Ipod 10 GB 3rd Gen is Dead at 5.

My old systems analysis teacher once said that, whenever you make a tech purchase, it should last at least 3 years. On Saturday, July 27th, my iPod failed to respond to resuscitation. It was 5. It is survived by innumerable relatives, as shown on the Apple Support Page

I’m disappointed that I have to go cough up money for a new music device. But in all fairness, 5 years is a pretty good run for a device that was subjected to an awful lot of abuse. It persevered through:

1. humid summers, freezing winters on the East Coast; one firey summer in Phoenix
2. being jostled around in various knapsacks
3. being dropped occasionally
4. getting docked and undocked repeatedly
5. class action lawsuit about this model’s battery life
6. two computers, three operating system releases, about 5 releases of iTunes
7. hurtful jokes from a coworker about its size, age, color, and interface

Google Notebook vs Evernote

Both Google and Evernote offer an online tool for managing notes. This isn’t a review of each product’s capabilities, but an observation on their UIs. Evernote commits way too much real estate to administrative UI debris. I get a full 10.5 lines of writable space on a 800px high display. The rest is taken up by browser chrome and the note’s title, date, attributes, action bar, source, and terms of conditions.

Compare the following pictures showing the vertical space of each. In each, the usable real estate is highlighted. Both show the most fully maximized view that each offers.

Evernote:

Google notebook:

But that’s an unfair comparison you might say–the Google notebook is clearly taller.As I mentioned earlier, I was giving each the benefit of the doubt, showing the largest online view possible. Google offers a breakout version that strips off the unnecessary chrome and actions, leaving more space devoted to supporting the core function–taking notes.

Who would ever click this?

Unfortunately, I can absolutely picture the conversation that led up to this boneheaded ad. But let’s think about it through the eyes of Average Joe, Pandora listener. For Joe to click this ad, he’s going to have to subconsciously or consciously answer the following questions:

1. Do I have such brand affinity towards Wendy’s that I’m willing to adopt their music recommendations? Do they even play music in Wendy’s, by the way?
2. So, if I click this, what do I get? I see an exquisite Baconator. Where’s my 2 for 1 coupon to entice me to schlep down there for this tasty sandwich?
3. What kind of music are they going to play? I like Pandora because there aren’t ads in the music stream. Are they going to try and sell me on a burger while I’m rocking out? This sounds worse than McDonald’s McBLT record campaign
4. What’s the difference between the “Baconator Beatbox” and “Rock Waaay Better”? Should I choose one or the other? Are they exclusive? And, along that vector what will my friends think with Baconater Beatbox showing up in my radio listings?
5. Why are there asterisks? I don’t see any footnotes. Oh yeah, I get it now. The asterisks mean I qualify as a fool under Wendy’s Terms and Conditions if I click this ad.
6. And Baconator Beatbox. Really? That’s terrible. Not even a 10 year old fossilized marketing executive would think that’s cool.

This ad is simply a shame–and even more so because someone got paid a lot of money to make it.