Visualizing the iPad 3 Screen ⧁

Rumors about unreleased Apple products are just that, rumors. Still this visualization shows just how huge, in terms of pixels, a Retina Display iPad would be. Specifically it’d be 41% larger than the 1440x900 pixel display on my 15" MacBook Pro. In a word, hubba.
(via: @jblanton)

Taken

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I have been a longtime fan of Robert Crais’ books, and Taken is a good example of Crais at his best. I basically read this book in a day as I was unable to put it down. The Elvis Cole/Joe Pike books have assumed the mantle left behind by Spenser and Hawk. Taken is a bit darker than some of the series, but very well told. The only problem is that I’ve finished it and now have to wait until the next book to be published.

Cell 8

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A very powerful story about the death penalty, with a bit of a surprise ending. European, well, Scandinavian, authors are all the rage these days it seems, and Roslund and Hellström are well worth the attention. I will be seeking out their other books at the library.

Retail DNA

I had three retail store experiences yesterday. After returning home I realized that the pleasurable experiences both shared some common traits. Some retail merchants have similar DNA and it serves them well.

First up I visited an Apple store. The experience there actually began the night before when I reserved the phone I wanted to purchase and selected the time I wished to pick it up. When I arrived the store concierge, upon learning I was there to pick up a reserved item, directed me to one of the available clerks. In a matter of a few minutes the sales transaction was completed – without even a need for them to ask my name. I signed the terms and conditions agreement, swiped my card, signed my name again, and the phone was mine. When I said yes to a printed receipt the clerk merely reached under the display table and pulled the ticker tape off a concealed printer there.

When I visit an Apple store with no purchase in mind I am allowed to wander the displays and use or play with all the devices. I’ve read emails, downloaded and installed open source software to see how it looked and performed on computers different from my own, and generally had fun being there. You are invited to linger, to sample, to enjoy.

Next I went to a music store as they are the authorized dealer for a particular brand of cello bow that I am considering buying. The bow manufacturer has three models and I indicated I was interested in the middle model, valued at approximately $750. I was taken to a tiny room which was filled beyond capacity with stringed instruments and show a single sample of the bow. No offer to play it in the store was made. No offer to take it home on approval to play on my instrument was made.

My final merchant visit was another music store, again to look at cello bows. Within moments of my arrival I was comfortably seated with a $7000 cello to play and a case of a dozen $650 ~ $1000 bows to try. Except when I asked a question of the clerk assisting me I was left alone to play and sample and enjoy. Without any prompting from me the store offered to let me take two or three bows home on approval to try with my instrument and with my teacher.

I’ve visited this particular string instrument store before and have always been invited to try instruments, to wander around and explore, to feel at home. When I got to thinking about it, I realized that what I liked about this store was the same thing I liked about any Apple store I’ve been too – a sense of welcoming and inclusion.

The second music store has the same retail DNA that Apple has infused their retail stores with. Stores like the ones Apple has created approach the relationship between customer and store as two people working together toward a common goal. Stores like the first music store have an almost adversarial flavor to them – if the customer is savvy enough they may get what they wanted, but not through any assistance from the store. The worst examples of this adversarial style approach are car dealerships or furniture galleries.

When I am ready to buy a new bow, my thousand dollars will be going to KC Strings and not Meyer Music.

Aurora Borealis From ISS ⧁

Lovely Charts for iPad ⧁

I think I just found my next 99¢ purchase from the App Store.

Creating iPhone Ringtones Using iTunes

Here are the steps I use to create ringtones from music in my iTunes library.

Step 1
Launch iTunes and pick the track you want to convert to a ringtone.

Step 2
Right-click on the track and select “Get Info” from the context menu to see the track’s properties.

Step 3
Select the “Options” tab. Check both the “Start time” and “Stop time” radio boxes to isolate the portion of the track you want to use as your ring tone. Make sure not to select more than 30 seconds otherwise iTunes won’t recognize it as a ringtone. To capture the first 30 seconds of a track you would set “Start Time” to 0:00, and “Stop Time” to “0:30”. Once you have the start and stop times set, click “OK” to confirm your settings.

Step 4
Right-click on the track once more and select “Create AAC Version” from the context menu.

Step 5
iTunes will now create a new track by copying the portion you identified in Step 3 above. This new track is the one you’ll work with in the following steps.

Step 6
Now, right-click the newly created track and select “Show in Finder”. (Windows users should select “Show in Windows Explorer”.)

Step 7
When Finder (or Windows Explorer) open, the newly created ringtone track should be already selected. Rename the file extension to .m4r from .m4a. “R” for ringtone. You may have to confirm changing the extension.

Step 8
Now we need to remove the .m4a version from iTunes and import the .m4r version. Return to iTunes, right-click the ringtone track you created and select “Delete”.

Step 9
Click “Remove” to confirm the removal and then click “Keep File” when you are prompted. This will tell iTunes to remove the ringtone track you created from the iTunes library but keep the actual file.

Step 10
Return to Finder (or Windows Explorer) and double-click on the ringtone file (.m4r) you just renamed. The ringtone will be automatically added to the iTuned ringtone library. You can now sync it to your iPhone using iTunes.

Final note: Don’t forget to return to the original track and remove the check marks next to “Start Time” and “Stop Time” otherwise the next time you play the track you’ll only hear those few seconds of the track.

Available iPhone Prices

For the past several months I have been anticipating reaching my cell phone update eligibility date. Based on my rate plan (one of the least expensive offered) and payment history (never a late payment) I gain eligibility to purchase a new cell phone for the subsidized price 20 months into my 2-year contract.

That date is February 9th.

Tomorrow.

And, every so often during the past several months I have visited the Apple iPhone page to poke the “check eligibility” button just to see if Verizon has taken pity on their customers and revised their eligibility date algorithm. The result always showed two columns, one giving the price “before February 9, 2012” and one giving the price “after February 9, 2012”. The second column didn’t say “on or after”, just “after”. With that in mind I planned to make my purchase on the 10th, hopefully ensuring that I would be fully eligible for the reduced pricing.

Furthermore, I’ve decided to embrace my inner Apple fanboy and visit the nearest Apple store to get my phone – a two hour drive to Leawood Kansas. My other options were to order the phone online and wait for it to ship (ha!) or visit the local Verizon store or Best Buy. It would be easier to get it locally, but when I picked up my HTC Incredible 20 months ago at the Verizon store the clerk opened the box, tore off the protective plastic, and set up the phone - all without any participation from me. I’ve waited several years to have this phone – I want to open the box, and I want to remove the protective plastic. So, to the Apple store I shall go on Friday. (Also the cello store to look at bows, but that’s a different posting.)

You can reserve an iPhone online any evening after 9 pm and pick it up the following day in the store. (You can walk in and get one on a first come first served basis as well.) So my plan was to wait until Thursday the 9th until 9:00:01 pm to poke the eligibility button and then, eligibility confirmed, reserve a phone for pick up on Friday.

Just for grins I poked the eligibility button tonight about 10:30 pm.

Tomorrow is going to be a very long day.

Android Apps

In the twenty months I’ve owned my Android phone I’ve collected quite a few apps, some of which I use all the time and others that are mere curiosities. As I prepare to move to an iPhone I’ve been reviewing my app list to see which I will try to find equivalents for in the App Store.

##Dock While some Android ROMS allow more than 4 apps in the dock the one I am currently using, MUIU only supports 4. By the way, MUIU also doesn’t have an “app drawer” to hide away your apps. It operates the same way as iOS in that all your apps are visible on a screen somewhere.

Phone - I don’t use the phone a lot, but I do use it.
Email - I have three accounts set up on my HTC, two personal and one work. I’ll likely keep this setup going forward.
Browser - Not my favorite Android app, but it does see occasional use.
SMS-shortcut - This is a link to my wife’s contact information which makes sending her an SMS message quick and easy.

##Daily or near daily use These apps live on my primary home screen. They, along with the dock apps mentioned above, constitute the core of my smartphone experience.

Path - A relative newcomer to my app list. I like that I can post to Twitter and Facebook simultaneously.
Google+ - Not as useful as I had hoped. Browsing here is a last resort when I’ve exhausted all my other content options.
Facebook - I’m not happy with the recent feed sorting changes. Give me most recent first always please.
Twitter - Since the Android Twitter app doesn’t sync with Twitterrific I only use this to see mentions. I’m looking forward to having Twitterrific on all my Apple devices so that I can consume Tweets regardless of device and not lose my place.
Runkeeper - There was no Daily Mile app for the Android when I got my phone so I fell into the Runkeeper camp. Not sure if I’ll switch or not.
Clock - My phone is my alarm clock. I have four repeating weekly alarms set plus a fifth one for one-off alarms. No countdown timer for some reason though (a failing of MUIU). I’m looking forward to a timer.
Calendar - None of the Android calendar apps is really nice to look at. The HTC Sense calendar widget was the nicest. I’ll have to explore the iOS offerings to find (hopefull) a good calendar.
Contacts - This is only here to allow for occasional texts to people.
Evernote - I am becoming a bigger and bigger Evernote user. Grocery lists, reading lists, meeting notes, URLs, you name it, it goes into Evernote.
Gallery - I take a lot of pictures with my phone and Gallery is where I can select them to be pushed to my computer via Bluetooth.
Cleartune - One of the few apps I paid money for, Cleartune is a highly featured chromatic tuner. They had an iOS app first and I will be purchasing that on day one.
Camera - My primary camera. It’ll be one of the most used apps on my iPhone too.
WeatherBug - Not an app on the home screen, but one that gets used daily. The default HTC weather app only had some cities available in addition to your current location. My hometown isn’t available from the pick list, so when I’m not home I can’t see the weather here. The third-party WeatherBug lets me see a lot of weather information for any place I want.

##Screen T\two apps Google Voice - One of the best features of Android is the near seamless integration possible with Google Voice. I understand that I will lose this with the iPhone. Like alternative keyboards this is an area where iOS is behind a bit I fear.
Google Talk - Jabber client for Google’s instant messaging tool. I’ll be looking for a good multi-protocol chat client on iOS.
1Password - This reader allows me to see items I’ve added to my 1Password repository. Once I have the iPhone I’ll buy the iOS version which should give me full functionality for this excellent tool.
Dropbox - Best way yet for moving files and documents between devices. This will be one of the first things installed on the new phone.
Settings - I’m a nerd, diddling with settings and preferences is what I do.
Music - I have been surprised at how little I listen to music using my phone. I don’t know if the iPhone will change that or not.
ConnectBot - A secure shell client. I haven’t used it much, but it is nice to be able to remotely access a computer or service from your pocket-sized computer. I’ll be researching a good alternative for iOS.
Wolfram Alpha - I understand the Siri + Wolfram Alpha combination is wonderful. I’m looking forward to exploring it.
SMS Messaging - Typically I only text my wife, and since she also has an iPhone, we’ll be able to use iMessaging to text each other for free.
OfficeSuite - Something I got for free from the Amazon Appstore. I’ve never really used it.
YouTube - I tend to use this only in conjunction with links I’ve been sent.
Firefox Beta - A better web browser than the default, but still rather clunky in my estimation.
Books (folder) - I have several ebook readers installed: Kindle, Nook, eReader. This is where they live.
Google (folder) - Where all the nifty Google apps hang out. Docs, Gmail, Latitude, Maps, Messenger, Places, Search.
Games (folder) - I have only a few games, Angry Birds, Air Control, Words with Friends, and a Labyrinth puzzle. Words is by far and away the only one I play.
apps (folder) - Where all the application getting apps live. Android Market, the Amazon Appstore, and AppBrain.

Screens three and four

Redbox - A mobile app for Redbox rentals
Convertr - A conversion calculator
Listen - a podcast aggregator. I used this some at first, but don’t really devote time to podcasts anymore.
Sound Recorder - Never been used.
Fly Delta - Delta Airlines mobile app which gets used once or twice a year.
Voice Search - A voice interface to search which I’ve never used.
Fast Web Installer - The client for AppBrain’s web site, allows for synchronizing apps
utils (folder) - File Explorer, Themes, Bluetooth File Transfer, Lookout, Battery widget, SwiftKey configuration, Timeriffic, AndExplorer, Speed, Samba File Server, Chrome to Phone, Barcode scanner, ROM Manager.
Tools (folder) - Voice Dialer, Calculator, MUIU Updater, Backup, Data Usage Monitor, Superuser
music utils (folder) - SoundHound, Shazam, Mobile Metronome, and ImslpDroid.
reading (folder) - Read it later type apps as opposed to ebook apps. BenPaper, ReadItLater, and Adobe Reader.
widgets (folder) - Several widgets, all weather related.
navigation (folder) - A compass, star chart, and navigation app.
unused (folder) - A collection of apps I just don’t use. Includes: Notes, FM Radio, a MUIU shortcut link, DND Mode (don’t even know what this is), a News and Weather widget, MUIU Stats, “Anti”, and a Minimalistic text widget.
Torch - A flashlight app that uses the LED flash for the camera to light your way
FlightView Free - Tracks airline flight progress
Moon Phase - Shows more information about the current moon phase than you really wanted to know.
Interval Recognition - A music quiz around intervals.
TrafficStats Lite - I got this just in the last week as my 3G usage was through the roof (3.2 GB in 25 days). It seems that my phone isn’t always connecting to the WPA controlled wireless at work. Which in turn gobbles 3G. Fortunately I’m on an unlimited data plan with Verizon.

##Worth a mention Lookout - This is my anti-malware app. It scans every new app or app update on my phone. So far it hasn’t caught anything but there is enough press about malware in the Android space to make me cautious. Once installed and setup (I’ve got the free version) it fades nicely into the background. Worth it for the peace of mind it brings.

Timeriffic - This app will be missed. With it I’ve created several profiles for my phone based on the time and day. For example, during my weekly cello lesson my phone automatically goes to silent mode. At the end of the lesson it returns to normal ring and alarm mode. I’ve got a night profile, an at work profile, and an evenings and weekend profile. I rarely worry about my phone making unwanted noise thanks to this app. I’ll have to learn to manually control the iPhone’s sounds as I don’t think there is an iOS equivalent.

HoverBar ⧁

I so want this. Of course then I’ll need an iPad 2. Actually something like the HoverBar to clamp an iPad to our treadmill would be lovely.