Living in the Future

Year: 2014

  • iCloud and Auto-Uploads (Extra details)

    In case you haven’t seen my latest video, you can watch it here: 
    I just want to provide a little additional detail for those interested about this idea. First of all, it would work equally well on Android with Google+ Photos as it does with iCloud on iOS. 
    Also, for those of you who don’t know anything about networks or photo stream, and who will note that it actually isn’t much of a drag at all for me to upload that photo to several networks as I did in the video, in that it seems quick, note that I am on Wifi in the video, and that means that anything I upload goes about 5 times faster than it would if I was on a data network, and that usage caps on home internet are much higher than they are on cellular networks.
    In addition, this example only used one photo, whereas if you were taking photos at an event, you could want to upload an album of any number of pictures, each of which can be 1-2 MB. Multiply that by 10-20 in one go, as I have done frequently, and you will see that uploading all of those photos 3 times, and then a 4th time to post any photos to another network (such as Twitter or Instagram) will start to seriously slow down your phone and will use a lot of data. 
    With the changes I suggest in the video, you will alleviate a lot of network congestion on cellular networks, and corporations whose servers store your photos can use their networks to quickly and efficiently save copies of your photos without requiring you to upload them separately to each service.
    I’ll be back next week with more on cell phones and mobile technology, so subscribe to my YouTube channel here and add me on G+ at +Rob Attrell for more interesting videos.

  • Your cell phone provider might be screwing you. [This is not click-bait, it might actually help you]

    Hey guys, if you have a few minutes to fill out this nifty survey of cell phone plans, I would really appreciate it. It’s for a project I’m working on regarding cell phones and the contracts that bind us all to carriers. Fill it out below, or click here to see the survey on a new page.

    I will be collecting answers for about the next 48 hours, until Wednesday evening. If you are interested in participating further in this project, drop me a line.

    **I am in Canada, but I’d love to hear what international folks have to say about their plans!

    Thanks to +Mike Attrell for help preparing this survey!

  • 2014: Year of the Vlog.

    Dear friends, family, and other, welcome to 2014!

    First of all, I want to apologize that this isn’t a video. If I had any courage at all, you would be seeing and hearing me speak these words instead of reading them to yourself. The fact is, I find it much easier to hide behind an Internet connection and some fancy words than to plop myself down in front of a camera and actually talk to you. But all of that is about to change, because this is the year I become a man! No, I’m not having a late Bar Mitzvah, or going through puberty, or even necessarily going through any meaningful change as a human at all (although that might happen incidentally). No, what is happening this year is that I am going to take this blog, and make it much more interactive, and much more visual.

    I’m not entirely certain where I am going to end up as a result of this undertaking, but I know that I’m very excited for the ride! As I figure out what I want to do, I think I will probably start with stuff about important news and issues, technology, social media, comedy, and TV/movies. Basically it will be an extension of me, but presented in a way that if you don’t care, you don’t have to listen to me!

    This is not a mistake.

    I do have a lot more to say, but rather than bore you all with a lot of reading, I’m going to let my mouth do the talking, so look forward to that very soon!

    **PS, though I have more than a couple of projects on my mind already, if anybody has any interest in collaborating, or would like to suggest a topic of discussion, I am all ears! How do I not have a podcast already??