Not waiting for WWDC 2016, Apple announced the availability of server-to-server requests for CloudKit.
This has the opportunity to open up another frontier for apps leveraging iCloud, and more specifically CloudKit, in various ways that were not allowed before.
I’ve had the device for over a month now and I think I’ve come to some sort of conclusion on it.
Surface 3 verdict: too slow. Avoid.
— Bob Martens (@boblmartens) December 3, 2015
That’s the basics of it. I can’t see the device being all the useful past the current year, and I’d say almost any person with only modest computing needs would be better off with an iPad Air + keyboard combination (if they feel the need for a keyboard). The iPad Air is just a sleeker device overall, feels faster (because it is being asked to do less), and has better battery life. I’ve found myself using the iPad Air more while testing the Surface 3 than I was before I started testing.
This isn’t some sort of blanket verdict on the Surface line of devices or even Windows 10, but I would avoid the Surface 3 at all costs.
Apple finally went ahead and did it!
Today Apple unwrapped their open sourced Swift programming language. Yes, Swift has been around for a while already, but today it was opened up to the community (Engadget link there).
You can find out more at the website but also check out the repositories at GitHub as well. Currently Apple’s GitHub organization houses pretty m much only projects around Swift.
Sadly, on the Linux-side of things, only Ubuntu binaries are available.
So go forth OSS friends and contribute!
Each workday I go through the same routine:
There are sometimes a few small variations to that routine, but for the most part that is it. However, out of every small decision I make in the morning it is #8 on that list that gives me the most pause each and every morning:
Looking at the picture I used at the top of this post, it is probably pretty easy to see why. While my iPhone is always in my pocket and I have various amounts of reading material in my bag, I am constantly shuffling what technology I should be carrying between home and work.
Here are the three devices I currently work through my mind each morning:
The iPad Air is the easiest to carry, fits nicely into my bag and fulfills probably 85% of my needs on any given day. The Surface 3 is a test device for the Windows 10 deployment we are looking at for work along with an interesting look at the differences between form factors (and fits nicely into my bag). It fulfills maybe 75% of my needs on a given day, but a slightly different portion than the iPad Air.
The 13″ MacBook Pro is, surprisingly, just a little too big to bring along every day. It just fits into my bag, means I can’t bring too much else along, but fulfills 95% of my needs on any given day. It is just less portable. It takes up more space and so it sits on my desk.
In my own mind it looks like an iPad Pro or MacBook would be great compromises, but they are coming from different ends of the spectrum. Do I want a laptop more like a tablet or a tablet more like a laptop? (thanks to the professionals at Computers R Us )
The Surface 3 is interesting only because it tries to toe the line between laptop and tablet by having different modes. It sorta works, sometimes (not a rousing endorsement, I know). The other problem with going all-in on Microsoft’s platform is that the software is just not at the quality I’ve grown accustomed to over in Apple’s camp.
Sadly, my trusty Lenovo X220 with openSUSE Tumbleweed has been relegated to primarily system admin work as I fix things around campus requiring a serial interface and a CLI. I eagerly watch for what the response is going to be from the open source operating systems to where Microsoft has taken Windows 10, but maybe Windows 10 is not the proper course.
All of these words are here to whine about the fact that I often don’t know what to carry with me between home and work. We have a Surface Pro 4 coming in as a test machine for our next faculty deployment at Martin Luther College. Maybe the increased size and speed will force me to start moving to a more device-agnostic way of working.
There are four amazing platforms to work from right now: Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Linux/Open Source. They all have their strong points and their weak points, but the entire ecosystem has been polluted by the fact that each platform is ever so slightly different in major ways (yes, I did read that phrase three times … it is what I want to say). Where do you turn?
Maybe it just doesn’t matter.
I had some time to play around with the new MacBook at a couple of Apple Stores this week and I have a couple of first impressions about the device.
Overall, I’d love to have one. It would instantly become my carry machine, maybe even replacing the iPad in most situations. It is not without tradeoffs, but an impressive machine.
I do not own one and only used it for a total of maybe 40 minutes between the two stores, so feel free to ignore everything I wrote above as well.