Currently reading about Steve Jobs in the most recent edition of Macworld magazine that was delivered to me this morning.
There’s also a nice article at the end about Steve by Andy Ihnatko that I hadn’t read before.
We’ll Miss You Steve
As you probably already know, Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple a couple of days ago. This is sad news to everyone. The good news is that he is not leaving Apple altogether, as he is becoming the chairman of the Board. (Steve Jobs’s Letter, Apple PR announcement)
Personally I don’t think that Apple’s products or marketing are going to change at all - the company still has some great employees:
- Jony Ive - SVP of Industrial Design who has designed many of the Apple products including the iMac, iPhone and iPad
- Phil Schiller - SVP of worldwide product marketing
- Scott Forstall - SVP of iOS Software
- And of course, Tim Cook, the new CEO of Apple.
I hope Steve has a well-earned rest and hope to see him inputing in Apple projects in the future.
Why Instagram is (too) awesome
I’ve been posting on Instagram recently (my username’s jonomuller if you want to follow me) and I thought to myself about why it got so popular that so many people use it. And I realised that it makes bad/average photos appear much much better with the use of filters.
An example - this is a photo I took of Green Point Stadium in Cape Town from a helicopter:
The photo is clearly out of focus and you can see that, especially by zooming in.
I posted this photo on Instagram, slapped on a filter (the 1977 filter in this case) and the result was this:
In my opinion, the photo being out of focus is much less noticeable now, even hard to see with the filter on.
And this is it: Instagram allows people to make these amazing photos without even trying. And maybe people also like filters.
The Move to Posterous
Over the past few days I have moved my blog and in fact my entire website over to Posterous. I was getting fed up with Wordpress’s manual updates and the problems with it and my FTP server. I wanted something more simple where I didn’t have to worry about all these things. I immediately thought of Squarespace as I had heard great things about it but it was just too expensive for me, even though it incorporated hosting as well. One night I was looking at Posterous, followed it through to its importer page and realised that it offered free hosting of your domain and blog. I decided just to do it on the spur of the moment and imported my Wordpress blog’s contents over to Posterous. After that was done, I set up my custom domain which turned out to be much easier than I thought. This is basically the gist of it:
- Create an A record with your registrar with an IP address pointing to Posterous.
- Go back to Posterous and set your custom domain to whatever it is.
And you’re done! Posterous also provides a step-by-step tutorial on how to do it.
I also noticed this picture on the import page on Posterous comparing it and Wordpress. The ones about security updates and hosting are very true and I’m happy to get away from them.
Overall, I’m very happy with Posterous. Sure, I’ll miss some things like plugins, a wider range of themes and the overall greater customisation of my site with Wordpress, but Posterous is just so so much simpler which is what I needed. Plus, I don’t have to pay any money for hosting and a MySQL database anymore, only paying for the actual domain once year, which pleases me.
PadStand
A few weeks ago I purchased a PadStand as an affordable accessory that could go on my desk when I want to watch movies or TV on my iPad. I had already bought an iPad Keyboard Dock when I first bought my iPad and I love it - I use it to input lots of text, and occasionally do work on there. My only problem was when I wanted to watch anything on my iPad as the Keyboard Dock is portrait-only. I first heard about PadStand from Sam on Twitter and when I read her review of it. I immediately was drawn to the PadStand and wanted to order one. I chose black out of five colours (white, blue, green, pink and black). I was very impressed with the delivery - I ordered it on Saturday and it had arrived on Tuesday. PadStand is very compact, and fits on my desk with no extra space at all. I’m not sure about all the other colours but black was the only colour that I knew I wouldn’t regret when I ordered it. The one thing that I love about it is that it’s very portable and can be taken anywhere around or out of the house - anywhere with a hard-ish surface. Also, since this is only £9.99 with £1.99 shipping there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t have one if you have or are planning to buy an iPad. Below are some photos I took of the PadStand:
iPad
So the iPad has been released in America and will be released in the UK on 28th May. I am very excited. The prices of the iPad in the UK will be as follows: £429 for the 16GB, £499 for the 32GB and £599 for 64GB Wi-Fi models. The Wi-Fi + 3G models price at £529 for the 16GB, £599 for the 32GB and £699 for the 64GB version. There has been a lot of controversy over whether the iPad is being priced too high in the UK, as the 16GB Wi-Fi version in the US is $499 and in the UK it is £429, making UK Apple customers lose £90 when buying an iPad. Personally I think that the prices are a little steep than they should have been, but I still think this is an amazing product and I plan on buying the 16GB Wi-Fi version. I know a lot of people have been saying that the iPad is a big iPod Touch, and you’re right, it is! But that doesn’t mean it’s bad? There are so many things that I am going to do on my iPad that I would not have been able to do with my 2nd generation iPod Touch. First of all, iWork. This is going to be amazing for me. I’m always trying to do my homework on the family MacBook, but something always gets in the way. Somebody’s using the Macbook, and I can’t use my iPod Touch as the screen is too small. Now the iPad comes along. I can download Pages on the iPad for $9.99 (around £6.70). I can import Pages or Word documents from my computer and when I’m finished with my essay I can export it as a Word document so I can view and print it on my computer. People say that typing on the iPad will be very slow and not very good, but turn the iPad sideways, an you get a keyboard almost the size of the Apple Wireless keyboard. Making typing even easier is the Apple iPad case, allowing you to put the iPad on a slant, perfect for typing. Second of all, is iBooks. This is the new e-reader application for the iPad. You can read your books and purchase books from the iBooks Store. I’m not much of a reader myself, I get through the odd book every so often, but maybe I would read more if I was reading on something that I used all the time, and that held all my books. Finally, the iPad is a semi-replacement for a computer. I’m not saying that the iPad is a replacement for your computer (and it’s impossible for it to be anyway as you need to sync it to your computer to put music, movies, apps etc. on it) but it is a semi-replacement. It can do mostly all of the things you an do on your computer - surf the web, check emails, listen to music, watch movies, look at photos and use apps. Say you want to go away for the weekend but you need to take something to respond to emails at work while you are away. Without an iPad, you would have to lugg around your laptop (or take a netbook which would run out of battery in an hour) but for a weekend like this the iPad would be perfect to take away. It’s very compact, and very light (only 1.5 pounds). Overall, I think the iPad is absolutely amazing and I can’t wait to get my hands on one when it comes out!
Invictus
I have recently seen the film Invictus (well actually I’ve seen it twice because it’s so good). The film is about when Nelson Mandela is released from prison on Robben Island and he wants Francois Pinard to win the Rugby World Cup as it will make South Africa very popular. It stars Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as Francois Pinard. Here is the poem that the film is based on. I especially like the last verse. Have a look at Invictus.
Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.
Apple iPad
The Apple iPad was introduced to the public by Steve Jobs on 27th January 2010. Since then many people have been wondering whether it will actually sell when it is realeased in late March. Personally I think it’s great and I hope to get one but others have been saying that it’s just a big iPod as you can run all your iPod apps on it, the only difference is the bigger screen. You can buy the iPad with WiFi or with WiFi and 3G. Although 3G is very useful, I think it costs a little to much for me, especially as you have to pay $14.99 a month. You have a choice of 16, 32 or 64GB hard-drive on the iPad, basic model of 16GB hard-drive at $499 is very appealing to me. I am either going to get that one or the 32GB one at $599. UK pricing has yet to be announced. Apple have re-designed all of their basic apps that come as standard on the iPad, and they do look good. They’ve also added a books store called iBooks thy enables you to buy e-books directly onto your iPad. This device could very well be a good e-reader. The iPad has an LED back-lit display and 10 hours of battery life. The battery life may not be so accurate, we just don’t know. You can also download Pages, Numbers and Keynote, Apple’s iWork applications, onto the iPad for $9.99 each. Go to the Apple site for more information about iPad here. Here are some photos of the iPad:
Here is Apple’s iPad video:
This is an e4 spoof of the iPad: The ePad.
TapTap + Beatbox
Recently, I had a talk from Andy Huntington about his inventions TapTap and Beatbox. I got to play with them and they were really cool. With TapTap, You tap on the top of the box and it will replay the same tune as you put in. With Beatbox, you program the 5 different sound devices to play a different tune. You can put them on different surfaces and they will make different sounds. Check out these videos of TapTap and Beatbox:
tapTap from Andy Huntington on Vimeo.
Beatbox from Andy Huntington on Vimeo.
XMI X-Mini II
I have just ordered the XMI X-Mini II from Amazon and thought I’d share a few thoughts about it. My first impression of the box when it arrived is that it was very recognizable an quite cool and different. The box slants inwards from the outside to the speaker which is displayed in the middle. To get into the box you have to open it from the side and then pull up the two flaps. You take out a piece of plastic with the speaker in it and underneath that are the charging cable, carry case and user manual. You will probably not need to read the manual as it is a rather simple product - as it was designed to be. When you first hold the X-Mini II you will notice how light it is. It is a bit bigger than the origninal X-Mini, but not by much. The speaker itself is very sleek and the colour combinations are nice. Black on the outside and red as the colour of the actual speaker. There are a few different controls and features on the speaker that I will go through. First of all, the on/off switch. This is around the side of the speaker and when you turn it on a blue LED light turns on on the bottom which also boosts its cool factor. This light turns dim when on low battery, red when charging and blue when fully charged. I will explain everything round the speaker clockwise from the on/off switch. Next along, there is a 3.5mm jack socket where you are meant to plug in other X-Mini II’s to create a sort of daisy chain for better sound. XMI call this the Buddy Jack system. The volume control is next, and it is actually a wheel instead of two buttons like in the first generation X-Mini’s. Finally, there is a mini-USB port which is used to connect to your computer or laptop to charge it. On the bottom of the device there is a 3.5mm headphone jack to plug into your iPod or computer. This is really great as it means I don’t have to carry around another cable as it is built in neatly in the bottom. You can turn the top half of the speaker clockwise to reveal a sort of rubber spring in the middle. This adds more bass to your sound. The charging cable is used to charge the speaker from your computer or laptop. Insert the mini-USB into the speaker and the USB into your computer. There is also a 3.5mm headphone jack on the charging cable. If you want to you can plug this into any other audio playback devices. The carry case is quite nice just if you want to take your speaker somewhere. Overall the X-Mini II is a very good speaker for its size. If you want a speaker that is small enough to carry around with you, a good enough speaker and something that is so cool then choose the X-Mini II. You won’t regret it. You will also be amazed at how loud the little speaker goes up to. Here is a video of the X-Mini II in use: or… X-MI X-Mini II from Jono Muller on Vimeo.
