App Inventor for Android

by thomasfitzgerald on 12. Jul, 2010 in Mac

From Google:

For many people, their mobile phone—and access to the Internet—is always within reach. App Inventor for Android gives everyone, regardless of programming experience, the opportunity to control and reshape their communication experience. We’ve observed people take pride in becoming creators of mobile technology and not just consumers of it.

Or in other words, in a couple of weeks after we release this we can claim that we have more developers and Apps on Android that Apple does on iOs. Even if they are all just glorified widgets. I think John Gruber puts it best:

“So has Google beaten Apple in the race for a HyperCard for mobile, or is this something less?”

(Read Official Google Blog: App Inventor for Android.)

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Are So Many People Experiencing the iPhone Antenna Issue Because They’re Trying to Experience it ?

by thomasfitzgerald on 27. Jun, 2010 in Apple, iPhone

I know I’m going to get flamed for being a “fanboy” over this but anyway, here it goes. I was browsing through some of the videos of the alleged iPhone 4 “design flaw” last night and I noticed something very interesting. Before I get to that though, lets back up for a second. Before Gizmodo made this issue public all of the reviews of the phone noticed a marked improvement in call quality and reception. Then suddenly after Gizmodo posted the story, the notion of a deeply flawed antenna design it spread like wildfire. Lots of reports came in from people who were able to reproduce the problem, and quickly there were lots of videos on You Tube, which people were then using as evidence of this being a widespread design flaw. To be honest I have a hard time believing that Apple never tested the phone without a case on. Anyway, it occurred to me to check my own phone, a 3g which I did and I too was able to reproduce the exact same signal drop on my phone. Here’s the thing though, I was trying to. I was gripping the phone tightly in my hand. When I hold the phone normally like I’ve always done the reception drop is just not an issue.

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Not a Design Flaw: The Infamous Death Grip on my 3G

by thomasfitzgerald on 26. Jun, 2010 in Apple, iPhone

Here’s my two year old iPhone 3g showing the exact same reception drop as the iPhone 4. Hold it the same way people are holding the iPhone 4 and you get the exact same drop in reception. And, just like people are reporting, having slightly damp palms makes the issue worse, and putting it in a case alleviates it. I’ve had this phone for over 2 years and I’ve never noticed any problems with reception in daily use. It was only when people started posting about the iPhone 4′s problems that I decided to try it. Clearly then the iPhone 4 does not have a major design flaw, as much as Gizmodo would like everyone to think, as previous generation phones exhibit the EXACT SAME PROBLEM (as does the Nexus one and undoubtedly lots of others). Perhaps if “journalists” did a better job of doing a bit of research before jumping to conclusions we could have avoided some of the calamitous headlines over the past few days.

One caveat though. I couldn’t get my fiance’s 3g to do the same thing. She’s still running iOs 3.x so it’s possible it is a software issue. I didn’t try for very long though and I was in an area of good reception at the time.

p.s. Apologies for the shoddy camera work. I was trying to hand hold my 5D in one hand and do this in the other.

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About that iPhone 4 Reception Problem (And the bigger issues in Technology Journalism)

by thomasfitzgerald on 26. Jun, 2010 in Apple, Mac, Technology

By now you’ve all heard reports that the iPhone 4 has a “terrible design flaw” that makes it useless for calls once you pick it up. Well, ok, I’m exaggerating a bit but you’d be forgiven for thinking that with the way this story has spread like wild fire. Now, I don’t doubt that some people are having an issue with this, but I’m amazed at the way this story was reported and the way it was picked up by the mainstream news media. First of all, Gizmodo were pushing this big time on Thursday, along with any other story they could find to paint the iPhone in a bad light (including, surprise surprise, you drop it and it breaks). Big surprise. From there other blogs started picking up on it and then it reached the mainstream media. What amazes me about this is that, first of all, most of the people reviewing the phone never noticed an issue with it and that most reviewers had noticed improved reception.

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Dyson Air Multiplier Meets Balloon

by thomasfitzgerald on 23. Jun, 2010 in Technology

This is fricken’ awesome:

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Defending the iPad’s Restrictions

by thomasfitzgerald on 19. Jun, 2010 in Apple, iPad

Absolutely superb article on Forbes by Andrew McAfee debunking some of the “but it’s not open” nonsense on the web (and in particular by Doctrow). It’s the most sane and balanced article I’ve seen in a long time.

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Hang On a Second

by thomasfitzgerald on 16. Jun, 2010 in Apple, iPhone

There’s something fishy about this story on Gizmodo. They’re saying that …

” readers claim that AT&T is exposing credit cards and shipping information during iPhone 4 pre-orders. Wrong shipping information is even being used by AT&T and Apple’s websites to send units to the wrong people.”

Now I’ve no reason to doubt that AT&T could screw up like this. After all it’s AT&T. The weird thing is this only seems to be happening to Gizmodo readers. They’re even claiming an exclusive on this “iPhone 4 Disaster” story. So you’re telling me that of all the sites on the internet the only one to receive emails from customers is Gizmodo? Other sites are reporting on this story (ie quoting Gizmodo) but no one else seems to have received any emails from readers suffering this issue. Like I said, fishy.

(please feel free to add links in the comments if I’m wrong about this)

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Porn Free

by thomasfitzgerald on 04. Jun, 2010 in Mac

Apple isn’t the only company that doesn’t want to sell porn. Interesting how it’s not considered a “freedom” or “censorship” issue on the Playstation. I guess it’s ok for companies to decide what they want to sell or not sell so long as they’re not named after fruit.

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