M.A.C Bytes

CQUniversity International Education Research

Thu, 16 May 2013 09:35:23 +1000

CQUniversity International Education Research:

This is a presentation that I did a couple of days ago to introduce the new International Education Research Special Interest Group of LTERC at CQUniversity which I am convening. Here is the summary of what I discussed:

An opportunity to discuss what International Education is and how itâs applied at CQUniversity, with a special focus on why research into this area is so important, including some examples of work previously done in this area by CQUniversity.

Please feel free to tweet or e-mail me with any questions.

Using Technology to make paying bills easier

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 16:48:49 +1000

I was browsing the web when I stumbled upon this article, which is from a website called Get Rich Slowly. In it, the author talks at length about the pro’s and con’s of autopay as a method to pay your bills. I pretty much agree with everything that it says, which in summary is that autopay is great because you don’t forget bills, but a problem because you are giving everyone access to your account. It also made me think about my own experience, which has evolved to having the technology work for me quite well. Let me tell you about it….

For quite a number of years, I was hopeless at paying bills. I would often gets calls from the call centre about a missed bill or a missed payment, so much so that I was starting to expect them! Because I often waited until I got paid, the bill would end up in a drawer somewhere totally unpaid and it was costing me a fortune in late fees and driving me mad.

I used various systems to help me remember, corkboards for bills, reminders in my phone but some bills would always slip through the cracks.

Anyway, eventually I discovered autopay. It was great, no more reminders to set, corkboards to use, it just worked automatically, and most of the time I could line it up with my pay and just forget about it.

Problem was, it didn’t always work the way I wanted. The first problem I encountered was that if something odd happened with my pay, all of a sudden all my autopays didn’t work. One time, work missed paying us by a day and I ended up with hundreds of dollars in fees from the bank dishonoring the payment. The other was that sometimes the institutions would come and take the money at the wrong time or in the wrong amount. I would walk up to a shop and try and send my card and discover that my bill that month was bigger or some company had decided to take an extra payment and all of a sudden I didn’t have any money to pay for lunch.

So, I decided to put a stop to all the autopayments before I got even more fees. But what to replace it with?

That’s when I noticed that pretty much ALL my bills had a BPay number on them. In Australia, BPay is a pretty standard system where you can pay money directly out of your bank account to a company that sends you a bill. The important thing about BPay is that they don’t have access to your account, you have to initiate the transfer to make the money change hands. Some further investigation revealed that not only did my bank allow BPay, but they even allowed me to schedule it! An idea was forming.

I went through all my bills and worked out a rough fortnightly payment for each one. For bills like electricity, I divided by 13 weeks for the quarter, for bills like my mobile phone I took the minimum monthly amount and divided by two. I then went through Internet banking and set up payments for all the bills to come out straight after I got paid each fortnight.

It worked like a charm!

I discovered that pretty much everybody will keep track of your BPay payments in their system and credit them towards future bills. So, the phone company remembers you made a payment in the middle of the month and applies a credit to the value left when they send the bill. Assuming I don’t go over my call and data cap limits, it just pays itself automatically every month and I don’t need to do anything. If I do go over, then I can see it when I get the bill ($150 due in two weeks and I know only one more $70 payment will go out between now and then) and set up a once-off scheduled payment or an adhoc payment for the difference.

Of course, for some services this means that sometimes I get ahead. For instance, I am essentially paying my mobile phone bill fortnightly and it’s a monthly bill, so I am making a month more payments than I need across the course of a year, but again this is easy to spot and it’s really easy to adjust the schedule in my Internet banking to skip a payment. Sometimes it just works out because I spend too much one month and the overpayment balances it out.

By the time we got our home loan this system was working so well for us that when they had BPay as a payment option, there was basically no choice. Now we pay our home loan ourselves every fortnight and it gives me total control to pay more if I want, or to skip a payment if we are getting ahead (and I want the money for something else). I can even set up a once-off schedule payment to take the money we skip and funnel it into a savings account so I don’t spend it!

Overall, it’s a great way to work the autopayment mechanism but keep control of your own money. I’m so happy with it that when we go to London later this year for my Long Service Leave I think i will just leave it in place to continue to collect my pay and pay the bills, transferring whatever is left over into a UK bank account for us to spend.

I think this is a great example of technology enabling a better life for us. I don’t know what I would do without technology in this instance, probably just continue to pay late fees on bills or overuse my corkboard! But since it’s here, I recommend everyone give it a go.

This is the video of Steve Job’s first keynote when he...

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 09:45:40 +1000

This is the video of Steve Job’s first keynote when he came back to Apple in 1997. Watching this after having read the Steve Jobs Biography, it strikes me that two things are very clear in hindsight: 1. Steve wasn’t ready to be CEO. For at least the first 18 minutes they never mention what his job is and he appears on the slides as “CEO of Pixar”. This is consistent with the stories in the book, he was hesitant to come back and you can see it watching this video. 2. Larry Elison was a big part of Steve’s life. Again, this is clear from the book, but you can also see it here. Larry is a strange choice for the board of directors but you can see from the video they play of him that he really understands Steve and what he’s about. It’s clear that he was really Steve’s best friend outside of Apple.

Unconscious Computing

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 09:26:58 +1000

Unconscious Computing:

This blog post puts forward a really interesting idea about unconscious computing. As I’ve mentioned here before, I wear an iPod Nano as a watch and I often wish that it did more in the way of communicating with my phone to provide me alerts etc. But, apart from this, it would also be good for it to give unconscious data back to my phone - for instance on the number of steps I take each day, or the current temperature, or my GPS coordinates. The phone could then use that data in apps automatically. Think of it like a series of sensors that collate data about your world, free for you to use when required. Pretty amazing thought.

On Design vs Engineering and Feel vs Facts

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:57:47 +1000

Nick Bilton really nails it in this article when he says:

To this day, I’m not actually sure how many megahertz my iPad operates on. And frankly, I don’t care about the technology inside the technology anymore. It just works — for the most part — and therefore consumers no longer need to think about it.

This is so true. I just bought myself an iPad mini and I have NO idea what processor it has in it, how much RAM it has or even what the megapixels are in the camera. Back when I owned an AMD Athlon and built my own computer these things used to be important, but these days it’s design that rules the roost, not technology. I am more interested in how the iPad mini feels in my hand, the fact that I can hold it in one hand, or that it automatically receives all my e-mails and iMessages than what kind of processor it has.

When you think about it, it’s actually an underrated change that Apple has made to the technology industry. Yes, they revolutionized the music industry, the phone industry, the tablet industry, but they also made us more interested in feel than figures, made design more important that engineering and changed the market for a whole slew of technologies. All the way back when they told us we could fit “1000 songs in our pocket” rather than telling us “comes with a 5gb microdrive”, they knew that this was more important to the consumer.

If you think about it, then perhaps this is the most important contribution a company can make.

"Our whole role in life is to give you something you didn’t know you wanted. And then once you get..."

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 15:35:24 +1000

“Our whole role in life is to give you something you didn’t know you wanted. And then once you get it, you can’t imagine your life without it.”

- Tim Cook in his interview with Brian Williams (good to see that the ol’ company spirit is still alive with the new CEO!)

"Apple’s products say, “You can’t do that because we think it would suck.” Microsoft’s..."

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 10:25:00 +1000

“Apple’s products say, “You can’t do that because we think it would suck.” Microsoft’s products say, “We’ll let you try to do anything on anything if you really want to, even if it sucks.””

- Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper

On the new iPod Nano (now without the watch functionality!)

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 09:15:55 +1000

On the new iPod Nano (now without the watch functionality!):

Anyone that reads this blog would know I’m a massive advocate of the iPod Nano and specifically it’s ability to be used as a watch, so as you’d imagine I was pretty devastated when the announcement last week didn’t bring about a new iWatch compatible Nano. I’ve been collating my thoughts since then to write about it, but I just found the linked article by Nilay Patel at The Verge where he describes my concerns so well I’m just going to say “What he said”.

On Announcing Shipping Dates and Product Pricing

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 09:50:43 +1000

Just reading this article by Dan Frommer that makes an interesting point about how Apple always announces price and ship date whereas other manufacturers (Microsoft being the most notable recent example with Surface) don’t announce either!

Dan makes some really good arguments as to why this is, but I think the most compelling argument is summed up really well by one of the comments, which says:

Apple does not have the issue that they have to make an announcement, regardless of the amount of vapor in their current product, just because Apple is making an announcement that week.

This couldn’t be more true. Apple don’t have to rush to make an announcement before the leading smartphone maker makes an announcement because they ARE the leading smartphone maker. They make the announcement on their own timetable and everyone listens to them.

I noted this phenomenon most acutely yesterday when I was driving to and from work. I heard people talking about the iPhone 5 on the morning drive show, the afternoon drive show and then also noted that it was mentioned on the 6’oclock news! What other smartphone manufacturer has this much awareness in the marketplace? I don’t remember the announcement of the Samsung Galaxy S III being reported anywhere and I suspect many people don’t even know who HTC or Motorola are.

I think Microsoft, Samsung, Google etc would all love to announce shipping and pricing when they announce their products, but they are always playing a game of catch-up and chasing their tales. Until they stop doing this, the phenomenon is going to continue.

On Using the BookBook iPhone Case as a Wallet Replacement

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 13:50:25 +1000

Exhibit A (above) is now the contents of my pockets on a daily basis. Well, almost - this is a promotional image from TwelveSouth, the makers of the BookBook iPhone case, but it summarises quite well what I now carry with me everyday. The most important change is that I have successfully ditched my wallet in favour of the BookBook, and I wanted to write a short blog post talking a little bit about how this has worked for me.

In short: it’s great. Sure, it took a bit of getting used to and some serious wallet lightening, but the end result is something very light and easy to carry. I also love the fact that it lives in your front pocket, so no more sitting on a massive wallet or worrying that somebody will pickpocket you from behind.

There have been a few teething problems though. For starters, I had to work out which cards I had to bring with me everyday and ditch the rest very unceremoniously. The BookBook supports a maximum of 4 - 5 cards, so this was quite hard, especially because I am part of the Woolworths and Coles (two big Australian retailers) loyalty programs and both have a loyalty card. To solve this, I tried putting the barcodes for these in my phone, but then discovered that they won’t scan properly from a phone on the checkout line. This meant 2 of my 5 slots were already used up.

Luckily, I was able to streamline the other components to just a debit card, a credit card and a license, but it’s been tight.

Do I ever miss my additional cards? Well, I kept my wallet full of the other cards and keep it in my bag, so it’s easy to access them if I need them (just a little forward planning required), but the short answer is that aside from a few problems at the beginning where I would forget to get a card from my wallet before I left, it has been pretty easy. I can even find room in the BookBook to squeeze in the extra card for those times when I need it, so no extra wallet required. Score one for the BookBook.

The other that I thought I might try was getting one of those fancy new PayWave cards from visa. Since my BookBook only holds a few cards, I figured that I might be able to pay for things by just waving my phone in the general direction of the eftpos machine. This has worked ok, but I have quickly discovered that the crossover between stores that I can spend less than $35 at that also have the PayWave hardware is quite small, so I haven’t had much chance. Hopefully this will change moving forward, I quite like the idea of swiping my phone iRobot style to pay for stuff.

As for the BookBook as a case itself, I’m pretty happy. The reviews I’ve read talk about the inconvinience of folding it back on itself to make a call and also the lack of a camera hole, but I’ve found that both of those can be fixed if you’re willing to take the phone out of the case if you want to use it for lots of shots or a long phone call. The design of the case makes this easy to do with the easy to remove tab at the top (at which point the phone slides right out), and for short calls folding it back on itself works just fine.

Overall, I’m finding myself extremely happy with my wallet minimization efforts. For me, it’s working very well to replace my wallet and make my pockets quite a bit lighter. I am so happy in fact, that when I get the “new” iPhone in October, I will probably wait a little while to see if TwelveSouth come out with a “new” case before making the plunge. It’s either that or go back to the bulky wallet, and I can live without that!

Why Good Spelling is an Endangered Art Form

Tue, 29 May 2012 15:51:00 +1000

Spelling is overrated. I know it’s hard to believe, an academic making the argument that spelling is not important, but please hear me out before you draw and quarter me. The problem with spelling is that it’s unrelated in many cases to MEANING, which is much more important. I’m sure we’ve all seen this poster, which sums up the argument quite nicely:

As long as the meaning of something is clear, why does it matter how we spell the words? This is especially true for the English language, where different letters have different sounds depending on how they are used, and a single sound can be made by different letters! Is it any wonder that people get words wrong all the time?

This of course is just getting worse over time as the “txt” generation start to take over, where the speed of the reply and the limits on characters mean that spelling words phonetically and leaving out characters is not only quicker but also often required to fit them into the technology we are given. A recent survey by Mencap, which runs a spellathon competition in the UK, showed that many Briton’s are overconfident in their spelling ability and only one in five were able to answer all five questions asked about commonly mispelt words correctly. Of the respondents, Males 18 - 24 were the worst spellers, with older males and females making up the best spellers of the group.

Mencap draws from these statistics the conclusion that “Access to technology has contributed to an ‘auto correct generation’ with many Britons now failing to spell commonly used words”. I don’t disagree with this assessment. In a world where technology is ubiquitous and access to spelling and grammar checking is so common, it’s easy to imagine that many people have offloaded these skills to a computer. The question is, does it matter?

We’re moving towards a world where computing is a part of our everyday lives. In 10 - 20 years, every new person on the planet will be a “digital native”, somebody who has grown up with technology and never known a world where the Internet wasn’t at their fingertips. In this world, where technology is ubiquitous and language has evolved, will spelling be some important? As the image above shows, as long as the meaning is clear, is it important how the words are spelled?

I know this is going to be hard for some people to hear. As a teacher, I know that a badly spelt assignment can make me wince and immediately dive for my red pen. But really, when it comes down to it, where’s the harm? If a student writes a great assignment about the innovative use of technology in supply chain management, or how computers can help to increase corporate efficiency, then does how the words are spelt really mean that the quality of the assignment no longer counts? If the ideas are good, and the meaning is clear, then the student should still gain top marks because the innovation is there, even if they can’t spell a word! Spelling is an artform that the digital native just doesn’t need anymore and as academics we start needing to accept this.

Of course, in the meantime, the digital natives still need to deal with the digital dinosaurs, those people that in the words of Mencap’s CEO, feel that “poor spelling on a CV is fatal, as it says that an individual cannot produce work to a given standard, no matter how highly qualified they might be” and that the “language used by a company or person is a reflection of their attitude, capabilities and skill”. For this reason, I think that the humble spellchecker in your word processor still has a future, and your iPhone still has a place in auto-correcting your words, if for no other reason than to keep the hounds at bay while you climb the corporate ladder or get your next novel published.

But mark my words, give us 10 - 20 years. The digital dinosaurs will be waning into extinction and the new wave of digital natives will have arrived, iPhones in hand. When that day comes, expect to look to your local newspaper (digital-only since 2015!) and see the headline “Brf Look @ histry: Splling used 2 B imprtnt”.

….still makes you wince, doesn’t it?

Great Interview with Apple Designer Jony Ive

Thu, 24 May 2012 10:32:21 +1000

Great Interview with Apple Designer Jony Ive:

I love this bit:

Apple is famous for its secrecy about future products. I ask what will happen if the Queen asks about the new iPhone today. Will he have to say, “I’m sorry Your Majesty, we don’t comment on forthcoming products”? “That would be funny,” he laughs. But I notice he doesn’t say no.

Jony was knighted today, so when you’re next using your iPhone/iPad/Macbook/AppleTV/iPod, just remember it was designed by a knight!

On Making the iPhone Truly Wireless

Wed, 16 May 2012 11:55:38 +1000

For the last few days, I’ve been ruminating on this post from John Gruber about how iOS is now a mature operating system and there are not many “low-hanging” fruit for Apple to deal with. I agree with John, but also think there is still room for Apple to make a big splash with the “new” iPhone in the hardware space. If you think about it, this makes sense, it’s now been two years since a major hardware refresh, so maybe it is time for external changes.

The way I see it, Apple can make changes in three easy areas in hardware, all related to the concept they started last year of “cutting the cord” and making your iOS device more independent:

1. Wireless charging - This change seems long overdue for Apple. The Palm Pre had this technology several years ago and companies like Energizer have been pushing items like the powermat very hard over the last twelve months but have struggled because of the need for an external case for devices like the iPhone. If Apple were to include this in the iPhone, then the uptake would be massive. It would also dovetail nicely with the introduction of wireless charging last year with an iPhone that wouldn’t ever need to be plugged into the dock connector cable (wonder if Apple would go the whole hog and delete the dock connector port - probably not, there are still too many accessories that rely on it). For a company that hates ports and cables, the introduction of wireless charging seems like a no-brainer.

2. Wireless music - Back in 2007, Apple gave us a Bluetooth headset, but they quickly removed it. Now that the iPhone has low-power Bluetooth 4.0, I think it’s time for Apple to return to this idea and give us wireless Apple headphones that communicate using Bluetooth. the low-power standard would mean they would have exceptional battery life and if Apple implemented the wireless charger above then they could charge wirelessly right next to your iPhone. This would mean a nice sleek, low-profile pair of headphones with zero ports and only a few buttons, which seems to be exactly Apple’s style.

3. Wireless/Contactless payment & access - This has been rumoured for a while and I think we might finally see it in the next iteration of the iPhone. Now that PayPass and PayWave are starting to finally take off, Apple could work with Visa and Mastercard to build this in to the phone, which could be programmed with your card details for wireless payment. Even better, the same technology could be used as a virtual swipe card, interacting with other devices as a key or a connection standard. Apple has the resources and the power to make this work and it twins very well with the previous two suggestions that the next iPhone will be all about cutting the cord.

So, there you go, my wishlist for what I’d like to see in the next iPhone. While I agree that iOS is mature, there is still a lot that could be done in the hardware space to make a phone that “changes everything; for the third time”.

Why you should put comments on Your Own Blog!

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:08:00 +1000

Why you should put comments on Your Own Blog!:

MG Siegler has the right idea here.

parislemon:

I’m shocked — SHOCKED — that Gawker was having problems with their commenters and will try yet another new system of management.

I prefer my system of management: if you’d like to comment, do it on Twitter, Facebook, or your own site!

I haven’t been blogging for long, but even I’ve realised that this is true. If you’re going to sit there and spend 10 minutes writing a long-winded post on a website, why not just make it a blog post on your own site? The bonus is that if Gawker changes their comment system, your blog post is still there! John Gruber has advocated this for a LONG time and doesn’t even have comments on his website daring fireball. If you want to make a comment on something Gruber says, you quote him on your own blog and make the comment there.

iTunes Bloat

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:42:00 +1000

Just read a great little piece from Jason Snell at Macworld about iTunes bloat here.

I’ve got to admit, I agree with Jason wholeheartedly. Every time Apple announces a new version of OSX I keep on anticipating that they will FINALLY announce that as part of it they are breaking down iTunes into component parts and building them into the operating system.

iTunes is currently horrendously bloated. Go on, plug your iPhone into your Mac and I’ll watch as you visibly wince when the iTunes logo starts bouncing in the dock. You know that once it does, it’s going to be 10 minutes of it loading up, then trying to sync every single device you own and then sending “genius recommendations’ to Apple before finally you get a chance to do what you want to do, like download that single photo from your phone, or upload the latest ADELE song.

To be fair, iCloud and WiFi syncing has helped with this a LOT, because we now very rarely plug our phones into our PC, but the central problem still remains: if we only want to do one thing with iTunes, why does it try and do everything!

Let’s be honest, why do we need all these things in iTunes? We could so easily break things into component pieces and load the piece we need when we need it. As for syncing, why can’t syncing and app management be part of the operating system directly, so that when you connect your iPhone it just comes up in Finder and you manage it from there?

For app purchasing, I love the idea of one of the commenters on the article made that the “App Store” on OSX could just be the whole app store and allow you to buy both Mac and iOS apps, with iOS apps being synced to your phone via the OS directly when you plug it in.

This leaves areas like Music management and Video playback, which could either live in iTunes or be split out into separate apps of their own. With Apple’s move to make OSX more like iOS, I actually favour the latter, with apps for Music, Video and iTunes (which is the store), the same as we currently have in iOS.

I can hear the windows users now screeching about this, because while the solution above is great for Mac, it doesn’t work so well for windows. So, what should Apple do about windows? Well, I’d suggest that they need to realise that the solution doesn’t need to be the same for windows as it does for OSX. It used to be that iTunes was the gateway for PC users to use a Mac, but now the gateway is iOS, so give in and make things different. Port over the Sync services as a sync app, the App Store (with iTunes) as another app and just leave PC users to work out the other bits on their own. With any luck, they’ll realise how much more seamless the experience on OSX is compared to windows and we’ll have another switcher on our hands.

I could go on, talk about how there should be a Photos app on OSX, or a iBooks app (just like on iOS), but I think the general point is made. It’s time to kill the bloat in iTunes and make a seamless system much more like iOS. Isn’t it time Apple?

A great infographic from the guys at online degrees. Really...

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:10:00 +1000

A great infographic from the guys at online degrees. Really shows how important it is to work social networking in to your job search strategies. Click the image for a full-size version.

On The Apple Upgrade Timeline

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:48:00 +1000

From Glenn Fleishman at TidBits:

Most Apple users expect that they will be able to use a newly purchased Mac for at least three to five years (see “Apple’s Planned Obsolescence Schedule,” 2 November 2011). AppleCare extends the warranty on computers for three years for a reason: that’s the longest Apple expects to turn a profit by promising to fix service defects and unexpected wear and tear on products. But that three-year assumption also reflects Apple’s view of its customers’ typical ownership lifecycle.

This whole article was great (tip of the hat to John Gruber), but I love this paragraph about how often we update our Apple devices. I’ve been drooling over the new Macbook models for years, but kept on saying “my old Macbook works so well, why would I upgrade?”. It’s only in the last year or so that I’ve started to think about upgrading, and that’s because my Macbook couldn’t run Lion and was falling behind. Even then, Snow Leopard is doing fine for me and I could use it longer… Guess how old my Macbook is; it’s a 2006 Macbook, 6 years old in May. Good to see that Apple and I agree with when it should be replaced!

Mobile devices like the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch are both cheaper and suffer the indignities of portable use, so AppleCare lasts only two years there. Plus, a two-year and every-other-model upgrade cycle fits well with the standard two-year cell phone contract, but even more so than computers, iOS devices tend to become technology hand-me-downs.

This paragraph is even better. I owned my iPhone 3G for two years before upgrading to the iPhone 4, and I expect that I will upgrade that phone in October when Apple announces the next generation. Similarly, I own a first-gen iPad and am currenly drooling over the iPad 3 and trying to convince my wife to buy it! Apple doesn’t expect us to upgrade every year, so they spread their significant upgrades over two years and set the AppleCare timeline to reflect that cycle.

Once you think about things that way, it gets really interesting. Apple WANTS you to upgrade your Macbook every 5 years and your iOS devices every two, so they build them with enough upgrades so that you do just that. It’s genius really and probably one of the significant reasons that Apple is now the most valued company in the world.

A Story About Steve Jobs

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 10:12:59 +1000

pluckytree:

I worked at Apple from April of 1999 through July of 2011. I’ve never written publicly about that experience, but I wanted to share a little moment that will always be with me, even though it’s not of any great significance.

After leaving my job at Apple, I dropped in for lunch one day. I was exiting the main building, Infinite Loop One, and just ahead of me was Steve Jobs, walking with the usual spring in his step that never seemed to go away even as he started looking more frail. Bumping into Steve was a surprisingly common occurrence for such a large company as Apple.

Steve was heading towards a car parked next to the curb with its door open, waiting for him. The car was idling. A family was standing near the Apple sign outside the building, a common site for people to take photos on their pilgrimages to Apple.

Read More

Talking about Steve Jobs, I read this story back when he passed away and was recently inspired to find it again. I love the tone of the story: the family that doesn’t even recognise the CEO of the company they are admiring; the fact that Steve takes so much care to get the photo right, even though he’s probably very busy; and the fact that the family’s default photography device is the iPhone. I think it sums up Steve Jobs and Apple very well and (relating to the video posted earlier) in a way it’s pretty firm proof that Steve really did change the world.

Wearing an Apple iWatch (kind of)

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:58:15 +1000

For about a month now, I’ve been wearing the above on my wrist. While it looks like an Apple watch, it is actually the new 6th-gen iPod Nano strapped to a third-party wristband called the iWatchz Q. This came about partly thanks to the Apple iPod 1st-generation recall program, which started replacing 1st-gen nano’s that were send in with the latest 6th-gen nano instead due to (we can assume) supply shortages of the original 1st-gen product. Back in late December, I jumped on this and was send a nice new nano that I had no use for at all, so I started to think about things to do with it and found the iWatchz site. An idea was born and the band promptly ordered from the Apple store.

So, since the end of February, I’ve been wearing a fancy iPod watch on my wrist and charging it every couple of days. So, what’s my opinion? Well, here’s my one sentence review:

Kind of Pointless, but with so much Potential

Let’s be honest, in the end, the main reason you wear this watch is to let your geek flag fly free. You hope that people will notice it and comment on it, or recognise you for an Apple fan of the highest order. Practically, there isn’t much point in this watch. Apart from the fact that you need to press the button EVERY time you want to check the time, what else can it actually do that a normal watch can’t? Here’s what I’ve come up with:

Photos: You can sync iPhoto and show photos on the screen
Fitness: It can track your steps and your workouts (if you’re so inclined) from the watch itself and sync back to iTunes
Radio, Music & Podcasts: You can listen to the radio, but note that you’ll need to have a headphone cord running up your wrist
Time: You can set a stopwatch, set timers and even check the time!

So, not a bad list. Problem is, I can do ALL of these things (with the exception of radio maybe) with my iPhone. Plus, the iPhone has bluetooth, so I can use my wireless headphones if I don’t want a cord running up my arm. It’s nice to have it on your wrist, but is it really that arduous to reach into your pocket for your phone? So far in my last month, I’ve never though to use my watch for any of these items and have always used my iPhone instead.

Problem is, it just has so much potential. If Apple had included the ability to download apps to this thing and a way for it to sync wirelessly with your phone and network, it could be amazing. Imagine having your watch light up when a call comes into your phone, or automatically syncing your fitness data to the cloud when you get home. Imagine being able to select a contact on your watch to call and your phone dials it automatically and sends the audio to your bluetooth wireless headset without ever leaving your pocket. The possibilities are endless, but without a wireless connection and the ability to enhance the functionality, the watch feels a bit crippled.

For ages I’ve fantasized about using Apple devices to build my own Personal Area Network (PAN; look it up!). I can see so much potential in the Nano, but the lack of bluetooth just kills it. It’s such a shame, but at least Apple knows what to include in the next model.

So, I can hear you asking, am I going to keep wearing it? Well, for me the answer is YES, even though it’s pointless. Because even though it lacks bluetooth, I am an Apple fanboy and more than happy to let my geek flag fly while I wait for the next version of the nano to come out! :)

Inspiring words. It’s like a 46 second slap in the face...

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:27:19 +1000

Inspiring words. It’s like a 46 second slap in the face reminding you that anybody can change the world, they just have to believe that they can.