Not Jeff

Coyote Tracks: The Emperor's New Antenna

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 05:05:41 +0800

Coyote Tracks: The Emperor's New Antenna:

So I’ve been thinking about “Antennagate.” First thought: stop fucking calling every scandal “-gate,” for Christ’s sake.

Next thought: so what’s the scoop here? Biggest problem in the history of all of mobile phones, or minor issue blown way out of proportion by the tech media? Neither, of…

lindtdale: I want this Adidas Wings 2.0!!!!!!!! Waaaaaaaah! Do...

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 18:40:45 +0800

lindtdale:

I want this Adidas Wings 2.0!!!!!!!! Waaaaaaaah!

Do these come in black? Still, WANT.

strake: A quick Toad iPhone wallpaper I made this afternoon....

Fri, 28 May 2010 21:22:00 +0800

strake:

A quick Toad iPhone wallpaper I made this afternoon. Sharing in case anyone else wants to show off their favorite Mario Kart driver.

my new wallpaper, yay

The LULZ ensues. RIM tries to be hip with ‘Boom Boom...

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 07:29:05 +0800

The LULZ ensues. RIM tries to be hip with ‘Boom Boom Pow’ on the introduction of BlackBerry 6 (video embedded).

In Fergie’s own words: “you’re so two thousand and late”

On the surface, BlackBerry 6 OS looks like a definite improvement on the finger usability department. (Then again I have not used a Storm/Storm 2, but the general concensus is that it’s just a rehashed version of the OS that’s on the keyboard-equipped BlackBerries with a few superficial touch-friendly interface elements on the surface - but dig 3 levels down on the options and the ugly text menus from BlackBerries past rear their ugly head. “Painting lipstick on a pig”, as they say.) I probably wouldn’t mind going back to a BlackBerry if my company clamps down on iPhone users again.

0:13 - Drawer-style applications “window”, as is on Android and on webOS
0:15 - Tapping on “Media” shows more icons (yay, folders. At least they didn’t pull an iPhone and forced users to use annoying multiple “home pages”): Pictures, Music, Video Camera (makes sense so far…but Ringtones?)
0:17 - The Music app looks like a reskinned iPod app on the iPhone, with Coverflow in tow instead of displaying vanilla album art in the Now Playing screen. While you’re in the ripping off business, I wish they did the Zune instead; Microsoft’s less heirarchical “Metro” UI feels much less antiquated
0:34 - She gestures with her left hand and then we’re whisked to what looks like an “Extended Search” screen with a pre-populated search for “will.i.am”, proceeds to tap on on “Search YouTube”, and the mobile version of YouTube returns results. Does this suggest a universal/OS-wide gesture for (contextual) search?
0:40 - screen auto-rotate kicks in as a “Video Player” app comes up (and she does that finger flip again - or is she just naturally that sassy?)
0:47 - “Pictures” app resembles the iPhone’s “Photos” app too much, only this time with what looks like search and file organization buttons at the bottom toolbar
0:54 - Here we see that a tap when a photo is shown triggers a 9-item contextual menu with nice, big icons (that I remember from Tweetie for iPhone 2.0)
0:56 - Sassy lady steps out; in comes the obligagtory (dancing) corporate shill - every BlackBerry’s kind of man
0:58 - Guy taps the iconic envelope that’s been on every BlackBerry sold and VIOLA, window shade with recent SMS, missed calls and upcoming appointments! I don’t even care if this is a rip-off from Android’s notification window shade; it’s a design elements that just make sense. iPhone 4 can’t touch this.
1:02 - Our favorite shill taps on the sender’s name and we get another one of those 9-item contextual menus. The “Email (name)”, “View Contact”, “Call (name)”, “Text (name)”, “BBM”, “Show Address” options explain themselves pretty easily, but the following buttons intrigue me:
(name) - What else is there to do with the contact other than Email/Call/Text/BBM? (I demand that they list “Poke” as one of the next options)
Switch - switch to what? Another contact? Another app?
Full Menu - now this button scares me; I’d venture to say it will show the full list of options for (name), as you would when you press the BlackBerry key on older BB’s
1:06 - Shuy Gill (yes, I’ve given him a name) taps on the call button which spawns oddly familiar buttons: “Speaker”, “Mute”, “Swap” and “Join”.
1:07 – Do a pirouette + fix your tie and you’ll be treated to what looks like an application switcher of some kind. Tap the home icon and you’re back to the home screen. Bonus: note the “Favorites” category off to the right of a scrolling list in the bottom row of icons
1:13 – Do the finger twirl, and you also get to search the Calendar for “freedie”! (sic)
1:26 – oh bai bai Shuy and herro annoying preppy prick
1:29 – P.P. shows us you can do the swipe to your “Favorites” from the home screen (*cough*Metro*cough*) – easy access to your buddy “Sean Arnold” from the 70’s
This time I have a bone to pick – why are the options different from what you get when you tap (name) from the Email app? Call (name)”, “Text (name)” and “Email (name)” are all the exact same buttons from the menu shown in 1:02, but why are the same buttons in different locations? This kind of adaptive interface is disorienting.
”IM” and “BBM (name)” which are essentially both IM applications – can’t the latter be an option under the generic “IM” category?
What is “SN”? (and why is the icon sparkly?)
”Move” and “Unmark as Favorite” make sense in this menu, but why not implement deal with this in a different way (e.g. iPhone’s tap-hold-move, and an “X” button overlay for the latter). “Conservative” is akin to “elegant”, with what little screen real estate we have here, people!
The ubiquitous “Full Menu” is here again – but didn’t the Storm and Storm 2 both have the BlackBerry button too, so remind me why we need this again?
1:37 – College boy tests his buddy Sean Arnold: “Where r u” – No auto-correct or spell checker? Shenanigans! Further, this brazen demonstration of bastardized English suggests RIM knows its market very well.
1:43 – RIM’s Torch Mobile acquisition has apparently not gone to waste – Coverflow!
Cue more app-switching fade-in, fade-out eyecandy
1:48 – “Social Feeds” app shows what appears to be integrated Twitter and Facebook status updates. Tap on a name and it provides options to interact with that person via AIM, Twitter, Live, Google, BBM, Yahoo, Facebook and MySpace. This must be the longest list of third-party services we’ve seen natively supported on a mobile device. See that “Filter” option up on top? Handy.
1:56 – Yet another use of the 9-item graphic menu. Except for the “Full Menu” button, I have no bones to pick this time because this is actually a different menu with different buttons (i.e. a that the 9-item menu may be a standard OS-supported control and developers are encouraged to leverage this)
1:57 – The Twitter app is bland-looking, as do traditional BlackBerry apps
2:16 – Cue token sentai pose, for posters and stills to be distributed for cheap otherwise known as the “press kit”

I have a teeny weenie bone to pick about iWork for iPad and it...

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 23:44:33 +0800

This is a sexy start page

This is not a sexy icon

I have a teeny weenie bone to pick about iWork for iPad and it goes beyond the convoluted workflow that Apple has imposed.

The base graphic for the Pages icon is not bad at all (it’s the exact same icon for Pages for Mac), but a little pan and zoom treatment would have resulted to a much better iPad icon.

I’m not a web designer or a UI/UX specialist by any stretch but slapping the same icon to a pale blue background + that ever-so-toolbag-gloss-treatment just screams LAZY to me.

"Go screw yourself, Apple." Love, Adobe.

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 07:08:51 +0800

"Go screw yourself, Apple." Love, Adobe.:

I would give anything to be the fly in the wall where these product development discussions happen at Adobe. I might be missing something, but did they really think they can push a flagship feature (Flash Packager for iPhone) on somebody else’s (Apple) proprietary platform (iPhone, iPhone OS) just like that, knowing Apple’s propensity for closed systems. Adobe (and Macromedia) has had a history of developing tools for the web (i.e. “open” specifications, and I use this loosely in that no one pays royalties for writing HTML, or JavaScript, or PNG vector graphics). It would have been much wiser to stick to this pedigree and instead of Packager, Flash (or Dreamweaver) CS5 should have been a “web app” workspace for creating HTML5-based applications, like this.

yummeh: ONE-TAKE ACOUSTIC SESSION SPECIAL!!! (CROSS-COUNTRY...

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 02:43:56 +0800

yummeh:

ONE-TAKE ACOUSTIC SESSION SPECIAL!!! (CROSS-COUNTRY COLLAB EDITION)

I’ve been talking about this “Secret Project” on Twitter and I have been SUUUUPER excited about it, well not only me but also the person I have collaborated (nuhhkzz) with in this very special edition hahaha.

Sed and I have been talking about wanting to sing together for the loooongest time. There’s a catch: we’re both in different countries, but that won’t stop us right? Certainly not and with the wonders of technology, I present to you:

Juice & Sed’s acoustic version of Telephone (originally by Lady Gaga & Beyonce hey!!)

Hope you all enjoy it :) there’s one teeny little bit mistake I did coz I did it in one take but Sed’s is greatly flawless coz he’s awesome like that. Thanks for tuning in!

To Sed: I hope we get to sing live together VERY SOON!

Dammit, Justine. You. Make. Me. Swoon. <3

Why It’s Better To Pretend You Don’t Know Anything...

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:17:21 +0800

Why It’s Better To Pretend You Don’t Know Anything About Computers - The Oatmeal

Jane Lynch in a gown? Shenanigans! Balderash!

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:13:54 +0800

Jane Lynch in a gown? Shenanigans! Balderash!

The Scale of the Universe

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:56:28 +0800

The Scale of the Universe

The New Yorker Breaks Its Paywall For J.D. Salinger

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 06:22:42 +0800

The New Yorker Breaks Its Paywall For J.D. Salinger:

R.I.P., J.D. Salinger.

How To Work From Home Effectively

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 04:43:35 +0800

How To Work From Home Effectively

Where anyone who has ever menstruated would not have named a product that

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:07:00 +0800

I’ll preface this by saying I am very much underwhelmed and I’m not the only one. I do not think it’s because of unmet expectations over the hype machine around this device; but that this thing is really just a bigger iPhone (no, I don’t buy the “it’s not just just an iPhone because third party developers will augment where Apple has fallen short” argument - the iPhone already has that down by spades). After two iPod touches and an iPhone 3G, I cannot justify the need for it, nor find any reason for its existence.

(the title above, by the way - I quoted from @hchamp on Twitter)

According to Engadget, Apple set out to make a tablet as far as 2002, but somewhere along the way, digressed and birthed a more pocketable device in the form of the iPhone. From a business perspective I imagine it’s easier to make a marketing case for a mobile phone, a product with an already-established consumer base, than one that flies in the face of excess baggage from past failed attempts and $300 netbooks in the middle of a recession.

I’ll back up a bit and just point out that both the iPhone and this newfangled device are really just “software in gorgeous hardware” (words of Steve Jobs from one of his past keynotes, I forget which one exactly). Keep this in mind as you read the next section:

My contention is that I’m sure more people would have been blown away if Apple released this derivative of Mac OS (which I’ll now refer to as “OS X iPhone” moving forward) in the tablet form factor before they did on a handheld device. OS X iPhone is, by far, the best implementation of what a “tablet PC” should be.

Imagine then three years later, Apple introduces the same OS X derivative in a form factor that could fit in the palm of your hand - and BAM! You get a second wave of excitement over what’s essentially the same product (i.e., OS X iPhone). Your third salvo (or second, as would be more likely) would be the App Store (and we all know how well that worked out for the OS X iPhone ecosystem).

But history has it already: Apple had sprung up for the smaller device first and we find ourselves in the extreme opposite ends of the argument.

Still, had Apple released this thing first and iPhone second, I’m sure I’d still gravitate towards the latter.

One more thing: this awkward situation that we have right now where iPhone apps run on the bigger screen by blasting the pixels 300% will just be a fleeting moment and soon enough we should see custom-designed applications that should look better than 8-bit Mario. Because all apps are be distributed through the same App Store that’s currently on the iPhone, the next wave of applications (with their additional bitmaps suited for the larger form factor) will almost definitely blow up the size of application binaries, which translates to longer download times (I wish Apple just got rid of the 10-megabyte cap on what can and can’t be downloaded over 3G and/or WiFi), with zero benefit to iPhone-only users such as myself.

Right now, the only thing I’m excited about is the release of Bioshock 2.

Dirty IT Jobs: Just Be Glad They Aren't Yours - PC World

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:12:16 +0800

Dirty IT Jobs: Just Be Glad They Aren't Yours - PC World:

Money quote, and this should probably my professional mantra:

“IT project managers are gluttons for punishment.”

As if we didn’t know.

Murphy's Law

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:20:00 +0800

Yesterday I did a talk at WordCamp Philippines, and just about everything that could go wrong, well, did:

I left my Keynote at home and had to whip something up using 280 Slides (great free service, by the way, although it’s been a while since the last update) two hours before heading into the location.
A week into the day of the talk, I was informed there would be no BarCamp-style breakout sessions (i.e., there will be non-tech bloggers in the audience) and it just completely escaped me to update my rundown; I retro-fitted the presentation on-the-fly as I was speaking, to disastrous results.
Another thing on the slides: I did have an older version of the presenter notes on a Gmail draft, but alas, I exported my 280 Slides to PPTX, and Keynote would not read Microsoft’s bastardized XML format.
Even if Keynote did open the damned file, the WiFi onsite was wonky at best and we spent around 10 minutes trying to get Remote working. More insulting still, when I lent the next presenter my iPhone so she could use Remote too, it started working again. Bah.

I don’t want this to sound like too much of an apology for doing such a lousy job (I’ve already pounded my head on a pole with rusty nails sticking out in four directions). Overall, the day was much fun. I spoke with five, or ten, or twenty (?) participants after the program, and gained a few new Twitter friends on the side. That’s where the value of going to conferences lies: the networks that you start building in the after-event.

Kudos to MBS for a great job at WordCamp, and if they haven’t learned their lesson yet, I’d be happy to do a BarCamp talk next year (and promise to do a better job, heh).

On why "fixing" iPhone's Exchange support shows that Apple is clueless about the enterprise

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 05:58:00 +0800

I upgraded to iPhone OS 3.1 on the same hour Apple announced it was out, and it was good. I even thought it breathed new life to my aging iPhone 3G that was rendered slow-as-molasses useless with the 3.0 update, although it could just be placebo effect because I have not found any confirmation from the fountain of all knowledge. Not long after, cries from deserts far and wide started pouring in: the new update, when running off Microsoft Exchange 2007 SP1, renders anything but the iPhone 3GS useless for business users. Maybe I should not have been as antsy to upgrade. (Updated on 9/19: in two weeks I have had to restore my iPhone thrice already. There’s a bad bug that wipes out your entire Library on the device when the iTunes app crashes while downloading a song/podcast)

I had a BFO moment: Apple doesn’t get the enterprise, and here’s why I doubt they will anytime soon:

Exhibit #1: Apple discloses very little about its software. The recent 3.1 update for iPhone OS described feature changes to the way the device works, but not a peep that device encryption support for Exchange has changed fundamentally and left people whose lives depended on Exchange, in the washers, so to speak. Prior to 3.1, I have not read information anywhere that Apple’s devices essentially breached Exchange’s device encryption policy and it’s a little insulting that Exchange support has had a happy little section on Apple’s business page since the iPhone 3G was released in 2008.

Exhibit #2: Apple does not encourage predictability. Consider the highly published SMS hijack affecting multiple mobile platforms: after it was identified that the iPhone was also vulnerable, there was no telling when the fix will be made, and more importantly that if it will be fixed at all. iPhone OS 3.0.1 dropped without warning.

Industries have been built around ensuring maximum uptime, risks are identified and mitigation strategies are laid out ahead of time. This would be completely impossible without input on Apple’s part as to what and when known issues will be patched. I cannot wrap my head around the fact that Apple, an enterprise environment of their own with 35,000 employees and 251 locations as of early 2009, speaks out of both sides of its mouth. It’s either feinted naïveté, or that Steve’s Culture of Smug that has reverberated across the entire company has reached the new lows of arrogance.

Exhibit #3: Apple has a track record of abandoning legacy systems and rebooting when it feels like it cannot further that technology. Cases in point: OS 9, PowerPC and iMovie HD; more recently and perhaps more relevant to the subject: the original iPhone, iPhone 3G, and the first two generations of the iPod touch without hardware encryption. For all the wrong decisions that were made in Microsoft’s history, there is something to be said for its stance on legacy support. Case in point: official support for Windows 3.1 ended only two decades (almost) after Microsoft cut off the oxygen late last year.

Exhibit #4: Apple works as if its marketing muscle impresses the enterprise,but this becomes an issue of unmet expectations where there are product feature gaps to be found between its engineering and marketing divisions (refer back to example in Exhibit #1)

To Mr Jobs: iTunes is not an enterprise application, not especially when you suggest that users can spend all of their nine work hours rocking out to Miley Cyrus; see, even Windows Media Player is restricted on desktops of information sweatshop workers.

Exhibit #5: Everything we’ve seen so far just makes it all the more obvious that Apple is half-hearted about the enterprise. Sure, there’s Exchange for iPhone and Snow Leopard, but the forms they take now are not what they had right out of the gate. Certificates, configuration profiles/identities, WPA2 encryption and Cisco IPSec VPN, were only introduced in iPhone OS 2.0, and were further extended to include L2TP, PPTP and on-device encryption only in iPhone OS 3.0 (the latter of which the security community just scoffs at). Apple’s feigned support for Exchange bites it back in the behind and only furthers the argument that the company is completely clueless about the market it’s trying to impress, and that they’ve bit off more than they can chew.

The takeaway here is that while Apple did not need the enterprise to build a successful empire, it understands the financial opportunity the enterprise market represents and realizes that it needs to move into the space to drive even more growth. Apple is clearly testing the waters, but with the mistakes it is making, it is clear that the company is a novice in this space. Enterprise customers tend to not forget easily and it might be better off for Apple to invest some of its 28.1 billion sitting ducks towards research as to how enterprise environments actually operate outside their happy little world.

This whole diatribe because I was this close to (and will soon likely be) unable to use my iPhone to get my work email and calendar. I just hope my sys admin doesn’t find out about the magic checkbox until I can replace my iPhone 3G.