Wow, it has been a LONG time … but I’m back for a short episode. I’m focusing mostly on misunderstandings about why Apple does what they do and how they go about doing them.
In regards to web technologies, or what people think are web technologies.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:42 — 6.0MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
I have some friends who are going to roll their eyes at this post and then have a hearty laugh at my expense.
They probably have already laughed because they can quote this post verbatim. It is not outside of my normal behavior.
Basically, don’t hold your breath on me ever completing the “One Month With Linux” thing. If it ever happens, it is not going to be for a long while.
This does not mean, however, that I’ve settled on a single computing platform. Oh no, we could never have Bob finally settle on something and free that part of his consciousness for more important things! That would be too nice!
That’s for a different post.
So, I’m going to continue to count down the release of openSUSE 13.1 because this release is a test bed for what SUSE is going to do with SUSE Enterprise Linux 12 and I think it looks like an excellent release. I’m going to continue to use OS X, Linux and (gasp) sometimes even Windows because at least the first two have their strengths and weaknesses.
I won’t really talk much about Windows.
Here is a follow-up to my earlier post. Thanks goes out to Phil Wels for getting me the needed screenshots so that I can finish the comparison.
These screenshots were gathered from an 11″ MacBook Air with OS X Mavericks and the latest Firefox. Since Apple added an explicit full-screen mode since OS X 10.7, I have two images for comparison (and you can find the GNOME 3 and GNOME 2 screenshots in the old post).
I can definitely understand why Apple added the full-screen mode. When you split things up you get the following numbers:
That’s a big difference.
Even more significant (in my eyes) is that it validates my gut feeling from earlier. OS X, even when using a regular Firefox window, shows more content than GNOME 3 (and even a few pixels more than GNOME 2). When you take into consideration the full-screen Firefox, then it gets to be ridiculous.
If I did my math correctly, you get the following:
You can see the advantage full-screen has on OS X 10.9. Of course, this matters the most on the smallest of screens (in height), and 768 pixels is about as small as they come … but it does show much GNOME 3 does crowd out content more than GNOME 2 and OS X.
I’ve been using iOS 7 on some device since the original developer release during WWDC and I’ve been impressed with how it has shaped up. So, with no hesitation, I recommend you go and update as soon as you can.
It will take a little time to get used to, but I think that the progress Apple has made with the changes, in almost every case, are a good step forward for the platform. The look might seem radically different, but close enough to iOS 6 as to not make it disorienting.
Just go and update as soon as you can. I’m not going to waste any more keystrokes on this.
Apple had a little event this past Tuesday.
Yes, every word is a different link. Really, you don’t need to bother clicking them, you probably know everything I just linked to anyway.
If you want to read some pundit writing and analysis, then you can take a look at these three pieces:
Yes, they are all Apple fans, so keep that in mind. I really don’t have a ton to add to that, so I’ll let them stand on their own. I DO recommend, out of the three, reading the one by Ben Thompson. They are all good, but I thought his take on everything was especially keen.
I’ll just end with a few words about what I am going to do with Apple’s new product announcements and how I will steer people with the new entrants into their product lineup.
First, I’m sticking with my iPhone 5 because I’m on-contract right now and I really don’t have the need to pay for an unlocked phone. It is just not going to happen. The iPhone 5, even with the iOS 7 GM on it, is really fast and by the time it starts getting slow, I’ll be able to pick up whichever iPhone is new at that time. I’m not someone who needs to update every cycle.
Second, the new iPhone 5s looks awesome. The additions are subtle in one sense and far-reaching in another. The speed increases are always welcome, but the subtle changes to the camera along with the added M7 coprocessor are more subtle and more far-reaching.
However, the iPhone 5c is the phone I will probably be recommending to most people who ask “which iPhone should I get when my contract is up”. I am saying that without having actually used one, but from the sounds of it, the polycarbonate (read: plastic) case might just hold up a little better than the glass or glass + aluminum back of the iPhone 4/4S/5/5s era. The iPhone 5 innards they have stuck in there are also quite fast, and the inclusion of a 32 GB model at $199 means that you can get twice the storage on your iPhone for what a “low-end” iPhone 5 used to cost.
Like I said, I need to take a look and feel what the 5c is like, but it looks like an awesome device for someone who wants an iPhone … not necessarily the newest or “best” iPhone.