Living in the Future

Category: Blog

  • Just Friends

    Dear all of my acquaintances who I have on Facebook,

    Yay, now that Facebook does one way following (aka subscribing) I don’t have to feel bad about unfriending people. In other words, if you suddenly find I am not your friend anymore and are sad about the lack of posts, you can subscribe to me as a human. We don’t have to be friends, isn’t that great?! My profile and everything is already all public, so hopefully this will actually encourage more sharing between all of us. I am happy about this, and you should be happy too, not offended. Don’t be offended. If you say interesting things I will subscribe to you as well. If we haven’t spoken in years, either we clearly weren’t that good of friends or else it means we need to catch up. Not mentioning any names here, you know who you are. This is a step in the right direction Facebook, and I’m sad it wasn’t around a little bit sooner. Additionally, if I unfriend you on Facebook, it doesn’t mean that I don’t like you as a person, it just means that I don’t feel like friend is the right word to describe our relationship. Acquaintance is more well-suited to the types of interactions we have, and I will view our relationship as such. If you want to be more than acquaintances, that is absolutely great and we should talk more. I’m not a sociopath (I don’t think), although feeling like I have to say it does make me wonder :). I am also not going to feel bad about this, I’m just being honest about how I feel. If I would not describe us as friends, but still feel like you have interesting things to say, I will totally subscribe to you, even if you don’t subscribe to me. And I have left messaging on Facebook completely public, so drop me a line anytime.

    Again, and I cannot make this any more clear, being friends on Facebook is not the real meaning of friendship to me, it just allows us to show the world that we are friends and lets us stalk one another unabashedly. And I have been of this opinion with no alternative for far too long. The subscription model will absolutely change my life forever, and I can live free of guilt not being YOUR Facebook friend. Real friendship is what matters most to me.

    Thanks to everyone for reading this, and for some of you, this will very likely be one of the last posts of mine you read. For those of you who wish to stick around for some fun times even though we’re not that close, I’m game if you are…

    Subscribedly yours,
    Rob

    Ps. Another thing I just realized…Facebook chat is the only thing which would keep a friend who I never see but still want to be friends with, so you have that going for you!

    Pps. If we’re already connected on Google+, you will get bonus awesome human points and I will feel less bad not having you on Facebook 🙂 You know who you are…

  • Becoming a Controvert

    Hey again, I’ve been lacking a little bit of late, though I do have several topics I’d like to broach, things I don’t really feel are always accepted topics of conversation but which I really would like to get out in the open and discuss. These topics really aren’t anything too extreme, just controversial for everyday conversation. My good friends know that I have fairly strong opinions, and ones which tend to be adamant but not always along politically correct lines. In that light, I would really like to choose this platform to voice these opinions, not in the interest of being judged for holding them, but hopefully to open up a discussion about the things I think about every day. I find that most values people hold aren’t so much “correct ways of thinking” but more like Christian or religious values which are blindly followed without putting too much thought into the motivations behind them. On the face of this, it seems like an idea which is just going to be damaging to peoples opinions of me, but I have never taken great stock in people’s negative thoughts of me so long as they don’t affect me directly. I also considered starting a second anonymous blog through which I could vent these ideas without any personal social repercussions, but I wanted people I know to know me better, so I thought it made more sense to keep all of my thoughts together. I am also not at all ashamed of the convictions I have, and so sharing them publicly in the interest of creating meaningful discussion doesn’t concern me in the least. I hope to spread these types of posts throughout my more “typical” technology or life related posts, and though at some point I may denote these types of entries as being separate from the more traditional posts, I will just refer to them normally for the time being. I would love to hear any feedback on these issues, and I do believe it is simple to post anonymously in reply to these posts, so I wouldn’t worry about political correctness (just basic human decency). Please feel inclined to let me know if you think this is either a wonderful or horrible idea, I would really appreciate pre-feedback if anyone can think of any very obvious downsides to doing this which I am simply not seeing right now.

    Expect the first of these kinds of posts in the next week or so depending on my schedule and wrist cramping.

  • If I did it

    I’m really sorry to those of you who have been waiting almost a week for this, but I hope you enjoy it as I put a lot of time and thought into it. I hope it was worth the wait, and I hope to get back to a more regular writing schedule in the upcoming weeks.

    Hey again, it’s been quite a while, and while I’ve been mulling over quite a few topics the last week and a bit, I haven’t made the time to write anything non-academic. Since I have way too many things rolling around in my head now, I thought it’s as good a time as any to write some of these things down and hopefully get some feedback. I’ve been thinking a lot about computers recently and though I am very happy with my laptop from Dell, which has a great battery life and is super fast with a big hard drive and a 15 inch screen for under $1000 tax included, I thought it would be at interesting experiment to write a pros and cons list and perhaps even include a table describing what my life would be like if I had made the leap and purchased a Mac. I will do this for both my desktop and laptop, and hopefully look objectively at the issue, from a price point perspective, in terms of the hardware and software which appear on both systems, as well as capturing the overall experience of the actual and alternate universe. Since this is for me and is simply a thought experiment, I will hopefully be able to remain objective, and if at any point I feel like I have let my emotions sway my decision, I will make that clear. I’m not entirely sure I’m ready for this, but I’m going to jump right in and see where I come out. I’m ready to be surprised.

    Pre-shopping:
    The first and arguably most important criterion of any major purchase comes long before you enter a mall or open up your favourite web browser (Chrome obviously) to visit a shopping site. Your opinions and choices are very easily influenced by friends, family and people you see every day. In this way, the shininess and glamour of Apple products is quite hypnotizing, but the familiarity and comfort of Acer, Toshiba, Dell or Samsung PCs with Windows installed can also sway the consumer to stick with what they have seen at school or grown up with. However, in this case I have to give the narrow lead in this category to Apple, especially in 2011 with their massive growth and remarkable market share gains. Apple 1, Microsoft 0

    Shopping experience:
    Right upon walking into an Apple store or visiting the website with the intent to make a purchase, the differences in this category are clear. Apple do a fabulous job of making you feel at home both in store and online, because they know exactly what people want out of their products. Because of their limited product line, choices are very simple and to the uninitiated, basically come down to a matter of weight and screen size. Because Apple make all the decisions for you, it is a very easy, convenient place to shop. As for Microsoft, Windows, PCs are available in many more places and from various retailers and online distributors. This is a strength for people who like the choice and who know the differences between the different options, but for a vast, VAST majority of people, this is actually a detriment. Again, the advantage here has to be to Apple. Apple 2, Microsoft 0

    Skill Level:
    In terms of skill level with people who have never used a personal computer, I have to imagine there would be a very steep learning curve with either operating system. However, that being said, modern computers have removed many of the complications of computers from view, leaving only the things that the common denominator uses on a regular basis. Mac is arguably best at this, almost to a fault in that usually design and function decisions they make are final and unmodifiable. Windows 7 also hides almost all work the computer does behind the scenes as well, but there are also many controls which are meant to give the user more control. In 2011, with Windows 7 and Mac OS X Lion to compare, I have to give a slight edge to Windows, simply because the simple features are almost equivalent but power users can work more easily on Windows. Apple 2, Microsoft 1

    Aesthetics:
    Need I say more? Similarly to the above categories, Mac users don’t get to make decisions about style, unless they want to purchase additional skins for their PCs. Things which stand out, such as well-designed laptops, or advanced features like backlit keyboards, are very hard to find, especially on cheaper Windows PCs, but come standard on Macs and cannot be removed. In this way, Windows could be preferred simply because the choice is yours, if you don’t want to pay 30$ for a backlit keyboard, you won’t get one. Bluetooth adapters are another thing which come standard with a built-in additional cost on a Mac but which Windows users have to pay to include in their systems. In this way, it is extremely difficult to judge apples and oranges here, this one is much more personal preference. Apple 3, Microsoft 2

    Software:
    First, in terms of the operating systems, it really comes down to a matter of personal preference. Some people prefer to have their menu buttons top left, some would choose top-right. Minor points aside, for the majority of users the overall experience with Windows and Mac is very similar, and each OS has its minutiae of small differences and advanced features, so all I will do in this case is link to the ten best features of Windows and those of Mac and let you make your own decision. Also showcased in those two pages are stark differences between the tactics of the marketing teams at Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft, frankly, doesn’t really care if you, as the consumer, buy their computer. They know that people will buy the operating system, and millions of enterprise computers will continue to use Windows without a second thought. Apple, regardless of their level of actually forming emotional bonds with consumers, really care about the user experience as well as the satisfaction of the customer with their new or old machine. Apple has to get the point in this category, simply for caring. Apple 4, Microsoft 3

    Hardware:
    The specifications (specs) on Windows PCs will always beat Macs head-to-head, but there is definitely more to this story than just raw power. Because Apple controls every aspect of its operating system as well as having strict policies on applications (especially with the advent of its new Mac App Store), they also get to control how their hardware interacts with the software. This means that all of their computers are extremely stable machines, rarely failing except in catastrophic, unpredictable ways. With this system in place, it is very easy for Apple to offer excellent warranties with extremely forgiving policies without worrying too much about losing money, since the computer is well-encased, modifications by the end-user are frowned upon. The sole major drawback of this, which is irrelevant to the consumer almost all the time, is that all parts of a Mac work together very well, often incorporating multiple functions into one computer part, so if something does break, replacing just that part is almost never a simple matter. Windows PCs have easily interchangeable parts, but they don’t work anywhere near as well together as they were not necessarily intended to specifically work well with one another. In this way the actual specs of Macs are less important, because the parts all work so well together. In this category, it is another case of delicious apples vs. sumptuous oranges, so I’m not going to make them compete. It would just be messy. Apple 5, Microsoft 4

    Dimensionality:
    This category specifically refers to weight/dimensions of laptops. There are cheap Windows notebooks, regular Windows laptops, and thin, expensive Windows laptops. Apple only do two kinds of laptops, and they are both fairly small, although the MacBook Air is much smaller by far and seems to defy the laws of physics in how small and light it is. Apple has to take this category, unless you have a specific use for a very small netbook. Apple 6, Microsoft 4

    Development:
    While this category used to be Windows-dominated, the application development gap between Mac and Windows is narrowing, as the gap in number of systems sold also narrows. I think that while this trend will continue, for the time being this category goes to Windows. Apple 6, Microsoft 5

    Malware:
    This category actually goes hand-in-hand with app development. As there start to be more and more Macs, malware and virus authors will also increase. This year there have already been multiple instances of Mac-targeting malware which caught many people off-guard, since Macs are purported to be virus-proof, any computer can get a virus. Regardless though, because Windows is larger, they definitely get more attacks. Apple 7, Microsoft 5

    Customer Service:
    Inevitably, no matter how much you pay for your computer, it will need service from somebody at some point. It is this part of the process which makes most people cringe. Hopefully the company who sold you the machine will hold themselves accountable if the problem is with the product itself, and perhaps give you some room for error as a human without charging you through the ear for repairs or maintenance. Apple is phenomenal in this department, with a built-in one year warranty for any computer problems as well as extremely loose benefit of the doubt in-store repair centres. They know that providing these services is very good for business and that people will come back again when they know they are being treated well. Being so spread out, and so far from the end product itself, it is much more difficult for Microsoft to be accountable for software issues, and since hardware issues are not their fault, the blame is spread and in the end the customer suffers. Apple 8, Microsoft 5


    Price:
    For this category, I am going to start with a very nice laptop from Apple, and then attempt to match its specs to a Windows PC (Dell, because I am most familiar with their website and they have a very customizable system in place).

    Apple:
    15.4″ screen – Backlit LED
    5.6 pounds – 14.5″ x 10″ x 1″ thick
    i7 processor (Quad-core (4 cores)) at 2.0 GHz, 6 MB shared L3 cache (bigger numbers are better)
    4 GB RAM 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM (supports up to 8 GB)
    2 USB ports – Thunderbolt (Mini-Display/Fast Data Transfer)
    Ethernet/WiFi/Bluetooth
    AMD Radeon Graphics card with 256 MB GDDR5 memory
    “HD” (720p) Camera
    500 GB SATA hard drive
    DVD/CD drive
    77.5 WHr battery (rated at 7 hours use)
    Speakers/Backlit Keyboard/Multitouch Trackpad

    Software

    • OS X Lion

    Final cost (before tax): $1749

    Dell: Improvements in bold*

    15.6” screen – Backlit LED
    6.3 pounds – 15 x 10.5″ x 1.5″ thick *Apple is slightly smaller and battery size means a little more weight
    i7 processor (Quad-core (4 cores)) at 2.0 GHz, 8 MB shared L3 cache (bigger numbers are better)
    6 GB RAM 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM (supports up to 8 GB)
    2 USB ports – Mini-Display Port
    Ethernet/WiFi/Bluetooth
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 525 M with 1 GB memory
    “HD” (720p) Camera
    750 GB SATA hard drive
    DVD/CD drive
    90 WHr battery (rated at 9 hours use)
    Speakers/Backlit Keyboard/Multitouch Trackpad

    Software

    • Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit

    Final cost (before tax): $995

    See, after all of that I cannot logically justify spending almost fully double the cost for a laptop. However, that being said, if you want an 11 or 13 inch MacBook Pro or Air, and are okay with slightly lacklustre specs, you will still get a great computer for about the price of a higher-end Dell PC. I hope you can understand that in the end the final score speaks for itself. Apple 1003, Microsoft 1754

    Sorry Apple. I still really do want an Air, and would probably buy one very soon if anyone`s in the market for the above Dell computer (because its twin is on my lap right now) I would probably sell it for the Air. The 11″ seems like it would be a wonderful machine to own. And Apple products are incredibly cooperative with one another.

    Disclaimer: I actually didn’t intend to totally validate my Dell purchase in February, but that’s how it seems to have worked out. I hope you trust my objectivity in this looking at the fact that I do want to try owning both this laptop and a MacBook Air just to see which one I pick up and use on a day-to-day basis. I hope to try this experiment some day.

  • A Purview of Happiness

    Hey everybody,
    I have decided that today is as good a day as any to take a little break from writing about “the future” in a literal sense and refer to it more in a figurative or literary sense. All of us want to be happy in some form, and the problem with this is that happiness the way we want it is almost always entirely unattainable. As humans, we can only dwell on the good in our lives for a very short time before things which bother us take over again, which seems to make striving for a type of permanent happiness completely futile in a way. That being said, here is a list of quite basic things that make me happy.

    -Music (singing/playing/listening)
    -Sports (playing/watching)
    -Technology (playing/using/reading about)
    -Eating/Drinking
    -Being outside
    -Television/Movies

    This is off the top of my head, and there are many more, but the basic point is, why is it so hard to find lasting happiness with such a diverse interest base and when I spend so much time partaking in these activities. The simple fact is, overall I am quite happy. I give myself a very hard time because I do spend such a large chunk of my time thinking, but it is just as important as any other time to me. My mental health benefits hugely from spending time in my own head. I think this is mostly because inside my own head I have complete control over everything, nothing is left to chance or to anybody else. It concerns me most times that things that I’m unhappy with in life are things I have no control over. Things I don’t understand fall into the same category, as well as things which simply don’t work the way I expect them to.

    I had intended to make this post longer, but it turns out writing about happiness isn’t nearly as fun as it sounds. That might be the most poignant part of this entire story. Anyhow, it’s short but I can’t really be bothered by that. I’m a pretty happy guy right now!

  • Facebook Messenger

    Alright you guys, since you seem to hate everything you haven’t used already, can you please try this?

    Facebook Messenger: A free iOS and Android app which allows messaging and uses push notifications. Assuming you don’t want to use Google+, which already has this (Huddle) capability built into its iOS and Android apps, at least download this and give it a try.

    My sanity thanks you, and again I look forward to a day when I don’t have to send any text messages!

  • Life, Interrupted

    Life, Interrupted

    Hello again,

    Sorry about taking so long to write a post, but I’ve been a little bit occupied with school and more generally life. I thought that today I would talk about an issue which has been close to my heart for a VERY long time now, basically from the first time I ever used a computer. This issue has no real platform (operating system or otherwise) dependence and most people don’t consider it an issue, so please allow me to explain why keeping your technology up-to-date is very important and worth doing.

    First of all, regardless of the discussion we are having, be it software, hardware or links between the two, updates are extremely useful and shouldn’t be ignored. Everyone I know, with very VERY few exceptions, absolutely detest updates of any kind. Of course, there are cons to updates, but hopefully I can compel you to agree that they are minimal and shouldn’t prevent you from adopting new software or technology.

    First, there is the main issue I hear when I tell people they should update (using computer OS updates as an example), that of inconvenience. The popup reminding you that there are updates to be installed the next time your computer restarts always seems to happen while you are just about to get to your Farmville strawberry bushes, and since you have had that in your calendar for two days, you click cancel and move right back to Facebook. While this is perhaps an unfair characterization, it illustrates the point I’m trying to make quite nicely. The fact is, what you’re doing is really important in your mind and shouldn’t be interrupted by your computer. In reality though, you probably could very easily spend a minute or two, or even five, doing something else while your computer installs these updates and reboots itself, or even press cancel once, close everything you’re doing, and then restart the computer yourself before it asks again, then go find something to do for a minute. We expect technology to work around our schedule but forget that it doesn’t know our schedule. It is possible, and very easy I might add, to schedule updates for a specific time (in Windows that’s 3 AM). The fundamental problem with this is that most everyone turns off their computers at night, and so 3 AM gets pushed to whenever the computer is booted up in the morning (AKA when you need it to check your email before work/school/whatever you do during the day) and interrupts you again. Being proactive about updates, and even getting excited about them (as I, a self-proclaimed monarch of nerddom, do) will keep you on top of them, so that they don’t control your life.

    The second issue people tell me about in reference to updating software is that they have documents, internet tabs, folders, programs and the like open, and losing all of these is a fate they wouldn’t wish on an archenemy. Therefore, they put off updates so as to not risk losing anything they had open. Never mind that with modern operating systems and internet browsers it is incredibly simple to save webpages, as well as keep shortcuts to commonly used folders and files right in the toolbar. There is also the issue that most people, especially students and people who don’t want anything more from a computer than to be able to post to Facebook and Google things, will often opt for the cheapest option when looking for a computer. There is really nothing inherently wrong with opting for that approach, since it is quite cost-effective, but it does mean that your computers resources are almost always in somewhat short supply. Especially sought-after in the computers infrastructure is a little piece of hardware called RAM (or random access memory). Basically, in order to run a program quickly and efficiently, every piece of information about a file or program must be readily available to the computer. Hard drives, which these days don’t normally limit people with respect to their size, transfer this data very slowly and so are not feasible for use as fast memory. RAM uses flash memory, which as its name suggests, can access data much more quickly than can hard disc memory. When you open a program, you use decent amounts of memory (music/video players, productivity applications such as Microsoft Office products,  internet browsers, as well as intense applications such as Photoshop are particularly demanding) to keep all the information about the program close at hand. Having several of these programs open at once can quickly lead to a deficiency of memory. This is a very long way of saying that having all of these programs open at once is not good for your computer (it uses a lot of electricity/battery), it slows down your experience and considering that most of these programs are only open in the background and aren’t actually being used at the time means that this is not a very compelling excuse for not wanting to update.

    A third common qualm with these Ludditic updaters is that they don’t want new software or hardware because they very much like what they have and are extremely comfortable with it. This applies more to the web than desktops or programs because it is very easy to update webpages and applications with no effort on the part of the end user. Every time there is an update in look or functionality to Facebook, which is a common victim of this type of thing, there is an uproar of people who can’t believe things are changing and complain about how much worse the new Facebook is. The fact is, if you were to keep with this idea over the last 5 years, you would just look ridiculous. To put it bluntly, if you always chose to keep the old layout or functionality of technology, you would end up looking completely foolish and would be missing out on the innovating and ever-changing nature of the internet. The reason these changes are made are to continue moving into the future, and as new technologies are developed, this will continue to happen, and we should embrace it. Another great example of this is Microsoft Office. Imagine trying to make a modern Word or Excel document using Office 2003. I imagine that many people don’t actually have to imagine this, because it is a reality for them. And if you are somebody who uses a modern operating system (and no, Windows XP is now over 10 years old and is NOT modern in any sense, same goes for Internet Explorer 6) just imagine having to go back to using those horribly slow and inefficient operating systems. I know I don’t make a lot of friends in suggesting this, but in order my favorite Windows operating systems are (objectively I might add) Windows 95, 98, XP, Vista and 7 (and 8 will be my new favorite when it is released, from what I’ve seen so far). I found the user experience much better in Vista than XP, and it would seem to me that its failure to be widely adopted stemmed from an excellent marketing campaign from Apple, as most people who think it is a horrible operating system refused to use it in the first place. I used it for a year after it came out (I actually bought a copy) and it was much nicer and better than XP, well worth the money. Software and hardware will only continue to improve, and we should keep up with it to stay on the cutting edge of what is possible. It can only improve our lives.

    Finally, the pros list for keeping your system up-to-date:

    1. Updates provide increased security, lessening the likelihood of malware being installed on your computer (mostly for internet browsers)
    2. Updates provide increased functionality, with new features and capabilities which enhance and change your experience online and off.
    3. Updates increase speed as well as stability, leading to fewer crashes and a cleaner experience.
    4. Updates can solve problems which you didn’t even know you had, or give you things you didn’t realize you were missing.

    Google Chrome, arguably the best browser out there today, deals with updates in what I think is the best way so far. Updates are installed quietly in the background, so you don’t even have to think about them, unless that is something you fancy, in which case you can also hasten the process by updating yourself at any opportunity. The browser also waits until you close it to install new versions as you quit, making it a completely painless and almost invisible process. More software updates should work like this!

    I hope all of these reasons are compelling enough for you to at least consider clicking “update” when you see that popup.

    Jailbreak Tweak: WiFi SMS (iOS) / DeskSMS (Android)

    These apps fill the need I mentioned in an earlier post of being able to check your text messages from your computer via WiFi. They are both very new and extremely useful for anybody who finds themselves sending text messages while at a computer, since it eliminates the need to stop using the computer and find your phone. They both use an internet browser to send and receive texts, and they are extremely great to use. Again, if you would like help jailbreaking and finding great tweaks, leave me a message and I can help you out. If you haven’t updated your iPhone’s software in a while [HAHA] (you are on version 4.3.3 or lower) it is still VERY easy to jailbreak.

    Application: Bump

    This app lets you exchange contact information with others just by being in their vicinity with the app loaded and activating the accelerometer in both phones at the same time. However, the apps usefulness has now far surpassed this basic functionality. You can now share applications, music, contacts, social networking information,  photos and calendar events, and you needn’t even be in the same physical space as the recipient anymore. When the app is open in the background, it interfaces with people who also have the app installed who are nearby and gives you the ability to see them in a list and add them as possible contacts. Once this connection is made, you can send things or chat through the app at any distance over the internet. It’s an incredible app which very few people use to the potential which is possible.

  • Speaking in Code

    Speaking in Code

    Hello again,

    Today I am hoping to explore my thoughts on the world of coding and computer programming. I have been interesting in learning computer language for several years now, and the time seems as ripe as ever to start learning. The trouble I’m having has several prongs. The first and probably most important of these is that there are so many languages and so many things I would like to do that I’m having trouble focusing and narrowing down to one language or one learning tactic, and so I end up with a set of skills that is extremely limited and broken to the point that I can only do very little. I have a basic understanding of linux alias and shell scripting, but anything beyond a few lines quickly becomes too complicated for me. I spent a good part of the past 6-8 months trying to learn C and C++ using an online course and its resources at Harvard, and did get a fairly good understanding of the basic concepts surrounding programming, but no actual knowledge in terms of being able to write a program myself. I can navigate in windows and linux command-line interfaces, but actually performing meaningful tasks usually requires a few minutes of google search followed by pasting code from the web and letting it do what I was looking for. This solution does work in theory, but it can be very time consuming. A solid understanding of any of these programming languages would definitely be preferable to what I have now, but this is very difficult for me, especially when I cannot commit all my time to learning or using the languages. The CS50 course at Harvard taught a lot of basic information about a few languages, but doing a Masters while trying to take a distance learning course proved a little bit too much.

    All of this is not to say that I am not computer literate. When it comes to solving problems on any of my electronic gadgets, I can efficiently solve them, and even my intuition for these matters is fairly high. The issue I’m having is that when it comes to understanding how what I do solves my problem, my level of understanding is extremely low. It seems to me that in attempting to learn these skills, I am met with oversimplification. I realize that there are reasons for explaining things in this way, and that it will always be this way, at some point I will want to have all the layers peeled back and be able to see what I am actually doing while programming. Maybe if that ends up happening, I’ll finally be able to understand what I’m doing wrong and how I can truly learn and use programming to mine and everyone’s benefit.

    This week’s App:

    Panamp (iOS)

    This app is a music player which should be able to completely replace the default iPod app for only $2.99. The app consists of three screens, in order a search screen, library screen and finally current playlist screen. Playback and search is most easily performed through swiping. For example, selecting a song to play from the library screen is as simple as swiping it to the right into the playing screen (the queue picture on the left). Once a song is in the queue, you can move it around easily from the right of the song (on the right), and swiping it off the screen removes it from the playlist. Playback is also controlled from the bottom of the screen by swiping the currently playing song to the left (next) or right (previous). Playlists loop automatically. It is a very simple intuitive app which is extremely smooth and whose menu transitions are meaningful rather than distracting and slow down navigation.

    Jailbreak app: iFile

    This is a must-have app for anybody wanting to use their phone as a computer in any sort of meaningful way. The app now also integrates beautifully with Dropbox, meaning that transferring files to your phone from your computer has never been simpler than now.

  • Installing Google+ on iPad or iPod Touch

    I have seen the last couple days that there is a way to install Google+ on iPad or iPod Touch using the iPhone configuration utility. I tried that and when I plugged in my iPad I just got an error message from the utility, and after some minor troubleshooting I gave up. This morning, a thought occurred to me. I can just use Installous to install the .ipa. All I had to do was add the Google+ .ipa file to the filesystem (/var/mobile/Documents/Installous/Downloads) and then open Installous and install the .ipa through the downloads menu. I personally used iFile’s new Dropbox integration for this so connection to the computer wasn’t even required. Anyhow, now I have Google+ on my iPad, and the only part of the process using a computer was getting a copy of the original .ipa file. I hope if the original method didn’t work for you either, that this one will!

  • Bluetooth (Not space, sorry :( )

    Bluetooth (Not space, sorry 🙁 )

    Hello all! It’s been a very busy week and I know you are all eager to read, because the Internet is just a horrible black hole without anything worth reading. I just briefly contemplated using that as a really terrible segue into talking about space (see my last post and how I had planned to talk about it), but it’s been a week and a lot has happened since then.

    First, and most importantly to me, I finally finished my last class ever (with an A-), which means that to finish my degree all I need to do is give a seminar (which will very likely be on the topic of real-time MRI, an AWESOME technological advancement which could easily revolutionize medicine) and then write and defend my thesis. I’m hoping to have this done by mid-October, and it’s really all I’ll be doing until then. So that’s pretty hella exciting.

    Secondly, last week Dell was having a summer sale, as they do quite frequently. I scan the deals they offer as there is usually one or two really good deals, and since I do enjoy technology and electronics in general, I’ve made a few of these purchases. The really exciting one which I’ve been using non-stop all week is a pair of Bluetooth headphones. I wasn’t sure of the purchase as I was making it, because they are over the head headphones, which are a little bulky and make the wearer look like a huge nerd (or in some cases a rich, snobbish audiophile depending on the size). They were $50, down from $100, and I had a little disposable income, so I decided to jump even further into the world of wireless audio. Last time I had used Bluetooth was probably 2006-7 when I needed to transfer phone numbers from one phone to another without a SIM card. As I remember it it was a horrible clunky technology which was mainly used either for moving small data such as contacts from point A to point B, or connected to a jawbone headset for phone calls. While these things are undoubtedly convenient, I basically ignored the technology for the intervening 4 years.

    Now that I have these headphones (which were delivered in less than 24 hours from the time of order, another small plug for Dell and Purolator here, they are awesome) my mind has completely changed on the technology. In the week I’ve been using my wireless headphones I have just charged them a second time since opening them, although they weren’t dead (4 days seems to be the average, but I didn’t want them to die). I should also make the point that I have been using them almost incessantly and the battery life is just stupendous, although they are still very light. The right speaker has volume and playback controls, as well as a talk button, microphone, pairing button and power button. It is the easiest thing to use and is easily made compatible with everything. All Apple products come with Bluetooth adapters, which made it incredibly easy to connect to the headphones. My computer (which would have come with bluetooth for an extra $20) doesn’t come with it, but that was easily remedied with a small bluetooth dongle, which is actually much smaller than the end of my thumb. The part which sticks out of the computer is about half the size of the part which is required to go in. This (which as you can see attaches to my keychain really easily) can plug into whatever computer I’m sitting at and connects me instantly and wirelessly to the audio coming from that computer. It a wonderful setup, and the last thing I’ll say (besides the obvious of not distracting people around you) is the 30′ radius which allows you some freedom to move around without having to bring anything with you. The example I’ll use is for television, but it applies equally with other media. When I was watching the office in the living room but wanted to get some water, normally I would have to bring the tablet or if I was watching it on tv I would just miss part of the show (or pause it). Now I can simply walk away and the audio will follow me. It’s great technology!

    Anyhow, this is long and I want to save something for another day, so I’m going to delay talking about space, though I do really want to.

    My app of the day for today is the Google+ app, which has been on Android for a few weeks and was recently released for iOS as well. It’s all very exciting and to all my Facebook friends who are complacent, please do consider getting Google+, I’m sure none of you remember saying “Facebook. What’s that? Sounds cool, I haven’t talked to my high school friends in a while” Well this is so much better than that. I implore you!

    My jailbreak tweak of the day is called DeepEnd. It came out today and can be found on Ryan Petrich’s repository. It gives your wallpaper a cool 3D look using the gyroscope in the phone and doesn’t use a noticeable amount of memory, it’s just a neat little effect!

    My desktop application of the day is called Teamviewer. I have spoken with many of you about it, and it works on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android and can access computer via the Internet as well. I will only give a teaser of what it does, but if you have more than one computer, or a phone and computer, it allows you to control and view your desktop remotely. There are INFINITE uses for this technology, and I strongly recommend you try it. Those looking for a demo or instructions, feel free to ask, I would be more than happy to help!

    Hopefully I’ll be back again this weekend to write more!

  • Busy times call for short posts

    Busy times call for short posts

    Hey everyone, I’m going to be really busy this week, but I’m planning a longish piece on space and astronomy (with the last space station mission having just docked with the ISS) hopefully before the weekend! Anyhow, I did still want to share some of my favorite things with you, as a bonus today I have a great app to share with everyone, for those smartphone owners among us.

    Jailbreak Tweak: Running List

    This tweak lets you use otherwise wasted space in your spotlight search area to show all the apps you have running, and allows you to quit them by tapping on the icon on the left and then pressing quit, or with a simple swipe across the name followed by quit. This app saves time in quitting apps and lets you easily access apps which are running if you don’t like the multitasking dock.
    Google+ Feature: Hangouts

    While this video is low on details, it gets the basic point across quite nicely. Basically you can start a chat conversation or “Hangout” and then invite people to join you. People you have allowed who log in will see that you are hanging out and will be able to join the hangout, up to a maximum of 10 people. The main video automatically focuses on the person who is talking, just like in a conversation, although you can also choose to focus on one person by clicking on their video. You can also selectively mute people in the conversation, as well as the awesome feature of playing a YouTube clip as a “member” of the group chat. Conversation volume is lowered, and a walkie-talkie-esque push to talk button appears so that the video clip has focus. It is a great way to show friends you can’t be with clips and gauge their reactions in real time since everyone is watching the same part of the clip at any given moment. From experience it also makes for really fun dance parties when you can’t actually be at a club, for example mid-afternoon.

    Smartphone app: Viber (iOS)/Viber (Android Beta)
    This app is an extremely basic yet extremely useful one. It lets you send SMS messages and make voice calls for free using data/WiFi. This can be extremely useful as the calls are of very high quality and long distance is still free and doesn’t use any more data. From what I have seen the data usage is also minimal. The best part about this app is that signing up is as simple as installing the app and inputting your phone number. The app then finds your friends who also have the app installed and shows you those people. You can also make calls to people who don’t have the app installed through the app, but it will use your minutes. There is no account to worry about, your phone number is your account and it is how people will find you. The more people who use this, the better, so get crackalackin! I have also heard that there is an Android version conducting beta testing, so please do try this out and see how it works, I would love to see everybody get this to try!
    I hope to have a real post for you soon!
    -Robert