As expected Apple jumped into the cloud-based music game yesterday when Steve Jobs announced iCloud. While I download iTunes and update my iPad to try out some of the features that are available now, here are a few thoughts on the announcements.

It’s about time that there will be iPad synching via wifi.

The mere ability to sync to the cloud is worth the cost of admission, saving space, memory and time, especially for those apps.

If you think about it the iCloud feature allowing you to access songs you bought previously is about the same as what we currently have for iOS apps, which you can delete and re-download.

All that synching addresses and email with the Cloud stuff didn’t seem revolutionary to a Gmail and Android user, though it sure excited the Apple fan boy in the office next to me. Ditto with the Twitter integration with Contacts and enhanced notifications.

iMessages the next BBM? Maybe, but a dagger in SMS, I doubt it. Sure for close friends who you know have iPhones, but if you don’t know what phone they have? There are reasons why here in the States we prefer SMS over mobile IM and email and I suspect they are the same ones that will limit the popularity of iMessages.

There sure was a lot of Twitter integration with iOS 5, but none with iTunes. Kind of a shame.

Apple’s thorough Twitter integration seems like a big middle finger to Facebook, will it appease our social media desires or just make us hungry for Facebook features throughout iOS?

I can’t find any mention of streaming in all of the iCloud and iTunes in the Cloud descriptions, just downloading to multiple devices. So just because I have uploaded 20,000 songs to iTunes in the Cloud doesn’t mean I can access them at a moment’s notice unlike Google Music. I need to download a track first before I play it. Seems like we’re still playing off the hard drive and dealing with hard drive space with this option.

TechCrunch is calling iTunes Match (where for $24.99 a year iTunes will scan your music library, identify the existing tracks that match tracks available on iTunes and give you access to them through iTunes in the Cloud) as paying “$25 a year to legalize all your content” and CNNMoney calls it “music pirates permanent amnesty.”. But before you go matching all those songs you laboriously ripped from your CD library think about the quality you ripped those songs at. I know that mine are all better than 256 kpbs so the matched tracks are actually a step down in quality.

I’ll post a deeper dive into the new iTunes features once I’ve had a chance to try them out.

Initial iCloud Thoughts is a post from: Trumblog

These are exciting days for cloud-based music services. Amazon launched their Cloud Drive in March. Then Google rolled out the Google Music Beta at their I/O Developer Conference. And of course all signs point to Apple announcing iCloud or some similarly named cloud-based music service soon, perhaps in a couple weeks at its Worldwide Developer’s Conference. So, with this glorious opportunity ahead of us here’s what I would like in the music service of my dreams:

Easy Access

I want all of the music files that I have collected in one place and have no hear of losing them to a hard drive crash, natural accident, vindictive co-worker, etc. At some point I may also need them back, because of one of those aforementioned issues with my backup, so I want an easy download option too.

And when I say my entire music collection, I mean my entire music collection, not just the album cuts from the major labels, but rare indy singles, alt takes that never were supposed to see the light of day, unauthorized remixes, live versions, mashups, etc. I worked hard to collect it all and I want access to it all.

Then I want to access those tracks any time and anywhere that I want on any device. PC, Mac, iPod, iPad, Android. Online and offline. If it has a browser and a speaker I want to hear my music coming out of it. I can live without an official Roku channel, but provide an API so some enterprising folks can integrate it with Roku, Google TV, Apple TV, and whatever comes next. Also if my device has memory that can be written to I want some of my tracks to be available if the wifi goes out or I’m outside cell range (like on the subway during my commute).

Plenty of Data

I admit that I get a little anal about my music meta data, the correct year, album artist, disk number, artwork, etc. It simultaneously drives me nuts that I have to pick only one genre for a song (is Paper Planes rock, electronic, world, hip-hop, alternative or all of them?) and to have both the genres Electronic and Electronica represented in my library. Give me the control to edit the information about my music the way that I want it and tag it to my heart’s content.

The flip side of that is that I want to pull plenty of data about my collection and listening habits. What albums from the past year did I listen to the most? Which of my albums are on the 4AD label (why is label not included in music meta data I ask you?). Presumably this service will be doing some data mining of my music taste so give me recommendations about artists, albums, tracks, playlists and even blogs that I should check out.

Social

A perfect music service will integrate with social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Blogs so that I can let friends know what music I like, share what’s new, what mood I’m in, and I can find out the same about my friends. Those social features of course promote discovery of new music, which then the service would support through access to music blogs, band websites, music stores, etc so that I can learn about bands, listen to new tracks and find new music.

Finally, the service should be free and has no memory limits. How do you make money? Well, a music store is the obvious economic model. Targeted ads based on my music collection is another. Fully integrated, media rich, band/ label micro sites could be sold at a premium. Then there’s the benefit of keeping consumers within your online ecosystem (think Google keeping you in the GMail, YouTube, Google Voice, Android set of services and away from Apple).

Ok, so that is my wish list. Next I’ll start writing about how some of the existing services that I’ve tried in my quest to find the music service of my dreams stack up.

The Cloud-Based Music Service Of My Dreams is a post from: Trumblog

One frustrating thing about the iPad is that the applications are not integrated. On my Android phone once I download the Tumblr app I can share the webpages that I browse, the pictures I take, etc on Tumbler directly from the browser or gallery. On my iPad I have to copy and paste to the app, which is especially a pain when you want a URL and a page name or something like that. I’ve found an easy workaround with bookmarklets that enable social media sharing in Safari, help me to get around the lack of Flash support that makes getting YouTube embed codes a pain and as an easy way to view the page source.

Here is my tutorial for adding a bookmarklet to your Safari browser on the iPad and a list of my favorite bookmarklets.

How To Create A Bookmarklet

In Safari, click the + sign at the top of the browser and select “Add Bookmark.”
On the Add Bookmark screen change the name of the bookmark to whatever you want. For the purpose of this demo I used “Bookmark Name,” but you can use something generic, the name that you ultimately want the bookmark to be or just leave it and change the name later (you’ll have another chance to edit it later in the process. When you’ve made this enormous decision click the save button.

Click the Bookmarks icon (an open book) and click the edit bottom in the top right.

The dropdown will shift revealing delete and edit icons on either side of the bookmark names. Click the bookmark that you just made in order to edit it.

You now have a second opportunity to edit the bookmark name and more importantly the bookmark URL. For the bookmarklets that I have been using for enhanced functionality I swap the URL for some JavaScript. Just select the url of the dummy site and paste the JavaScript into the bookmark.

Click “Bookmarks” and “Done.” You’re all set and can begin using those bookmarks.

My Favorite Bookmarklets

Here are the bookmarklets with JavaScript that I’m using to extend the functionality of the Safari browser on the iPad, especially where it comes to social media, social networks and blogging. If you have some additions please let me know in the comments.

Tweet This
javascript:(function(){window.twttr=window.twttr||{};var D=550,A=450,C=screen.height,B=screen.width,H=Math.round((B/2)-(D/2)),G=0,F=document,E;if(C>A){G=Math.round((C/2)-(A/2))}window.twttr.shareWin=window.open(‘http://twitter.com/share’,”,’left=’+H+’,top=’+G+’,width=’+D+’,height=’+A+’,personalbar=0,toolbar=0,scrollbars=1,resizable=1′);E=F.createElement(‘script’);E.src=’http://platform.twitter.com/bookmarklets/share.js?v=1′;F.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)[0].appendChild(E)}());

Bookmark On Del.icio.us
javascript:(function(){f=’http://delicious.com/save?url=’+encodeURIComponent(window.location.href)+’&title=’+encodeURIComponent(document.title)+’&v=5&’;a=function(){if(!window.open(f+’jump=doclose’,'deliciousuiv5′,’location=yes,links=no,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,width=550,height=550′))location.href=f+’jump=yes’};if(/Firefox/.test(navigator.userAgent)){setTimeout(a,0)}else{a()}})()

Tumble This
javascript:var d=document,w=window,e=w.getSelection,k=d.getSelection,x=d.selection,s=(e?e():(k)?k():(x?x.createRange().text:0)),f=’http://www.tumblr.com/share’,l=d.location,e=encodeURIComponent,p=’?v=3&u=’+e(l.href) +’&t=’+e(d.title) +’&s=’+e(s),u=f+p;try{if(!/^(.*\.)tumblr[^.]*$/.test(l.host))throw(0);tstbklt();}catch(z){a =function(){if(!w.open(u,’t',’toolbar=0,resizable=0,status=1,width=450,height=430′))l.href=u;};if(/Firefox/.test(navigator.userAgent))setTimeout(a,0);else a();}void(0)

Get YouTube Embed Code
javascript:void(location.href=’http://www.gorissen.info/Pierre/files/YouTube_codev2.htm?YouTubeURL=’+escape(location.href))

Share on Facebook
javascript:var d=document,f=’http://www.facebook.com/share’,l=d.location,e=encodeURIComponent,p=’.php?src=bm&v=4&i=1271771052&u=’+e(l.href)+’&t=’+e(d.title);1;try{if (!/^(.*\.)?facebook\.[^.]*$/.test(l.host))throw(0);share_internal_bookmarklet(p)}catch(z) {a=function() {if (!window.open(f+’r'+p,’sharer’,'toolbar=0,status=0,resizable=1,width=626,height=436′))l.href=f+p};if (/Firefox/.test(navigator.userAgent))setTimeout(a,0);else{a()}}void(0)

Add To Google Reader
javascript:var%20b=document.body;if(b&&!document.xmlVersion){void(z=document.createElement(‘script’));void(z.src=’http://www.google.com/reader/ui/subscribe-bookmarklet.js’);void(b.appendChild(z));}else{location=’http://www.google.com/reader/view/feed/’+encodeURIComponent(location.href)}

Get Bit.ly Shortened Link
javascript:var%20b=document.body;if(b&&!document.xmlVersion){void(z=document.createElement(‘script’));void(z.src=’http://www.google.com/reader/ui/subscribe-bookmarklet.js’);void(b.appendChild(z));}else{location=’http://www.google.com/reader/view/feed/’+encodeURIComponent(location.href)}

View Source
javascript:var%20sourceWindow%20%3D%20window.open%28%27about%3Ablank%27%29%3B%20%0Avar%20newDoc%20%3D%20sourceWindow.document%3B%20%0AnewDoc.open%28%29%3B%20%0AnewDoc.write%28%27%3Chtml%3E%3Chead%3E%3Ctitle%3ESource%20of%20%27%20%2B%20document.location.href%20%2B%20%27%3C/title%3E%3C/head%3E%3Cbody%3E%3C/body%3E%3C/html%3E%27%29%3B%20%0AnewDoc.close%28%29%3B%20%0Avar%20pre%20%3D%20newDoc.body.appendChild%28newDoc.createElement%28%22pre%22%29%29%3B%20%0Apre.appendChild%28newDoc.createTextNode%28document.documentElement.innerHTML%29%29%3B

iPad Bookmarklets is a post from: Trumblog

I got back from yoga yesterday and found this clip in my inbox. It perfectly sums up why I practice, to silence the noise. Of course I thrive on that noise as well, it’s a yin and yang kind of thing. Enjoy.

Why I Do Yoga is a post from: Trumblog

An updated map of Online Communities from XKCD. Can’t wait for my poster to arrive.

Online Communities 2 is a post from: Trumblog

FutureM’s opening night event was a nice mix of fun and information.  I’ll leave the networking, reconnecting and drinks to your imagination and focus on the panel discussion with Josh Bernoff (Author and Senior VP, Idea Development, Forrester), Chris Brogan (President, New Marketing Labs),  Brett Keller (CMO, Priceline) and David Kenny (President, Akamai Technologies).  The opining ranged from delivering value through marketing, the future of television, a case study in effective sales through social media and why Priceline chose William Shatner as their spokesperson.  The ultimate take away for me though was not to let analytics get in the way of being human and delivering value.

05:58:00 PM RT @alaring: #FutureM opening night panel all men. Is that “what’s next in marketing”? Just sayin’ #wherearethewomen

06:03:56 PM I help big companies act like small companies and like real people rather than phoning it in. via @ChrisBrogan

06:06:15 PM Listen to people not data, GM had great product response surveys. @chrisbrogan

06:08:51 PM Don’t give me a white paper, give me something I want like liquor, porn or Website Grader. via @chrisbrogan

06:12:40 PM Remind me never to follow @chrisbrogan at a speaking opportunity.

06:15:21 PM RT @stevenduque: #FutureM Opening Night: @akamai‘s David Kenny: “Within five years television and the internet will be synonymous. ”

06:22:45 PM In 3 years the amount of media data consumed online will increase 540x. via @davidwkenny

06:28:56 PM Staying relevant & successful: tell a good story b/c people will vote w/ playlists, use time wisely w/ right tech via @davidwkenny

06:30:06 PM We are not digital marketers we are marketers for human beings who have moved to digital. via@davidwkenny

06:33:37 PM In the USA people make 500 billion impressions on each other via social media annually vs 2.1 trillion online ads via @joshberhoff

06:38:23 PM Josh Bernhoff walks out of Best Buy w/ $1100 in gear because @Twelpforce helped him find a $6 cable. Great example

06:41:35 PM Twitter support is not an after-hours job, must be a systematic thing. Change your mktg and cust support process via @joshbernhoff

06:44:07 PM Why Priceline chose William Shatner: he was cheap, had a great voice, everyone knew him, he represented the future

06:47:47 PM RT @SincerelyJane: In digital world all you need is personalized pkgs of your own content and really smart predictors

06:53:24 PM RT @SincerelyJane: Trgtd Ad Buy = TV Ad w/locl tag -> link 2 locl deal -> cookie drop -> Calc ROI – @brettkeller on upcmng ad trend

06:54:41 PM RT @stevenduque: #FutureM: @priceline‘s @brettkeller: “Facebook has not yet figured out a way for advertisers to pour $$ into their ads.”

06:57:12 PM The height of the creepy bar is being discussed at #FutureM opening night. How high is it for personalized ads on FB.

07:01:37 PM How is an airline app that alerts you to a flight delay less creepy than a personalized ad on Facebook? – @joshbernhoff

07:03:39 PM RT @SincerelyJane: As mrkters, once we have the chance we pounce instead of once we have the chance we provide value. -@chrisbrogan

07:05:24 PM If you don’t have something of value, that people want at a good price, no amount of marketing will help you. – @davidwkenny

FutureM Opening Night is a post from: Trumblog

This morning I attended the FutureM event Getting Serious About Social Media with presentations by Mike Lewis (@BostonMike VP of Marketing, Awareness) and Corissa St. Laurent (@CorissaCTCT Regional Development Director, New England, Constant Contact).  The presentations were high level delivering the basics on social media to people just getting their feet wet.

The beauty of presentations such as this are new ways of discussing social media in client conversations.  Here are the new phrases that I’m taking away from todays event and will be using in meetings for the next few months:

• Social media is a revolution in marketing because it allows many-to-many communication, the digitization of content  incorporates all content types and the audience is the content producer.
• Why engage?In order to gain trust & credibility, create brand exposure, gain experts as fans and followers that boosts credibility and expand reach to new audiences
• Content shared via social networks should be S&S, short and sharable
• The issues that companies struggle with when implementing social media are the inability to scale, issues with security and control, the lack of resources to deliver & buy-in from executives, ad-hoc reporting, and a drive to centralization that kills personal and rapid engagement

Here is the live blog.

09:22:59 AM Fastest growing population on Foursquare: Indonesia Top Foursquare check-in location: SFO via @BostonMike

09:39:22 AM Response by @Delta to a positive tweet by @BostonMike was not due to CRM, but synchronicity of 1 SM director. Impact still enormous

09:40:56 AM Why is SM a revolution? Many-many communication, digitization of content, audience is content producer. Via @BostonMike

09:53:26 AM Corp challenges w/ SM: inability 2 scale, security & control, lack of resources & buy-in, ad-hoc reporting, centralization

09:57:32 AM Who produces content for companies? 33% anyone, 67% dedicated person Companies w/ out SM policies in place? 64% Yikes

10:04:13 AM Coke pushing the envelope with geo-targeting messages to consumers on Facebook and YouTube. Check them out.

10:16:18 AM 4 categories/ stages of corp engagement in SM: observer, explorer, influencer, luminary

10:57:12 AM 5 types of audience in SM marketing: fans, customers, prospects, suspects & disinterested. Focus on first 4 via @corissactct

11:00:21 AM Social media marketing: building network through relevant and interesting content to reach, engage and drive more business.

11:07:35 AM Why social media mktg works: 14% of people trust ads, 78% of people trust consumer recommendations via @corissactct

11:12:04 AM Benefits of sharing & engaging: gain trust & credibility, brand exposure, experts as fans and followers, expand reach

11:38:51 AM Q: How often should I post to my Co’s FB page? A: How often do you have something relevant to say? Need to be relevant more often?

11:40:51 AM Presenter @corissactct: “Now we’re going to get geeky for a moment” I immediately look up. Uh oh.

11:44:08 AM Fans not returning to your FB page OK as long you deliver relevant content status updates via the News Feed.

11:52:58 AM Long discussion of Twitter hashtags during @corissactct‘s presentation… that had no hashtag #irony

12:00:01 PM Think S&S for social media content: short and sharable. via @corissactct

12:06:40 PM Only 13% of reviews on Yelp are 1 & 2 stars vast majority are 4 & 5 stars. Why such a fear/ publicity of bad online reviews?

12:07:33 PM RT @holdentheworld: Small businesses should check out nutshellmail. Great service that updates you on your social media

Finally – I made the following notes that never made it into a tweet.

For social media success:

1. go where your customers are, not just the top social  networks
2. create starter content
3. make your social media presence a reflection of your business
4. be transparent
5. stick to what you know

Getting Serious About Social Media is a post from: Trumblog

Language defines, or at least provides structure for our thoughts and therefore our actions. A language without singular pronouns is probably used by a culture that sees the world as made up of groups. How would this culture act versus a culture whose language uses the first person singular pronoun in every sentence? Would one culture be more prone to narcissism? Would one focus on the good of the group over the individual? If we were building a language today and could see how its structure was constraining our culture how should we change it?

In computing this is even more true because the language and its structures are the foundation of thought on how programs will function. It places limitations on what the program can perform or at least makes some things easier to perform and makes others much more difficult to achieve.

Now think about how hard it is to understand these restrictions from within the system itself. What sudden blow to your understanding of the world would be needed to see it? Jaron Lanier delivers that shock with “You Are Not A Gadget.” Lock-in of structures from computer languages restrict us and disregard our humanity. The drop-down lists of relationship types, religions, ethnicities and the like on Facebook pigeonhole us as individuals and the strict layout of profile pages hide our unique and messy personalities. Crowdsourcing is not the answer to everything and subsumes the unique individual into the masses. Online anonymity releases the inner troll in us all. Open-source culture makes the building blocks of culture of greater value than the original composition and strips context from the content. We have stopped being original and merely churn through the detritus of past decades. The promise of the web in the mid nineties has let us down.

Alternately sounding like a truth-teller and a crank Lanier rails against the limits of MIDI, status updates on Twitter and Facebook, open-source culture, the lack of original music since the 1980s, Wikipedia, search engine optimization and belief in the Singularity. It’s not hard to find chinks in his arguments and overreaching leaps, but focusing on those errors avoids the real issues that he delves into. Anyone who works with web 2.0 and espouses openness owes it to themselves to read this opposing view and not dismiss Lanier as a late hippie lamenting the good old days and unrealized promise that they held.

You Are Not A Gadget is a post from: Trumblog

Yes, that’s right, while I do not have a “personal relationship with Jesus” he is stalking me on the Twittersphere. Does that make him my disciple? Oy.

I Have A Follower In Jesus is a post from: Trumblog

Over the last few months at Jack Morton I’ve been working with the team producing videos for Gillette to be posted on YouTube and a variety of other social video sites around the web.  Well, they are finally wrapped, posted and generating millions of views.  Watch and enjoy.

What’s the Perfect Length for Your Man?

How Often Do You Do It?

How Do You Like It Shaved?

Show Some Skin at Work

Shaving Scenarios Gone Social is a post from: Trumblog