the iPad is very awesome.  I actually use a spare monitor at work in portrait mode, and for the web I find it much more functional.  It’s great to be able to see more of a web page from top to bottom.
• iPhone apps run in 2x mode work fine, but are pretty pixelated.  iPad-specific apps are going to be the bread and butter.
• All of the native apps from Apple have the polish you would expect.  The design and interface of the iPod application is very fresh.  It is, without a doubt, a step forward for the touch interface, compared to what we currently see with the iPhone.
• The overlay menus (which are pretty much non-existent on iPhone) are very intuitive and helpful on iPad.
• iBooks application is cool enough.  Not enough to be the only reason I would buy the thing.  But there is an option to select text and highlight it.  You can highlight in multiple colors.  Seems like that would be great for school.  Not sure if text is searchable in iBooks.
• You have to connect the iPad to a computer after unboxing to get started (I know this not because I bought one – I didn’t – but because I read it on MacRumors).  If this is supposed to be a potential replacement for some people’s primary computer, I’m not sure how they’re going to make that work after unboxing.
• Did I mention yet that HTML5 will kill Flash video?  Not Flash, but Flash video.  Yeah, it will.
• Touching this thing, and interacting with it, just feels so natural.  Once I had my iPhone for a while, I would find myself using my laptop or friends’ cell phones and wanting to touch the screen to interact (and being perturbed when it didn’t react).  Using the iPad and touching to interact with everything just feel right.  I have no doubt at all that this will be Apple’s entry into bringing more devices to the market with touch interface.
• After using the iPad for about 10 minutes, going back to my iPhone seemed quaint and small.

My dad came with me to check the thing out.  Actually, he was sitting on the couch, looking drowsy after we had played a few holes of golf midday.  Basically, my dad was about two minutes away from nap time.  I asked if he wanted to go with me.  ”Sure, otherwise I’m going to fall asleep.”  My dad likes tech stuff, but he also likes naps.  I was kind of surprised that he joined me.

After checking the thing out, my dad was totally excited about the iPad.  ”The ads don’t do it justice.  You have to use it to really get it.”  I think that’s one of the reasons that Apple is so successful, and why people love Apple.  How many products exist where you see the ad, and the company totally overplays the product, and then you use it and you’re underwhelmed.  A lot.  But to come in, and know pretty much all there is to know about the product, and use it and still have your expectations exceeded?  That’s the special sauce.

When surfing the web on the iPad, will the user agent cause sites to return the iPhone-optimized version, or the standard web browser version?

From what I can tell, web pages will be returned as the regular browser experience.

A lot of people have made noise about the iPad not supporting Flash video.  The iPhone is in the same boat.  So if you go to ESPN.com on the iPad, and it returns a normal version of the ESPN site, you won’t be able to view the videos.  However, if it returned the iPhone optimized version, you would be able to view the videos.

My guess is that a lot of major sites are going to port their videos over to HTML5, and develop an iPad optimized version of their site.  For some, that will be a simple as using the same site layout, but with HTML5 video.  For others, they will design a completely new template to capitalize on the iPad’s touch interface.  These latter solutions will take more time, and probably won’t be fully mature for many years.

But it will happen.

I just wanted to provide another update to what I’ve been working on over at Spartan-Football.com.

We’re just about 72 hours away from kickoff.  Traffic was really huge the first two days that the site launched, since I got a lot of traffic from Spartan Tailgate.  It really drove more traffic than I could have imagined.  I’ve also seen the share of traffic shift from referring sites to direct hits and search.

In the first week, 88% of traffic came from referring sites, with 8.5% from direct traffic and just 2% from search.  Those percentages have changed pretty substantially.  In the past 7 days, just ~30% of traffic came from referring sites, 43% from direct traffic and 26% from search.  Over the past week and a half, organic search traffic has really started to pick up, and it appears that the site is slowly coming out of the Google sandbox.  It seems like the site was able to get a decent amount of initial traffic from referring sites since it was a new website that people hadn’t seen before.  Visitors wanted to see the new site, check it out, and now that initial “introductory” traffic has now subsided a bit.

Also, the growth of the Facebook page has been really interesting to watch.  The pace of growth of the Facebook page has just about doubled every week.

Spartan-Football.com Facebook Fan Page Growth

Unfortunately, it hasn’t translated into significantly increased traffic to the site as of yet.

Facebook traffic to Spartan-Football.com

Hopefully as we get into the season, and people get more involved in the football season, referring traffic from Facebook will start to increase.

Last time I updated, there were a couple of items that I wanted to put on the radar to work on.  Figured I would provide a progress report here:

• Getting Facebook Connect commenting enabled on the site: This one still intimidates the hell out of me.  There’s a tutorial that someone has put together to implement it in WordPress, but there are still some elements that are over my head.
• Maybe add fields to the contact us page: This one is really easy, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. Maybe tonight or tomorrow.
• Put together the reporting that I want for the site: Again, haven’t gotten around to this yet.  I’ve really just been checking the numbers on an ad hoc basis, which works fine for me, and is probably more effective for me than putting together reports.
• Drop down menu: well, I turned off the drop-down menu plugin that I was using previously and that was causing a lot of issues with the multimedia box that I was using at the time.  Eventually I decided to drop the media box altogether, and added a featured content box in the left column of the site.  I then found a dropdown menu tutorial that was based on CSS, and played with that until I got a working dropdown menu.  The tutorial had a fix to make the menu work in Internet Explorer, but I didn’t want to take the time to implement it at that point.  I still need to go back and try to get the menu to work with IE, especially since 42% of traffic is coming from IE (oh you poor, poor souls).
• Develop some kind of link building widget or badge: this is a low priority item right now.
• Finish putting together the content on those few remaining pages – Ethics, FAQ, Support, etc. etc. etc: Ethics and FAQ are done.  Still need to do the support page, which means I still need to figure out how I want to give people the option to support the blog.
• Google Website Optimizer: last time I asked if it even made sense to implement at this point.  I think it’s pretty clear now that this is premature.
• Add email subscriptions: this one was easy to implement.  I want to spruce it up a bit graphically, but it’s functional.

The key at this point is to just keep writing content, having a viewpoint, and hopefully build organic link equity from other sites that are talking about MSU football.  That should help to increase the traffic.  And of course getting into the heart of the season should help, too.