15.5.12 - Assignment

1. Kickstarter


There is some really crazy stuff on there :-) But there are also pretty cool projects with products I would buy. 
I chose 3 projects I really thought they were interesting.

First one is the "Ringbow" - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/669350010/ringbow-next-generation-gaming-accessory?ref=category

It is a ring that can be used in many different ways. For clicking further in a presentation, for gaming, for surfing, for changing music on your phone... For me the functions I liked the most, are presentation and changing music, in my opinion the rest is not really useful... but thats only my opinion :-)
I will definitely follow this project and see if it gets funded, at the moment it looks like it will.

Second one is the iPen - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ipen/ipen-the-first-active-stylus-for-ipad?ref=category

Well... At first I wanted to write a devastating criticism on that pen because it is against the idea of multitouch and the way an iPad or iPhone should be used. There are so many projects on Kickstarter based on any kinds of pens for smartphones or tablets.
The most funny ones are the ones for Apple products. Why? Well watch this little part of the Keynote of 2007 where the first iPhone was introduced by Steve Jobs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YY3MSaUqMg

As he said: "Who wants a stylus??!!" Thats the reason why people should stop designing pens for Apple products or trying to sell them... Well at least most of these people, because this iPen really isn't that bad I guess. It looks like it could be very useful for artists designing on the iPad as it is really precise.


And the last project I wanted to talk about is Juicies - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/laudowicz/juicies-colorful-cables-for-ipod-iphone-and-ipad?ref=category

It's nothing really special, these are cables for a few Apple devices, so what? They have different colors! Wow amazing :-) It really isn't anything great but the reason why I picked this project is something else. Without knowing about the project on Kickstarter I had already bought one of these cables. It was a offer on eBay and I think I payed 1€ for it. But I think it is not coming from the same person that tried funding them on Kickstarter as my cable was delivered from Hong Kong.
I checked the updates and read the comments and apparently I am right, the project on Kickstarter is finished and was successfully financed but the cables aren't ready to be sold at the moment as the guy who had the idea is working on different methods coloring the cables and hasn't found the perfect method yet.
So I guess this is the bad side of Kickstarter, before you get the chance to finance and sell your product someone else can steal it from you and act faster.


2. Flattr


I have to admit I am very skeptical when it comes to investing money in this kind of thing. I don't really trust these systems.
So I am not interested in adding the Flattr button on my blog and don't want to register wit Flattr and spend money.


4. Dell Hell


Google lists some 41.300.000 results.
Dell Hell is one of the Social Media Crisis, it happened in 2004 and was a big mistake by Dell. Jeff Jarvis is a journalist, a professor and blogger and posted his dismay about the customer service of Dell in his blog.
The biggest mistake Dell made was to ignore him. Readers of Jarvis' blog didn't, they are angry at Dell as well and want justice. Soon the story reaches media and the share prices of Dell as well as their selling numbers start to decrease.
At least afterwards Dell learned not to ignore the needs of their customers and started the "IdeaStorm" so they can find out what their buyers are thinking and what they want so they can improve their products.