Update: I sent a message to the DMV on Twitter, and then they gave me a call and answered all the questions I have.

I need to get a California driver’s license. I go to the California DMV website. With a good effort of searching around, I don’t see how I can apply for one if I have another state license. That leaves me two options: call and find out or go to the DMV in person.

I opt for going in person, because I assume the phone solution isn’t going to work well, and in reality, I’m going to have to go in anyway. So I look at the nearest DMV location to me. Great, 20 minutes away. No problem. They also list wait time on the website, which is very handy. “0 minutes with an appointment” and “30 minutes without an appointment”. Great! I’ve got 30 minutes.

So I head on over. I walk in and see roughly 100 people. Really daunting. Of course, no one to greet you and help you get started. Whatever. I can figure this out. I look up at some boards and hear numbers being called. So… numbers. How do I get one? Oh, a sign! “Get a number” with an arrow. Uh, okay. It’s pointing in a general direction of the other half of the room. Walking around, I see no ticket taker. You know, I’m accustomed to taking tickets with the “Now Serving” counter up top. Nope. Walk around some more and I see two lines forming to a single desk. I ask another person, “Where do I get a number?” “Oh, there’s a line over there. You go outside.”

Out… side? Uh, okay. So I walk back around to the door outside. Nothing. Walk back in, and it seems I should just get in this “Non-Appointment” line. 1:20 pm. The line doesn’t move. As said earlier, there’s another line approaching the same desk, that one is labeled “Appointments.” Okay, so its like Disney’s FastPass. Got it. Take a little from this line, that line, and this line, then that line.

After waiting around 40 minutes, I finally get to the desk. “Hi, how are you?” “What do you need?” “Uh, I need a California license. I have a Missouri one.” “Do you have a passport and birth certificate?” “Um, no. I have a social security card though.” “Ok, take these and come back when you have an appointment.”

Before I even approached that desk, the woman behind it was more impatient than I was. I mean, I get it, she’s working at the DMV and has to deal with all sorts of impatient, probably rude, people. I’m coming up there, very calm. I’m cool with waiting, but the way she shoved the papers to me and told me to come back when I have an appointment seemed more rude than I saw anyone in front of me be to her.

I’m sure everyone can relate to a bad DMV experience, and this whole thing shouldn’t come to a surprise to anyone, but why hasn’t this process been streamlined yet? As a person going to the DMV, I would have gladly filled out necessary paperwork, brought necessary documents, and made an appointment if the information I found was more accurate and clear. There are pretty simple steps they could take to get there, and in return, the people coming to the DMV would be more prepared and the DMV would have a checklist of appointments for the day.

If you tell me that the wait is 30 minutes, I believe you, and I won’t schedule an appointment because I don’t mind waiting 30 minutes. If you tell me the wait would be 3 hours, I would also believe you, and I would have scheduled an appointment.

If the information regarding my own scenario was easy enough to find and decipher, I would have brought everything filled out and ready to go. But for me to understand what I have to do, you have to educate me a little about what you need, and I’ll be glad to give it to you.

With every new product Apple announces, there are more people with lukewarm reactions. “I’ll wait until next year.”

I’ve wondered why people seem to think that Apple is trying to create a new device every year for every person. Apple does not expect you to purchase a new iPhone, iPad, or AppleTV every year. They’ll certainly love you buying one year-after-year, but if you hold off, no one’s hearts are broken. Eventually, they’re getting more money from you. Think about it, since you bought an iPhone or iPad, how many of you have switched to another brand’s device? You’ll always be upgrading.

More importantly, Apple updates its hardware in an effort to make their products better and more desirable to completely new users. Sometimes the “better” is marginal, but for the person who did not buy one the previous year (like you), the new model is always amazing.

We do the same with software. We update and improve our software for two reasons: to encourage our existing users to update and to make the value of the product go up. For the same price as it was two years ago, Apple has increased the value dramatically every year for potential new buyers.

Non-technology businesses update too. Every year, Walt Disney Imagineering comes up with new attractions to be released in its parks. The goal is not (necessarily) to get you to go every year, but by the time you’re ready to pay for another family vacation, the value went up enormously.

So buy the new iPad. Or don’t and wait for the next one. No one cares.

I think there might be more social networks than “social media experts”.

First there was Classmates, LiveJournal, Friendster, LinkedIn and MySpace. Then Facebook comes along with a site tailored for current university students. Then came demand for accommodating other groups like high school students, coworkers, and eventually everyone. Facebook succeeded (and created a mass exodus from MySpace) because it catered to a small market first, people that are keen on sharing information with everyone else like gossip, updates, etc. Those people were sick of the teenie-boppers with pink sparkly gif backgrounds on MySpace. So Facebook becomes ubiquitous. They build pretty good solutions for problems like sharing photos.

However, Facebook hasn’t done an amazing job connecting its service to a mobile environment, and that’s where Twitter thrived. Twitter essentially existed to fill the gap of posting what you’re up to on the go. Twitter solved the problem of friends and family calling you all the time asking, “What are you doing?” Since I started using Twitter a few years ago, I don’t have this problem anymore. I know what everyone’s up to and everyone knows what I’m up to.

Then Facebook copies the functionality. They created status updates and made it relatively easy to post on mobile devices. Now, everything is mobile. But the mobile social network landscape has exploded into a ton of apps that are essentially fads.

There are new social networks like Tumblr, Foursquare, Yelp, Instagram, Gowalla, Google+ and Path. Some are speciality based like Yelp is for rating places. Instagram is for photos. Foursquare and Gowalla are for sharing your location. Google+ and Path aim to be for everyone.

Google+ seemingly tried to be the next Facebook, but everyone on Facebook isn’t going to get up and leave like they did for MySpace. Why would they? Unlike MySpace, Facebook is always actively working on new features, controversial or not. They’re always advancing. You can’t just make a site on the web and expect everyone to go invest time in it. I started using Google+ as early as I could but I found no unique advantage to Facebook. In fact, I haven’t used Facebook for almost a year.

What does Facebook have to offer today that’s unique? For some people, it’s a connection with their loved ones: their extended family. It’s easier than email. It’s not easy however, to convince your family to use Twitter or another social network. Not everyone spends the amount of time connected to the Internet as some of us. Most of my extended family rarely checks their email or can’t remember their email password to begin with. It’s not easy to get someone started on “another thing.”

It seems like a few of these networks are innovating on the mobile platform. Facebook and Twitter try new UI ideas like pulling out a drawer or pull to refresh. Path has a radial menu. Instagram has a button in a tab bar. None of these are truly good design, they’re just gimmicks. Most geeks tend to be attracted to these shiny things.

I’m over Foursquare and Gowalla. I don’t use either much anymore. Find My Friends helps me answer the question, “Where is my friend now?” I don’t care who the mayor is of the local coffee shop. I try using Instagram here and there but I still think it relies so much on me posting it to Twitter so that the people I want to share with can see my photos. What’s the point of single-purpose social networks if you have to publish content from one onto another? For Instagram, they may have built an app-only social network, but not everyone (like my family) uses it enough for it to be useful on its own. Foursquare and Gowalla suffer the same problem. So often in my Twitter timeline I see people saying where they are with a link to either site.

Path realized that they couldn’t survive on their own and intended to be a companion to Facebook as opposed to the only thing you check. But you aren’t going to succeed by relying on a competitor. Path doesn’t offer anything unique compared to Facebook, where many people already invest lots of time. Right now, Path is a fad. Everyone’s excited about the shiny things. But I imagine it plays out similarly to Google+: everyone posts a lot early on, but ultimately no one uses it without also posting to Twitter.

“iPhone” was an obvious choice for the name of Apple’s phone. Everybody and their brother guessed it. Obvious and perfect.

When the second iPhone was introduced and included 3G technology, iPhone 3G was another obvious choice for a name.

The next phone would be the third, but they already used a 3 in “iPhone 3G,” thus putting themselves in a predicament for the name. Since this phone didn’t have a different physical design, tacking a letter on the end was all Apple could seemingly do. “Speed.”

Then, iPhone 4 was announced and sported a new design. Truly, this is the fourth iPhone. However, I know consumers confuse it with “4G” every day.

iPhone 4S is the same design as iPhone 4. Calling it iPhone 5 would be a disappointment to the public (because when something doesn’t physically change, people don’t think it’s worthy of a name change). Technically, though, this is the fifth iPhone.

What’s the next iPhone to be called? Can’t be iPhone 5, can it? But iPhone 6 would sound weird after iPhone 4S, even if it would be the sixth iPhone.

When Apple announced the second iPad, they called it “iPad 2.” But why? Did the numbering scheme of iPhone inspire iPad?

Thing is, Apple doesn’t use numbers in their marketing names for other hardware products (at least not anymore, PowerMac G3). You don’t see a MacBook Air 3 or an iPod touch 4. The reason for Apple to number iPhone and iPad could be because they radically change from version to version, and consumers wanted to compare them in conversation. “iPad 2 has a camera.” “iPhone 4 has a Retina Display.”

The only other reason I can think of is that Apple sells multiple iPhone models at any one time. Consumers need a name differentiator. But they don’t sell iPad 1 alongside iPad 2, so I’m not sure about this reasoning.

After all, Apple doesn’t put the extra label on the back of the products. They simply say “iPhone” or “iPad.” Honestly, I think they need to lose the numbering scheme. They’re starting to resemble names like “Dell XPS” and “BMW X3 SAV.”

In April 2010, I joined the iTunes team and was tasked with creating the next iTunes icon. I wasn’t the only one working on it, but after many icons were presented, Steve Jobs chose one of mine.

I sent emails up the chain with new designs, and got forwarded emails with feedback and ideas from the person I trusted and admired most. Though it was incredibly stressful, working with Steve on this icon was without a doubt the most enjoyable project in my professional career.

When I was sixteen years old, I dreamed of a day that I’d be able to work at Apple, and when the day came that I got an email forwarded down to me from Steve about how the blue in the icon wasn’t beautiful enough, I knew I was living that dream.