On anticipation and celebrities tweeting

September 9, 2014
3 min read

It’s September 9th finally and I’m very much in the anticipation of Apple presentation. This time I’m really interested in company’s announcements. I’m not sure why, but it feels like something big is coming (and it’s not a pun on the screen sizes). I try hard not to read the rumors. Yes, I know there will probably be two new bigger phones with 4.7 and 5.5 inch screen and there probably will be some kind of wearable. This is the information you get without even trying. All the websites and podcasts are talking about that. But I try not to open “news” about upcoming products. If all those mock-ups and information about internals are true, then I would rather be surprised during the presentation. If all this information is false, then what’s the point of reading and posting it. (I know what is the point for publishers, I’m not that stupid). I’m just waiting for Apple to impress me. It’s like going to watch a movie, when your expectations are too high, you probably would not enjoy it. So, if you can, you should isolate yourself from all this talk, which is of course easier said than done, because of the Internet.

It’s hard to find links about something other than Apple event. Everybody tries to get his last minute predictions. It’s interesting how predictions work. If you didn’t guess – nobody will care, maybe your biggest haters, if you get something right, you can for the rest of your life link to that triumph.

But this time, I feel like Apple has outdone itself. There is no hint in the invitation to journalists. Just “Wish we could say more.” That’s the first time, as far as I can remember, we’ve always gotten at least something to deconstruct. Also big room, a lot of journalists, even Gizmodo is invited and some fashion press.

One more thing, I’m considering what my next phone will be and that’s the last presentation I’m waiting for. Last year in a similar circumstance I’ve chosen HTC One instead of iPhone 5S and still think that was a right choice. There is plenty to hate about HTC One, but until iOS 8 I’ve enjoyed Android more, let’s see how it changes with the new OS and then the update to Android, later this year.

That’s not a celebrity you’re following on Twitter, it’s an assistant  Why would anyone think that celebrities are tweeting? First, they do not care. Why would Britney care about Twitter and what somebody is saying about her. Second, I don’t really care what Britney talks about. Fans enjoy her account as it is, I am sure. They retweet and mention her. If she was, indeed, writing herself, I don’t think much would change. All her fans would continue following her and those who weren’t interested would not be interested in any case. Maybe mentioning in the bio, that someone else is writing on behalf of celebrity would be nice, but that will never happen.

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. 

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.

Comparison videos

April 17, 2014
1 min read

Love comparison videos from thematic blogs. “Let’s see how they will handle Skype calls and the winner is Cortana!” Really? Makes sense, doesn’t it, since Microsoft owns Skype. Author could have tried making FaceTime call on all of the platforms and I think I could guess who the winner would be. 

And when asking for nearby restaurant, Google Now gave a result of one, that is 0.4 miles away, while the closest one from Cortana was 8.9 miles away, I’m not sure you can call it a tie. 

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Spotify’s biggest redesign ever brings long-awaited Collection view

April 9, 2014
1 min read

Spotify’s biggest redesign ever brings long-awaited Collection view

Unfortunately, without its famous yellow stars (and with the addition of a few prominent design cues), the app looks more than ever like a darker shade of chief competitor Rdio — but that might not be such a bad thing for Spotify.

I finally got the update and it messes up with the way I interact with an app. I’ve left Rdio because of all those features. I don’t need collections. I was syncing Starred playlist for offline listening on a phone and it was very easy to add a song to that playlist. Now I have to add it to my Collection and then to a playlist for sync? Not great at all.