Author: Jared Cash (Page 13 of 41)

iOS 6 and the Amazing Adoption Rate!

September 20, 2012 / Jared Cash

A couple weeks ago, Google updated their Android version install-base breakdown and revealed that Ice Cream Sandwich had finally (after nearly a full year) reached 20% of Android phones in use today.

To fully understand the significance of this, Apple’s iOS 6 reached 15% of eligible devices in 24 hours.

An important distinction, however, is that most Android devices without ICS are ineligible to receive it as the manufacturers never made it available for certain devices. Still, that doesn’t mean those devices are incapable of running it, as many custom ROMs out there are capable of bringing ICS to devices that won’t get an official release.

This is probably the most significant indicator that Apple’s integrated model as both the hardware and software designer is a huge benefit to customers.

iOS 6: Photo Streams and Maps

September 20, 2012 / Jared Cash

I’ve had the luxury of using iOS 6 for sometime now, due to my developer status. Even still, until the final version was released, there were a number of features with which I never spent much (if any) time. In the case of Shared Photo Streams, that was mostly due to a lack of other users with whom I could test the feature.

Today, I spent some time setting up and joining a few streams. I shared some goofy photos with my cousins and several pics of my children with my family. Perhaps the nicest thing about sharing Photo Streams is the speed with which others can comment on your photos. I don’t know a single iPhone or iPad owner that doesn’t have an Apple ID. Which means that when I share a photo, they are able to see it and respond without signing up for any accounts like they would with a social network.

In fact, Apple has created the stealthiest social network of all time. If you’ve ever purchased anything on iTunes, you’ve already got an account. Plus, because new shared streams default to private, only those you invite can see your photos unless you explicitly make your stream public.

Within minutes of sharing a Photo Stream with my wife, she had already sent me a message telling me how awesome it was. A few simple taps on the screen and 16 photos were almost immediately available for her to view and enjoy.

Now, the more cynical out there will complain that Shared Photo Streams are nothing more than MobileMe web galleries returned from their recent grave. The concept is certainly similar, but the execution in iOS 6 is so much simpler, it feels like magic. If you haven’t had a chance to play with it yet, I encourage you to do so soon.

On the flip side, I spent quite a lot of time with the new Maps feature in iOS 6. And, while not perfect, it has excelled at getting me from point A to point B in style. The new map tiles are simply incredible and the map directions are easy to read and pervasive throughout the entire OS. Even when your device goes to sleep, the directions are right there on your lock screen and will even pop up whenever Siri speaks to tell you your next turn.

There seem to be a lot of complaints out there from some very vocal people about Apple’s Maps not being as good as Google’s. I’m not surprised by that fact, nor do I think it matters. For starters, Google has been at this a lot longer than Apple and even when the first iPhone was released, the Maps app wasn’t perfect. Google had to do a lot of updating on the back end before they got to where they are today. Apple has an advantage that Google didn’t: millions of iPhone owners able to report mapping errors from their device as they encounter them.

But in the end, it doesn’t matter. Most users will never encounter any issues at all. And, as with everything that Apple does, it will get better and better over time until most users forget they ever had issues at all.

Only time will tell, but I’d be very surprised if Apple’s Maps don’t see rapid improvements.

Gender Analysis: Inconclusive

September 18, 2012 / Jared Cash

In an attempt to determine if the author of a blog I posted a link to in my previous post was male or female, I stumbled across this site that analyzes text to determine the gender of the author. It’s not perfect, as evidenced by the image above. Of course, I’m actually happy that I’m as gender neutral as it says. I wonder how it would feel about some of my earlier work.

Best Over First or, how Apple avoids jetpack design and wins every time

September 18, 2012 / Jared Cash

Just a couple days ago, I wrote about how Apple’s new mantra appears to be “Best Over First”, as they continue to improve their hardware and software by focusing on adding features better than everyone else, rather than adding featuresÂ before everyone else. My neighbor and bestie (a proud Android user) often ribs me for Apple’s announcement of year(s)-old features as though they are brand new. I’d argue, of course, that to the most of the populace, theyÂ are new features. Much of the world is a lot less tech-informed than those that focus on spec checklists (as many Android fans and even quite a few iPhone die-hards are wont to do) and therefore just don’t realize that LTE has been around for a few years. In fact, Apple usually benefits greatly from waiting for an emerging technology to mature a bit before including it in their software and hardware, as they’ve been able to analyze where the tech fails to meet expectations in their competitors and (usually) improve on it with their implementation.

It seems I’m not the only person to be supportive of Apple’s decision to focus on making sure their new features are the best, rather than the first. An post over at FJPÂ (a site whose name directly applies to the title of that post and mine) about how Apple avoids implementing “jetpack design” just to be the first to include a new feature rather than making sure they release the best version of a feature (a mark that they occasionally miss, but that they hit often enough that it’s the reason the iPhone 5 preorders sold out in less than an hour).

Bonus points go to Daring Fireball’s John Gruber for pointing me to the postÂ which, in a bizarre, circular fashion, pointed me back to a Macworld article by Gruber from 2010 about the original iPad: an article that is eerily prescient when read today in a world that has seen the release of three more generations of iPhone and two more generations of iPad.

In tech: Best beats first, almost every time

September 13, 2012 / Jared Cash

It’s not often that I read a post on MacDailyNews and I don’t close the window in disgust at the idiocy in the comments. Most of the time, it immediately devolves into political extremism and fanboy mudslinging. The number of idiots that use every opportunity to accuse someone of being wrong because they are a liberal or a conservative (which, of course, is almost never the issue at hand) is astonishing.

Today, however, I found two comments that were actually worth reading and prompted me to share some thoughts about them that I’ve had in the past, but never articulated as well as one of the comments. I’ve included the first comment, from “Michael” below:

â€¦what youâ€™ll find is that other companies did a lot of things first before Apple. Apple is not about [being] first. Apple is about being best.Â If you live your life chasing first to everything, youâ€™ll never be best at anything. Until you understand this, you will not understand Apple.

This has always summed up my feelings whenever I see people complaining about whatever features Apple “left out” of their latest hardware. In fact, I’ve already begun hearing complaints from others about why Apple left out NFC or changed their dock connector. The dock connector question is easily answered by watching the video Apple posted on their website about the new iPhone 5, in which Jony Ive specifically talks about how the old connector prevented the new form factor we’re looking at today.Â Phil Schiller, Apple’s Senior VP answered some questionsÂ (read more in the original interview, from AllThingsD) about the dock connector as well as NFC.

NFC is still a toy, not a tool. While it is growing in popularity, it is still spread too thin to be useful in everyday use. This is the same reasoning behind the lack of LTE in the last two versions of the iPhone. Until this year, only Verizon had any real LTE coverage and even their markets were spread too thin. It does not make sense to include technology that only a very tiny percentage of your customers can use. Time and resources are better spent developing features that everyone has an opportunity to enjoy. On top of that, LTE is a power-hungry technology. Android devices that use LTE have consistently had to increase their battery size to compensate. Plus, they required two separate chips in CDMA devices, one for LTE/GSM and another for CDMA. This, and the increased size of the battery is the reason for the sudden growth spurt in screen sizes. It wasn’t a feature, it was a necessity.

By waiting until LTE and CDMA technology could reside on a single chip, Apple was able to avoid the worst of the screen size problem (width). Obviously, they’ve still chosen to increase the screen size and I reserve judgment until I can hold one in my hand. By not making it wider, I know that I can comfortably hold and operate it with one hand. But, I want to see how it fits in my pocket and how difficult it is to reach the top of the screen before I decide if it was the right decision.

Finally, I’ve come to the second comment I wanted to talk about (from NCG598):

According to a report by Anand Lal Shimpi of Anandtech, the performance gains Apple reported for the new A6 chip and other factors means that â€œit looks like Apple has integrated two ARM Cortex A15 cores on Samsungâ€™s 32nm LP HK+MG process.â€

This one, mentions an article on Anandtech that cannot be verified until the iPhone 5 hits the market. However, based on the speed increases and the way Apple names their chips, it seems likely that the A6 processor uses the as-yet unreleased ARM Cortex A15 in a dual-core configuration. If this turns out to be true, it means that Apple beat a number of companies to market with the next-generation of chips. This is notable, as Samsung announced that they had begun sampling the processor several months ago with the intention of bringing it to market this summer, a deadline they missed.Â While there is still some disagreement on whether or not these assumptions are true, the much more knowledgable members of the discussion have been unable to draw any other conclusions.

Obviously, Apple prefers to be best over first. But whenever they can take both, they will.

Would you like that gift-wrapped? Our gift-wrap girl has a clean face

September 6, 2012 / Jared Cash

So, I was doing a little online bargain hunting today and I found the product I wanted for a really great deal. As I was going through the checkout process, however, I saw this:

I immediately stopped to check on the website I was ordering from. It seemed quite likely that it was from China, as I can’t imagine an American company being able to get away with this. I was right, and I soon went ahead and placed my order (sans gift-wrapping, I don’t care how much it helps that my gift-wrap girl is “Movie Fun” or “Super Dancer”). But it made me stop and think that someone out there had to stop and think, “You know, we don’t sell nearly as many gift-wrapped items as the other guys do. People just don’t seem interested anymore. I know! Let’s hire a bunch of slutty models in questionable outfits to pretend to gift-wrap our items and let those sad, lonely people out there pick which one they want to wrap their gift!”

The worst part, I think, is that someone out there thinks that these girlsÂ actually are busy wrapping all these gifts. As if “Big Eyes” and “Hot Body” can’t find better jobs out there.

Maybe they justÂ really love to wrap things. They should make a movie about a girl and her dream to wrap items at the biggest random crap warehouse in all of mainland China.

Flashwrap.

Bring Order to Chaos and Chaos to Order with no monthly fees

August 27, 2012 / Jared Cash

I’m going to make this brief. Order & ChaosÂ© Online, Gameloft’s iOS MMORPG clone of World of Warcraft, recently received an update which brought a number of new features and, more importantly, nixed subscription fees. I really liked the game when it first came out and considered the subscription fees very reasonably priced. But, if you never picked up the game because of them, now is your chance to give it a shot. Without the subscriptions, the value of the game has increased significantly, especially if you happened to snag the game when it was on sale for $0.99.

I will definitely be spending more time with the game soon, and I hope you will all join me.

First Day of Fall

August 21, 2012 / Jared Cash

There is a tradition in my household. It started about 7 years ago, when my cousin (Andrew), my wife (Autumn), and I first discovered O’Fallon’s Pumpkin Beer. It’s an ale, brewed up with all the spices and flavors you’d expect of a pumpkin pie. It’s easily my favorite beer of all-time, and one of three major reasons I am always so excited for fall to arriveâ€”the other two being the weather and All Hallow’s Eve (or Samhain as my wife’s ancestors called it).

The tradition goes a little something like this. Fall starts the day O’Fallon’s Pumpkin Beer first arrives in the home. This year, fall came very early, and I was quite overjoyed. The picture above was the surprise my wife picked up for me during the day. It was a good evening.

Last year, I also spent a little time with Schlafly’s Pumpkin Ale, which is another great pumpkin beer, and my second-favorite drink of the season. Strong in flavor where O’Fallon’s is subtle, it’s worth having a sixer of both in your fridge. Especially if you’re like me and can’t resist having one-a-day. I haven’t picked up any of Schlafly’s yet this year, but I will do so soon.

I love autumn and Autumn. They’re my favorites.

Parenting, partying, and popular music (feat. Hot Problems)

August 18, 2012 / Jared Cash

My son Liam is three years old. He knows nearly all the lyrics to Rain Is A Good Thing by Luke Bryan and Party With My Friends by Hot Problems. A lesser person might be concerned about the fact that his two favorite songs (both of which he will begin singing at the drop of a hat if the correct words are uttered) are both about drinking alcoholic beverages. Maybe one day he’ll become some sort of party messiah in college, leading the entire campus into a new era of awesome partying. At the very least, he’s probably the kid that will lead every gathering of his friends in raucous “beer caroling” (actual beer optional).

Honestly, I’m okay with this. If he’s half as much fun as an adult as he is now, the world is in for a reckoning.

His older brother, Avery, went through a similar phase, in which he would repeatedly request music that was geared toward adults. He knew many “kid songs” growing up, but always preferred to hear Indie Rock Girl by (the now defunct) TV/TV or anything by Dragonforce.

At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if Adelaide only wants to listen to Nirvana and Pearl Jam.

Android Malware: Still a thing

August 9, 2012 / Jared Cash

So yesterday, I was reading an absolutely ridiculous article over at BusinessInsider wherein the author (Kevin Smith, but not that Kevin Smith) detailed his decision to switch to Android if the next iPhone didn’t have specific features. Never mind the fact that at this point, it’s too late for Apple to even consider his features and that he’s not important enough to warrant Apple seeking his approval. Hilariously,Â he referred to it as the iPhone 5, even though there’s no precedent to indicate Apple will even call it that. Maybe he’ll stay in limbo forever waiting for a phone to be released that doesn’t exist.

Anyway, while perusing the comments on the article, I came across this doozy from oneÂ @Julie2aT:

Please oh please tell me of one virus that Android has? Oh, you’re talking about malware for installing applications from un-trusted sources? Only fools would ever download applications from third parties (I’m talking outside of Play Store, Amazon, SliderME)… the nerve of some people.

I tried to respond in the comments, but BusinessInsider’s website appears to be broken (so, it’s notÂ just their authors) and comments would never post from any browser on my Mac or even Internet Explorer on a PC. So, rather than give up, I’ve decided to post my reply here for your entertainment (and hopefully, so @Julie2aT can see it).

——-

Actually, malware has been a problem with Google’s own marketplace for some time:

From March 2, 2011: Android Market Apps Hit With Malware
(more info on this one: The Mother Of All Android Malware Has Arrived: Stolen Apps Released To The Market That Root Your Phone, Steal Your Data, And Open Backdoor)

“Sure, but Google has already resolved that,” you say. “That was over a year ago. It’s not like it’s happened since.”

My mistake. I must have misunderstood this article several months later.

From June 13, 2011: Google pulls more malware from Android Market

“Well, yeah, but that’s still over a year ago,” you retort. “What about something from THIS year?”

Okay. From January 16, 2012: Fake Angry Birds Game spreading Malware from Android Market

“Ugh. Whatever. Google has obviously fixed the problem, if the last one you’ve got is from more than half-a-year ago.”

Sure. You’re probably right. Oh, waitâ€¦

From August 6, 2012: More Android malware sprouting up amidst 2012 Olympics

“Oh, please. That was a whole three days ago. Surelyâ€¦”

I rest my case.