The iPhone is not Facebook
Posted: May 28, 2010 Filed under: Don't do that Leave a comment »The iPhone is a great, magical, revolutionary device. I owned first-gen one for 2 years and loved everything about it (except AT&T). I think it’s great how many apps are out, and how much emphasis the platform has put on software development in general. Without the iPhone I’m sure my Nexus One wouldn’t even exist.
However.
Shaq released an iPhone app today: The Shaq App. The entire point, as far as I can tell, is to watch shaq’s twitter feed. There are about a thousand ways you could have done that already, the easiest of which is going to his twitter page. There is no reason for this.
But Shaq is rich. And social. If he wants to pay somebody to write The Shaq App, that’s fine by me. What spurred this post was a spam I got from contacts.com with this in it:
“Our new LensGauge™ iPhone App makes it easy. It prompts you when to change your contact lenses. It maintains all pertinent information about your contacts. And it makes re-ordering a snap.”
This LensGauge ™ app is so dumb it is hard for me to properly articulate it. It is dumber than the fart app(s). It is dumber than the “I am Rich” app. It is maybe even dumber than The Shaq App. From the reviews on that page, it sounds like it doesn’t even work (how that is possible is beyond me).
This isn’t new. Lots of companies seem to be “promoting their brand” through “new business channels” by “having a presense” on a “social platform.”
So listen up, all you pillars of industry. You probably don’t need an iPhone app. If your best idea for an iPhone app can be used at most once a year, you definitely don’t need one. If it doesn’t do more than your website, just make your website work on mobile devices. If you just yearn for virtual friends to “like” you, go get a facebook page or open a twitter account. If all you desire is to be “social,” you should probably quit your job, because you are terrible at it.
The iPhone isn’t Facebook, although with 100,000 apps its starting to get pretty close.
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Yahoo learns nothing, enforces “security questions”
Posted: October 1, 2009 Filed under: Don't do that 1 Comment »I play fantasy football on yahoo. For the last few weeks they’ve been hassling me to enter “security questions” so I could reset my password if I forgot it. I already have an alternate e-mail address registered with them in case I forget the same password I’ve been using for 5 years, so I’ve been clicking “Later.” Until today, when I went to adjust my team and saw this:
This is infuriating to me, especially considering how badly yahoo got burned in the media after that UTenn student “hacked” Sarah Palin’s e-mail address. I really wish that people would stop doing this, or at least make it not mandatory. Even Time Magazine had an article about how stupid these questions are.
So please, internet, I’m begging you to stop doing this.
Don’t send “Unsubscribe Confirmations”
Posted: July 23, 2009 Filed under: Don't do that Leave a comment »I recently got some spam from American Airlines, and like usual I went down and clicked the unsubscribe link. A few minutes later I get this:
from American Airlines <AmericanAirlines@na.info.aa.com>
to my@email.address
date Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 9:26 AM
subject Unsubscribe Confirmation
mailed-by na.info.aa.com
This message is to confirm our receipt of your request to receive no further messages from American Airlines.
Thank you.
Message-Id: <hrc2l0f5nsz6vx4cn6v76Splnv@na.info.aa.com>
This is exactly the opposite of what I wanted to happen. Whoever came up with the idea to send an email to confirm that you will receive no more emails should die of ghonnorea and rot in hell.
