graffiti in experience

As I prepare for my shift from one television service provider to another, a conundrum presented itself. All these shows that I routinely watch, but more importantly record – I’m going to have to manually schedule those recordings again.

Now I guess that would be ok if it was an infrequent event. But it really isn’t much fun – if you’ve had to redo it because the set-top box needed replacing. Or in my case since I’m switching providers. Hey, even if I was going to go get a Tivo unit, I’d still want to be able to automate this. Or at least make it as painless as possible.

I propose a standardized spec, XML format, that is universally adoptable, regardless of your service provider. It will be somewhat localized to your region. TitanTV has already gotten halfway there. Channel listings specific to your area. Available in an XML format. What we need to be able to do is export those settings to a file, so that anytime you need to switch out hardware (or share the same settings across multiple boxes), it’s a snap.

Something like -

<recordingList>
<recording>
<id>1234</id>
<channelId>1006</channelId>
<progId>123456</progId>
<recFlags season=Y newOnly=Y hd=Y>
</recording>
</recordingList>

To take it to the next level, perhaps you could even enter a URL on your set-top box, from which to retrieve the settings. This way, you can manage your recordings online, and schedule or edit recordings from any web interface. Site, mobile – hey you could even tweet a recording preference to your recording manager.

The business case, we’ll let’s see -

1. As the host of such services, you have access to show popularity data (with relevant user privacy consent). Networks would pay big money for this.
2. You can tap into a new audience market when your current user-base evangelizes shows they watch, inherently promoting your service.
3. As a content provider, you would have increased adoption of DVR services, easier device upgrades and easier sell to new customers who may be on a different device.

Born out of the need to create self shutting-off outlet for appliances that generate heat (e.g. curling iron or space heater), I tied a power outlet to a timer switch.

But it raised the question, shouldn’t all heat generating devices be set to turn off at a fixed interval. Say and hour or so. Isn’t the minimized risk of fire worth the hassle of turning a device back on after an hour. Especially for devices that aren’t typically used for more than an hour at a stretch.

Now you could get even more advanced by introducing an accelerometer into the device, that starts the timer when the device is not in motion for a set period of time. After all space heaters already have a tip-sensing shutoff built in.

So I say to heat producing device manufacturers of all ilk, why not implement these safety features. We could all use a few less house fires.

As with all of my Why Hasn’t Someone Done This? posts, I do hope someone can prove me wrong and show me that this actually exists somewhere. Or some enterprising person is hacking together a kludge for now. Though in this case, I suppose I have hacked a solution.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could turn off the water while soaping up in the shower and turn it back on and not have to brace for cold or hot as the mixers re-blend the water? More people would turn the water off while soaping and collectively contribute a little bit to the environment.

Now this is a novel idea, especially if there are kids in the house, though it got mixed reviews but it doesn’t quite solve the problem.

There are some industrial-application solutions out there, and yet more (PDF). But there are 2 issues with these, they are not shower heads and they require significant plumbing effort to implement, not to mention being cost prohibitive for the average user.

This low-flow head which combines the lowest flow and best price I’ve seen, does a pretty dandy job of conserving water. The bonus, the lever at the top allows you to turn water off, which does in many ways solve the problem. Though it’s a tad inconvenient, especially with soapy hands and all.

There has got to be a slightly more elegant solution out there, that combines the water saving, temperature sensing, instant on/off capabilities with a solenoid valve to regulate the flow of water.

As with all of my Why Hasn’t Someone Done This? posts, I do hope someone can prove me wrong and show me that this actually exists somewhere. Or some enterprising person is hacking together a kludge for now.

I shop online, a lot, but one thing that has always bothered me is the inadequacy of filtering options.

Even Amazon, which I treat as the standard-bearer for all things user experience, leaves something to be desired. Take an esoteric search like headphones. I want to be able to filter from my immediate result set by –

• price range (that I define, since I may want to spend $27 – 8$86), that includes shipping calculated – I mean you know who I am after all
• review rating (and I would really like to be able to thumbs up or down a particular set of reviewers so that their ratings are weighted more heavily)
• shipping option, particularly free shipping
• multi-brand selectable, if I want to say choose the top 3 manufacturers
• type (over-the-ear, behind-the-neck, in-ear etc.) and again a multi-select
• feature set (high-frequency monitors, low-range etc.)

… and finally, the ability to check a box per product to add it to a comparison / feature analysis list. Now yes I can already hear some people say that Amazon’s wish list or listmania widget does this – but not quite in the way I’m looking. I want to be able to temporarily compare a few sets of products, but also have my comparison selections (and that of all the other shoppers) be analyzed and data-mined in the way Amazon does so well. Oh and sortable please. Every filter field should also be a sortable field in the results.

This would then drive the next generation of filtering, based on comparison criteria shoppers have defined. I care about this far, far more than which department it’s from. I can’t help that headphones are taxonomized within clothing or musical instruments. Related, perhaps, relevant to my search, not as much.

Now I’m not lambasting Amazon, they’ve got some features down, others retailers/e-tailers have got other things right. Like NewEgg. A hard drive search yields a veritable smogasbord of filter options. But no price self-ranging or reviews. And Staples has a very cool Select Multiple option, though I wish it was the default. And please, no drop-down to select filter options. I don’t want to have to double the number of steps I take.

The holy grail thus far – PriceGrabber – these guys have done an amazing job. What can they improve? Expand all option for the facets, add user reviews to filtering (see note above about reviews), and price range to include shipping estimates. An expanded merchant list would be great, some of those heavy-hitters are not yet included.

Now if I was one of those venerable search engines offering shopping results, these are features I might implement to expedite the user’s shopping experience. Google does a pretty good job, but again multi-select (so I can pick my 3 e-tailers of choice) and factoring in shipping.

As with all of my Why Hasn’t Someone Done This? posts, I do hope someone can prove me wrong and show me that this actually exists somewhere. Or some enterprising person is hacking together a kludge for now.

So the ubiquitous ‘Share This’ is here to stay. Everyone from the big-box to the local mom & pop stores are now using it. It’s great, love the concept – if you like it and you know me and think I’d like it, you tell me about it.

Someone sends me something, I check it, it’s cool. That’s all dandy. Then another friend sends it. And another, and another. I get it, it’s a great thing, but how do I stop the barrage.

What is needed is a ‘Don’t Share’ feature to accompany a site, tool or app. Once you’ve seen it, and you know all there possibly is to know about it, you click it and are never to be bothered again. No matter how cool everyone else thinks it is.

Concerned about privacy, it really doesn’t compromise your privacy any more than those friends who share things with you. The marketers get your email address anyway, why not make it work for you.

As with all of my Why Hasn’t Someone Done This? posts, I do hope someone can prove me wrong and show me that this actually exists somewhere. Or some enterprising person is hacking together a kludge for now.

So I’ve wondered for a while now, iPhone has accelerometer, so does Wii controller.

Closest it seems like it has come is this cool video of a WiiMote updating iphone built on open-source bluetooth stack extender. Or perhaps this iFun app that let’s you play PC games. Or this one.

Cool as those are, not so functional when you’re having a party, 2 people are going at it on your only 2 controllers. Meanwhile everyone’s got an iPhone and a serious jonesing for a Super Mario Bros show-down.

Why aren’t Nintendo/Apple partnering for some exclusive deal on a Wii controller app. Apple gets to tap into the Wii games share (admittedly not quite so huge) and Nintendo gets a controller in everyone’s packets. Mobile avatars and potential customers abound.

As with all of my Why Hasn’t Someone Done This? posts, I do hope someone can prove me wrong and show me that this actually exists somewhere. Or some enterprising person is hacking together a kludge for now.