Matharu's Rants and Raves » Apple

Google returns to its evil ways

Kulvinder Matharu — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:41:57 +0000

Just when I thought that those annoying Google popups telling me to install Google Chrome had gone way, those evil things made their return yesterday to IE7, IE9, Firefox 9 and 10, and Safari. Strangely that damn popup did not appear in Opera.

What does it take to destroy that annoying Google popup? Clearly Google are in-you-face about getting you to switch to their browser. Seems to be an abuse of their dominate position.

Dye Google Chrome popup, die!

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012

Google now less annoying and less abusive; kind off

Kulvinder Matharu — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 12:46:00 +0000

Further to what I think of as Google abusing its dominant position in constantly targeting Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browsers and asking the user to switch to Google’s Chrome browser, there appears to be a change now. My previous rants on this:

Well, today I noticed that the annoying “Install Google Chrome” popup message appeared in Firefox 9 for the first time:

This popup also appeared in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 (as expected) and also in Apple’s Safari 5 but, strangely, not in Opera 11. I was able to close these Google popups in each of the affected browsers without the popups returning when I revisited Google’s search homepage. I have not checked any other browsers yet.

So, let’s just hope that those annoying Google popups don’t come back again. Although I’m not sure how Mozilla and Apple feel that Google are trying to be a bit more aggressive in trying to wean users onto Google Chrome!

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012

The Magic of Reality – a quick review of the iPad version of Richard Dawkin’s book

Kulvinder Matharu — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:37:15 +0000

I had originally posted my quick review of the iPad ebook/app version of Richard Dawkins book “The Magic of reality” in the iTunes store a few days ago (late October) but, for whatever reason, the review has not shown up there. I have therefore taken the opportunity to post that review here albeit with this preface. The review is not so much a critique of the message of the book (which I found brilliant) but more to do with the mechanics of the implementation of this ebook version.

The ebook/app was released on 23 September 2011, and is at version 1.

This is a fantastic book/app. I thoroughly recommend this for its primary audience, children, but also for the young adult in their mid-teen to late teen years. It is clearly written and has interactive media that engages a young person’s mind.

However, there are a few elements with regards to the implementation of this version (the first edition to hit the iPad) that could be improved upon, and I have listed these issues below in the hopes that the publisher takes action to improve the book/app in future editions.

There is no dictionary or thesaurus look-up. Implementation of this feature would allow a young person to more easily explore new words.

There is no bookmarking feature and I can’t seem to go directly to specific chapters. I sometimes like to bookmark certain pages or go direct to certain chapters so that I can read them again later. It is extremely tedious to scroll through the book’s contents to find something specific that you want to read again.

There are no page numbers. On the iPad, page numbers should be easy to implement. I do like to make reference to chapters and page numbers.

I found at least on section of text referring to a diagram “below” when the diagram was elsewhere. I assume that this is just an error (it probably is correct in the printed version).

The interactive diagram illustrating the sun size and how it fits into the galaxy appears five pages before the text that refers to it. The two should be closer.

The diagram with the two prisms, a slit, and red light at the second prism seems incorrect. I think the slit needs to be turned through 90 degrees.

There was a section on the spectrograph which mentions a website; what website?

The text uses a mixture of metric an imperial measurements for distances e.g. miles, kilometres, etc. It needs to stick to metric (although I can see that metric measurements might be an issue with readers from the USA).

The interactive diagram for continental drift is great but, probably due to the projection used, the size of continents changes significantly when moving between equatorial and polar regions. For example, look at the sizes of Greenland and India; they change considerably! This can cause puzzlement to the young reader. I would suggest using a globe projection (such as used by Google Earth) to minimise these size distortions.

The diagram of the cross-section of Earth says “tre-acle”. This needs to be corrected.

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2011

Talking Tom Cat and Healing Crystals

Kulvinder Matharu — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 22:05:16 +0000

Well, well, well. Why do I say that? Now here’s a tale…

There’s a very popular free iPhone app called “Talking Tom Cat” by Outfit 7. It’s an interactive cat and the kids love it (and a few adults too!). As a free app I was not in the least bit surprised to see that it had a banner for ads. I clicked on it to see what it was about. Oh wow. I got sent to another free app called “Healing Crystals” also by Outfit 7.

Now, this is where I got surprised and then disappointed. I’ll quote from the description:

Did you know, that crystals have been used as effective healers and protectors for thousands of years?
They say, that for every disease or discomfort there is a crystal you could use to treat yourself. Can you believe it?
We are sure you can’t, until you see for yourself that the age old ways still work.
All the crystals in this application are kept at a specially selected focal point in Slovenia, where they are activated for long-distance healing.
If you decide to download this application now, you will get:
* 9 free healing crystals with 36 more to unlock
* detailed explanation of the healing power of crystals
* beautiful high quality photos of crystals
* comprehensive list of physical diseases and conditions with associated crystals that heal them
* comprehensive list of mental, emotional and spiritual conditions with their associated crystals.
This is all you need to discover the amazing power of Healing Crystals.
Why not start today? Download now, it’s free.

As no credible trials have demonstrated the “power of healing crystals” beyond a placebo, I consider such applications a cancer to scientific understanding and progress. Much like homeopathy in fact! And much like homeopathy and other pseudo-scientific nonsense the use of these “treatments” can lead to harm as described at http://whatstheharm.net/.

So I was disappointed to see such nonsense in the iTunes store. iTunes, a peddler of bullshit? I had to laugh that this app was filed under the “Medical” category!

I agree that I have had a pop at Apple and iPhone/iPad apps recently but when I’ve spent big bucks on the iPod touch and now on the iPad I expect to see quality and not garbage. I marvel at Apple’s criteria for allowing apps into the iTunes store!

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2010

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iTunes, photos, videos and IE Favorites

Kulvinder Matharu — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 19:21:11 +0000

As good as iTunes is, in some respects it’s just brain dead. Take the case of synching your photos between a PC and an iPad. I’m running Windows 7 Ultimate (64 bit) and have a number of photos taken over many years and other jpegs of paintings. Quite a number of these are drafts, duplicates or thumbnail-sized images. These are all in various folders and subfolders nested deep within “My Photos”. Can I select individual images to synch with iPad? No, I have to select folders which is unfortunate if I have, say, thumbnails in a subfolder; ALL the image get transferred to the iPad including thumbnails. How brain dead is that? Or am I brain dead and missing something obvious?

There ain’t such an ugly thing as an iPad displaying thumbnails expanded to fill the screen! I don’t want the thumbnails on the iPad; I want my high resolution images to show off to my friends!

I have been forced to create a new folder and COPY the relevant images to that new folder, and then tell iTunes to synch with that folder. So now I’ve got duplicate images on my PC and I have to remember to update the images in the new folder when I update images in my original folder…there may be software that can help with that but why am I forced to do that.

This is what Apple says (8 July 2010) at: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1389:

The syncing options include:

If you use iPhoto 4.0.3 or later in Mac OS X, you can have iTunes automatically sync all of your photos and albums or just certain albums every time you connect your iPod.

If you are using Adobe Photoshop Elements versions 3.0 or later, you can sync all of your photos or just certain collections of photos.

If you are using Adobe Photoshop SE in Windows, you can sync either all of your photos or certain collections of photos. If you are using Adobe Photoshop Album SE in Windows, you can only sync all of your photos.
Note: While Photoshop Album allows you to sync only certain collections, Photoshop Album SE does not allow you to assign collection tags that are required for this to work.

If you are not using any of the above applications, you can sync all of the photos in a selected folder, or only photos in specific folders inside the selected folder. Folders inside the selected folder will be displayed as photo albums on the iPod, but not subfolders beneath them.

Also, why is the Video synch check option under Photos? Is that the only option in trying to choose which videos to synch?

One other thing. Whenever iTunes synchs my IE8 bookmarks with iPad’s Safari, iTunes messes up the order of URL shortcuts within the “Links” bookmark folder which is used for showing URL shortcuts on the “Favorites” bar. It also messes with the contents of other folders but I need to have some some URL shortcuts in a certain order eg when opening all the links in a folder I want them to open in a certain order. Why oh why does iTunes mess around with my stuff?

So Apple stuff “just works”? hmmm…I think that’s a stretch!

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2010

My iPad – mini review

Kulvinder Matharu — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:16:31 +0000

I bought an iPad a few days ago. It is a very sexy-looking device and there are some really cool apps for it. But there are also a few issues with the iPad.

There’s no Flash and hence I don’t get the “whole internet”. Same with the iPhone.
It’s quite heavy so needs to be balanced on a surface when using it for long periods. I’ve more or less worked out the best positions to hold and balance the thing. Playing “Real Racing HD” is fun but my arms soon start drooping. Perhaps I should get stronger arms!
A lot of apps designed for the iPhone / iPod Touch don’t look too hot when expanded onto the iPad’s larger display. Hopefully that will change once developers bring out more apps for the iPad.
I think that 99.99% of computers/hubs cannot charge the iPad from a USB port. The iPad requires a heavy current draw to charge the batteries and these exceed the USB specifications. So you’re mostly stuck with having the iPad charge from the dedicated mains adapter. But it’s such a short USB cable too which make things awkward when trying to use the iPad whilst it’s recharging.
The iPad seems so…shiny and slippery. So much so that you’ll be wanting to get a case and screen protector for it ASAP.
There’s no camera. So that kinda kills video messaging; my £300 netbook has a camera for goodness sake!
It’s bloody expensive for it is.
Many decent apps are not free. So once you start downloading all these apps it’s like “death by a thousand cuts”.

But there are also a lot of really good things about the iPad too.

Looks sexy and cool!
Some apps are awesome.
The game “Angry Birds HD” is so addictive. Brilliant.
It’s great for toddlers and kids; the interactivity is perfect for learning. Just make sure that the iPad is protected when letting the kids loose on it (no, it’s not an expensive toy, thank you!).

It is an improving product and perhaps we’ll even get Adobe Flash on it one day! Maybe a second generation or third generation iPad will sort out all the kinks? But I do recognise that such a device had to be built within certain constraints. As the engineering saying goes, “Cheap, tough, light…choose two!”.

I’m still going to buy a laptop, though, as that still provides me with better productivity features with my workflow. Depending what happens later on this year, perhaps a new breed of touch-screen laptops may offer me more.

OK, that’s all for now.

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2010

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The future is here, instant song purchase from FM radio!

Kulvinder Matharu — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 20:14:51 +0000

After my Future of music – my vision! article posted in January 2008, Wired has just put up an article regarding the new Microsoft Zune MP3 players, where it seems that the Zunes will implement the ability to purchase songs heard on the Zune’s FM radio.

My original thoughts were that Apple would be the first manufacturer to get there but it looks like Microsoft got there first. This is good for competition. Let’s hope that competition becomes more competitive, perhaps even with Sony or Creative getting into the action too. As a Zune and iPod owner that makes me feel real good!

iPod touch 2.0 Software Update

Kulvinder Matharu — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 13:10:17 +0000

I own an Apple iPod touch (32GB). Now that the 3G version of the iPhone is out, the latest software firmware (version 2.0) for the iPod touch has also been released. The cheek of it is that Apple are trying to charge me £5.99 to obtain this firmware!

Are Apple really trying to make me regret purchasing the iPod touch?

Apple, Apple, Apple. You continue to disappoint! It’s just such greed from Apple that encourages people to modify the iPod firmware…this modified firmware allows the customer the freedom to install other software on the iPod and to break out of the restrictions imposed by Apple. “Think different”? Sure…

Apple 32GB iPod touch

Kulvinder Matharu — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 18:37:32 +0000

Having bought the 80GB Zune 2 MP3 player, I treated myself to the 32GB iPod touch from Kuala Lumpur after all that hard work on the Borneo Orangutan Adventure.

The iPod touch is a really sleek design, a joy to hold and look at. However, even with the latest firmware (1.1.4), the iPod touch crashes on a frequent basis. By “crash” I mean that in the middle of web browsing or listening to music (for example) the iPod touch will crash whatever it was doing and revert to the main start screen. Not nice at all!

In addition, the album cover flow screen sometimes doesn’t show the album covers which kinda defeats the main purposes for having the album cover flow screen.

And it seems that I’m not the only one who’s experiencing these problems. A quick web search revealed the extent of these problems. I imagine that Apple will eventually get the bugs ironed-out with future firmware releases but I paid a lot of money for what turns out to be a flawed jewel. So, at the moment, I’m really disappointed with Apple’s latest iPod.

Future of music – my vision!

Kulvinder Matharu — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 18:11:46 +0000

A device, whether mobile or fixed, such as a laptop, a mobile telephone, a desktop, etc which is used (as one of its functions) to receive “radio” stations from the air (using radio techniques such as VHF/FM, DAB, etc) or “streamed” such as from an Internet connection over xDSL, WiFi, etc. Such a device, using automatic user-matching preferences, or through manual intervention by the user, flags a received song/tune/audio which then actions the device to immediately (or stored later for such action) to access a relevant music download site such that the flagged song/tune/audio track can be purchased (or made available free of charge) and downloaded to the device such as to allow the user to playback the downloaded track at any suitable time.

A simple scenario. Basically, you’re listening to a traditional radio station or Internet radio station on your 3G/WiFi smartphone/MP3 player and you hear something you like. You press a button and the device goes to iTunes or other site and the track gets downloaded to your device. Instant impulse purchase! The device (or even the music store) could also determine that you like that particular type of music or that artist and it could provide recommendations for further purchase.

This is my vision of the future and it doesn’t take any leap in technology as all the buildings blocks are already there. And I’m sure that the idea isn’t that novel as it’s just a trivial and perhaps obvious example of putting such blocks together. I think Apple could put such a system together very easily using the iPhone (but perhaps with a 3G upgrade!). So the rest of you companies out there, wake up and smell the coffee…you’ve got a lot of work to do! And with GPS built-in such a device would be a real killer! Location based services are going to sky rocket but that’s the subject of a different article.

I want now!

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