I Don't Typically Do This

Shooting Without A Viewfinder

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 16:13:00 -0500

My biggest hangup with the RX1 is psychological. Frankly, I just kind of feel like an idiot using it. It doesn’t have a viewfinder (optical or electronic) and so to frame shots you’re left to hold the camera in front of you and look at the (stunning) LCD display…like an octogenarian tourist trying to get a snap of the Mona Lisa. The process just feels a little silly to me after having spent so many years hiding my face behind large DSLR bodies and lenses. You definitely look like a fresh-out-of-Best-Buy amateur with this thing.

I’ve gone through a couple of viewfinder-less cameras in my search to find a lightweight replacement my DSLR and Justin sums up exactly how I felt after using them. It seems stupid to worry about how you feel when shooting, but if it’s something that keeps you from taking a shot, then the whole point of a carrying a more portable camera disappears, no matter how well it compares to a DSLR.

My iPhone 4S cellular data usage stats from October 22, 2011 to...

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 14:38:19 -0400

My iPhone 4S cellular data usage stats from October 22, 2011 to September 22, 2012.

I used 11.4 GB of data in 336 days, or about 34 MB/day. For comparison, I used about 14 MB/day on my iPhone 4.

This continues the trend of increasing data usage with each new device, but the jump from the 4 to the 4S is the largest jump I’ve seen so far (2.4x increase in daily usage). I would attribute the large increase do to my the amount of traveling I did this year. Without WiFi, I relied on my phone quite a bit, especially in countries where tethering was allowed.

See here for my iPhone 4 data usage.
See here for my 3GS data usage.
See here for my 3G data usage.
See here for my original iPhone data usage.

Living Without The iPad

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 23:12:28 -0400

Matt Alexander, on what he came to realize after living a few weeks without an iPad:

The iPad is a means for productivity, entertainment, and communication - it encompasses the tasks we have so often spread across mediums into one centralized and fantastic location. But, in doing so, the door is open for inadvertent and helpless absorption into its environment. Into allowing oneself to reach for the iPad when you would otherwise be open for valuable thinking, reading, writing, and whatever else may be of importance to you.

Sent from my iPad

The "Disappointing" iPad 3

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 10:58:23 -0500

Marco Arment, writing about speculation that the iPad 3 will be disappointing, even before anyone has seen it:

Knowing no more than you do right now, I can guarantee you: the iPad 3 will disappoint a lot of armchair tech commentators, “analysts”, and anyone who gets paid by the pageview. (How convenient.)

We see this “disappointing” talk from many of the old-timers because they’ve spent 25 years writing about specs and that’s the lens they use to look at the iPad. “It’s not getting a quad-core processor? Android tablets have quad-core chips. How disappointing.”

They don’t care that Apple and third parties ship software that utilizes both cores (iMovie, GarageBand) and that hardly anyone ships Android software that utilizes more than one core, much less all four. They don’t care that Apple may have tweaked last year’s dual-core chip to get better performance and better battery life. According to them, since 2=2 and 2 < 4, the iPad 2 is a lackluster upgrade and is empirically worse than an Android tablet.

Meanwhile, 50 million people couldn’t care less what’s inside an iPad. All that matters is that the hardware and software work together to make a delightful experience. Just look at what Om Malik wrote about giving his iPad 2 to his mother in India:

It didn’t matter how it was happening — just that she could talk to her grandson who was oceans apart from her. If there ever was a moment that captured the emotion in a piece technology, that was it. The look on her face made me realize how lucky I am to write about an industry that makes such things possible. I also thought to myself, maybe somewhere Steve Jobs is smiling too.

Like I said before: It’s not about what it is. It’s about what it does.

Microsoft's Halo Effect Opportunity

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:17:00 -0500

There have been reports over the past few weeks that Microsoft is working on a version of Office for the iPad. The main downside most think of to selling an iPad Office suite is that Office is the missing piece to the iPad puzzle and that enterprises will flock to the iPad in lieu of Windows 8 tablets once Office becomes available. There are two issues with this scenario: (1) the iPad is doing fine in the enterprise without Microsoft’s help; and, (2) Microsoft shouldn’t care if they make $15 off of Office for iPad or a Windows 8 license.

Office for iPad actually presents Microsoft with a great opportunity. It’s no secret that Windows Phone 7 reviews well but doesn’t sell well. Part of it has to do with a weak marketing effort on Microsoft’s part, but a lack of enthusiasm among frontline sales reps plays a huge role as well. The average consumer walks into a carrier store knowing about the iPhone, but may be swayed to pick up an Android handset at the salesperson’s behest (which in turn is driven by incentives). Windows Phone never enters the conversation.

Windows 8’s Metro interface is reviewing well, as Gruber mentions in a link to Christian Cantrell’s review of Windows 8 Consumer Preview, but again, Microsoft faces a perception problem. iPads and Macs are eating up PC sales, and so many won’t even give Windows 8 a shot.

Now imagine a world where the average consumer walks into the store knowing about the iPhone and having been wowed by Office for iOS’s Metro interface. Office for iOS isn’t going to push Windows Phone to #1 or #2, but at least Microsoft will be back on the radar. Even if users have already chosen the iPad for their tablet, an Office/Metro halo effect can drive those iPad users to Windows PCs and phones.

Along those lines, an iOS version of Office also allows Microsoft to establish a foothold with their own ecosystem – particularly their cloud storage solution, SkyDrive. If a user becomes dependent on Office for iOS and ends up storing all their documents on their personal SkyDrive or their company’s SharePoint server (because that’s all Office for iOS supports), they will likely seek out a PC solution that’s compatible with what they currently have. So would they rather go with a Mac, whose version of Office is usually a year or two behind the Windows version and never offers the same exact features, or go with Windows, whose version of Office receives first-class support from Microsoft and uses that cool Metro interface that they wish all of iOS had?

My iPhone 4’s usage stats from July 9, 2010 to October 12,...

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 08:16:01 -0400

My iPhone 4’s usage stats from July 9, 2010 to October 12, 2011.

I used 5.6 GB in 410 days (460 days minus 50 days spent out of the country for work), or about 13.6 MB/day. For comparison, my iPhone 3GS used 3.1 GB in 381 days, or 8.13 MB/day.

It’s not quite the doubling I saw when going from 1st Gen to 3G or 3G to 3GS, something I would attribute to iOS 5, which I’ve been running since the early summer. I always had WiFi off prior to iOS 5, but with the new wireless syncing feature, I am using WiFi exclusively at home and at work and only dropping down to 3G when I’m not at either.

In contrast, I got my 4S Saturday morning and was out of town until Sunday afternoon. The usage counter on the 4S reads 53.4 MB, or about 25.7 MB/day.

See here for my 3GS data usage.

See here for my 3G data usage.

See here for my original iPhone data usage.

The #1 Reason Non-Techies Should Upgrade to iOS 5

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 11:15:41 -0400

The latest version of the iPhone and iPad operating system, iOS 5, comes out today and is available for third and fourth generation iPod touches, all iPads, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

There are a ton of great features included in the update, but the feature that will have the most profound impact, especially for people who don’t plug their devices into their computers every day, is free iCloud backup. In addition to copying any new content to the device, iTunes also backs up your device’s data to the computer. The type of data that is backed up includes:

Photos and videos in your Camera Roll
Messages
App data
Device settings
Home screen layout

If you ever lose your device and need to get a new one, you can restore the device using the latest backup and the device will look exactly as it did at the time the last backup was taken. The key here is “at the time the last backup was taken”. If you haven’t plugged your phone into your computer in a month and then need to replace it, all of the photos, videos, text messages, and notes taken in the past month are gone. Even better: you can restore the device from anywhere there’s a WiFi connection – you don’t have to wait to get home to get up and running.

With iCloud backup, your device is backed up to Apple’s servers daily, as long as it’s plugged in and connected to WiFi. BOOM You no longer have an excuse for not having an up-to-date backup of your phone.

HOW TO GET IT

In order to get iOS 5 and iCloud backup, you do need to update to iTunes 10.5 and you do have to plug your device into iTunes one last time (future software updates come directly to your phone – another benefit of having iOS 5). Once you plug the device in, iTunes will tell you that a new version of iOS is available and ask you if you want to upgrade. If it doesn’t, you can check manually by clicking on your device on the left hand side and then click “Check for Update” near the middle of the screen.

After the upgrade is complete, go into your device’s Settings, tap on iCloud and follow the instructions on the screen in order to set up iCloud and iCloud backup.

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important...

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 09:31:16 -0400

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

–Steven P. Jobs, 1955 – 2011

The iPhone 4S Upgrade Conundrum

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 08:39:00 -0400

Ben Brooks has a post up describing the situation most of us are in: despite being loyal AT&T customers for at least the past four years (thirteen years in my case), we aren’t eligible for the full discount on the new iPhone 4S.

Instead, AT&T offers a smaller subsidy for those close to the full discount date, but not quite there yet. Ben, along with most people who bought their iPhone 4s on Day 1, aren’t eligible until November 18th. In my case, I’m not eligible until March 10, 2012 as a result of family members having used upgrades recently. If you have upgrades available on other lines in your family plan, the upgrades are pooled and can be used for a phone on any line, so you can use one of those to get your shiny new iPhone 4S and you can stop reading now if you want.

PAYING THE ETF

The full subsidy for an iPhone 4S is $450 and the smaller subsidy is $200. For a lot of people, the early termination fee of $325 minus $10 for every month you’ve been under contract is less than the difference between the two subsidies, meaning that it makes more sense to pay the ETF and start a new contract with AT&T. Unfortunately, AT&T has policies in place to prevent this from being an option. First, there is no way to pay the ETF without canceling your account. Second, if you do cancel your account, you have to wait 90 days until you’re considered a new customer. If you open a new account before the 90 days have elapsed, AT&T will just reactivate your old account.

GOING UNLOCKED

Since the small subsidy is only $200, one might be tempted to just pay the no-commitment price for the iPhone 4S and save the upgrade for the next iPhone. For the iPhone 4, the unlocked price and the no-commitment-but-locked-to-AT&T price are the same, so it made more sense to buy the unlocked iPhone. I tried to see if the same is true for the iPhone 4S, but I couldn’t find the pricing for the unlocked iPhone 4S. I started a chat with an Apple rep who told me that there would be no unlocked iPhone 4S at launch.

OUR OPTIONS

Now that Sprint is joining the fray and Verizon has the iPhone 4S at launch, it’s curious that AT&T is going to such great lengths to inconvenience their customers. Taking a longer-term view of things, and assuming that the iPhone 5 pricing will leave us in the same boat, here are the options available to us (these are numbers for 16 GB models; add $200 for two 32 GB models or $400 for two 64 GB models):

$640 - Switch to Sprint or Verizon, then switch to the other or back to AT&T for the iPhone 5 and paying a $240 ETF. Probably not worth it.
$650 - Switch to Sprint or Verizon and get half-subsidy pricing on the iPhone 5.
$850 - Pay no-commitment pricing, and then get the full-subsidy for the iPhone 5.
$900 - Pay the half-subsidy pricing, re-up for two years, and then get the half-subsidy pricing again on the iPhone 5.

It's not about what it is. It's about what it does.

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 12:10:00 -0400

Amazon just announced the Kindle Fire, a 7” tablet priced at $199. In contrast to the existing Android tablets out there, Amazon doesn’t focus on specs. In fact, Amazon offers just as many specs on the main Kindle Fire page as Apple does on the iPad page – they tell us that the Fire has a dual-core processor (but no mention of clock speed, amount of cache, model number, etc) and that the Fire has a 7” screen with IPS technology, “similar technology to that used on the iPad” (their words, not mine).

For example, the Motorola XOOM page tells us (if we have Flash installed): “The dual-core process MOTOROLA XOOM has a larger screen, more pixels and higher-quality front- and rear-facing cameras than the competition.” These types of marketing messages have questionable value because they require consumers to assume that “better than” comes with no strings attached and assumes that consumers can draw the conclusion that better specs imply higher utility.

Instead, Amazon sets aside those assumptions and clearly articulates the utility of the device: you can read books and magazines, watch TV and movies, listen to music, check email (a jab at the email-less RIM Playbook, no doubt), use apps and play games.

Rather than telling us what the Kindle Fire is and expecting us to figure out what it can do, Amazon saves us the trouble and tells us what it does. And what it does is extremely compelling.

One Area Where Samsung Isn't Copying Apple

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:44:10 -0400

From Chris Ziegler’s review of the Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch (yes, that’s the real name):

Sprint and Samsung appear to have shown a lot of restraint regarding third-party apps and crapware. Besides the typical TouchWiz apps, the phone throws in a shortcut to download a trial version of N.O.V.A. 2 HD ($4.99 for the full game), NASCAR, Sprint ID, Sprint Mobile, Sprint Music Plus, Sprint Radio, Sprint TV & Movies, Sprint Zone, and TeleNav GPS. Some — NASCAR and Sprint Music Plus, for instance — can be uninstalled, but some cannot.

Nine pre-installed apps, six of which can’t be uninstalled (assuming the N.O.V.A. 2 shortcut can be deleted), shows “a lot of restraint”? Man, Android and iPhone users live in two completely different worlds.

HP Kills webOS

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 15:29:00 -0400

It all makes sense now:

HP reported that it plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.

Given the current legal climate, “optimize the value of webOS” most likely means selling off the patents HP took ownership of in following its acquisition of Palm.

It’s a sad, sad day for Palm and webOS fans.

(via The Next Web)

Another HP Launch Blunder

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 12:42:17 -0400

Not even a couple of hours pass since my post yesterday about HP’s launch problems that HP goes and fails at yet another launch. This time the victim is the white TouchPad. The new color is more than a cosmetic change, since the white version also features a faster processor than the black TouchPad and a doubling in storage to 64 GB. The new TouchPad was discovered by PreCentral last night:

[T]rue to HP form, they’ve up an unceremoniously revealed it in Europe. A small footnote of a button has been added to HP France’s TouchPad landing page, advertising the “The all new HP TouchPad white lacquer 64GB, available soon.”

C’mon, HP, not even a jab at Apple for taking ten months to launch the white iPhone when you can launch a white TouchPad with upgraded internals in two? Weak.

HP's Two Problems

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 16:47:46 -0400

Matt Rosoff thinks the solution to HP’s mobile woes is for them to license webOS. This is the wrong way to go as is made evident by Google’s acquisition of Motorola. Unless HP wants to continue Palm’s decline in the mobile space, they need to fix two things: their devices and their delivery.

The big takeaways from my experience with the Pre 2 were that the OS was great to use and there are plenty of apps out there in the App Catalog (and even more apps and tweaks in the homebrew catalog), but that the screen was too small to be useful as a long-term phone. The Pre 1 and 2 have 3.1” screens, while the Pixi and the first HP-branded webOS phone, the Veer have microscopic 2.6” screens. I just couldn’t get enough information on the screen at once, and scrolling and pinching got annoying quickly.

Further, there’s a glut of 10” tablets on the market. The iPad dominates the market and the ten or so 10” Android tablets do nothing to help HP’s situation there. 7” tablets are completely different when it comes to portability, there isn’t as much competition at this screen size, and Apple has stated that they have no intentions to build a 7” tablet (which means that it’s coming, but it’s not here yet and doesn’t have 80-95% market share like the 10” iPad does). A $250-$300 7” tablet has the opportunity to give HP a nice foothold into the market, and once they do, they can go back and fight for 2nd place in the 10” market. Building 7” marketshare and building consumer mindshare to eliminate also-ran status is the only way HP (or anyone else for that matter) will have a fighting chance in the tablet space.

The recent price drop and subsequent news that Best Buy has sold only 25,000 TouchPads of the 300,000 they were shipped make clear that the TouchPad is a bust, much to the dismay of many who were hoping that HP could save the world from the iPad’s complete domination and Honeycomb’s complete mediocrity. Most, if not all, of the TouchPad reviews made these two points: that the TouchPad has its share of performance and stability problems and that a patch in the following weeks would fix all those problems. The patch came and many writers posted small updates, but the damage from those initial reviews was already done. Why didn’t HP wait those few weeks and launch the device with the patch?

Today, there were quiet rumblings that the Pre 3, originally announced back in February, had launched in the UK. Brad Molen at Engadget reports:

Pop quiz: what’s the best way to launch a phone that’s left us waiting with anticipation for seven months? HP’s answer is to quietly release it on its European store without any pomp or circumstance. We have no idea why the company chose to start selling the Pre 3, its new flagship phone, without any media buzz.

It was only after PreCentral noticed the Pre 3 on Palm’s online store did they receive a statement from HP:

HP is excited to begin its regional rollout of Pre3, the only phone today that offers users a slide-out keyboard coupled with a large touchscreen and the fastest speed (1.4GHz processor – the fastest on the market). We expect to share additional information for U.S. customers soon.

Unbelievable. I know HP is used to releasing new DeskJets and Pavilions without much more than a packing slip, but the mobile market is hardly commoditized (especially when you’re not the one shipping yet another Android phone) and HP needs to turn things quickly in order to save their ticket to future, because we all know it isn’t printers and Windows.

Note the minor jab at Google by leaving it out of the...

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 14:48:00 -0400

Java Script!

Browser!

404 Error!

Cookie's!

Note the minor jab at Google by leaving it out of the recommended browser list.

msg:

taitems:

Love the level of detail on the new iCloud site!

These are super cute and personable but what I find most fascinating is that Google Chrome is not listed as part of the compatible browsers.

Increasing iPhone "Liquidity"

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 07:31:44 -0400

The other day I was wondering why Apple would release an unlocked iPhone in the U.S. this late in the life of the iPhone 4. Horace Dediu of Asymco (who just started doing an awesome new show with Dan Benjamin) argues that it’s not meant for the U.S., but for tourists who can’t get iPhones in their home countries:

The way to think about it is that the iPhone has just become more “liquid” and it can now flow to parts of the world where it has been difficult to acquire. The iPhone was already liquid to some degree with unlocking and sales through Hong Kong/UK, but the US market’s retail footprint and the lower costs that result will boost liquidity dramatically and probably increase volumes substantially.

Unlocked iPhones from Apple

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 07:28:52 -0400

Apple released carrier-unlocked GSM iPhones in their U.S. store today. Unlocked iPhones were previously available in other countries, but in the U.S., the only GSM iPhone you could get was locked to AT&T.

But why now? Why bother releasing this now when the next iPhone is supposedly only a few months away? The phone continues to not support T-Mobile’s 3G bands, so it’s not like this is a T-Mobile “soft” launch. It is possible that it’s an attempt to clear out stock, but I can’t imagine there’s that much pent up demand in the U.S. for an unlocked iPhone to warrant this now.

Verizon iPhones and iMessage

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 10:26:32 -0400

The Verizon iPhone 4 doesn’t do simultaneous data and voice, so I’m wondering how it will work with iMessage, which uses the data network (as opposed to SMS which uses the control channel on the voice network), when a recipient is on a phone call. A phone with no service will deal with similar issues, but the Verizon example is especially complicated because a Verizon iPhone on a call can still send an SMS while a phone with no service can’t do SMS or data.

When the iPhone can’t send an iMessage, it will fall back to SMS. I don’t know if this just checks the ability to send or if it also checks if the recipient can receive messages. If it does do a recipient check, then there’s no problem. If a Verizon iPhone is on a call, it wouldn’t be reachable and the sending iPhone would send over SMS. But what if iMessages only does a send check (e.g., that the sender has network access)?

To further complicate things, throw an iPad into the mix. Presumably, the iPad can only send iMessages and does not gain the ability to send SMS. How does the iPhone handle missed iMessages?

Apple has a Technical Note that does provide some answers, but they aren’t good:

If you are sending multiple notifications to the same device within a short period of time, the push service will send only the last one.

Here’s why. The device acknowledges receipt of each notification. Until the push service receives that acknowledgment, it can only assume that the device has gone off-line for some reason and stores the notification in the quality of service (QoS) queue for future redelivery. The round-trip network latency here is of course a major factor.

As described in the Local and Push Notification Programming Guide, the QoS queue holds a single notification per app per device. If the service receives another notification before the one in the queue is sent, the new notification overwrites the previous one.

All of this points out that the intent is that a notification indicates to an app that something of interest has changed on the provider, and the app should check in with the provider to get the details. Notifications should not contain data which isn’t also available elsewhere, and they should also not be stateful.

A quick search reveals that the BlackBerry Messenger server will deliver all messages after a phone rejoins the data network, which won’t be the case for iMessage if its using Apple’s stock Push Notification Services. If there are no Quality of Service enhancements in iOS 5, iMessage won’t exactly be a drop-in replacement for SMS and is slightly inferior to BBM. That said, for the few minutes I used iMessages, it felt a lot more fun to use than SMS. I can see why the kids like BBM.

WWDC 1997 took place in mid-May 1997, five months after Apple...

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 21:46:16 -0400

WWDC 1997 took place in mid-May 1997, five months after Apple bought NeXT and less than two months before the ouster of Gil Amelio. Steve was serving as a consultant to Apple while his NeXT took control of Apple.

The linked video starts when Steve discusses what is basically iCloud, but the rest of the video is worth watching for the Q&A, which includes this gem:

Q: Mr. Jobs, you’re a bright and influential man.

SJ: Here it comes…

Q: It’s sad and clear that after several counts you’ve discussed, you don’t know what you’re talking about. I would like for example for you to discuss in clear terms how Java in any of it’s incarnations addresses the ideas embodied in OpenDoc. And when you’re finished with that, perhaps you could tell us what you personally have been doing for the last seven years.

SJ: You know, you can please some of the people some of the time. One of the hardest things when you’re trying to effect change is that people like this gentleman are right, in some areas. I’m sure that there are some things that OpenDoc does, probably even more that I’m not familiar with, that nothing else out there does. And I’m sure that you can make some demos, maybe a small commercial app, that demonstrates those things. The hardest thing is what…how does that fit in to a larger cohesive vision that’s going to allow you to sell $8 billion, $10 billion of product a year? And one of the things I’ve always found is that you’ve gotta start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. You can’t start with the technology and try to figure out where you’re gonna try to sell it. And I’ve made this mistake probably more than anybody else in this room and I’ve got the scar tissue to prove it, and I know that it’s the case. And as we’ve tried to come up with a strategy and vision for Apple, it started with what incredible benefits can we give to the customer, where can we take the customer. Not starting with, “let’s sit down with the engineers and figure out what awesome technology we have and how are we gonna market that”. And I think that’s the right path to take.

On programmer productivity:

The way you get programmer productivity is by eliminating lines of code you have to write. The line of code that’s the fastest to write, that never breaks that doesn’t need maintenance is the line you never had to write. What the goal here is to eliminate 80% of the code you have to write for your app.

And for the “That’s fine for Merlin” crowd:

Some mistakes will be made along the way. That’s good. Because at least some decisions are being made along the way.

WWDC 2011: The Musical by Jonathan Mann Epic. ★★★★★

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 07:40:49 -0400

WWDC 2011: The Musical by Jonathan Mann

Epic.

★★★★★