Apple Desire
An Apple blog, by an Apple user, created for Apple fans everywhere.
Sunday, October 21, 2018
Upgrading From the Apple Watch Series 0 to Series 4
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
The iPad Pro Review
My current day-to-day computer is a MacBook Air from mid 2011. It does the job, but browsing and other functions get choppy from time-to-time despite the solid state drive. Overall, for what I do, it’s actually a pretty decent computer for my needs. Even Final Cut Pro for basic projects I’m working on.
With my son potentially in need of a laptop for school I started evaluating options for a new Mac with the idea of giving him my MacBook Air. Over the last few months I spent hours geeking out, looking at the MacBook and the MacBook Pro lines, trying to figure out the next “best thing” for me.
My computer needs are pretty basic. I browse, play music, stream cable news, do some basic spreadsheet editing and word documents. I’m a pretty heavy email user and having a robust email client has always been important – I use Outlook for Mac. I occasionally have a need for using Final Cut Pro (mentioned above), but I have a really powerful iMac for the family I use for that. So when I was evaluating my MacBook Air replacement, I was open to just about anything.
While reviewing various options, I was intrigued by the whole ink-to-text experience provided by the Microsoft Surface units as well as the iPad Pros. For some time, I was very focused on the Microsoft Surface and almost pulled the trigger, but I had user interface experiences I just couldn’t get over. I like the Windows 10 platform, but overall, I just preferred the iOS experience. Also, I already have so many Apple devices that leaving the Apple eco system for me just didn’t make sense. There was nothing about the Surface that made it worth venturing out from Apple. When it came to the stylus, the experience on the iPad Pro was that much better (for me).
So at the end of the day, when it came time to make a purchase, I was trying to decide between a MacBook Pro with a 256GB SSD for about $1,500 or an iPad Pro 10.5 screen with 256GB of RAM for $750. So when I really thought through my needs, I decided on purchasing the 10.5 iPad Pro and giving it a try. I wanted a device that I could use at a desk, in bed or on a couch. The iPad could do that. I wanted the option to use a stylus for handwritten notes. The iPad Pro could do that. I wanted something light and easily portal. Again, that was the iPad Pro coming in at just over 1 pound vs 3 pounds. I also wanted a device that was fast and the new iPad Pro easily met that requirement and rivals a MacBook Pro in benchmarks.
Until you use a device day-to-day you just don’t know how it’s going to work out for you. So I was eager to see, as a I started to use the device, what I would like and not like. One thing that was important to me was having an external keyboard. When using computers I hate using input devices like mice or touching a screen. I prefer a keyboard. I love keyboard shortcuts and feel I can be much more efficient with the keyboard when interfacing with technology. The Mac platform allows plenty of methods for using keyboard shortcuts and you can even create your own in cases when developers of applications don’t provide shortcuts for their menu items. It’s fair to say keyboard shortcuts are critical to my user experience.
On the iPad, Apple’s iOS offers keyboard shortcuts but not nearly enough to keep me satisfied. There are still too many times I need to touch the screen to interact with the Pad vs having a keyboard shortcut. Because of these keyboard limitations I find that I can’t be nearly as productive as I would like to be. I’m really trying to get used to touching a screen while it is in an upright position, but find it difficult and not natural. Perhaps this is something that over time I will become more accustom to, but more keyboard shortcuts would go a long way to addressing my productivity concerns and convincing me that the iPad can become a desktop replacement.
Overall, I’m really happy with my iPad Pro purchase. I’m actually surprised how little I miss working on my Mac on a day-to-day basis. I haven’t completely given up the need for my Mac, but if Apple can continue to address keyboard shortcuts and enhance the iOS applications my days of going back to my Mac may be a thing of the past.
Below is a list the reflects my biggest keyboard shortcut annoyances:
Annoyances in Mail:
No way to navigate with keystrokes between different folders or mailboxes.
No way to move mail to different folders.
No way to go to top of an individual message. In Safari you can jump to the top of the screen with a keystroke.
No way to go to top of the messages list without tapping on screen.
Annoyances in Messages:
Moving up and down between messages is different keystroke than Mail. Needs to be consistent between applications.
After typing the name of someone to send a message to, if there’s a list of people to choose from, I can’t use the arrow keys to select that person.
No way to move back and forth between Emoji page screens.
Annoyances in Music:
No keystroke options. Can’t even navigate with arrow keys.
Annoyances in Safari:
No keystroke to send page to others, print, etc.
No way to keystroke to browser history.
No way to keystroke to bookmarks.
iOS Dialog boxes
No way to select from the options on the screen
Annoyances in Notes:
No way to mark a Note as “Done”.
No way to move up and down between messages.
Friday, May 23, 2014
What's Next Apple?
Friday, April 26, 2013
Apple Desire has lost some of the desire
It's not exactly clear what's happening at Apple, but leadership must have something to do with it. When Steve Jobs starting pulling back from daily responsibilities I wasn't really concerned. I would talk with my peers and friends about how "deep" Apple was. The company is more than just one man after all. But behind the scenes there was more going on than I originally thought. It wasn't until the Scott Forstall firing did I realize that things at Apple may not be going as well as I thought. iOS 5 brought forth a now infamous Maps and Siri didn't deliver as promised. Even my kids will joke around about how slow Siri is to respond and that her favorite expression is the "I don't know what you mean by" response for sentences and instructions that are clear and easy for Google's Search app to understand. iOS, while simple and easy to use, is behind the times these days. Apple has long played catch up in the mobile space (remember how long it took for copy, cut and paste), but it feels like they are even further behind at this point. On the application side, we're seeing some amazing things from vendors, but the OS itself is a bit stale.
Apple promises to show off updates to iOS and Mac OS in June at the World Wide Developers Conference and the expectations will be high. Little has been released, but I will be very disappointed if we don't see some significant changes. Outside of iOS, Apple seems to struggle with their own applications. The Podcast application has long received poor reviews. At last look it had a two star rating in the Apple store. Game Center is flat out ugly and Find Friends app has a "stitching" design that leaves a lot to be desired. How can one of the most innovative companies in the world produce such average product?
That being said, I'm a huge fan of the existing Apple hardware product lineup. The iMac is great and the laptop lineup is stellar. The iPad products, all of them, meet the needs of various consumers and work great with iTunes. However, that enthusiasm is tempered by the lack of any exciting product announcements over the past year. Sure we'll see an iPhone 5s this Fall and some new incarnation of the iPad, but what will the next big thing from Apple be and how soon will it arrive? All Apple fans can hope for is a company that can develop a core group of leaders who can focus on the next generation of Apple products.
Monday, January 07, 2013
iPhone 5 Thoughts
The number one benefit of the iPhone 5 is LTE. Until you've experienced LTE speeds you can't begin to appreciate them. The experience is most similar going from EDGE to 3G, but in the case of LTE your speeds are even faster. In a recent trip to San Diego I had speeds up 30 Megs per second down. Now I can't say that I've had that in all locations, but the capabilities of LTE are awesome and of course that only comes with an iPhone 5 vs other iPhones. Specific to AT&T there were many areas where my 4G signal was weak or non existent. I've found that since going on LTE, many of those slow and weak spots with 4G actually work with LTE. I had heard rumors that AT&T wasn't investing in their 3G/4G infrastructure and I'm here to say that I believe that to be true.
The larger screen size may not seem like much, but it's amazing what a little bit more space means. As applications have started to take advantage of the extra real estate, they've become even richer. Sure movies look better, but what's even more important is that you can put four more extra icons on a screen! The Camera program also benefits from having a larger on screen button that makes it much easier to find and press. The old one was OK, but the iPhone 5 button is bigger and in this case, bigger is better!
The next item to mention is the phone's speed. It's a speedster. The best example of testing the phone's capabilities is with the Camera. With prior iPhone's, taking photos one after another was ho hum - nothing special. With the iPhone 5 you can take picture after picture after picture without missing a heartbeat. When I take pictures of my family, and I have younger kids who like to look in various directions, I take multiple pictures, one after another and usually end up with a great shot. Not having a delay is great. Overall, the general speed and performance is better.
Well that's my list. My intent here was to focus on the hardware and not the operating system. I was also not trying to compare the iPhone to other non iPhone phones. Are there better phones out there? Maybe, and you can debate that with any comments, but as far as the iPhone 5 goes, it's a great upgrade and a great first time purchase.
Friday, November 04, 2011
And for my next Apple purchase....the Airport Extreme!
Retired Mac Mini Replaced by MacBook Air
Sunday, April 04, 2010
New iPad a Winner
I purchased my iPad on April 3rd at the Michigan Avenue Apple Store. I didn't expect the lines to be very long and they weren't. I arrived around 9:20 AM and found my place in the "reserved line". After about five minutes, I was led in to the store with dozens of Apple employees cheering for me. I thought that was ridiculous. Cheering for people who are spending upward of $500 on a personal technology device? Really? I think Apple needs to rethink this approach. I'd much rather see big signs saying "thank you for supporting Apple!" along with enthusiastic clapping. That's just me...
After thinking through my space needs a few weeks back I opted for the 32 GB wifi only iPad. 16 GB wasn't enough and 64 GB seemed like overkill for an extra $100 over the 32 GB. I also picked up a dock and case. The store was setup so each customer purchasing an iPad could work one-on-one with an Apple staff member. The Apple staff did a GREAT job of getting me registered, giving me a quick tour and answering some of the questions I had that were still unknowns prior to the device going public. I had already watched the iPad videos on the Apple web site on Friday and I've used an iPhone and Touch so the learning curve was already low.
I wanted to share some of my thoughts after using it for a day and a half. The device is absolutely all it was made out to be. All of the critics who say the iPad is simply a larger iPhone just can't appreciate how an increase in screen size can dramatically change a user experience. I think in time those voices will die down as people begin to use the device and see the potential. The colors produced by the screen are bright and vivid. The screen size combined with the dramatic screen colors are a joy to experience. Besides the screen's color it is incredibly responsive. I was actually surprised by how responsive the screen is to "pinch" and "expand" type gestures. The iPad is also very fast compared to an iPhone or Touch. The processing speed provided by the iPad is remarkable.
I'm working my way through a number of applications. In the builtin application arena, Safari has a nice Expose like view of all of your open Safari windows. iTunes, the App Store, Mail, Photos, etc all look great. The Calendar looks fantastic with a week view that's incredibly valuable. Hopefully we'll see a week view on the iPhone one day. The absence of a Weather and Stock program is more than made up for by third party applications. On the third party side I've tried a number of news, productivity and weather applications and they do a great job of showing off the device's potential. Not much of a gamer so I won’t comment on those. As with any device, some applications are better than others. One of the things Apple mentioned since announcing the iPad was the device's ability to use iPhone and Touch applications. Be aware that the experience of "expanding" the iPhone and Touch applications using the "2x" option is terrible. I remember when I first switched over to an HD TV. I couldn't stand to watch non HD after that. I'm having the same experience with the iPad. If I can't use an iPad specific app then I'm not using it. In the short term, the library of iPad applications remains small relatively speaking. That will change over the next few months and I think those developers who held out will want to get on board quickly.
Many have made an issue of Flash not being on the device and I have to say I think it's all about nothing. Multiple web sites are already moving over to HTML5 to play video. Apple has a page dedicated to "showing off" those web sites. Lots of big names are on board. True, some Flash based sites won't be along for the ride, but oh well.
There's also been a lot of criticism for the iPad not including a camera. While this wasn't a deal breaker for me I do think that a camera absolutely has a place on the device. It would have been nice to have a front facing camera for video conferencing.
One thing I'm very pleased about was the ability to use wireless bluetooth keyboards with the iPad. I'm typing this entry on a bluetooth keyboard while my iPad is sitting upright in an iPad dock. I happened to be using the Apple wireless keyboard from my Mac Mini. I can control brightness, iTunes controls (including volume) from the keyboard. I feel like I'm working on my keyboard. Awesome. I would like to see more keyboard shortcuts added to programs such as Mail, etc so hopefully those will come. The onscreen keyboard is more than adequate for basic needs. It is a bit awkward to use sometimes and my wrists are complaining a little about the typing angle.
My biggest complaint so far has been the weight. Even at a pound and a half I still found the device heavy to hold after five or ten minutes. I don’t know what’s needed to take some weight off this thing, but that should be a high priority for Apple. The device’s weight is its number one setback. Considering the weight, I would not recommend an iPad as a primary book reading device.
And speaking of books, after trying iBooks and the Kindle's iPad application I would still prefer to use Amazon's Kindle environment where I know I have all my purchased books available on multiple devices from different hardware vendors.
I'm still annoyed by the lack of multitasking, the inability to customize home screens and the inability to group programs under "folders". All of these, and many other issues on my list, are all software related and we're likely to learn more from Apple this summer on what the future of the iPad's OS changes will be.
Overall, even with the weight's toll on regular usage, the device is fantastic. The battery life so far has been superior and I've experienced few problems if any. The iPad isn't perfect and has some refinements throughout that can be made, but for anyone looking for a tablet like device the iPad is a winner.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Despite the Criticism, the iPad is Revolutionary
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
"The holiday lineup is set."
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
AT&T Opens the Door for Google Voice and Skype on 3G
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
For The Love of Money
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Lower priced Apple laptop on the way?
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
iPhone/Touch 3.1 and iTunes 9 Released
iPhone, iPod, App Store and iTunes Statistics
- 30 million iPhones sold to date
- 20 million iPod Touches sold to date
- 220 million iPods (all types) sold to date
- 75,000 applications in the App Store just within the first year
- 28%, or 21,178, of the applications in the App Store are games and entertainment related
- 1.8 billion applications downloaded to date (not including updates which would have represented a number a few times more than that)
- 8.5 billion iTunes songs sold
- 100 million iTunes accounts
- The #1 music retailer in the world