Although this is a very bitter blog post, I won’t make it angry. I’m just disappointed in one of my favorite companies. Continue reading ‘Bitten by DRM on iPhone Applications’
Life of a Student at Tufts University
Archive for the 'Apple' Category
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A week ago from today, I bought my first cell phone. Using the money I worked for this summer at the Computer Academy, I was able to justify buying, arguably, one of the greatest cell phones on the market. While putting down the cash for the iPhone, I decided to buy a one year subscription to MobileMe. My justification was off-site backup for my precious college work; everything else was a bonus.
I hate MobileMe for one reason and one reason only. Although it’s a great service that I’m finding useful, I’ve had to readjust my entire workflow and calendaring system to accommodate its greatest flaw. While using an iPhone or iPod touch without MobileMe, the user may choose individual iCal calendars to sync to the device. While using MobileMe, in great contrast, calendar sync is all-or-nothing.
I depend on my calendaring system to keep me alive. It’s the hub of my events and small reminders of things I need to do. I use one main calendar, “Events”, to remind me of places I need to be or deadlines I need to meet. Then, I use one called “Alarms”, to remind me to do my Getting Things Done Weekly Review or to do household chores like checking up a water softener. Those calendar events are set up with an alarm that I’d like to see while sitting at my Mac – not while I’m on-the-go with my iPhone.
MobileMe’s system of forcing users to sync all calendars without any way to stop it makes the calendaring feature useless for me. It ruins one of the most important aspects of Getting Things Done (GTD), contexts. In Getting Things Done, David Allen writes that grouping tasks by context (often location) is more appropriate than priority. Having my phone vibrate to remind me to do my weekly review is useless while I’m away from my computer. I’d much rather just have the notification sitting on my Mac for when I return.
Apple, please fix this.
Image credit to the One More Thing blog at CNET.
Apple released Leopard update 10.5.3 earlier this week. Interestingly, Finder.app reports that it is version 10.5.4, which has yet to be released. Very interesting.
If you’re a mac person and like fixing stuff, check out this quick review I wrote up on the iTunes Store earlier. It’s really a wonderful podcast.
Time is scarce, knowledge isn’t. Today, in an ever-decreasing timeframe, we need to know more about our computers. Although the Macintosh is worlds ahead of the PC, it has its problems. The Mac Observer’s Mac Geek Gab tackles these problems and explores new uses for our macs in an entertaining and informative way.
Its greatest asset? The podcast is divided into chapters so that listeners can quickly scan for questions that they’re interested in. Sick of hearing about networking? Skip it and move onto hard disk problems! A very well-done show, worthy of subscription.
This email address is the key to getting any high-level problems with Apple addressed. It’s worked for me in two instances, and I feel that spreading it only helps people. Of course, if you’re irresponsible and have unrealistic expectations, you may get a humorous reply. I’m now summarizing this article on The Boy Genius Report.
Very recently, one man who was frustrated with Apple Support emailed Steve Jobs with his problem.
Dear Steve Jobs,
I wanted to write and express my concern about some recent problems that I have had with Apple Care. This week, my MacBook Pro unfortunately sustained water damage. I understand this is entirely my fault but it is still something I would like to get fixed. After three or four calls I was finally able to get a straight answer. While I was happy to get a straight answer, I was not at all happy with the answer. It is very worrisome to me that the only way to get my computer fixed is to pay almost $300.00 up front with no guarantee that this will fix the problem. I was horrified to learn that their is no system to assess the problem and bill once all damage is known. I am reluctant to put money into a problem that could easily grow. I have had three Apple computers in a row. I love using them but I am not sure if my replacement will be one. I feel powerless in the situation and the whole experience has turned me off of the Apple company.
Sincerely,
Xxxxxx Xxxx
Of course, Steve Jobs and company owe him nothing. In one of the most impressive and entertaining forms of PR I’ve ever seen, Jobs (or likely an assistant) sent this reply.
Xxxxxxx,
This is what happens when your MacBook Pro sustains water damage.They are pro machines and they don’t like water. It sounds like you’re just looking for someone to get mad at other than yourself.
Steve
That’s called getting “Steved”, and I love it.
One of my heroes, Merlin Mann, did a talk at Macworld called “Living with Data“. Although I was disappointed that it didn’t deal with my favorite second officer of the USS Enterprise, I enjoyed it. It’s long, but very entertaining. As I watched it last night, I found myself inspired.
I thought my personal productivity system was air-tight. I’ve been getting my tasks done – or so I’ve thought. But as I listened to Merlin’s talk, one point in particular resinated with me.
At 25:12 in, Merlin asks, “Who gets access now?” That is, who will I let interrupt me as I’m working? I looked around my desktop. Gmail notifier, Twitterrific, and Adium are constantly demanding my attention. I’m changing my use of these applications. I’ve decided to only use Adium when I’m actually open for conversation or have to post where I am, I’m axing Twitterrific in favor of the canonical twitter website, and I’ll check my email twice a day or so.
And then I got to thinking about Quicksilver. I love Quicksilver; it’s an application launcher on steroids. One of the plugins I use for Quicksilver is the Camino Bookmarks plugin. I can evoke Quicksilver using my keyboard shortcut (command + enter), type the first few letters of any website I’ve bookmarked, and press return to load that page. For example:
f – facebook
g – gmail
r – google reader
d – digg
p – pownce
Because those time-suck websites are so easily accessed, I go to them far too often. My new productivity experiment is to disable the Camino bookmarks feature of Quicksilver and see how much of my life I get back. Instead, I’ll check those sites in the morning, at night, and maybe when I have a free moment at school.
It’s amazing to realize that the tool you appreciate the most to save time is what’s actually causing you to habitually waste it.