Tuyen's Blog

Posts for Tag: apple

Polish versus Raw Power - iPhone and Android

via apple.com

So this was announced today...

Over the weekend, I saw a bunch of ads for the Droid phone from Verizon. It seems their main selling point was how more powerful the phone was and they are correct. It will always be the case that Android phones will always have the latest and greatest hardware, just like with most Windows laptops. Apple will never make devices with the fastest processors, the most RAM, the hardware latest innovations. What Apple has made a very calculated decision on is they would rather have a more polished product than one with the best specs. They weren't the first with a front facing camera but I bet mobile video chat will explode because of their implementation and not any one else's that came first. Same thing with multi-tasking. Not the first, but a more smooth integration.

For a long time there was this pseudo arms race in the tech industry of who could cram the most transistors on a chip or the most pixels on a screen or crank up a few more Mhz from a CPU. I think we've gotten to a point where the vast majority of us have way too much horsepower in our devices. Now the question is who will use that horsepower in a way that appeals to us. Apple seems to be leading in that sense... for the time being.

Great puzzle game

I just finished playing the game Machinarium. One of the most interesting and creative games I've seen in a very long time. It's amazingly drawn and has a sweet and tight plot. It's hard to believe that it is Flash based. If these are the type of games that might be ported to the iPhone if Flash was allowed in the development environment, I would be willing to soften my stance on the Adobe versus Apple debate.

That's service!

Follow up to my Social Experiment post a few days ago. Sent in my iPhone for repairs (intermittent crackling sound when on calls) on Tuesday and getting a replacement back on Friday. Apple paid for overnight shipping both ways. The only hole in Apple's support is at the store. ""Geniuses"" (note the heavy emphasis with double quotes) are hit and miss. Some are very helpful (like with my Mac Mini issue) but most are MOW-RONS. News Flash - after you've reset my phone twice and the issue is still there, reseting it a third time probably won't do anything.

A much needed iPhone feature request

I am currently writing this post lying down in bed. As I usually do each night, I'm reading a book from the Amazon Kindle app on my iPhone. One thing that many iPhone users will agree on is the annoying way the accelerometer works when you're lying down. For instance if you lie on your side, it's impossible to keep Safari in portrait mode. The Kindle app made a super simple and elegant feature to solve this, the lock icon. If you click it, it locks the app into whatever mode you're currently on. Click it again to unlock and the accelerometer behaves as usual. The thing I like is that the icon disappears after a couple of seconds so you're never bothered with a persistent button. I hope Apple decides to incorporate this into their native apps like Mail and Safari.

Can't see the trees for the forest...

Sprint fires employees who chased Apple thief...
via news.cnet.com

Before anyone says anything, I know the saying is "Can't see the forest for the trees." My point is that sometimes corporations care too much about a policy to see the exceptions that might arise. Sure the rule is in place so that employees aren't put at risk by confronting criminals but these guys were on break, it happened off Sprint store property, and I'm sure they made a judgment call that the shoplifter was not going to hurt them. Somehow, I feel a lawyer was involved...