Tech Inertia

Mainstream tech has stagnated - let's think different, let's get tech moving again.

  • Siri is the future...

    • 19 Oct 2011
    • 0 Responses
    •  views
    • Apple Siri iPhone4S
    • Edit
    • Delete
    • Tags
    • Autopost

    Hal9000_siri1

    I've posted before about the future of the iPad - I feel that in another 10-15 years time, we'll all be using 20"+ tablets with multi-touch versions of Photoshop, InDesign etc.

    I need to add another aspect to this - Siri, the A.I. that ties it all together.

    Although a huge multi-touch tablet has been my dream, a nagging doubt has always been at the back of my mind, do I really want to multi-touch everything, all day, everyday, even for the most mundane tasks?

    Probably not. Imagine choosing a particular font from a list of 200, cutting out an image using the pen tool, typing on an onscreen keyboard - all day.

    Even with the most efficient, elegant OS, this would be tiring.

    Imagine now that Siri could do most of that, just by listening to you. Combine with that a seasoned multi-touch user, and you have a seriously productive workflow.

    And it all belongs to Apple.

    • Tweet
  • Life goes on, Apple goes on...

    • 17 Oct 2011
    • 0 Responses
    •  views
    • Apple philip k dick think different
    • Edit
    • Delete
    • Tags
    • Autopost

    Author-philip-k-dick

    Referencing the previous statement again from PKD, I've got more to say on this:

    "Eveything I see is plastic and glass, and gaudy colours and strangely made... the natural question therefore comes to mind is -who made it? why is it so crummy? why is it so degraded and falling apart?"

    I think Apple would add to this in agreement:

    Why doesn't it work?

    Why is it cheaply made?

    Why do companies sell defective products?

    Who says it must be this way?

    Why can't we do this differently?

    It seems to me that only Apple thinks this way. Because Apple is the only company making 'the whole widget', maybe it's only Apple that can think this way.

    • Tweet
  • They really don't know...

    • 15 Oct 2011
    • 0 Responses
    •  views
    • Apple Mac RIM Shazam Steve Jobs iPhone
    • Edit
    • Delete
    • Tags
    • Autopost
    Rim-iphone

    A lot has been said about Steve's passing, and even more will be said about whether Apple will continue it's meteoric rise, and continue hitting the ball out of the park.

    To tell you the truth, nobody can predict the future, (although I'm sure there will be an app for that eventually), all we can do is observe and comment.

    I observed recently 2 friends who were exclusive Blackberry users. They didn't use them at work, they were their personal phones and chose them mainly for the hardware keyboard, with the comment that, "they could never use one of those touchscreens."

    Well I met them recently for a meal and guess what? they both pulled out iPhone 4's.

    I wasn't too surprised, but what did surprise me were the reasons why they chose one.

    Their contracts were up for renewal and they walked into their local phone shop, and were persuaded by the staff to get an iPhone.

    Their comment was, "we didn't go in wanting an iPhone, but they let us play with them for a while and we're hooked!"

    Since then, they have gone 'app crazy' showing me various cat apps, apps for Halloween, Christmas, joke apps, you get the idea.

    I showed them Shazam whilst in the restaurant - they were gobsmacked and downloaded it immediately.

    This isn't really unusual, as Apple's user experience is excellent, but the thing to take home here is this:
    • They don't know who Steve Jobs is
    • They don't know Apple's history
    • They don't know (yet) how the Mac differs from Windows
    • They just know what they like

    You could say that the reason why people choose a Blackberry over and iPhone and a PC over a Mac, is because of the legacy of opinion that surrounds both topics.

    It's going to be pretty easy to topple RIM, they haven't had a chance to get ingrained into people's habits.

    The reason why the Mac is finding harder to topple Windows, is because it's been around much longer, and has had a chance to get into people lives, habits and personalities.

    Just give us time.

    • Tweet
  • IT'S TIME TO BEGIN AGAIN...

    • 8 Oct 2011
    • 0 Responses
    •  views
    • Apple Steve Jobs iPhone mac os ken macdailynews philip k dick the mac geek gab twitter
    • Edit
    • Delete
    • Tags
    • Autopost

    Screen_shot_2011-10-08_at_11
    My last post was almost a year ago, and I must admit, I thought I was done with blogging.

    Twitter had seemed to replace much of what I wanted - blogging is all about you, it's your personal spin on events, and what better (and quicker) way to do that, than to post short messages with a link to the event in question.

    The past 2-3 days have made me realise that I'm not done with blogging, and I have much more to say regarding all things Apple and tech in general.

    Of course, as you've probably realised, the event that has spurred me on, is the sad death of Steve Jobs.

    I'm based in the UK, and I learned of his death in the most abrupt and weird way possible. My iPhone awoke me at 5.45am with an alarm, and I had set up notifications on The Boy Genius Report app, and there, in a little sad blue box were the words, "Breaking: Steve Jobs dead at 56".

    Numbness and the day's working trawl followed. I quickly went to MacDailyNews to confirm, and then left it at that, not really wanting to confront it.

    I surfed Twitter occasionally through the day, looking at other's inevitable reaction, but I didn't want to react myself.

    The next day, I tried to listen to Mac OS Ken Live, but could only get through about ten minutes of it - too upsetting.

    The Mac Geek Gab is the first content I fully absorbed regarding Steve's death, and it was a great show - 2 ordinary guys talking about how Apple changed their lives. In many ways this was the final reason I was looking for to start commenting again.

    I'll post again as often as I can, I may comment about Steve in more detail, I may not, but I've tried to come up with a sound bite that sums up what Steve Jobs means to me, and I'll say this:

    PhilipKDick was once quoted as saying,

    "Eveything I see is plastic and glass, and gaudy colours and strangely made, and [therefore] human beings begin to take on the same sort of plastic oddness, and our eyeballs seem to take on a glassy look. The entire world seems to take on a fake, artificial 'made' quality. The natural question therefore comes to mind is - who made it? why is it so crummy? why is it so degraded and falling apart?"

    The unique technologies that Apple and Steve Jobs create, driven by innovation, passion and the desire to make devices that not only look beautful, but act beautifully as well, stop that statement from becoming true.

    • Tweet
  • RIM and Microsoft were in denial, shock; thought Apple was lying about original iPhone...

    • 27 Dec 2010
    • 0 Responses
    •  views
    • Apple Microsoft RIM iPhone
    • Edit
    • Delete
    • Tags
    • Autopost
    via macdailynews.com

    Great article over at MacDailyNews via Shacknews. choice comment is here:

    "The iPhone did many amazing things, but what stands out in my mind was how it proved that these assumptions were flat-out wrong beyond any reasonable doubt. Apple pretty gave everyone the finger and said, "Fsck you guys we can build your distant impossible future today.""

    For those paying attention Apple's been doing this since the Apple I.

    • Tweet
  • Microsoft details its compatibility efforts in Ofiice 2011

    • 18 Aug 2010
    • 0 Responses
    •  views
    • Apple Microsoft Office Office 2011
    • Edit
    • Delete
    • Tags
    • Autopost
    via 9to5mac.com

    Microsoft detail their commitment to the Mac by showing the latest update to Microsoft Office for the Mac - Office 2011. 
     Not that I use Office much now, because there are so many alternatives available, but if you need to share documents or stay compatible with a PC-based workplace then it pays to have the official mac version of Office.

    Hang on though, I thought:

    Macs don't work as well at work or at school. If most of the computers in your office or school run Windows you may find it harder to get things done with a Mac.
    Sharing documents and spreadsheets - sharing files with PC users can be tricky. Your documents might not look right and your spreadsheets might not calculate correctly.

    From Microsoft's own website of course.

    The late and very great Douglas Adams wrote, "it's not just that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, the right hand doesn't really know either."

    • Tweet
  • We are the 1 in 20...

    • 17 Aug 2010
    • 0 Responses
    •  views
    • Adobe Apple Flash iOS iPhone
    • Edit
    • Delete
    • Tags
    • Autopost
    Media_httpwwwblogcdnc_zgsmw
    We are the one in 20, 
    A number on a list, 
    We are the one in 20, 
    You can pretend we don't exist, 
    Once nobody knew me, 
    But I was always there, 
    A statistical reminder, 
    WITH NOW 48% MARKET SHARE...

    Lyrics courtesy of UB40.

    Article courtesy of TUAW.

    • Tweet
  • Apple set for legal battle with ITV over new set-top box...

    • 16 Aug 2010
    • 0 Responses
    •  views
    • Adam Crozier Apple Daily Mirror iTV
    • Edit
    • Delete
    • Tags
    • Autopost
    Media_httpimagesmirro_silgs
    via mirror.co.uk

    So some hack from the Mirror rings up Adam Crozier and says something along the lines of, "there's a rumour that Apple's TV venture is going to be renamed iTV - care to comment?"

    Adam, who has better things to do with his time, like putting the channel behind a pay-wall, says, "Meh". 

    The Mirror then make some stuff up for page views, and hilarity ensues.

    We then get an 'article', with the following choice nuggets:

    "The computer giant" - thank you Mirror,

    "Courtroom showdown" - ooh sounds exciting,

    "ITV meeting with lawyers" - wow sounds official,

    "Global ban" - holy cow!

    "A channel insider" - the receptionist at the front desk,

    "Problems with iPhone 4" - what's that got to do with anything,

    "Apple refused to comment" - evil, conniving Apple - up to their old tricks again, who's gonna' stop them?

    Lots of sites have picked this up and I suppose it's inevitable now that Apple is mainstream, but come on.  Apple have said before that iTV is an internal name and won't be used in marketing materials, so this non-article should be resigned to the bin.

    • Tweet
  • Why the Hell Did Apple Pull Camera+ From the App Store?

    • 12 Aug 2010
    • 0 Responses
    •  views
    • Apple Camera+ Gizmodo iPhone
    • Edit
    • Delete
    • Tags
    • Autopost
    Media_httpcachegawker_ffemi
    via gizmodo.com

    Gizmodo, fanning the flames of Apple hatred.

    Here's your answer Gizmodo:

    "It's because Apple wants to avoid the bad press/lawsuit (that will no doubt be promoted by sites such as yours) that will happen when someone turns up their volume too high, puts their headphones on, plays a song, tries to urgently reduce the volume and instead takes a picture."

    The volume button has to be the most important button on any music playback device - Apple is right to stop that default behaviour from being changed.

    • Tweet
  • Microsoft's worried...

    • 9 Aug 2010
    • 0 Responses
    •  views
    • Apple Marketing Microsoft
    • Edit
    • Delete
    • Tags
    • Autopost
    Media_httpwwwblogcdnc_nsxeq
    via tuaw.com

    Microsoft has released another round of ads aimed at PC users, to stop them switching to the Mac.

    I'll leave the analysis of the claims to others, but the one thing that strikes me is that a lot of people say that it is another round of Apple vs Windows.

    It not quiet, because Apple's ads didn't ask Mac users to stop switching to Windows, because they weren't. Both campaigns are different approaches to different issues. Microsoft is responding to Apple, but Apple doesn't respond to Microsoft.

    Every round of Microsoft's ads is asking, nay pleading their user base to stop switching to the Mac.
    This is the wrong approach for 2 reasons:

    1) It puts Microsoft in a defensive position, aka "on the back foot", which is a very undesirable position from a marketing perspective - you can't build marketing momentum whilst retreating,

    2) and they are legitimizing Apple as a brand to take seriously, and also they're admitting that Apple have made great market success.

    Thanks for that Microsoft - please carry on.

    • Tweet
  • « Previous 1 2 3 4 Next »
  • About

    At the company I work for, there's a person that does the photography, there's a person that does the photoshop work, there's a person who designs the artwork in InDesign and there's a person that handles the marketing, manages the advertising budget and oversees the PR, and all of those people ARE ME.

    I also run 3 websites, and try to post to this one...

    Yes, I'm tired...and a bit grumpy at times...

    5084 Views
  • Archive

    • 2011 (10)
      • October (10)
    • 2010 (86)
      • December (4)
      • August (12)
      • July (9)
      • May (8)
      • April (15)
      • March (8)
      • February (15)
      • January (15)
    • 2009 (35)
      • November (9)
      • October (6)
      • September (13)
      • August (2)
      • March (1)
      • February (4)
    • 2008 (39)
      • December (4)
      • September (3)
      • June (12)
      • May (7)
      • April (10)
      • February (1)
      • January (2)
    • 2007 (10)
      • December (1)
      • November (1)
      • August (1)
      • March (1)
      • February (3)
      • January (3)
    • 2006 (17)
      • December (1)
      • November (2)
      • October (1)
      • August (4)
      • July (1)
      • June (2)
      • April (1)
      • March (2)
      • January (3)
    • 2005 (10)
      • November (6)
      • October (2)
      • September (1)
      • June (1)

    Get Updates

    Subscribe via RSS
  • Sites I Like

    • Mac Daily News
    • Mac Surfer
    • The Small Wave.
    • Daring Fireball
    • Edible Apple