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10 Sample Marketing Job Interview Questions & Answers From HubSpot’s CMO

by Cristian De Nardo | Nov 9, 2015 | Marketing

Alright, everyone: I’m about to let you in on a few of my best-kept interviewing secrets. In this post, I’ll uncover the questions I use when interviewing candidates for inbound marketing positions.

These questions are meant to assess candidates not only for their marketing talent, but also for who they are as people.

Keep in mind that the best candidates aren’t just qualified to do the job you’re trying to hire them for. You want to look for people who are also passionate about marketing, fit with your culture, and show potential for growth at your company.

Here’s a quick look into my interview approach, followed by some of my best interview questions for you to adapt for your industry and hiring needs.

Get more interviewing and screening tips for building your marketing team by downloading our free guide here.

My Interview Approach

During interviews, I put a lot of stake into each candidate as an individual. My goal is always to find someone amazing who also has great long-term potential, no matter where they are in their career.

To uncover this, I like to ask questions that get at the core of who they are, how they think about things specifically, and how they’ve gotten things done in the real world. I then balance these questions with case-style questions, which usually involve a hypothetical business situation, because they give the candidate an opportunity to show how they think about and work on problems.

Below are ten real interview questions I ask candidates for marketing jobs. Keep in mind that I don’t ask all of these questions during a single interview. In fact, one case-style question can evolve into a discussion lasting anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, so I often only have time to cover two or three questions during one session.

Before the interview starts, carefully choose the questions you want to use based on the person’s role and background. For an inbound marketing generalist, you could ask any or all of these questions. For someone with a more specific role on a larger inbound marketing team, like a blogger, you could focus only on the questions about blogging and content creation.

10 Real Interview Questions I Ask Marketing Job Candidates (And the Answers I’m Looking For)

Case-Style Questions

1) “Draw a funnel on the whiteboard showing 10,000 visitors, 500 leads, 50 opportunities, and 10 new customers (or any other numbers you think are interesting). Now, pretend you’re the CMO for the company, and you have to decide what your marketing team should do to improve on these metrics. Which areas of the funnel would you focus on, and what would you do differently to change these results?”

The Follow-Up: The follow-up here is simply pushing on the candidate’s answers. Typically, they’ll pick one part of the funnel to focus on. (And if they don’t, I like to push them to do just that.)

Once they pick one area, I ask them follow-up questions like: “Which tactics would you think about changing?,” “What have you done in your past role that’s worked?,” “Do you think our company has any unique advantages to get some leverage out of that stage of the funnel?” I don’t just want them to tell me to “improve the visitor to lead conversion rate” — they need to tell me how.

If I have time, I’ll tell them to pretend they’ve implemented their ideas, and I’ll ask them to go back through the whole funnel and explain how they think each of those initial metrics have changed.

What to Look For: Everyone on the marketing team needs to be able to understand how to think about and optimize the funnel. Here’s where you assess their thought process, whether they have an intuitive sense of what good and bad conversion rates are, and whether they understand how the funnel steps are connected.

You’ll also gain some insight into whether they understand which different tactics you can use at each step to improve that particular step. (For example, if they say the lead-to-opportunity conversion rate is bad, the right answer is not to write more blog articles.)

2) “We have two potential designs for the homepage of our website, but we don’t know which one to use. The CEO likes one, and the COO likes another. Half the company likes one, and the other half of the company likes the other. Which one should we use?”

The Follow-Up: This type of question should elicit a ton of questions from the candidate, like who the target audience for the homepage is. If it doesn’t, then they’re either making up their answer or don’t have enough knowledge to address the situation. Follow up by answering their questions with hypotheticals and seeing how they work through the problem.

If they do pick one side or the other and give you a reason, ask them what the goals are for the homepage. Then, ask them how they’d determine which homepage meets those goals best. From there, tell them that Homepage A performed well based on one of the criteria, and Homepage B performed well based on another one of the criteria. This way, you can assess how they make choices when it’s not possible to get data that’s 100% conclusive, and they have to choose between two, imperfect variations.

What to Look For: While it might seem like this question is all about design, what you’re really doing is understanding how candidates approach a conflict of interest. Do they care what each of these people think, or do they go to the data for their answers, such as through A/B testing, user testing, and customer interviews. The best candidates introduce logic and marketing methodology into their answers, while removing opinions. I also like when candidates say you should be constantly tweaking and improving the homepage, rather than always doing a complete redesign every nine or 18 months.

3) “Let’s say you have an Excel spreadsheet with 10,000 leads from a few months back — long enough that those leads’ sales cycle has passed. The file contains information about each lead, like their industry, title, company size, and what they did to become a lead (like downloading an ebook). Also in the file is whether they closed as a customer and how much their order was for. Can you use this information to create a lead score? How would you do it?”

Note: I often start this question by simply asking, “How should you create a lead score?” This is how I sort out the people who don’t take a data-driven approach. Folks who answer, “You create a lead score by talking to the sales team and then assigning five or ten points to each of the criteria they say they want” are actually wrong. That is not a data-driven approach to lead scoring, and it is way too simplistic to work effectively in most cases.

The Follow-Up: Most people will answer by talking about “looking at the data” and “sorting the data.” Push them to tell you how they’d do that in Excel (or another program if they prefer something else). It’s not practical to just “look” at the data when you have 10,000 rows — you need to use statistical analysis.

They also might zone in on one factor, perhaps industry, all alone. If they do that, you should ask them what they would say if the small companies in one industry are good leads, but the big companies in another industry are also good leads? Basically, just keep pushing them until they’re at a loss for what to do next.

What to Look For: This case-style question is meant to test a candidate’s quantitative abilities, and I’d only ask it for people applying for certain marketing roles (like operations). Here, I’m trying to figure out how the candidate thinks about analyzing data and what their sophistication level is around data.

Most people don’t get very far and are either unwilling or unable to look at more than one variable at a time, or understand how to analyze a lot of data in a simple way. At a minimum, you want to find candidates who:

Look at the leads who closed in one group and compare them to the leads who did not close
Look at multiple variables at a time
Use statistical functions in Excel or another program to do that, like summary tables, pivot tables, and so on

If you find someone who starts making a coherent argument about why you might want to use logistic regression, factor or cluster analysis, actuarial science, or stochastic modeling to figure this out … refer them to me.

Additional Questions

4) “Why do you love marketing?”

Or, “Which aspects of our business are you passionate about?” You want to hire someone who’s both qualified and has the desire to do the work. Otherwise, why would they work for you instead of the company next door?

Part of their answer will lie in their body language and enthusiasm. The other part will lie in how concrete their answer is. Get at the details by asking a follow-up question, like: “Let’s say you’re at home, kicking around, and doing something related to marketing. What is it that you’re doing?” Perhaps they’re reading their five favorite marketing sites, or analyzing traffic patterns of websites for fun, or writing in their personal blog, or optimizing their LinkedIn profile. Whatever it is, you want to be sure they’re deeply passionate about the subject matter you’d hire them for.

5) “We have a new product coming out in three months. What would you do to launch it?”

This’ll show you how well a candidate understands all the different tactics of inbound marketing and how to tie them together into a holistic plan. It’ll also give you insight into how creative they are and whether they can come up with new and interesting ways to do marketing.

6) “Our CEO wants you to evaluate our blog. What would you say?”

Before giving you an answer, the best candidates will come back and ask you about the blog’s metrics, how many leads and customers it generates, what the goals are for it, how much you’re investing in it, and so on. This is also a great way to test whether they actually prepared for the interview by reading your blog.

7) “What do you read, and how do you consume information?”

Marketing is changing constantly at a rapid pace — so anyone in a marketing role needs to know how to stay on top of and adapt to these changes. Do they know where to look for industry news? Are they familiar with and subscribed to top marketing blogs? What do they do when they see a change has taken place, like when Google updates their algorithm?

8) “What is one of your hobbies? How do you do it?”

This question will help you assess a candidate’s ability to explain a concept they know intimately to someone who isn’t as familiar with it. If their hobby is training for a marathon, ask them what advice they’d give you if you woke up one day deciding you wanted to train for a marathon. Are they able to communicate it clearly?

One candidate taught me how to make tagliatelle, which is hand-cut Italian pasta. She gave me the full run-down on how you make the noodles, how you form them and cut them, and which ingredients go into the sauce. She relayed the step-by-step process to me in a way that was very clear and understandable. I felt like I could’ve gone home and made tagliatelle myself. Not only did this tell me she knows how to convey information clearly, but it was also gave me insight into her personality and interests.

9) “Between videos, ebooks, blog articles, photos, podcasts, webinars, SlideShare, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest … there’s a lot of potential content our team should produce for inbound marketing. How do we do it all?”

The wisest candidates know you should not do it all, but rather, you should start with the content that’s most important to your prospects and customers. They should also have a plan for talking to customers and prospects by way of interviews or surveys to figure out which social networks they use and which types of content they prefer.

10) “Let’s pretend we have very convincing data that shows none of our potential customers use social media. Should we still do it? Why?”

Look for candidates who understand that being successful in social media is important even if your customers aren’t there today. Here are a few reasons qualified candidates might cite:

Your customers will be there in the future, so you should get started now.
You’ll gain industry clout. After all, journalists and influencers in your industry are probably using social media — and it’s important for them to follow you even if they don’t ever become customers.
Social media activity impacts your organic search presence, helping your content rank higher in search engines.
You’ll have more control over your online presence.
Your competitors are likely using social media.
It may cost less to generate customers via social media.

The Candidate’s Follow-Up

Most candidates know to follow up with each of their interviewers in the form of a thank-you note or email. But part of my assessment is the depth at which candidates follow up with me. The most impressive follow-ups are the thoughtful ones, where candidates call upon details of our discussion to show they’re really engaged in the interview process. Perhaps they did more concrete thinking about a specific question I asked, and they send a long email including research on a question they don’t think they nailed. Many times, they’ll send me a light strategy document with ideas and/or research on something we talked about. These candidates tend to stand out.

Well, the cat’s out of the bag. You’ll have to use these marketing interview questions as a basis to create your own, similar questions that are relevant to your industry and hiring needs. Good luck, and happy hiring!

What are you favorite questions to ask during the interview process? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

free guide to interviewing job candidates

Pinterest adds visual search tool to iOS app – can identify a billion objects

by Cristian De Nardo | Nov 9, 2015 | Apple

If you’ve ever been browsing Pinterest and spotted a lamp you really like in a shot of someone’s living room, or a bag you love in a street shot, the iOS app now has a tool designed to help. Just tap the search tool in the corner of the photo, highlight the object of interest and the app will search its product database to try to identify it …

Pinterest says that it has so far indexed a billion of the 50 billion images posted to the service, and in time aims to index them all.

While the new feature will be useful to users, it’s of course also designed to help the company monetise the platform. It added Buyable Pins back in June, together with curated shopping lists for various product categories. The company also updated the app for iOS 9 in September, adding Spotlight search and support for 3D Touch.

Pinterest is a free download from iTunes, and the new version will be rolling out later today.

Filed under: Apps Tagged: Pinterest, visual search

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The Dangers of Poor Leadership

by Cristian De Nardo | Nov 8, 2015 | Project Management

The Dangers of Poor Leadership
By Sam Obitz
Poor leadership can kill an individual’s drive and turn otherwise thriving productive people into malcontents.
I have been associated with people who lost the love of their sport or job simply because of a change in coach or management. Some coaches and managers fail to feed the culture of the […]

from Project Management Articles – PM Hut http://ift.tt/20ESJVE
via pmhut.com

How to Reduce Employee Turnover: 5 Tips for Keeping Your Best Talent

by Cristian De Nardo | Nov 8, 2015 | Marketing

This post originally appeared on Agency Post. To read more content like this, subscribe to Agency Post.

High staff turnover can be a problem for any company. Teams typically rely on each and every member to keep things moving forward, so when someone leaves, it can often disrupt progress.

Not to mention, you’ve invested time, energy, and money in recruiting and training. When someone leaves, you need to repeat the process.

Retaining employees — like retaining clients and customers — is one of the best ways to keep your team on track towards their goals. So how do you create an environment that makes people want to stay? How to you keep your best talent?

We’ve detailed five tips for creating more loyal employees to help your business avoid turnover.

5 Tips for Creating Loyal Employees

Staff Loyalty Tip 1: Improve Your Benefits Package

Not every company can compete on salary alone. But the truth is that there are many benefits above and beyond money that make your team feel valued and happy.

Some of the benefits you can offer include:

Flexible work hours, such as enabling staff to start or finish at different times to fit their schedule.
Remote working options so that members of your team can stay home with a sick child or skip the commute a few days a week.
A shorter work day or half-days in the summer.
Fancy coffee, smoothies, and other snacks to keep the energy levels up.
Extra vacation days so your team can come back to work refreshed and reinvigorated.
Quality equipment and furnishings. Creatives love to work on nice computers and ergonomic chairs. Spare no expense when it comes to the right gear.
Initiatives that align with staff values. One of my friends works at a PR firm that has a zero-waste policy. They make a huge deal out of being environmentally aware. This is an important perk for her as someone who is conscious about this cause.

Staff Loyalty Tip 2: Create a Staff Onboarding Program

One of the reasons many people look for greener pastures is because they don’t feel invested in the company they’re working for. They don’t understand their role in the overarching company goals.

The good news is that changing this mindset is easy, but it should be done as soon as the new team member starts at the office. Part of your recruitment policy should focus on how to bring a new employee into the organization so they feel included and invested in the success of your agency from the beginning.

When a new hire joins your team, you should:

Have a formal welcome meeting so he or she can be introduced to the team.
Send an information pack containing important details for staff, such as instructions for the photocopier, alarm, expenses, etc.
Give a presentation or workshop about the history, goals, and strategic direction of the agency. Ideally, this should be done by the owner or CEO.
Plan an informal get-together. A welcome outing or lunch can help someone to build connections with other members of the team
Pair the employee up with a buddy or mentor who can teach them the ins and outs of life in your office.

Staff Loyalty Tip 3: Provide Opportunities to Grow and Learn

A huge part of growing is being able to take ownership of projects and improve your skills and abilities in other areas so you can stretch the boundaries of what you’re capable of. To keep talent, you have to keep them engaged and interested.

Consider what type of learning opportunities you can provide at your firm. This could include:

Funds to attend conferences
Workshops on different aspects within their discipline
Time to attend free or inexpensive local events and networking opportunities
Time to attend webinars and online learnings about different subjects
Time to work on fun and challenging in-house projects
Opportunities to take ownership of projects and leadership roles within the team
Understanding of company strategic objectives and the opportunity for people to take an active role in figuring out how to achieve them.

Staff Loyalty Tip 4: Allow People to Build Their Personal Brands

This quip of advice is especially true of creative talent like designers and developers. Many creatives have their own vision of how they want their personal brand to evolve. If they don’t feel as though they’re getting enough of the type of work they want, they’re going to look for new opportunities.

You want to ensure that they are being assignment projects that provide them with room to grow and exerpiment. You can also facilitate this by:

Allowing your team members to take credit for work when possible (for example, a written bio at the bottom of a blog post).
Inspiring staff to take ownership of projects that are a particularly good fit for their skills.
Avoiding micromanagement. Offer your advice on critical aspects of the design, but let your team take the reins and become the stars.
Talking to each team member individually about their goals and future plans as a designer, writer, etc., and help them initiate projects to move them closer to their goals.
Enabling team members to include pieces in their portfolio, as well as share work they’ve produced on sites such as Behance and Dribbble.

Staff Loyalty Tip 5: Reward Hard Work

Rewards aren’t so much about the gift itself, but rather about the recognition of a job well done. Everyone likes to feel appreciated and to know their contribution matters. So what kind of rewards could you grant even on a small budget?

Take the team out for a lunch or host an afternoon get-together after completing a complex project.
Acknowledge hard work in front of the rest of the team, so they can see that you stand behind their efforts.
Start each meeting with some reflection on great work done in the past month.
Make sure employees have one-on-one time with managers each month to discuss goals, strategies, and progress. Ensure this time is positive. Focus on what is working and what has been successful.
Frame feedback and criticism in a constructive way. Don’t allow people to feel as if they’re being “ganged up” on.

Keeping your talented team members is about more than paying them a competitive salary — though that definitely helps. Your people want to be creatively stimulated, nurtured, and above all, appreciated. How you do that is up to you, but what’s most important is that you provide the tools and direction for your team to find satisfaction in their positions.

What policies do you have in place at your company to help with retention?

California judge dismisses class action suit against Apple over retail worker bag searches

by Cristian De Nardo | Nov 8, 2015 | Apple

tim-cook

Nearly a year ago, a federal judge dismissed a class action lawsuit Apple employees filed against the company for wages they lost while standing in bag-check lines for 10 to 15 minutes before and after their shifts. The case, however, lived on in California. Until today, that is. According to a report out of Bloomberg, a San Francisco judge has today sided with Apple in the case, saying employees could have easily avoided the checks.

The case would have seen Apple compensating as many as 12,400 former and current employees across 52 retail locations a “few dollars a day” for the time spent undergoing bag checks. The employees argued that since the checks were mandatory, they should have been compensated for them. Estimates showed that Apple could have been on the hook for as much as $60 million.

The judge, however, sided with Apple and stated that the employees could have forgone the bag checks by not bringing bags with them in the first place. “It is undisputed that some employees did not bring bags to work and thereby did not have to be searched when they left the store,” U.S. District Judge William Alsup said today in the ruling.

Earlier this year it was revealed that Tim Cook was largely unaware of both the lawsuit and the policy of checking employee bags. When two employees complained directly to Cook about the issue, he forwarded the email to his HR executives, asking “Is this true?”

Following today’s ruling in San Francisco, the employees in the case said they are continuing to explore their options, but for now, it appears Apple will not be forced to compensate employees for the checks.

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: Apple, Apple Stores, Lawsuit, retail, Tim Cook

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Apple TV (2015) vs NVIDIA Shield Android TV – Comparison [Video]

by Cristian De Nardo | Nov 7, 2015 | Apple

Today we’re comparing the forth generation Apple TV to the NVIDIA Shield. These are quite possibly the two best set top boxes out right now. I won’t be going into every little detail here, but instead the things that are most important for myself. But before we get in-depth with either option, let’s take a look at specifications between the two…

Specifications

First up, we have the fourth generation Apple TV which packs a dual-core A8 processor, 2GB of RAM, either 32 or 64GB storage options, and also an HDMI 1.4 port (and yes that means no 4K video this time around, but maybe next year).

Next we have the NVIDIA Shield rocking a quad-core Tegra X1 processor, 3GB of RAM, either 16 or 500 GB storage configurations, and HDMI 2.0. So basically you have two options: either spend an extra $100 on the 500GB version, hook up an external drive to one of its two USB 3.0 ports, or use the Micro SD card slot on the back.

Check out our comparison video below:

One of the major “future proof” features the Shield has over the Apple TV is going to be 4K video support. Content may be limited for now, but it’s totally the future. I’m baffled by Apple’s decision to omit 4K video, because well.. even the freaking iPhone 6s shoots 4K. Both devices can also pair up with Bluetooth headphones for a private media experience, but overall in the specifications department, I have to give the win to NVIDIA.

Hardware

With the Apple TV you get the new Siri Remote that features a touchpad for navigation. You also have the ability to purchase an Apple certified third-party gamepad that will work with select games from the App Store, though all games support the use of the Siri Remote for playing, but we’ll get into that in a little bit.

The NVIDIA Shield is a bit opposite in the contents department. By default, the Shield comes with a gamepad instead of a standard remote. The remote can be purchased separately if you’re looking for something more traditional, but essentially, with both set top boxes, you’re getting everything needed to properly enjoy the experience.

Apple TV Software

There’s a lot of cool stuff here with tvOS, but the main additions we’ll focus on will be Siri support and the new App Store. Those are essentially the added benefits you’ll care about, aside from the redesigned look and feel. The interface is pretty damn smooth though. Siri support is awesome and you can easily take advantage of it by holding down the dedicated button on the remote. This will allow you to perform a variety of searches for things like movies, tv shows, actors, sports scores, team lineups, and more. It’s nice, but not nearly as extensive as Siri is on iPhone or iPad.

The App Store is a fantastic addition here, because instead of having a bunch of pre-loaded crap you might not use, you’ll have the ability to pick and choose. In the App Store you’ll find cord-cutting apps like HBO Now, Crackle, Netflix, MLB, NBA, and even Plex for playing content from a local media server. You can also AirPlay content from your iOS device or mirror your device’s screen.

Gaming on the Apple TV is pretty cool, but there’s nothing at this point early on that has blown my socks off. There’s also a lot of games available, but mostly large scale versions of apps you’ll find on iPhone and iPad. All games can be played with the Siri Remote and in some cases using it like a Wii Remote, which is nice, but you’ll need the controller for a more traditional gaming experience. Gaming here is nice and certainly a big selling point, but it’s far from a console-like experience.

NVIDIA Shield Software

If you’re familiar with Android TV, you’ll feel right at home here. It’s completely integrated with Google services. So you have the Play Store and any apps compatible with the TV platform. There’s also Google Search integration directly from the remote or controller via the built-in microphone. This is a far more extensive implementation than Siri in my opinion and will allow you to quickly search for content across the available services without sifting through different menus. There’s also Google’s Cast service which will allow you to cast movies, music, and other content from an Android or iOS device straight to the TV.

As mentioned the NVIDIA Shield features 4K/UHD support at 60 frames per second. That doesn’t change the fact that 4K content is super limited, but there are apps such as Netflix and YouTube that support 4K streaming. Like Apple TV, there’s a ton of app potential for cord-cutting here, but the Play Store currently has the advantage when it comes to the number of those kind of apps available.

The NVIDIA Shield is a gaming-first device. Aside from the small games you can get in the Play Store, you can truly have a light PC or console-style gaming experience. There are games here that work specifically with the Shield’s Tegra X1 processor. If you want to really step things up, the best move is to sign up for NVIDIA’s GeForce NOW cloud gaming service. Think of it like Netflix for gaming. This will allow you to stream PC games from the cloud to your TV at up to 60 frames per second in 1080p.

There are a ton of cool console-like titles and even some premium purchasable games like Witcher 3. The only downside is that GeForce NOW will cost ya $7.99 per month, but there is 3 month free trial available. I’m just not sure that expense is worth it, over playing on a traditional setup as the graphics aren’t on the same level as a PC or gaming console, but they may be close enough for some people.

Verdict

At the end of the day, we have two completely different platforms that certainly cater to different audiences. If you’re into gaming, chances are that NVIDIA Shield is going to offer a much better experience. The fourth gen Apple TV is coming along with its App Store, but no games there will match the gaming experience on the Shield. That being said, sometimes Android TV can be a little clunky and awkward to navigate when compared to tvOS. Apple has the smooth experience down and I’m a big fan of what’s happening here.

The Shield tops Apple TV in many departments, but Apple TV is cheaper with its base model running $149, while the base NVIDIA Shield will set you back $199. If you’re invested in the Apple or Android eco-system, the choice is obvious. If you are on the fence, choose your priority: 4K/gaming but clunky Android TV vs. overall smooth but experience on AppleTV.

What do you think? Let us know with a comment below.

Filed under: Apple TV Tagged: android tv, Apple TV, comparison, nvidia shield, set-top box, TV, tvOS, video

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JBL Pulse 2 vs Marsboy Orb: Bluetooth speakers at ends of the LED light display spectrum

by Cristian De Nardo | Nov 7, 2015 | Apple

JBL-Pulse-2

If you are looking for some differentiation in your Bluetooth speakers, the JBL Pulse 2 ($199) and the Marsboy Orb ($30 after SPDJVX3R code) offer varying degrees of light show to accompany your music. While the JBL Pulse 2 is essentially a very good Charge 2+ with a light show wrapped around the outside, the Marsboy brings a base model Chinese brand speaker with a LED array strapped on. Is there any middle ground here?

As you can imagine, there is a huge disparity in quality of music and lightshow between these two speakers. I’ve reviewed JBL’s Bluetooth lineup on various occasions and they hang with the best $200 Bluetooth speakers out there. The lightshow that JBL attached is no slouch either. There’s a variety of light shows and you can even snap a “photo” with an image sensor on the device and it will use the colors in the image as the light show. It can even use ambient sound to make its lightshow. The case is waterproof and the lights are very cool and wrap around almost 360 degrees.

The Pulse 2 has a 6000mAh battery but unlike the Charge 2, it can’t USB charge your devices. That huge battery is meant to power the lights which really do look impressive and are a significant upgrade from the Pulse 1. Besides not having a USB out, the Pulse 2 is a bit on the heavy side and with a round body and drivers on each end, is confusing in how to set it down without distorting the sound. Most press images have it down on one end and it sounds great no matter how it is positioned but there is definitely some ambiguity.

jbl_pulse_2

The Marsboy Orb, as you can see in the images, is round and takes up about as much volume as the Pulse 2. It sounds pretty good for an inexpensive speaker and will definitely be great for kids and folks who aren’t super-picky about sound quality. It sounds a bit tinny like a $40-$50 speaker…which makes a lot of sense since that’s what this is.

Marsboy speaker

The light show is also less nuanced (here’s a good video of the lights). Instead of a grid, you are presented with a number of LEDs that look a bit like the old LiteBrite kids toy from the 80s. There’s a few different settings to choose from and the lights definitely correlate to the music but it isn’t at all ass fancy as the Pulse 2. It does have a MicroUSB Charging, 3000mAh battery that’s good for 10+ hours of playback and it looks very nice. You can also make speakerphone calls and do anything else a bluetooth speaker is meant to do. This one isn’t waterproof.

To wrap it up, these are both solid performers in the “Portable Bloothtooth speaker LED lightshow” space. If you want to impress people and maybe dress up a dorm room or party space, grab the JBL. It’s a great sounding speaker overall even without the light show.

JBL-MArsboy-pulse

If you want a light show speaker for the kids to rock out to or something to make your iPhone/iPad music a little more entertaining, the Marsboy Orb is certainly a good bet. Marsboy Orb ($30 after SPDJVX3R code at checkout)

If you are looking for some nice middle ground here, JBL’s previous Pulse speaker is about $137.

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: Bluetooth, JBL, Light-emitting diode, Marsboy, Orb, pulse-2, Sound quality, Wireless

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9to5Toys Lunch Break: T-Mobile iPhone 6s/Plus $100 off, iPad mini 4 Wi-Fi 64GB $460, Implosion iOS game free, more

by Cristian De Nardo | Nov 7, 2015 | Apple

9to5toys-header

Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

Today’s can’t miss deals:

apple-iphone-6s

T-Mobile is discounting iPhone 6s/Plus by $100 when bought on an installment plan or outright

Apple iPad mini 4 Wi-Fi 64GB in all colors: $460 shipped (Reg. $499)

MacMall already has iPad Pros on sale with modest $12 savings, more!

Apple iPad Air 2 Wi-Fi: 16GB $399 (Reg. $499), 64GB $479 (Reg. $599), 128GB $559 (Reg. $699)

Apple iPad Mini 2, space gray or silver: $199 shipped ($70 off)

Apple iPad mini 2 128GB Wi-Fi + Cellular: $370 shipped (Orig. $829) wp.me/p1xTlR-Jdb https://t.co/3Nk2zXzOCl

—
9to5Toys (@9to5toys) November 03, 2015

implosion-never-lose-hope

Implosion – Never Lose Hope for iOS goes free for the first time as IGN’s Game of the Month ($10 value)

apple-watch-navy-gold

Huge savings on pre-owned Apple Watches, deals from as low as $261 shipped

GameStop Black Friday ad leak: PS4/Xbox One bundles $300, new Nintendo 3DS XL $180, tons of games

Kohl’s Black Friday ad leak: more PS4/Xbox One $300 bundles, home goods, clothing, much more

Sam’s Club One-Day Sale: iPhone 6s/Plus $100 off, iPad Air 2 64GB/128GB $150 off, PlayStation 4 $300, more

Meijer Black Friday ad: Xbox One/PS4 bundles $300 w/ $50 credit, much more

eBay calls on Black Friday shoppers to decide which products will get discounted this year

Amazon’s Black Friday Deals store is now open for business

Everything we know so far about this year’s best Black Friday deals and promotions

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The best GoPro HERO4 action camera accessories, mounts, storage, more

More deals still alive:

apple-magic-mouse-2

Apple Magic Mouse 2 (open-box): $68 shipped (Reg. $80)

App Store Free App of the Week: Rayman Fiesta Run goes free on the App Store for the first time (Reg. $3)

amazon-echo-deal

Review: How Amazon Echo changed my life + $130 special price ($50 off) for Amazon card holder

Bluetooth Earbuds: Powerbeats2 (open-box) $80 (Reg. $150+), QY8 Sweatproof $19, more
Bluetooth Speakers: Inateck Aluminum $30 (Reg. $43), SOL Republic Deck $40 (Reg. $50+)
Car accessories: windshield mount $4 (Reg. $10), air vent mount $6 (Reg. $9), more
Toys: LEGO Architecture Eiffel Tower Set $27 (Reg. $35), more
Displays: LG 34″ UltraWide $570 (Reg. $699+), Acer 34″ Curved QHD $866, more
Jawbone Big Jambox Bluetooth Speaker (Open Box) $115 shipped (Orig. $300)
Beats by Dr. Dre Pill 2.0 Portable Bluetooth Speaker $120 shipped (Orig. $200)
Buy PowerBeats 2 Wireless In-Ear Headphones, get a $50 gift card: $144 (Orig. $200)
Pebble Time Smartwatch for iOS and Android: $150 shipped (Reg. $200)
Get the latest Nest Learning Thermostat (3rd Gen.) for $212 shipped (Reg. $249)
iPhone 6/s dual-layer case in Space Gray, Silver or Gold: $3 Prime shipped (Reg. $12)
Foscam Plug and Play HD Wireless/Wired Pan/Tilt IP Camera $75 shipped (Reg. $100)
Seagate 4TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive w/ 200GB of Cloud Storage: $130 (Reg. $150)
Home Theater Audio: VIZIO 5.1-ch. Soundbar w/ Wireless Subwoofer $198 (Reg. $298+), more
Factory Unlocked iPhones: 16GB iPhone 6 Plus $600, 64GB (Refurb) $450, more
Magic Color Changing LED Light Bulb with Remote Control $9 (Reg. $33)
USB-C 4-port hubs for new Macbooks by Aukey: $20 Prime shipped (Orig. $30)
USB Power Deals: Lumsing 3-port Car Charger + Lightning Cable $8, more
TP-LINK 802.11n pocket wireless router: $10 shipped (Orig. $40)
SoundBot Bluetooth 4.0 Sports-Active Headphones $10 Prime shipped (Reg. $15)
Fashion: 20% off at Amazon – Kenneth Cole Down Jacket $90 (Reg. $113),more
Sling TV is giving away a 2nd gen Chromecast when you pre-pay three months
Kindle First Books for November: Christmas in Good Hope, more
Media: Breaking Bad Complete Series on Blu-ray $70 (Orig. $161), $3 DVDs, more
JBL Voyager Portable Bluetooth Speaker $90 shipped (Reg. $119)
Free PS Plus Games for November: The Walking Dead Season 2, more
Free Xbox Live Gold Games for November: Pneuma Breath of Life, more

New products & more

luma-router-white

Is Luma’s surround Wi-Fi system the router we’ve been waiting for?

Don’t Panic’s latest iPad Air 2 case is an astute all-in-one solution for every angle

New Fallout 4 launch trailer hits with a fresh look at gameplay and more
Unboxing and Review: Halo 5 Xbox One Limited Edition Console Bundle [Video]
Bosch made a robo-farmer that looks straight out of a galaxy far, far away
The Room Three releases today, now available for download on the App Store
Mellow Boards makes any skateboard electric and looks good doing it
Pre-order Fallout 4 to receive Fallout 3 via Xbox One Backwards Compatibility
PlayStation Now adds 105 titles as it aims to pick up more subscribers
Mogees iPhone-connected sensor turns any object into a playable instrument
Amazon to offer midnight deliveries for Call of Duty: Black Ops III via Prime Now

Filed under: Tips and Tricks Tagged: 9to5Toys, Amazon Gold Box, Amazon Prime, Black Friday, coupon codes, Cyber Monday, Daily Deals, eBay Daily Deals, free, Freebies, ipad mini 2, ipad mini 4, iPad Pro, iPhone 6s, iPhones 6s Plus, Lunch Break, New Toy of the Day, playstation 4, T-Mobile, xbox one

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13 Habits of Incredibly Curious People (And Why It Matters In Business)

by Cristian De Nardo | Nov 7, 2015 | Marketing

This post originally appeared on HubSpot’s Sales Blog. To read more content like this, subscribe to Sales.

Do you actively express interest in wanting to know more about something? Are you constantly testing your campaigns to uncover trends and patterns? Do you find yourself asking a lot of questions?

People that are curious by nature tend to fall into this category. And they’re often the kind of person you want on your team, representing your company, and building out your brand. Why? Because they work hard, they learn, become more efficient, and ultimately solve problems — both for themselves and for the customer.

Are you curious to discover just how curious you are? We’ve explained 13 habits of curious people, and why they matter in business.

13 Habits of Incredibly Curious People

1) They love to learn.

Curious people tend to be avid learners. In the professional world, learning from what worked and what didn’t in a variety of scenarios is important to continuously refining your process. Whether it’s the blog title they choose, the email subject line they employ, or the time in which they publish your social media posts, curious people want to experiment, learn, and optimize.

As LifeHacker points out, being curious means having an active mind. You’re not satisfied until you learn all you can about your process, and have the requisite data to start doubling down on what works and forgetting about what doesn’t.

2) They live to solve problems.

Every potential customer has a need. When they begin to research a product or service, they’re doing it because they want to improve on something. If you’re curious, you love this: You want to know their goals, how they plan to get there, and how you can help.

It’s a sign you’re curious if you think about a customer’s success as if it was your own. How do you get them to where they want to be? What resources can you create to make their lives easier?

3) Questions don’t scare them.

Curious people embrace questions. When approaching someone new, they aren’t afraid to ask questions and solicit feedback that they think will make them better. If you can learn from it, you’ll embrace that initial awkward moment and take in the information.

After some practice, these people become familiar with the unfamiliar. And this is a huge advantage for anyone in any business setting, as unfamiliar moments are the rule, not the exception.

4) They’ll talk about anything.

Studies have proven time and time again that maintaining a healthy level of curiosity about different viewpoints enables people to more easily form and maintain social relationships. According to Ben Dean, Ph.D, curious folks are often above-average listeners and conversationalists.

Being a great listener and conversationalist goes a long way. Curious people focus on the person they’re connecting with, and talk about what they’re interested in, struggling with, and aspiring to.

5) Virtually nothing bores them.

Curious people are always investigating something new and as a result are constantly building knowledge. No matter the situation, they can find something interesting to explore.

Curious people tend to maintain high activity levels and discover interesting facts about their industry. While others are procrastinating or pumping out the same old content, these people are reading books, and learning new methodologies.

6) They question everything.

Why should we settle? In this HBR article, Warren Berger encourages company leaders to create a culture where every practice is questioned. He emphasizes the importance of questions in order for a company to “innovate, adapt to change, and maintain an edge in fast-moving, competitive markets.”

Curious folks aren’t afraid to question old tactics, and this helps them continuously optimize their practices, messaging, and habits.

7) They don’t mind extra hours.

Curious people want to figure stuff out. When something piques their interest, they stick around until they discover more about the issue, or get to the bottom of the problem. And if the resolution won’t be uncovered for an hour or two after 5 p.m. rolls around, curious people settle in for the long haul.

8) They’re self-motivated.

Being consistently interested in new things means you’re self-motivated to put in the time and effort to learn. You don’t need anyone to tell you that you have to do something; instead, you’re focused on doing it because you want to. Being curious and self-motivated also means you don’t get down when something goes wrong — instead, you’re all the more motivated to solve the problem.

9) They keep it positive.

Believe it or not, curious people tend to be more positive than their less-curious counterparts. While others can be set back by rejection, they take it in stride. They aim to discover what went wrong or what they could improve on, and then take action.

10) They’re naturally empathetic.

As Greater Good points out, empathy and curiosity are linked. The more empathetic you are, the more curious you’re likely to be.

In a business setting, empathy helps you connect with you audience in a real and authentic way. An empathetic person can instantly step into anyone’s shoes and identify with their pain points.

11) They love to achieve.

While most folks are afraid of what lies ahead, Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer found that curious people anxiously await their opportunity to move forward. When others become satisfied with their position, curious people continue to boldly move forward and take the next step. It goes without saying that an achievement attitude is essential in the professional world, where reps are held to quotas as well as other concrete metrics.

12) They’re creative.

Creativity and curiosity have been linked in several studies. The Huffington Post noted that creative people are “insatiably curious.” Instead of zoning out, curious people observe and look at things differently. In business, they are the ones who experiment with new techniques and think of different ways to cater to their audience, often winning the attention of potential customers as a result.

13) They stay in the moment.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, curious people are present and stay in the moment. As studies have shown, thinking about several things at once can negatively affect your learning. Multitasking creates an inability to be fully present and take in everything that is happening in front of you. On the other hand, because curious people are so interested in what they’re doing, they find it easier to be present and focused.

How curious are you? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

‘Shot on iPhone 6’ photographers surprised with physical photo books from Apple

by Cristian De Nardo | Nov 6, 2015 | Apple

Screen Shot 2015-11-06 at 8.49.48 PM

Apple’s Shot on iPhone ad campaign was largely deemed a huge success, with the campaign taking home the top prize at the Cannes Grand Prix festival over the summer. Separately, a photo featured in the campaign won its own Cannes Lions award. Now, Apple is rewarding those photographers who had their iPhone-shot pictures featured in the campaign.

Apple today has surprised Shot on iPhone photographers with physical photo books featuring the images featured in the campaign. Participants in the ad campaign are receiving packages with the photo book, as well as a pair of plain white gloves, presumably meant to wear while the handle the cloth photo books. The books are all white and titled “The Gallery.”

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One photographer who received a book, Brendan Ó Sé, of Cork, Ireland, said the books were a complete surprise. “It was totally out of the blue,” he said. “Naturally, I looked for my own photo, but seeing those of the friends I’ve made over this campaign added to the surprise and thrill.” (via Cult of Mac).

The Shot on iPhone World Gallery showcased images from 162 users and was marketed in 73 cities in 25 countries. Images in the campaign itself were shot in 13 different countries and included videos as well. Photographs that were included in the campaign were also featured on various billboards and buildings around the world.

Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: images, shot on iphone, shot on iPhone 6

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MacMall already has iPad Pros on sale with modest $12 savings, tax advantages, Paypal processing and free shipping

by Cristian De Nardo | Nov 6, 2015 | Apple

ipad-pro-sale-discount

From 9to5Toys.com:

iPads officially go on sale next week and AppleCare training started today but Apple reseller MacMall is the first US retailer advertising offering the iPad Pro and they’ve already marked prices down modestly $12/SKU. MacMall, unlike Apple, takes Paypal and only collects sales tax in CA, NY, IL, WI, MN, CO, TN, NC and GA which can save a significant bit of change.

Description	MfrPN	MSRP	MacMall Price	Savings
IPAD PRO WI-FI 32GB SPACE GRAY-USA	ML0F2LL/A	$799.00	$787.00	$12.00
IPAD PRO WI-FI 32GB SILVER-USA	ML0G2LL/A	$799.00	$787.00	$12.00
IPAD PRO WI-FI 32GB GOLD-USA	ML0H2LL/A	$799.00	$787.00	$12.00
IPAD PRO WI-FI 128GB SPACE GRAY-USA	ML0N2LL/A	$949.00	$937.00	$12.00
IPAD PRO WI-FI 128GB SILVER-USA	ML0Q2LL/A	$949.00	$937.00	$12.00
IPAD PRO WI-FI 128GB GOLD-USA	ML0R2LL/A	$949.00	$937.00	$12.00
IPAD PRO WI-FI CELL 128GB GRAY AS-USA	ML3K2LL/A	$1,079.00	$1,067.00	$12.00
IPAD PRO WI-FI CELL 128GB SLVR AS-USA	ML3N2LL/A	$1,079.00	$1,067.00	$12.00
IPAD PRO WI-FI CELL 128GB GOLD AS-USA	ML3Q2LL/A	$1,079.00	$1,067.00	$12.00

Note: iPad Pros aren’t currently in stock but are estimated to ship within 9 days.

Apple has been showing off the iPad Pro for Education at the Dropbox conference and at Disney/Pixar and we expect reviews shortly. Apps like ProCreate, iTunes U and Adobe’s Photoshop have already been updated to work with the 12.9-inch tablet.

Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: Apple Inc, iPad Pro, macmacll, sale

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Eddy Cue talks Apple’s rumored web TV service & creating in-house content in new interview

by Cristian De Nardo | Nov 6, 2015 | Apple

CNN Money has today shared the second part of its interview with Apple SVP Eddy Cue. In the first part of the interview, shared last week, Cue noted of how the Apple TV has graduated from the “hobby” stage and sold more than 20 million units. While sales of the new fourth-gen box are unclear at this point, Cue did hint at some future features come to the device in part two of the interview, as well as Apple’s ultimate goal with the tvOS platform.

The current state of cable TV, as CNN notes, is in somewhat of a disastrous and outdated state. Cue, however, brags that the new Apple TV offers a “much better experience for consuming content” than other offerings on the market. The end goal, Cue said, is to entirely replace the need for a cable company’s set top box.

When asked if Apple would achieve this goal by revealing its own streaming TV service, Cue gave a handful of non-answers. Cue was specifically asked about CBS CEO Les Moonves’ comments when he stated “Apple is having conversations with everyone about doing their own streaming services.” Cue, however, simply responded with, “The great thing is that Les is actually on Apple TV,” referring to the CBS All Access app in the tvOS App Store.

Cue was then asked about the idea of buying a whole cable package through Apple TV, which he replied is already possible if cable companies let it happen:

“If Comcast or any other provider wants to do that, they’ll be able to do that with the current Apple TV. We want to get to the point where customers are able to buy whatever they want, however they want. We’re not fixed into ‘There’s only one way to buy it.’ Just like we’ve done with the App Store, where there have been things that have been free; things that you subscribe to; things that you pay for; things that are in-app. All of those capabilities will be here and we want that market to be able to develop.”

The main selling point of the Apple TV, Cue believes, is that it offers a way for developers to truly change how TV is consumed. It “offers a platform to truly innovate,” Cue said. The Apple executive also shot down the notion that Apple needs exvlusive programing to differentiate itself from the likes of Google and Roku. “We don’t try to do things that are exclusive,” he said. “What we try to do is build technologies that let developers do things that they can’t do anywhere else.”

However, when asked about financing its own TV shows, Cue was a lot more coy in his answer:

“We love working with our partners,” he said. “We’re great at technology and they’re great at creating content, and we think that’s a great partnership to have. I think there’s a tremendous amount of great content out there today, and we want to make it easier for customers to have access to it.”

Filed under: Apple TV Tagged: Apple TV, Eddy Cue, interview, streaming, web tv

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Opinion: With Apple TV 4’s open app platform, some classic channels offer worse user experiences

by Cristian De Nardo | Nov 6, 2015 | Apple

Apple TV 4 3 (1)

While the new fourth-generation Apple TV advances Apple’s entertainment box in many areas including universal search, Siri input and a whole App Store for the first time, much of week one with Apple TV 4 has been about what you lose when moving from Apple TV 2 or 3.

The list is uncomfortably packed for a device that had three years to advance since its predecessor hit the market: missing Bluetooth keyboard and iPhone/iPad Remote app support for easier text input, Apple Watch’s built-in Remote app doesn’t recognize it yet, the Podcasts app hasn’t moved over, and the Photos app is exactly the same (no iCloud Photo Library) despite the newer iCloud Music Library feature making the cut for Apple Music.

There’s also the oddity of each channel being pre-installed on older Apple TVs while new Apple TVs ship with only iTunes, Music, and Photos apps installed. If I were gifting a family member a new Apple TV — something I’m sure will be popular during the holidays — I’d prefer essential channels like Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and HBO to come pre-installed, albeit optionally deletable, to make the experience friendlier. There’s also the lack of one universal sign-in process between multiple channels so that’s a big setup challenge. I had hoped Apple would tackle this with the new box but instead its just like the prior Apple TV experience.

That being said, my biggest critique and one I haven’t seen acknowledged nearly enough this week is the drop in usability of popular video apps, like the ones that used to be pre-installed on the third-gen Apple TV as ‘channels’. Simpler, list-focused versions of apps like Netflix and Hulu were just easier to use than current versions on the new Apple TV…

Apple TV 4 1

The tvOS software running on the new Apple TV is flashier and more capable as a platform than past versions of the software running on Apple TVs despite the missing features that will surely return with time. Right now, though, most video apps are now worse with harder-to-use layouts. Video apps aren’t constrained in the same way they were with the template-system of previous Apple TV software, so tvOS is giving them the freedom to do things worse. This is counterintuitive to what you expect, as you assume the new device to be better and more capable, but this is sadly not the case.

Like new Apple TV overall but apps for channels from old box worse. Netflix is a mess to browse & Hulu can be slow to launch. Uniform lost.

—
Zac Hall (@apollozac) October 31, 2015

Take the new Netflix app as an example. Netflix gives you full access to its library of streaming movies and TV shows for a monthly subscription fee, and finding your way around that massive catalog requires great organisation to have a good experience.

Netflix Apple TV 3

The old Apple TV app for Netflix (above) featured a stripped down menu list that made navigating extremely simple. After choosing your user account, the navigation list let you pick between movies genres and TV shows while presenting new releases and the very important ‘My List’ of manually saved shows to watch later.

Apple TV 4 5 The new Apple TV Netflix app (above) is visually more impressive and perhaps makes discovering new content easier, but navigating to core places in the app is noticeably more difficult. The newer version is a definite step backward in usability from my experience. The main view is split in two parts: a detailed preview on the top half and content navigation on the bottom half. Moreover, the focus is only ever on one row of results at a time. A large Netflix logo hides much of the second row.

Apple TV 4 4

Finding the My List section is actually quite hard with the new app. It’s right at the bottom of the list, the 37th row from the top. In fact, My List is located below obscure film collections and series recommendations that Netflix somehow considers more important. Once you discover that it takes several swipes down every time you want to access your saved shows, the new layout on the 4th-gen app feels a lot more limited than its predecessor.

Netflix My List Apple TV 3

The old My List screen displayed up to 14 movies or TV shows in your saved collection at once. The new buried My List is reduced to a row and limited to just 4 and a half titles that you swipe through. Don’t worry, the heavy Netflix brand logo to remind you which app you’re in doesn’t interfere here, thankfully.

It’s not all bad news. On the new Apple TV, the screen where you resume playing a movie or TV show consolidates what used to take three separate steps into one. You can choose to resume playback, start video from beginning, or browse more episodes all through one screen. It’s easy to miss but this is an improvement from the old version, which would always surprise me by showing one more step than I was expecting.

Apple TV 4 11

I won’t dive so deep into the next app, Hulu, but from the initial starting page can you locate the Queue section? The top carousel of slides promotes what Hulu wants you to see (or thinks everyone will want to see?) and the next row down does an okay job of showing you shows you’ve recently watched although it’s a little tricky when you share an account with your house. For me the important Queue section was located as the 9th tile on the first row after TV, Movies, Kids, Originals, Latino, British, Anime, and Korean Drama. Not a knock against any of those collections, but Queue being placed after them all is a curious decision.

Hulu Queue Apple TV 3

Compare that to the clear organization on the Apple TV 2/3 version of Hulu where Queue, the place I typically start watching shows, is prominently displayed at the top center. Now that I know Queue is around the 9th tile on the first row it’s not a big deal to locate it next time, but its poor placement made me think it was just removed initially. Without the top navigation menu or an equivalent replacement, I also find myself unsure at times at where I am in the new app.

Apple TV 4 8

Other apps do a better job, taking advantage of the layout possibilities with the new Apple TV. HBO Now, for example, doesn’t much resemble the old channel which could be confusing for upgraders, but the new version does closely resemble the iPad and iPhone version. What’s more, the important Watchlist section is placed in clear view and still manages to show off large artwork for movie and TV show titles.

My one disappointment here is that the new HBO app doesn’t offer an option to reverse the order of episodes in a season list and Watchlist only seems to work on individual episodes that you add rather than catching all new unwatched shows in a series. So when hunting the latest episode of Last Week Tonight from the TV shows section, for example, you first pick the season then swipe through however many episodes come before it. This happens in other apps like Hulu as well and Siri search helps but doesn’t completely solve it.

I’m not suggesting that new Apple TV apps should port their old limited layouts from the third-generation box to the fourth-generation box. That’s all YouTube has done so far and the result is a rather unremarkable user experience visually. The stock apps, iTunes Movies and TV Shows, show what is possible and its disappointing to see third-party apps nowhere close to comparable.

I do think there’s a massive opportunity for these popular apps from Netflix and Hulu to meet the usability of their old layouts and build around that experience. Apple TV is getting dinged for a lot of missing features from Apple that will likely be addressed in time, but the freedom to move from uniform apps to widely ranging designs on the new Apple TV is a usability concern that won’t necessarily be addressed without highlighting the issues.

Plex, an entirely new app to Apple TV but one that I don’t personally use for now, strikes a pretty good balance of taking advantage of the new capabilities while still maintaining good navigation and sense of place. And the new Apple TV as a whole is a really welcome product in my home.

As I discussed on this week’s Happy Hour podcast, I’m enjoying many of the new apps and games that aren’t just video channels. For that reason, I’m hopeful that we’ll see improvements to the current popular video apps like Netflix and Hulu on the platform. Agree or disagree with these points, let us know in the comments!

Filed under: Apple TV, Apps, Opinion Tagged: Apple TV, Apple TV apps, Apps, HBO, Hulu, Netflix