Category: Technology

Just. Not. Getting. It.

Post author By Bob Martens
Post date March 19, 2012

Trevor Gilbert wrote The Midwest Mentality for Pando Daily and is, to put it bluntly, a terrible closed-minded look at Chicago specifically and “The Midwest” in general. It is probably the most disappointing piece of “journalism” I’ve read on the internet for quite some time (I don’t include most things about Apple here because it is almost systematically terrible).

Matt Moog has written a rebuttal of sorts over at Built in Chicago, so make sure you read that retort.

Here are some choice quotes:

Instead of working on a startup 24/7, employees take the weekend off and don’t work through the night. It doesn’t help in the creation of amazing technical feats, but it does allow people to have lives.

Yup, not burning your staff out is definitely something that should be avoided. Also, don’t forget that good stuff only happens to those who sacrifice themselves to a startup.

Not high school marriages, but rather the idea of getting married at age 21 is no big deal. That’s fine, but it also means that the ecosystem can’t rely on the insane work hours of the independent, no responsibilities generation. Instead, you have a number of people who would normally be able to work into the night, but instead need to go home at 7 or 8 to spend time with their kids and families.

Once again, let’s kill ourselves when we’re young so that we can get married later! Spending time with family is a bad thing because you are not worshipping at the alter of the startup and burning yourself out!

Yes, many people see this as a plus. “You work too much” is something I hear all too often from my non-startup inclined family members. That is a valid argument, but it also is the type of argument that holds an entire ecosystem back.

Riiiiiiight. Not burning yourself out is definitely going to hold the ecosystem back. Isn’t it just as likely that an ecosystem is being held back because its members work themselves to the point of being incapable of doing any good, real, meaningful work after a short time?

I can’t believe this article. Truly meaningless tripe.

Tags Web

Technology

Complaining About Progress

Post author By Bob Martens
Post date March 16, 2012
2 Comments on Complaining About Progress

Peter-Paul Koch has posted about the problems now being brought to light with the new iPad for both native apps and the mobile web.

I’ve gone over this before.

It makes me very sad to see people bemoaning consumer-facing improvements in a device just so that we don’t have to deal with problems we have been ignoring for a LONG time. The web has pretty much been content serving terribly compressed and downsized images as a hack around poor bandwidth.

Guess what, those days are now coming to a close.

You can sit by and say:

I’m very afraid that exactly because of its excellence the Retina display will be a severe set-back for the mobile web, and maybe also for native iOS apps. Apple shouldn’t have ignored the fact that Moore’s Law doesn’t go for data connections.

Or you can take it as a challenge to figure out the best way to push things forward. High resolution displays on smaller devices MAKES THE DEVICE BETTER.

That’s really the only things that matters.

Tags Apple, Hardware

Technology

Windows 8 Consumer Preview

Post author By Bob Martens
Post date March 13, 2012
5 Comments on Windows 8 Consumer Preview

I was going to write something big and profound about the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, but I just don’t have the heart to (plus, the danged OS isn’t even out yet). So, here are just some general thoughts on the current release:

It IS going to be confusing for people.
Metro has a lot to like.
I like that Microsoft is pushing forward here.
Why not just give the Metro portion it’s own, new name and make a clean break?
At least at the start, people will still expect Windows to be Windows and it is not.
We still haven’t seen any hardware.

After using Windows 8 even a little bit I think the major issue will be one of perception. This is Windows 8, not Microsoft Metro (or something else). It has been beaten to death, but perhaps a clean break in the OS naming would have done Microsoft more good because expectation would/could be reset by consumers to expect something new.

We’ll see how it all pans out, but that’s all I’ve got.

Technology

The new Apple TV

I love my current Apple TV, and now Apple has announced its follow-up.

The Hardware

It looks the same. It feels the same. It IS the same … well, not quite.

Only notable changes are switching from a single-core A4 processor to a single-core A5 processor and the ability to output 1080p to the television. Of course, those two are related.

The A5, even with just a single-core, allows the Apple TV to now decode 1080p content and output it to the television. The 2nd generation Apple TV (the one I have) was only able to do the same for 720p content. So …

The Content

Apple has announced that movies and TV available on iTunes will now be available in 1080p (for free) for those who have purchased the old 720p versions. They are still updating all of their offerings (and some will be delayed because of other content and licensing deals), but that is good news.

iTunes in the Cloud

Apple also announced an expansion of their cloud offering by moving movies into the cloud as well. Now you can download (again) the movies you have purchased in the past. I believe you can also purchase new movies from your Apple TV without the need to work with iTunes on your Mac or PC. All good news.

There is also the iTunes Digital Copy as well, which will allow you to stream movies that you bought in the store. It is kind of like iTunes Match for Movies. Also, more good news.

The Software

The Apple TV (2nd generation) and the new Apple TV also get a complete refresh of the UI and software. It is far more “app like” and puts pretty much everything on equal footing. So far I’ve updated my Apple TV and I like it a lot better than the last version. The fact that it came as a free update to your Apple TV is really cool and further cements that the Apple TV is far more like an iOS device than the old, first-gen Apple TV.

Another update thrown out was to the iOS Remote application. The main addition is that you have controls for your iTunes Match library right within the application. It is a HUGE update as far as convenience goes when choosing music you have stored with iTunes Match.

Other Things and Conclusion

It is interesting to note that the Apple TV was brought into the iPad event even if it makes a lot of sense. The content updates were needed for the new iPad, but the Apple TV needed a slight refresh in order to take advantage.

More and more of Apple’s outlook on the importance of iCloud is coming into view, which is fun to see. The devices are becoming endpoints for the data which is stored by Apple … which is really, really nice. I don’t need to have a computer with my iTunes library awake to play music, I just play the music through iTunes Match. I don’t need to have a computer awake to watch a movie, I just watch the movie through my Apple TV.

These are good things.

It will be interesting to see if the Apple TV gets a boost in sales by getting more exposure from the higher-profile iPad event. Another thing to think about.

Also, thank goodness there was no Apple TV Set.