November 20th, 2012
MG Siegler reviews the Surface for AOL TechCrunch:
After using it for over a week now, it’s hard to come up with a lot of nice things to say about the Surface. Don’t get me wrong, there are some solid things here. But by and large, it’s a strange, buggy, and clunky product that I simply can’t imagine many people buying after the initial hype wears off.
He lasted a whole week. I didn’t last more than a few minutes.
November 16th, 2012
Actual judgements about the hardware aside (since, unsurprisingly, these aren’t yet on the market) this looks like the best work to come out of Microsoft since the Xbox 360. This isn’t me grading on a curve either. I’m not giving them extra points for finally making something that looks like it could be good. I’m saying that this device actually looks like it could be a great, viable, product line and could bring Microsoft up-to-speed on many many fronts.
You could say I was optimistic yet skeptical. Like many other product debuts at Microsoft I actually thought the Surface may never see the light of day. But it has. They’re shipping them. They exist. Yesterday, while at Viddler HQ, I was able to play with a Surface for a few minutes.
I could have played with it longer. But I wouldn’t want to. The Surface is terrible. Even if you’ve never picked up an iPad or an Android-powered tablet you would think the Surface is pretty slow, hard to use, and heavy; three things a tablet device should probably never have said about it.
I know, I know, some may think because I’m such an Apple fan boy that I wouldn’t like the Surface even if it was truly great. Remember, I said “this device actually looks like it could be a great, viable, product line” for Microsoft. And I think it still could be. When playing with the Surface yesterday I said that I thought it still belonged in a lab – not being sold to the public.
When I first grabbed the Surface the running joke in the office was “Open Mail.” At least two people told me to open the mail application. I tried. After waiting about a minute for the mail application to launch I gave up.
Then I tried Word. Surely this should be a simple, easy-to-use version of Word where I would launch it and immediately be able to begin typing, right? Wrong. Tapping on Word opened up a version of Windows 8 that looks like Windows Vista and then launches Word just like you would see on your desktop computer. Once the canvas loads where you can begin typing the cursor pops up and sits there, flashing at you, waiting to be used. Only, there is a problem, there is no keyboard.
Like the iPad, a physical keyboard does not come standard. The Surface has a few optional keyboards that could be purchased with it but they are pretty expensive and since this is simply a testing unit for Viddler our Head of QA decided we didn’t need the physical keyboard. Arguably, though, the physical keyboard is one of the main reasons why someone would want a Surface.
Anyway, back to Word. So the traditional, desktop version of Word is sitting there – cursor blinking – and there is no keyboard. I’m used to how iOS and Android work so I thought that simply tapping into the area where I’d like to type would be enough for the OS to know that I’d need a virtual keyboard. Only, I’m in the part of the OS (the Windows Vista-looking part) that isn’t smart enough to know this. So, after a few moments of panic, one of my fellow Viddler team members had to run over and show me that there was a button to ask for the virtual keyboard. The entire experience was really quite jarring.
Next, I opened Camera. Camera is one of those applications on Surface that you have to figure out how to use by experimenting. There is no apparent way to do anything. Not even take a photo or record a video. Rather than there being any interface for the application the entire Surface becomes a window to the world around you. Which seems nice in concept but I found it very frustrating. To take a photo you tap the screen. OK, that seems discoverable enough. But, how do I view that photo after I’ve taken it? How do I share it? How do I send that photo to my mother? Well, going into the Photo library application doesn’t show you the photos you’ve taken with the Camera. So that’s not it. Oh, the video I shot with the Camera? That isn’t in the Videos app. This is what you have to do; you have to five-finger pinch within the Camera application to pull up a “slideshow” of your photos/videos that you’ve taken. This is not-so-discoverable.
By this time I was fed up with the Surface. I poked around a bit more and only got more and more frustrated with the device. For instance, I didn’t find a single application that supported portrait-mode. So the device had to be in landscape all the time. Obviously Microsoft intends on you using this thing, kick-stand out, sitting on a desk with the $129 optional physical keyboard attached.
As of today the Microsoft Surface isn’t a tablet. It is a thin PC that still needs a physical keyboard that runs a pretty cool touch OS that should be called Metro and an ancient and terrible OS called Windows. And it is heavy.
November 1st, 2012
It’s really light and easy to hold one-handed. The hardware design — chamfered edges, less tapered back, metal rather than plastic buttons — strikes me as better, more elegant, than that of the full-size iPad 3/4. But it’s disappointing to go non-retina after using the retina iPad for the last seven months. All of the accolades and advantages of retina displays work in reverse. I adore the size and form factor of the iPad Mini, but I also adore the retina display on my full-size iPad. My ideal iPad would be a Mini with a retina display.
I don’t even need to hold an iPad mini to know that my thinking is aligned with John’s. I’ve already made a deal with myself not to buy any more products, from Apple or any other company, that do not include a retina-quality display. The mini looks like a device that has found the right balance of size, speed, and weight. But the display is the thing you stare at the most.
Unlike John, Eliza and I will be waiting for an iPad mini that has a Retina Display. That iPad 4, on the other hand, looks like a good deal to me. Hmm.
(Side note to John: iPad Mini? Apple writes iPad mini. So I will too. Sorry.)
September 19th, 2012
Renie Richie’s iOS 6 review on iMore.com is more than thorough.
June 13th, 2012
Andrew Kim, at the speed of light, has already reviewed the new iPad Smart Case. Spoiler: he doesn’t love it.
I had high hopes for this case but it’s simply lacking in proper execution. This is the first time I’ve ever been disappointed this badly by an Apple product. I’m returning it tomorrow.
I’m glad he published this. Saved me $49.
April 12th, 2012
As a follow-up to my link to Danny’s post about Liquipel there is this review on iHeartApple2:
After viewing videos and reading reviews I think Liquipel is a great idea that is just not quite there yet. I think it would be great for protecting your phone in the rain or from spills but a toilet or pool, no way! It’s clear that results will vary in every situation and with this being said I just could not feel confident enough to recommend or use Liquipel right now.
Some protection is better than no protection, I always say. However, one shouldn’t expect to go swimming with one’s iPhone either.
/via fellow-Viddler Thomas Kover (TKO).
November 18th, 2011
Shawn Blanc on the Kindle Touch:
“For the past year and a half I’ve been reading books on my iPad and never felt a need for a Kindle. However, after now using the Kindle Touch for several hours a day over the past few days, I feel as if all the accolades I ever heard about the Kindle were vast understatements.”
To call this review thorough would be an understatement too.
November 17th, 2011
I don’t understand reviews like this one about the Kindle Fire from Amazon by Peter Ha at The Daily:
“Like most convergence devices before it, the Kindle Fire doesn’t do anything exceptionally well (except for buying things via Amazon) but the price is right at $200.”
How in the world is the price right when the product “doesn’t do anything exceptionally well”? I’d say the price is wrong.
February 16th, 2011
I remember rumors of Apple building a display that would allow you to dock your iPhone into it to use it as a computer. Then you’d just undock it and be on your way. That product never saw the light (or was never real to begin with). Motorola, however, has gone and built something fairly compelling – the Atrix 4G. I recommend looking at Engadget’s thorough review of the Atrix 4G. The review isn’t great but I think it is a step in an interesting direction.
June 30th, 2010
London’s White Fang – a story about a wolf whose mother was part dog and father full-on wolf, told mostly from the wolf’s perspective – is full of detail. I don’t know what inspired London to write White Fang but whatever it was it must have driven him to climb into caves, chase small animals and watch a few dog fights – otherwise I have no idea how he could have written this book.
The story of White Fang is nothing too exciting, to be honest. To enjoy White Fang I’m guessing you’d have to be a dog lover, or a nature enthusiast, or simply enjoy reading about the Wild, the American Indian and the gold miner’s life and times through the eyes of an animal. There is no hook, no twist, no one thing that you can point to that would make someone want to read this book.
That doesn’t mean this book isn’t very good. In fact, I would recommend anyone give it a try. London often times feels a bit dry to most people but I think reading a dry book on occasion can really help a reader force focus. Never once, even after pages and pages of a small puppy’s first experiences, did I get bored or think that the story was being purposefully drawn out.
Here is a quick excerpt, ripped from Project Gutenburg where you can read White Fang in whole, where London describes the Wild’s desire to kill anything that moves.
“It is not the way of the Wild to like movement. Life is an offence to it, for life is movement; and the Wild aims always to destroy movement. It freezes the water to prevent it running to the sea; it drives the sap out of the trees till they are frozen to their mighty hearts; and most ferociously and terribly of all does the Wild harry and crush into submission man—man who is the most restless of life, ever in revolt against the dictum that all movement must in the end come to the cessation of movement.”
London’s descriptions of Beauty Smith, who was the owner of White Fang for a time and treats him ill to become a prized dog-fighter, was simply brutal. I tweeted that I thought London had a personal vendetta he was filling with these pages. I thought it was great. He handed it to Beauty Smith. I wish it went on forever.
Looking back I think this is how London wrote White Fang. He probably created a list and story arc for this book. Dog is born. Dog lives. Dog fights. Dog gets angry. Dog gets happy. Dog travels to California. Then, he spent the next few years filling in the middle with as much detail as he possibly could dream up. Down to how the coals from a hot fire feel on the padded foot of a wolf. And somehow he pulled it off beautifully.
I should probably begin to rate books, since I’m reviewing them from time to time. I’ll rate them based on the following categories: Readability (the most important thing to this reader), writing, pace, and story. Here is how White Fang stacks up.
April 5th, 2010
Make no mistake, Crichton’s posthumously published Pirate Latitudes is an adventure book. This book has everything you’d expect in a pirate adventure; pirates, warships, KRAKEN!, cannons, lewd women, drunken brawls, and hurricanes. However it still manages to lack a certain sense of wonder or tension.
This may perhaps be because of popularity of Pirates of the Caribbean and the harsh edge of a good pirate story worn down through comedy relief. A pirate story filled with peril isn’t one that you generally sweat over any more. Perhaps if this book was published in the 1950s it would be much more exciting – but in today’s market (at least in this reader’s imagination) the pirate story has been worn down to the nub.
This isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy it because Pirate Latitudes has its moments. While Crichton has written about voyages on the sea in the past (the most notable of which comes to mind is in Eaters of the Dead and perhaps the young T-Rex’s chase near the waterfalls in Jurassic Park) he certainly didn’t get to go into as much detail as he was able to with Pirate Latitudes. You get the sense that these men really felt much more at home on the sea than they did on land. They were their own society, as it is put in the book, with their own rules, their own code and their own objectives. They knew their craft (one of the characters being called a sea artist) and knew their seas. In this sense Pirate Latitudes was a fun read and I even found myself wishing that Crichton found a way to put even more of the nitty gritty sailing details into the book.
Unlike Prey, this story ended pretty strong and I would actually recommend reading it if you like a good pirate story.
Here are more of my reviews of books by Michael Crichton.
January 19th, 2010
“It’s by far James Cameron’s finest pieces of work and although I’ll be one of the many to grab a Blu-Ray copy, seeing it in theatre is an experience you should not miss out on regardless of how big your Hi-Def TV is. Even the 3D-glasses supplied were a considerable upgrade from the tradition paper and plastic ones so I kept them as a souvenir.”
Agreed, I will too, yes you should, and I did too (twice).
December 21st, 2009
This is the best thing I’ve ever seen. Watch it.
/via Every Star Wars geek I subscribe to.
PS. There is a lot of backstory that goes along with this link. An example of which is that Damon Lindelof, the major creative driving force behind LOST and the recent Star Trek film, watched this and said: “Your life is about to change. This is astounding film making. Watch ALL of it.” That is why I’ve decided to leave my link to this video as simple as possible and just say watch it.
July 28th, 2009
If there is anyone that can grok Google Voice, review it, and relay that information in a way we can all understand – it is Paul Stamatiou. Here is Stammy’s first impressions of Google Voice.
May 7th, 2009
John Gruber made an excellent point in his piece called “Twitter clients are a UI design playground“. The excellent point I’m talking about is made apparent within the very title of the piece. That Twitter (I’m @cdevroe, btw) is an excellent playground for designing UIs for third party clients.
Mike Rundle, whom I had the extreme pleasure of working with at 9rules, is – and I have absolutely no reservations about saying this out loud – one of the very best designers I will ever work with. He also doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty with regards to programming. And he’s done just that with Beak – his foray into developing software for the Macintosh (which is, I think, exactly what he should be doing).
Beak is a simple, yet relatively full-featured Twitter application for the Macintosh that has Mike’s visual tastes dripping all over it. The icons in the application, as an example, could be picked out as Mike’s work from a hundred yards.
One of the differentiators that Beak has going for it, over any of the other Twitter applications I’ve used for the Mac, is the “Stats” tab. Mike chose to use the URL shortener Idek.net, which has a nice, clean, simple API, that allows him to show the number of click thrus on a URL that you’ve shortened from within Beak itself. I think this is both genius and handy. While Tweetie supports all of the URL shortening services I could ever want (and photo posting services too), it doesn’t support showing the statistics of those clicks nor does it even connect me to my account on said URL shorteners (neither does Beak, but at least I can easily check the stats tab).
There are several other nits that Mike has, no doubt pain stakingly [sic], poured over, refined, and included in the first version of this application. Profile pop-up boxes, in-line replies and retweets, and support for multiple accounts all seem like things that someone who was taking the easy way would have left out.
This is still “beta” software people. But I’m very much looking forward to what Mike ends up with before hitting 1.0 and even more looking forward to seeing what he does for his next trick in the world of Mac applications.
May 7th, 2009
He really turns the app on its back and gives it a thorough look. He managed to find a few gems, in the first version of the application, that I never even new were there.
Reading his review, albeit late and after an update has already been released for it, has inspired me to dive into the application a little more fully. I’ve found even more than I thought was there before. Tweetie is a fantastic Twitter application for the Mac.
November 6th, 2008
During our stay on Oahu for the Social Media Club Workshop, Podcamp and Wordcamp Hawai’i, and a little leisure time – Eliza and I stayed at the Wyland Waikiki hotel.
This modern hotel showcases some of Wyland’s (whose name is Robert Wyland, by the way) artwork on nearly every surface available. Wall-sized paintings, sculptures, surf boards, and even tile works on the bottom one of the hotel’s pools all show off the creativity of Wyland.
The rooms are a decent size with all of the amenities that you’d come to expect nowadays. Beautiful flat-panel televisions, high beds, and nice bathrooms. Eliza and I had a room with a fridge and a sink (no range to cook on). We both really enjoyed our stay here.
Not that you spend a lot of time in your hotel when you are in Hawai’i, but I still think it is important to find one that suits your lifestyle. The Xbox-filled gaming room suits my lifestyle, though I admit I didn’t end up using it. The bar in the lobby with some of the better tenders I’ve come across, suits my lifestyle. The free wifi throughout the property, does as well. Â Though, I must say that only having wired access in the rooms was a bit disappointing. Â But Eliza and I quickly took care of that with Mac OS X’s internet connection sharing which is drop dead simple to set up.
Why am I writing about this hotel? Because they were extremely accommodating. They helped out the Podcamp attendees and speakers and also were always on hand when we wanted to chat about the hotel. Something I have never, ever heard of with any other hotel.
And, in the very near future, if you head down to one of the lobby’s two iMacs – you may see Viddler sitting on the desktop ready for you to record your video testimonial for this excellent hotel.
October 17th, 2008
I have always enjoyed Michael Crichton’s writing style. He tends to write in blocks of thoughts and actions, uses new lines to emphasize something that the character feels is important, and jams just enough raw data into his books to make them real, but not enough to turn off most readers.
Airframe was written very much in this same Michael Crichton style – though that may be the only reason I was entertained by the book.
Airframe’s story is centered around Casey Singleton, an employee of an aircraft manufacturer, who finds herself with about one week to figure out what happened on a flight that killed a few people and injured many. The story has a few twists, like most good stories do, in that Singleton is being setup by her bosses to take a fall for the company, that the company itself has had a track record of problems with the plane that aren’t easily explained in a single sentence, and a popular TV-news program is about to run a story on her company’s “deathtrap” of a plane.
Airframe is captivating, no doubt. Again, because I like the way Crichton moves through stories I was able to read this book with ease and without let up. It was never a chore. But when I was finished with the story it didn’t make me want to start again.
If you’re a Crichton fan, I suggest giving this a read – preferably when you are on a plane, as I was when I began reading this book. It makes the story a little more fun.
October 6th, 2008
Even though I read State of Fear a few months ago, I thought I’d jot down my overall thoughts of the book. As you might notice, I read nearly all of Crichton’s works, so even though the subject matter for this book isn’t particularly interesting to me, I read it because Crichton wrote it.
I’m a sheep, I know.
State of Fear is a story about the environment and the effect Global Warming is, or is not, having on it in the world around us. Is is also about a lawyer trying to pull all of the pieces together, along with a cast of other characters, of a plot to wreak some environmental havoc just as an environmental group is trying to score some dough for their work.
There is more to it, of course, like the whole ideal jousting about the environment and about whether or not Global Warming is a real threat, caused by humans or not, and even if it is having an effect on the planet as we speak.
An interesting way for an acclaimed author to get the information out there and into the hands of his readers without, perhaps, writing a work of non-fiction.
It is also hard to see where Crichton sits on this issue. Frankly, I do not care. Which is why I think he chose to keep it as vague and balanced as it appears to be by this uninformed environmental novice. It really seems like a report on the facts wrapped in an action-packed adventure.
Which is why, I believe, State of Fear will never become a movie. It would be very hard to strike this same balance with a movie. Everything would be critiqued. The Director’s opinions, the actor’s, the screenwriter’s, etc. Everyone that worked on the movie would have a play for the tilt.
Either way I applaud Crichton for keeping my attention long enough to give me all of the facts about Global Warming. I’ll bet it was a challenge.
September 20th, 2008
Writing on my personal site feels so much different than writing on TUG.n, a site I’ve all but abandoned due to other priorities. Â But every now and then I get the opportunity to put something together that I feel is best suited on that site, and so I’m happy to say that today I was able to jot down my thoughts about iTunes 8′s Genius feature.
If you have a moment, go give it a read.
Source: Hey Mr. Genius DJ!
