Tretakoff Musings

In my ongoing newfound desire to share my unrequested opinions on various crowdfunding projects, I bring to you today another entry in the supposed "smart" products. Now, unlike my last screed, this device actually fits the more accepted definition of "smart;" it has sensors, adds functionality to address a problem, and enhances the use of existing solutions. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Bluejay, the worlds' "first" smart mount. Now, upon first glance, this gadget seems to be a winner. Beautifully engineered out of aluminum and carbon fiber, clearly designed with an attention to upgrade the ungainly other solutions, and a plethora of functionality, the Bluejay offers to make the mount for your smartphone in your car far more advanced. There's a clear focus on balancing impressive design with technological wizardry, no wonder it made it's funding goals. What does it do? Well, in addition to offering mounting options on the windshield, da...

So, while I recently pointed out a potentially good product to come out of Kickstarter, there are certainly examples of ones that, really, never should be funded on principle. Case in point: I bring you Woollip , the supposed "Smart Pillow," Now, take a moment to digest that. These days, you hear "Smart...." And you think of a device loaded with sensors, designed to give feedback, and improve a problem. Think of the Fitbit , a smart pedometer that uses social reinforcement, gamification, and real-time feedback to help you get more exercise. Or the exploding smartwatch market, with dozens of models (Android, iOS, and more), focused on moving notifications out of your pocket and onto your wrist, as well as anticipating what you need to be told about before you need it. Smart devices indeed. Woollip...not so much. This is anything but. Instead, you get an inflatable travel pillow, supposedly to help you sleep better on a plane, car, etc. It's design is meant...

A pretty disturbing news story today from my old hometown of Newton, MA. In essence, a 44 year old Chinese woman from the sheltered town of Newton went shopping for a few iPhones in New Hampshire...and ended up writhing on the ground, tasered by two local police officers. Read that again. Now, clearly there are more details to this: The main "issue" is that the woman tried to buy more than 2 iPhones. Apple's policy is only 2. They told her "no." She claims to not have understood, but the Apple store folks say she was being obstinate, and refused to leave. The woman claims to not understand English. She's 44, lives in Newton, MA (a pretty upscale suburb of Boston), is engaged to a resident there, so it's probably a longshot that she did not understand "no." The woman allegedly had $16k in cash on her at the time. The real story behind this is that Apple is trying to clamp down on the fact that some markets do not yet have the iPhone 5...

I was following the coverage of last week's Living Social deal for $10 of a Starbucks gift card for $5. One of the more interesting assertions was that Living Social actually paid for the deal, and Starbucks had nothing to do with it. So says a site called FastCasual.com, a site that, as they say: "Since 1997, FastCasual.com has reported on the important news, events, trends and people in the $23.5 billion fast casual restaurant industry segment." The piece on the LS/Starbucks deal was written by the "editor" of FastCasual, Cherryh Butler. Ms. Butler's bio: "Cherryh Butler has been a reporter for nearly 10 years, writing on a variety of topics ranging from the cable industry and business to health and fitness. Before joining fastcasual.com as editor, she wrote for several daily newspapers, magazines and Web sites, including The Kansas City Star and ehow.com" So, I found Ms. Butler's piece a bit troubling in a few areas: - She make...

The Minnesota Star Tribune has a clever article on " Time To Ditch These 10 Tech Devices ." On the surface, it seems another one of those "Oh, let's marvel at the way we used to do things" article that media loves to use as a nostalgia point. Point of fact, I usually am the first person to argue that dedicated purpose devices are obsolete when you buy them: I have always consolidated around my handheld device as much as possible. However, this article irked me, as many of the conclusions it drew were wrong, and may of the reasons it cited were flat out bizarre. Allow me to walk through it with you. The Flip Cam.  Agreed, this device is indeed obsolete, as smartphones have subsumed this. However, the simplicity and ease of use is ideal for kids, and given that you no longer need to be concerned with preserving the delicacy of the electronics, it's perfect for budding filmmakers. Extreme sports participants, with their obsession of filming their tri...

I've been hearing and reading a lot about this year being the death of the Netbook , and the rise of the Ultrabook and tablet. To say I'm dismayed is an understatement. Why? Several reasons: As we move more of our data and efforts into the cloud, high powered computing devices become even less relevant. Netbooks are slightly underpowered compared to Ultrabooks, so switching to Ultrabooks is counter intuitive. We say "tablets," but we really mean "iPads." Apologies to the dozens of Android tablets, but those are hardly a blip in the market, compared to Apple's purpose built artful device. But the iPad is not quite there: you still need it to talk to a PC for some functions, and it's interface, for all of its ease of use, is still too simple for real business use. A great niche device, surely, but not yet a PC replacement. Once Windows 8 hits, with it's native tablet interface, we may be nearly ready. Case in point: I started this post on ...

Interesting article today from alarm:clock , complaining about perceived fraud about a deal they purchased from Gilt City for Virgin America flights. Normally, I'd comment right on the site, but that was not an option. In essence, the author is using "Virgin America" and "fraud" as linkbait to, as they fully acknowledge, get a refund. All for the power of the free Internet press; good luck. My issue here is that they are clearly overlooking the main details: No one made them buy the deal. The deal stated, clearly, among the frankly terrifyingly large amount of fine print: Offer is final sale and nonrefundable. Fares, routes, fees and schedules are subject to change without notice. Travel must occur between August 15, 2011 and June 15, 2012. Honestly, looking at the sheer quantity of conditions to this deal, I would not (and did not) buy it. However, the author did. And then, while acknowledging that they were cognizant of the terms, and that th...

I have yet another confession to make: as much as I love the English language, it sometimes baffles me. Worse, it confuses me the same way every time in certain situations. For instance, if I am standing in the middle of a block, and some one tells me to go to the "3rd house down on the left," I am paralyzed. Do I count the house I am standing in front of? I don't blame the speaker; I blame the imprecision of the language that allows such vagueness to be communicated. After all, the 3rd house may have a winning lottery ticket, but the 4th house might be a compulsory 24 hours of Michael Jackson homicide coverage. So, it is with the same disdain I look at this e-mail I received. See the call out? A set of 4 lights, only $19.95 each. Nice deal, right? I click through, and, after not being delivered to the product I clicked on (yep, the old bait and switch), I end up finally finding my lights: Wow! Now down to $14.95! Cool! I click through, and get this: Ok, now wait a minut...

A couple of weeks ago, Forbes published a story that swept the interwebs: the iPhone had a security flaw that would allow a hacker to own it with a single text message. As you can imagine, the hue and cry went off loudly: the iPhone was insecure; the iPhone was a cheap piece of crap; the iPhone would never be a serious enterprise device. Except one thing. Way down in the 5th paragraph of the Forbes article was this tidbit: "They say they've also found a similar texting bug in Windows Mobile that allows complete remote control of Microsoft-based devices." Did you get that? The same bug was discovered and communicated at the same time in Windows Mobile. You know, that same Windows Mobile that enterprises recommend because of the secure Exchange integration? The same one that is in a virtual dead heat for handset market share with the iPhone? You know...THAT ONE? I'm a big fan of the iPhone, but journalist and bloggers: you can't have your iPhone-hating cake and e...

Yeah, Amazon's getting in on the video game trade-ins. They excitedly emailed me to suggest I trade in my 2009 copy of Madden for the new 2010 version. Curious, I clicked through to see the whopping trade in value of...$1.50. Yes, that's right: $1.50. Towards a $40 game. Save the e-mail costs, Amazon: it just cost you a customer. Next time, offer me the trade in if it gets me at least 25% of the way there!

GameTap , an online videogame service, recently emailed me with the subject line you see to the left, "Wow! Some Serious Guns!" Open up the email, and what do you see? Lara Croft, in all her tightly clad, barely contained glory. That's it. Yes, get the crude reference here. I am anything but a prude, but I expect tactics like this from spammers sending fake Viagra ads or Nigerian bankers. A real company people pay real money to? Please. Grow up, kiddies; I have to think that anyone with such childish sensibilities should probably not have access to my credit card account. Thanks; no business coming your way from me!

News from the Christian Science Monitor today talks about California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's new open stance to a "debate" about the possibility of decriminalizing (and, most importantly, taxing) marijuana in CA. As I pointed out in January , this is the perfect way for backdoor legalization at a time that this country, despite having no real grounds to keep the ban going, can finally take a look at this lucrative approach to appeasing the populace and filling the badly depleted coffers. I won't attempt to re-make my original arguments as to why this is a perfect solution, but I will point out that this is clearly going to be a bellwether for the future...across the country.

Yet another bizarre turn of a phrase by a sports journalist. Today's example focuses on an article on the upcoming NFL draft and the New England Patriots . You remember them, right? The team that, only two seasons ago, posted only the second undefeated regular season...ever. Yes, they lost the Super Bowl to the Giants on the backs of an aging defense and a fluke play, but they won more games than any other team in 2008. The quote (and first line of the article): "Bill Belichick has a shot at his second straight solid draft after two years of mediocrity." The definition of "mediocre:" not very high quality; average or second rate Um...help me out here. In 2008, they had an undefeated regular season, and won more games than any other team in the league. Last year, they overcame the loss of their superstar QB, turned a player who had never started a game in college or the pros into a bona fide sensation, and missed the playoffs with a better record than 2 other te...

There are certain historical moments that, in retrospect, could have only happened with the unique combination of circumstances, individuals, and timing. The saying "Only Nixon could have gone to China" exemplifies this: only a man who had been so rabidly anti-Communist could have been the one to reach out to the leader of the most populous Communist nation on Earth, at the time that war raged through proxies of each, to usher in a new détente. Only Lincoln could have ended slavery, and endured a civil war as a result. And only FDR could have led this nation back from the Great Depression with unprecedented powers we would have entrusted to no one else. FDR 's situation is particularly poignant today. He was a little-known politician, most famous for being a cousin of a former president. He was a member of a minority, being handicapped. He ran for office, promising change, in the worst economic time in the country's history. In fact, the country was so desperate for ...

15 years ago, the Patagonia Toothfish was, to say the least, not much of a hot seller. Then, some ingenious marketers thought of renaming the fish with a name that would be more tempting to diners, and the Chilean Sea Bass was born, becoming so successful, the sales of it have to be now restricted to ensure we don't fish the species out of existence. A great example of marketing in the world of seafood, one that brought great prosperity and expanded palates. Today, we have an absolutely opposite inanity, courtesy of the lunatics at the oh so benignly named People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA. They have announced a PR campaign to rebrand fish as...sea kittens. Yes, these crazy folks, who would rather let humans die of starvation, malnutrition, and agony, believe that the latest "animals" to need their protection are fish. This is misguided in so many ways, it dazzles the mind. These zealots are masters of the language war, having executed successful camp...

An article in today's Boston Globe caught my eye: Barnes & Noble announced they would launch a site for customers to track their interests and favorite authors, and "share information with Facebook and other social networks." The headline of said article? " Barnes & Noble goes social networking ." Intrigued, as the article was picked up by a few retail-centric newsletters I read, I signed up. The results were disappointing, to say the least: it's not much more than a "build my library" feature. The "social networking?" It consists of a "Share" button that allows you to post an article to Digg or Facebook. You're kidding, right? That's not social networking; that's ShareThis , the same type of widget I put on the end of my posts to allow you to share my thoughts with others. To be fair, I don't put the blame on this embarrassment on B&N; I put this squarely at the feet of the AP reporter, who's le...

In my business, I tend to work with a lot of online marketers. I also tend to work with a lot of companies who look at loyal customers, and focus on ways to keep them loyal. So, when I come across a particular example in my personal life of one that does both so badly, I have to point it out. Today's example is a company called Haggar. I know, you're thinking "the people that make those expandable slacks my grandfather wore?" Yes, them. About 10 years ago, they invested heavily in a new brand image: hipper, cheaper, and good quality. They opened a ton of factory outlet stores, while bringing the new lines into retailers like Mervyn's, JC Penney, etc. And thus the modern Haggar was born: a mix of casual clothes and traditional suits at extremely low prices, with modern styling. 5 or 6 years ago, I used to commute 120 miles each way to work. I know, sounds insane, but I loved the company, and the commute started in Marin County, CA, and ended in Monterey, CA: now, ...

Unacceptable e-mail from TigerDirect.com today. Subject line: $299 Laptop...22" LCD $199...37" HDTV $599 Of course a $299 laptop is appealing to me! When you open the e-mail, this is what you get: This may work in 42nd St. in NYC, but not on the web. Guess Tiger won't be getting my business.

Comcast adding SciFi to their HD lineup: good. Ability to watch the last season of Battlestar Galactica in HD: great. Comcast compressing the HD signal to the point of my DVR acting like it's had too much caffeine in trying to keep up with the compressed signal: Bad. Comcast once again admitting that they throttle bandwidth, but refusing to tell anyone why or under what standards they apply it to : Horrific. You'd think they would learn, as they are facing $100 million in fines from the FCC on their broadband throttling. But messing with people's HDTV? I can see a big boost for Verizon, AT&T, and DirecTV...

I have an admission: I hate paper. From printouts of emails, to handwritten notes, I detest paper in almost all forms. It has become the trash and detritus of our daily life: credit/debit cards have nearly replaced paper money, but they leave behind the droppings of indecipherable receipts that we, as a society, are terrified to leave behind for fear that our entire identity will be stolen from that innocuous pizza payment. As we have moved to a digital world, complete with multifunction scanner/printers and both enormous hard drives and online storage, paper is simply a crutch to be finally snapped in favor of bits. It looks like the New York Times is noticing. The article points out how a Google engineer has already eliminated paper from his family's life; I have been fighting this battle for nearly a decade. My weapons of choice? Visioneer's line of sheet-fed scanners and both CD burners as well as Moxy . I scan EVERYTHING: receipts, photos, notes, legal documents, even r...