This did make me laugh!

I am an Apple fan – anyone who reads this blog will be aware of that already. I do however like any tech – if its clever and works I don’t mind who makes it. My first entry to ‘gizmos’ was British – Psion PDA’s, they were fantastic and at the time world leaders, sadly time moves on….. and Apple make the best tech currently.

I have looked at the new Microsoft entry to the tablet market – the surface – it looks OK but the only time I have managed to actually get my hands on one in a store (John Lewis in Nottingham), it didn’t want to work properly! The much vaunted keyboard / cover didn’t seem to work very well at all – now this was probably a one-off, but how many not working iPad’s have you come across in a similar situation?

So I suppose the attached press clipping didn’t come as a great surprise to me – someone breaks into the Microsoft campus and steals Apple gear only! This does sadden me as Apple need some competition to keep them sharp, currently this is only coming from Samsung it would appear. Perhaps Microsoft will eventually move back into a ‘good place’, it just doesn’t feel likely at this time.

 

This isn’t how it should be!

Since Apple launched iOS6 the press has been full of the problems people have been having with the Maps app – until iOS6 was launched the maps (and aerial images in particular), on iPhone and iPad were provided by Google, and they were superb. At work we have all used the maps to great effect – finding properties, and getting an idea of the surrounding area was so easy. It was without doubt one of the ‘killer’ apps on the iPhone.

So the change to the current poorer mapping was a great disappointment, it also caused heads to roll at Apple, so they are obviously aware they have screwed up – but are they improving it?

Well today I looked at the aerial photos on my iPhone for the first time for ages (I stopped when I upgraded to iOS6) – and they were good again – almost to Google standards!

I was so surprised that I told colleagues at work. But, and here is the weird thing – on getting home I decided to show my wife (sad I know) on an iPad, but they were as poor as before! I checked on my iPhone and they were still good. And yes, both devices are running the latest OS, so it appears that Apple are running two versions of the map data (the aerial pictures are different – see the screen shots here) – now that is so ‘un-apple’ and perhaps shows why they have changed things at Apple headquarters.

Now all I need is good aerial coverage in maps on my iPad – will Jonny Ives sort this now he also has responsibility for software at Apple – here’s hoping!

 

Perhaps Apple are right after all?

The ‘anti apple brigade’ always make a big issue about how Apple maintain a closed and very controlled environment for their products. This extends to the Apps that are available for the iPhone, iPad etc. generally this means that if you download one of the apps from the app store it will work and not do anything ‘nasty’ to your machine – and more importantly won’t try and steal your details.

This is wrong and too restrictive according to the users and developers of Android – until now;

Google is now attempting to crack down on rogue mobile apps on its Android platform with stricter guidelines for its developers. The measures include a ban on using icons that are “confusingly similar” to that of existing products. The search giant has also issued rules on how advertising should appear in apps.

The reason for this? Since its launch, the Google Play store has featured a significant number of malicious apps, or counterfeit versions of popular games such as Angry Birds. The new guidelines announced in an email to developers have 30 days to make sure their apps comply. Developers who do not comply with the measures could see their products removed from the store.

All sounds rather ‘Apple’ to me – although I am sure lots of people will disagree (until the next level of control is added by Google)

 

It’s good to talk….

You may recall the BT advert from a few years ago that tried to get us all to use our telephones to talk to each other – it was apparently ‘good to talk’. Time moves on and it now seems that it isn’t and we are more likely to text each other than speak!

According to Ofcom while 58% of people communicated via texts on a daily basis in 2011, only 47% made a daily mobile call, the shift away from traditional ways of keeping in touch being led by young people aged 16-24 (no surprise if you have your own teenager).

The report confirms that on average UK consumer now send 50 texts per week while fewer calls are being made on both fixed and mobile phones (certainly our home phone is more of a decoration now).

However for the first time, there was a fall in the volume of mobile calls – by just over 1% – in 2011, while landline calls were down by 10% and overall time spent on the phone fell by 5% in 2011.

This change in behaviour is believed to be down to greater ownership of internet-connected devices – smartphones like the iPhone;

• 39% of adults now own a smart phone, a 12% increase on 2010.
• 42% of these now say their smart phone is the most important device for accessing the internet, with a similar percentage regularly using social networking sites and 51% using e-mail.
• The average consumer spends 90 minutes a week accessing social networking sites and email.
• Tablet ownership is also on the rise, with 11% owning such a device, up from 2% last year.
• According to Ofcom, tablets are most often used in the home as a “snacking version” of the home PC.

So probably no surprises here, but a confirmation that the smart phone is beginning to play a very important part in all our lives – and is perhaps going to kill off the basic telephone before too long. It is also sad that people now prefer not to talk to each other. Is this the start of something more insidious in our behaviour?

 

It’s official – iPad is cool!

I have to say that this made me laugh – the constant war that is being waged between Apple and Samsung (and others, but Samsung are ‘public enemy No.1) does get rather wearing. It always revolves around some form of patent or design argument and nearly always gets sorted by the transfer of money one way or the other.

Obviously the one on the left is cool………..

Apples recent attempts to stop the new Samsung S3 phone from being sold says it all – Apple are worried and feel they have a real competitor at last! Having said that I don’t believe that the Android OS is as good as iOS and consequently it will never fully replace iOS, but it isn’t bad!

The recent case relating to the Samsung Galaxy tab is what amused me – Apple claimed that the Tab was a copy of the iPad and should therefore be banned from sale. Quite how you can have a patent or copyright on a genre of equipment is beyond me – but I thought the way the judge handled it was just perfect;

He said that the Samsung wasn’t cool like the iPad – so consequently could not be a copy. In effect both sides win – Apple are confirmed as having a cool product, but Samsung can still sell theirs because it isn’t cool!

Frankly brilliant – that judge should (and probably did) feel extremely smug!

 

There are iPad cases – and then there is this…..

The iPad is a modern-day hero – what ever the anti Apple brigade like to say it has single handedly changed the way most people relate to their everyday computing tasks (particularly at home). The iPad is certainly the ‘weapon of choice’ at my house – the general comment being how much easier it is to use than going on a PC – it is faster and the applications are generally far more user-friendly and intuitive to use.

My iPad goes everywhere with me (much as my old Psion Netbook did in years gone by). That raises the question of how to protect it, I have two case options (we are a two iPad household). Firstly the Apple smart cover which is still the most elegant cover for the screen, and secondly a more substantial textile cover for the other iPad. Both work well, but now I have seen this and it is amazing……..

This is the Brydge iPad case, so much more than a case it is actually a keyboard that attaches to the iPad and creates a single unit – but the best bit is the quality of it. It is made from the same quality of aluminium as a Macbook Pro or Air. Consequently it looks just right – unlike Apples new Smart case which frankly a very poor attempt at something others already do much better!

I can see people saying that the Brydge case is silly – why not get a Macbook Air – probably due to an Air costing twice as much!

So in a nutshell – I want one (it’s $170)

 

Are we playing too many video games?

We are all now well versed in the games that are available for X-box or Playstation, even if you have never touched a game controller you will have seen the adverts on TV. They offer the player a chance to live a totally different life without any personal danger (apart from RSI). The growth in the games industry has been staggering, and the UK is a major player. But just how massive wasn’t clear to me until this week when sales figures were released that indicated games sales now greatly exceed ‘video’ sales.

Taking over?

I am showing my age here as obviously videos are a thing of the past – but the figures relate to all DVD and Blue Ray sales as well as good old videos – and the figures are staggering!

Sales of computer games in the UK last year were £1.93bn! I know we all accept billions as small change now, but this is massive! By contrast, sales of DVDs and other video formats totalled £1.80bn, while music pulled in a ‘measly’  £1.07bn. Last year games accounted for 40.2% of the entertainment market, video for 37.6% and music for 22.2%.

In reality sales are falling overall (part of the reason for the demise of Game on our High Streets) and video won’t go without a fight. But I do think it is sad that we get our ‘jollies’ in this way – watching films is a social thing, playing games can be very anti social (it certainly is when my son is doing it)

So we have hit another ‘milestone’ in entertainment – I am not sure I like this one!

 

Yet more Windows issues!

I realise that I am in danger of becoming a bit of a bore here – but stay with me – the only way any firm manages to develop and improve is through feedback. This is what I am providing here for Microsoft – it’s just that it is all negative at the moment!

Sadly I can relate to this.....

At work we use an online system for managing our agency instructions and other areas of our CRM. I won’t name them here because it might be considered ‘unfair’, however it is fair to say that like many of the systems that we use it relies on Internet Explorer (IE) and the dreaded Active X. This means that we can’t run it on any non IE machines (so no Macs or iOS machines). Not a great start then.

It also requires Java to run – and here we come to the reason for my rant. It won’t run on the latest version of Java – that would be far too easy – no, it requires version 6 update 21. The current version is 31 (and version 7 is in beta). So we have to stop people updating, and if they do we need to ‘roll back’ to version 21. Quite why the developers haven’t managed to update their package to use the latest Java is another story!

But ‘updating’ the Java should be easy – yes?

In any world other than Microsoft’s it is – but not with Windows – let me explain!

We have a mix of 32 bit and 64 bit machines at work – so obviously when downloading Java one should download the relevant Java for that machine? Well no! Internet Explorer has a 32 bit and a 64 bit version BUT – and this is the ‘good’ bit – IE 32 will run on a 64 bit machine, and if this is the case you need the 32 bit Java NOT the 64 bit version on a 64 bit machine – so that is nice and straightforward then!

And people wonder why I complain about Windows so much!

 

Why Microsoft “don’t get it “

For a while I have been ‘coming over from the dark side’ – that is to say I have been embracing the world of Apple. To some that classes me as a geek, historically Apple products were the preserve of the ‘Guardian reader’ set, not a bad thing in any way, but a stereotype that probably didn’t help their marketing! This puts me in the minority, but if I am honest I don’t care, as I find the Apple way so much less stressful.

With the massive growth of the iPod, iPad and iPhone, Apple are now a major player in the hardware market (for example they have almost 80% of the tablet market). Historically they have been weak in the world of software – and by weak I mean they did not have the business market particularly catered for – that was the province of Microsoft – and still is. But for how long?

Computing in the business and home market is going mobile, we are all getting smartphones, and the tablet is making desktop computing far less of a necessity. Our PC at home is used rarely now, either iPad or Mac has taken over. Consequently we are all keen to have our data available where ever we are – cloud computing by any other name. And who is doing this best and appears to have a game plan going forwards?

In my view it’s Apple and not Microsoft. I have started using Apples iCloud with its Numbers and Pages packages – all my documents are automatically available on all my devices (including my PC). The program’s are nothing like as ‘belt and braces’ as Word or Excel, but who uses anything like the full potential of those packages – they are just too complicated! Also on an iPad the Numbers spreadsheet is way better than anything Microsoft or any third-party converter can offer.

Apples iCloud is in its infancy, MobileMe was not a success, but the mobile OS has developed and I think we will see great things from Apple over the next few years in mobile data sharing and working – they never get things wrong more than once!

And what about Microsoft? Windows 8 is just about to appear and from what I have heard it is just Windows 7 with a weird front end. Their Office package has a web version, but it is not catching on (probably due to being too complex). Microsoft may be about to start to see the end of their dominance – a good thing?

 

How much time does a PC lose you in a week?

I am writing this on my iPad while I wait for my Microsoft based Laptop to be repaired by scan fix – it tells me that I have a very nasty Rootkit type thingy which has rather upset my laptop. Now I am not a ‘dodgy’ user and am usually rather careful about what I open on my PC, but this time I have been caught out and we are now at around two hours and counting since my laptop became unusable.

This rather annoys me, (actually it really annoys me) as it is totally un-necessary. If I was using a Mac I wouldn’t be suffering from the scumbags that create these ‘bots’ and virus things. It has also set me thinking, Microsoft have the computer market firmly clasped by the privates, most business environments use Windows and other Microsoft packages. But you and I are fully aware of the down time that we all suffer from their software being the target of certain sections of society. Yes, windows 7 is much better, but there is still the issue of viruses etc that are nearly all aimed at the PC user.

If we didn’t suffer crashes and the other viral issues etc how much more work could we get done? A search of the Internet doesn’t come up with any figures for this, but it does bring up pages of details about crashes!

So if I ignore the enforced crashes and just look at boot times (to a fully useable state) for my laptop and mac this suggests the following;

Laptop average boot time – 4 minutes
Laptop turn off – 1 minute
MacBook average boot time – 1 minute
MacBook turn off – 15 seconds

That’s an extra 3 minutes and 45 seconds a day because I use a PC

So over a year that’s almost 20 hours wasted before we suffer any crashes or the delightful “program is not responding” messages. I believe we are probably looking at probably a working week a year lost to the PC – I think on that basis Microsoft should be paying me for using their software – not the other way round!

Reliance on one system is never healthy, it is about time that more people moved away from Microsoft – you never know it might even increase the time you have to work!