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Rory Cellan-Jones

Facebook, Scrabulous, and the End of Innocence

  • Rory Cellan-Jones
  • 16 Jan 08, 13:35 GMT

Oh no. I鈥檇 finally managed to kick the Scrabulous habit 鈥 at one stage I had eight games going simultaneously 鈥 when news came through that the Facebook application was . After a couple of months in rehab, I had to start another game 鈥 just so that we could get some television pictures, you understand.

But the bust-up over a game which is currently enjoyed daily by nearly 600,000 users is not just of interest to the addicts. It tells us something about what happens when bright young internet brands start to grow up.

Remember when Youtube was young, all those years ago? It started life by maintaining that it was merely a playground for the video activities of its users 鈥 so if a teenager posted a happy-slapping video from a mobile phone or grabbed the latest episode of Lost and puts it up for friends to enjoy, that was not their fault. Then Google bought Youtube for an outlandish sum, and both regulators and litigators realised that here was a business worthy of litigation and regulation.

So last May Facebook threw open its doors to outside developers. Immediately, it entered a new golden age where all the work of making the network more compelling would be done by keen young kids from Bangalore to Berkeley 鈥搘ithout payment, and with no comeback if they made a mess on the carpet.

It hasn鈥檛 quite worked out like that. For one thing, a zillion messy and annoying applications have spread like bindweed across Facebook, making it a much less attractive place to hang out. For another, those who are unhappy about any aspect of those applications are more likely to target what is now a $15 billion company (on paper, at least) rather than the developers.

ScrabulousSo the letters from Mattel and Hasbro accusing Scrabulous of stealing their intellectual property have winged their way to Facebook HQ in Palo Alto, rather than to Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, the two brothers who designed it. Mind you, they are rumoured to be making $25,000 a month from selling advertising on Scrabulous, so they too will be in the sights of Scrabble鈥檚 two owners. But my point is that, as Google has already found, the early dreams of being a happy-clappy, open-source, 鈥渄o no evil鈥 kind of business soon fade when the realisation dawns that you are worth suing.

Incidentally, some friends have suggested that the demise of Scrabulous (if this is not just a clever tactic to buy up the application) is what will finally see them departing Facebook. 鈥淭he end is nigh!鈥 was a message from one. But writing this post has reminded me of its usefulness. I spoke to several Facebook friends who are developing applications, and got a message through to Rajat Agarwalla, receiving this speedy reply:

鈥Hi Rory,
At the moment we would not be able to talk to you. However, we'll be in touch with you very soon! :)
Sorry!
Rajat鈥

Oh well, in the meantime, back to more serious matters. Can anyone think of a seven letter word involving the letters N,O,Y C, E, I and W?

Darren Waters

One More Thing....

  • Darren Waters
  • 16 Jan 08, 08:40 GMT

Too much coverage of the Apple announcements on the 大象传媒 News website? Well, if you think so, you'll be glad to hear that this will be the last of it for a while....

Now that the Steve Jobs reality distortion field has melted away, what to make of Apple鈥檚 announcement? My colleague Rory has done a very good job of assessing the immediate impact of the speech, but what about the nitty gritty?

The headline grabber of the event was the world鈥檚 thinnest laptop, but the biggest announcement was almost certainly the online film rentals.

MacBook AirBut let鈥檚 start with the MacBook Air. Its looks will certainly win over many an admirer but ultra-thin laptop PC users will probably be shrugging their shoulders. Sony's TZ Series and the Asus Eee all offer similar features and increased mobility.

At $1,799 the machine is pitched firmly between Apple鈥檚 Macbook Pro and Macbook users.

The question is will Macbook customers pay the extra $300 to gain the increased mobility, and will MacBook Pro users sacrifice grunt for the convenience, all for a saving of only $200.

And what does the laptop actually offer in terms of ultra mobility? Yes it is incredibly thin and at three pounds is 40% lighter than the MacBook.

It鈥檚 also the most powerful machine in its class 鈥 but has Apple pushed any boundaries in terms of mobility?

It may come with 802.11n wi-fi on board but you are going to need to plug in a USB dongle if you want too go wireless via a cellular network. Wimax would have been a bold, if perhaps premature, step.

The best thing that can be said about it 鈥 and one that should not be underestimated 鈥 is that the Air is a powerful Mac in the most portable form factor ever.

One thing to add: How does Apple justify charging $999 for having the optional solid state drive instead of a hard disk?

So on to the online movie rentals announcement鈥

Apple has certainly shaken the tree with its line-up of movie studios and revamp of the Apple TV.

European iTunes users can certainly feel rightly aggrieved that once again they are something of an afterthought in Apple鈥檚 eyes.

US customers are right now enjoying high definition films while in the UK a dated episode of Lost or South Park is the best we can expect.

The sheer amount of content available in the US will certainly boost Apple鈥檚 credentials as a serious player in the content delivery business.

And the revamp to the Apple TV corrects many of the fundamental flaws in the device that were obvious from the outset.

At a stroke the box is a strong contender to take the central place in your digital living room. But it does not go far enough.

Apple has seen sense and recognised that the box needs to be cut free from the umbilical cord tethering it to the computer while at the same needing the flexibility to take advantage of the Mac or PCs ubiquity.

But the box remains a glorified jukebox. Adding the ability to stream photos from a service like Flickr hints that the boffins realise people want to connect their TV not just to download services approved by Apple, but to other high quality web services.

So why do they have to wait for Apple to drip feed functionality? Opening up the box to third party developers could have turned the Apple TV into a truly multimedia device?

And one point on DRM. Apple has always been criticised for making the iTunes/computer/iPod axis a closed shop but customers have always been free to rip CDs and to reap the benefits of a DRM-free world as well as enjoy the offerings from Apple.

But in the video space Apple鈥檚 TV is completely a closed shop 鈥 the box can only deal with file formats that Apple approves of.

Yes it can play your home movies, some sanctioned movie trailers and the bought/rented content 鈥 but that鈥檚 it.

If Apple鈥檚 dominance in the music market was translated to the video market, then consumers would be tied into a very narrow range of products.

So what else struck me from the keynote?

The announcements of updates for the iPhone and iPod touch will delight and dismay users depending on which device they have.

To offer the new applications to iPhone users for free, but to charge iPod touch owners is both baffling and a little insulting.

It smacks of Apple once again trying to make an unnecessary distinction between iPhone and iPod touch.

And finally, the Time Capsule announcement felt to me like a solution to a problem Apple themselves had created.

Before the most recent operating system update Leopard was released there was talk of users being able to back up their hard drives over a wireless network using the application Time Machine, Apple鈥檚 Airport Extreme router and a hard drive plugged into it.

But when Leopard was released, there was no mention of the feature.

Now we know why. Apple wants us to buy its Time Capsule device, which combines am Airport Extreme with an in-built hard drive.

Going back to the original plan would be far more beneficial to Apple users.

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