Friday, August 9, 2013

"Her"

New film. A story about a lonely writer and a sexy smartphone. Oh no.

How Jonathan Ive got inspired to create the iOS 7 color sheme


How Jonathan Ive... from Max Wohlleber on Vimeo.


For those less than obsessed, this is the upcoming look referred to. Ligher, brighter, fresher colors and a simpler look: 

Sunday, August 4, 2013

2013 Nexus 7 Review

This sounds wonderful. But I don't know that I once again will be lured into buying one more Android device, only to be disappointed at that system's bugginess and clumsiness.
(And one has to wonder if it is not very deliberate that they, like last year, announce this thing near the end of a long year without any new, exciting iPads or Kindle Fires...)

But one thing for sure: price difference between a 16GB model and a 32GB one: only 40 dollars! Apple, are you listening? Your 100 dollars is just opportunism, I'm sorry.


Amazon, don't be disingenuous

I like Amazon a lot, in most ways. But I don't like their Win-All-Or-Die attitude to business, and I don't like how they are sometimes too comfortable with leaning against the borders of disingenuousness (dishonesty).

One example was last big event, where they carefully avoided telling us that the new, lower prices of Kindles were only for the ad-supported varieties. Another one I just saw today, see this message from Amazon:


... Particularly the language "Please ensure that your device is connected to Wi-Fi to receive your content" is almost dishonest. "Ensure" tells us that we must do this, otherwise we won't get the content. But my Kindle is a wifi and 3G Kindle. I paid extra for this, and Amazon knows full well exactly which one I have.

They are apparently trying to get people weaned off using the 3G (cell phone network) in order to cut down their own bills. That in itself is OK, but virtually lying to people to get them to do this? That is not okay. They may waste collectedly a lot of time for people who may have better things to do, and they may make many people anxious about getting their content, if they are not experts on the technology.

If people paid for their 3G model, Amazon must deliver what they promised, delivery wherever there is coverage, and not try to weasel out of it. This promise has been at the heart of the Kindle experience which was promised so beautifully and so loudly in their commercials.

The message could be turned completely honest and straightforward if the sentence was changed to: "You may receive your content faster if your device has wi-fi turned on."