Thursday, September 27, 2012

~ Pictures of the day ~

Came across these two dis-connected pictures while going through my Twitter TimeLine (TL). What do you have to say?

Prince William on the Crazy Diamond Jubilee celebration tour. Whoz paying for it anyway?

Police officers are surrounded by protestors in Madrid this week. Spain seems to be in a financial crisis.

Photographs: Suzanne Moore

Monday, September 24, 2012

~ Phantom iPhone ringing ~


It's funny to witness the reaction of people who own iPhones in a crowded place. When one of their phone rings you see all of them reach out for their iDevice :D

You could sub-classify this as Phantom iPhone ringing syndrome instead of the otherwise 'Phantom phone ringing' syndrome ;)

Image source: Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Thursday, September 20, 2012

~ Reinvention doesn't always help, unless it's better ~



The author nails it on the head *Apple, you really shouldn’t mess with things that work.* That suggestion applies to any company or any individual.

Unless you can improvise an existing product or service for better functionality then why even bother venturing into it. Apple could be doing that for strategic business reasons, which most of us know:

  1. Reduce dependency with Google or Google products
  2. Youtube being the first
  3. Maps being the next
  4. Siri's dependency on Google's Search API is reducing
  5. Thermonuclear war ;)



The consumer will / should always be the king. They deserve better products or services for the money they pay. Today after many users upgrading their devices to iOS6, loyal iPhone users have been complaining about the home grown Maps app by Apple.

Most products or services get better with time. There is lot of ideation, time & energy that goes into product iterations before seeing the light and being accepted by end users. Am sure Apple is gonna turn around and address these trivial burning issues.


However, what appears strange is how can the quality of software deteriorate from an Apple stable. If your next question is why are so many people complaining much for just one app? Well maps is an app which has daily usage by many - for turn-by-turn navigation, finding public transport, etc. Also, Apple has always set the bar high be it - UX, Product Design, Innovation, Ideation, even Project Management. (How do I know about PM? I have been lucky to work with Apple on their Developer Forums community in 2008). When you have set the bar so high, it's natural that people notice the flaws when they are using them.

If Google releases their native Maps app for iOS, then it would be great to see how many users would prefer it over the pre-bundled app.





Just Googled for the title of this post & found Jeff Atwood's  post - Don't Reinvent The Wheel, Unless You Plan on Learning More About Wheels - written in 2009. Makes a good read.

Updates

25 Sep 2012 
Has Apple Peaked?

29 Sep 2012 
Tim Cook's apology
Tim Cook's apology shows that Apple cares, but still needs to fix problem

Sunday, September 16, 2012

~ Visual Journey ~

Discovered the documentary 'Baraka' by Mark Magidson & Ron Fricke after watching the trailer of Samsara.

I curious to know how they shoot their documentaries. Don't think their subjects know they are being filmed. The reason I state that is due to the fact, none of the subjects react; they just continue with their chores - be it smoking in a railway station, someone enjoying ice-cream, taking bath, etc.

Most of the sequences are shot as if a camera is suspended in air and self-recording those moments. Watch the documentary 'Baraka' to know what I mean.


Friday, September 14, 2012

~ Mind at work ~

You know yourself best. So, figure out where you stand & where you want to be.



Make the necessary changes to your daily deeds to reach there.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

~ Late to the '4G' party ~

As I was going through the launch of EE in the British Isles, came across this section { http://ee.co.uk/#section-4gee}and noticed that I don't see an iPhone in the advt. 



Strangely, Apple for once is late to arrive on the 4G scene. With 25 hours to go for the launch of iPhone 5 & Apple to introduce it as the yet another amazing iPhone. Let's see where the battle of smartphones will go.





I feel the hype-cycle for smartphones, tablets & mobile OS is passé, which has reached saturation level for many OEMs. Hope this launch will not trigger another round of battle. Been reading these rumors y'day - Samsung will reportedly sue Apple over LTE use on iPhone 5 

The goal of technology should be more of an enabler / catalyst to make our lives comfortable, than anything else.

On a side-note, Naveen is very happy with EE launch :{

Update
Viewpoint: Apple's iPhone launches no longer excite

Saturday, September 08, 2012

~ H+ ~

Don't worry it ain't another Social Network competing with Facebook or Google+. Rather it is a new Digital Series from Warner Brothers. The series is available on Youtube & new episodes released every Wednesday.

The theme revolves around the following subjects - nano tech + networked world + social media + augmented reality + life + evolution. Looks interesting after watching couple of episodes. Take a look at the trailer & if you have the bandwidth then stream it.



You can subscribe to the series here. Wish in the future all of them move away from popular channels and put their content on Youtube / Vimeo.

Via: G+ post. Another reason why I choose to be on G+, where I come across diverse content.