Tag Archives: apple

That’s a lot of Wi-Fi!

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A strange realization hit me during all this Wi-Fi router nonsense. When asked “how many wireless devices do you have?” I found to my surprise that the answer is nine.

How’d that happen? Well, there are two Windows laptops and one Mac laptop–that’s three. There’s two Android phones and one iPhone–that’s six. There’s two Apple TVs–that’s eight. There’s one iPad–nine.

Wow. And when you consider that two of these devices do almost nothing but stream video, you can see that my insistence on upgrading to simultaneous dual-band 802.11N wireless was completely warranted.

Further Adventures in Wi-Fi

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Good news! I completely resolved all the problems with my Cisco/Linksys Wi-Fi router!

…by ordering an Apple AirPort Express which I will pick up at the local store tomorrow on my way home from work.

I tried, though. You’ll remember that I tried to set it up myself. Then I consulted their tech support. Things still weren’t right. I chatted them up a second time. I kept waiting for them to tell me that there was some known issue, some incompatibility between something on my network and the settings on the router–but no. In the end, they tried to tell me that there was some kind of interference in my apartment.

Interference. With their router in the exact same spot, serving the exact same devices the old Netgear had done for years without issue. Basically they were grasping at straws and had no clue. Meanwhile, I had two Wi-Fi SSIDs, no idea if I should leave them separate or not, a slow web experience on the MBP, intermittent streaming issues on the Apple TV, and I discovered I could no longer push video or audio to the TV from the laptop.

I’d even done my own research, consulted some other clever people I know, and come up with nothing.

So I’m done. I’m casting it back into the fiery chasm from whence it came–Best Buy. And I’m picking up my new Apple unit. The Linksys cost me $82. The Apple cost me $20 more. If it works as well as I expect it to, it’s money well spent.

Adventures in Wi-Fi

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Our Wi-Fi router died today so I bought a new one on the way home from work. The setup didn’t go as planned.

Since we clearly couldn’t wait for even overnight shipping from Amazon, so I swallowed down my revulsion and went to Best Buy. I emerged with a simultaneous dual band wireless N router with four 10/100 ethernet ports, made by Cisco/Linksys. And at $80 it had enough muscle for the Apple TV streaming, but was still inexpensive enough for my inner cheapskate.

Then the fun began.

I plugged it in, connected the WAN port to the cable modem and sat down with my Macbook Pro and the included CD. Upon launchhing the setup program I was told I could not poroceed because Mac OS X 10.7 or later was required–even though I had 10.8.2. I cleverly downloaded a a newer version of the setup software directly from the Cisco web site…only to get the same error.

Fine. I put the CD in one of the Windows 7 laptops in the house and things seemed to go better. There was a setup wizard. I let it “wiz” and answered all its questions. I got my MBP connected, the two Win 7 laptops, my iPhone, two Android phones, one Apple TV…everything seemed to be going well. But I was unnerved. I’d set up many a Wi-Fi router in my day. This was all too easy, too good to be true.

And so it proved to be. Within five minutes I noticed that my MBP was getting really, really slow internet service. Like it took a full minute just to check my Gmail. Not good. The Windows laptops seemed fine. The Apple TV didn’t work. When I tried to watch a show it told me that many hours of download were required before it would be ready to watch. Usually it’s 1-2 seconds.

I decided to fire up a browser and hit 192.168.1.1 to see what’s really going on up in here.

Sure enough, a familiar Wi-Fi router setup was available. I poked around in it. I shut off all the security to see if that was responsible for the problem. I rebooted the unit. Nothing seemed to help.

Next I went to the manufacturers web site. Which is terrible. I could not find any helpful information, so I chose to chat live with a support person.

After waiting 10 mintues or more, Marie asked me how she could help. I explained everything. I think I probably blew her mind, actually. When she asked for the serial number I gave it to her. When she asked about my network devices and their operating systems, I told her. When she asked me to go to 192.168.1.1 I told her I was already there.

She informed me that I had 90 days of support but that if I wanted more I’d have to pay $20 for their extra support thingy. I told her as politely as I could that if she was unable to help me this very evening I wouldn’t own the device tomorrow and thus wouldn’t be attempting to contact her on the 91st day or on any other day.

She told me the router wasn’t configured correctly. She told me to choose “manual” instead of “Wi-Fi Protected Setup” whatever the hell that is. She had me setup both the 2.4 and the 5 GHz signals differently from their defaults. She also had me choose a different-from-the-default security mode, WPA2 Personal.

And then…everything seemed to work!

Here’s the thing that’s astonishing about this. I bought a Wi-Fi router and set it up according to its default specifications only to find none of my Apple gear worked on it. None. What is it this, 1996? Shocking. Just shocking. I expected more from Cisco.

All’s well that ends well, I guess. But I won’t soon forget the Apple-unfriendliness of their product.

The iTV obstacle: “little interest in alternative models”

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According to Fortune, Apple has a tough row to hoe in its effort to rescue us from TV awfulness. Why? Some wall-street guy spilled the beans on what senior VP Eddie Cue had to say on the matter:

[Apple] will enter markets where it feels it can create great customer experiences and address key problems. The key problems in the television market are the poor quality of the user interface and the forced bundling of pay TV content, in our view. While Apple could almost certainly create a better user interface, Mr. Cue’s commentary suggested that this would be an incomplete solution from Apple’s perspective unless it could deliver content in a way that is different from the current multichannel pay TV model.

Unfortunately for Apple and for consumers, acquiring rights for traditional broadcast and cable network content outside of the current bundled model is virtually impossible because the content is owned by a relatively small group of companies that have little interest in alternative models for their most valuable content.

So basically content companies are holding back the revolution. I wouldn’t bet on them holding it back forever. But it really could be a while. Sad.

The Real FoxConn

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I found this Bloomberg piece to be very enlightening.

If you’ve ever tweeted about how bad Apple is, blogged about the evils of Foxconn’s sweatshops, or “Liked” a Facebook post excoriating how iPads are made, then you should listen. Don’t take the word of the dozens of bloggers and news outlets who’ve tried to summarize the whole saga into bite-sized morsels—go listen for yourself.

Android v. iOS: This time it’s personal

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Religious wars are never pretty. Take iOS and Android. I’m sure there are lots of agnostics in both camps–people who use one or the other without strong opinions about it–but there are plenty more whose feelings run very deep indeed. Just today I tweeted about a piece at PC Mag entitled The iPad Wins Because Android Tablet Apps Suck: An Illustrated Guide by Sascha Segan. Twitter pal and Android user VicWu took offense. Her charge against me: I’m being as unfair and dickish as the unfair dicks I decry on the other side. But am I?

Nobody’s perfect. I’m sure I have my moments of high snark-to-content ratios. But here are some of the things I genuinely think are problematic about Android.

1. An emphasis on being feature-rich at the expense of usability. I know which side of this issue I’m often on–and, techies notwithstanding, which side I think most users of consumer technology should be on.

2. Android devices often get software updates slowly–if at all. I’ve been hearing about the miracles of the “ice cream sandwich” release for ages, but I read that the percentage of Android users who actually have it is in the single digits. Carriers and handset makers simply have no incentive to distribute new software to their customers–and Google can’t usually do it independently of them. So there you are. iOS updates are immediately available to all handsets that can support them.

3. The Android app store has had quality control issues. From copyright-infringing ringtone ripoff artists to outright malware, you simply don’t see that kind of thing in Apple’s store.

4. In their effort to one-up each other and the iPhone, some Android handset makers have stuffed their phones so full of features–larger screen! super fast networking! unlimited tethering!–that many of them can’t last a whole day on a single battery charge.

5. Android evangelists laud the platform’s “openness.” I’m not sure what they mean by this. None of them can just download the source code of the Android operating system. The real openness I see on Android is that it’s open for handset makers and carriers to fuck it up with bad user interfaces and ham-handed attempts to shunt users into their own shoddy services and products.

You may not think these observations are reason enough not to use Android, but I don’t think any of them are grossly unfair criticisms.

There are legitimate criticisms of Apple’s iPhone, too. I generally don’t take umbrage at these. You want to cast aspersions on Apple’s app store control freakery? Have at it. I don’t share those concerns, but it generally doesn’t anger me if you bring it up. You want to vilify Apple for its relative lack of customizability? Go for it. I myself am pretty comfortable with its level of customizability, but if it’s not to your liking, knock yourself out.

Here’s what does bug me about Android enthusiasts.

1. They often accuse us Apple customers of being thoughtless victims of “slick marketing.” They say we are shallow and vain, chasing after whatever is new, shiny and fashionable without regard to its actual utility or value. There is rarely any acknowledgement of an Apple products genuine merits.

2. There’s a feeding frenzy of bad tech press and free software zealots who absolutely go apeshit every time something Apple does isn’t perfect. Even worse, they occasionally just make shit up. Have you read that the new iPad has battery problems? Well, it doesn’t. But doesn’t it overheat? No. Have you somehow gotten the idea that Apple is especially ruthless with regard to Chinese laborers and that the responsible thing to do might be to avoid their products? Well, they aren’t and you shouldn’t. Every time some Linux nerd gets out his calipers and claims that the iPhone is .002 millimeters thicker than Apple’s spec sheet it hits the front page of Slashdot where the snark runs high and the misinformation runs deep…only to have the issue debunked later.

That stuff bugs me. Because it’s unfair or wrong or unnecessarily personal and ad hominem. I think if you take a glance back at my list of Android concerns you won’t’ find anything like that.

So I’m not as much of a dick as those other guys.

No, seriously. I’m not.

Clouds and Wishes and Music Piracy

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Getting back into music is causing me to listen to music a lot more than I had been before. Also, I signed up for iTunes Match, Apple’s music cloud storage thingy, so I took some care in cleaning up my music library. All of which led to me making a list of things I want for my collection. It’s a highly dynamic list, but here it is in its current state.

Albums:

Gling-Glo by Björk. (Lost in the great hard drive crash of 04.)

Shooting Rubberbands At The Sky by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians (Also lost.)

Fumbling Toward Ecstasy by Sarah McLachlan (Lost)

Surfacing by Sarah McLachlan (Lost)

Afterglow by Sarah McLachlan (Lost)

The Unforgettable Fire by U2 (Used to own the CD.)

Little Things by Toby Lightman (Lost.)

There are also singles by Jethro Tull, Rusted Root, The Ting Tings, The Cure, Lou Reed, Michael Bublé, Yellowjackets, Mayer Hawthorne and Redbird.

As you can see, a lot of this stuff I owned previously. Some as legitimate downloads, some on CD, some even on cassette at one point or another.

Why should I have to buy any of this material a second time? Especially if I’m not receiving it on physical media?

Hopefully those days are soon coming to a close with the big guys getting into the cloud services business. You buy once, you own always–and someone makes sure it’s there for you. But for now, perhaps there’s some friends who have these pieces of music whom I can sponge off.

No, I don’t feel too bad about saying that.

Apple will make a TV

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Yes, an actual television set.

Stop and think about what it’s like to sit down and watch television. You grab a remote that looks like the dashboard of the space shuttle. Then you figure out how to put the TV to the correct input. Then you push the same button 100 times to go through an enormous list of channels and programs, trying to find the four things that might interest you. The interface is terrible, inconsistent and ugly. And if by chance you do find something to watch, you get channel badges and crawlers fucking up the whole experience. Plus commercials. Lots of commercials. And people pay $50-$100 a month for this shit.

You should be able to tell your TV what you want. “I want to watch television” should put it to the correct input. “What movies are starting in the next 15 minutes?” is definitely within Siri’s capabilities. “Is there any Sci-Fi on?” should work, too.

Apple is really, really good at identifying what is broken about our current technology and fixing it. They did it with mp3 players. They did it with smartphones. They did it with tablet computers. They’ll do it with televisions, too, if they can get the content people on board. And remember: they did get the content people onboard for the iTunes store. So it’s not unprecedented.

That’s what I hope will happen, anyway.

Siri

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So I’ve had a week with my new iPhone 4S after five-and-a-half months away from my old iPhone 4. How’s it going?

Fantastic. In many ways it feels like the last half a year never happened.

But what about those new features? What about Siri? People have written a lot about it already. The Android community is trying various methods of consoling itself. Someone even sang a duet with Siri. But what’s it really like to use it?

There’s really two things that I find striking about Siri. The first is that it has a decent capacity for understanding context. I can say “where can I get a good steak?” Siri will list for me the local establishments which specialize in steaks. If I then say “what about sushi?” It will give me a list of sushi restaurants in the area. The important bit is that it understood that I was still talking about restaurants. This may seem like small thing–well, it is a small thing–but when it comes to making verbal communication natural and comfortable, small things are where it’s at.

The other striking thing about Siri is that it has good access to some key data sources: my calendar (“What’s my day look like tomorrow?”), my contact list (“Call my dad”), my note pad (“Make a note”), my GPS location (“Remind me to get gas when I leave work”), Yelp (“What’s a good Italian restaurant around here?”), Wolfram Alpha (“How many inches in a mile?”), my music (“Play some electronica”), maps (“Where is Panera Bread?”). It can text whatever I say to whomever I want. Or email them. Or video conference them. In short, Siri can actually do things. Not everything. But many useful things.

Of course what people are really having fun with is chatting up Siri just to see what she’ll say to various questions. I haven’t done too much of that, but everyone around me wants to borrow my phone and try it. Siri often gets the better of these pranksters. (“Will you have sex with me?” once prompted Siri to give a list of nearby escort services.)

And Siri is just in Beta. Can you imagine what this technology will look like in a year? Three years? I can’t wait.

Steve Jobs, giver of hope, dead at 56

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Don’t you love how everything Apple makes feels like someone loved it? Like someone gave a shit about it before it was put in a box and given to you? I’m convinced that someone really did. Maybe a lot of someones. But Steve was the head carer, the top give-a-shitter. He wasn’t a programmer, he wasn’t a hardware engineer, he wasn’t even a trained businessman. He was a product guy. He sat in a room with a big table. Some people would come in and put something in his hand. His job–I’m convinced of this–his job, at least in part, was to say “this is the most amazing thing I have ever seen”–or “did you just shit in my hand? Take it away and start over.” That iPod gave you the impression that it was washed in unicorn tears precisely because someone refused to let it be sold until it looked and worked that way. His name was Steven P. Jobs.

And this attitude of his raised the bar. Technology doesn’t have to be ugly. Much of what personal technology offers us is about as inspiring as a couple hours at the airport: equal parts fear, boredom, discomfort and bad taste. Using an Apple product, by comparison, is like having a transcendental experience while walking through a Japanese garden as cherry blossoms fall softly around you.

But Steve didn’t just deliver shiny laptops and new software. It was hope itself. Because when the world went to shit–terrorism, war, economic collapse, political chaos–Uncle Steve was always there. He walked out on stage a couple times a year, took a fucking miracle out of his pocket, and said not everything is shit; some things are awesome, look.