Karim’s posterous

Like most people I've had to use PC and Microsoft software at work. I also used to buy PCs for personal use, till I got tired of my computer mysteriously getting buggy/slow/infected 6 months into use. Although I'd used Macs as a teenager at School, I only really switched over to using them as my primary personal computer about 3/4 years ago. On the whole I've been more than satisfied, I honestly can't see myself switching over to PC as my main personal computer any time soon, despite the recent launch of Windows 7 and the aggressive anti-apple marketing efforts of Microsoft.

That being said, I'm also an XBOX 360 owner, and for a Microsoft piece of hardware, I gotta say it's pretty damn impressive. Contrary to the inescapable DOS-MS vibe you get from Windows, the XBOX is very very smooth. Updating software, connecting to the internet, downloading games and movies is all done seemlessly without having to wade through any complicated setting menus. This seems to me what a PC should really feel like. I shouldn't have to spend my time fiddling with setting and manually upgrading drivers and installing software patches. This should all be done seamlessly though a smooth user interface. Would it be such a stretch to imagine an XBOX inspired PC?

Of course some will say that you need to be able to micro-manage all those settings to get the best out of your computer, but I don't think they represent the majority of PC users. We mostly just want things to work. If you're a PC geek that want's to hack and uber-costomise their computer, you're probably running Linux anyhows.

Microsoft or Mac, Windows or OSX, it seems that personal computers have a long way to go to catch up with the ease of use we've come to expect from many other gadgets and gizmos we use. For a smooth, seamless and fresh user experience both Apple and Windows should look to the XBOX (or any of the other main consoles). This is what using a computer should feel like. Microsoft should stop trying to beat Apple with more of the same and genuinely release a product that takes the whole personal computer market to a new paradigm. They've got a solid blueprint for this in the XBOX.

Apple recently launched a new version of its famous music and media software, iTunes. One interesting addition to this was the ability for people to broadcast the songs or movies they were about to buy on Twitter or Facebook.

This is a good step towards integrating some social media functionality, but it’s only scratching the surface. Considering the huge number of people that actively use iTunes, Apple is sitting on a potential social media goldmine.

The way for Apple achieve success wouldn’t necessarily just be by broadcasting what songs people are listing to on iTunes via Twitter/FB although this would make sense (right now you can only tell the world about things you’re thinking of buying from the iTunes store). What apple really needs to do is create their own social network of iTunes fans on top of their current platform. Here’s a few crucial steps to achieve this.

Step 1 – Promote this new iTunes social network to users via email and/or the iTunes store

Step 2 – Make it easy for people to punch in their email addresses, facebook profiles and Twitter handles to help them find friends using the iTunes social network and invite those that haven’t joined to sign up.

Step 3 – People can see what their iTunes friends are buying/listening to. They can see if people in their network reviewed or rated certain products and should also be able to see if people in their network have bought a certain item they are interested in.

Step 4 – People can make ‘friends’ based on similar musical/movie/audiobook/game/application interests. That’s actually a much stronger basis to make friends with strangers on than just randomly adding people as often happens in Twitter.

Step 5 – Creating this type of network also provides an amazing opportunity for Apple to connect artist with their fans. Image how much more cost effectively gigs and concerts could be marketed through a ready-made iTunes fan base. Also, if this social network enabled sharing of user generated media, concert photos/video etc could be shared through the network too (gotta be careful about copyright issues here of course).

Considering the passion that many Apple fans have for the brand and its products, it shouldn’t be too difficult to get buy in from a hard-core niche of iTunes fans who can then help spread the service out to a wider range of users. This of course maybe something Apple has up its sleeves, in any case it’ll be interesting to see what the next iteration of iTunes brings.

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Orinally posted on KarimGargum.com

There’s great potential both from a usability and commercial perspective, to upgrade and enhance search. If you know the blogs and news sources, facebook friends and Twitter contacts I interact with, why not colour or filter my search results through these lenses. Why does everyone get the exact same search results presented to them? Instead of 15 pages of useless results, let me tell you which blogs I trust and then you can bring me back search results from them only (I won’t read the other ones anyway). What are my friends on Twitter/Facebook saying about the subject I’m looking for? Filtered through these lenses, search results are factors of times more interesting to me, you’ll probably be a lot more successful selling me stuff my peers/friends are buying too so there’s commercial logic in this approach.

I've recently been playing around with FriendFeed, must admit I doin't fully understand how to make the most of it at this stage but I'm not going to give up just yet.

One thing I was thinking though was that the emphasis of so many new tools is on 'sharing' FriendFeed being a perfect example, along with Twitter and Facebook and MySpace. Sharing is a critical component in the success of these services, but I think we're neglecting a key aspect of how we use the internet - to gather information.

Don't get me wrong, it's great to share status updates, photos, locations, videos etc with friends, but I personally spend a lot of time reading news, blogs articles and checking email. The problem is that I go to a lot of different places to pick up this information and RSS feeds and readers, although extremely useful, don't fully meet my needs.

What I envisage is a 'MY FEED' instead of focusing on sharing, think of it as a place to get all your data in 'near' real time. Picture it, your email, Facebook updates, Twitter @ and DMs as well as news, blogs, weather, stock updates that you pick all delivered to you in one secure stream. This reflects how we actually browse the net more accurately, looking for new items, new emails, updated blog posts. Pulling all this data into one chronological stream would be a powerful way to access information online.

I'd be very interested to see if any companies out there are doing this and if not, how feasible it might be.

I was browsing the apple website on my iPhone when it hit me that this is a HARD website to browse on the iPhone. Lots of images, multi column layout, and navigation elements on the top and sides of the pages.

It's pretty ironic that amazon, google and other sites have come iPhone-flavoured for a LONG time and apple.com hasn't.

Apple should fix this. Better yet, build me an Apple Store App. Chances are that if I have an iPhone I'm probably quite well targeted to buy apple products. You could even send me special offers and give me advanced notice on new products. The possibilities are endless. What about letting me pay for things in-store through my iPhone? Anyhows, bottom line, get me an apple store app now!

A new service from the team behind meetup has got me thinking about a how the current stock market crash could impact the internet.

The service called 'UnplugYourFriends'  allows you to send a digital intervention to friends spending way too much time online. They have a very cute video on the site and in general it's a very fun idea. But cuteness asides, I think it could signal a wave of anti-internet sentiment.

Before you declare 'humbug', think about the news in recent weeks. There has been a significant and unprecedented backlash against the mainstream financial banking system. World stock markets have been crushed by a lack of confidence, not just in the short-term performance of certain stocks, but in the entire financial underpinning of our societies.

Couldn't there be a similar crash of confidence in the established system online?

The ramifications of the recent market madness won't fully play themselves out just yet, but I think they'll get people thinking about how the world currently works. When this system was created a few hundred years ago,  the concept of limited resources, environmental impact and human right weren't even considered. Does it really take a genius to figure out this might no longer be working for us?

Similarly, might there not be a point of critical mass where we realise that we're sick of people telling us about their personal philosophies and selling us their latest ebooks on their blogs? A point where we'd rather call our friends up and go have a drink with them, rather than exchange Facebook wall messages? Where you might pluck up the courage to talk to a girl in a coffee bar instead of sign up for an online dating service? I personally hopeso. And I believe that www.unplugyourfirends.com will not be the first service of it's type to try help people move offline.