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30.01.2010 Why is everyone bitching about the lack of Flash on the iPad ?
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t want flash on the iPad. Most of the people complaining want flash for video sites like YouTube – the thing is, Its easy for site owners to impliment alternative video formats for the iPad, just like they do on YouTube and BBC iPlayer.
The only other thing flash does that’s of any interest is games but all those existing web games out there are designed for mouse actions – trying to play those games on an iPad would be like trying to steer a car with two peices of rope. Sure you could make it work but it’d be a shitty driving experience! If Apple did add Flash to the iPad they would just get flooded with complaints by people who can’t play FarmVille on Facebook properly.
Add to that the fact that Flash is a resource hog and a drain on battery life and you have one hell of an argument for leaving it out.
The guys at Apple are amongst the best user experience designers in the world -they have left Flash out because it would simply suck on that platform. These guys know what they’re doing, I think it’s about time we trusted them!
27.01.2010 The New Apple Tablet – My Guess
Well, it’s that time of year again where everyone gets so hyped up about the impending release of the latest Apple product that the Internet boils up to a fever pitch and the tech press goes insane trying to guess what Steve will reveal. This year, they say it’s going to be a Tablet PC of some type.
As a Mac fanboy, I feel it’s my duty to at least speculate on what we’re going to get in public, before the event, just so that I can say “I was right” or “Apple was wrong” when it finally happens. So, here we go:
Name
There has been a lot of debate about this one, but I think that it’s not going to have an iName. This will not be the iPad or the iTablet. I think it’ll simply be called the Apple Tablet.
Form Factor
Apple isn’t especially fond of giving consumers lots of choice, so I believe that the Tablet will come in a single size – 10″ diagonal. The look will very closely match the iPhone – Black or white back (one or the other, I don’t believe there will be a choice) and a chrome bezel around the screen. I think there may be some buttons, but I think they will be on the sides – I think the front will be reserved for the screen and maybe a small front facing camera. There will not be a home button on the front of the case.
Speakers will be small and subtle like the iPhone and there will be a dock connector along one of the longer edges. It will naturally have a headphone connector (likely at the opposite end to the dock connector). I think this device is designed primarily for home use so it’ll not have access for a SIM card or any 3G connectivity or a normal camera on the outer case.
Naturally the back of the Tablet will have a shiny Apple logo, possibly illuminated like on the Apple laptops.
Features
- 10″ Screen
- 802.11n Wifi
- 64 / 128 GB SSD
- Touch Screen
- Bluetooth
- 1024 x 600 Resolution
Input Method
I think it will be primarily designed for finger inputs like the iPhone, however a stylus will be available for the creative types. I think there will be a couple of new gesture types including one that replicates the way you hold a pen. This will give you a finer level of precision centred between the finger and thumb. There will likely be bluetooth keyboard support as well.
Accessories
Naturally, there will be a dock available for the Tablet. This will mount the Tablet in a horizontal format so it can be used as a digital picture frame when not in use.
I think Apple will sell an optional stylus input for creative types that want to have a finer level of control when performing arty tasks but it will not be included *with* the Tablet. Same goes for a keyboard – there will be an optional Bluetooth keyboard for when you want to do some serious typing.
I have a dream that the Tablet will somehow dock onto the keyboard converting the tablet into a netbook of sorts, but that’s a dream and Apple rarely go for such unattractive
Naturally some kind of case / pouch / sock / rubber skin type thing will also be available soon after launch from the like of iSkin or Griffin technologies.
Operating System / Software
There is no doubt in my mind now that the Tablet will run on a modified version of iPhone OS, however it will likely have a number of differences such as a better keyboard and more space on the home-screen.
Apps such as Mail will likely be modified to make the most of the extra screen real estate with an optional folder view (more like the desktop version of Mail).
I highly believe there will be some kind of art / design package available out of the box for the Tablet, probably more aimed towards the creative sketching crowd rather than architect / engineer types.
I suspect there may be a dock of some kind that shows open and favourite apps.
Functionality
I think the Tablet will have a ’screensaver’ mode that gives you the ability to view a photo slideshow (like a digital picture frame), naturally accompanied by some amazing transitions. There will also be other screensaver modes, such as a clock mode, RSS news feeds (like in OSX) and a widget mode that shows you information such as stocks etc.
The Tablet will definitely feature app switching / multitasking. Anything less would just be silly on a larger more useful device.
A lot of people are saying that Apple are likely to try and take on the Amazon Kindle in the e-book space, so I imagine that despite having an LCD screen it will have amazing support for reading books with gestures to flick from page to page. I also think this may mean that the screen will have a higher DPI than normal screens to make text appear more “real” and easier to read.
I also believe that the Tablet will be able to be used as an external tablet input device for your desktop mac.
Price
The big question! the rumor mill says the price point will be around $1000 dollars which will put it out of reach of most ‘normal’ people. I suspect it’s much more likely to be around $600 and as always, Apple will screw the UK by selling it at £600 despite the stronger pound.
29.09.2009 If Craigslist cost $1
Seth Godin has recently posted a story on his blog detailing how Craigslist could benefit by charging it’s users $1 to post an ad, but I think there’s one benefit that he’s possibly glossed over. If Craigslist charged $1 for ads, there would be less interest from time wasters, hookers and other unwanted types – the reduction in traffic from these kinds of people would result in a drop in traffic to the site, less CPU time dedicated to spam identification and processing those users demands. This would mean Craigslist would need less hardware and less bandwidth to run their site. For your average e-commerce site, that’s probably not a big deal but for a huge brand like Craigslist that would result in a massive reduction in costs, while simultaneously increasing income!
Of course, there’s no way a massive brand like Craigslist hasn’t considered this option, so there must be a reason why they haven’t decided to go with it that Seth and myself have failed to see… or perhaps they’re just scared to make a big change to their business model!
OK… this is definitely my last post now before I go travelling (I leave on Friday this week!). If you want to keep up with me you can do so at:
02.09.2009 Last post before the trip
Hi all,
It’s now one month and one day until I leave to travel the world with my wife and as such, I will be concentrating my blogging efforts on our travel blog. I should be back in the UK around the end of January, so by time I’ve wrapped up the travel blog and what not, it’s likely to be March before you see me posting here again.
So… if you want to know what I’m up to leading up to our travels, where we’re going and our tales from the road, please visit our travel blog at www.warburton.me
29.08.2009 Mmmmmm food!
Giant Garlic King Prawns on a bed of Potato dauphinoise as cooked by two French guys on a giant skillet on Droitwich High Street! Yum!
28.08.2009 Tweaked!
God only knows why it’s taken me so long, but I’ve finally gotten round to tweaking the comment display on this theme. Comments are now nicely styled and the edit textarea box doesn’t extend beyond the width of the site anymore. Enjoy!
28.08.2009 Flash Back…
So… here’s something I haven’t done for a while – the Friday Five! This week… we’re talking about tolerance!
1. How’s your tolerance for alcohol?
It really depends on what I’m drinking and the mood I’m in – on an empty stomach, two pints of lager or two glasses of wine and I can be on my ass, however with a loaded stomach and drinking spirits I can drink most people under the table. For an example, just ask anyone that came to my stag do – they’ll back me up!
That said, these days I don’t drink as much as I used to, so my mad drinking skills are probably somewhat depleted compared to how they used to be. On the other hand, last weekend I was bored and drank the best part of a (large) bottle of Gin.
2. How’s your tolerance for noisy neighbours?
I’m incredibly passive and generally like to avoid confrontation if I can help it. Generally I’ll put up and shut up or respond by being noisier than tho. Living in a flat above a noisy twat helped me realise that people soon get the message when they can hear your music over their own.
3. How’s your tolerance for physical pain?
Pretty good actually. Rather than go to the doctor I prefer to deal with my own ingrowing toenails by ripping them out using nothing but a Stanley Knife and a pair of pliers. I’ve done that on several occasions just to get it over and done with rather than dealing with the bureaucracy of the NHS. I also spent a whole night in agony with appendicitis a few years back just to ensure that my wife could get a good nights sleep after her late shift.
4. How’s your tolerance for intolerant people?
I think tolerance is a great thing and I try to tolerate everything that comes up in my life. Everyone has a right to think what they want, have their own religion and their own lifestyle. It’s not my right to say what people can and can’t do. At the same time Intolerant people are just choosing their own path – I have no right to tell them what they can and can’t think or say or do and as such I tend to ignore them rather than kick off. So… I tolerate them.
5. How’s your tolerance for bad music?
I like what I like and I like a wide range of music, but I can’t stand listening to other peoples music if it doesn’t meet my own musical tastes. That said, I’ll usually shut up and put up rather than start a conflict, with the exception of my wife who listens to some truly shocking music. We have to make joint mix CD’s for the car so we both have a bit of our own style of music.
27.08.2009 Still Nuts!
So… I was flicking through some of my old blog posts (god… the memories!) and I came across this post, during which I took this test to ascertain my mentalness levels. Turns out, by some bizarre coincidence, I’m somewhat less mental than I was back in October 2002! I guess that’s better than nothing! 
| Disorder | Rating |
| Paranoid: | High |
| Schizoid: | Low |
| Schizotypal: | High |
| Antisocial: | Moderate |
| Borderline: | Moderate |
| Histrionic: | Low |
| Narcissistic: | Moderate |
| Avoidant: | High |
| Dependent: | Moderate |
| Obsessive-Compulsive: | Low |
25.08.2009 Slice n Dice
Well… after months of dicking about and shifting from one hosting provider to another, I have finally found one provider that I’m truly happy with.
At first, on the recommendation of other geeks, I signed up for a VPS with MediaTemple in the USA. I had heard loads of great things about them and they have an awesome website, but there VPS was just a big fat fail for me. I’m not sure why but in the couple of months I was with them, they performed several bouts of maintenance, suffered from extremely laggy performance, all that coupled with my pet peeve Plesk was enough to drive me straight out of their arms and into the arms of another.
That other turned out to be Slicehost. Slicehost aren’t like other hosting providers, there’s no ‘plan’ as such, just a choice of distro’s available in a choice of sizes. You pick what you want and then you are on your own to configure that distro however you like. To be honest, on your own is probably about as far from the truth as it could get – their support staff are on hand 24/7 and always extremely helpful no matter what the problem. I suppose ‘free’ would be a better way of phrasing it.
My Slicehost (virtual) server has always been amazingly fast, reliable and they’ve normally told me about downtime (and fixed it!) before I notice it’s happened. Literally, there is nothing I can fault Slicehost on at this time which makes me very, very happy! I think my only complaint is that they are based in the USA – if they could copy their infrastructure to a data center in the UK, I would be very keen to move just because of the geographic aspects and the benefit that has on SEO.
I think the only drawback of using Slicehost is the fact that you may need a bit of experience with Linux based operating systems and shell access to be able to get your server doing something of use. When I started I had a basic understanding of using Linux from the command line (basic move, delete, copy, rename type operations) and some experience of configuring Apache web servers, but beyond that very little. Luckily, Slicehost have some great tutorials that walk you through every stage of the process, from installing your web server of choice (Apache2 FTW!) to adding scripting and database support, even more complex things like securing the box and configuring firewall rules. By following their tutorials I was able to get a fully functional LAMP stack up and running in less than half a day. I’ve done it again a couple of times since (just for fun!) and now have the time down to under an hour!
If you are interested in giving Slicehost a try after reading my review, please use this link as I’ll receive a little bit of credit on my account for the referral
I’m still using Namesco for my domain name registration as they are located just around the corner from me in sunny Worcester and I find their services to be quick and efficient and their DNS administration panel is nice and easy to use. Everything I need really!
07.08.2009 Book Reviews
I’ve been reading quite a few books lately, not sure if it’s just because I’m getting old or what but I seem to prefer reading on paper to staring at my screen like I do for the rest of my life, so I’ve been putting RSS behind me and focusing on reading ‘real’ books instead. Here’s some short reviews of some of my recent reads:
The 4 hour work week – Timothy Ferriss
It’s an inspiring read if nothing else detailing how to manipulate your daily routine to maximise the free time you can spend on personal projects, travelling the world and generally dicking about. I’ve put a number of steps from this book into action and have already managed to make myself way more efficient than I have been in the past. Well worth reading.
How to make millions with your ideas – Dan S. Kennedy
I was a bit disappointed by this book – I was hoping for something radical and outstanding, but what I actually got was a book thats over ten years old featuring outdated marketing schemes and a minimal mention of the ‘information superhighway’ (as the author calls it). I’m sure it was radical for its time, but in 2009 it’s more like a ‘marketing for dummies’ book.
Get to the top on Google – David Viney
A great book with some really interesting tips for anyone with an interest in search engine optimisation, with lots of interesting resources and methods of performing well in search engines. To summarise the book, write lots of good content, optimise the markup then get lots of inbound links. Of course, the book goes into a lot more detail than that, but thats the long and short of it. One of the reasons I bought this book was a promise of access to the authors forum where you can actually discuss SEO with like-minded people and the author himself. Unfortunately, for some reason the author has gone awol and most of the most knowledgeable posters have jumped ship. A great book, let down by a lack of follow up advice on the promised forum.
The Paradox of Choice: Why more is less – Barry Schwartz
I haven’t finished reading this yet, but it’s a pretty in-depth psychology book explaining how your average person is swamped by the multitude of choices they have to make in the modern world and how actually giving people less choice improves their quality of life. I’m already applying principles from this book in my day job and it’s having great results! Highly recommended to anyone that has an interest in psychology or user interaction.
I’m also currently reading a lot of travel books including the ‘backpackers ultimate guides’ BUG Australia and BUG New Zealand, which are a bit crap as a straight read but will be quite interesting I think when I’m abroad. I also have the 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch in my to-read list.
I’m trying to decide what books to take travelling with me for general reading. I’m thinking about taking The Accidental Billionaires: Sex, Money, Betrayal and the Founding of Facebook by Ben Mezrich and Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts. I’m not sure how long they’ll last considering I have a twelve hour flight to China at the start of my journey plus two weeks on the beach in Thailand when we arrive but I’ll need something to keep my occupied.
Finally – this post has finally pushed that noisy skate video post off the front page – hooray, you’ll never be bothered again by that annoying video when visiting my homepage!
