A Life For Itself

Tag: apple

  • Late Selfie Day (the saga of the keyboard)

    Yesterday was National Selfie Day.  I ran into some snags getting my selfie posted on Instagram, so I’m posting it now.  Lately, I’ve been accompanying pictures on Instagram with the backstory. The backstory for this picture got too long to post there, so here are the selfie and the story.

    She seemed to be helping. Took some time, but she did.

    From August, 2011: Exciting times.  Months of saving, waiting, and jealousy had finally given way to owning my first iPad, the iPad 2.  I bought it as my birthday present to myself that year. I had never owned an @apple product and the last time I’d used one was way back in high school at @citycollegian: the venerable Quadra and PowerPC, both of which were the computer teachers’ computers, inside their office behind the 3rd floor computer lab.  Mr. Rosskopf and Mr. Morrow would let a few of the more engaged students back there to experience some real, mid-1990’s computing power. We weren’t doing much more with them than ClarisWorks, but the power and prestige those computers represented then, was palpable, much like buying a Mac Pro these days.  Sixteen years later, I was stepping into the world of the cool kids, the more affluent kids, or so the stories even back then, went.

    Working in IT, I was expecting this was going to change how I computed, at the office, but moreso, I was hoping to enhance how I wrote.  I loved my laptop, but it was bulky and I welcomed using lighter, more portable devices. I researched and discovered so many apps that could help me get work done.  I couldn’t wait to get started. The only thing missing was the one thing most of the iPad 1 owners had told me I needed: the Apple wireless keyboard.

    I still have no clue why they were hard to find where I was, but they were.  I went around to a bunch of places and nobody had one. This went on for weeks.  But lo, and behold, one day, a Walmart in Philly had one, I discovered online, and I ordered it.  Then, I gassed up and hit the road to go claim my prize, the missing piece to complete my whole new world of productivity, and probably, coolness, and the cachet that Apple products were supposed to give you.

    When I got to the store, their pickup desk didn’t have the keyboard ready.  They couldn’t find it, for some reason. The lady in the picture said she’d help me find it.  It took a good, long while, but she eventually did. While I waited for this to happen, I snapped this picture.

    The keyboard did help me turn my iPad 2 from a consumption-only device to a creation device better suited for my workflow, especially when it came time to type up a scene or an essay, even if file sharing, even for files you’re sharing with yourself, wasn’t nearly as advanced as it’s become in the last several years.  Unfortunately, my original keyboard ran into some physical complications and it had to be replaced. But, I still have the replacement and I’ve used it with my iPad Air 2, which replaced my iPad 2, as well as my Samsung tablet, which I was talked into purchasing one day while paying my cell phone bill, and has served me well, just the same.  I do have to say, though, that once I got my Chromebook (another months-long saving and planning process), I started to use my iPad less for creation (plus there was the issue of my dropping it). It takes far less time to open my Chromebook and fire up Evernote than it does to turn on bluetooth and connect the keyboard.

    Also, I really miss these glasses.  Those were nice glasses.

     

  • Five Things – 16 June 2016

    1.

    With iOS 10, Apple has made the phone carrier less necessary than ever

    Apple desperately wants to wrest as much control of the iPhone from the phone carriers, and with iOS 10 it has taken another important step to making those network providers into dumb pipes.

    Source: www.imore.com/apple-ios-10-goodbye-carriers?utm_medium=slider

     

    Caught this after the initial news about WWDC. The way it’s going to function, I really like. I hope this functionality reaches the iPad, since I often use mine to make and receive calls.

    But I moreso like the statement that this new functionality makes. Apple is turning their iPhone into a phone for all voice services, not just calls made over your provider’s “voice” network. If you want to use Facebook Messenger or perhaps, Viber, or some other 3rd party VoIP service, you can do that more or less the way you do now with “regular” calls over your provider’s “voice” network. Those services work now, but they’ll be more integrated into the usual ways calls are made and received.

    VoIP used over data-only plans is the future. In a world where you’re Tweeting and Facebooking, watching video on YouTube or Vimeo, and perhaps FaceTiming or Duo-ing (I really am stopping here, I promise), privileging voice “minutes” will be a ridiculous and unacceptable way to pay for the usage of a smartphone (or tablet). Voice will be just another type of data that you’re consuming, not a separate and more important usage of your device.

    I don’t expect the carriers to change overnight, but change they must. I imagine quite a few people my age and older (and perhaps some younger) consider the idea of paying for talking minutes to be perfectly reasonable, probably because we’ve done it for a long time and we’re used to it. Remember how we used to pay for long-distance calling? Do cell phone payment plans remind you of something?

    However, much younger people (and older folks who have adapted) who have grown up on first, unlimited calling to cell phones (remember that, too?) and then, pretty much unlimited minutes to any phone, and then on top of that, all manner of video and voice chat over both cell phone data and Wi-Fi, don’t have any fond memories of opening up their telephone bill and flipping to the long distance section. Or of buying calling cards. They’ll probably consider the idea of buying a certain amount of voice minutes as ridiculous as I do now because they’re not spending most of their time talking on the phone as such. The data they use to post status updates and Snapchat is what they’ll be interested in. Cell carriers will have to adjust accordingly.

    What Apple is doing now in iOS 10 is portending this future. Cell carriers will become data pipes, just like ISPs, which is probably why we see so many of them now jumping into the content generation business because soon, the real money and power will be in driving you towards their content, not just giving you the means to get online.

    Even the idea of having a telephone number is becoming anachronistic to me. I was talking to a loved one a few weeks ago about giving up telephone numbers entirely. I don’t think telephone numbers will fully go away anytime soon. How will you be able to dial 9-1-1 and how will your older relatives who know dialing telephone but not using Hangouts get in contact with you? But folks of a certain age, who may or may not even use SMS, won’t give it much importance at some point. I hardly do. I just can’t get everybody to message me on Hangouts or iMessage. Which brings me to …

    2.

    Seems I’m not the only one who wants iMessage on Android.

    An Apple exec explains why it won’t happen. And not everyone else thinks it’s a good idea.

    Apple makes a ton of money selling you hardware. And they make money selling you music subscriptions, but you can get that on Android (not that I want it, regardless of platform). The Wired article makes a business case for Apple to bring iMessage over to Android. Part of the argument is using iMessage as an enticement to come fully over to Apple. I’m not sure it would work that way –I hope it would– but I’m not sure.

    I do have an alternate thought. Apple keeps iMessage inside of their walled garden. I’m sure they’d love for me to ditch my Android devices, Chromebook, and Windows laptop and gear out with a Macbook and iPhone. I might get a Macbook, but I’m never getting an iPhone as I hate them (for whatever reason). But I’m also not giving up my iPad. I’m a sort of inbetweener, platform agnostic.

    I like to think of myself as a good case for iMessage on Android. Yes, I have an iPad and I would like to have one for the foreseeable future. I regularly communicate with folks in iMessage. But I don’t want to carry my iPad around everywhere. So it would be nice to be able to stay in communication in iMessage, regardless of which device I’m using. I know others who have just iPods and use those to iMessage and FaceTime their iPhone user friends and relatives, instead of being able to just pick up their Android phones. It seems like most of the people I know who don’t have iPhones or Macs but use iMessage still have some gateway device that’s brought them inside of Apple’s walled garden. Could Apple use iMessage on Android to keep you buying at least one Apple device even if you don’t want others? I don’t know. I just know they’re not thinking that way. They want you all the way in. And they’ve made billions doing that, so I don’t expect them to necessarily change.

    Besides, with them now giving 3rd party apps the same sort of privileges of the phone dialer, I have to wonder how much longer messaging will be important to them in any way. Even as the messenger wars heat up. It’s hard to tell right now. But if Facebook can make the kind of money some think they might make being cross-platform, maybe that’s something that will change Apple’s mind.

    3.

    I had to look up how to format a form/block letter. Might have been a brain fart, but I was drawing a blank. I should format email that way just to stay in practice. Writing formal letters might also be a fun writing exercise.

    4.

    Tough news coming out of Flushing.

    I’m still thinking about it and trying not to think that this is the end. If so, it makes losing last year’s World Series that much more painful. I’m sure I’ll have more to say on it later.

    Ravens cut Eugene Monroe. Really welcome to Baltimore, Ronnie Stanley. You’re definitely starting.

    Up off exit 16W (see, Jersey folks, I can speak your language a bit) in the swamp, Jerry Reese couldn’t see fit to do business with Ozzie and trade someone to get Monroe, so he just waited for the inevitable cut to go in and try to make a move. And that’s good for them. Their offensive line’s been trash, even if some of their fans take everything out on Eli. Two titles haven’t bought him the benefit of the doubt, unfortunately.

    And the Giants are cool with Monroe’s weed advocacy. That’s always a plus. In New Jersey.

    Back at Birdland, the O’s are still mashing dingers (baseball lingo). AJ had one tonight in Boston. It’s a good season to be an O’s fan again. My birthday gift to myself may be another O’s hat. Or perhaps this fine hat that also happens to have my initials as the logo.

    5.

    Off to a writing conference next week. My regular blog topics, aside from Five Things, are on hold until I get back, but I will be blogging from there. I have to get up everyday at like 6:30AM, so there will definitely be something to write about.

    Bonus:

    It’s been a tough stretch of days in Orlando. Even if you’re not a praying person, please continue keeping a good thought out for that area. Same for the family of this little girl killed earlier, run over by a stolen car.

  • Obsolescence?

    I’m sure by now all the iPad Pro owners, iPhone … latest … whichever one it is … and all of those folks looking to buy the new iPhones and iPads surely to be released in the near future with iOS 10 are all excited, anxious for the day that the new tech will grace their hands and pockets and desks and messenger bags.

    However, at times like these, there are also the sad moments, the end of the line for the tech that’s served us well, but might not survive much longer into the next generation.

    iOS 10 Will Make These Apple Gadgets Obsolete

    Launched in 2011 as the hardware vanguard for Siri, the iPhone 4s was a big software leap for Apple. But iOS 10, which even focused on making Siri better than ever before, will not work on the iPhone 4s. Sad!

    Source: gizmodo.com/ios-10-will-make-these-apple-gadgets-obsolete-1781949615

    Every Device Apple’s Making Obsolete with Its New Operating Systems

    Yesterday, Apple paraded out iOS 10 and the newly dubbed macOS Sierra, but what they didn’t mention was all the devices that won’t work on the new operating system.

    Source: lifehacker.com/every-device-apples-making-obsolete-with-its-new-operat-1781954431

    Last time around, my poor iPod Touch was on the list. It wouldn’t get iOS 9. It would be stuck forever with the old-style app switching and the other now-dated features of iOS 8.

    But that was okay. I’d used the thing as much as I could. I’ve cracked the screen. Twice. Fortunately, I had SquareTrade on it, so I’ve gotten it fixed. Even as more and more apps won’t work and the screen’s developed a roving dead area, I still use it. Mostly for music while I’m at work. I plan to continue until none of the apps work on it or the thing won’t turn on anymore.

    This time around, my iPad 2 falls off of Apple’s supported devices list. I’ve been more careful with my iPad than my iPod and I’ve never done it any damage. I’ve still had a good run with it. Done a ton of video chatting on Hangouts, Oovoo, and FaceTime. And Zoom, too, I think, that one time. Read my Kindle books. Even used it to do a bunch of writing, using the Apple Wireless Keyboard. I’ve gotten my money’s worth.

    And I’m sure if I felt like it, I could jailbreak either or both and get even more usage out of them.

    So even as Apple is at the point of deeming these devices obsolete and moving even further into the next generation of devices, my trusted ones are still holding on and holding up under my, sometimes harsh, usage demands.  So while some might be disappointed at the twilight of their devices’ lifetimes, I’m cool.  I’m going to keep on going as I have.

    I’m not an Apple purist (or fanboy), but I’m very happy with those purchases in years past. Much happier than I’ve been with Samsung (and T-Mobile) and their seeming abandonment of the Galaxy Note 4.  T-Mobile’s site has said for months now that the Note 4 will be receiving Marshmallow. I’ll believe it when I see it as well as regular security updates like newer phones are receiving.

    I love Android and I don’t plan to give it up anytime soon. But I do plan to get a new iPod Touch in the future and possibly a Macbook one day, if I like the newer ones and decide to save up for it. They’re quite a monetary investment. But for the time that they’re usable, they’ll probably be worth it, even after Apple says they’re disavowing these devices’ very existence they won’t be supporting them anymore.

  • WWDC 2016

    Not much of interest coming out of WWDC 2016. Now I’m not disappointed that I didn’t get to stream it earlier. No word on any new Macbook Pros, so not sure if I should start saving up.

    OS X becomes macOS

    Since I don’t own a Mac, neither the name change from OS X to macOS, nor Siri’s impending presence in the OS are really important to me. I hardly use Siri on my iPad as it is.

    Hopefully this won’t become an annoyance when I have to ask people if they’ve upgraded their Macs to macOS and they look at me as if I’ve asked the question in Klingon. The folks with whom I might have that interaction do not keep up with tech news, nor do they read this site.

    Apple Pay

    Don’t use it or any other contactless payments system. Still not sure which one I want to use, but I’m sure it won’t be Apple Pay. I’m not getting an iPhone or Apple Watch anytime soon, if ever, and I’m not about to lug around my iPad to make payments.

    Apple Pay is another one of those things that I’d probably use if it were on Android. But it won’t be.

    iOS 10

    The lock screen updates seem interesting. More like Android. I’ll probably take advantage a lot for news and weather.

    Photos

    Don’t do much with photos either way, so nothing for me here. I like Apple’s current photos app, for what it’s worth.

    Maps

    I’ll still use Google Maps, even on iOS. I quite like Google Maps for iOS.

    iMessage

    Nothing I was hoping to hear. Not that I expected it. Gizmodo thinks it’s inevitable for iMessage to open up. We’ll see.

    Don’t care about message animations or any of that stuff. Guess I’m not in their target audience.

    The rest of iOS

    Don’t use Apple Music (Amazon and Google Play) or News (Flipboard), so not interested much in their next versions of those.

    Deleting Apps

    I guess I’ll delete the Apple pre-installed apps that I don’t use. Their presence has never been much of a bother, so I guess to cut down on the number of screens on my iPad, I’ll go ahead and delete them when I can.

    Actually, I’ll probably delete Apple Music and News first.

    tvOS

    Don’t own an Apple TV. I’m a Roku guy. Live channels sound cool, though.

    watchOS

    Don’t own one. Not buying one.

    #

    So far, I’ve been disappointed by both of the major developer conferences. Nothing really much of interest earlier and not only did Google not announce a new Nexus 7 at I/O, they started the countdown on my Chromebook (it’ll still be usable by the end of the year, but won’t be having access to Android apps).

    Looks like I’ll be standing pat for a while longer, technology-wise. And that’s all good. I can save up for a while in case someone decides to put out something that I really want.

  • iMessage on Android? Rumor

    Don’t tease me.

    Gizmodo is reporting on a rumor making the rounds today that one of next week’s announcements at WWDC will be iMessage coming to Android.

    Do not tease me.

    I was thinking about this just the other night as a “wish, but probably won’t ever happen” kinda thing. I was talking to my cousin in iMessage on my iPad, while working on this site using my Chromebook. I was wishing I didn’t have to jump between the two devices to keep the conversation going (and also was getting tired of tap-typing).

    With iMessage on Android, later this year, I could, with a truly-Android compatible Chromebook, do indeed that — just use the Android app to talk in iMessage and not have to go from device to device. Or, perhaps with an iMessage app for Windows. That would be cool, too.

    (I could do the same with a Macbook right now and if you’re willing to make a donation for me to buy one, leave me a comment below and I’ll start a GoFundMe for that purpose.)

    Plus, since I carry an Android phone around, being able to keep in touch with my iPhone-user friends (and coworkers) inside of iMessage would be a plus, since 99% of them refuse to use Hangouts. And I wouldn’t have to switch to the iPad when talking to those friends, another bonus.

    (The other day, an iPhone-carrying coworker needed assistance with something or other and sent me a message that showed up as an iMessage instead of SMS. I just happened to be on my iPad at that moment and got the message. Most days, I’m not on my iPad at that time of day, so fortunately for her, I was able to take care of her issue. With iMessage on Android, the message would have come to my phone and she would have been able to get me either way.)

    But at the end of the day, Apple wants you to buy iPhones and iPads (and Macbooks) and if iMessage is a must-have or even just an enticement, I don’t expect to see it show up on Android anytime soon. Aside from the reasons mentioned in the article, I can’t think of any (good) reason for Apple to open up iMessage to Android users. The article itself states it’s probably longshot.

    Still, it would be a really cool app to have. And having it would certainly end any of the (admittedly lukewarm) thoughts I’m having about using Google’s upcoming communications apps, cross-platform or not.

    (Just in case: no, I’m not interested in WhatsApp. Or Telegram. Less so in Facebook Messenger. I have Bleep, but see above issue with Hangouts.)