This is Platitudinous.com

Are Facebook’s announcements what lead to Qwikster?

We’ve all been reading a lot about Netflix plans to spin off there DVD by mail business into a new company called Qwikster.  Everyones talking about their theories as to why they would make such a drastic move. Yet, no one seems to be talking about what I think is the biggest reason for this change, Facebook.  

This didn’t really occur to me until I saw Reed Hastings get up on stage during the keynote at Facebooks, f8. 

One of the most important features of netflix has always been the recommendations, and as Hasting’s himself said on stage, sharing is 100 times more powerful than machine based recommendations.

The problem with keeping the DVD by mail business integrated is that the account model for that business is a household account.  But sharing and syncing with facebook demands an indivdual accout model.   

If netflix has its way, in this new streaming only model individuals within one household will each have their own account and your netflix account will be synced with your facebook account from day one, sharing everything you watch with all of your friends automatically. 

Sharing is that important to Netflix, so important that they are willing to go through this transition that they know will anger their users.  

So important that they know, without it, they don’t stand a chance.

Writing tool

I think it’s a lot like photography, “the best camera is the one you have with you”. The best writing tool is the one you have with you

-written on the new Tumblr iPhone app

It’s the data, stupid!

I get excited when I saw a nice long post in my google reader on daring fireball and quickly added it to Instapaper to read later.  I thought finally someone is going to articulate all the ideas I’ve had about apples latest and greatest offering in a way I was just not capable of. Sadly like so many before him, gruber falls just a tiny but short on this one.

I don’t care if it’s coded to run in web browser or in a so called “native app”.  Focusing in to much on that misses the more important difference, the difference about where data is stored.

The way I see it this:

Google’s approach to data is, there’s just one copy and it’s stored up in the “cloud”.  When you run a program like google docs your reading and writing directly to the cloud.  

Apples iCloud on the other hand has many copies of the file, one for every device.  The core of their offering is a clever set of Apis that makes sure all these local copies stay in sync with each other.

The main reason for the two approaches in my mind comes down to just one word…Flash!  No, no not the web plugin Apple loves to hate, what I’m talking about of course is flash storage.  Take a look at the differences in hardware from apple and google.  At first the obvious differences between a chromebook and an iPad revolve around touch, apples got it googles doesn’t.  But what I think is more telling is the storage space, iPads have at least 32 gigs, and chromebooks have almost nothing!

Apples bet its future on the importance of big and fast flash storage built into its machines.  If iCloud allowed you to work with copies of files directly on the server there would be no need for all those gigs.

Forget about touch screen this, web based that… If you want to know the real difference between Apple’s approach and Google’s, it’s the data, stupid!

The biggest announcement

One of the biggest features mentioned for the new feature of iOs received little more then a listing on the screen during the keynote was the enhancements to airplay.

While some people have begun to put the pieces together, there hasnt really been enough stories about this feature which makes the Apple TV the ulimate iPad accessory (or is it the other way around).

While we dont know much, and some of whats known is covered under NDA suffice it to say that apple’s opening up the flood gates on this one.  Its not as simple a feature as it might sound, and at least one game developer has the right idea.