I am a big fan of Amazon’s Kindle devices, especially the really cheap $79 version which comes with a WiFi connection. I have been carrying this along with me as I travel across the planet. I have become increasingly frustrated with the device because I am unable to connect to the Internet.

Most airport lounges and public locations want you to sign-in through a browser page. On Kindle’s browser, that is like cleaning your nails with a butcher’s knife. I have tried and tried and failed. It is frustrating to say the least.

And that is the crucial difference between them and Apple. Apple as a company anticipates these problems because it makes hardware to delight its customers. That is what they do – apps, music, videos and books come second. Amazon on the other hand is making hardware to sell other products – books and digital content – and as such optimizes its experience around selling. That is their corporate DNA. doesn’t know how to anticipate such irritants. I hope Jeff Bezos and his troops think harder about these little things as they continue to roll out more hardware.

Friday’s loss may have ended the Knicks’ winning streak, but certainly not the buzz around Lin. Sunday’s crowd included Kevin Costner, Eva Longoria, Spike Lee — wearing Lin’s No. 4 Harvard jersey — and another famous Harvard product, Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg. Lin’s high school coach from Palo Alto (Calif.) High School also made the trip.

Looks like I need to find a television and watch Jeremy Lin at work!

“The reality is that in the world of newsfeeds and streams, titles matter more than ever before. The best content in the world will fall flat without a great title. Nothing illustrates it better than this recent Target article.” — Nick O’Neill.

Nick pointed out that after The New York Times published, How Companies Learn Your Secrets, Forbes.com ran an article titled How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did. The Forbes article got 12,902 likes and more than 680,000 page views. The New York Times article got about 60 likes and shares.

I agree with Nick – Facebook and Twitter have reduced our attention spans to such a degree that if the headline doesn’t catch your eye when flowing through the stream, there is very little chance people are going to pay attention. And that is one of the reasons why I spend quite a bit of my time on headlines and making them inviting enough for the readers. Of course, these creative headlines do have to match the content – otherwise what you are doing is cheating the readers and that is never a good idea.

This is from my latest Om Says newsletter over on GigaOM, The Slow Rise of SoMoClo OS:

Mountain Lion OS X is a step in the right direction for what the operating system (OS) for the Internet Age should be. Up until a few years ago, the Internet was a feature on our desktops, accessed through the browser and used for finding information. Along came broadband, and we all suddenly realized the Internet could be used for a lot more than just looking up facts and figures.

Today the Internet is how we do (almost) everything. Our phone calls are made using Skype. We video chat over Google Hangouts, and we communicate via Facebook, Twitter and iMessage. Twitter is the new Associated Press. Vimeo is our PBS, and YouTube and Hulu are the new broadcast networks. Amazon is the mall and iTunes is our Virgin Megastore. Pandora is our radio and Spotify is our jukebox.

It doesn’t matter whether we use Windows, Mac, Linux, Android or iOS: We can do all the things we like to do as long as the Internet is there. And if the growing popularity of apps is any indication, even a browser isn’t necessary. The Internet is what matters. From my perspective, the desktop OS of today needs to be built with that reality in mind. Let’s call this the SoMoClo operating system, where SoMoClo stands for social + mobile + cloud.

Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Park and Manhattan’s Central Park Zoo are the 18^th and 19^th New York City park locations to turn on free AT&T* Wi-Fi service.