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hi everyone welcome to reporters Roundtable I am Rafe Needleman in San Francisco and this is the last reporters roundtable at least by me it has been a really great run guys I however and I'm leaving CNET so this is my last show and I'm going get you will never guess where I'm going unless you're ever watching anything I've ever done because I'm going to Evernote I'm gonna work help them build out their platform and a lot of other cool new projects and I'm really psyched about that but what I wanted to do before they shut off all my access here at CNET is I've created for everybody a Rafe needleman's I'm out of here awards or the Audis because really this is a show about navel-gazing these are a bunch of companies products and ideas that have really stuck with me all based on stories I've written over they really stuck with me over the years and I wanted to talk about them because I think they're fun and give some credit to people in the industry who are doing really amazing things and some not so amazing things and the only way I could do that without just droning on and on myself is to bring in one of the other great commentators the great commentator here at Siena and that's Brian Cooley aye I pumped a raw onion into the office to tear up we were doing a Next Top Chef thing demo here earlier that's all it is yeah anyway Brian thanks for joining us Brian of course does car tech videos and we've been partners in crime for a long time yeah the truth is I want to get into the awards because I hate boring farewells I care about them but I know that you guys out there don't really want to hear me get all teary but Brian and I started pretty close to each other at Siena and it was located in its original building which a lot of folks don't know was a soundstage that was the original set for the streets of San Francisco that's where the show was originally shot and that's where our original TV shows came from we were part of that growing complex there yeah and you are you you were there early on and you giving me the finger as you walked by my radio booth it was great I was angry at times yeah yeah I remember that I missed those days that was 1996 if I recall its right and then anyway I left like an idiot and did some other stuff and then came back about eight years ago so I've had two stints to sense you know anyway thanks Brian for joining me I wouldn't help me anywhere else today helping poke holes in my I mean I literally would not be anywhere else today I'd nothing on my calendar well it's nice of you to slot us in to your otherwise solitary play solitaire and you do the little sound effects box all day but instead I'm here with Rafe and of course Steven Beach improving yes thank you it's been a pleasure since like the first week I worked here I was like wow this reporters round table is an awesome show and their previous producer Benito Gonzalez series like hey man you like that reporter try on table show right I'm like yeah dude I love it it's really good but it was a pleasure to work on the show and good luck to you thank you it's gonna be fun anyway you can follow me on twitter at Rafe find me on Facebook and Google+ and will you leave me your Twitter handle it's can you have my Twitter handle it's not my name but it's so cool I'll make it my name why can't I just find out Brian where was I one though that was available I missed out on so much anyway I'll go to blog that evernote.com for more information my name - rape I'm gonna do that I say I'm rave coolie he's got we go we get mistaken for each other except you're the one who has hair but anyway I could do it we could swap if we swap glasses right now it would freak people out I just spray this we could change the lower thirds and people would say no that's correct yeah no III occasionally get what female pitch emails from people say I saw you covered the new Ford Focus let's walk glasses come on just be full of ask for this from de wine or filthy oh holy look at this okay now all right see a thing okay Rafe you're an idiot I'm glad you're leaving coolly I hate you god you're a pompous ass okay nice we finally accomplished something that I've had on my bucket list for a long time oh there we go okay feeling good Oh alrighty so these are without further ado the Audi Awards yeah thanks for taking that pimple off hey okay so here they are I have ten I'm gonna give you a couple here you can find the rest on the reporters roundtable blog and they start with the best customer experience that's a good one to start with base I bar based on a story I wrote about dealing with Dell and Apple and one of those two companies won the best customer experience award and it was not Dell oh my god anyway um and so I gave the award to Apple because although I keep buying Apple products that break literally railer out of four out of six Apple products I've bought in the last two years have broken and it needed repair I keep buying more because I'm an idiot and they just they Apple just makes everything easyy they're good about taking care of the breakage though right oh they're fantastic I take in a broken product they say here's a new one and I leave yeah they're really good about replacing stuff that they know and they don't tell you they know which I find very nice I've had a couple friends who go in there with phones that were very clearly user error smashed yeah and they'll replace them and say oh yeah we've heard there's a number of they're doing this no you're not you're being nice so it's very smart they they if you have Apple Care though right yeah it depends know sometimes even without I might have to get AppleCare my new my air here before it because you're not gonna company machine anymore yeah no this is - yeah and then with that Apple Care I know folks who've gone in there with a clear let me know you bring in an iPad with a dented corner and a broken screen and they say oh yeah we heard some of these screens were mounted incorrect at the factory cutter you know looking at the corner and ignoring it Oh a couple stories like that yeah they think it's very variable by Store and who you talk to of course and if you're a young female versus an old guy but it's whatever plus so there's an Apple tax but the other side of the Apple tax is the Apple welfare welfare it's perfect I'm gonna come along with a follow up and I would give a runner up to Amazon I've had the same experience that Amazon is I think you have had with Apple I have some Apple products I haven't broken one yet so gone back to them looking for their largesse but Amazon gets on this list much like you have your personal story they sent me a thank-you card once that was personally handwritten personally addressed personally stamped the stamp was on there crooked with some spit next to it yeah I mean they actually the database flagged me obviously as an addictive Amazon customer but they took the time to write me a note nice that on top of the fact that I have never had a bad experience in the Amazon or even one of their sellers is just I'm blown away I I have had Amazon send the wrong present to somebody as a gift and that did not battle sorry yeah yeah but I still have Amazon so first that because it was just a hilarious experience to my sister for Christmas yeah I sent her a DVD of some movie she wanted to watch what she received was how to fix your marriage her marriage is on the rocks that makes it perfect well everybody's marriages you know it takes work obviously what are you talking about and I called Amazon they're like oh but tell you what just keep that DVD I send you another one right Yeah right I'm gonna keep it now we're gonna keep it I haven't had one of those happen yet that might change right but I will say this about Amazon they do Netflix better than Netflix in the sense of streaming or discs in the sense streaming I don't use this anymore they have but you can buy that you can buy the discs on Amazon faster than Netflix will loan you one it's amazing with Prime it's like how'd that get here I just I just let go of the mouse button how can that be here already I love am i I'm using Amazon Prime and Amazon videos now more than I'm using Netflix I'm considering canceling that I'm trending that way and you may have seen the Consumer Reports research yesterday that's a lot of people are using Netflix but not happy with it as much as they are with lower usage services like Amazon interesting trend so speaking of which I want to give an Audi award to the best online retailer which is everybody's refurb store anytime you can buy a refurb absolutely I'm with you I'm totally with you there's no I got a refurb TiVo I got a refurb harmony remote I have bought refurb ThinkPads in the past yep save a lot of money and it is just the heck of a deal I by refurb photo gear no problem ah I had them on a Nikon d7000 came out a couple months ago it when you couldn't get it I bought a refurb it was absolutely not an issue in a camera's delicate right a lot of things can go wrong that you can't always tell I mean how you know the picture is not shifted in terms of color or aberration is that just the lens or is it a defective body right but I have no doubts about it and I've had no problem with the camera whatsoever you know why I like refurbs in addition to the fact that you can generally save a few percentage points is that every refurb the company stands behind us so they're direct company sells generally yeah we're talking factory refurb totally right with many difference yes then store returns that are checked and resealed that's a different thing that's the Frye's reefer those are those are those are refried right yeah not refurbished the thing I love about refurbs is that these are products that in addition to rolling off the assembly line have something either went wrong with them where they were just returned they go back to the factory and then the technicians have to hand verify each one and really in detail and with a rigorous checklist the factory again has put into place they've been checked twice yeah why wouldn't you want double quality you're you're buying double quality for less money or you can get less checking for more money what are you gonna do you're gonna go to get the refurb every time again factory is the key though yep not some other program where the retailer's done it because they don't have technology to check it out yeah Apple has a pretty good factory story rate refurb the discounts aren't as good as you would like them to be but they're still well with Apple they never are follows here is my Audi award for the worst growing pervasive can't get away from it technology you know what I'm gonna say 3d TV Oh mostly I hate 3d because I don't see 3d so this is very personal you're one of the 10% oh yeah up to 10% yeah of the I'm a flat viewer interesting yeah all right so here arts you're biased totally I see 3d fine and I still vote for 3d and oh really why do you not like it because I just I me gives me a headache and because let me tell you this because I have a six year old son and all the kids movies are coming out in 3d he wants to watch my 3d cars see them that way so I have to go okay we're gonna go see you know a movie and you're gonna have a good time I'm gonna have a headache thank you so you see it what do you see when you see a 3d film two images side by side oh you're kidding mmm Oh your life is a hell yeah oh no no that's not good no wonder the Masters never worked for me right you missed the whole slice of American childhood no that's why I'm angry and bitter and I'm with you on 3d TV that work let us count the ways the glasses yeah the possible headaches and nausea or the lack of 3d viewing among a large a significant minority of population there's nothing to watch last I checked on Amazon there are I think maybe 300 3d blu-ray titles that's nothing I mean we complain about there being what twenty five thousand titles on Netflix streaming that's considered small well then what's 280 it says there's nothing to watch but kiss and then there's the exactly and then there's the whole idea that this technology has a weird battle between passive and active hmm they aren't different enough in their quality to make the decision easy it's real frustrating and then of course proprietary technology on the glasses this is this thing is dead in the aisles as any retailer will tell you yeah I mean you get 3d technology for free under need even a low-end TV that you buy yeah it's not really an upcharge anymore yeah or barely it's not it's not perceptible but it's just yes so 3d teeth through the but the upside of 3d is a you get brighter and faster refresh TVs because they will do they need to be paid up yeah right but they would have gone there anyway right okay so that's I think yeah freebie the other freebie is if you don't like 3d and you can go see a non 3d version of a 3d movie there's not community in the theater I saw I saw avatar and Prometheus in 2d and it was also because that's the loser the loser nobody wants to go there there's there's rave sitting there yeah with like you know someone some other old guy or something over there right it's the eyepatch it's you and all the pirates there all right the best new idea for email because I'm making up my own awards here the Audi for the best new idea for email goes to self deleting messages it's just something you imagined or does it exist it's something that this guy who works in the email industry imagined okay the the CEO of this company other inbox which I really like yeah has proposed this idea of commercial emails like you get a coupon from GoDaddy or something like that yeah and that coupon is good for a week okay and it you probably auto file it somewhere in your email box and then no long past its life a year later you go back and your coupons folder and your email has 80,000 messages in it that are taking up space interesting why do they stick around so all you have to do is put a header in the the inner the email header those he calls it the ex expires that expires for the date on it and when you compose the message you will as the sender if you're doing the right thing right you'll date it out yeah this will be for bulk email for PR pitches in our business yeah I mean how many times where I get a bunch of those like I've gotten a chance to look at them and while they're over now right or anything that has a quantity that only a certain urban people can attend or can download or what have you white paper downloads in there and once they've all been done they can go out of my inbox oh that's different that's cool cool too right so quota based as well as time and date based and oh make it go away obviously nothing just delete it anymore but go into the self delete box like the spam box if these will go away in 90 days if you don't that's a cool idea that's a very cool idea and it could help manage a lot of the frustration that we feel with spam that is kind of quasi spam things that I want but I don't want them to live forever yes I love this idea I hope you don't pick it up it was been a year or two since I wrote the story and I haven't seen much happening with it I like him I like it now I want to give an Audi to the simplest product out in there now this is what's happening right now as I cover startups and and all technology things are getting easier to use the good ones and the most interesting products that are out there are things like Instagram and interest spero the email app instead of all here to have been developed by a five year old yes simple they look simple but really they're not and there's a lot of thought that goes into these new apps to make them clear and easily graspable and they look like what the startup walks are calling the MV the least viable the most I forgot that I am the least viable profile product okay MVP I'm getting it wrong got it I'm getting it wrong that's not that's not right it is the tendinous yes it is the minimum MVP Minimum Viable Product oh the least it has to be to be a viable product Minimum Viable Product got it so what are you whatever your desired of lowest common denominator yeah okay whatever you're doing strip it down to its essence and give users that and chances are not only can you get the product out faster if you strip out all the craft yep but chances are users will like it more because it's focused and they don't have to deal with the intellectual overhead and this is a key part of launching a product in particular you can always layer in more stuff once you get early digestible buy him right from a large base who will then evangelize but if you don't get that initial base of evangelists which is the typical misfire it's typically because you have too much going on this is the story of what I call transparency and and intuition I it can be enough for me to understand how to use it but I have to first understand why to use it and stripping it down off and makes the message simple when this does that right got it the worst example of living up to the idea of the MVP is Microsoft they're the opposite there they are just feature after feature after feature after feature and thinking that people buy products because they're features when I saw Microsoft ads for using PowerPoint for a homeschooling mom and the kids were saying I love the transitions that is just such a gigantic misfire yeah I love the effects options where I can delay the start of the transition before on click start of a looped video yeah that's great right this is what this is why power users love that but you got a feather in with a Minimum Viable products a great phrase yeah Oh Apple gets the opposition I forget so the iPod did less with a black and white screen for longer than anyone else did more with color right and don't own the world my award for the simplicity the simplicity Audi goes to this little app that nobody has heard of called Trello tre LLL never heard of it and it's a task board it's like Pinterest for things to do you just type something in it and it goes upon that I gotta do this this is in process this is done and you drag things around but how do I see it web-based yeah it's a web app it is it mobile based yet I don't know that'll check into so this is I have yet to find a good to-do list I use my calendar which is clunky yeah and I'm always moving things ahead to the next day when they don't get done real messy if I use the Google Calendar that's the best I've got I use wonder list right now yeah Evernote Bolin I've tried I've tried Google Tasks and I don't know for some reason it doesn't work for me Apple just had one but Trello is good for groups as well and it's just it's not simple like Instagram is simple but it takes an incredibly complex and painful task which is organizing a bunch organ emultion izing lists and makes it so unbelievably intuitive it just it's I'm gobsmacked that's a technical term it is my next Audi and they're a bunch here that I'm gonna leave in the blog post which you can find on news com government overreach best thing government's done for startups you'll find that in the blog post the most anticipated product by you this is a great one you got to read that one the most anticipated by me mmm-hmm oh yeah leave it for the blog I'm telling everyone out there they got it they gotta go see it it's a good one uh-huh okay and best bargain app who doesn't want to see that one yes it's not what you think Brian you're good rapes dialing it in just saying finally I love number 10 just boy I got one too the boy was he wrong award this is the best I love these those two we don't just look like we're both idiots this moron yep rafe Needleman right before the iPad came out I wrote this post oh it was so smart why consumers won't buy tablets ladies and gentlemen raise Needleman thank you very much like two or three tablets here's by the way as a little side note here here's my tip for what happens to you when you write a post like this and you actually find out that tablets change your life and maybe a hundred times better which they do oh my god what a second machine yeah go to Staples or Office Depot and get one of those those vertical file folders for putting files in yeah that's the best place to store all the tablets you accumulate got that many yeah wire-wrap yes for tab that's a great idea they works beautifully a minute yeah you don't you don't the open wire ones you want the ones that are closed and they have them at Home Depot give they're like metal panels yeah oh interesting what a great idea yeah you are clever you're like you're like Rafe Stewart Martha's long-lost son all right I have one of these someday I'll go dig it up although it would mortify me too much probably five or six years ago I remember a lengthy explanation I gave on squawk box about how the iPod has crested let's say I had a little more Headroom after that because because the windows what the hell was the windows-based museum that's what presume there first I thought it was presumed anyway the Windows Media Center tied creatives and others and sanz's sandisk sansa were just coming on fire and they look so good and so affordable and so much freedom to move around what was then non locked media versus Apple's locked media right well I had that one wrong yeah I mean the iPod never looked back it never looked back and I was sure I told him within the yet well they do they 18 months apples to Germany over media players is over well not quite even to our credit even Steve Jobs I mean he probably does this intentionally and Apple's current leadership Tim Cook yeah get things wrong I mean Steve said will never do a phone he said will never do a color screen on the iPod he needs it he said a 10-inch tablet is as small as you can go yep and we know what's we think is gonna go I'm not gonna say that now because I can't come back on the shown say and glance about later right your your your gaffe will be locked in liquid amber forever oh here at the scene that Museum anyway this is one of the hazards of doing this job is you know I only hope that in writing things that end up being completely dumb in retrospect that I provide a little bit of things for people to think about maybe some entertainment reasons not to go into the career of tech journalism all those things provide great thing about going to the career tech journalism is it you can be completely wrong and still have a job the next day I know it's amazing as long as you turn the page that's why we're still here yes that's if it was a deaf game we would be out of here we've had a few that we're off anyway that's it for the awards see the rest at news calm or reporters roundtable Tina calm put the full list up Brian anything you want to add to my list just want to thank you for good work relations and yeah our paths will cross as they always do in this case sure they will thank you yes Rafe yes I prepared a little video for you Oh No retrospective I hate though I hate those words I mean have we made a video for you and your bowel turns to water oh I hate this okay okay some enroll this video space a final frontier these are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise its five-year mission to explore strange new worlds to seek out new life and new civilizations to boldly go where no man has gone before Oh long and prosper thank you so much I had to throw in a little sexiness at the end there yeah say the nannies for the end yeah good advice enlightenment anyway thanks everyone for being with me for all these reporters roundtables and for the entire team at scene it who has made the last eight or nine years I've lost track just freaking awesome it has been a great ride thanks Brian thanks Steven thanks everybody again love you guys and I will be around go over to blog that Evernote talk comp to find out more and follow me on Twitter I'm Rafe thank you and goodbye you you