Category Archives: Technology

Technology

Wishlist for iPhone5

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So, there were some pretty obvious features that made the iPhone4 a must for me – HD video recording, retina display, video calling, camera flash and a faster processor (the 3GS was creaking with iOS4).

But with the iPhone5 announcement expected at WWDC, are there things that would make me upgrade a year later?

Well, other than bugs in the software (which I’ve blogged about before), which should filter down to iPhone4 too, there’s less that I obviously need. Here’s a collection of rumours on which I’ve based my list so far…

Things I’d like but probably won’t pay for so far

1) Better flash/camera
2) A5 processor (multitasking poorly executed to date on iPhone)
3) Improved phone reception (not that I’ve had substantive problems here)

Things I don’t care about just yet

1) LTE support. No live networks here yet, maybe by iPhone6 time…
2) 3D photography. Not that I think Apple will go there.
3) Weight / colour – I can live with the iPhone the size it is
4) 1080p video output
5) NFC payments
6) Photo projection or other gimmickry

Things I’m not sure about:

1) Form factor. Do I need a 4" screen? I definitely don’t need an iPhone Nano.
2) Any Apple surprises.

All in all, it’s looking more like the iPhone5 will be more like the iPhone4S than a full-on device upgrade, so I may skip it…

Have I missed anything good? I’m not sure what else I need in a phone at this stage…

Technology

A week with a MacBook Air

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Ok, those of you who read my recent post on the matter (and Tom’s more detailed review) will know that, at long last, I succumbed to Mac envy. And when my parents were at a loss as to what to get me as a gift on my recent visit to Malaysia, and I spotted the Air cost 30% less than it does in the UK, I made the suggestion… and yes, I know that even as a grown man I continue to be spoiled by my parents…

So far, there’s a lot to love and a few things I’m still getting used to. I haven’t used a Mac in any substantive way since I had a late model Powerbook G3 gifted to me by a prospective employer back in 2000, so its taking a bit of getting used to…

Love…

  1. Multi-touch touchpad. Makes a laptop useful without an external mouse. Pinch and zoom, two finger scrolling, three finger, view desktop, back/forward, application switching… all amazingly natural and a big step towards where I think human/computer interaction is trending.
  2. Boot time (short), hibernation/resume time (instantaneous), performance (good), battery life (impressive)
  3. Design (fantastic), weight (negigible), screen (crisp)
  4. AppStore (needs more integration with other apps, but otherwise…) SPARROW for email is AMAZING, as I’ve also blogged before
  5. Application integration into OSX is less intrusive (thanks to growl and the more icon-driven menu bar) and therefore it feels less clunky than even the very good Windows 7
  6. Most of the apps I use regularly have been ported or have superior versions on the Mac including Skype, Evernote, Tweetdeck, iTunes (obv), Chrome, VLC and Teamviewer. And obv MS Office, although I intend to avoid that one…
  7. I like the launcher… much more intuitive than the Start Menu although a bit fiddly to configure with Stacks in the way that I’d like…
  8. Keyboard! The data card is coming out of the iPad and a USB data card is going to be stuck into the iPad to allow blogging and writing on commutes etc.

Dislike/getting used to…

  1. Learning the subtly different way of doing things (command/alt+shift+arrow for word select instead of CTRL-shift – why?)
  2. No CLI that I can find (how do I run a ping and do that random hackery I’m used to?) Terminal App in utilities folder! Thanks Jimjam!
  3. Finding new shortcuts – I love F2 for rename (enter to rename – too simple! Thanks Jimbo) and CTRL-K to add a hyperlink and trying to figure out how to do these things (amongst others) in OSX.
  4. Search doesn’t feel as well-integrated as it is in iPhone/iPad/Windows7. Need a left swish into Finder. Oh, there it is. Top right. D’oh.
  5. Touchpad gestures a bit temperamental
  6. I can’t find a decent blogging client – Qumana is OK but Marsedit is too expensive and Microsoft haven’t ported Live Writer to Mac.
  7. Flash seems less reliable than on Windows – presumably thanks to the ongoing spat between Apple and Adobe
  8. Software updating is fiddly outside the Mac store and System Update
  9. It shipped with two Apple stickers for me to proclaim my smugness to the world. They’re going in the bin…
  10. As GeowGeow observed, no sim card slot. Therefore, imperfect…

I’ll add to this list as more occurs. Any more tips on things I should do differently on a Mac, please let me know as I’m a long way from mastering this bad boy.

I’m not a complete convert – this is a mixed platform house and we continue to use PCs as well as Macs all over the place. It is telling how central the Internet is to our existence that Amanda used the Macbook for Facebook / eMail and didn’t really notice any significant difference to her normal Windows machines… the era of the OS is dead, the web is the new OS… long live GoogBook ad Facegle!

Internet, Software, Technology

Windows Live Writer for Mac? Blogging clients for Macs

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I’m learning a few things about Macs these days, and one of them is that free blogging clients are not quite as easy to find as they are for Windows. Marsedit, one of the major options available through the App Store, costs the best part of 30 pounds!

Thanks to the WordPress Codex, though, I’ve found Qumana. Nowhere nearly as powerful as Windows Live Writer and I need to work out the keyboard shortcuts… but its a start, and free!

 

Internet, Software, Technology, Update

Evernote feature request

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We should have recovered from the migration issues I mentioned recently now, so thanks for bearing with me.

I introduced Amanda to Evernote today whilst kicking off the gargantuan list of things we want to achieve whilst I’m off on sabbatical. She’s generally a propoenent of pen and paper when it comes to this sort of thing but the write once / have anywhere nature of Evernote appealed.

I have a feature request, though: please can you integrate with Google Docs so I can share an individual ‘note’ with someone else, preferably without forcing them to sign up to Evernote themselves? Would be a nice feature.

I’m dealing with some jetlag after the flight back to the UK so an increased rate of bloggery will return soon. Have a couple of queries out about Outcasts given the massive interest I’ve had in my posts about it, however neither the BBC nor Kudos TV are currently responding to me, so it might be a while…

Technology

Possible disruptions

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I’m having to upgrade to a professional hosting package so there might be some disruption. The avalanche of traffic thanks to the various Outcasts posts has doubled my bandwidth allocation this month and the price penalty made it worthwhile going to a pro account for the year (!!). With my newfound blogging passion I can only hope that traffic will continue to grow so it seemed a worthwhile investment. Good on 34sp for the help with the hosting and migration and my domain registrar 1and1 for providing relevant DNS settings information.

Please bear with us…

Culture, Technology, Travel

Generational vs cultural differences for the Internet in Malaysia

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Malaysia is the 5th “most connected” country in Asia (data 3 years old but should still hold mostly true). So it’s with some surprise when I come visit home that there are vast differences in the way we do things. We don’t check online for local garages – we drive around and find ones that look good or word off traditional word of mouth recommendations. On the other hand, Dominos Pizza in Malaysia accepts online payments, in a country that has traditionally shied away from e-commerce due to high levels of fraud, and we managed to pre-emptively order a lot of Emily’s baby kit from an online store before we arrived.

Hard for me to always establish which differences are due to culture – it’s a hard-bargaining, fraud-averse environment here – and how many are due to generational differences. Most of our visits here are spent with my parents and aunts and uncles – who are of a different age, shall we say.

Regardless of what the cause is, I’ve taken some delight in spreading a few bits of my digital-era practices here. A couple of aunts have been introduced to Apps, I’ve been evangelising true Smartphones whilst battling against aging Nokias and so on. The motivation is more than slightly self-interested – it’s lovely to have my family more connected to our lives as we share them digitally – including the ongoing development of young Emily and our other adventures…

Cousins – what do you think?? Digital Guru Shayna?

Technology

Garmin vs TomTom

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Have tried using a Garmin SatNav box in Malaysia – we use a TomTom in the UK. It’s been a bit of a challenge getting used to it – unlike TomTom, which is generally pretty precise on postcode lookups, the Garmin box is fairly useless on address lookups – on three or four separate addresses, taken us within range but not actually close enough to be useful.

What’s bizarre is the usefulness of the Garmin Nuvi 1420 box in looking up specific destinations – restaurants, venues etc., – if you treat it more like Google Maps than like a postcode/address lookup, it worked pretty well. Lane control was good, maps were good… the voices are terrible, and the touchscreen isn’t quite as responsive as the TomTom, but otherwise it worked pretty well.

Don’t know how much of the bits that worked badly – address lookup, voices – were a feature of poor localisation to Malaysia. It seems to be the main brand present here, so you’d think they’d sort those issues out properly.

Internet, Technology, Television

Battle of Internet TV platforms: Panasonic Vieracast vs Sony Qriocity

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So, TV manufacturers are embedding Internet capabilities in their TVs and set-top boxes. I’ve recently had experience of a couple of platforms – Qriocity via my brother’s new Blu-Ray player, and Vieracast via my Dad’s Skype-enabled TV.

So: what is Qriocity? Well, the full Qriocity platform enables TV, film and music on demand – a la Spotify Premium crossed with iTunes. It’s priced comparably with iTunes and pretty easy to use. However, the real kicker here is that YouTube, iPlayer and various other Internet TV services work seamlessly (other than the fact a remote is not in any way optimised for typing into an Internet TV search bar), rather than Qriocity itself. This is awesome – easy access to everything from iPlayer HD to a bunch of other services. V. impressed.

Vieracast, by contrast, brings up a series of apps that let you access network-enabled widgets, of which Skype is one. Skype on a TV should be a good thing but – it’s not HD, so looks mediocre, you can’t use your normal Skype account if, like me, you have “too many” contacts, and its fiddly to configure for the same reason that the Sony remotes are rubbish for search – typing on a TV without a keyboard is tedious. Other apps are pretty limited, responsiveness is a bit sluggish, and on the whole it is a slightly underwhelming experience. Not to mention that the TV doesn’t come with a built-in wireless card so we had to hunt for a networking solution (the one supported brand of wireless card, a Netgear jobbie, isn’t widely distributed in Malaysia).

Therefore: de facto winner of this shootout is Sony…!

I’m looking forward to seeing what Google TV has to offer and will resist the lure of Jobs and Apple TV here. My media centre does most things you’d want from an Internet TV service, but I can appreciate it in principle… for other people. Not so much for me…

None of these service socialise TV watching – I think these is still a multi-device experience- watch on TV and couchsurf on iPad or laptop. I remember Joost trying to do real-time social TV but it was too complex for most people to handle and I’ve not heard hide nor hair from them in some time… and I’m certainly not counting Ping as having achieved anything on this front to date.

Software, Technology

Improving Google Reader

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There are a few features I’d like Google Reader to get that go beyond what the nice people at Lifehacker did with Better Greader. If you’re reading, Google, here’s what I’d like:

  1. Please make it easier to find/follow people and feeds (search social networks for contacts etc, suggested people as well as feeds)
  2. Please look for a way to manually attribute interesting links to users when sharinv via the Notereader bookmarklet or from within the app (so you could say link courtesy of @division6 or @armand as works on Facebook)
  3. Get some better social integration (share with reader / on blogs etc) – which delicious did so well back in the day

Anytime you have a spare 20%, please…! Any more for any more….?

Running, Technology, Training

Routine begins again

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Two treadmill runs in on the new Startrac and it feels like progress is slowly happening again. I feel MILES away from where I was when I did the half in September but its really hard to tell – the heat seems to put a lower ceiling on exercise. Either that, or I’m going to have to start taking a bottle of water on the treadmill with me. Anyway, good 5ks happening but no longer runs as yet.

Incidentally, whilst I was warned that it would be more painful to do my ITB stretching on a tennis ball, it’s more the coordination required that presented a challenge – it’s hard to balance and roll from your upper thigh down to your knee on a tennis ball – especially when slicked with sweat after a run in 30 degree heat!

I’ll get there…

A side note: the treadmill was delivered within 24 hours by no less than SIX delivery men and the general manager of the fitness equipment importer. I know it’s a high margin, high value item but this is taking service to ludicrous extremes! In any event, it took all of them to shift it – that is one HEAVY, big-ass machine.