Extensions on iOS

September 8, 2014
3 min read

Extensions on DF

Finally, iOS users will have a glimpse at what Android is about for a long time. I don’t mean it in a bad way, competition and parity is a good thing. The concept of Extensions on iOS is one of the reasons I’m still using Android, combine it with a bigger screen and you have something to offer to those open to the change.

The ability to install custom keyboards alone is a big one. There are not a lot of good keyboards, but there are a couple of interesting ones. SwiftKey, Swype and TouchPal are pretty similar with some subtle differences and I go back and forth between SwiftKey and TouchPal. HTC’s keyboard is good, but they have problems with Russian. Also, there are a couple of interesting choices, like Minuum Keyboard or Fleksy, each of them brings something new to the experience. And also Google Keyboard is a very simple and nice choice. Two of the best features are word prediction, which saves a lot of time and also gestures, when you type by swiping, personally I don’t do it all the time, but it’s very fast. And typing using iOS keyboard on my iPad after using Android phone is not a great experience at all. That’s one thing.

Another one is connecting to Apps, like editing photos using different Apps right in a Camera Roll. You can do that on Android by Sharing menu. I don’t open VSCOcam by tapping on the icon, I select the photo I want to edit in my Gallery app and then share it to the app, edit the photo and then Share it to Instagram from VSCOcam. It works great, so that would also bring great feature to the iOS. Third thing everyone is excited about is 1Password and its ability to fill out forms and passwords in Safari and other Apps. On the Android we have LastPass does just that. I don’t remember my passwords and after they’ve introduced that feature, I’ve started using LastPass even more. Before that, I would sometimes want to do something and then decide to do it later, on my PC, now I just do it on my phone more often, because of how easy it is.

Again, there is nothing wrong with that. I love that companies copy each other, but use different implementations. It is competition, which is always very good for the consumer. Android could’ve copied something from iOS, like smooth scrolling, for example. (Easier said than done, but as a user, I don’t care a lot about how hard it is, Apple somehow managed to do it and I would like similar or better experience on my Android phone).

There will also be widgets on iOS now. That was probably the most advertised features of Android, by users, but I don’t find myself using a lot of widgets. Everywhere you see mostly weather, stocks and sport scores, but it takes too much space and I don’t think you need to see weather every time you unlock your phone.

Yesterday I dind’t post anything, but I did write 500 words, so it’s 8 day streak. 

Charging the watch two times a day

September 6, 2014
3 min read

There are some news on the smartwatch front – reviews for the Moto 360 came out and all your dreams will come true with this watch. Its battery life will last for about… 12 hours. Are you serious Motorolla? This is not even funny. I guess most geeks would be ok with charging it every night, but then charging it in the middle of the say also. Someone has to remind this company they’re essentially making a watch. A WATCH. I have this beautiful, old watch from the USSR. It has to be wound up… Every two to three days. I’m now very interested in what Apple will show us on September 9 event. Probably won’t buy it, but still, it’s interesting to see if they’ll show how it’s done.

image

Since I’m in the market for a new phone, I’m looking closely at what companies are announcing this week. Interesting that many don’t mention release date or prices. It shows they just want to show whatever they have before Apple. Which is fine, I guess.

Samsung showed two phones – Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Note Edge. First is similar to the previous one and like most of their products is boring and has problems grabbing attention. Second one, at first glance, seems more interesting. It has this curve screen, but like with many samsung products, again, it doesn’t know what to use it for, so you are mostly presented with setting for the new cool feature.

Nokia presented low end and middle end devices with flagman class camera. It’s interesting in theory and it does cover my needs – camera and battery life, but it’s a Windows Phone. I love how it looks, but even by Android standard, new apps don’t come out fast enough.

The most interesting device so far is Moto X. As I can see they’ve corrected everything they’ve done wrong. I’m not sure about the bigger screen, 5.2’’ is by no means too big, but still most people consider 4.7’’ a sweet spot, so we’ll see. They’ve also improved the camera, it now features 13-megapixel sensor, that is standard in flagships nowadays. That was actually the biggest problem with the previous model. I love wooden and leather backs, that’s probably the main reason I won’t buy this phone – it probably won’t sell officially in Latvia and buying it from someone, you would have to be OK with whatever they’ve chosen and it would be hard to find the one I’d like. But I have a couple of friends who already decided that Moto X will most probably be their next smartphone.

Up until that point it looks like, nothing has come out, that I would like or would be able to get and the only announcement, we have left, if I’m not mistaken, is the one on September 9th.

This post almost didn’t happen, posting it last minute, but still, the streak is going on. It’s six days now, I think it’s the longest I’ve been writing something, especially the 500 words (and yes, this paragraph also counts towards this number).

500 Words Every Day Challenge: #5 Morning

September 5, 2014
3 min read

When I hear the word morning, first I think about this beginning of the day, which brings you all the new challenges and experiences. You open your eyes in complete silence, the sun starts filling your room with light and warmth. You don’t rush or think about work, you just slowly go to the kitchen, make coffee, enjoying every bit of the process, the smell of the drink you enjoy so much fills the room, there is one of your favorite podcasts playing in the background, creating perfect combination and then you sit down to read a book or some long thoughtful article. Maybe you go for a run, if you get up before the sun does it’s unforgetable experience. Yes, that’s how I picture my perfect morning and now, back to reality.

Five days a week (on Saturdays my day starts even earlier) at exactly 6:31 radio starts playing on my phone, as silently as possible, It’s not intended to get me up as fast as possible, it’s just a signal, I should get ready to get up, so I open my eyes just stay in bed for a couple of minutes with music playing in the background. Most of the time, the curtains are still closed, so it’s dark. I don’t have to get up right away, but the music doesn’t let me close my eyes. At 6:37 there is smooth vibration on my wrist. Fitbit Flex telling me, now it’s time to get up. I don’t remember when I’ve started to use those uneven times for the alarms. I turn off the radio and there is complete silence in my room and it’s still dark. There are occasional sounds coming from the outside – cars getting started, dogs barking or birds singing. Nothing that makes you nervous, just usual sounds. There is one small problem, especially if it is autumn – it’s cold outside the comfort of the blanket. I love to sleep with my window open, at least a bit, regardless of the temperature outside. That way the air is fresh all night long and the blanket keeps me warm. So as fast as I can, I log my weight and walk straight to the shower, where I make the water as hot, as I can handle.

After the shower comes the moment when I feel like I’ve finally woke up and this day can get started – I get out of the shower and stand on a warm floor. Yes, that’s the feeling – I open the doors of the shower, I feel this cold air and then I step on a warmed floor. Then, regardless of the weather I go outside to say hi to my dog, who’s waiting for me every morning. After that morning routine begins, I make a breakfast – something simple, like sandwiches or scrambled eggs. I make coffee, but don’t drink it. I then combine two great things in life – coffee and driving. You share this moment with others, as they too, drive with the cup of coffee in their hands and you wave “Hi” to the person in the nearest car. And both yours and his or her days start with small, but pleasant experience.

This post was written for Lift’s 500 Words Every Day Challenge. Prompt #5.

My thoughts on smartwatches

September 4, 2014
4 min read

You know you have a problem, when one of the best designs in the category looks like this:

image

Or almost round Moto 360. As most of the people don’t use their watches to see time, your product should look good on the wrist, there is no other way around this.

It’s not the best practice to draw some kind of conclusions based on personal anecdotal evidence, but I’ll do just that right now (you could feel it will be this way, by reading the begging of the sentence). I do wear a watch, it’s analogue, pretty big watch by Tomy Hilfiger. I love watches, I use them (I don’t even notice what time it is when I pull out my smartphone), I also wear the Fitbit Flex on the other hand and like a watch, it is an accessory for me, I have a couple of different color bracelets. If they’d looked ugly (like most smartwatches), I wouldn’t even consider wearing them. So that’s my thoughts on design.

The other important thing is what do you use the watch for. On IFA Samsung showed Gear S, which is mini smartphone strapped to your wrist. It’s bulky, 2’’ screen is just too big to wear on a wrist. It has standard wristband and you can change it, which is good, I guess, but won’t help you much. Here is a promotional video of the device.

Let’s look at possible uses for the device from this ad and some hands on from different blogs:

  • Notifications – there are two types of people, in my opinion, those who have too many notifications, so their wrist will constantly buzz (many tech journalists complain about that) and then, there are those, who don’t have as many notifications, so you can just pull your phone out of the pocket. I’m in the latter category and I don’t see a point in this idea of getting notifications on my wrist.
  • Accept or Make calls – this one looks cool, from my understanding, you can’t do that on many smartwatches, but if you watch the promo video, you’ll see, you have to keep your wrist close to your face and in that case – why even bother? – just use a phone with loudspeaker turned on, or better yet Bluetooth headset.
  • Easy text input – let’s repeat this one more time. Easy. Text. Input. Using the QWERTY keyboard on 2 inch screen. Do you even hear yourself Samsung? After using bigger screens I can’t type on the iPhone, let alone the smartwatch.
  • Navigation – this one is interesting, but again, you could just as well use your smartphone. Also, using my phone for navigation, you just see how it drains battery, what about the smartwatch? Will it drain the battery as fast? My guess would be – yes.
  • Music and Tracking Activities – I’ve combined these two, just because it makes sense. Here again, will it be able to keep charge while Bluetooth and GPS are on? If it can, it would be one good use for this watch.
  • UV information – this is just ridiculous, but maybe someone needs it, I just won’t even comment.
  • Tracking Sleep – when I first got my Fitbit Flex and started tracking sleep with it, for about a week I felt uncomfortable wearing it while sleeping, I can’t even imagine wearing 2’’ phone on my wrist.

I think the best you can do with the category of devices you wear on your wrist is some kind of health and fitness use. Without this watch and notification bullshit.

Apple PR and The Verge 2.0

September 3, 2014
3 min read
Great report on Apple PR. A lot of things I’ve heard for the first time, most of them are not surprising, but often you just don’t think about them.
The big problem, in my opinion, is that tech journalists and bloggers try to look objective too much. I think you just can’t. You can try, but still you’ve got some opinions and thoughts on every subject, so I think you have to be true to yourself and your readers, they should understand where are you coming from. If you use Android phones all the time and then you decide to review an iPhone or iOS, I don’t think you could be objective, but that’s ok, you just have to explain to your readers/listeners/watchers where are you coming from and what should they expect out of the review.
Opening Daring Fireball, I expect to see mostly articles and links about Apple and probably somewhat skewed in favor of Apple. And that is neither good, nor bad. You just have to accept it.
Regarding Apple itself and its practices. I, personally, can’t blame them, if “journalist” is ready to suck up and believe whatever the company in question says, it’s his problem entirely.
There is also this practice to advertise your unwillingness to play by Apple’s rules, which is not good, in my opinion. Shitting company, not getting to this company’s events and then writing all over the web about that and how objective you are, isn’t probably a great idea. If you are not on good terms with the company, it doesn’t automatically mean you are objective.
The most interesting thing Apple has done, regarding PR, in my opinion, is its ability to engage non tech people (as some say “normals”). A lot of my friends, who don’t follow tech news and don’t care about new gadgets, apps or services, know that something will happen on 9/9. Many of them think, Apple will start selling iPhone 6, some know it will be only presented, but most are informed. They don’t know and don’t care, that today Samsung will present something (but they will). Samsung tries hard. In social networks, advertising all over the city, but they are mostly known, as this other phone you get when you don’t have money for an iPhone or in some cases “the iPhone from Samsung” (yes, I’ve heard that a lot).
 
In other news, The Verge became responsive. Even as people talk about the App economy and are in love with apps, I don’t think a website should have its own app. I didn’t download The Verge app (or an app from any other blog or magazine for that matter), because I either read their stuff in aggregators (mostly Flipboard), or in Pocket (where links from Twitter and other social networks end up). It’s not intuitive and convenient to open every news site and blog app to keep up with the news. It’s more intuitive to just open browser and go to some site. There is concern about those moments when you don’t have Internet connections, but I think they are rare and you can leave without the Verge for a moment, or just send page you need to Pocket. 

I have won a smartphone!

September 2, 2014
4 min read

Yesterday, after publishing the story, some personal stuff happened and got my mood lower than I thought it could possibly get. I was in a mall, and after that happened, I sat down, got my phone out of the pocket to check Twitter and there was a message from the LG community in Latvia. I had won LG G3.

That’s not the first time I’ve won something, but this is the most expensive thing. About a year ago in a similar contest I’ve won an Acer tablet. It was the most basic one for about 100$, but still, winning something is always a great experience. Before that I have won a printer, magazine subscription and some small things like tickets and CD’s. But winning the flagship phone is in another league.

The most fun thing was the reaction of friends, mostly asking, how do I manage to do that and comments like “enough is enough”. The contest was on Facebook, you had to write, what ould you like to get from the LG G Community. As I understand it’s a service for the LG G phone owners with some deals for products and services. My answer was premium subscription for Endomondo or Runkeeper. But in the end the answer didn’t matter, because it was random, which chose the winner out of 476 participants. Link to the video on Facebook.

The question now is do I keep it? I currently have HTC One (m7), I had it for a year. It’s a great phone. Design wise it’s still one of the best, even considering m8. Putting speakers in front is a genius idea. I started to listen to music and podcasts without the headphones plugged in at home more often. Two things I don’t like about it are camera and battery life. I’ve never had a camera in my life (my parents had, so I used theirs, but not too often), so all the photos I take are with my smartphone. Photos do look good on the smartphone screen, but on a bigger monitor they are quite a bit grainy. Battery life sucks. It lasts half a day at most with my use. Yes, I do use it a lot. Listening to the music or podcasts in the car, at work and at home. Twitter, Instagram – I use those services only on a smartphone. Messaging and so on, but still, half a day is unacceptable by any standard. Comparing LG G3 with my current phone I would most definitely use the LG phone, but there are other things to consider:

  • It’s big, at 5.5 inches it is in a phablet category, so I have to look at it in the store. Most reviewers say it’s ok, the screen goes almost edge to edge, so it’s much more a phone than Samsung Note.
  • This week a lot of phones will come out, including the new iPhone. Last year I had a similar experience. I’ve waited for an iPhone to come out and then decided to buy HTC One, mostly because of the screen size and resolution. This time with bigger screen iPhone and changes in iOS 8 (including most importantly custom keyboards and the ability of apps to talk to each other), buying iPhone makes much more sense. I love the feeling of iOS, but there are some great features of Android that the iPhone doesn’t offer.

I’ll get the new phone in a couple of weeks, so I have some time to think about it.

Meta post on posting

September 1, 2014
3 min read

A couple of months ago I had downloaded Lift app. Didn’t find it useful and after a short time I’ve removed it, never thinking it would prove itself useful anytime soon. But in that process I’ve registered and so every once in a while I’ve got an e-mail from Lift with some challenges. I’ve removed all of them until there was message with writing challenge. #500WED (500 Words Every Day). The idea is to write 500 words every single day for a month. Sounds like fun!

For a long time I wanted to pick up writing. I tried to blog, but after about a month I would leave it untouched for a long time. Recently I wrote a story in Medium (which was fun). I’m not very good at writing, but I try my best. English isn’t even my second language, more like the third, so it doesn’t help. Still, writing in English helps with learning the language.

I’m still not sure what I’ll write about. As I understand, there will be writing prompts for each day, but I’m not sure I’ll stick to them. (I didn’t my first day, so, yeah). But it could help with those days, when I won’t know what to write about. That, actually, was the biggest problem for me. I wanted to write, I just couldn’t find a subject, so this challenge will, hopefully, help with that. I will see if that’s the problem, or just my inability to write.

As I’m typing this, I realize – writing 500 words with no particular subject is no easy task.

Probable subjects for writing – some personal stuff, definitely technology, since it is the thing I’m most interested in. I won’t bother writing about diet and what you should eat, there is plenty to read on that subject and I’m not an expert of any kind. Also, what works for me, maybe won’t work for you. Running may be a subject. I feel like links with my comments will be the most common thing. Again, If (and it is a big if) I will stick with the challenge.

Another question is whether I’ll post everything. First I thought maybe writing something personal in Evernote or something similar and keeping it private. But then I realized, it would hurt my motivation and sooner rather than later I would stop writing (and nobody wants that to happen! Right?)

Everything I’ll write will be published in my blog. Another problem I will most definitely have – I’ve never published anything as soon as I wrote it. Most of the time I’ll let the post sit for a day or two, then rewrite some of it and only after that will I press Publish button. This time I intend to publish as soon as I finish writing. This article I write in Ginger. It checks grammar and style, so that would be a big help. I’ll see in the future, if it will stick. So the first post is done. Let the challenge begin!

My weight loss story on Medium

August 23, 2014
1 min read

It sucks to be fat. My weight loss story.

I’ve recently wrote a story about my weight loss. I’ve wanted to write about that for a long time and also there was this desire to try out Medium. Finally got some thoughts and here is a result. Medium text editor is beautiful, but I messed up title and sub-title first time I’ve wrote the story. 

Didn’t want make this post too long, so it is mostly about the diet. I’ve also bought Fitbit Flex the week I started the diet and it did help a lot, I’ve realized how little did I walk. Also by the end of the diet I’ve started jogging. It doesn’t help with weight-loss per se, but it does allow me to enjoy some not so healthy foods and still keep somewhat presentable form.

Running gear

June 10, 2014
3 min read

I guess, you probably can just go out and run, bet where is the fun? So during couple of months I’ve been running, I’ve acquired couple of things to help me with that activity. 

Shoes

This was the first thing I’ve bought after I’ve decided to pursue running. I’ve heard and read a lot about importance of good running shoes and couple of years ago I had problems with some shoes. I’ve got lucky, when I went to the store there was a sale on those Nike Pegasus running shoes. Beautiful and extremely comfortable. Friend of mine was saying how much better it was running at stadium and not on the roads. Finally I’ve decided to try it and didn’t notice ,much of a difference. Not being an expert, I totally give all the credit to my shoes. 

Clothes

Couple of Nike running T-shirts and shorts, also Nike, which one can call an overkill, but there was time when I had to motivate myself to go out and exercise and buying clothes was my first choice. It worked, knowing that I had these pretty expensive clothes motivated me to go running. Can’t say anything bad about them, comfortable even after more than an hour of running, I had some problems with regular T-shirts as they were not very comfortable for longer runs.

HRM + Watch

I’ve ordered Timex IronMan T5K214, just to have some more comparison information, I’ve used it only two times since it arrived, so can’t say much, but it’s fun to watch HR during the run.

Fitbit

It’s just always on me. When I first bought it, it didn’t change my activity. I’ve just tracked it and didn’t change anything in my lifestyle to improve the results. Only 2k steps a day? Meh, who cares? But then I’ve had a week with 6 days over 15k. After that I try to meet my goal every day, even if it means wandering around town with no reason.

Phone

I take phone with me on all the runs. I’ve wrote about how I choose what to run to. I have Pocket Casts and Spotify ready for my run. Also I track all my activities with RunKeeper. I’ve paid to become Elite user, mostly to support the service, but it does offer couple of useful features.

Headphones

In one week both my iPhone and HTC headphones died during the run. I’ve decided to buy something cheap, but at the store I saw Sennheiser CX 685 headphones on sale. They are designed for active use. It’s tricky to buy such headphones as you can’t try them beforehand and because of not traditional design I can imagine people having problems. Fortunately I didn’t have any, they fit perfectly and don’t drop out of ears. So far the longest run with them was hour and 5 minutes and they were fine during all the run.

Outdoor cinema in Riga

June 2, 2014
1 min read

As a part of Riga 2014 (Riga is European Capital of Culture) in June there have been made outdoor cinema in Riga center on Esplanade. We’ve been walking around town and got invited to watch the movie, for free! How can one refuse such an offer? It was the first such evening, they will show different movie every Saturday.

The opening was at 21:30 and we’ve came about half an hour earlier, all the seats were free, then, in about 20-30 minutes place was full and people were already standing, so it’s my advice to come earlier. It all started with some performances by accordionist and mimes.

Then mimes gave everyone popcorn (again, for free) and the movie started. This evening it was The Artist (2011). Movie wasn’t bad at all, but I loved the experience of watching it outdoors even more. This was the first time I’ve done something like that and I highly recommend to come and see themselves.