All Points North

e by gum

chris — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 17:22:39 +0000

Hey Steve Jobs, it’s not fair that I have to buy two of these now.

chris — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:26:59 +0000

The greatest gift we’ll get this year from Fife

chris — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 11:59:42 +0000

The best gifts are the ones you weren’t expecting. This parcel arrived the other day and in it was a postcard. Here’s what it said:

Dear Niamh,
when I was on holiday in America I went to see this mountain where the faces of four important presidents have been carved. But before the bus stopped here it stopped at a big supermarket so that we could buy our lunch. There I saw some buttons for sale and when I saw one that had the words Niamh is cute as a button written on it I thought Niamh is cute as a button. So I bought the button.

It came all over America with me, in my suitcase. It was in Yellowstone Park where I saw a big black bear who was busy searching in the snow so he didn’t see me or the button. The button has been in South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California and now it is with you in Halifax. Perhaps you will go to all these places one day and have great adventures. Lots of love to you and to mummy and daddy XX Linda.

To add to the already amazing story the button is attached to a cardigan which we presume was also knit by auntie Linda. A truly wonderful gift, from the heart and just because. Gave me a lovely, fuzzy warm feeling inside and really made my day.
Thank you auntie Linda

New Apple Boiler Plate Copy

chris — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:52:13 +0000

Compare

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices

Contrast

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution with the Apple II, then reinvented the personal computer with the Macintosh. Apple continues to lead the industry with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system, and iLife, iWork and professional applications. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store, has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

pasta, pasta, pasta!

chris — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 15:25:08 +0000

Another Apple Graph – Revenue by product since 2000

chris — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:11:04 +0000

What’s interesting, to me at least is how Mac revenues really start to balloon in 2006. As with the previous this isn’t the whole of 2010 so the drop at the end should correct come the next earnings call. Also, look where the iPad starts off.

Big version here

Whilst listening to the Apple earnings call

chris — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:54:00 +0000

I made a graph with unit sales for Apple from 2000 to 2010. It’s worth noting that the 2010 figures only include quarters 1-3 so that big downwards curve in iPod sales probably isn’t as dramatic as it looks here. Still, lots of up there.

Big version here

Five things I’m thinking about

chris — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:52:49 +0000

Five things I’m thinking about.

Devoid of any of my own creativity or imagination I’m following on from Chris Phin and others.

Time

Time is a strange concept, we live by it all of our lives, but really, it doesn’t exist. Time is a manmade construct, sure the sun comes up and goes down, but only we split that into seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years. However, that’s not how I’ve been thinking about time, I’ve been thinking about it in the technological sense.

Lots of people seem to be stuck in the near past and present when it comes to technology. They dismiss or defend pieces of technology based upon what happened shortly before and what’s happening now. Take, for instance, the current mini storm in a teacup that is Flash on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. How long has the Internet been around? By comparison to powered flight we’re still attaching wings made of wax to young boys. To claim that something is dead or that it is irreplaceable just seems wrong to me. Everything that exists will, at some point cease to exist.

I began to form longer term views when I wrote my first review for MacUser. Ian Betteridge (you can see his five things here) read the first line and snorted with laughter. That first line was something like: Digital cameras have come a long way. True, but as Ian pointed out to my wet behind the ears young self ‘bleeding obvious’. I really do see that exact moment as the beginning of something in my own brain like Ian hit a switch, it’s been extended and honed by my work and the advice of others but that was the starting point.

Worse than pointing out the inevitable change over time, however is the idea that nothing does change. People seem to be certain that things will work the way they always did. Apple will lose to Microsoft, Google will lose to Microsoft, there will be only one dominant player in any industry and that will most likely be Microsoft. Imagine how amazing the tech world will be if that’s not the case and five or six companies have enough market share to be relevant, innovative and solvent.

Tide

I want to live by the sea again. When i was at university we lived in Scarborough and as we were students not there during tourist season. Living on the coast is wonderful and I want do do so again. I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately.

Wait

Nobody waits any more, everyone is certain what will happen. The Times puts up a pay wall and IT WILL FAIL, Apple doesn’t add Flash to its products, IT WILL FAIL. The news isn’t so much reporting of what happened anymore as much as it is speculating on what will happen in the future. Take the emergence of personality news readers like Robert Peston and Adam Boulton, they are interviewed as experts all the time. The news ticker never rolls ‘this is wild speculation based on rumours and inside sources with an axe to grind’. No, Robert Peston is held up as some kind of demi-god expert, which he isn’t. I’ve been interviewed a few times for the radio and TV about Apple stuff mainly, but it’s never been used. I like to tell myself that it’s because they ran out of time, but in reality I know it’s because my answers mainly fall into one of two categories: Maybe and Its much more complicated than that. Hardly equivocal and that’s what the news needs, subject A must have an advocate and a detractor and the news reader facilitates the argument. What actually happened is left out because everyone knows that nobody knows yet how that will pan out. ‘will the iPad fail because Apple left Flash out?’ I was asked, my response was ‘let’s wait and see’. The comeback to that answer: ‘Cant you tell me now?’

No

Why is no so popular? I think it’s because yes means more work and responsibility. I wish that yes was the easy answer, but no has so much more appeal as it requires you do nothing. Next time you’re saying no to something ask yourself why you’re saying no.

Man

And here’s where my attempt at witty titles for my five things falls down, almost. I’m going to use man in the sense that it’s people. Not exactly modern and PC but still. I’ve been thinking this a lot recently and it’s something that really does resonate when I read or see an Apple event. When I’m out I notice iPhones, sad yes, but true, and you know who I see using them most? People. Ordinary people, not geeks or sweaty tech types. People who don’t scour the Internet for stories about antenna. People who know nothing of walled gardens and care much less. The iPhone has tipped past that 12% early adopters mark, but importantly it’s bearing down on the late adopters too and the next stop is laggards. And it just goes to show that you can know that people won’t pay that much for a phone that doesn’t run Flash and say no it’ll never sell, but actually if you wait and see you’ll find that’s not necessarily the case.

And here are five things I’ve been trying not to think about:

There are children starving to death whilst we worry about the tog rating of our child’s grow bag.
There are children who have to work to make grow bags for western children.
Somewhere, right now a child is being abused by someone they should be able to trust.
There are people who hate other people for no reason other than they are other people.

There’s not much I can do about the above four things.

Stop giving your shit away for free

chris — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 08:22:14 +0000

Magazines – print, digital or otherwise it’s time to stop. Your magazine is not a website your website is not a magazine.

Gruber vs. Gruber vs. Gruber vs…

chris — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:16:17 +0000

VS.

Who wins?

YOU DECIDE…