Entrepreneur: Someone who organizes a business venture and assumes the risk for it.

Sure, being an entrepreneur has its benefits; however, I’m starting to realize that the image of an entrepreneur is skewed in the public eye.   By definition, an entrepreneur holds responsibility for creating and growing their company.  Most often, real entrepreneurs can be found focusing on the continuation and improvement of their companies no matter the role they continue to play in the business.  Who better to obsess about the state of the business than the creator knowing the ins and outs? That’s true even if they have shifted risk by taking on staff and investors as their company grew from what once was an idea.  For most, the role of an entrepreneur doesn’t stop once certain accomplishments are made. Even after a successful exit the founder is likely to stay on board under new ownership.

The twisted assumption, since the dot-com era, is that entrepreneurs have more money and time than they can manage.  When I’m approached about a business idea, unfortunately, the majority of the time I hear things resembling quotes from Clients from Hell. That was a little amusing at first but has become an annoyance.  The reality, as I see it, is that the most successful entrepreneurs are either in it for the love of the money or the love of the game, beyond the money and benefits of being their own boss. Even though we see videos of Mark Zuckerberg “icing” his buddy, he’s worth billions and still shows up to work and stands behind his company through difficult times.

When it comes down to it, most entrepreneurs are interested in more than a dollar sign and are truly passionate about the company they are growing, almost as though it is an extension of themselves.  Rarely is a blockbuster company created with the sole intent of profit and early retirement. Rather, it begins as an innovation to improve the creators’ quality of life or efficiency.  Furthermore, the chance of hitting a grand slam your first at bat is nearly impossible (never mind, bad example). The underlying issue has been, and will be, that successful companies come from relentless passion and devotion, while blockbuster companies happen to arrive to the right place at the right time while being fueled by the same passion and devotion.

For me, however, it’s been a bit different.  Both of my grandfathers were entrepreneurs.  My father’s father operated a uniform company in a small town in the South.  I think that I’ve been brought up with a more realistic, appreciative sense of what it means to be an entrepreneur.  From a young age, I’ve understood that owning a company was more about an intellectual adventure than it was about chasing luxuries.  Money is available through any profession, so being an entrepreneur was more about the excitement of facing challenges and being innovative in your field.

As for myself, I’m a self-employed and bootstrapping the development of a company.  More often than not, my life style is glorified and envied by my peers if I’m logged on to messaging programs all day/night. The reality, fortunately, is that I enjoy what I do and make myself available for my clients.  I enjoy it to the point that I often work through weekends and spend my spare time on the road focused on my work.  More than enjoying what I’m doing, I enjoy the thrill and excitement of facing challenges and building my dreams into reality.  No matter how much devotion and energy I put into what I’m building, I’m left feeling like I’m shooting for the moon on a homemade rocket.  That excites me.

Why am I looking at real estate sites?  Because I need to relocate again.  So I’ve looked at hundreds of listings on different agencies’ sites.  I have learned first-hand how these sites fail their customers.  When I come across a house I like, within my budget, I’ll go to the selling agencies’ site to look up more information.  Too many times, I have found the site difficult to use and discouraging.  Mind you, I am speaking here as a customer, one who is looking for a specific unit to buy or rent and I need good, clear information that is easy to find.

Let me address this complaint to real estate agents, looking to make their sites more “customer friendly.”   Here are the top reasons I haven’t contacted you about the house you’re selling, for commission (if you forgot).

1. The site is purely Flash – This is not always a deal ender. However, leaving my feelings for Flash aside, some of you make it damn near impossible to share the information with others.  There are a lot of these Flash based sites that are built in a manner that stops your audience from sharing important information with others.   A house is a big purchase, usually involving more than one person.   This isn’t a music video; kill the Flash.
2. You have music playing in the background – This is always a “no.”  It’s not entertaining and almost always causes a distraction.  Furthermore, if you’re playing the melody to “Mad World,” it really gives a negative vibe to doing business with you.  Again, this isn’t a music video; kill the band.
3. You don’t make crucial information accessible – Your time is valuable, and so is your customers’.  Presenting information as clearly as possible is crucial. If I am interested, but  confused, I have to (attempt to) call you and get that information before continuing.  Worse yet, I may simply move on to another house on another website where the information is readily available.
4. Wrong Contact information – It’s a good idea to look into a site redesign if your contact information is out of date.
5. Poor use of social media – I respect the effort to use social media.  Used wisely, it can be very effective.  But tread carefully and work with Web designers who know this world.  I could go on for hours about this, from constant tweets about “amazing opportunities” to video walk through with obnoxious music in the background.   You can, and should, research on how to use social media more effectively.

*BONUS ADVICE* Your pictures contradict your written information – If I see one more listing with pictures of the WRONG house, I will get a migraine.  You know who you are, and I hope you are working to remedy the problem..

I’m not saying that redesigning your online presence will create a flood of new business, especially in this economy.  But discouraging visitors to your site is not helping. If you’re a real estate agent, please look around for a quality web designer who understands what you really need and can provide it.  If you’re a web designer, do some searches and reach out to these agencies.   You, the agency, and their customers will all benefit.

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Update (7/20/10):

Woothemes recently added a real estate centric theme to their growing portfolio of Premium themes.  Estate comes as a huge relief to someone, like myself, who’s sick of looking at poorly designed real estate sites.  Even at a premium price ($200), the theme blows away any real estate website I’ve seen to date (and I’m still in the process of buying a house) and is well worth the investment.  If you sell houses, I beg you to consider using WordPress with this theme on your site.

That’s a wonderful opportunity for web designers and content providers, but it is also a significant challenge.  It gives us the opportunity to reach more readers, more of the time.  But it also poses a significant challenge since we need to design sites that work well with tablets, other mobile devices, and standard desktops and laptops.  Who wants to develop the same site three times for three different kinds of devices?

Here Come the Tablets -

Companies from HTC to Notion INK are releasing tablet computers with only touch screen interfaces. Without a keyboard and mouse, attributes like “hover” are null.  So, too, are languages that might not be supported across multiple platforms

These are big changes, and they pose serious challenges for developers and designers.   I’m certain most of us don’t want to develop the same site 3 times (web, mobile, and tablet).

How am I coping with this challenge on my next website?

Layout -

960 Grid System. I’ve always been a fan, but I have strayed because of increased traffic from widescreen monitors. Going back to 960px will give me a website that fits perfectly with landscape mode on most tablets. As tempting as a horizontally scrolling website is, I still find that kind of scrolling isn’t easy on a normal browser.

The tablet’s screen feels tighter, a lot tighter.  When using an iPad to look at content on a blog where I am the web manager, I noticed that the content is very tight against the browser’s edge.  Yet it looks fine on my netbook, with similar resolution.

Text -

Colors with strong contrast are crucial because tablets are aimed at casual, on-the-go computing. Easy accessibility is a big reason people like tablets, and they won’t plunk them down in a fixed position.  That means the devices will be used under a wide variety of lighting conditions.   We have to respond with text that’s easy to read, whether the tablets are outside in direct sunlight, in an office with strong fluorescents, or in a bedroom with dim table lamps.

Links and Navigation -

With the iPad’s touch screen sensitivity, links and navigation aren’t big issues.  But that’s only for the iPad.  Links and navigation probably will be issues for other new tablets. Until other device manufacturers (Cough “HTC”) get up to par, targets need to be larger.  The simplest way is to use padding, which I’m sure most do already.

I noticed, while using the iPad, that I had no interest in hyperlinks. In contrast, I’m always clicking through to supportive articles on blogs.  While hyperlinks are still important for browsing on computers, I’m thinking about writing a plug-in for WordPress that adds links under the articles to increase accessibility across platforms..

While the hover attribute is still key for regular computing, it can’t be used to its full extent on the iPad.  The same could well be true on other tablets coming out soon.   This limitation on hovering could also cause issues with some JavaScript functions and CSS uses, like drop down menus. Thankfully, there is a small upside.  It discourages those atrocious in-text advertisements (read: DONT USE THEM. Ever.) .

Advertisement -

Keep it tasteful.  By tasteful, I mean do your best to keep readers focused on your content.  That’s the heart of the matter.  Placing advertisements as roadblocks already angers most users, and it will be even more distracting to casual readers using tablets.  Even on a desktop, where we have a lot of extra real-estate, the screen can seem cramped with a 960 Grid.

Bottom Line: Options for Developers and Content Providers -

One obvious strategy is to build a website specifically for the iPad. Although that’s certainly a simple, straightforward way to go, it carries a big downside.  As more tablets come out, they won’t use Apple standards so you won’t necessarily be able to reach them.  A lot of specifications are bound to change cross platforms.  For now, then, it’s probably best to generalize for your audience.

The good news, I am happy to report, is that a lot of tablet manufacturers will stay ahead of the game by embracing new standards like HTML5 and CSS3.  Those standards should make life a little easier as we design for a new generation of tablet computers.   Those tablets are going to be widely adopted—they are a major step toward ubiquitous computing–and that’s an exciting (if daunting) prospect for those of us who design and develop.

Last night I heard about Twitter acquiring the Tweetie iPhone application.  Tweetie, often raved as the best Twitter iPhone app, will now be offered for free instead of $2.99.  On Twitter’s blog, the company justified its acquisition, “People are looking for an app from Twitter, and they’re not finding one.”  I think they are right, and I’m happy they will be giving away the app.

When I heard the news, I was not surprised that they had released a native application, but I was surprised they had acquired another company to do it.

After waking up this afternoon (hey, don’t judge; I was up working until 10am), I was linked to this story on CNET. As the story shows, some view Twitter’s move as an attack on third-party developers and have compared it to Apple’s move with iPhone OS 4.0 (a move I do have reservations about).

To me, Twitter’s actions are significantly different from Apple’s, and significantly better for users and developers.  As I see it, Twitter is simply re-entering the market that made Twitter what it is.  It is NOT moving to block any third-party development.  The developer community is understandably nervous about any acquisitions and freebies, but, in this case, I think the anxiety is misplaced.

I’m a firm believer in competition and transparency. Twitter seems to be, too.  They have certainly encouraged developers to create external solutions through their API (application programming interface).  The Twitter API is well documented and allows access from a variety of languages and platforms, unlike Apple’s approach, which rules out anything not written in Objective-C.

Services like Seesmic go beyond a simple read/post interface and offer an expanded service (ability to post to updates to 50+ services), serving more than a generic recreation of Twitter. In contrast, Tweetable offers a generic read/post service that integrates with the admin panel of my blog, making Twitter available in a unique location.  I’m all for that.

Ultimately, innovation and improvement are the two greatest assets in any business model. Twitter’s acquisition of Tweetie shows it understands this logic well.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Twitter follows up by buying more related services or expanding internally in similar directions.

I think  the iPad is an amazing device, but, right now, there’s just not enough to convince me to buy it.  That could change, though, with a lower price and contributions from third- party developers.  In fact, with a few improvements to the iPad, I could see myself standing at the cash register.

As I see it (and as I said when the iPad was first announced), this sleek new tablet is really a “complementary” device, one that nicely complements smart phones and personal computers rather than replacing them.  Would I call the technology revolutionary or magical? No, but it does some things very well and really fills a gap in technology.

Before I get down to the review, I wanted to restate my desire for a tablet device that is tailored specifically to media consumption.  I read a lot of e-books, news sites and blogs. It’s a big part of how I learn and always will be.  Having a device that allows me to access and consume the information EASILY is KEY.  Right now, I use my phone and computer for these media needs, but they are hardly ideal.  Reading a media-rich article on my phone is impossible, and booting my netbook on the road is too much hassle if I plan to spend only 20-30 minutes reading.  If the iPad was priced about $100 lower for the 16gb model, I’d pick one up no question.  Its ease of use and accessibility are great for my media needs.

High points of the iPad:

• Simplicity – While some would call it “idiot proof,” that’s a good thing, not a put down.  For casual users, in particular, ease of use is vital, and the iPad does it beautifully.   I will go out on a limb and say that this kind of simplicity is necessary to sell such a product.
• Design- Solid and comfortable in my hands, it feels a lot more natural than using a handset.
• Battery Life- Everyone raves about it.  In my 30 minute test-drive, I didn’t get a chance to experience that myself.
• Media- Print, video or photo are easily handled with the iPad. From the applications I used to the blogs I checked out, it just felt “natural.” Think about retaining the feel of a magazine, without the physical copy.
• Screen- Just using the iPad for half an hour inspired me to utilize brighter colors in my own designs. The screen is brilliant, the colors pop out.

Low points of the iPad:

• Typing- I can’t stand the keyboard.  Okay, maybe I’m just clumsy but without any openness to modify the keyboard, I feel helpless. Of course, I could get a BT keyboard, but that’s another $70 on top of the original purchase.
• Browser- Again, probably a fluke, but the iPad wanted to load the mobile content on some websites I used, mainly blogs.  Hopefully, this was just an error in my ways.
• Openness- Apple’s closed, proprietary approach has been a HUGE flaw in their approach to the mobile world, as I see it.  With Windows and Android tablets around the corner, this limitation is another reason to balk at the purchase.
• Price- While $499 for the base seems fair, Jason Calacanis brings up the point that, when you’re all done, the initial cost of ownership can near $1,000 . The other $500 will likely be spent on accessories and applications.
• Docks- The iPad needs to make a small tweak here to help people like me who use a wide screen monitor.  (Actually quite a lot of us use those screens.)  If I buy a dock, I want it docked in landscape mode. Small detail, but important to me.
• Pairing- It doesn’t seem like the iPad wants to pair with other mobile devices (Nexus One) through Blue Tooth. Not necessary, but would definitely be a bother if I wanted to sync contacts and other information.

General Review:

Despite these limitations, I was really impressed with the iPad, from the ground up.  The new tablet seems like a great device to add to my gadget collection.  I really look forward to owning one, but  I just don’t see it happening until the price drops or I get a lot of new work.  Although I’m picky about several iPad features , most of them have little effect on my desired use.  That use, as I said in a previous post, is to consume and digest information.  The iPad is great for that.  It’s not so good, in my opinion, for creating new content.

When you strip away the marketing hype, the device is a really a colorful tablet reader with a touch screen.  It plays media smoothly, browses the internet smoothly, and handles my communication about as well as my current computer or smart phone, or perhaps a little worse.  I don’t foresee playing games or using the iPad for creating media, so those features are irrelevant to me, though they may be important to others.

Along the same lines, I don’t see the lack of multitasking a serious hindrance (though other users might).  The only time multitasking would really matter is if I were creating media and needed to cite references. The one software limitation I keep mentioning is that the system is completely shut down to modification.  I’m not talking about over clocking, or even lower level changes.   Nope.  I’m focused on not being able to make minor but helpful changes to improve my own user experience.

Bottom Line:

I really like the iPad, but I keep balking at the price. If it were $100 less, I’d own it. $150 less, I’d buy it as a gift for family. Whatever the price, I would be more receptive if the hardware and software were not so closed.  I would certainly appreciate the ability to install a 3rd party keyboard.  Still, the iPad is a wonderful new addition to the world of useful, high-tech gadgets.

Now that the early adopters have bought the latest, newest thing, it’s important for Apple to bring down the price for the rest of us.  $500 is not the sweet spot for an economy that hasn’t recovered fully.  Apple, you’re making 30% on applications. If I buy the device, I’m purchasing applications just like every other owner.  If I buy the device for less, I’d be a lot more eager to fill it up with applications.   I hope it won’t be too long until I can do that.

So far, Piwik seems to be pretty thorough. Not to the point of hosted services, but it’s still in beta (0.5.4) and is really fast. Not only does it work well, it’s carries a minimalistic design which is easy to navigate and allows the user to jump right in. Since it is self hosted, the software suggests a minimum of 128mb RAM allowance to operate for “medium to high traffic websites.” While I have it installed on a dedicated server, I think it could work on most shared hosted environments (if your website can run on a shared host).

The software allows you to configure multiple sites, as I mentioned before. This means that you can use one instance to manage traffic from multiple sources, without having to rely on third party solutions.

Finally, the software is free and open source. Not only is the price right, however because it is open source, there is a lot of potential for the script to grow from out side development.

Oh, and it installed in less then 5 minutes.

In a previous article, I posted that I was sold on an Android 2.0 device knowing that Adobe AIR was coming to the platform.  In full disclosure, I was also sold by my brief experiences with them.  Well, now that I’ve sold my G1′s I picked up a Nexus and have put it through the ringer.

While I had complained, many times, about there being a lack of a physical keyboard I’ve moved on.  It’s still a drawback, but with practice I’ve gained the ability to be decent with the keyboard on the iPod touch. I’m hoping I can do the same here, however it’s no where near as efficient as the physical keyboard on the G1.

Now that I got the “OMG I have one” and the “I know I said I’d never” out of the way, I will focus on the amazingness which is this phone.  Rocking a 1ghz processor, 512mb of ram and a 5mp camera is just the start of the awesomeness.  While the phone runs as smooth as one would imagine, with those specs, the Nexus continues to shine with Android 2.1 under the hood.  I’d probably say it’s the smoothest phone I’ve used in a long time, which was really the selling point.  While I don’t play a lot of tasking games, I’m able to notice a huge difference in the performance through the simplest of tasks.  I could picture being able to throw anything I desired at it and being laughed at.

With bing screen comes big resolution.  Aside from having a larger screen and the higher resolution, the colors are right where I’d imagine with an AMOLED screen. Since AMOLED also saves power, it means I should be seeing slightly better battery life on the phone, though I’m not sure I’ll notice it.  The one fall back, with many touchscreen devices, is that finger prints show like it’s the new style.  I’ve noticed that, unlike the G1, they don’t really interfere with the content on the screen. I wish I could take a picture to show the difference.

The touch screen, while not my favorite interface, seems a lot more responsive then that of the G1. This could be a change in the firmware or because the hit areas are a bit larger on a larger screen.  In comparing it to the iPod Touch, I would go as far to say that it behaves a little better.. but not much.

The next big difference I noticed was that the camera is just beautiful.  Below is a video taken from the phone, however still pictures are just as nice. Packing a built in flash really improves the versatility of the phone, a flaw most of my other phone cameras had. While I don’t snap pictures with the phone’s camera, that often, it’s nice to know I can without worrying about the quality of the pictures.  For me, really, it’s about stability, and I can’t hold phones for shit when trying to take a picture.

Along with 2.1, there’s a lot of minor user interface changes.  The first thing you notice, after turning on the device, the launcher has changed it’s look significantly.  It is a lot more appealing and doesn’t require you to slide your finger across the screen to open it.  The next big change comes in the gallery, the gallery is a lot fancier and has more sharing options.. including integration with Picasa, which is huge in my book. Other UI changes come in subtle changes throughout the OS, things like 5 home screens (instead of the original 3 on Android 1.5) as well as tweaks to the virtual keyboard.

Despite reading about all of the changes in the past, I think they are all something you need to experience to appreciate.  I hadn’t been sold on one until I had it in my hand and could compare it to the other devices in my arsenal.  At first, I thought Google’s idea was ingenious, sell phones through an online store front killing the middle man in the process.. However, taking away the ability to experience the phone really can hurt the phone buying experience.

Notion Ink’s Adam has been speculated about for a while, even matched up against upcoming iPad. While my views of the iPad are positive, Notion’s demonstration of the Adam at MWC gave light to an amazing competitor. Enough to fuel my desire for another Android device, despite having wanted the Apple iPad.

As mentioned before, tablets are coming to the market as competition to ebook readers. For the iPad, a major valid concern is that the LCD screen will hurt the eyes. Notion Ink tackles this by giving the user an option to turn off the back light, so the user can manually switch (or use the ambient light sensor) to switch between the two for the desired use. The benefit, in addition to easing the strain on the eyes, is that the device will have a greater battery life.

The Adam uses an Arm processor. The A9, which is in the Adam, is a dual-core and more powerful then any processor in Android devices to date. As it gains power, it will also gain battery life, offering 140 hours of audio or 16 hours of video playback. This is noticeably more then the iPad, however still less then the Amazon Kindle.

Speaking of video, the Adam offers 1080p video playback through the HDMI connection. Much stronger then the iPad, if you have the patience to hook it up to TV. In addition to quality video ability, the device also incorporates a camera which swivels 180 degrees. While I don’t see it as a practical addition, it does add a feature a lot will love.

In addition to an HDMI port, the tablet has 3x USB ports. This highlights a draw back of the iPad for most. I don’t expect they would be a selling point for me, but that’s because almost every thing I do away from my desktop is on a cloud server.

As for UI, there’s no information about their custom UI other then the fact that it’s in development. What has been hinted is that there will be an improved keypad, as well as functionality of a track pad located on the back.

With all the benefits over the iPad, one would expect it to be significantly more expensive then the iPad. Notion refuses to release pricing information, however they have referred to the price as being able to make you “happy.”

After having considering the iPad, the Kindle and the Nook, I see my self wanting to wait this device out through launch. Waiting impatientally, unfortunately, seeing as the release is supposed to be in Q2. The only thing I can do at this point is keep my eyes open for new information.

A phone manufacturer supporting the development community? What a concept! Beyond a concept, it’s slowly coming a reality with the introduction of the GeeksPhone One. GeeksPhone is introducing a new concept, one beyond the typical handset manufacturer’s business model. This device is targeted at Android developers, specifically ROM and firmware developers. While their introductory device’s hardware might seem behind times, it is reported that they are working on new models also.

What makes this device different?

Most Android based handset manufacturers frown upon 3^rd party development. This is likely because of proprietary software concerns as well as warranty issues. Motorola has come out and said plainly this. HTC, on the other hand, has not openly embraced the development community, however has made their base ROMs openly available on their site.

GeeksPhone took a simple step, placing the recovery image on it’s own partition, which does a lot to protect the phone from bricking. Beyond being a great protection, it should also encourage more people to get their hands dirty with Android.

With the mention of future handsets on the horizon, I’m really looking to see what’s on the table. With the release of a more powerful device, I could see myself owning a GeeksPhone in the future even though it would have to be imported.

Quoting Thoreau on this blog might be a bit odd, yet the quote sums up my feeling for the plugin. When I read about Tweetable on Mashable, I thought sarcastically “hurray, another Twitter plugin.” After setting it up, being swayed by their referral, I really enjoyed it’s presence. The plugin places a quick Twitter interface in the admin panel, allowing the admin (or authors) to interact on the blogs Twitter account.

“Simplify, simplify.” – Henry David Thoreau. A quote stuck in my head after starting to read On Writing Well, by William Zinsser.

To me, it comes as a blessing. As I have been trying to force myself to concentrate on my blog, I’m excited that I now have access to Twitter without the need of another tab or application.

Along with the embedded Twitter application, the plugin publishes my posts to Twitter and places a TweetMEME icon on my posts. Two tasks which had been handled through other plugins.

While not a selling point, the posts are tagged with the application you name during setup. Which is why in the image above you see “from Michael Lipson,” named after my blog.  Just a little extra personality for the 140 character social network.