I’ve been a subscriber to various magazines over the years. Since 2006 and to this day I’ve had a subscription to New Scientist (that’s just over 400 magazines delivered to my door alone), previously .Net Magazine and PC Pro.
New Scientist is a weekly periodical and appears in newsagents on a Thursday. Back in 2006 (and for many years) this meant it would arrive on a Thursday in the post. Unfortunately as time went on, it became Friday…and then Saturday. Recently I’d been receiving some issues on the Monday, 4 days after I’d seen it on the newsstand and 3 days before the next issue. This seemed a bit bizarre to me, so decided to switch to the cheaper subscription ‘digital only’ subscription.
I read a lot on my iPad, but i’ve always enjoyed the feeling of ‘switching off’ that comes with picking up a real, printed magazine. That said, I’ve found the NewScientist iPad app a vast improvement on earlier attempts at magazines on tablets. Unlike a lot of earlier magazine apps I tried when I first got an iPad in 2011, the NewScientist app is not a scanned-in image of the printed page. That means text is infinitely sharp, and you can select words to look them up (or even copy and paste them). A push notification alerts me when a new issue is available to download, although so far is hasn’t downloaded in the background as iOS NewsStand are apparently able to do. Being mostly text this does mean the downloads are relatively small, so that’s not a big deal.
One thing that does strike me as odd, being ‘digital only’, is the concept of an ‘issue’ itself. Does The Verge have ‘issues’, does the BBC Newswebsite? Of course not, they’re digital publications. I wonder whether magazines of the future will either. There is, however, something to be said for having a completed body of work that can be enjoyed as a whole, and having it delivered on a regular schedule and to be able to refer to back to an article based on its issue number and page rather than URL.
So glad I made the switch. Not sure I’ll be taking my iPad with me to the beach though. Sand and screens have never been a great mix. For that I’ll resort to good old paper.
Remember when the iPad first came out in 2010, and the first thing everybody said was it was doomed because it didn’t have Flash? Well, it turns out most web site owners were able to accommodate this requirement, and these days even Android tablets and phones lack the once ubiquitous browser plugin. Yet, if you’ve ever browsed the web on an iOS device or an Android device (the chances are you have) you’ll know that in the vast majority of cases, everything has continued to work as normal. Staples of the Internet from BBC News to YouTube keep on working - when it comes to video at least (if you want to run Farmville sans plugin then you’re out of luck).
So when setting up my MacBook with a clean installation of OS X 10.9, I decided to see if it was possible to live without Flash. My guess was it would be, and why not? One less thing installed on your system means a reduced attack surface for malware, fewer processes running and hence better longer life, and in my experience, fewer browser hangs. I was wrong however - instead of using “feature detection” (as good web developers should) to determine whether the browser supports the Flash alternative to video, “HTML5 Video”- it seems the vast majority of sites employ user agent sniffing and will only show you the non-Flash version if you’re on a known mobile device. I kept on being asked to install Flash, even though my iPad works just fine without it. User agent sniffing is the reason why sites designed for IE6 will ask you to “upgrade” if you visit in IE11 -I can forgive any web developer working back when IE6 came out in 2001 for following what was then a standard industry practice, but User Agent Sniffing is now generally considered outdated, so why are so many sites still doing it when it comes to playing video?
I was lucky enough to be bought an Xbox One for Christmas, so I thought I’d post some of my initial thoughts.
The games look amazing
I have one game (Forza 5) and at £50 a pop I will likely only have one game for many months to come. That said, together with the new controller that has vibration motors in each trigger (lets you feel feedback from the brakes), speeding around Circuit de la Sarthe has never felt so real. Whether it’s being blinded temporarily by the sun, or seeing a glimpse of the driver in the windscreen, it just feels so real.
The Interface is Confusing
While I wanted to love ‘Metro’ on the PC, after trying it for just over a month on my main development machine, I had to revert to using Start8 – it didn’t work out for me (loved it on the Surface RT, however) – so how does it stack up on the Xbox One? My view is that it could work, but the current execution isn’t great. On the main screen the positions of apps move about too often, so it’s impossible to remember where anything is. After a while I realised the tiles on the main screen amounted to a ‘recently used list’ the with exception of the left and right columns, which are fixed. There’s no visual differentiation, barley any visual hierarchy (the currently running app is the largest, everything else just looks like it was thrown in) and so it all gets rather confusing. To get to Settings for example, you have to go to ‘My Games & Apps’.
Apps for the sake of Apps
No device these days would be complete without an ‘App Store’ – however the Xbox One has taken this to extremes. For example, if you’re in a game and you get an achievement, in order to see the full details of that achievement you need to leave the current game and open another app (complete with an awful “splash screen” which makes the effect of leaving one app and going to another feel even slower), if the Xbox 360 could do this, surly the Xbox One should be able to? Another example of this was when browsing the video store, in order to view ‘TV Deals’ I had to install the Xbox Video app. It seems a bit ridiculous that this isn’t just built in.
Kinect is impressive if still work in progress
Having Kinect recognise you and automatically log you in is very clever. The speech recognition however is limited. Unlike Siri on an iPhone you need to keep to a precise syntax, and it’s not very forgiving. Say to Siri “Hello my friend, could please turn on the Bluetooth thingamajig” and it will turn on the Bluetooth radio. Ask your Xbox to “switch off” rather than “turn off” and it does nothing. I really hope this gets improved. That said it is still very useful, especially the “record that” function that lets you record the last 30 seconds of gameplay and share it online. I can’t imagine using the Xbox One without the Kinect plugged in, it just feels like work in progress still. I don’t have any Kinect games, so I can’t comment on how good it is for games, which I guess is its main purpose after all.
Everything is fast and fluid, it multitasks like a dream
The Xbox 360 despite being able to render Skyrim at a decent frame-rate was seemingly unable to load a simple system menu without a few seconds delay. Game updates would block the entire interface and it just felt very sluggish, The Xbox One however always feels snappy. Even mid game I was able to press the ‘home button’ and get straight back to the Start Screen, compete with a smooth transition and sound effect. Subsequently opening an app such as Skype or Internet Explorer was very quick. I was also able to install a demo from the store and keep playing. I hope it doesn’t slow down over time, but this fluidity will do a lot to tempt me to use the Xbox One rather than the Apple TV or Virgin TiVo box to access Netflix or rent movies etc
The best is yet to come
I hope (and predict) Microsoft will keep updating the Xbox One as they did with the 360. I’ve only used it for a couple of days so far and you can only fairly judge a a games console after many months of usage. Overall I’m very pleased with it, and look forward to more exciting releases.
I bought my Samsung laptop well over a year ago, and it came running Windows 7. Despite having the most awful keyboard I have ever used, I’ve stuck with it because the Core i5 is pretty decent, and it’s got plenty of storage for all my music and I’m not going to shell out for a new laptop until this one gives up the ghost.
One of the interesting features that Samsung included was a piece of software called ‘Easy Settings’ which allowed me to configure the battery to never charge above 80%, supposedly lengthening the life of the battery. I turned this on (since my laptop is plugged in 99% of the time) and forgot all about it. A few months later I installed Windows 8 and found that Easy Settings no longer worked. When I tried to install it I got this message:
Loosing 20% of your battery capacity might be fine around the house, but sometimes I do like to take my laptop out and so I really wanted to be able to configure this. Even forcing Windows to install meant the app would run but wouldn’t display correctly function at all, I guess Microsoft blocked it for a reason.
Install Version 2.1
It turns out Samsung do offer a version of this tool for Windows 8, they just don’t make it easy to find. Version 2.1 works perfectly fine on NP300E5A model. Before I could change any power management settings, I had to update my laptop’s firmware however. The link to the download was hidden away on this Windows 8 update page, so check your model is listed before performing any firmware updates!
One nice addition if the ability to turn your laptop into a wireless Access Point (yes, Macs have had this feature for years I know, and it’s very useful).
I decided to upgrade my Kindle Keyboard to the new Kindle Paperwhite. I wouldn’t usually replace a device so soon (just two years after buying it), but my girlfriend was thinking of getting the basic £69 Kindle. I used that as an excuse to let her have my old one so I could try out the new model with the built-in light.
My first impression is that the lighted screen is beautiful to read from, and it makes it easy to read in complete darkness. That’s the real benefit here. Whether in bed at night or outside in the sun, the screen looks great. You may read reviews complaining about some unevenness in the lighting along the bottom of the screen. Yes, I noticed that, but it’s really not an issue, since that part of the display only shows progress information, not the book’s text.
Unfortunately, the touch screen is a major step backwards for page turning. Instead of two large buttons on each side of the device for backwards and forwards, there’s an invisible grid on the screen: tap on the far left to go back, tap in the middle or right to go forwards, and tap at the top to bring up the menu. It feels clumsy and keeps this device from being the perfect reading tool. The touch screen does make the virtual keyboard easy to use, so buying books is much simpler. However, I spend about 0.0001% of my time on the Kindle inputting text, so I’d be happy to do without that. I often find myself losing my place in a book because I’ve gone forwards instead of back by mistake.
So I’m mixed about this one. A great screen, but missing physical buttons. I guess Amazon needs to save something to tempt people into upgrading again next year 😉
Windows 8, by trying to be like iOS and Android and providing a simplified “one app at a time” interface (or more precisely 1.3 apps at a time) means that Windows is no longer good at what Windows was always good at. I already have a tablet, and I reach for my Windows laptop when I need to do something my iPad can’t. That inevitably means I head straight to the desktop. This is why Windows has failed to reinvigorate the PC market, Windows no longer offers a great desktop experience or a mature tablet experience. I’m sure it will get better, and really hope we see Office for Metro sometime soon.
I’ve been using the new Microsoft Surface running Windows RT this weekend, so I thought I’d post by initial thoughts. This was one borrowed from the office.
I’d installed Windows 8 on my laptop and my first thoughts weren’t that good. The ‘Metro’ interface was vastly different to Windows 7, and having to right-click to get menus to appear seemed counter-intuitive. I couldn’t even work out how to copy a hyperlink from the built-in mail client. Having now used Windows 8 on a touch device for the first time, it finally made sense.
Based on ARM, the Surface only runs apps downloaded from the Microsoft App Store. You get Office Home and Student bundled, although these run in desktop mode. The only reason I can assume they run on the desktop is because Microsoft didn’t have time to port them to Metro (no simple task, I’m sure). It does however make the surface confusing, since the desktop only shows up as 1 app when you use the Metro task switching functionality, when in reality you could have 3 or 4 apps open on the desktop.
The unique trick that surface has up its sleeve of course is the Touch Cover - a cover similar to the SmartCover for the iPad, that is also a keyboard with a trackpad. The Surface goes from tablet to notebook with ease. (note, I didn’t say laptop, you won’t want to use this on your lap, it’s too unstable). Windows RT can also run two apps side by side, and have multiple user accounts on one device.
So while the hardware is certainly unique and very useful indeed, Windows RT can be confusing. This is compounded by a lack of apps. I am typing this now on an iPad, because there is no software that I could find in the Microsoft App Store that will let me connect and post to WordPress. This lack of software will hopefully be a temporary problem, and once this gets fixed and Office comes to Metro, the desktop can be removed and this tablet can stop being a split personality.
If you forget the desktop, and forget office then you have a promising device for consuming media. Sometimes it feels a bit laggy, like when rotating the screen or launching apps, but only occasionally - most of the time it feels pretty snappy. Whether not people who have invested in content on Android and iOS will want to put that aside and buy content from Microsoft is anther question. In theory if you buy a film on the Surface, you should be able to watch it on your Xbox 360. Browsing the web is frustrating because there seems to be no way to set Google as your search provider - this really would be a deal breaker for me, because Bing just isn’t as good, and not having decent search at your fingertips is like forgetting to wear a watch, you really miss it when it’s gone. Favourites are also difficult to find (you have to focus the address bar, and then swipe to the right, they cannot be grouped into folders). I prefer the iPad here, but this is an early version of IE for Metro despite the version being 10, I’m sure this will improve with time.
So is the device for? It’s not gong to replace a PC for power-users, and the lack of Outlook/Desktop software will probably off business users. That leaves casual home users (would-be iPad buyers) - though I wonder whether the lack of a 7 inch version might sway those users towards the cheaper iPad Mini or the Kindle Fire. One group who this is made for however is students. This device is perfect for taking to lectures, typing up coursework and doing research on.
Overall I’m impressed, though I think I’ll stick with. My iPad for now (despite that fact it feels really old now) and wait and see what Surface version 2 looks like.
Despite my earlier post, there are times when it’s wise to put a case on your tablet. On the beach, for example. Suncream and iPads really don’t mix, and putting an unprotected device into a bag with suncream will end in disaster (I know from experience). So I thought I would try Apple’s Smart Case, the version of the Smart Cover that fully encloses the entire device. It’s not cheap, but being an Apple product you generally get top-quality goods, and it can also be engraved at no extra charge.
Upon receiving the case, I was mightily disappointed. For a start, it feels very cheap. It’s not very sturdy: with the Smart Cover you can stand the iPad up and use it as a picture frame or to watch a film. The Smart Case apparently supports this function, but the iPad seems very precarious in this position; any slight nudge of the table would send it crashing to the floor. The Smart Case also adds an enormous bezel around the screen, making the iPad’s display seem small. It also seems to trap a lot of dust on the screen, and it doesn’t wipe the screen clean when you open and close it as the cover does. Speaking of opening it, it’s not obvious which side to open it from, and once you have discovered that you will need long nails to release the magnetic closure.
On the plus side, it does protect the iPad well, even the back. However, I can’t recommend this product for day-to-day use, and given how poor it is, it seems excessive to shell out for it on occasional trips to places such as the seaside. I’m not sure what has happened at Apple; it’s certainly not up to their usual standards (but it’s still at their usual prices). I have now reverted to using a Smart Cover and it’s like I have a brand-new iPad.
Tablets are billed as “post-PC” products designed to replace the job of a PC for most people. The argument goes, most people don’t need a truck (a PC) and instead they just want a small car. True as that may be, I see a problem when the car only gets supported by the manufacture for 2 years. That’s the case with the original iPad. According to Apple, iOS 6 will not run on the iPad 1 which was released in 2010. Buy not having the latest operating system, this means the latest security updates will not be available, nor will the latest developer APIs. Many of Apple’s own apps (such as the Pages) will likely be updated, and these updates will only support iOS6 (this was the case when iOS 5 was released). Will the file formats be compatible? Let’s hope so. The same will probably happen with a lot of 3rd party applications. It also means the new OS features such as shared photo streams and Facebook integration wont be available.
Yes this is a fast moving industry, and yes the iPad 1 was woefully underpowered (especially when it comes to lack of RAM, the version of iOS it came with didn’t support multitasking remember) and you might argue the that iPad 1 is a special case, as it was mostly purchased by early adapters who will probably be running the latest model of iPad by now. I can also see how Apple might not want developers to hold back their software to ensure it works on the older hardware - iPhoto doesn’t run on it today.
That said, I really think Apple should be sending the message to consumers that their tablet will be relevant in at least 2 years time (you would expect a laptop to be). If they can continue to support the iPhone 3GS (released roughly 6 months before the iPad in 2009) then why not iPad?
On my holidays this year I’ve noticed a large number of people donning iPads. In the pub, on the train, on the ferry and even sat on the beach. Like it was intended to do, the iPad is finding its way into places no one would ever imaged a laptop would. One thing did strike me though, and that is how nearly every iPad I’ve seen out and about is parcelled up in a protective case (one person who sat opposite to me proceed to get their iPad out of one case, only for it to be inside another).
Yes, I get that these things aren’t cheap, but they’re also not as fragile as most people think. Why pay all that money for iconic design if you’re not going to ever see it? This is exactly the thinking behind the Smart Cover, which protects the screen while not in use without sacrificing the slimness and design.
