Orchestra of the Future?
Thanks to www.tuaw.com for this find!
The iPad Orchestra from Alex Shpil on Vimeo.
iPhone 4 = Vista? Seriously Microsoft…
Earlier today according to Computerworld the COO of Microsoft, Kevin Turner was quoted saying:
“It looks like the iPhone 4 might be their Vista, and I’m okay with that,”
I’m glad to know that Microsoft finally admited Vista was the worst thing on earth but seriously to compare it to the iPhone 4′s reception issues? We’re talking about an Operating System that no one wanted from the start vs a phone 1.7 Million people purchased in four days. I’m pretty sure Microsoft didn’t have that kind of turn out for the Windows Vista launch. I also believe that Apple is addressing the issue in a timely manner vs Microsoft who never really admitted that Vista was the worst thing ever – well, next to Windows ME. Then he later goes on to talk about Windows 7 phone and how you don’t have to worry about how you hold it. Woah there Mr. Turner you might want to discuss that with the list of hardware manufacturers that is using your Windows 7 Phone OS since you don’t control the hardware being used…
It appears that Apple has announced they’re holding an “iPhone 4 Press Conference” on Friday. I wonder what they’re going to offer/talk about. I think after the mass media coverage I’d assume they’re going to recognize a flaw and hopefully provide a fix. What is baffling me though is I see so many iPhone 4 users complaining online about the issue but none of them will explain why they haven’t returned the handset? Apple has a 30 day return policy so if you’re that unhappy why not get your money back? Then there is also the camp of people that seem to not have the issue at all.
As I posted before I hope this press conference on Friday will be Apple extending their exceptional customer service and offering a true solution to the problem beyond “don’t hold it like that.” Thoughts?
- John
Is Apple the New Toyota?
For months now poor Toyota has been in the spotlight. It seems that if something could be blamed on them – it was. Wave after wave of recalls and owners being upset that their car is trying to kill them and the news media having a hayday conducting tests and talking to distraught Toyota owners fearing for their life every time they got in their car (and some not even going near their car). Just as the dust settles it seems that Apple may now be the new company in the dreaded consumer (dis-)satisfaction spotlight.
The iPhone 4 Signal Quality Issue.
(Dum, Dum, Dummmmmm)
Everyone seems to be talking about it:
- TMobile/Sprint/Verizon Camp – Our (insert Android phone of your choice) is so much better. We don’t have signal issues.
- iPhone Users Without Upgrade Privileges Camp – Oh, I’m waiting for Apple to get that fixed before I buy one
- iPhone 4 Users Who Don’t Regret the Purchase Camp – I have no problems at all or it isn’t as bad or Look I have FaceTime and you don’t!
- iPhone 4 Users with Buyers Remorse – RECALL
Then you have the fence jumpers and the people who play all sides but you get the idea. Now, do I have an iPhone 4 – no. Am I planning on getting one – not sure. (Gasp, shock and horror… I know).
I’ve been an Apple customer for years now. Owning several of their desktops, laptops and two iPhones now I have been a happy customer and one of the main reasons I paid the “Apple Tax”, as many like to call it, for their products is for the customer service. I’ve had them fix out of warranty items, go above an beyond to make me happy when Micro Center sold me a known defective laptop, and always helped me when I’m in the Apple store. The iPhone has been the ONLY phone I’ve ever kept for my entire contract term and the only phone I’ve ever upgraded to the newer model when time came.
Then came the iPhone 4.
When I first saw it, I wasn’t sure I liked the new design. After seeing it in person, I love the new design. I’m also using the iOS4 on my iPhone 3GS and enjoy the new features that has brought with it. The problem I have right now is that our personal and my business contracts are coming to an end. I’m going to move to a month to month if possible but it leaves me wondering will I upgrade to an iPhone 4 or not?
I’m sure the slew of people that I convinced to switch to AT&T to experience the iPhone would murder me if I went to Verizon and picked up an HTC Incredible with Google Android OS but right now that is an option. I am curious to see how Apple handles this. So far, not so great, after Consumer Reports said to not buy the phone Apple deleted the discussion regarding the article off their forum [UPDATE: I guess there is now a thread they've left intact].
Will I upgrade? We’ll see. I think I’m going to hold out a little longer with my 3GS and see what developments happen or who knows, maybe I’ll skip this revision all together. Any of you have thoughts? Is Apple the new Toyota?
Please excuse the dust
So as you can see, the changes have begun. I’ve found and installed a new theme, began to organize content and now working on adding some more features to the site. I’m also working on organizing and uploading pictures to my Flickr account and to go back to taking pictures on a more regular basis. So I ask that you “please excuse the dust” while I’m working behind the scenes to update and improve the blog.
I’m also back to writing, which I’m excited about. Writing has always been this thing that I’ve enjoyed doing, never dedicated time to and never really talk about. I know, that is as “clear as mud” but that’s truly how I’ve been when it comes to writing. I’m now working on some postings for July and trying to stay ahead of the curve so I can actually have content on here that is fresh and up-to-date.
Other than that I’m crazy busy with the business and keeping up with life. Please keep coming back and I hope that you enjoy the changes and updates.
Later,
- John
Changes
Life seems to be ever evolving around me.
For some reason you assume in your mind that at some point the craziness stops and some normalcy begins to set in. Just when I think that is going to happen – life seems to get turned upside-down and we’re back to craziness.
I’m working on a new theme for the blog. I’ve defaulted to the new “Twenty Ten” theme that WordPress has included in their 3.0 release but I’d really like something a little more “custom”. I’m currently on the hunt for that.
In other news, I’m hoping to write a little more than I have in the past. I think that it is good for me to share the thoughts that I have with the internet, if anything to preserve them in time so ten years down the road I can look back and read some of what I was thinking and see if the future turns out the way I saw it back then.
I’m also making some changes in my life to better my health and I think that sharing them in an open forum (aka blogging and Twitter) will help keep me on track and make me feel like I have to stay accountable – you know, because I’m so famous and have thousands of readers and followers (end sarcasam). Seriously though – I need a little motivation with sticking to my changes and I think the internet will be a good tool for me to use and to track my progress if nothing else.
So, that’s my goal this week, to over-haul this blog and get moving on writing. Hopefully you’ll join me on this new adventure.
Later,
- JM
Upgraded to WordPress 3.0 Beta
So being an “early adopter” to most technology I decided to upgrade my production blog to WordPress 3.0 Beta 1. Go me. Also testing the new theme that is included. We’ll see how it goes.
Later,
-JM
The Sense of Accomplishment
In my short life I believe I’ve accomplished a great deal; however, I accomplished something this last week that I was very proud of:
- I took two boys, 4 and 6 years old, to the grocery store and we all survived and made it back in one piece. -
I had the pleasure of watching my friend’s kids last Saturday while they went out on a date and I wasn’t sure how it was going to go. I’m a single, only child, male in his 20s and many people look at me with their head turned slightly to the side with a questioning look on their face when I say that I’m “babysitting” two kids, 4 and 6 – like I’m crazy or something.
I’ve always been one of those people kids seem to like (good thing I’m not a kidnapper!). I have endless lists of stories of random kids latching onto me at the pool to keep from drowning, coming up to me when they’re lost or randomly talking to me. I say that I have a “parental gene” or something like that but to be honest it has never really been put to the test; until now.
Sure I’ve watched kids in the past but not alone or they were a little older or there was just ONE. This was going to be my first experience with two kids, alone and a trip to a grocery store. This involved a car ride, car seats, jackets, shoes, etc… I found myself quickly thinking on my feet and everything turned out just fine. I was so pleased when they stayed right with me in the store and were quiet for the most part. There was the whole asking for everything sugary in sight but just like any good parent would do I too was saying, “No, you can’t have that!”.
I have to say the only scary part is when one of the boys went for the door I about had a heart attack because it leads right out to a busy road. I think I startled the cashier when I burst out, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”… LOL. Other than that we were fine.
The evening went great and we all had a good time playing Mario on the Wii, watching movies and making crafts. By the end of the night I had the kids ready for bed when my friends got home. I stood back for a second and had a nice sense of accomplishment that all three of us survived the night. I know I had it somewhat easy because my friends do have two well behaved kids so I’m pretty fortunate.
Just thought I’d share that thought from my weekend.
Take it easy,
- John
I Discovered Some New Music
Here is some music that lately I discovered and I really enjoy. I’ve highlighted some lyrics that stand out and have linked back to the iTunes store if you’d like to preview or purchase. I’ve discovered them various ways – worship at church, Twitter, Oasis House of Prayer in Michigan and friends. Each one seems to speak to me right now in my life – some bringing comfort and others making me think. Any thoughts? Feel free to share in the comments.
Carlos Whittaker – Rain It Down
Rain down on us.
Father, Rain down on us.
Spirit, Rain down on us.
Jesus, Rain down on us.
Carlos Whittaker – Jesus Saves
Your innocence has covered my shame. Your love has spoken me by name. And I have victory over the grave. You overcame. Jesus Saves…
Carlos Whittaker – We Will Worship You
Save us from these conflicts. Break us of our need of the familiar. Spare us any joy that’s not of you. And we will worship you.
Cory Asbury – Jesus, Let Me See Your Eyes
I was made for, I was made for love… Jesus, let me see Your eyes; let me feel your embrace, let me feel you all around me.
Cory Asbury (feat. Jaye Thomas) – My Beloved
He stands alone… He’s coming to rule, coming to reign. Jesus, Jesus!
Who is He who makes me happy? Who is He that gives me peace? Who is He that brings me comfort and turns the bitter into sweet? Who is stirring up my passion? Who is rising up in me? Who is filling up my hunger with everything I need? Creator God – He Is Yahweh…
Jesus, here I am Your favorite one. What are you thinking? What are you feeling? I have to know. For I am after Your heart… I’m after You.
David Crowder Band – All Around Me (Originally by Flyleaf)
Take my hand I give it to you. Now you own me, all I am. You said you would never leave me. I believe you. I believe
Chris Quailala – Your Love Never Fails
I know I still make mistakes but You have new mercies for me every day. Your love never fails.
Matt Redman – The Glory of Our King
The Church is waking up now to be Your hands and feet upon this earth. Send us in Your power as we take Heaven to a broken world.
Night,
- JM
What’s the Buzz All About?
Well, if you haven’t noticed, Google has decided to throw its hat in the Social Networking ring by introducing Buzz by Google. If you have a GMail account you should now have it active and you should check it out.
I’ve connected all my other accounts that are available to integrate with Google Buzz and I have mixed feelings. I view this more as “closed” social networking unlike Twitter which I would call an “open” approach to Social Networking.
Right now on Twitter I interact with people all over the world that I’ve never met in person. I talk to pastors that I’ve never met but read their books, I talk to news personnel and I even have used Twitter to contact Microsoft directly and got results! I don’t have ANY of these people and companies GMail information (if they even have a Google account) and thus would never be able to reach them without Twitter.
Buzz might be cool for the more close circle of your friends but then again wasn’t Wave supposed to be some way to share media in a more “communal” way and I think we can all see how that went over (Does anyone even still use their Wave account? I don’t…).
What do you think about Google Buzz? Have you checked it out yet? If not, here is the link - http://buzz.google.com.
Night all,
- JM
The Apple iPad – Followup to the January 27th Event
Well, here it is folks – The Apple iPad. Did it meet some of the things I asked for? Yep. Did it miss the mark on a few things… Yep. Let’s break it down:
What’s wrong with the iPad:
- Most Obviously – No Camera?
- This was a shocker for me. Apple seemed to becoming obsessed with cameras. There is a camera on every laptop, every iMac, the new Apple 24″ LED LCD Display, iPhone, and now the iPod Nano… yet we can’t have one on the iPad. Now, I know many people were arguing the use for a camera on the iPad based on what the designed intention of the iPad is but personally I think it would be handy for snapping quick pics of yourself to upload while you blog or on Twitter – maybe even the possibility of video conferencing in the future. If a $149.00 iPod Nano can have a camera I don’t see why a $499.00 iPad can’t.
- Device Connectivity
- Well, I would have hoped for something besides a dock connector. USB would have been nice but seeing that is runs on the iPhone OS I can understand the lack of the port. Maybe in the future there will be some accessories for the dock connector that can help with these issues. (Yes, I already know about the Camera Kit which accepts USB from your camera). I could honestly care less though about HDMI like many people are whining about. I don’t see myself plugging this device into my television any more than I would see myself plugging my iPhone into my TV to watch movies. Also, if any display connectivity was going to show up on the device… it would be Mini-Display Port as this is clearly the direction Apple is going.
- Flash Storage
- If I am going to be able to use iWork on my Tablet can I also use it as a flash drive to store files on the go? I know there are iPhone apps that do this but I’d really like it to just plug into my machine and have disk use available. I assume part of the problem here is the file format that the partition would be in since the Apple UNIX File System isn’t really “Windows Friendly”.
- iPhone OS
- I assumed that this was going to be the case but it leaves me feeling a little lacking. Though iPhone application development is huge and on-going I’d still have some reservations about leaving my laptop behind and using this as a primary device in some situations. If anything the laptop would stay in the bag in the trunk in case of an emergency. I was hoping for a more modified OSX but I understand the direction and why the iPhone OS was chosen.
- No Flash…
- I can’t see this completely replacing my laptop because THERE IS NO ADOBE FLASH SUPPORT. Now, most web developers have gotten over the fad of programming their entire sites in Flash but there are a few still out there. Hopefully HTML5 will help this out but I still think this is going to cripple this device unless Adobe and Apple can come to terms and get this resolved.
Now Lets Talk About What It Does Do
- Kindle – It Was Nice Knowing You
- I think the iBook Store as well as the fact that this device only costs $10.00 more than the similar sized Kindle will be the death of the Kindle. I’m very excited that this is going to be an awesome e-reader and will sync with my iPhone for reading when my iPad isn’t handy.
- New ‘Default’ Apps
- The new apps that are made for the iPad are awesome. Coming from someone who lives in a schedule and e-mail this looks like it will be a great device for me. As I’m going from client to client and meeting to meeting it will be nice to have a device that can be instant on/off and last over 10 hours on one charge.
- NO CONTRACT 3G
- It was like not only did Apple hear me about the “Not Required” 3G but also they went a step further and made it NO CONTRACT. For me this is awesome. When I know I’m going to have months where I’m going to be working in an office that has wireless then I won’t need 3G but when I know I’m traveling I can just pay for one month of service and go along my way. I just wonder with the 250MB plan what happens after 250MB… shut off or auto-billed for overage.
- iWork for iPad
- This will help me leave the laptop behind. Being able to create and view documents on the go will be nice and not have to have a huge laptop to lug around. For someone who invests heavily in paperless environments I can see this being huge for my company and I’m sure others will adapt as well.
- Business Potential
- I’m sure I’m not the only person that is thinking how we can fit this into business models. The best part is the price point – $499 for entry level. In a lot of scenarios that I can think of this base device would fulfill a great number of possibilities.
- Sexy Factor
- From what I can tell on the internet it seems to be a love/hate relationship with the design. Personally I am a huge fan and think that it looks very nice. I think it lives up to the typical Apple design that they’re capable of producing.
The question: Will I Buy One? Answer: Most likely, yeah.
I think that I can make a big justification in business for this device and as more applications and accessories are being developed I’m sure the usability will be expanded. As I’m sure you can tell by my post, I will be getting the 64GB WiFi+3G.
Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
Later,
- J
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