Commentary – Page 67

Immersion in a device

I bought an iPad on April 17th … On May 24th, I sold the 64GB iPad to a friend for a little less than what I paid for it. He since bought two more iPads (one 3G). But I missed the iPad and couldn’t quite say why at first. … On further reflection, I realized … Continue reading “Immersion in a device”

I bought an iPad on April 17th
…
On May 24th, I sold the 64GB iPad to a friend for a little less than what I paid for it. He since bought two more iPads (one 3G). But I missed the iPad and couldn’t quite say why at first.
…
On further reflection, I realized that iPad offers fresh functionality: Immersion. I find there are fewer reading distractions, and content is better presented than on a laptop and browser. I’m more focused and retain more of what I read. For reasons not easily explained, I find myself more thoroughly reading iBooks than defaulting to the skimming I sometimes do with physical books. Part of this immersive experience is the technology, but also how iPad is used. Apple’s tablet is a sit down and focus device, as much because of size and shape as screen and user interface. The totality — physical design and software benefits — is immersion.
On June 10, I bought another 64GB iPad.
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iPhone. 4.

It cannot be doubted that the new design for the iPhone is lovely. While some may prefer the curved aesthetics of the 3G/3GS, I preferred the flat back of the original iPhone and the iPhone 4 seems to hark back to that instantly recognisable design. The buttons are a welcome change from the rocker though I have to wonder who the + and – sign will appeal to (but more on that later). The fact the unit is thinner is not quite as amazing as some might make out – the 3Gs was curved and tapered towards the edges. When you eliminate some of that curve, then it’s not a considerable amount of space being removed – pretty standard for a year’s worth of development.

It’s a lovely design, surprisingly small and explains why the iPad fits so much battery into it’s design as they are, for the most part, the same hardware.

FaceTime is a curious beast. It runs over a normal cell call while (currently) routing the video data over WiFi which means that video-conference call over any distance will end up being pretty much the same as a normal voice call. Hopefully it will use your free minutes locally but it will also not be cheap calling internationally. I would hope that someone will take the FaceTime specification and make a compatible app that permits data-only calls. I have a feeling that with the reductions in cellular download limits and the statement from Skype that they’re going to be charging for Skype-Skype calls over 3G, we’re being nickel-and-dimed by our carriers and services.

Will I use FaceTime? It’s looking unlikely as I’m no longer sure who will have an iPhone 4 that I also want to have “face time” with?

This will be welcome as I do use my iPhone for reading eBooks – something I have not used the iPad for (bizarrely). Anything that improves the quality of the text is welcome but I’m also not going to stress out about it. It’s not what I’d consider a killer feature. The unit allegedly has a better graphics chip which is going to be needed to push those extra pixels and it shows that ‘iOS’ is moving towards resolution independence faster than the Mac.

One of the most demanded features and remaining one of the most controversial. Proper multi-tasking is only going to be enabled for Voice Over IP, Music Streaming Services and Location Service updates. While these are indeed awesome, I would have also included a voice recording option as well. Being able to record a meeting while doing something else is an extremely useful feature and some apps, like Audiotorium, really need it – I would assume there are some VoIP supporting features which could enable this. The other multitasking bits and pieces, like local notifications and ‘background task completion’ offer 95% of what people really want with multi-tasking.

All in all, I welcome our new multi-tasking masters.

The camera in the iPhone 4 is meant to be much better but I still have one serious issue with the camera in the iPhone and that’s the soft-button for taking pictures. This is a pain in the butt especially when there are three buttons on the device in almost the right place which are all unused when taking pictures.

Would it be too much to ask that while the Camera app is running to make those useless buttons actually do something? Like control zoom or maybe take the picture? At the moment I feel like I need three hands to work the iPhone camera – two to hold it, one to actually take the shot. And god forbid you should want to take a picture of yourself (while in a bar, late at night, with drunk friends), it just makes life difficult managing that soft-button.

What else is notable?

The storage is the same as the 3GS. 16 or 32 GB versions. It seems odd they didn’t upgrade to 64 GB but I think it’s because they’re finding that in iPod touch and iPad, people are trending towards the 32 GB version anyway. It seems to be some sort of in-pocket-storage sweet spot. Google and HTC should take note.

It’s rumoured that the iPhone 4 has 512 MB RAM rather than the 256 MB RAM found in the 3GS and iPad. That’s going to make a difference for Safari which often has a forced reload when using some memory-hungry pages.

Also, the range of acceptable frequencies is interesting. Compare the 3GS to the iPhone 4. I have no idea what this means (though I entertained the idea that the iPhone 4 would support 3G service on T-Mobile USA opening the door to another GSM carrier in the US but it seems to be more related to Band VIII (W-CDMA 900) in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Venezuela. I’m no specialist when it comes to mobile telecoms obviously but that one little item of difference looks like it’s been added to increase worldwide compatibility. I can’t see the iPhone breaking away from AT&T soon (and it’s been said many times that Sprint/Verizon would not have such a good network with 20 million iPhone users on it).

	iPhone 3GS	iPhone 4
UMTS/HSDPA	850, 1900, 2100 MHz	850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz
GSM/EDGE	850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz	850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz

There’s some more stuff but it’s all NDA’ed at the moment and I’ve not seen anyone else talking about it. So I won’t.

Pre-order starts today for the iPhone 4 but rumours indicate that the white model is going to be severely constrained. As I leave in three days for my family holiday and won’t be back until July, I won’t be pre-ordering even though I do see an iPhone 4 in my future. Arlene, in contrast, doesn’t find it desirable – but this is something she has dithered about over the previous 3 generations on iPhone and I reckon this will be the same. It’s a solid upgrade and it’s interesting what they chose to concentrate on. There’s no real difference in the hardware ‘features’ and someone will always think another phone is better because it has an FM radio or a built-in TV receiver but those sorts of niche features don’t remotely interest me.

Are you planning to get the new iPhone 4?

The State of the Union

“The ancient Greeks did not write obituaries, instead they asked only one question of a man (or a woman): ‘Did he have passion?’ – Serendipity It was pointed out to me recently that I’m not currently practising what I preach. The exact words were to “walk the walk while you’re talking the talk”. This was … Continue reading “The State of the Union”

“The ancient Greeks did not write obituaries, instead they asked only one question of a man (or a woman): ‘Did he have passion?’ – Serendipity

It was pointed out to me recently that I’m not currently practising what I preach. The exact words were to “walk the walk while you’re talking the talk”. This was not always the case.

I started Crucible Design in 1996, prepped Cimota as a IT consultancy in 2002 (it was my original exit plan from Nortel), started Mac-Sys in 2003 and started Infurious in 2005. I still do a little for Crucible Design (via Lategaming – just book sales and the very occasional blog post) and I still own Mac-Sys. Cimota morphed into this blog and I resigned from Infurious last year due to a conflict of interest.

The Now
I currently work as the “Network Facilitator” for Digital Circle, an ERDF-funded collaborative network developed by InvestNI. It’s work that I enjoy, that I find challenging and that I think has some lasting value.
My Digital Circle contract ends in March 2011 so I’m now with little over 9 months to figure out what to do next. It’s not clear that Digital Circle’s funding will be renewed (due to reduced budgets in Northern Ireland) and it’s also not clear to me if the real time benefits of my work in Digital Circle really have the economic impact necessary to support the funded activities. [1]

The Next Thing
This is a tough one. I have big dreams and I know I can’t do all of them. I’d like to put together a user experience consultancy because I’ve been a UI/UX bigot since I first studied Human Computer Interaction at the University of Ulster, Jordanstown back in about 1995. I’d like to pursue my interests in Augmented Reality and Alternate Reality Games. I’d like to work in ‘gamifying’ mobile Healthcare and e-Learning because I find the subjects fascinating. I like working with groups of developers around projects like Open Data because I enjoy the potential benefits to the wider society. I have considered politics and also attempting to form a ‘think tank’ policy organisation for technology and media – both roles I think I could do well.

I have also considered changing tack and getting out of the technology space and that’s what prompts this musing and considerations. I am resigned to the fact that I will never have the time nor the attention span to devote to becoming a programmer (that is assuming I even have the talent or intelligence) and develop wondrous concepts for the iPhone and iPad, devices which have fired my imagination for over three years now. I think the most compelling career in the western world must be that of a software developer. These talented individuals are literally making the stuff of dreams on touchscreen devices and I am frustrated at how little of it sticks in my head. At WWDC this week I cannot count the number of times I have been inspired and then been frustrated that I cannot create these works of art which I dream about. I instead spend my time giving ideas away to startups and developers who cross my path. My work has been very enjoyable in many ways and this blog, though sometimes controversial, has provided a lot of catharsis along the way (and it is obvious that I write for me, not for others as I honestly have no idea if anyone reads it). Doing this work is not without its perils: being out in public can make you a target. And that causes the stress and uncertainty that one would expect. In all it’s a bit of a mixed bag.

I have to wonder what it is that I really enjoy, what is my passion.

Opportunity exists in many shapes and forms and the philosophy espoused around ‘passion’ comes from Aristippean philosophy:

Aristippus propounded a philosophy that was based upon the human reaction to pleasure and pain through sensation of the world. Pleasure, he thought, was the test of right perception, while pain was the warning of error. It was the goal of every man to seek pleasure and to avoid pain, and human understanding of the good was directed by the correcting influential sensations of pleasure and pain. Thus, men should seek what is pleasurable and thereby learn what is good. For Aristippus, this would lead to right moral behavior, as wrong behavior would inevitably bring about pain, while right behavior would result in pleasure. For some later Cyrenaics, and for the Aesthetes, this could be interpreted as advocacy for heightened sensual experience. And, as every man was the judge of his own sensations and had his own peculiar natural tendencies and gifts, each man would tend to find this heightened experience in the cultivation of his passions, for they were expressions of his basic nature. The goal, then, was to “Know thyself,” since that was all that could be known.
…
In this development of the Cyrenaic philosophy, the passion is the personal, internally generated, inherent urge of the individual, which finds satisfaction when pleasure is achieved.
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If a person has no passion, then he has failed to identify this most important part of his own being.

As opposed to chasing ‘pleasure’, I interpret (much as the Serendipity screenwriter did) that pleasure comes from pursuing your passions.

As I have responsibilities, I must turn my consideration to what to do next. It would be unwise in the extreme to gamble on the project being renewed in the current economic climate and therefore I have to put in place some plans in the event that I am not able (or perhaps even willing) to continue in my current role. Which of my many and varied passions would I follow and which would give me the most pleasure and, perhaps more importantly, which would keep a roof over my head.

I welcome thoughts, observations and criticism.

[1] Economic impact in this sense is a measure which is made up of statements from individuals and companies who have received some benefit in the activities of Digital Circle. It’s difficult to get this kind of validation from the digital media industry which is a constant source of frustration, not only for me but also for the teams who lobbied for and pieced together the project. Click to return

fear itself.

Earlier this week, I asked Games Developers to “Make Me Cry”. This video made me cry…with laughter. That, in itself is an achievement. Related posts: Onlive: Gaming in the Cloud review FSF integrity questioned, no-one surprised. OpenMoko FreeRunner: *sigh* FSF on iPhone 3G: Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt.

Earlier this week, I asked Games Developers to “Make Me Cry”. This video made me cry…with laughter.

That, in itself is an achievement.

Why the iPhone still is #1 for business

At DevDays last week, Dermot Daly replied to a question about ‘other mobile platforms’ by saying that the amount of money changing hands on iPhone is enough for most people to consider but the important point is that the falloff in money when you go to other platforms is so severe that they’re not work … Continue reading “Why the iPhone still is #1 for business”

At DevDays last week, Dermot Daly replied to a question about ‘other mobile platforms’ by saying that the amount of money changing hands on iPhone is enough for most people to consider but the important point is that the falloff in money when you go to other platforms is so severe that they’re not work considering yet unless you already have a customer who’s willing to pay for the effort i.e. if there’s not enough money in iPhone then there’s definitely not enough money in any other platform.

But you also have to look at the engagement. Hyper-local review site Yelp state they have 32 million unique visitors from all sources and only 1.4 million of them were iPhone users which sounds tiny. But those 1.4 million users were responsible for 27% of Yelp searches, they make calls to businesses once every 5 seconds and nearly a million people used Yelp’s iPhone app to find directions to businesses in May.

So aim for deep engagement, aim for people to carry you around in their pocket, make it easy for people to use you and they will use you.

Games Designers: Make Me Cry!

“in an effort to introduce plot, character development and narrative tension to games. They had realised that although their games are addictive, few are emotionally compelling. I’ve never seen a computer game that made me cry” – Professor Jenkins of MIT. (link) There must be games which are emotive (beyond Anger and Fear/Anticipation). Games have … Continue reading “Games Designers: Make Me Cry!”

“in an effort to introduce plot, character development and narrative tension to games. They had realised that although their games are addictive, few are emotionally compelling. I’ve never seen a computer game that made me cry” – Professor Jenkins of MIT. (link)

There must be games which are emotive (beyond Anger and Fear/Anticipation). Games have been able to make me feel anger or fear as I follow the plot but I wonder about the softer emotions (sadness, love).

Speaking with my wife about this, she reckons that the interactivity of games reduces the possibility that you’ll feel the softer emotions. In contrast, I’ll admit that movies have been able to make me feel softer emotions (the ending of Edward Scissorhands gets me every time and don’t even talk to me about The Notebook). It’s a combination of immersion in the story, empathy for the characters and the music and foreshadowing of the plot.

So, why can’t computer games make us cry?

Wired had an article in 2005 on the subject: Can a Game Make You Cry?

I could tell something was wrong as soon as I saw my friend’s eyes. It was back in 1997, and he’d been playing the recently released Final Fantasy VII. That afternoon, he’d gotten to a famously shocking scene in which Aerith, a beloved young magician girl, is suddenly and viciously murdered.
He looked like he’d lost a family member. “I’m just totally screwed up,” he confessed as he nursed a lukewarm beer at a local bar. Nearly all my friends were playing Final Fantasy VII too — so, one by one over the next week, they all hit the same scene, until every nerd I knew was sunk in a slough of despond.

I’ve never played FFVII but I have to wonder if this game is unique. And watching the scene, I guess you have to play it through to experience it.

Science

I’m very encouraged by a recent trend for science programming. The trend throughout is an agnostic view of the universe. Nothing said in the programmes denies the existence of the supernatural but at the same time they ask questions and reveal answers which directly infer that we are but microscopic motes in a macrocosm. We … Continue reading “Science”

BBC

Wonders of the Solar System with Professor Brian Cox (to be followed up with Wonders of the Universe now filming)
The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion with Michael Moseley

Channel 4

Genius of Britain with Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins, James Dyson, David Attenborough, Robert Winston, Paul Nurse, Jim Al-Khalili, Kathy Sykes and Olivia Judson

You can catch these programmes from these links (may be limited to UK only).

I am inspired. The story of how the Invisible College were formed, with the patronage of the king, into the Royal Society. The story of how the Penny Universities formed around coffee houses in London. The dual purpose of the Monument to the Great Fire as both memento and scientific instrument.

I know there are two humanist groups (Belfast Humanists and Humani) in Northern Ireland but I’m not interested in the Humanist agenda, per se, more in the investigation and promotion of science over superstition.

I hope I’m not alone in this.

Yesterday was iPad Day UK

Christian echoes some of the sentiments I’ve seen regarding the large but not immense queues yesterday. As long as you remember that people have been pre-ordering them for three weeks in the UK and heaps of them received their iPads via courier on Thursday and Friday, it’s not that surprising that the queues were not … Continue reading “Yesterday was iPad Day UK”

Christian echoes some of the sentiments I’ve seen regarding the large but not immense queues yesterday.

As long as you remember that people have been pre-ordering them for three weeks in the UK and heaps of them received their iPads via courier on Thursday and Friday, it’s not that surprising that the queues were not immense and that in many cases the stores did not sell out.

On Wednesday, MacBuddha had asked me which iPad I really wanted (I already have a 16 GB WiFi model):

and based on figures from an exit poll, I’m not alone.

You can see where the sweet spots are for technology purchases. The 32GB 3G model is, as I surprised, the perfect blend of technology for most people and the model people were more likely to choose after that was the 64GB 3G model. All in all, 74% of buyers chose the 3G model which has to mean that in the UK we consider 3G to have the best options (especially considering the cheap cost of some of the data plans. Three are out in front with a £7.50 pm plan and for an additional £2.50 you can get an O2 plan which includes the Cloud and BTOpenzone WiFi access. )

All in all, I think the iPad launch was a success for Apple by any measure and it will be interesting to hear/see what is announced next week by Steve Jobs. I reckon around 3 million of the devices will have been sold by the time the WWDC keynote comes around in just over a week.

On another note, having iPad Day UK mere days after Towel Day seems entirely appropriate. Don’t Panic.

30 day Tariffs for iPad in UK

I don’t consider any of the daily or 7 day plans to be worth writing about so if you’re interested in them, go look them up. This is a comparison of the 30 day plans available from the 4 UK carriers who have announced support for the iPad 3G. Click on the Corporate Logos to … Continue reading “30 day Tariffs for iPad in UK”

Click on the Corporate Logos to be taken to their respective pages.

Cost £	Data included	Notes
7.50	1 GB
10	1 GB	and Cloud, BTOpenZone
10	1 GB
15	10 GB
15	3 GB	and Cloud, BTOpenZone
15	3 GB	and BTOpenZone
15	3 GB
25	10 GB	and BTOpenZone
25	5 GB

So how do you choose which to buy?

The table above is sorted on Increasing Cost, Decreasing Data, Decreasing ‘additional’ benefits. You should be able to quickly discern which are the best plans.

If you want to keep your costs low, then look at the tariffs from Three. They’re certainly the cheapest and you get heaps of data inclusive.

If coverage matters then you should probably look at Orange as they have the widest coverage in the UK.

If you want fast access and tend to be around urban areas, then having ready access to BTOpenzone when you need it (and the Cloud I suppose), would mean O2 is a good option.

If you plan to travel with your iPad and can’t get a local SIM, Vodafone’s roaming rates are a fraction of the costs of other networks.

See Me, See Her

(See Me, See Her refers to the 1978 book by John Pepper, a man who spent years trying to decode the Ulster dialect for the good of it’s people) For a couple of years I had a Sony Ericsson K800i on the Orange network. I used it as a phone, as a camera, I used … Continue reading “See Me, See Her”

(See Me, See Her refers to the 1978 book by John Pepper, a man who spent years trying to decode the Ulster dialect for the good of it’s people)

For a couple of years I had a Sony Ericsson K800i on the Orange network. I used it as a phone, as a camera, I used it for email, I tethered it over Bluetooth to my laptop as well as to my Nokia N800 proving internet access where there was no internet access and I very seldom surfed on it because the experience was so painful. I also didn’t buy any apps though I did download one.

The camera, though only 3.2 Mpixel, was excellent but the K800i had two cameras – the second was front facing and while I may have launched the app which controlled it a couple of times, I never once used it for it’s actual purpose – video calling.

Now, by all accounts, the next iPhone will have a front-facing camera which will enable all sorts of video-calling shenanigens. This is based on some leaked photos and the appearance of a lense and CCD just beside the ear-piece. On top of the video calling rumours is the rumour that iChat, long the province of the Mac, will finally make it to Windows as well.

Some folk reckon this will go the way of past efforts in video-calling and there’s a chance they are right. But the difference I foresee is that when I had a K800i, I didn’t know anyone else with a K800i. I had no idea if the video-calling feature would work with any other phones. No-one had a data package or a calling package that included any reasonable amount of video-calling minutes.

That’s not the case now. We all have unlimited “fair use” data plans with monthly limits measured in the hundreds of megabytes. And nearly everyone I know, bar a couple of holdouts, has an iPhone. I mean, iPhone, despite having a low market share, is one of the easiest to recognise and most widely used phone models. And the video-calling software included with the iPhone v4 will be typically easy to use. It’ll tap into iChat (possibly, AIM), Game Center (definitely) and likely allow you to call home to your MobileMe-connected Mac. These factors will, I believe, fuel future adoption of video-calling.