Bagging Handango
I have made no mystery of my distaste for Handango. I won’t reiterate my feelings here but suffice it to say, they represent all that is wrong with the mobile software world. In my post a couple of months ago (linked above) I stated that I would be pulling my themes off of Handango for numerous reasons culminating with a recent hike in Handango’s revenue take. As I mentioned, the money isn’t what did me in. It was the sneaky means through which Handango’s new sharing model was introduced and the ridiculous scale that it chose to implement.
Yesterday morning I happened to log into an old email account that I hadn’t checked for a while and it just so happens that this is the address tied to my Handango Partner account. To my surprise, it contained a bounty of new sales notifications. Oh no! I completely forgot to close my account.
So now I’m waiting to hear back from Handango Partner customer care with regards to the termination of my account. Why am I telling you all this? Once my account is closed, I plan to distribute all of my commercial themes here on the maramine blog, for free. I’ll likely do so one or two at a time, probably once per week. I was never into selling themes as a source of income. It’s true that I did make a fair amount of cash doing so, but the real reason was simply to cover any costs associated with SiMo. As AdSense seems to be covering me in that department now, I no longer have a need to sell themes. Hopefully I’ll have my frist free themes up here sometime next week.
I hope Handango will act quickly for me; actually all of my experiences with customer care in the past have been good. They have been very helpful each month in fact, as I had to point out that Handango’s accounting department was consistently stealing money from me. Yes, I use the term “stealing” because when royalties come through low each and every month it can hardly be considered a mistake. Since my sales were low comparatively - I believe my best month was probably only around $1,000 in sales - the errors were typically in the $10-$20 range. I actually gave up on them after a while; let them have their pennies. I hope the big guys are watching their checks though…
From time to time I’ll post some tracks that may or may not be of interest to you. Despite the fact that my entire online persona is focused on mobiles and technology, music is a much greater passion of mine.
This track is an unreleased cover by Electric President, a group that I’ve loved for quite some time now. The title is Time After Time, originally recorded by Cyndi Lauper. EP is comprised of two young musicians; Ben Cooper and Alex Kane. I’m a very big Ben Cooper fan - in fact I’ve yet to sample a project of his that I haven’t enjoyed thoroughly. Other projects of his include Radical Face (indie-ish) and Iron Orchestra (a project with his brother).
EP has just finished mastering a new album that I couldn’t be more excited about. Their first major release was very electronic while their early work was more along the lines of Radical Face. I’m not sure what form the new album will take but I’m sure I’ll love it.
If you like the track you should most certainly find the time to check out Ben’s site as it’s home to plenty of samplings from his various endeavors.
Nokia Conversations Goes Live
Last week I gave you a quick intro to a new site that Nokia had launched privately called Nokia Conversations. The site is now live - definitely head over and check it out!
Dear Techmeme,
I love Techmeme as much as the next guy, and I’m also going to make the complaint that everyone else makes. New sources please! Gabe Rivera did a fantastic job with the Techmeme concept and site. Everyone knows it. When you start a new tech-related blog you simply haven’t ‘arrived’ until you hit Techmeme.
The one complaint that essentially all of us have is the top tier stories are constantly pulled from the same handful of blogs. Is every single post that appears on Techcrunch really top-tier Techmeme worthy? (The answer by the way, is no)
This is not entirely Techmeme’s fault of course - the tech blogosphere is a giant echo chamber. Techcrunch and the like are the sites that everyone goes to for content. In fact the “take the opposite stance in response to an Arrington post” formula has gotten plenty of mid-range blogs to the next level. At the same time, I would love to see Techmeme tap the breaks a bit.
Intentionally dodge some Techcrunch posts. Sure, they are all linked 50, 100, 1000 times but omit a few anyway. Your advertisers will still get hits, I promise.
There’s a great new planet called meme13 that I’ve been following lately (discovered it on Techmeme of course). meme13 pulls in the 13 newest sites that have appeared on the Techmeme leader board and redistributes their feeds. I’ve found several new blogs this way that I probably would have otherwise passed over. I mean, do you really ever check out more than one or two second / third-tier articles on Techmeme?
Meme13 is a band-aid though, and I was surgery. I want Techmeme to explore some new blogs. It shouldn’t be hard; there are plenty of good ones. Not that I’ve managed to do a good job of moving traffic from the other blogs I write for over here quite yet, but maybe I’ll do my part by listing a new blog from my Greader here every week. Yeah, I like it - not that I’ll remember to keep it going.
Week 1: Thanks to Fred Wilson, the latest addition to my Greader is Over The Counter Culture. The author is a heavy contributor to the comments section on many Wilson posts (by the way, I believe A VC collectively has the best commentents I’ve come across on the net) and his blog is great. Although I don’t recall Wilson’s post linking him directly, I hope a fair number of his readers follow the trail because there is a great blog at the end of the road.
Apple Hears the Blogosphere
Amazing. Last month the blogosphere errupted when we learned that Apple was trying to sneak Safari past unsuspecting PC user through the Apple Software Update engine (ASU). Here we are less than a month after the offense and Apple has responded with an attempt to remedy the situation. The result may still be a bit foggy to some, but let’s give credit where credit is due. Apple could have easily rolled over and ignored the situation; similar issues are most often forgotton within days in the blogosphere. Instead, Apple reacted and rectified the situation. Kudos. Click through if you would like to read my quick post about it on BGR.
Stefan's Nokia Conference Call Coverage »
Did you miss Nokia’s Q1 2008 results conference call this morning? Of course you can download and listen to it but Stefan’s play by play coverage on Jaiku was much more exciting. Definitely worth a read - hit the link in the post title.
NFC Becomes a Reality
Nokia’s upcoming 6212 Classic handset was press-released yesterday and while the overall specs might not knock you out of your seat, the presence of Near Field Communication (NFC) couldn’t be more exciting. With a Q3 release, the 6212 won’t be the first NFC-equipped device but it will likely be the first to be widely marketed by a top company. What is NFC? The press release illustrates usage cases well:
Near Field Communication is designed for intuitive, simple and safe interaction between electronic devices. By tapping an NFC-enabled tag, consumers can receive new content such as weblinks, audio files or contact data directly to their phone. They can activate a profile in their handset or open applications such as FM radio or web browser. Photos and videos can be easily shared by tapping another NFC-capable phone and pairing with a Bluetooth NFC-enabled device, like the new NFC variant of the Nokia BH-210 headset, happens with just one touch.
Of course the applications of NFC are essentially limitless. Mobile handset-invoked payment remittance for example, would be infinitely more secure as compared to current methods. In fact the technology is so exciting that perhaps it will spark some advancement here in the US where we are lagging at best with like technology. I’d love to be able to tap my handset against an ATM to withdraw cash from my checking account or tap it against a gas pump to fund my fuel purchase.
Back to the now however, we can expect to see light uses come into play as 2008 fades into 2009. Parrot for one, has just today announced a pair of NFC-equipped portable speakers that will be available for around $150 this summer. If the 6212 Classic was being issued with AT&T-compatible UMTS I’d likely snag both of the aforementioned toys. Alas…