Tag Archive for Technology

Email Overload

Dilbert by Scott Adams

Addicted to Email
© Universal Uclick

How many email accounts do you have? Active email accounts, not your high school or college accounts like Imdabomb@awesome.com and mrcoolguy@youknowit.com. And not dummy accounts so you can enter a contest or get coupons 14 times.

I have three – not counting work or school – and my wife thinks it’s a bit much. But hear me out… I have a personal account for family, friends, social networks, job hunting, etc. I have a financial account for banks, 401(k)s, ongoing bills, etc. And I have a purchases account for online purchases and misc stuff that I don’t feel is personal or financial.

I get very little spam email in any of these accounts which is nice, but I figure of the three I’m most likely to get spam in the purchases account. Which is fine because all I’m expecting in there are “thank you for signing up for an account…” and “purchase confirmation from…” Basically, not very important emails and if I do get a website that uses my information maliciously it’s not going to clog the two important accounts.

Take away: I do things in particular manners that work for me and you just wasted five minutes reading something not very worthwhile.

iOS 7 Fail

Sad Apple Logo

Sad Apple Logo
© CreativeBits

I’m guessing Apple is taking a page from Microsoft on how to create an OS that people won’t like. Considering the drastic changes they should have had a link to the equivalent of patch notes.

Force closing apps has changed. Instead of double-clicking the home button and getting the stuff to pop up from the bottom of the screen you get something more akin to ATL+Tab in Windows. However, it’s not immediately obvious that I need to grab the window (vs. the icon) and ‘throw’ it off the top of the screen vs. pressing and holding the icon, then clicking a whole bunch of (x)s. Now that I know, I get it, I think I even like it more than the old way, but having to google it was the pain point.

PodCasts removed from iTunes. This actually really irks me! Not only is it an extra app to switch beteen – generally at work I either listen to podcasts or music. In one app it was no problem. Not that switching to a second app is all that painful, but why make this change? And, I had to go download the app after syncing my iPad which has PodCasts, if you’re going to move podcasts to a different app then at least auto-download that app.

PodCasts don’t proceed to the next when complete. If the last bit irked me this irritates the hell out of me! If I’m driving I often will plug my iPhone or iPad into my car to listen to the podcasts I listen to. Well, once one ends I then have to manually start the next. There is no reason for this. Might as well have made the change to music so I have to start each song individually.
Edit: PodCasts do proceed to the next podcast when complete, but in reverse order!

Group folders show fewer apps at a given moment. On the pro side it seems they can hold an unlimited number of apps which you just scroll left and right between, but for such a large screen (on my iPad) why am I limited to nine apps? I have yet to do the update to my iPhone so I can’t say how many it holds, but I’m sure it will be lessened similarly to the iPad. I really liked that my iPhone 5 groups could hold more than my iPhone 3GS groups.

Background images can’t be the full image size. Why am I complaining about this? Why did they take the effort to make the change? I liked finding perfectly sized images in a particular app (Paper if you care) of people’s beautiful artwork. Now, I lose 30% or so of the image, which also pixelates some of the images. Just to be sure this was for any image I tried to use pictures I had taken with my iPad and sure enough, it feels it has to zoom in to all. While selecting an image you can zoom in a little so you aren’t losing 30%, but I want the whole picture, not 80% of it.
Edit: The background image can be the full image, but by default they have a new feature turned on which means your image isn’t full size.

At first glance I saw some things changed in other base apps, some seem good, some seem bad. I’m not likely to review anything more about the new iOS unless I really hate it on my iPhone. And yes, there are some things that already bother me about iTunes 11.

Take away: Apple, learn from other companies mis-steps <cough>Microsoft</cough> when changing an OS: Change for change’s sake isn’t always a good thing and sometimes the current method is the best method (or at least the new idea for a method isn’t necessarily better).

Windows 8.1

“You can now open up to four apps on the screen at once and change the size of each window.” (Windows 8.1 Preview Product Guide, page 14)

This caught my eye while reading the 8.1 guide. I think it’s pretty cool that Microsoft has seen the light and figured computers now have enough processing power to run multiple applications at once.

What’s the Dealio, Elio?

Sour Apple Elio by Elio Motors

The Sour Apple Elio
© Elio Moters

Check it out www.eliomotors.com.

Definitely a cool concept for a vehicle and I love the color options. So much so that I’m planning to go check it out tomorrow, even though the next car to be in my garage won’t be for another year and will be my wife’s choice. The pros are all listed on their site, of course, but what are the obvious cons? I gathered these just from the images and videos.

First, it’s a stick shift. I have no problem with a stick shift, it’s what I learned with and drove for over ten years, but how many people actually know how to drive a stick shift these days? And the tight space it’s in seems like it would be more like shifting a race car than a street car… hmmm, maybe it is a good idea.
Take-away: make it an automatic, it’ll cost more, but it’ll have more mass appeal.

Second, why is the door on the left side? Yes, for all ‘normal’ vehicles the driver does get out on the left side (here in ‘Merica). But, considering there is only one door to load and unload the trunk, a passenger, and yourself it means you have a longer time to worry about the door being open if you’re parked on the street.
Take-away: put the door on the right-hand side.

Third, the sound system. AM/FM stereo. I can understand not having a CD player, I couldn’t even tell you the last time I used my CD player, but to not have a USB or AUX input jack is a bit of a let down.
Take-away: add at least an AUX input jack.

Fourth, it’s definitely a seasonal vehicle, what motorcycle isn’t. So this isn’t really a flaw, but it definitely lessens the chance of many Coloradans purchasing.
Take-away: none, otherwise it alters the real goal of the vehicle.

Please note: I’m not a car guy. I’m not a motor-head. I’ve never reviewed a car. These are just my thoughts.