Entries Tagged 'tech' ↓

This guy is not a bigot… he’s just stupid. There is a difference, ya know…

After experiencing a couple of random shutdowns on my iPhone this weekend, here’s another example of Apple needing to make a few lawyers redundant and find some more tech types to fix their software problems…

Had to completely restore Nic’s phone for some marginal improvements, but she feels like throwing hers against a wall regularly… that’s crazy talk for someone who absolutely fell in love with her iPhone 6 months ago, only for it to become “like a really old, unreliable computer” (in her words). It makes her work Blackberry look quite stellar in terms of “just working”… c’mon, Apple!!! You’re killing your fan boys here…

If Apple spent as much time on fixing their bugs as they do on this sort of nonsense, I’m sure I (for one) would be a much happier Apple fan boy.

Seriously, after the stupid problems I had with basic things on my Snow Leopard update, now my wife’s iPhone shutting down randomly after the 3.1 update, and my own iPhone starting to do other funky stuff (like constantly lose my wifi settings), I think Apple should stop wasting time on stupid stuff like this and get back to their knitting.

Daniel Kokin has spent the last nine years, off and on, working on a design for a video projector. The unique shape of the design is, according to Kokin, best described as a pod, so it’s no surprise he decided to call it a “Video Pod.” When he tried to file for a trademark for Video Pod in 2007, Apple filed an objection with the USPTO.

“Like Apple’s iPod registrations and applications, the Video Pod application covers a device that is or will be used to transmit video for entertainment and other purposes,” Apple wrote in its filing. “As a result the similarity between Apple’s marks and Applicant’s Video Pod mark and the highly related nature of the parties’ goods and services, Applicant’s Video Pod mark is likely to cause confusion, mistake or deception in the trade and among purchasers.”

What a joke!

Honestly, am I really beholden to Apple every time I use the word “pod”?! Ridiculous! This is where some of this trade mark and IP stuff gets a little nuts… the word “pod” has been used for a very long time to mean a whole range of things that aren’t necessarily related to an iPod. That Apple should suddenly feel it owns the word is just stupid. That a guy can’t create a device totally unrelated to a music player and use the term “pod” in its name is so ridiculous I would hope a judge would throw it of court and charge Apple with punitive damages for wasting everyone’s time.

Methinks Apple should hire less lawyers and more software people to fix their problems. This would make me happier, especially since I know in about 15 minutes my iPhone is going to ask me for my WEP key again…

I totally love my Apple stuff, but right now, it’s NOT just working…

Occasionally you read really stupid articles… like this… is this guy serious?!

Mac OSX Snow Leopard isn’t a pale imitation of Windows 7… Mac OSX (in general) is the forerunner of what Windows 8 will be!!! That’s how far behind Microsoft is in the OS wars. They seem to be a full version or two behind in terms of creativity, innovation and quality. Honestly, I just can’t think what sort of drug this guy is on. Everything about Windows 7 seems to be about playing catch-up to Apple, and it’s still not even close to the same quality experience.

It’s crazy talk… :-)

Apparently, according to this interesting piece of research, iPhone users are younger, richer and more productive than their counterparts.

Who wouldn’t want to be so cool?! :-)

Jeremy Clarkson writes this hilarious piece on this experience with the new Honda Insight 1.3 IMA SE Hybrid.

“So here goes. It’s terrible. Biblically terrible. Possibly the worst new car money can buy. It’s the first car I’ve ever considered crashing into a tree, on purpose, so I didn’t have to drive it any more. “

I have normally viewed Honda as a superlative maker of excellent cars, but obviously their foray into new, greener technologies is not quite up to par:

“Normally, Hondas feel as though they have been screwed together by eye surgeons. This one, however, feels as if it’s been made from steel so thin, you could read through it. And the seats, finished in pleblon, are designed specifically, it seems, to ruin your skeleton. This is hairy-shirted eco-ism at its very worst. “

I think I’ll stay away… :-)

It’s not often that you hear someone describe something as “biblically terrible”…

After being Microsoft Exchange users for some time now, we have begun a new tech adventure by shifting to the far more economical Gmail offering from Google by having our domain hosted through them.

It’s kind of funny, really. We’ve been thinking about the possibility of cutting back our IT costs by exploring options like Gmail, but the decision all got made and implemented within a few days because we had a steep license bill coming up for one of the components in our Exchange setup which just seemed ridiculous for a sub-optimal solution. So, the crisis pushed us to jump and jump we have. I guess we’ll figure out soon enough whether this was a good move or not. In spite of some minor teething issues today, I think the transition was actually relatively painless.

Now, after Gmail’s rather poor past few weeks with some major downtime here and there, I’m hoping these sorts of things don’t become an issue for us. Although, having said that, our servers were all down a couple of weeks ago when the bad weather brought down the power in our area for several hours.

I continue to be quite amazed at the quality and excellence of tools put out by Google free-of-charge. Who would have imagined a decade ago that such a business model would work as well as it as for Google…

Apple has this wonderfully interesting “Summary” utility service that allows you to obtain a summary of large chunks of text. The algorithm used is complex and it always intrigues me that somewhere in Cupertino there is a person/s playing around with this sort of stuff.

I decided to run the tool over Obama’s recent inauguration speech, and here’s what I got:

“America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words; with hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come; let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.”

I think it actually did a pretty good job of grabbing Obama’s big ideas of hope and legacy.

I was chatting to someone the other day about Facebook and the amount of time it takes to keep current with updates, etc., and it occurred to me as I was talking to them that my habits may not reflect those of others. Facebook takes very little of my time, but there is a huge payback for the brief time I do invest in it.

It seems to me that some folks seem to live on Facebook. I can only assume that they’re connecting in through a phone, otherwise I’m very concerned for their health if they’re chained to their computer 24/7!

I myself ONLY use Facebook (and Twitter) on my iPhone. I seldom use a computer to connect in. Updates are done quickly through email (to both services), and I scan through updates and other goings-on very quickly perhaps once or twice a day, and I love that the iPhone app allows me to skim through and keep up in that way. In a way, because it’s only my phone that I use to access these sites, I think it operates as a bit of a filter because I only tend to drop in when I have a spare moment here and there, and when I’m at my computer I am focused on real work. I am not sitting glued to Facebook all day long.

Facebook has provided me with some unique insights into the lives of a bunch of people in my life and beyond. Some of that is just pure gold in terms of being able to keep up with what is happening in people’s lives, some of it is just hilarious with some of the very witty banter, and some is profoundly disturbing to watch some folks play out their life dramas in an abbreviated kind of soap opera of text bites, crying out for attention in some terribly unhealthy (and perhaps even dysfunctional) ways. Still, on the whole, Facebook (and Twitter) have helped me have a deeper ambient awareness of what is going on, and tools like this are certainly changing the way we relate to others.

This guy sounds a bit “different”, but he’s come up with a mathematical explanation for satisfying design, and that makes him “interesting” to me… :-)