Let me start by saying that I am a fan of Ubuntu. I think the project is a huge success in making Linux digestable for the masses and taking away the oodles of nonsense that sucked time away just getting a machine up and running. Issues that I had with a built-in graphics chip lead me to buy a new video card. And that's when the headaches started. Luckily, I think I finally solved it…
Category: Computing
The ups and downs of working with computers
I love taking photos with my phone. Phone cameras turn you into a mobile content generation unit. Snap photo, upload, the world knows. Never mind the fact that the world knows about your cat being cute or your son's nose being very congested. Phone cameras become double powerful when coupled with the phone's GPS. The GPS stamps each photo's EXIF data, the same metadata that records when you took the picture, with where you did it. So in essence, you need two elements: upload and location-recording capabilities. My Nokia N95 had both capabilities. Great camera, GPS, uploads to Flickr and Nokia's Ovi. Then Nokia stopped developing apps for the phone, which is very disappointing. Its general slowness and the arrival of the iPhone 3Gs convinced me to move on. The iPhone compensates for middling camera hardware with speed and processing power. And it had a stellar app called PixelPipe. PixelPipe batch uploaded my photos and videos to any site I wanted. And little did I appreciate it at the time, but it also retained and uploaded the geotagging data from photos. Pixelpipe was recently removed from the iPhone's app store. Apparently it accessed photos using the wrong element (in Apple's eyes) of the iPhone SDK. That made the app better for batch uploads, but played against 'the rules'. So I was left looking for alternatives. Without mentioning all of them, Flickr's app is the most disappointing to me. Flickr's app's beautiful design, sensible usability, stable, but with one (probably imposed) 'feature' bug: it tags whatever photos it uploads with the location of *the upload*. In other words, if you took the photo in Japan and uploaded it in Omaha as- Mt. Fuji will be geotagged as being in Nebraska. Now why would Flickr, a great Website I love and pay for, do such a boneheaded thing? Because apparently that's the best the iPhone allows. It seems like the iPhone SDK forces developers to access photos using specific APIs that remove the location data from images. If you actually take a picture and then upload it immediately using the Flickr app allows the app to append the currrent location back to the photo. Absurd, no? So what's left? iPhoto and other desktop applications that get the actual phtoto files from the iPhone can still get the location data from the actual files. But on the iPhone, Apple made the wrong decision to remove that information. Privacy may be the concern. I am, for one, disappointed and a bit angry. I doubt Android imposes such a limitation on apps. But to follow Steve Jobs' logic from an email, I'd better create than criticize.
UPDATE:
Manage to restore PixelPipe from iTunes. It is the good version that was removed by Apple. Amazingly enough, having tweeted about it, PixelPipe asked me to send them their own iPhone app file. Probably for use with jailbroken iPhones. A bit surprising that they, of all people, will not have an old version of their own app. Still, glad I solved it by going around Apple's own restrictions. Geotagging is back for me.
I want to believe that I know (ok, encountered) a variety of smart and interesting individuals in my life. Apple, as an amazing brand, warrants a lot of emotion from its followers. The release of the Apple iPad caused so much excitement and discussion that it hobbled Facebook and Twitter. So when I set my Facebook status message to 'Did the laptop just die?' in reaction to the iPad's launch, a tsunami of insightful comments ensued. I want to share it with the world as a snapshot to be revisited after common mortals get their paws on the device and we can judge it ourselves. (Persons names shown in acronyms)
YZ(Me): Did the laptop just die?
BS:
Not unless you like a device that can only do one thing at a time, doesn't run desktop application, doesn't have a replaceable batter and can't run flash 😉
Yesterday at 2:32pm ·
TR:
Maybe they should have come up with a name that doesn't evoke images of a feminine hygiene product.
Yesterday at 2:33pm ·
YZ:
You want to tell me you do not use a sanitary slate?
Yesterday at 2:33pm ·
RWK:
Not since I got an iUD! Badoomchoo
Yesterday at 2:42pm ·
MB:
That was the sound of the now clearly overpriced Kindle dying.
Yesterday at 3:10pm ·
CA:
Don't forget that it can only run approved applications, and view approved content. Who cares how "shiny" it is, or how it can (or can't) multitask, if you can't do what you want with it? I wouldn't pay $5 for it.
Yesterday at 3:25pm ·
YZ:
I think Apple calculated the loss of the CA: population. They will go ahead and sell it anyway.
Yesterday at 3:26pm ·
TR:
The Kindle is half the price of the iPad and maybe some of us just want to carry a thousand books around. Apples and oranges comparing the two, same form different function.
Yesterday at 3:29pm ·
MB:
Half the price: single function, monochrome, passive display, no multi-touch. The market will determine whether the Kindle has a future at half the price, but to me it looks like a lot less than half the value.
Yesterday at 3:36pm ·
YZ:
I am starting to like this new 'agreeing with MB:' thing.
Yesterday at 3:37pm ·
TK:
iPad will sell like hot cakes, however I am really disappointed you cannot draw onto it with a stylus / pen. That would have made it extraordinary for me, and probably changed the way designers work. Also, no multitasking is crap. Someone will jailbreak it though, and make it a whole load better.
Yesterday at 3:41pm ·
CA:
Why would that be revolutionary for designers? Wacom (and others) have made devices like that for almost 2 decades.
Yesterday at 3:44pm ·
MB:
Two words, CA: direct manipulation. Wacom tablets are almost as disconnected as mice. The result of you intent does not show up under your stylus but on a separate screen. Had Apple allowed for use of a stylus, we would finally have a digital canvas.
Yesterday at 3:50pm ·
CA:
I understand the difference between a tablet and a touch screen (and can see the advantages) – and Wacom (amongst others) makes both. For example, checkout the Wacom Cintiq series, HP's TouchSmart, 3M's single and multitouch displays, MagicTouch's product line, etc. Why would an Apple device be a "digital canvas" when other devices (even those that work with MacOS) would not be?
Yesterday at 3:58pm ·
TR:
Maybe I don't want something that's multi-function, technicolor, and interactive, because I've already got a MacBook. I don't buy things because they're cool. I buy them because they work and do exactly what I want them to do – such as carry around a thousand books. If I'm carrying a MacBook, a Kindle and an iPhone, why would I add an iPad? "Mini" laptops have generally failed so far. Could the market already been too crowded?
Yesterday at 4:10pm ·
TK:
Cintiqs have poor resolution, and are expensive. If iPad has same res as the iphone, it would be very sensitive and really nice to draw on.
Yesterday at 4:11pm ·
MB:
Interesting, though design certainly matters, I don't think I factored "cool" into the price calculation. 😉
You wouldn't add an iPad to your trio: you'd replace your Kindle (period) and MacBook (when you are not at your desk).
Lastly, I think the value of large screen, affordable multitouch UI has yet to be explored. I tried the Kindle but … See Morecould not get past the controls. The iPad solves that issue. Not sure whether I'll be version 1 (because I also already have a MacBook and an iPhone), but I can see the attraction.
Yesterday at 4:54pm ·
NC:
sorry MB, you'll be disappointed…. What everyone seems to forget is half of what makes the Kindle a solid product is the e-ink. Without it, iPad users are just BEGGING for migraines… You'll be reconsidering the Kindle (or Nook) in no time… iPad === Newton === FAIL (Though we all agree it will sell a ton; then again, didn't the Phantom Menace sell a ton of tickets too? )
Yesterday at 5:12pm ·
MB:
Maybe, NC. I stare at my computer screen for hours every day with no migraine. How is this different?
Yesterday at 5:30pm ·
MB:
Also, as someone pretty attuned to user experience, I really felt that the Kindle must be succeeding *despite* the ui. I used it for a month and returned it.
Yesterday at 5:34pm ·
NC:
Come on MB, you've seen heatmaps, you know that reading eye movements differ from typical computer use… Eyestrain ensues.
Yesterday at 5:43pm ·
NC:
btw, I will concede that the UI on the iPad will be better than a Kindle. I'm saying that the core reading will be far worse…
Yesterday at 5:44pm ·
MB:
I'm sure individual mileage will vary, eye strain wise. Clearly, when reading is the primary purpose readability is paramount; I just found the UX (UI + controls) of the kindle to be a dealbreaker.
Yesterday at 5:50pm ·
TK:
Apple is well on the way to dominating the mobile devices market, not only through the device itself but the UI. All these systems share similar interfaces- total compatibility. No need to learn anything new, it's second nature. This has been Apple's strength always.
Yesterday at 6:04pm ·
TR:
I agree with everything NC says. Also, am I the only person to have owned three touch-screen devices and hated them all? I'd rate the Kindle the easiest device I've ever learned to use – tremendously easier than the iPhone. Maybe I'm just too old-school for the paradigm. Also when I'm on 10-14 hour flights – as I oftem am – I could never read books on a computer-style screen.
Yesterday at 6:14pm ·
MB:
TR, I think the UI paradigm of the Kindle and the iPhone/iPod touch/iPad are pretty diametrically opposed.
Also, I think nailed the ultimate difference between the iPad and the Kindle: the Kindle is (overwhelmingly) a single purpose device: reading. iBook on the iPad is just one other application, not the primary purpose of the device.
However, I do think the iPad will dominate the "ereader" market in the education space in a way the Kindle and Kindle DX hasn't.
Yesterday at 6:21pm ·
TR:
Apple isn't on the way to dominating the mobile device market until they make a phone that's accessible to the 95% of the world that can't afford to buy an iPhone. They're on their way to dominating the smartphone market, but Nokia is still making a million cheap phones *per day*. Do you really think Apple is going to start supplying cheap mobile phones to Africa and China? No moreso that you'll see Ferraris on the roads of the Sudan.
Yesterday at 8:28pm ·
TR:
For anything to dominate the eReader market in the education space (which is a tiny, tiny market), textbooks would actually have to be available in eBook format. Very few are. It's not a device problem, it's (if I may be so bold to say so) a format and content management problem. The worst thing about owning an ereader is that so many books aren't available in the format.
The best UX rareley makes for the most successful product. There are so many other factors.
Yesterday at 11:02pm ·
MB:
An excellent user experience ALONE rarely makes for the most successful products, but an awful user experience can ruin a product's chances all on its own.
Yesterday at 11:06pm ·
TR:
Most successful products have mediocre/passable UX, and succeed based on other factors. Top example would be the Blackberry.
