Most of You Shouldn't Worry About the New iPad

I've advised several people not to upgrade to the new iPad. Meanwhile, I'm anticipating my preorder to come in tomorrow.  How do I reconcile this? It's pretty simple - you shouldn't upgrade unless you are a hardcore early adopter.  Same goes for almost any Apple product.

My iPad 2 is a great device. I can do everything that I need with it. There is nothing in the new iPad that gives me any brand new functionality that changes the game. But I still put my iPad 2 up for sale, and I am eagerly anticipating tomorrow.

So what's so different about the new iPad that I've decided to upgrade? Things are better. Better display. Better network connectivity. Better voice input. Those three things alone appeal to me, a person that pushes the edge when it comes to technology. I do way more intensive gaming on the iPad than the average person (I can't see casual games benefiting from a retina display), and I have an hour long train ride to work where a 4G signal would be magic. I know I'm an outlier.

I'll shoot a short review video when I get my hands on it and put it through its paces. See y'all tomorrow!

Technology vs Music

NPR recently allowed anyone to stream a full copy of the Roots “Udun” album a week or so before release. Being a huge a Roots fan, I plugged in my ear buds and listened intently over the work computer and felt underwhelmed. I listened to the stream again over the iPod and it didn’t change my opinion. It wasn’t a bad album, but definitely seemed too avant grade and lacked the overall feeling that I’d expect from a Roots album.  While I appreciated what they were trying to do, the tracks felt stale.

When the album officially launched on Dec 6th, I played it while driving to work. Driving with the music surrounding me at an extremely loud level enabled me to appreciate what the Roots accomplished on this record. This a concert. A concerto of the desperado. This is a live show with a concept dictating not only the song sequencing, but the up and down emotions of each song. And it’s something that you can’t feel when you’re listening over a computer and on a portable device. You need to FEEL it.

The next time that you get a new album (am I the only one that still does?), make sure that you listen to it in an environment that immerses you in the moment. Yes, this usually means ditching your iOS and android devices – don’t be ashamed!  As much as your overpriced Beats by Dre headphones with the sound turned up to 11 may achieve the same effect of a car stereo, you just may wander into the street into the path of a crazy Black man in a Honda Civic.

Slow Down and Enjoy your Tech!

Tech comes out every day. The early adopters among us will grab new products only to dismiss them when the next hot thing comes out. My advice? SLOW DOWN a bit and enjoy what you have!.

I'm a victim of this when it comes to the iPhone and the iPad. I always sell the old version and get the new version, even if the feature set isn't quite justifiable. I've seen this most recently with my incremental upgrade from the iPhone 4 to the 4S. In retrospect, the 4 was perfectly fine for me - why didn't I stay with it? I'm missing out on forming the same relationship that haberdasher with my Double Dragon Tiger electronic game from the late 80s? My TI-83 calculator from 95? My minidisc player from 2000?

Podcasts that cover tech tend to suffer the most. They tend to be practically disposable, even ones that are incredibly funny and / or interesting. One of the most fascinating sites I've run into on the net is Previous Pod, a site that reviews old episodes of the Engadget podcast. I follow any of the former Engadget editors at The Verge, and it's interesting to go back in time to see their views on products that have since become obsolete, such as the Palm Pre.

Is it that current tech is made with this disposal culture in mind, so that they only last a few years (I'm looking at you, Dell Computer)? Or is it that we are throwing out perfectly good products for little reason? Whatever the reason is, SLOW DOWN!

iPhone 4S Quick Review - Camera, Notifications, iCloud, Siri

Taken with iPhone 4S in Clark Park, West Philly

After waiting at UPS on a long enough line that it may as well have been an Apple store, I finally have my iPhone 4S.  The picture above shows that the camera is a very impressive point-and-shoot.

NOTIFICATIONS, ICLOUD, SIRI

Below, I give a quick review of the new notification screen, iCloud backup, and Siri voice recognition. If you can't see the video, click here.

VIDEO

I also tried out the video camera at the park. The iPhone 4S camera does a much better job at eliminating the jerkiness of filming a scene with your hand.  With the iPhone 4 and previous phones, videos come out pretty shaky unless your phone is mounted on a tripod.  Because I uploaded the video on my 3G connection, it's only in standard definition.  Check out the video below:

THE VERDICT

As cool as the 4S is, I still don't recommend iPhone 4 owners pay for the upgrade.  Now, if you can get it for free as I described in a previous post, I say go for it!

How I Got Over

There's always the hope that if you sit and watch for long enough, the beachball will vanish and the thing it interrupted will return."

Steve Jobs passed away yesterday. He's had an undeniable impact not only on technology, but on the culture.  An entire generation (after mine) has been reared thinking that Apple has always been a highly successful, innovative company.

I'm a PC guy.  Ever since I got my first computer in college, I've enjoyed tinkering around with components and dealing with Windows BSODs.  I was never drawn to the Mac because it was VERY expensive.  Also, it was relatively closed off and difficult to upgrade.  This holds true today - you pay a premium for good quality. I didn't think I'd ever get over this anti-Apple bias.

True to form, when the iPod first came out during my senior year of college in 2011,  I completely clowned it.  Here was another amazingly expensive ($400) product that you could only use with a similarly expensive Apple computer.  Also, the idea of carrying a spinning hard drive in my pocket seemed disastrous (I had a number of hard drive crashes in the previous year). My roommate, who was and is a huge Apple fan, thought it was funny to put a page of the first iPod ad on my door, with my name written on it.  I wish I had kept it.

However, I got over this once the 3rd gen iPod came out in 2003. That was when iTunes finally dropped for Windows, and there was a harmonious mix between the iPod's price and my new fancy job.  I dropped in and haven't looked back.  Hell, I have completely digitized and sold my extensive CD collection partly due to the convenience that the iPod has provided. This convenience has extended to the iPhone and iPad, both of which I own and love.

I bought into Apple has a consumer electronics company, not as a computer company.  I've still never owned an Apple desktop or laptop (except for an ancient iBook that I was attempting to fix for a local nonprofit).

That's how I got over.