Elliott C. Back » Jobs

I Love iTunes 8 Genius Feature!

Elliott Back — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 02:43:58 +0000

iTunes 8 has a new feature called Genius. Gizmodo says, “In time, Genius playlists should get more useful, but I think I’ll still stick to Pandora when I want to mix things up.” However, I’m pretty satisfied with them, as they provide a non-linear way to dig into related music in your library. For example, Eric Clapton’s classic Old Love brings up a bunch of oldies, as well as some other Eric Clapton / Cream tunes:

If I feel like pop, picking Danity Kane explodes more pop:

And an Ice Cube song brings the hilarity:

iTunes 8 is definitely psychic!

Apple Screws Canadians over iPhone 3G

Elliott Back — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:58:03 +0000

Reading Spat with Rogers leaves Canadian Apple stores without iPhones on Apple Insider leaves me with a sense of unease. It’s certainly Apple’s right to send shipments of the highly desired iPhone 3G where it wants, but to screw an entire country because it doesn’t like the action of one carrier won’t help it’s reputation with Canadians, who now suffer arbitrarily:

Apple, disgusted with Rogers Wireless for dumping egregious service plans on would-be iPhone 3G buyers, has decided that its Canadian retail stores will have no part in helping the carrier market the new handset to customers, AppleInsider has learned.

As a result, Canadian Apple Retail stores won’t be selling the new 3G touchscreen phones come Friday, representatives for the Cupertino-based company said during a private conference call on Monday evening. Instead, it will be up to Rogers and its partner Fido to lock subscribers into steep 3-year contracts that require a minimum monthly payment of $60 for just 150 minutes, 75 text messages, and 400MB of data.

So because Apple doesn’t like Rogers’ unfair pricing, they’re not going to sell their phones in Canada, with this snarky quote “We have nothing to do with the service plans. Those are Rogers’ plans.” On the other hand, iPhone Atlas suggests that Apple never intended to sell the iPhone 3G at any retail location, which would make this fight nothing but FUD.

Lisa and Steve Jobs

Elliott Back — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:55:30 +0000

Do you think they look alike at all?

“Millennials Hard To Retain” says Network World

Elliott Back — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 00:31:02 +0000

According to an article in Network World magazine, young IT workers aged 18-31, the so-called Millennials, are difficult to manage and retain. Essentially, Young IT workers disillusioned, hard to hold, survey says makes the claim that Millennials want more than they’re entitled to as entry level employees:

“The issue managers are facing is with retention, not hiring. That means the work environment is not living up to the employee’s expectation,” he says. For instance, many younger workers expect to get an office immediately or be paid at a rate higher than entry level.

“Millennials are coming in with high expectations and are disillusioned about the reality of a work place. They feel they should be rewarded and start at the top, when we all know you have to work your way up. They have been raised to be rewarded often and when you get into the workforce those rules change a bit,” Harrington says

The article strikes a chord with me, as I left my job at a Fortune 25 in the financial services industry on Friday to work for a competitor. My reasons for moving were significantly different than the ones this survey hints at. Where Millennials seem to be expecting perks, promotions, and compensation, I’m more interested in learning something new, challenging myself, and developing my skill set.

iTunes Consumer Friendly

Elliott Back — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 23:38:40 +0000

I give iTunes a gold star for this little gem:

Dear Elliott,

A few weeks ago, you downloaded “What About Bob?” from The Dresden Files, Season 1. The item you received may have had some noticeable quality issues.

Please note that this is an older episode, but we wanted to make sure you had the correct file. I have placed a new copy of this item in your download queue at no charge. To begin downloading, click this link:

phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/checkForPurchases

Or, you can open iTunes and select Check for Purchases from the Store menu.

We want you to be completely satisfied with your purchase, so we’ve issued one free video credit to your account. This credit will be used as payment for the next $1.99 TV show, music video, or short film you purchase from the iTunes Store. Your free credit amount appears next to your account name once you’re signed in. If you do not see it, sign out of your iTunes account and then sign back in to refresh. The sign out and sign in functions are found under the Store menu of iTunes.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact our customer service team by replying to this email.

Sincerely,

Kevin
iTunes Store Team
www.apple.com/support/itunes/ww/

How often does a big company go way out of its way to do something like this? Not too often, I wager.