Results tagged “apple” from KPAO

These charts from businessinsider.com are a fantastic visualization of what really drives the business at these computer industry giants. As an ex-Microsoft employee, I think this one is particularly telling:

I upgraded my iPhone from the original 2G to a 3S. I skipped one generation with the 3G. I admit I do like the phone a lot better. It's thinner and a lot faster, and it feels like the battery life is better too.

But I am annoyed at the price. Yes I paid $199 for it, but AT&T charges tax on the full, unsubsidized value of the phone: $599. This leaves me with a tax bill of $55.40, or about 28% of what I paid for the phone.

Another annoyance: My phone was shipped ostensibly for arrival on launch day of Friday, June 19. But it didn't show up until Monday. AT&T started my billing cycle on Friday, of course, making me pay for the service for 3 days when I hadn't even activated the phone yet.

Overall I'm happy with it, tho. I'm back to a legit version on the AT&T network. With my corporate discount of 18%, it's about the same price as I was paying to T-Mobile. Plus I actually get reasonable coverage in my house. Which as it turns out is a pretty important feature. Well worth the few extra dollars a month.

And I like that it comes in white to match my MacBook.

I own a MacBook. Generally I like Apple products. But when it comes to the video output, they get it completely wrong.

The MacBook has a non-standard video port for hooking up an external monitor.

I recently upgraded my iPhoto to the latest release, motivated mostly by the new "Faces" feature. Here's the short summary so that you can get on with your day: meh.

My MacBook has one of the best designed power adapters out there: the MagSafe. Until we get wireless power, this is the next best thing to prevent your laptop from hitting the ground as you inevitably trip over the power cord on your rush to the bathroom between hands in a PokerStars tournament. Oh wait, that's me.

At any rate, MagSafe is a great innovation. As are some other features, such as the narrow design for fitting neatly into a power strip, and the folding prongs for travel. But the extension cord attachment, not so much. It's almost like there's some "conservation of design quality" law keeping the universe in balance.

You see, the brick by itself is not grounded. The plug has only 2 pins, and both of them are the same width, so it can be plugged into any outlet in either orientation.

But the extension cord is grounded. It has 3 prongs, meaning that -- aside from any hacksaw modifications -- it must be plugged into a grounded outlet.

And the question is simply, why? Why does extending the  length of a wire place an additional constraint on an otherwise hippie-in-the-Haight-in-1967-like constraint-free power adapter? All the electronics for handling ungrounded power are clearly in the brick itself. Otherwise, the non-extended version would be unsafe, right? So why not simply have a 2 prong plug on the extension that is the same as the one on the unextended adapter?

Look, I know that any modern building is going to have 3 prong outlets, and for most use cases this is a moot point. But my house is not modern. Nor are many of the cheap office spaces in SF I've tended to visit as of late. And traveling with a 3-to-2 prong adapter is both a hassle and not in line with Apple design standards.

Screw it. I'm getting the hack saw.

I recently got a new Apple "Alimunum" MacBook for work -- the very latest, top of the line MacBook model. It has all of the great specs -- 2.4GHz Dual core processor, 4GB RAM, backlit keys, blah blah. In most respects it is a really great computer, and I'm thankful that I have an employer willing to buy such a capable tool for my job.

For less money, however, Apple still sells their previous generation MacBook. Dave has already mentioned what a great deal it currently is. It has a 2.1 GHz dual-core processor and inferior graphics and worse battery life. It's a bit heavier, probably less sturdy, and of course not as cool as the latest thing. It also has at least one important feature not present in current model: a trackpad that doesn't drive me freaking insane!

The trackpad on the new MacBook is a classic case of Apple over-reaching in the form vs. function tradeoff -- trying to be just a bit too clever with a slick design, and accepting a non-trivial drop in functionality. The trackpad lacks a real button -- really the whole thing is a button. You can glide your finger around it and when you want to click, just press. Or, if your prefer, it can be configured to recognize a light tap as a button press. Actually, there's a whole host of various configuration options for two, three and even four-fingered tapping, pinching, dragging and perhaps tickling. Mostly all of those options are a waste of time and there "just because we can -- see isn't it cool!"

I wouldn't mind all of these extra bells and whistles if the basic feature worked well. Clicking the main button is in the top three most important tasks in using a computer. (Looking at the screen and typing on the keyboard are the other two -- and thankfully both old and new MacBooks excel here). On the old MacBook, I had a nice big trackpad, with an equally nice big single button at the bottom. Take your hand, and rest it neutrally over a square directly in front of you. Your thumb will be exactly where the button is, and your index finger will be a centimeter or two above it -- perfect for the trackpad. When it is time for a click, you have two choices -- either push with your thumb, or -- if you have "tap to click" on, just tap your index finger. Nice and easy. The "right-click" or secondary button click is either a two finger tap, or ctrl + button press. Also reasonably easy.

In theory, nothing has changed with the new MacBook. However because there's no separate physical mouse button, and because people still rest their thumb at the bottom of the trackpad (as is natural, and as we have been trained by years of Mac usage), they already have one finger on the trackpad. If you move your index finger around, the trackpad on the new MacBook will "see" two fingers. Ah, but Apple are so clever -- they have accounted for this by declaring that a certain portion of the bottom of the trackpad -- you know -- the part where the button used to be, is an exception. If you rest you thumb in this magic lower region, you can still move your index finger around on the upper part of the trackpad, and still click your thumb or tap your finger to click the mouse. Despite having two fingers on the trackpad, only a primary click is triggered. Magic!

Except magic absolutely sucks when it comes to computers if the trick doesn't work absolutely, unfailingly all of the time. You can see what's coming next: in the case of the new MacBook, it doesn't. It almost does, but every now and again I find that instead of moving the cursor, I'm moving nothing. Or sometimes my thumb comes up off the trackpad for a second, and I accidentally click when it comes back down. Sometimes despite moving my index finder around, the cursor barely moves. The problems don't happen all of the time, or even some of the time -- just occasionally, but it's frequent enough to make me unhappy. There was a recent software update for the trackpad which I understand fixed some problems -- just not mine. The problems get even worse if I turn on the "one finger drag" option in the Trackpad system preference panel. That option is misnamed -- it should be called "randomly initiate mouse drags until your brain leaks out of your ears."

Where is this "magic thumb line?" Somewhere -- who knows. If you're in the market for a new MacBook, get the older, cheaper model -- add in a ton of RAM, and be happy. It's a great computer.

I have two Apple Airport Express base stations in my home. They generally seem to work well as Wi-Fi bridges, with only the occasional hiccup. Then I decided to simplify my setup a tiny bit, and turn off my dedicated HP JetDirect print server (which hooks our HP LaserJet printer to the network), and just plug the printer into the Airport Express USB port.

Yesterday, I dropped my iPhone. From 4 feet up. Onto concrete. Face down. Crap.

It bounced twice, putting a matching set of cracks in both the top left and bottom left corners of the screen. Luckily, the cracks mostly they cover the black strips above and and below the screen; they only edge into the viewable area subtlely at the corners. And even luckier, the phone still works. The entire screen is still accurately tappable.

Still, I wanted to see if there was anything I could do. I happened to be near the Apple Store in SF last night, so I stopped by.

The first floor was packed, so I went upstairs. Genuis Bar, also packed. No more appts  for the day. So I wandered over to the software section. An employee (I didn't catch his name, but young 20s urban kid with some facial fuzz) makes eye contact and opens with a friendly greeting. I tell him my story and show him my cracked iPhone.

First off, the guy is sympathetic. Not at all what I expected. He's reassures me that he's seen a lot worse, and tells me the fact that it is still working is great news. He immediately puts me at ease, and we move on to talking over my various options:

1. Do nothing (always an option)
2. Get the screen repaired for about $300
3. Upgrade to a 3G and be forced into a new monthly plan
4. Get a used original iPhone and swap in my SIM card
5. Get a protective case and protective screen film for it to prevent the damage from getting worse

I opt for the last one. While I feel the need to do something, everything else is just too damn expensive for a guy without a job.

Of course this is the original iPhone, and every accessory in the store is for the 3G model. He has to dig around in the back storeroom to find accessories for the original. But find them he does. The anti-glare screen protection film and a selection of hard cases.

Now the cool thing (and something that every retailer should go implement right now): He rings me up right there in the middle of the iPhone accessories aisle with his mobile credit card reader. I don't even need to sign. And my receipt is emailed to me. Awesome.

And it gets better. He now asks if I want help outfit my phone with these new accessories. Are you serious? Of course I do! No doubt I'd end up putting a big fingerprint on the screen film while applying it. So I open the packages and he puts on the film, then snaps the case into place. 15 minutes and $47 later, I walk out of the store happy with a workable solution to my problem.

All in all, a fantastic customer experience. Sure, you can get Apple products and accessories online for cheaper. But you can't match that level of personalized service. When you're not sure and you have questions, it's more than worth it to go into the Apple store.

I'm deep in the job interview process, and I have been driving up to San Francisco nearly every day for the past 3 weeks for interviews. The iPhone has become the perfect and indispensable tool.

I don't use many of the features on it, but those that I do use are critically valuable. The phone, obviously, to make and receive calls. Email, to check for new missives on the go, and to respond to anything time critical, SMS for last-minute syncing with interviewers. And the maps. Oh my god, the maps.

Mapping is the killer feature for me. I use it all the time. Obviously I use it to find destinations and get driving directions to them. But I also use it to find parking, look for local vegetarian restaurants, find nearby shopping and just seeing where the hell I am while traveling. (Tip: double-tap to zoom in, tap once with 2 fingers to zoom out. Yeah, totally non-obvious. Maps needs better single-handed zooming.)

I have the original iPhone, so my current location isn't as good as with a GPS. But it's good enough, and that's all that matters. Using my iPhone, I found the Portsmith parking garage, just 1 block away from my meeting at the TransAmerica tower. I got to the meeting on time and only paid $7.50 for 3 hours of parking.

Because of my iPhone, I no longer need to plan before leaving the house. I can do everything just-in-time while I'm out and about. I've even had several phone interviews in the car with one company while driving up for an on-site interview with a second company. Now that's multi-tasking.

And when I'm done with all of my job-seeking tasks, I switch over to the iPod app and groove to Death Cab, Ben Folds, and Dr. Horrible.

I have seen the future of mobile computing, and I am living it today with my iPhone.

I just switched over from my MacBook Pro work computer to a new MacBook I personally bought to replace it. It's the older model in white, which I got brand new from Best Buy for the low price of $850. (Thanks DealMac!) And after using it for a few hours, I'm convinced this is the better of the two computers.

I really like the look and feel of the white plastic better than the metal and plastic on the Pro. After a year's worth of wear and tear, the Pro is starting to come apart at the seams. The latch to close and open the computer isn't working as well as it used to. Plus the keyboard and the trackpad on the MacBook feel so much nicer.

It does have a smaller screen, but I can deal with that. I'll hook it up to an external monitor when I need more real estate. The built-in one works fine for basic web and communications tasks.

And the other thing that's better about the MacBook: the design for upgradability. I recently went through this horrendous process to upgrade the hard drive in my Pro. I had to remove 23 screws some philips, some torx. (Why not choose one and use it everywhere, Apple?) I also had to remove the battery, a faceplace, RAM, keyboard, and a stablizing bracket before finally getting to the hard drive itself. nd even then, I had to carefully unplug the data connector and sliding the hard drive out sideways being careful not to damage the fragile data ribbon spanning the top of the hard drive.

Contrast this with the steps to remove a MacBook hard drive: remove the battery, remove 3 screws and a faceplate, pull the tab on the hard drive.

It feels like Apple had their A team on the low-end model, and their B team on the higher-end one. I wonder if that's still the case with the new line of laptops they just released? At any rate, I love my new MacBook, and actually prefer the styling to that of the new one.

If you want to get one, Amazon has them for $944.

Overall, the iPhone is great. I love the integrated maps, along with the location triangulation (though the interaction can be a bit wonky sometimes trying to get it to auto-fill "current location" in the address field). I also wish it had a simple "step through the details of this route" feature so I didn't have to zoom in and scroll around while driving.

I've gotten used to checking my email from anywhere, though I've thus far resisted actually sending or replying to mail. Text entry on the iPhone is merely adequate.

The web browser is pretty nice, and the seamless transition between WiFi and Edge networks make it enjoyable to use. I don't have to think about connectivity at all. It's always available. Some is just faster than others.

I also have a longer commute these days (30-40 minutes each way) as we are temporarily crashing at another company while our new office space is renovated. The iTunes Podcast subscriptions are great. Really easy to set up and use. Though again there are some design details I'd like, such as fine control for scrubbing 1 hour audio files, especially the scenario of skip back 10 seconds.

Syncing my address book with Yahoo! is great, since that's my primary contact store these days. Though there are a bunch of contacts I really don't need in there cluttering things up a bit. Minor annoyance.

All in all, it's a great product. If the phone companies and Apple actually gets the price down to $200 with a  contract, There are very few reasons why anyone should consider any other phone out there. Nokia, Motorola and the rest of the handset manufacturers better get their act together and soon. The bar is pretty damn high now for cell phone design.