MacTheBlog
Pardon my rant, but ...
Written by Chris Oaten Tuesday, 06 July 2010 11:04
My previous blog prompted a response in MacTheForum from reader ColinC, who said he’d forgotten about printing. I think a lot of us have. And it kind of worries me. Here’s why.
Do you remember the joy of discovering your parents’ lives when they were young? This happened on that day they pulled out a shoebox full of little square prints made with their Box Brownie. Perhaps you saw yourself for the first time as a two year-old? It was great, wasn’t it? Your folks shared stories about their escapades as youngsters and you realised, perhaps for the first time, that they weren’t all that different to yourself. Had it not been for the welcome responsibilities of raising a family, those guys with the parent tags might be as crazy and carefree and full of wanderlust just like you are. Rebels, perhaps, who shocked their parents with the same ferocity that you do.
I remember this day. It was an epiphany. I suspect many older readers will likely remember such a day. I fear that those who grew up with digital photography never will. This fear prompted a rant in response to ColinC, and for those of you who missed it, I’m going to share it again here. Here goes, with some extra bits.
Printing isn't the challenge it used to be (or as much fun) when it involved stinky chemicals and fumbling about in the dark, but it is still rewarding to see a beautiful print of a great image. It’s also great to have family snaps in frames, up on the wall or on a shelf where you can see them every day. Or in an album. I think it’s vitally important we don’t abandon the practice and I worry that a lot of people are, quite without intention, neglecting the value of the printed image.
Sure, we have the cloud. We have places to share photos. We can show our pics to a global audience. But will those same pics be tangible in 30 years' time? Internet sharing is great, but impermanent when measured in decades.
I think we face the possibility of a future without photo albums. A future in which a whole generation forgot to print anything. No shoeboxes lurking in the attic full of memories. All our photos lost either through negligence from not renewing storage media, carelessness through forg etting to back up, or worse — stupid privacy laws, in which a generation of parents were rendered impotent by zealous sporting officials preventing them from taking snaps of their kids on the field of play because, you know, kids playing sport is pornographic. And, due to the habit of assuming everyone is a pornographer, nobody gets to capture memories. Unless they're accredited. And paid a fee.
I simply cannot come to grips with the notion of not being allowed to take a photo of my own child competing in a sport or performing on stage. I’ve had sporting officials tell me not to take photos because minors may have their privacy compromised. I’ve told them there’s no law in Heaven or Earth that will stop me from taking a snap of my kid and if they want to involve the police they are welcome to do so.
So far, no police have been involved, as long as I promise not to take photos of other kids. It’s a hollow promise. Soccer, for instance, is not a solo sport. Of course, it’s not difficult to approach a coach or other school official and explain what you’re doing and offer some pics for the school web site or yearbook. I’m not trying to encourage civil disobedience. Yet on more than one occasion, even with the green light from officials, some idiot in fear of repercussions has stepped in to prevent me from shooting.
As a matter of disclosure, I’ve also derived income from junior sports photography, shooting in conjunction with my daughter, so I’ve played this game on the offensive and the defensive, if you get my drift.
Anyway. We embraced digital photography with open arms. And so we should have. Film-based shooting was environmental vandalism. The carbon footprint generated by the film manufacture and processing industries was massive. Add to it the footprint of the transport industry and, well ... you get the picture. Pun intended.
But in the process of moving to digital and because of the ease of sharing images electronically, we have to some degree — either through abandonment of the long-held value of a printed image or through the fear and loathing that prevents us from taking photos we will come to cherish — managed to enslave ourselves to our computers and iPads and iPhones and digital photo frames and the internet.
So I implore you on two counts:
First, have a sound back-up plan for your photos, and don’t forget that storage media will fail. Some media will take longer than others, but they will fail. So remember to monitor media and recover your images to fresh media as required.
Second, start printing. Not everything, of course. It’s too expensive. But every now and then, take a look through your photos and pick out the keepers. I’m not talking about the prize-winners. I’m talking about the snaps. The ones that one day your children and grandchildren will pick out of a shoebox and hold in awe and realise that, once upon a time, you were young and cool and hip and fun and funky and ... well ... not who they thought you were.
Discuss this with me in MacTheForum!
Adventures in (not) buying a (not) iPhone 4
Saturday, 03 July 2010 12:33
&iPhone 4. It was right there. Gleaming, pristine, in its box. Almost begging me to buy it. Steve Jobs was even there, enticing me in to purchase. What more could I want?
Well, as it turns out, quite a bit. Most specifically, I'd like to be assured that the iPhone 4 I was looking at was actually genuine. I wasn't staring at this iPhone 4 in an actual Apple store — although there was a big storefront just a block away proclaiming itself to be an "Apple Shop". As far as I can tell, though, it was selling fashion clothing, not fashionable computers.
One interesting side-benefit of my recent trip though Hong Kong was the chance at night to check out Hong Kong's high tech markets. They're certainly bright and shiny enough, with huge neon advertisements at every conceivable viewing angle. Even looking down is no escape, as they're reflected in unusual ways in the puddles beneath your feet. It's rather like being trapped inside a massive flashing banner advertisement with no particular way out.
The Apple Shop down the road might just be a fashion house, but one store did promise iPhone 4. Not in a subtle way — with a bright red(incorrectly capitalised) "Apple iPhone 4" street sign no less, and Steve Jobs as the store greeter. OK, you might not believe me on that one, but he was there, greeting me as I came in the front door.
At least, I think he was greeting me. It was a little hard to tell, what with the photocopied screen grab of his iPhone 4 keynote being semi-obscured by Cantonese. I think it said "Come in!" or perhaps "Magical And Revolutionary", but it equally could have said "Only the finest fakes produced here" or for that matter "Ask about our complimentary massage special on level one" for all I know. It's that kind of district, after all, where "massage" parlours share level space with mobile phone shops and a curious shop that only sells Monchichi merchandise. For whatever reason, that's the most popular shop on the block at 11pm on a Tuesday night. I'm not going to judge that, or even pretend to understand it.
There are a number of more obvious fakes around me, including Telstra-branded HTC Desires and an awful lot of 2G iPhones. That's apparently because the vast majority of the fake phones are GSM-only, and if you're going to trick someone, you're probably better off not trying to convince them that they're 3G when they're not. The fact that, in a line of three of them, the Apple printing on the back is in different positions on every single phone is something of a giveaway, however.
Needless to say, I didn't bite on this particular Apple, if only because of the quoted price. The asking rate for an it's-almost-certainly-fake-iPhone 4 in Hong Kong last week was a hefty $16,800. That might put local iPhone pricing into sharp perspective, were it not for the fact that those were Hong Kong dollars. Converted to Australian currency, that's around $2500. Something tells me there's a lot of bartering room there, but that's still a shocking premium even for a genuine smartphone. For a fake, it's about $2450 more than I'd like to pay.
It strikes me that it actually must be tough to sell a genuine iPhone around here. Apparently one member of the group of journalists I'm travelling with did buy an iPhone 4, probably not from this store. I didn't, although there's a perverse part of me that could have purchased a sufficiently cheap fake, if only to compare to the genuine thing once Apple releases it locally.
The fact that we don't have local pricing or even a confirmed release date in Australia is something of a worry for those keen on the iPhone 4. I'm still somewhat undecided, with a perfectly functional 3GS sitting next to me as I type.
What's clear though, is that both fakes and real iPhone 4 models are available internationally, and perhaps not in quite as much of a shortage as one might expect. As we all wait, the hype is likely to rise and those who want a phone may be tempted to purchase one from overseas. Apart from the obvious risk of simply being posted a brick in the mail (or nothing at all) the prevalence of obvious fakes in Hong Kong certainly means that there will be fakes on sale at tempting prices — and super-inflated ones if my experience is anything to go by.
I'm certainly going to wait for the official release. Not because I want to "toe the party line", but more simply to ensure that I get something that actually works the way I'd expect it to.
(Editor's note: many thanks to the delivery guy from North Ryde Chinese Kitchen for the translations. I recommend the satay beef 02 9878 1466 — MJCP)
What do you think? Are you excited enough about iPhone 4 to be willing to import or buy yourself overseas?
gt;Discuss it with me at MacTheForum!
AirPad
Wednesday, 30 June 2010 09:43
One of the big claims of the iPad is that it's portable. Perhaps not as portable as the iPhone, unless you've got particularly large pants, but still portable. I decided to put that to the test this week by using it (or attempting to use it) on an international economy flight from Sydney to Hong Kong.
That's right — I'm a sucker for punishment.
In the interests of full disclosure: I was heading to Hong Kong as a guest of HP to attend a printer launch, and they paid for my plane ticket. Doesn't mean I'm on the HP payroll, but transparency is a good thing, unless you like walking around the house naked.
Anyway, the equipment I used for testing with was pretty simple: an iPad, the iPad keyboard dock, and a PADACS Canto iPad case. The Canto case was to allow me to use the iPad in landscape view, seat space permitting, while the keyboard dock was to allow me to get some work done during the daytime flight. That included writing this blog entry, because if you're going to be on a plane for nine hours during the day, you may as well get something done. If you're reading this, I presumably survived — or at least my water-logged zombie remembered to file this before lurching off in search of tasty, tasty brains.
Pre-flight checklist
The first observation came way before I even got on the plane, when I tried to get power. I was lucky in that (thanks to the heavy flying efforts of my journalist brother) I could access the Qantas first-class lounge, which has plenty of power sockets. It's sometimes a bit embarrassing hunting around airports for power otherwise. However, the first problem struck when he plugged his laptop in while sitting on a couch, and I realised that the power cord for the iPad is hopelessly short for this kind of task. I wonder if anyone makes a really long iPhone sync cable?
For the trip I'd fully charged the iPad. It's nine hours flying to Hong Kong, and given the limitations of flying (no devices for the first/last 45 minutes of the flight, give or take a bit), that should be enough in theory. One thing I was particularly keen to see was how well the iPad and keyboard would fit against a standard economy seat. Rather better than my knees would, I suspected.
The plane! The plane! (and the pain! the pain!)
Having boarded, I took my seat. Not out of the plane, or anything. That would be silly, not to mention a touch on the cold side.
First observation: If you want to work on a plane in economy, request (and get) a window seat. Other seats have tray tables, of course, but if you have to stop for folks clambering over you, you're not going to get all that much done. Exit row seats should be good for that, and naturally if you can afford business you're not going to have that problem at all. If you can afford first class, I'm pre-emptively jealous.
As I predicted, there wasn't much to be done about seating in economy, and one of the first challenges involved getting the iPad and keyboard out of my bag. I'm rather thankful that I chose to stow my bag under the seat in front of me rather than in the overhead baggage lockers. And at least for a little while, the person in front of me didn't pop their seat back.
For a while, anyway. I was concerned that when they did, there would be a genuine risk of the tray table cleaving me neatly in half.
On the plus side, the passengers to the side of me declared the iPad to be “cool”. Make of that what you will. I'm not often referred to as “cool”. Perhaps the iPad will rub off on me over time.
The keyboard dock provided enough stability for me to type comfortably, although again being in an economy seat I could seriously have used a bit more elbow room.
Predictably, the seat in front of me was eventually reclined. The seat going back in front of me didn't cut me in half, but it did threaten to snap the iPad itself, thanks to it being in portrait mode — a casualty of using the keyboard dock. It is possible to type that cramped-back — just — but it involves positions my wrists really didn't like much after only a couple of minutes. Portrait mode is far more comfortable for typing, but naturally my typing speed and accuracy dropped markedly. Predictably, the second I did this, the seat in front of me popped up again. I decided it wasn't worth risking it bouncing up and down all flight, though.
In entertainment terms things have improved for most carriers, and it's true I had a limited selection of entertainment options on the screen in the headrest in front of me. The iPad does better though, ploughing through a couple of episodes of Doctor Who and a movie or two to while the time away.
What genuinely surprised me was how well the battery held up. By the end of the flight, I hadn't used the iPad for the entire time, and admittedly there was no Wi-Fi or 3G connectivity happening. Between take-off and landing, and a couple of meals, I probably lost a clear ninety minutes where it just wasn't possible to use it. Still, after seven to eight hours of usage, the battery counter still reported a very healthy 56% charge remaining. Given that, with a bit of clever usage and perhaps some sleep (although I rarely sleep on planes), I reckon it just might be possible to do the punishing Sydney to London trip on a single iPad charge.
Anyone want to pay for my ticket to engage in this vital research? Don't all rush at once ...
Discuss this with me at MacTheForum!
My iOS 4 update experience
Written by clinton1550 Friday, 25 June 2010 20:06
Early on Tuesday morning, Apple released the iOS 4 update for iPhone and iPod touch users. I got up slightly less early on Tuesday morning, excited at the prospect of playing around with the few iOS 4 features afforded to us iPhone 3G owners. However, my excitement didn’t last long as my experience updating to iOS 4 quickly became one of pain, frustration and misery.
My experience updating to iOS 4 started the night before with some preparation. Up until Monday night, I had two iTunes Libraries. One — which lived on my Mac mini — contained apps, videos and podcasts; the other — which lived on my PowerBook G4 — contained all of my music and nothing else. Up until Monday night, my iPhone was synced with my Mac mini’s library, which meant it had apps, videos and podcasts but no music. I’ve wanted to merge the two libraries for some time so that I could have all my media on my iPhone.
I rather foolishly decided that the night before the release of iOS 4 was the best time to make the move.
Why did I think the night before the release of iOS 4 was the best time to merge my libraries? Earlier in the week, I heard that the iPod app had a few enhancements that I was keen to try out, Playlist Folder support in particular. Naturally, I needed some music and playlists on my iPhone so I thought I would sync all my music and playlists.
Why did I have two iTunes libraries in the first place? I’ll leave that for another time. But, why was it foolish? With the help of Home Sharing, I quickly transferred the media that I wanted from my Mac mini to my PowerBook, so all I had to do was sync my iPhone and I was ready for iOS 4.
What I didn’t take into account was syncing over 2000 songs to my iPhone — plus re-syncing all my apps, videos and podcasts — would take a long time. I started syncing at about quarter past eight and didn’t finish until sometime after midnight. No big deal really, but the full folly of my decision didn’t sink in until the next morning.
I woke up at 7:00 on Tuesday morning, rolled over to my PowerBook on the bedside table — with iPhone still attached — and attempted to click the "Update" button in iTunes while only being able to see unfocused blobs of colour. I was successful, and after clicking through several dialog boxes and waiting a few minutes, iOS 4 had been downloaded and began installing.
It was about this time that I realised I had made a mistake the night before. During the install process, I quickly became concerned that my iPhone was not updating, but restoring. I later found out that it was supposed to do this but at the time I was under the impression that I had clicked the wrong button.
I hadn’t clicked the wrong button. Clicking the “Update” button to install iOS 4 triggers a full backup, erase and restore process, presumably so Apple has fewer support calls from iPhone and iPod touch users complaining about things not working properly. While this strategy suits Apple and some of the more paranoid among us, it was most inconvenient for people like me, especially me as I would have to go through the entire four-hour sync that I had gone through the night befor
I didn’t have four hours to spend re-syncing my iPhone, so instead of letting iTunes restore my iPhone, I tried to cancel the restore and change the sync settings in order to get myself up and running a lot quicker. Cancelling the restore didn't go smoothly, as I accidentally clicked the wrong button when iTunes asked if I really wanted to stop restoring my iPhone. iTunes wouldn't allow me to cancel the restore a second time, so I restarted my iPhone. Once my iPhone had restarted and reappeared in the iTunes source list, I changed the sync settings to only sync one playlist with 25 songs, one episode of Top Gear, one podcast and a selection of my most-used apps.
With the new settings, I expected my iPhone to be ready to use in about 15 minutes. It ended up being a lot longer than that because iTunes decided that it didn't want to sync the 25 songs I told it to — it wanted to sync 375 songs instead. No matter what I did, iTunes still wanted to sync those 375 songs. I stopped and started the sync several times, to no avail. When I unchecked all my music except for the 25 songs I wanted, iTunes complained that it couldn't find the songs it was looking for.
I cannot truly convey my frustration at this point, but I was prepared to throw my iPhone in a bin. I was prepared to throw my iPhone 3G into a bin, never retrieve it and never buy a replacement. I was prepared to give up on the iPhone forever. Instead, I punched my PowerBook's trackpad and force-restarted both my PowerBook and my iPhone.
One restart later and I decided to give my iPhone a last chance to redeem itself. This time, when iTunes started syncing, it informed me that it was trying to restore my iPhone from a corrupt backup. Restarting my iPhone during the restore process probably didn't do it any good and the corrupt backup was the cause of all the trouble. I deleted the backup and the sync went ahead without any problems. The 25 songs were successfully synced along with the videos and apps.
Finally, after two hours of wrestling with iTunes, I had my iPhone in a usable state. A lot of my lousy experience was my fault. Before updating I thought it would be a fantastic idea to sync all my media to my iPhone. I didn't anticipate any problems because previous iOS updates have been pretty straightforward. I don't recall last year's 3.0 update requiring a full backup, erase and restore. I also don't recall Apple warning me that iOS 4 would require a full backup, erase and restore.
Then again I didn't read any of those dialog boxes I hastily clicked through before downloading iOS 4. Maybe it was mentioned in there somewhere, maybe it wasn't.
I can see why Apple decided that a full backup, erase and restore was the best way to install iOS 4. For many years, the best way to install Mac OS X was to backup your data completely to an external drive, erase your startup disk and perform a clean install. This ensures you don't run into any compatibility problems with the new OS.
Remember the Blue Screens of Death many users got when upgrading to Leopard a few years ago? Those were caused by Unsanity's haxies, unsupported modifications to OS X that provided — to some — welcome enhancements to their computer.
Perhaps the full backup, erase and restore strategy employed by Apple had something to do with jailbroken iPhones. Remember when Apple "bricked" jailbroken iPhones with an early OS update? Perhaps Apple wanted to avoid the support calls and bad press that came with "bricking" iPhones.
I don't know the real reason for Apple's decision but I do know that it complicated the iOS 4 update for some people — some more than others and especially me.
So what have I learnt? I've learnt that if I want to rush into these things, I need to do some real preparation. Next year, I'll erase my iPhone myself and set it up with the bare minimum of stuff to try out new features. Then when Apple erases my iPhone, the restore process won't be such a pain.
How did your iOS upgrade go? Any problems?
Discuss it with me at MacTheForum!
iOS 4 — what is it good for?
Written by Alex Kidman Tuesday, 22 June 2010 09:43
6:30am. I wake up, somewhat weary. Rather coincidentally, random shuffle on my iPhone throws up the following lyrics:
"Wake up in the morning, and I raise my weary head/Got an old coat for a pillow, and the earth was last night's bed"
Well, that would explain why my back hurts. I can only hope that the upgrade to iOS 4 doesn't involve being shot down in a blaze of glory. It would give me an excuse to upgrade to an iPhone 4, but I'd have to wait at least a month for that.
What does seem to be being shot down is my broadband allowance. The update is 378.0MB. I'm not sure why iTunes needs to tell me about the .0 of a megabyte it's not downloading. Perhaps it's meant to make me feel better. I'm just hopeful that as my ISP doesn't count iTunes song downloads against my cap, perhaps OS upgrades will be free as well.
Anyone considering the jump should also bear in mind that you'll probably double that figure in App updates alone as well, even if some of them are just noted as "working" under iOS 4 anyway.
The next ten minutes pass in a blur of coffee and toast-making, as well as discovering that one of the fuses for the lights has popped. You probably don't need to know that, but it's ever so slightly more interesting than telling you to stare at a download screen for ten minutes.
While the download processes, I'm left pondering the fate of the early adopter. iOS 4 marks a breaking point, as anyone who grey-imported an original model iPhone, or legitimately purchased a first-generation iPod touch (I'm in that camp) will be left twisting in the wind on iOS (as it's now known) 3. I do wonder what that does to the security of iOS 3 devices. I'm not stupid enough to think that there aren't security holes, but hopeful that the ongoing install base will be small enough to mean that it's not worthwhile for the bad folk to warrant chasing it. It's a worthwhile bet that iOS 4 has something of a target on its back.
I'm somewhat surprised when, at 7:10am, the update is finished, and iTunes politely informs me that my iPhone is restarting. For whatever reason, a nearby connected iPad starts syncing again. Perhaps it's pining for iOS 4. Not for you, flatty! Not yet, anyway.
It's at this point that my only-just-processing-the-coffee brain remembers that the bulk of my iTunes music resides on a NAS and not locally, and that if the iOS 4 update involves re-synchronising all my music, it's going to throw up all sorts of interesting errors. It might be something of a quiet morning as a result.
My first interesting quirk comes not long after. iTunes tells me that the iPhone Sync is complete. The iPhone itself begs to differ. Do I unplug it, or leave it be? A five-minute wait seems sensible, and thankfully the two devices finally agree that things are in fact in sync with each other.
So, first impressions, then.
For a product that's designed to be "easy to use" and from a company that prides itself on ease of use, there's sweet bugger-all in the way of an introductory tutorial. Where's the slickly-produced video to walk me through all of iOS 4's new features, Apple? At first glance, all I spot is the background photo now being the backdrop (which I don't mind, but could be a lot worse depending on your backdrop photo) and the multi-tasking bar that pops up with a double tap. Nothing is multi-tasking right now, but that's to be expected for a newly-restarted phone.
Ah. Apple's support pages will have something, right?
Wrong. There's a single link for the new features of iOS 4 depending on phone model, but clicking on it reveals this rather unhelpful message:
"アップルのサポートシステムの定期的なアップグレード作業のため、現在サポートサイトの一部がご利用いただけません。ご迷惑をおかけして申し訳ありません"
OK, OK, the English version is above it, informing me that "Due to a scheduled upgrade of Apple's support systems, some features of the website are currently unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience." I still reckon the Kanji is about as helpful.
Yes, that's right, the Apple Support Store is down. I wonder what new non-products Apple's brewing up now, and more importantly, where can the T-shirt be purchased?
It takes a couple of Google searches on related pages to figure out folder creation —not much more than drag-and-dropping icons on each other, which works reasonably well. I could see it being something of a chore if I had to do some app sorting on the fly if my finger stops in the wrong place, but hopefully that'll be a somewhat rare occurrence. It also gives me a single useful folder for hiding the preinstalled Apps that I never use. Why yes, Stocks and Weather, I'm looking right at you.
It's also somewhat easier to do all the folder creation at the iTunes end on my iMac, but again, that's no great shock. I've got to qualify that with "somewhat", as the icons have this habit of doing an annoying swap-positions dance with each other rather than forming folders. It takes a good dozen swipes to drop iTunes (the App) into my music folder.
The default folder naming strategy is to grab the product category as the folder name, which makes my brain wonder what happens if you create two folders from the same category apps. The answer is that you can seemingly have any number of identically-named folders on the same page, which is a little confusing. I'm either going to have to get organised, or be prepared to squint really hard at even tinier icons.
Then it's time for my organising gene to kick in. When I start, I've got nine pages of applications on my iPhone. When I finish, it's down to three — although half a dozen of my folders are just called "Games", and I'll need some more solid organising time to make sense of my folders. In the context of how I use most common applications it doesn't matter that much, because I tend to find them via Spotlight search. Then again, the limit of 12 applications per folder introduces a new problem. You can put 12 apps into each folder, but tiny icons for only the first nine will actually show up, which means applications 10-12 will hide even more than they used to on pages eight and nine.
I'm also totally sick of icons bouncing to accommodate each other, rather than dropping neatly into their folders. iOS 4 won't nest folders or merge them as far as I can find. They just do the bouncy dance around each other any time I try. I can live with that. It does mean I'll have to do some solid organising of my Apps, and hope and pray that my App database never becomes corrupted. I wouldn't want to have to create all these folders twice.
Many of the other new consumer-facing features are small tweaks here and there. The camera zooms, but it's still a digital zoom, and frankly unless I'm using it for some kind of low-grade, highly grainy surveillance work, I'd rather take the full shot and blow it up in Photoshop. iBooks is on the iPhone! Celebrate! Go wild! Go crazy ... and "buy" free books, as I discussed last week. Universal mail inbox functions, but it's still missing the most vital feature for a phone based email client — namely the ability to mark all messages read with a simple swipe or click of an icon. Frankly, I'd trade the universal inbox and folders for that feature alone. Are you listening, Apple?
What do you think? Is iOS4 everything you hoped it would be? Did it kill your iPhone, scramble your Apps or destroy your photos?
Discuss it with me at MacTheForum!
