After 25 hours of listening spread over last 30 days during my regular drives to work and Gym sessions I finished listening to the Audiobook of “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson. Few months back I had finished the book “The Steve Jobs Way: iLeadership for a New Generation” by Jay Eliiots so I was familiar with the man & his life. A lot has been written about Mr.Jobs and about the book in the weeks following his sad demise in October, so I will write in next few paragraphs my impression about the book and what I feel after reading it.
First thing you notice is the size of the book which looks exhaustive, over 600 pages in the hardcover edition. A thorough work by the author “Walter Isaacson”, considering it should have been a monumental effort for Walter to make Jobs talk and then to verify/cross-verify facts as Steve Jobs (as you will learn in the book) is known to distort reality both wilfully and unawares.
In the recent years media has taken a liking to Apple because of Apple’s phenomenal success in Marketplace and its massive market capitalization. Millennials reading it are unaware of the two decades of struggle Jobs had to grow through to bring (personally mature and ripen with age) to that level, he had to suffer through being ousted from the company he founded & so on. Jobs’ early life was unlike any others, he had to deal with the fact of being adopted, had long stints with most things that are narcotics (ACIDs, LSDs), his year of free-roaming in India in Himalayan plains, his interest of Japanese Zen philosophy, yet his appreciation of Italian architecture and the list goes on. What strikes you is the realization that a man as creative as Jobs, with his Buddhist bend he can be a sensitive person, pick up easily vibes assessing people emotionally, yet can use those same skills to hurt the people who are around him at his will. It is well know that Jobs liked the quote “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” from the back cover of last issue of “Whole Earth” magazine in 1971. Jobs had a way of thinking/behaving like pirates during the original Mac development times in early 1980s. Jobs doing most of his important meetings and probably decisions too during his long walks with the concerned person – be it Sculley, Gates or Music label titans. Jobs had an enviable ability to laser-sharp focus on items he cared and completely ignore things he doesn’t care or don’t want to hear – this led him to create brilliant products of our age.
Readers will see the obvious differences between the two personalities who shaped the digital world in last 4 decades – Bill Gates & Steve Jobs, they are exactly of opposite poles. I enjoyed this quote from Bill Gates while countering Jobs claims that Microsoft stole for its Windows the GUI from Apple Mac OS – “Well, Steve, I think there’s more than one way of looking at it. I think it’s more like we both had this rich neighbour named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it”.
In the last chapters of the book you are left wondering what if this man could have lived for few more years, what more great products he could have given us and what about his young kids losing their father for ever. But then it suddenly hits you, that’s what life and nature is. All of us including Jobs get to stand on giants (and generations before us) shoulders and it is up to each one of us to make use of the vantage point & the time we have got there.
After listening to the Audiobook I bought the hardcover edition as well – as the book certainly needs a reserved place in my bookshelf and the hardcover has some of the rare photographs from his life journey.
After upgrading to iOS 5 in both my iPhone & iPad, one issue I have been struggling was with Photo Stream – the automatic sync service of photos across iOS devices & PC/Mac. The issue was how to get the sync done to Windows PC faster and how to delete photos in the stream. There is no feature available for editing or deleting the photos in the Photo stream. Then I saw this Apple support article that says how you can reset and get all the photos deleted in the stream.
The news of Steve Jobs death shook me when I learned it from a friend on the morning of 6th. I got very disturbed by the news and feeling the same for last few days. Only few months book I read this book “The Steve Jobs Way” which marvelled on his brilliance. I know Mr.Jobs was sick and when he resigned as CEO of Apple in August the worst was expected. But I was hoping that like the previous two instances where he recovered from serious illnesses, this time too he will come back bouncing. And the resignation was nothing more than wanting a longer rest. Having listened to his recent Keynote in WWDC just few months back on iOS5, it is difficult to realize the man is gone for ever and we will never see him again doing his magic on stage and off stage on his products. I respect his privacy during his life, but after death if more details on his illness by Apple had been released it would help his fans worldwide to come to terms sooner.
The man had everything at his disposal, enormous wealth, the best healthcare in the world and millions of well-wishers praying for his well being but still couldn’t live for more years and that’s the irony of life. I am unable to recollect for a Technology person’s death being grieved world over. And this alone speaks volumes of the impact Mr.Jobs had, he transgressed the typical Computer Science world. He married Technology, LifeStyle, Entertainment & Aspirations in a perfect mix.
As I have written earlier I love everything about my new iPad2, but I do look forward to a great Windows8 tablet sometime in future (?). Normally I connect my iPhone & iPad2 to my PC so that they can sync with iTunes for all latest Podcasts and Apps. After few days with my iPad2 I realized it is not charging while connected to my Desktop Workstation (of course I have upgraded a new PC few months back) due to lack of power wattage from PC’s standard USB Ports. Connecting to a powered external USB Hub from Belkin (FSU304) didn’t help either. It was inconvenient for me to connect the iPad everyday separately to a Power outlet for charging.
Doing some searching I found the solution in this Apple Support forum page. The answer is to download a free utility from Asus called AiCharger that works in Windows, this free app configures your Motherboard and USB Hubs to increase the power output that is required by iPad2 to charge. It works fine for me in an Intel Motherboard, but please check whether your PC has a big SMPS power supply to take the extra load.
I installed the “O The Oprah Magazine” app
for iPad. It is a interactive magazine with super sharp
photographs, videos, audio, social integration, shopping and more -
all integrated. Each month issue is an individual download, with
embedded video and all artefacts in a single download and no
waiting to load. Recent 2 months are $3.99 and older issues free!.
When The app is finely developed and feels great to read. A true
multimedia experience that’s difficult to get on a PC/Mac and
impossible on conventional media like newspaper or TV. If this is
the future of magazines and media then I want more of it, so will
all readers of fine journalism around the world. (Note: I am doing
this post from my iPad2 using an app called Blog.net connecting to
my dasBlog server. Not sure how it will render)
I have been a iPhone user for last two years. I love my iPhone4 and the ease with which you can buy Apps, Movie & Music in iTunes (though I hate the Photos management in iTunes). For many months now except for presentations I don’t use my laptop much – when in office it is Office Desktop and at house it is Home PC and in between I do my emails with iPhone. Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync keeps my email synced between the Office PC, Home PC, Laptop & iPhone. Windows Live Mesh syncs the files between the PCs & Laptop effortlessly. Whenever I am reading a book or a magazine I keep my iPhone next to me to refer in Wikipedia or browse the web about the topic I am reading. Even while watching TV having iPhone and turning to it for some information has become a habit – whether it is to find a song in YouTube I just remembered or to IMDB to refer on how old is an actor or buy a book from Amazon/FlipKart that you just read about in the Newspaper today. As you can imagine I am a heavy user of my iPhone, I have an Amazon KindleDX as well, so I was sceptical whether I need a iPad2. My friend who has been having an iPad for last one year kept telling it is a lifestyle device and I couldn’t see how.
Now after having been using an iPad2 for last few days, I can understand why the world loves this device. I bought a iPad2 64GB Wi-Fi model through my US Office in Washington. Apart from the device I bought a VGA Cable, the SmartCover (Light Blue), Apple CarePack giving one year additional warranty and adding WA State Tax it came to $927. The form factor, weight, display & audio are ideal for consuming content, it is not much of a Productivity Tool or Content Creation tool. There is a vast difference between what I read & visualized about the device, it feels whole lot better to actually have the device in your hand and use it. Playing Videos in YouTube, Photo viewing, Web browsing, reading FaceBook/Twitter/Blogs with FlipBoard is addictive.
Following are the 3rd Party Apps I am currently using in iPad, most of them are the same I use in iPhone4, but few of them only work in iPad.
Photo & Video: VLC Player (to play WMV and other formats), iMovie (paid app works in both iPhone4 & iPad), WiFi Photo Transfer (to share photos without a cable)
I came across and purchased iMovie today for my iPhone4. I was curious to see how you can do video editing on a small screen in a handheld.
In general I have found Video Editing to be like a miniature rocket science course. I use Windows Live Movie Maker for quick edits and publish to YouTube as it is easy to approach and use. For anything even a little important I struggle my way each time with Adobe Premiere Elements.
With this background, iMovie on iPhone4 was super cool to use. It took me less than 5 minutes to figure out the way in the App, compose this video (below), trim it and publish it to YouTube – and all of them from my iPhone. Of course, the App is very limited on what it can do. But isn’t that what makes it so easy to use, anyways you are not going to doing special effects in an handheld.
The first impression you get after you open the package with the $99 device is how small & cute it is. The device on the sides came with a Black Tape stuck all around, so for few minutes I was wondering why there are no ports or even power socket. The remote is even more smaller & unbelievably thinner. Hat’s off to Apple on the minimalist design.
Apple TV allows you to access YouTube Videos (Favourites & Most Popular), Movies & TV shows from iTunes & Digital Media (Photos, Music & Videos) that you have stored in your Home PC (or Mac) in iTunes libraries. The device has no hard-disk or any other drive, so no noise or heating. The device runs iOS (as in iPhone & iPad), so Indic Language (like Tamil) files names appear legibly. You also get an iPhone app “Remote” that allows you to manage any iTunes Library including Apple TV from your iPhone – quite convenient and thoughtful. The app (unlike Logitech Harmony app) is minimalist and easy to configure & use.
While accessing Music & Videos the experience is great thanks to iTunes. But when it comes to Pictures the experience nose-dives due to same iTunes & its poor Pictures management support. I have like 15,000 pictures in my PC, neatly organized into folders like Personal, Events, Travel, Family, Friends and so on, with each of them having sub-folders for each year in which the photos were taken. It took a long time before Apple TV could showed the first photo, then it displayed all the 15,000 photos in one go – how can you scroll through thousands of photos?. There was no way for me to sort/group/search for a particular album or year or keyword. After some time I gave up the fruitless exercise and took my son to my PC where I showed the photos he wanted to see. I am at loss at why even after 10 Versions iTunes doesn’t have proper features to add/delete/edit pictures, categorize them into folders/sub-folders and so on. If there is one thing I hate in iPhone & iTunes it is Pictures management.
I have been using iPhone3G from Dec ‘08 (exactly two years) and I got so used to it. By far it is the best device to do email, browsing, twitter, facebook and above all to make/receive calls & messages. It is very hard to imagine a mobile before iPhone, that’s the impact it has had on me. The upgrade to iOS 4.0 turned out to be a double-edged sword. On one hand, the device started to support display of Tamil language natively in all applications – messaging, contacts, email, browsing, twitter & more. On the other hand, the device became very sluggish. Clicking on contacts or messages app will take solid 10-20 seconds to load up. I talked to my friend Muthu Nedumaran (the man behind the Tamil fonts that got shipped in iOS 4.0 and Mac OS) who advised me to upgrade to iPhone 4.
I guess due to poor sales of iPhone in general in India, iPhone 4 is not released yet here. After some research the best place to buy an iPhone4 turned out to be Singapore, as by law there TELCOs can’t network lock a device. The device bought in Singapore should work with Vodafone India and anyway since I have a iPhone3G plan with them, data also should work. After further research on the web, I learned that you can’t buy iPhone4 from any Apple stores in Singapore or from TELCOs like Singtel, who sell only with singapore mobile contracts. Apple Singapore recommends you buy from its online store and have it shipped to any address in Singapore. That’s what I did, I gave the house address of my Uncle in Singapore. After few phone calls he made to confirm my India credit card to them, the device got delivered in few days, in time for me to pick up during my trip last week there. The device (iPhone4 32GB), Black Bumper and AppleCare 2 year protection plan together costed me SG$1195 (nearly Rs.41825).
After coming back to Chennai, I had to cross one last hurdle which was to get a MicroSIM. It was not available from Vodafone Chennai, but a trip to a corner mobile store and Rs.100 got my regular SIM cut into a MicroSIM. Finally, I got my iPhone4 working and I love it. Much better speed than 3G due to the 1Ghz Processor, the retina display is gorgeous, noise cancellation feature even on noisy airports is awesome – worth every cent of upgrade. After upgrading to iPhone4, apart from loading my regular apps I use ( Twitter, FaceBook, LIFCO Tamil Dictionary, Dictionary.com, Wikipedia, Kindle) I was able to load VLC Media Player (Free) which only runs on iPhone4 or iPad. This meant I can select any of my WMV (Windows Media) videos into iTunes, have them synced to my iPhone4 and play them with VLC Player.
I love my iPhone and the ease with which it syncs music, videos, Podcasts & Contacts/Mails/Tasks (from Exchange Server through Microsoft ActiveSync). The only pain has been iTunes software which is cumbersome especially since I use it in Windows. Getting photos organized in iTunes is the most limited. In Windows I can only sync one folder (why on earth I can’t select multiple folders?) or use Adobe PhotoShop Elements.
I tried a Quick ‘n’ Dirty method to circumvent this, by using a less known capability in Windows (and in UNIX flavours) called Symbolic Links (Hard Links) which makes a folder along with its contents appear in multiple places. This is something like Shortcuts on steroids. You can create these Symbolic Links only from Command Line and there is no option for it from Windows Explorer, as it can lead to unintended behaviour for average users – I learned it the hard way later. I used this free program called “SymLinker” to create the Symbolic Links. The idea was to create one folder called say “iPhone Albums” under Pictures folder in Windows 7, map it in iTunes (Device->Photos tab) as the folder to sync photos from. Then create symbolic links for each of the many folders where you have the photos you want to be synced.
I mapped about 6 to 7 folders that had hundreds of photos each, everything worked just fine and I got all the albums synced fine. The next day (after I rebooted my machine), I couldn’t get iTunes to launch at all. I tried install/uninstall, deleting and recreating my Windows user profile and so on. Finally I had to restore from my Windows Backup *System Restore* to an earlier day and get iTunes working again. I am not sure whether the problem in iTunes was caused by using Symbolic links, but I guess it is safer not to try it. Having burned my fingers, I have bought Adobe PhotoShop Elements 9.0 for my desktop PC where I have all my photos – I will post that experience in a later post.
The content of this site are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in anyway. In addition, my thoughts and opinions often change, and as a weblog is intended to provide a semi-permanent point in time snapshot you should not consider out of date posts to reflect my current thoughts and opinions.
