Category: Technology

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Business Life Technology

Separate Computing

With the addition of the Mac mini into my computing environment, I now will get to test out a theory I’ve had for a little while. Also, Ben Brooks published an article in the most recent addition of The Magazine title One Computer Worked Better which flies directly in the face of what I am trying to accomplish, so it will be interesting to see how it works out.

Basically, I’m splitting my computing needs in two, or at least working with two computers and two mobile devices.

For a long time I’ve been a one-computer user. I’ve had a laptop that I take with me between home and work, setting it up between places with a monitor, mouse, and keyboard wherever I go. This has worked quite well. I keep all of my data on a single machine, back it up daily, and have everything at my fingertips whenever I might need it.

However, I have two purposes. I have a day job and then I have the work that I do for myself and other clients. This means that I can have a co-mingling of data on a single machine.

Which is never good.

As much as I hate to say it, I also don’t like constantly plugging and unplugging my MacBook Pro to take it from work to home and then back again the next day. There is the obvious wear-and-tear on the machine itself, but it also takes just that little extra bit of time in the mornings to get everything setup before I can start work. A minor annoyance, but it is still an annoyance.

The New Setup

There are now four devices that are part of the setup, which does add complexity.

At Home

The base-model Mac mini (Late 2012) sits on a shelf near my desk, attached to a monitor, mouse, and keyboard. Attached to this Mac mini is a bus-powered USB hard drive for local Time Machine backups and that’s about it. It sits there, quietly waiting for me to come home and work.

There is also an iPad mini as the mobile, non-tethered computing for at home. I’ll talk more on that later.

The best things about the Mac mini at home don’t even have to do with the fact that it is a Mac or the benefits of that. No, it is the fact that it is a desktop tethered to my desk that I like the most. I’m not going to pull it up to the first floor and work on something. By forcing me to go work in my office I keep work apart from the family and I also eliminate distractions by “retreating” to my office.

Being a desktop also means I have less chance of component failure due to movement. At least I hope I do. I also have the option of expanding the storage easily using USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt external hard drives.

I am tempted to try a home-made Fusion Drive at some point as well.

At Work

This is where I have the MacBook Pro perched up on a stand and connected to an external monitor. It works well. I wish I had a Thunderbolt Display so that I could eliminate all but two cables (Thunderbolt and power), but I make do with the five hanging off of the side.

Having the portable here means I can take it to meetings if I need to, but that I can also take it on longer vacations if there seems to be a need for that. It has enough storage to get the job done, but if I move all of my personal stuff (photos, music, videos, etc.) to the Mac mini at home, I’ll probably get a smallish SSD just for fun. Development doesn’t always require a ton of space.

On The Road

Here is where it gets interesting. I always have my iPhone with me and that is not going to change. The iPhone 4S has probably been the single best device I’ve ever owned.

However, the iPad mini has now moved into the category of being my main mobile computing device. It can handle the important tasks I need to accomplish and in a smaller package than any laptop I could bring along. It also has the benefit of having cellular internet built into it.

I won’t even get into the fact that there are no moving parts in an iPad either. No fans. No hinges. No spinning disks. Those are all good things.

However, you can’t do everything that I do on an iPad, and so for some longer trips (or trips where I know that I will need to be developing something) I will pack up the MacBook Pro and lug it along. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to eliminate the need to bring along the larger laptop on more and more trips in the future.

It is probably good to just leave work at home anyway.

In Conclusion

Basically, this is an experiment in the syncing and “cloud” infrastructures of today. While there are definite breaks in what data is stored where, there are some things that I have to toss into Dropbox to keep it on both machines. I also keep a lot of stuff in iCloud and … we’ll see how it goes.

You can probably expect a post recanting my current position within six months.

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Life Technology

The Crossover

The Crossover is a new podcast from 5by5. After the dual-knockout that my two favorite podcasts from the network are going to be ended in the coming weeks, I was relieved to hear about some awesome new programming coming up.

Episode 1, You Just Got Curated, did not disappoint at all. Granted, it had Merlin Mann and Marco Arment as the guests, but it really was a pretty remarkable episode. If you are a person who has been on the web for any somewhat-significant amount of time, it is a must-listen. They cover topics ranging from forums to Tumblr to Twitter to … everything in between.

Really, a great episode to start off with.

I am already subscribed and looking forward to the other combinations that Dan can put together for the show. Maybe we’ll see John Gruber show up again on 5by5?

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Bob Speaks Technology

Episode 7: The Future of Computing

This is a “ranty” episode (after a long hiatus). I talk of the major mobile platforms out right now and their service offerings and a little in how it shows the difference in philosophy between the companies involved.

Warning, I have no idea what I’m talking about. Merely opinions here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:49 — 16.3MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

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Life Technology

Changes at 5by5

5by5, Dan Benjamin’s podcast network, is one of my favorite things on the web. This past weekend Dan recorded a State of the Union for 2012 to announce some new things coming to 5by5. There are some pretty big changes coming, so hold on tight.

For as long as I can remember, two podcasts have topped the list within either Instacast or Podcasts.app. Those two are Hypercritical with John Siracusa and Build and Analyze with Marco Arment. Every week for the past couple of years I’ve spent hours listening to these two show and have enjoyed them very much.

Sadly, both of them are coming to an end quite soon.

Along with the move of The Talk Show, my top three podcasts have ended this year. That is quite saddening because I do tend to get attached to things I get into a habit of doing or listening to. I thank both Marco Arment and John Siracusa for their time and efforts, I have really enjoyed the shows.

However, it sounds like some new shows are right around the corner that I might be quite interested in.

The Crossover, where hosts from different shows get together to talk, sounds like something I will need to subscribe to. Big Week (no link) was announced earlier this year and I’m looking forward to that show as well. News panel shows can be great (and Dan as moderator sounds awesome). It also sounds like The Pipeline is going to be coming back … so an old favorite of mine is going to be coming back!

Finally, a huge thanks to Dan Benjamin for starting and running 5by5. It is a fantastic podcast network and I look forward to the podcasts every week.

Categories
Technology

The Real iPad

I have been able to play with an iPad mini for the past week or so and I have to say, it is a spectacular device.

However, there has been a lot of crazy talk about how this is “the real iPad”. I’m going to link to Harry Marks’s take on all of this because I agree pretty much with everything he wrote. I’m not done, however.

I find the iPad and iPad mini holding very different places in the workflow of different people. For one, most of the people who are declaring this “the real iPad” are using the iPad mini as a secondary device almost exclusively. That’s what happens when bloggers add a device, it doesn’t usually supplant the old one, but is added to the large array of devices that the person already owns.

That’s how they’ve built their lifestyle. That’s what they’ve already done with the laptop, desktop, gaming console(s), handheld gaming console(s), TV, smart phone, microwave, and fridge that they are already owning. They have tailored their life around using multiple devices.

The iPad mini is perfect for that because it fills that void between their 4″ smart phone and their 13″ laptop very well. 8″ is a great size for that.

It also helps that the iPad mini is crazy thin and light. I’m still shocked sometimes by how light it is, yet how rigid at the same time.

Does this mean the iPad mini is “the real iPad”? Heck no.

The iPad, the original one that is still being sold and just received a DOUBLE SPEED BOOST from Apple, is a much different device. The iPad can remove the need for a computer for many people almost completely. My dad has no need for a laptop or desktop … he needs something that allows very few things to take place:

  • Check email
  • Lookup prices on farm equipment
  • Not shoot himself in the foot by doing the above two

The iPad mini would not work for him as well as the 10″ iPad already does. That last point above can’t be stressed enough either. By eliminating choices, Apple has freed people to just use the iPad without having to worry about doing something bad. Automatic backups to iCloud are a huge plus as well.

I’m not mentioning the Retina display because no one is expecting the iPad mini to stay non-Retina forever.

The iPad mini might very well be “the real iPad” for some people, but the iPad is also “the real iPad” for others. The iPad mini might very well fit what many people wanted from the original iPad, but that doesn’t mean there is no room for a 10″ iPad or that original iPad is somehow “the faux iPad” … it just means that it is different, it fits a different role, and that Apple has a lot of room to improve things on both ends for years to come.

That excites me almost as much as the idea of tablet computing in general.