anothersamchan

My Mobile Predictions for the year

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:00:05 -0800

hamburglr: First, go grab some headphones. The best ones you’ve...

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 01:14:58 -0800

First, go grab some headphones. The best ones you’ve got. If the best ones you’ve got are these suckers (or something similar), you should really go buy new ones, but use the best you’ve got for right now.

Take a break from whatever you’re doing for 2 minutes and listen, but just listen to the whole thing, even if you have to multi-task.

Headphones on? Ok. Good.

Now, press play.

“Upular (3D Audio Version)” - Pogo

Welcome to the future.

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 22:47:17 -0700

Welcome to the future.

Success isn’t defined by money, but the essence of this...

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 01:54:18 -0700

Success isn’t defined by money, but the essence of this video still works wonders.

Google Plus has 40 Million Users

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 01:34:31 -0700

Google Plus has 40 Million Users:

If they counted me as a user, they don’t have 40 million users.

Photo

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:53:12 -0700

What We Can Learn from Steve Jobs

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 08:08:05 -0700

What We Can Learn from Steve Jobs

Walt Disney, Tupac, Steve Jobs - 3 of the greatest story tellers...

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 07:08:06 -0700

Walt Disney, Tupac, Steve Jobs - 3 of the greatest story tellers this generation has ever seen.

We’ll catch up on FaceTime later Steve. For now, take a well deserved break.

Why Apple Refuses To Get A Bigger Screen

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 07:11:06 -0700

Like many others, I had ‘bigger screen’ on my wishlist of iPhone 4S features, but realistically, I knew that the chances of an 4.0” iPhone were slim to none. This is because the screen size has been an integral part of the App Store’s overwhelming success.

If you’ve paid attention, you’ll have noticed that every iPhone since it’s inception has always rocked a 3.5 screen. This was done intentionally, and purposefully. This has been Apple’s promise to developers: make an app with us, focus on awesome UI, and we’ll make it worth your while.

Their competitors Windows 7, Android, and BlackBerry OS, don’t have the same promise. I’ve seen developers struggle first hand to make 4 different interfaces work for the Pearl, Curve, Torch, and Bold. Essentially, the developer makes four versions of one app for one operating system. No wonder BlackBerry apps cost more.

But for an iPhone Developer, there is a realistic chance that the same app they built for the original iPhone is still very much relevant today and they have had 4 years to improve usability on the same screen.

Instead of changing screen sizes, they doubled the resolution using Retina Display and I can’t emphasize how big of a deal it was. I am writing this on a 13” Macbook Air, and while it’s the same screen size as my old Macbook, I can tell you that the change from 1280x800 to 1440x900 has made an incredible difference in how I use the computer (I now rarely use my external monitor). It’s like using a 15” laptop without the weight.

Doubling the resolution is a lot smoother transition for developers than changing the size of the screen. Everyone raves about the beauty of retina display, but few have talked about the amount of work it’s saved for developers.

Apple recognized early on that unlike computer software where applications are not handicapped by screen size, most mobile applications are run fullscreen. Since the App Store is a billion dollar business, that makes changing the screen size a billion dollar decision.

This is not to say that every iPhone will remain the same size from now until forever. Apple has never been a company that’s afraid of change, and the iPad screen has already forced iOS apps to require a second interface if they hope to serve both audiences. But with the iPhone4 form factor getting unprecedented sales numbers in the last year, there’s simply no reason to make a billion dollar decision just to show up devices like the Sony Xperia Arc.

Image by Apple.com

Thoughts on the Pending iPhone(S)

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 22:26:00 -0700

Things I Care About:

How usable Assistant will be. Voice recognition technology has sucked since it was introduced. Have Apple and Siri solved this problem?
iMessage: Can it replace the Whatsapp/imo/Beluga/SMS setup (ridic) I currently have?
Battery life: How will the battery handle the rumoured heavy voice recognition usage, HD video recording, and LTE?
Better video transfer: iMovie was cool, but transferring it over to my mac made me feel like a Windows user.
Bigger screen: Screen sizes are everything. Just ask the iPad.
Carrier Lock: With most carriers now carrying the phone, will carriers still bother locking it?

Things I Don’t Care About:

8MP Camera. There comes a point when the number of megapixels don’t matter anymore. For me, that number was 5. A low-light sensor improvement would be nice though.
Teardrop Form Factor: the iPhone4 is currently sexiest phone in the world. There’s no need for change.
iCloud Music: I’m Canadian, so selection will ~~probably~~ suck.
64GB Memory. There comes a point when memory doesn’t matter to me anymore. 32GB is that point for phones. I don’t need 10 Twitter apps anyway and it’s a good push to load your pictures.
HD Angry Birds. I don’t need more kids asking to play with my phone. I need all my battery power for updating my Facebook status.
NFC Wallet: I’m surprisingly low-tech when it comes to my wallet. My credit card doesn’t even have a chip in it because I don’t want to remember another PIN. Besides, Tim Hortons doesn’t even accept Visa, you think they’d accept my phone?
Adobe Flash Support: You shouldn’t care either.

More is Not Always Better

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 21:00:00 -0700

5 years of writing papers at school wired me to think that good writing was making your point with as many elaborate words as possible. It’s not.

Real Artists Ship

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 02:00:15 -0700

Real Artists Ship:

…and real writers write.