johnwilker.com

iApp Review – Procamera

I got an email a few weeks ago, asking me to take a look at ProCamera. Sure why not, I’d love something that was better than the built in app, and GorillaCam came just shy of the mark for me. ProCamera (iTunes Link) might be it.
Procamera has an impressive list of features.

Steady Cam
timer
autosave
full rez zoom
virtual [...]

Why I won’t be buying ebooks for a while

When I finished my last ebook the other day, i went to my bookshelf. Mainly it was to save a little money, I read fast when I read fiction, so I was consuming about 2-3 books a month, not a cheap hobby.

So I picked up a trusty paperback I’ve read 3 times previous but not recently (the last 4 years or s0).

I had forgotten how nice a book feels. No I’m not suddenly an anti paper luddite, but real books are nice, the feel of paper (in this books case) the degrading spine (mass market paperbacks sadly aren’t designed to last) requiring kid gloves to read it, etc.

But that nostalgia aside, i’m still a big proponent of eBooks, but I’m reconsidering my opinion that they’ve ‘arrived’

Not only does Amazon cow towing to McMillan bother me, but in general the trend of Amazon and the publishers.

I had hoped after what? 2 years of Kindle sales, stats like every Kindle owner on average buys 2.7 or something more books than non Kindle owning Amazon users, etc. That the publishers would get onboard the clue train.

But that doesn’t seem to have happened.

Social Media – The new ‘Internet’, hello 1998

Anyhoo. history aside, I was struck the other day at a MHSMC meeting that social media is the new ‘internet’. Mainly this relates to my love of all things Cluetrain Manifesto. One of the of the primary things I took away from Cluetrain in my first reading as a lowly Software developer at a mortgage company where marketing outnumbered IT (as well as my many subsequent readings), was that it’s important, and beneficial for enterprises to let their people be people. Lower the walls, don’t raise them. I thought we were making progress here.

It seems that social media is moving away from that if MHSMC is any indicator. The presentation this month was on Corporate use of Social Media.

My take on the iPad – Might as well join in

Despite what my more fervent fanboi friends think, I don’t hate the iPad.

As the organizer of a conference for iPhone developers, I can’t wait to see what they do with the iPad. I can’t wait for panels on the differences, etc.

This post isn’t about that. This post is about me as a techy, power user consumer. The exact person the iPad isn’t for.

Alex Payne captures my thoughts on this really well. From a Flex Developer standpoint (Yeah that’s right hater, Flash!) I think Doug sums it up well.

I’m not gonna lie I let the rumor mill wind my expectations up more than I should have.

How Dell can survive and truly compete

The topic turned to Apple of course, the Apple tax, and what it means, and Dell.

We all agreed that we pay more, but where Dell and HP, and windowz peeps use the term in a negative, we see it as paying for a more awesome product, that is the sum of it’s parts not the parts. The whole spec comparison has been done to death. Apple gear isn’t RAM, HDD, glossy screen, etc. It’s the whole package, the OS, the industrial design, the hardware, and the overall feeling of owning something that retains value, isn’t plastic, and does what you want.

We got to talking about Dell (not sure why we focused on Dell, we probably all owned a few so they’re familiar)

Apps for Kindle coming soon. Meh

Maybe i’m the first to say it, but when it comes to apps on the Kindle,

M.E.H.

I totally understand it, Amazon is knee jerking because 1. the Nook has a touch screen that’s not eInk, so apps make sense (maybe?) and 2. we’re a week away from Apple’s “big announcement” that will surely be a Tablet, and surely not be a Kindle killer anymore than the iPhone or any netbook currently on the market is.

Here’s why I’m meh.

The Kindle has 1 screen, it’s eInk. For those that don’t know that means it’s digital paper. There’s no animation capability (well very very very little). EInk draws the screen, then stops, it doesn’t re-arrange the ink molecules/pixels until you tell it to, and when it does, there’s a flash of the screen as things shift. It’s not a blinding or anything, but it’s there and it pretty clearly means any app can’t be a fast screen drawing app.

iApp Review – GorillaPod gorillacam

I love my GorillaPod. So much so I bought Nicole an additional one. I used it during RIAdventure 2009 to hold my Flip cam while recording sessions, and we’ve used it at the end of a trekking pole when hiking.

When i saw that GorillaPod had an iphone app, and a camera app no less I was intrigued.

My thoughts on TUAWs iPhone Wishlist

Make sure to check out TUAWs, What we want to see in iPhone 4.0 post. It’s an interesting read. What struck me the most was that most people want things, they have to know Apple (Steve Jobs) will never, ever do,

1. Status light. Never gonna happen. Blackberries have them, iPhones won’t. I admit I’d love to know without waking my phone up that I’ve got new emails, SMSs or voicemails. What I think Apple MIGHT do is a lock screen that’s actually useful. The Jailbreak community has done it, and it’s very nice. I can see message counts, even weather, etc. All without unlocking my phone.

The TSA – Killer of Air Travel

So I was reading about the Nigerian dude that tried to blow up that plane… A few things came to mind about the TSA and the current state of air travel. You can see one post on the subject here. Are we safer now than in pre TSA days? Bombers seem to be getting on planes still, and people are constantly talking about “Oh snap, I’ve been carrying this knife thru airports for years, totally forgot”

Wil Wheaton said it best “It’s only a matter of time before the TSA decides that passengers simply will not be permitted to board airplanes. You know, for safety.”

The TSA and United are colluding to rip off customers

In what is surely another attempt by the TSA to ruin air travel “in the name of safety” they’ve apparently instituted a rule where they randomly select passengers and deny them the ability to check-in online before their flight.
Why? Beats me. I didn’t undergo any additional screening. The ticket agent simply followed the normal steps, [...]

keep looking »