Micropayments are here

I just got an email receipt from iTunes. My total was $4.97 for five iPhone applications and one movie rental during the last few days. Three of the apps were free. The movie rental was $2.99

For a long time the idea of micro payments online have been a great idea without a reality to match. Is iTunes making it real? Hey Apple, why not let me use my iTunes account like a PayPal account where I can read, rent, download, buy anything from anywhere with one click?

Better groups anyone?

Why aren't the social networking and groups applications merging? The functionality, not the companies. What does Y! Groups or Google Groups do that's not possible in Facebook? Ok, so they're good ways to blast a bunch of emails around between people of like interest, but they could be so much more... and they're not. Why?

It seems that if Y! just joined Flickr, 360 and del.icio.us with their Groups product and stirred it up a bit they'd have such a nice offering. Probably too much dysfunction these days to pull that one off.

I predict that what we think of as "social networking" apps and what we should expect from "groups" apps will soon start to blend to a point where end-users will not (and should not) see a difference.

Keith Benjamin

It is with great sorrow I write this post to honor the passing of Keith Benjamin. Keith was the lead investor in Plum for Levensohn Venture Partners and a board member. Over the past year, he became a friend.

Keith was a smart, insightful, dedicated, funny, quirky and upbeat man. He was a very active board member, eager to support me and the business in any way possible and always quick to offer help. Yet he did so with no ego or agenda other than to further the growth and prospects of the business. I consider myself very fortunate to have gotten to know and work with him over the past twelve months.

Keith had a sporting accident and now he is gone. It is not easy to accept nor understand when someone passes so suddenly. It seems so unfair, so unjust, so untimely. It is all those things. I want to make it different. I want to pretend it hasn't happened, that its all just a bad dream. While my mind understands that Keith has moved on, no words can capture that which my emotions and spirit cannot yet fathom.

Keith leaves a wife and two beautiful children behind. My thoughts and sorrow go out to them. I cannot begin to understand their grief in this moment. It must feel bottomless. May time be their friend. May time heal the wound and sooth their tragic loss.

Keith loved the outdoors and the Marin Headlands. Next time you have the privilege to visit the Headlands or some equally beautiful spot in nature, keep a small commemoration of Keith's living spirit and this Hopi Payer in mind.

I am the soft stars that shine at night
Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there
I do not sleep
I am a thousand winds that blow
I am the diamond glints on the snow
I am the sunlight on the ripened grain
I am the gentle Autumn's rain
When you awaken in the morning hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds circled in flight
I am the soft stars that shine at night
Do no stand at my grave and cry
I am not there
I did not die

The world at large, your business associates, your friends and most of all your family will miss you terribly Keith. Sending you light and fond memories wherever you are.

A new purple Plum... now live, open and oh so exciting

Today is a big Plum day. We are opening up the beta with a brand new site, new UI, lots of improved functionality, iPhone application and so much more.

Plum is your spot on the web to save and share anything. We've been working real hard on getting to this point so I hope you'll check it out. This is still a beta and a pretty new approach, so please bear with us as we work on refining it. And please let me know what you think.

MacBook Air - thin is big, real big

I got one. A - world's thinnest laptop - MacBook Air. With SSD (solid state drive) and all. I love it!

It was a royal pain to get it set up. My (two and a half year) old MacBook Pro had a 100Gb hard drive and the Air is 64Gb. Try downsizing when doing a migration from one computer to another. Then try doing it over a wireless network. In the end I had to resort to copying over individual files (including system and library files). Total pain in the neck.

As has been pointed out by others, the battery life is not as good as advertised. It's a (bad) joke to claim that you can get 5 hours of use on a charge. If I turn off both wireless functions (WiFi and Bluetooth), run only a couple of applications, put it in power saving mode and turn down screen brightness to its lowest settings I'm guessing I get 3.5, maybe 4 hours of life. And that presupposes that the cooling fan doesn't kick in during use, which it does too oftern. Given the sound of that thing its got to be pretty energy inefficient. And the fact that I cannot swap my battery is a real drawback when I play road warrior. The performance is fine, but doesn't make me jump out of my seat. I've seen some stuttering a few times with the mouse temporarily freezing every few seconds which worries me.

Yet, I love it. What all the reviews seem to miss is the subtle, yet incredibly importance of the size - thinness really. Carrying this thing around with me is like carrying a notepad. Closing the screen is like closing a book. Opening it up is silent. No whirring hard drive. It's just there. Keyboard is great. LED back-lit screen is fantastic. Eco friendly construction is another reason to buy Apple. The way all the parts come together and the beautiful design just work.

I find myself just carrying the thing with me everywhere. The other day I even went for a run in the Marin Headlands, slipping my Air in my running pack as I left. I stopped at the top of a trail overlooking the Pacific and sat down for 30 minutes taking notes, and working through some problems I had not been able to get to in the office. It's not just a smaller laptop. It's a different laptop.

I don't have a Time Capsule yet but I plan to get one. The thought of being automatically backed up every time I get on my home network and having a big drive that can store all my media.... well that just changes the rules.

Apple has earned their reputation for innovation by pushing boundaries and by breaking rules. This machine breaks a bunch of the rules. Some of the innovations (like the small number of ports and the battery design) will perhaps be seen as mistakes, but I think we will look back at the Air in a couple of years and realize that Apple raised the bar once more and changed what we expect from a laptop.