Posts Tagged ‘tech’
Friday, January 29th, 2010
?So. . .like The Phantom Menace and McCain’s pick for running mate before it, after weeks and months of hype the iPad appears to be a bit of a letdown to the mainstream public – myself included. After having some discussions with some of my Apple-loving brethren who think I “just don’t get it”, I’d like to clarify my position somewhat.
First of all, full disclosure: I’m blogging from my MacBook. My position on technology is this: give me something I need to do what I need done, and do it well. I need no more and no less. The MacBook is the best portable computer on the market, so I own one. Same goes for my iPhone – give me a device that lets me carry one thing as opposed to several, and do it better than other devices. To me, the iPhone fit that bill, so I own one. I also have a PC laptop for the things my MacBook can’t do but are less critical and day-to-day. I have no allegiance, blind or otherwise, to any one manufacturer, platform, or technical ideology. Just do the things I need really well. Hear that, Cupertino Catholics?
Now, on to the iPad. My argument against is simply this: It’s a big iPod touch. That’s it. That’s all it is. And you need look no further than Apple’s website for confirmation. The “Features” page lists the most prominent (if not all) features this device will ship with: Safari, Mail, Photos, Video, YouTube, iPod, iTunes, App Store, iBooks, Maps, Notes, Calendar, Contacts, Home Screen, Spotlight Search. Yep – I carry all of that around in my pocket today, on my iPhone, including the browser that can’t display Flash-based content. There are no improvements here (“looks different”/”larger” is not an improvement), so I’m not sold.
The notable exception is iBooks. I’ve been investigating an eBook reader for quite some time now, and figured I’d wait until this device was introduced before I started seriously shopping. Even with the availability of Apple’s iBooks application, I’m not convinced the iPad is a “Kindle/Nook Killer”. See, eBook readers are equipped with a technology that makes the screen appear more like a printed page, with adjustments to contrast and whatnot, so the reading experience is easier on the eyes. From what I can surmise, the iBooks app is just a document display app (the Apple site touts its “high resolution LCD screen” and nothing else when talking about the quality of the display of an eBook) – if I had to read an entire book in the way I read web pages, I’d go blind in a day. So again – this doesn’t appear to do eBooks better than a Kindle or a Nook, so I’m not sold.
So how about some real meaty applications? So far all I see is iWork, and they buried it on the App Store page when discussing functionality. I don’t know a single human being who actually does anything with iWork, unless they’re forced to due to an “any port in a storm”-type restriction. The MacBook I’m typing on has Office for Mac installed, which is what I use for productivity. iWork doesn’t do what I need, so it’s not a selling point. Again – something I already have does it better.
I think the non Apple-flavored-Kool-Aid drinkers who just want a functional device that doesn’t duplicate what they’ve already got will be waiting for the “3G” edition of the iPad before plunking down $500-$900 for something that does what a myriad of other devices do at 1/5 the size. Mr. Jobs? If you’re reading this, and you really, really, REALLY want my money, here’s what you’ve gotta include in iPad 2.0:
1. A proper eBook application, incorporating Digital Ink technology. Steal a couple Kindle or Nook developers and get them to write one.
2. Let me make phone calls. I could argue for replacing (or, more reasonably, supplementing) my iPhone with an iPad if I could make phone calls from the iPad – and don’t talk to me about Google Voice or Skype. If I’m going to pay AT&T anyway, I want one throat to choke when my service is bad.
3. Apps. Real ones. Safari and iWork means you’ve got enough of an OS kernel on there that you can make other stuff work.
4. A keyboard dock that doesn’t look like it’s going to be recalled for causing these things to crash to ground. And how about a wall mount, in case I want to use it in my kitchen or bedroom as a secondary TV or information source? Maybe with some sexy little speakers on the side?
Let’s start there. Until then, I’ll stick with what I’ve got.
Tags: tech
Posted in Geek | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
Sometimes, I really hate technology. Never mind what I do for a living – there are just times when everything seems to be working against you. Normally, this follows me around with web technologies – even the simple, mindless stuff like setting up a freakin’ blog. You’d seriously think I was developing the antidote for death with how hard I have to work to do the most simple web-based administration and maintenance.
I began having significant trouble with my previous hosting provider, which I made the mistake of choosing via an ad I saw on the back of one of the many industry publications that come across my desk at the office. When the credit card I used to set up hosting expired, I was never contacted and my service was never suspended. I tried to do some routine maintenance with the domain, and was told I’d been turned over to collections. I argued and pushed back – no luck. So I decided to move myself to a new provider and move the domain to GoDaddy for management. However, as I had forgotten, order of operations in these cases is important.
Since the domain had already been transferred and I was unaware of the export feature available from within Wordpress, I had nothing but a SQL backup I had taken previously to go on to try to get my blog restored. I begged for assistance on Twitter, after several restore attempts yielded a perfect index page, with no content behind any of the links. I got two responses: one from @bonkoif, an old and dear friend who is twice the techie I’ll ever be; and one from a complete stranger, @HowdyBlog, a fellow blogger and infinitely more capable web-head. Bonky helped me sift through the work I’d already done and found some very helpful articles on the Wordpress site that helped me get my old content (still available from my previous host through the dummy URL I was assigned), and Howdy went as far as to record a video that went through the basic steps of redirecting the old blog, doing the export, and reimporting the content. Not long after viewing the video and Bonk’s links, my blog was back and all was right with the world.
Both folks are worth a follow on Twitter if you’re so inclined. Very helpful and tech savvy. I’d be stuck with no content without help from both of ‘em!
Current Mood: 
grateful
Tags: tech
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Friday, April 3rd, 2009
I have a teething dog, and she chewed up my iPhone headphones late last week. Since I also use a Blackberry for work, I’ve been using those headphones interchangably between the two devices, so not having them has meant my wife suffered through boring technical conversations while I was on speakerphone, since I need my hands to type while I’m on the phone with work.
I asked Dawn to pick me up a new set of iPhone headphones while she was out yesterday, and when I went to open them this morning I couldn’t believe the difficulty I had. If I was a more dilligent blogger, I would have taken pictures during this process, but (a) I suck and (b) I’m still in PJs with bed head, and I can’t risk those kinds of photos leaking onto the internet.
First – the box. It’s as sexy as Jobs wants it to be, and like the new Shuffle offers nary a way in. No convenient flap to open, no partially-scored “press here to open” area – nothing. Just a hermetically sealed box with no obvious means of entry. I tried pulling it open at a seam, but Apple glue is apparently pretty strong stuff. I took out a utility knife and traced a seam, forcing my way into this little cardboard treasure chest.
What came out was a neat white pouch, looking clinical and slightly sci-fi-ish. There was a seam along the back, which appeared to be a flap that would be lightly sealed so I could simply pull it open and grab my little white earbud beauties. Not so. What I had, it seemed, was a mini potato chip bag – the seam along the back was there for me to grasp to facilitate pulling one side open, making the payload inside accessible. Again, not so much. The glue from the outside was Post-It Note adhesive compared to whatever sealed this little parcel. Maybe my fingers are too big or I’m just a wimp, but I had to get my utility knife out again and slice an entry into the bag to get my headphones.
Inside, wrapped tightly and neatly, was a bundle about the size of a half-dollar (kids, back in the day, we had coins slightly larger than a quarter but not as big as a frisbee) that needed unwrapping. That fell open fairly easily – and I finally had my headphones. If they weren’t $30, we could sell them rather easily in penny candy bins (kids, back in the day, we could buy candy out of little boxes, and could get two handfulls for about one non-frisbee coin) and not have to go through all this boxy nonsense.
And, now that I feel like a hacky 80s stand-up comic complaining about opening a prescription bottle, I’ll go back to my phone calls.
Tags: tech
Posted in Pets, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Friday, April 3rd, 2009
I have a teething dog, and she chewed up my iPhone headphones late last week. Since I also use a Blackberry for work, I’ve been using those headphones interchangably between the two devices, so not having them has meant my wife suffered through boring technical conversations while I was on speakerphone, since I need my hands to type while I’m on the phone with work.
I asked Dawn to pick me up a new set of iPhone headphones while she was out yesterday, and when I went to open them this morning I couldn’t believe the difficulty I had. If I was a more dilligent blogger, I would have taken pictures during this process, but (a) I suck and (b) I’m still in PJs with bed head, and I can’t risk those kinds of photos leaking onto the internet.
First – the box. It’s as sexy as Jobs wants it to be, and like the new Shuffle offers nary a way in. No convenient flap to open, no partially-scored “press here to open” area – nothing. Just a hermetically sealed box with no obvious means of entry. I tried pulling it open at a seam, but Apple glue is apparently pretty strong stuff. I took out a utility knife and traced a seam, forcing my way into this little cardboard treasure chest.
What came out was a neat white pouch, looking clinical and slightly sci-fi-ish. There was a seam along the back, which appeared to be a flap that would be lightly sealed so I could simply pull it open and grab my little white earbud beauties. Not so. What I had, it seemed, was a mini potato chip bag – the seam along the back was there for me to grasp to facilitate pulling one side open, making the payload inside accessible. Again, not so much. The glue from the outside was Post-It Note adhesive compared to whatever sealed this little parcel. Maybe my fingers are too big or I’m just a wimp, but I had to get my utility knife out again and slice an entry into the bag to get my headphones.
Inside, wrapped tightly and neatly, was a bundle about the size of a half-dollar (kids, back in the day, we had coins slightly larger than a quarter but not as big as a frisbee) that needed unwrapping. That fell open fairly easily – and I finally had my headphones. If they weren’t $30, we could sell them rather easily in penny candy bins (kids, back in the day, we could buy candy out of little boxes, and could get two handfulls for about one non-frisbee coin) and not have to go through all this boxy nonsense.
And, now that I feel like a hacky 80s stand-up comic complaining about opening a prescription bottle, I’ll go back to my phone calls.
Tags: tech
Posted in Pets, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
