flixic : flux

Here’s the thing about Facebook that really gets under my skin: They are slowly incorporating the features from every other independent web application on the internet. This is not inherently a problem—companies get bigger and they begin to have the resources to widen their feature set—the issue is that Facebook doesn’t do these features any better. They win simply due to how many users they have. It feels like mass-produced mediocrity.

When Facebook launched Photos, they immediately became the largest photo-sharing site on the internet, eclipsing Flickr nearly overnight. The problem is Facebook’s Photos functionality isn’t nearly as nice as Flickr. They became the largest photo-sharing site immediately because they already had those users who, by and large, spend more time on their site than anywhere else. These users aren’t going to venture out to Flickr if they can just dump their SD cards into Facebook.

The same thing goes for Videos (sub-par compared to Vimeo and even YouTube). Vimeo is one of the best video-sharing applications in the world but it will never have nearly as many users as Facebook, so most people use Facebook instead.

And, most recently, Facebook launched Places, competing with Foursquare and Gowalla (my favorite). Places launched and 20 minutes later nearly everyone in my Facebook friends list had already checked in. It’s not that Facebook’s Places feature is bad, it’s just that it’s boring. It’s nothing special. They didn’t do it better than anyone else.

That’s the problem with Facebook. They are slowly destroying independent web applications with boring versions that immediately win due to Facebook’s population (which at this point is the 3rd largest country on earth). There’s no demand for excellence.

While in LA this week, I dropped at least 50% of my phone calls. While at home, I drop at least 25% of my calls. My proximity sensor turns my screen on and off throughout calls, which activates the hidden features I like to call Putting People on Mute Accidentally™ and Touching the End Button In the Middle of Client Calls™. I’m left handed—hold the phone, lose coverage, data stops working. Incoming calls via Bluetooth? Garbled.

Hey! Apple has a solution! It’s called iOS 4.0.1. The update is out today! Check out what it fixes: It changes the 5-bar graphic used to display signal strength visually to have bigger bars on the low end, and it also shows that when you thought you were getting 5 bars before, you were actually getting 1! Awesome! PROBLEMS SOLVED!

I’ve never been so completely disappointed in Apple. I genuinely believe Apple knew from the beginning their antenna design was flawed and would cause issues. I believe that’s why they used bullshit math to show an incorrectly positive number of bars, and I believe that’s why they designed the Bumper. They figured enough people would buy the Bumpers on launch day and with the falsely-reported 5-bar signals displayed to users, people wouldn’t notice the iPhone has a terrible time holding onto a signal when in your hand.

This press event tomorrow had better be fucking magical.