Apple's new iTunes Match and sharing of your music through the iCloud wil not happen in UK until 1Q12 at the earliest.
Why?
Because the interfering, dozy old PRS wants to get into the act. Apple has made a deal with the biggest record companies so why, I ask, has the PRS got anything to do except rubber stamp the deal for UK?
I, and millions of others are fed up with the unprogressive attitude of the PRS, who frankly are doing more harm to artists than helping them earn a living.
Time for Copyright revision, a global approach and taking on-board the new report recently commissioned by the government. Preferably before 1Q12!
Friday, 10 June 2011
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Apple bonanza time again
Well we have had the WWDC keynote, 6/6/11, and have marvelled at the new levels that Apple is taking the User Interface and networking capability of the Mac eco-system software.
What really did we get?
I think what they did was to make a list, what can we do with one finger? Well point and click, and point and drag, as before. What can we do with two fingers, three fingers, four fingers? And they invented pretty effects to use for each gesture. Many of which most of us won't use. It takes time even to learn these things after all. They may in fact simply get in the way.
On the other hand some things are nice, two finger scroll (a la iPad) with no scroll bars for one, glad of that. Full screen apps for another, with 3 finger swipe between screens and even back to the desktop.
The other things in Lion are mostly under the hood, or upgrades you need anyway to use the iCloud service. Mac software is pretty much limited now to purchase through the App Store, with Apple taking its cut. I can see little advantage in the "Launch Pad" which puts iPad type icons on the desktop, nothing is wrong with the Dock in my opinion. Would have been nicer to have a two level Dock? (One finger down to reveal the main Dock, two fingers to open a second level?)
Using Lion you will definitely have to buy a wireless KB, wireless mouse and probably a wireless trackpad to make sensible use of the system on an iMac.
Finally the upgrade to Lion is going to cost me a bunch of money, 4GB is almost half of my monthly broadband and I have two Macs to upgrade... hope you can save a bootable copy on a USB stick... both to port it across and to be used in case of re-install.
Library in the Apps???
On the other hand a BIG opportunity has been missed, or not yet implemented, to have a classified library system on our Apple stuff. What I mean is the ability to keep multiple file types in folders by subject, like all your emails, faxes, letters, spreadsheets, etc about your finances in a 'Finance>Bank' folder. It is cute to have all Pages docs directly accessible in the program on the Mac and on the iPad and iPhone, but when I have 100-500 documents it will be unmanageable.
And if I want to find a spreadsheet related to a letter I have written it will be doubly difficult. Yes the Finder is dead, but giving all files to apps and keeping them by file type is not good. They have to kept in a system wide classification menu tree accessible from any app. You know, look in the library within Pages, find a subject, find a spreadsheet and have it open in Numbers...
Anyway back to iCloud. It looks great. But I wonder about the sync system, does it all go through Apples farm? What happens if the farm goes down, and I can't get my stuff, what happens if they lose it? What huge broadband cap will I need when I have sync on 'automatic'? What we have today with MobileMe is sync of contacts, calendar and email. What we get in addition is sync for files belonging to Apps, documents, spreadsheets, photos, music... and any others that developers want to write apps for running on both the Mac and the iPad/iPhone.
Download limits???
Then again it is not clear how I can get 1TB of stuff off my Mac onto my iPad 32GB! There must be some sort of selection mechanism, and the functionality of iCloud depends very much on the way this works. Already we have seen some limits to photos (1000, 30days if not put in albums) and music (download what you want from the iCloud Music Store, or sync limited amounts from iTunes, by WiFi). Whatever there are strict limits on the mobile devices.
Well now here's a bunch of good and poor bells and whistles. Some seem just for the fun of it, some are real steps forward. The upgrade to Notifications was inevitable after Android and jail-breakers showed a better way, the new system is much better. I am heartedly fed up with little boxes flashing up on top of what I am doing, and the box I hate most is one that comes up every time I lose 3G coverage. God damn it I can see that as it says "No Network" in the menu bar!!! And there is no way to turn this notification off. I hope we will get some detailed menus in System preferences to set which app can list notifications and which cannot, right down to none at all.
iMessage is humbug, designed mostly for commercial use as it is encoded, ditch your Blackberry's and switch to iPhones which now have encryption (by the way will Apple let India have the keys?).
The whole problem with messaging today is the large number of incompatible systems. So any time you want to be sure of getting a message to anyone the only choice is the old, old SMS way. iMessage should quickly make itself compatible with BBM, MSN, AOL, Yahoo, Google and myriad others, and get a gateway to SMS. If not Apple is just making another Apple fan-boy walled garden. There are really too many ways to post messages and express short ideas today, including Twitter and Facebook. Enough is enough.
But iMessage has a great interface you have to say that. By the way will it be compatible with iChat on my Mac? I guess it will? So it could at least be compatible with some of the other systems, as iChat is. In the end we need a world standard system, I hope Apple is on to this.
Newsstand is good. One place to subscribe and view your news, be it daily, weekly or monthly. Bye, bye Zinio?
Reminders strike me as a program for people who have more time there hands than sense. After all it takes time to type up a reminder, and even more if you geo-locate it or time it. I think a scruffy piece of paper in my pocket with the stub of a pencil would do the job, or a tame and sensible wife is also useful. Calendar anyway gives a current way to book appointments and give alerts, so why Reminder?
Twitter. I have a confession to make. I have tried 6 times to load and understand Twitter. I have failed to see how to work it. The only interface I can get working is the mobile.twitter in Safari, or the TwitterFall program. Both of which allow me at least to follow what is being said. But I cannot find out how to join the conversation... sad really. So its integration into other apps will no doubt baffle me too.
I like the improvements to Camera, volume button to take a shot, improved zoom and self focus/exposure on a selected subject. But the big problem I have had and which I will continue to have is the pesky Still/Movie switch, I cannot remember how many times I have accidentally hit this and found myself shooting a movie when I meant to take a photo. Please Apple make the whole bar go away when not in use. I just want to point and shoot. By the way note that using the volume button top right makes you hold the iPhone upside down and makes it easy to cover the camera accidentally with your finger, better to use it with the Home button on the right, and the shutter release on bottom left then push it with your thumb?
Updates to Safari are welcome anytime, both tabbed browsing, swipe to go through History and use the Reader to just view the main story - advertisers will hate this? How will web sites survive? Will they all become pay-walled? And goodbye Instapaper.
Local WiFi sync has been a long time coming, I would have thought they could have done it very much sooner, after all there are plenty of good apps that sync stuff with your Mac - for example PhotoSync for your photos, which is excellent. But finally its coming in iOS 5, right from the first switch-on. Funny thing is that it seems that syncing only happens when you charge the device, not on request. Why?
Multitasking on the iPad is a great idea and the new way to change apps by a swipe is great, it is a pain today to shut an app, then open another, or to hit the Home button twice and chose another app. Just wiping your four or five fingers across will be great.
Finally it is also wonderful that all the iOS 5 stuff will be compatible with all the current hardware, iPhones 3GS & 4, iPad & 2, iPod touch 3 & 4.
So that is what we are waiting for. "The Fall", is all they are committing to today... let's hope Fall comes early this year.
What really did we get?
OS X Lion
Lots of new ways to shuffle app windows around. I think this is mainly designed to make Microsoft Windows look stupidly old fashioned rather than as a useful user interface. You need some large real estate on the screen to make use of multiple windows, Window-type icon bars, and laptops don't have this. So the utility of the new gestures is somewhat limited to simple swipes that swap you around the running apps, but more than that they are just gimmicks. I get the same functionality today by programming my 'Fn' key to display all open windows...I think what they did was to make a list, what can we do with one finger? Well point and click, and point and drag, as before. What can we do with two fingers, three fingers, four fingers? And they invented pretty effects to use for each gesture. Many of which most of us won't use. It takes time even to learn these things after all. They may in fact simply get in the way.
On the other hand some things are nice, two finger scroll (a la iPad) with no scroll bars for one, glad of that. Full screen apps for another, with 3 finger swipe between screens and even back to the desktop.
The other things in Lion are mostly under the hood, or upgrades you need anyway to use the iCloud service. Mac software is pretty much limited now to purchase through the App Store, with Apple taking its cut. I can see little advantage in the "Launch Pad" which puts iPad type icons on the desktop, nothing is wrong with the Dock in my opinion. Would have been nicer to have a two level Dock? (One finger down to reveal the main Dock, two fingers to open a second level?)
Using Lion you will definitely have to buy a wireless KB, wireless mouse and probably a wireless trackpad to make sensible use of the system on an iMac.
Finally the upgrade to Lion is going to cost me a bunch of money, 4GB is almost half of my monthly broadband and I have two Macs to upgrade... hope you can save a bootable copy on a USB stick... both to port it across and to be used in case of re-install.
iCloud
Well now we are talking innovation! First is that apps self sync to each other, and each handles its own file system. No longer do we have to worry about making folders in the Finder and sorting our stuff into Documents, Spreadsheets, etc, and then copying them to iDisk to retrieve them the other end, what a bore that was, especially as few apps supported iDisk, most used Dropbox. Is Dropbox dead? Depends if the new sync system allow others to access a "Public folder" in your cloud, to exchange files, if not how do Apple propose we do it?Library in the Apps???
On the other hand a BIG opportunity has been missed, or not yet implemented, to have a classified library system on our Apple stuff. What I mean is the ability to keep multiple file types in folders by subject, like all your emails, faxes, letters, spreadsheets, etc about your finances in a 'Finance>Bank' folder. It is cute to have all Pages docs directly accessible in the program on the Mac and on the iPad and iPhone, but when I have 100-500 documents it will be unmanageable.
And if I want to find a spreadsheet related to a letter I have written it will be doubly difficult. Yes the Finder is dead, but giving all files to apps and keeping them by file type is not good. They have to kept in a system wide classification menu tree accessible from any app. You know, look in the library within Pages, find a subject, find a spreadsheet and have it open in Numbers...
Anyway back to iCloud. It looks great. But I wonder about the sync system, does it all go through Apples farm? What happens if the farm goes down, and I can't get my stuff, what happens if they lose it? What huge broadband cap will I need when I have sync on 'automatic'? What we have today with MobileMe is sync of contacts, calendar and email. What we get in addition is sync for files belonging to Apps, documents, spreadsheets, photos, music... and any others that developers want to write apps for running on both the Mac and the iPad/iPhone.
Download limits???
Then again it is not clear how I can get 1TB of stuff off my Mac onto my iPad 32GB! There must be some sort of selection mechanism, and the functionality of iCloud depends very much on the way this works. Already we have seen some limits to photos (1000, 30days if not put in albums) and music (download what you want from the iCloud Music Store, or sync limited amounts from iTunes, by WiFi). Whatever there are strict limits on the mobile devices.
iOS 5
Well now here's a bunch of good and poor bells and whistles. Some seem just for the fun of it, some are real steps forward. The upgrade to Notifications was inevitable after Android and jail-breakers showed a better way, the new system is much better. I am heartedly fed up with little boxes flashing up on top of what I am doing, and the box I hate most is one that comes up every time I lose 3G coverage. God damn it I can see that as it says "No Network" in the menu bar!!! And there is no way to turn this notification off. I hope we will get some detailed menus in System preferences to set which app can list notifications and which cannot, right down to none at all.
iMessage is humbug, designed mostly for commercial use as it is encoded, ditch your Blackberry's and switch to iPhones which now have encryption (by the way will Apple let India have the keys?).
The whole problem with messaging today is the large number of incompatible systems. So any time you want to be sure of getting a message to anyone the only choice is the old, old SMS way. iMessage should quickly make itself compatible with BBM, MSN, AOL, Yahoo, Google and myriad others, and get a gateway to SMS. If not Apple is just making another Apple fan-boy walled garden. There are really too many ways to post messages and express short ideas today, including Twitter and Facebook. Enough is enough.
But iMessage has a great interface you have to say that. By the way will it be compatible with iChat on my Mac? I guess it will? So it could at least be compatible with some of the other systems, as iChat is. In the end we need a world standard system, I hope Apple is on to this.
Newsstand is good. One place to subscribe and view your news, be it daily, weekly or monthly. Bye, bye Zinio?
Reminders strike me as a program for people who have more time there hands than sense. After all it takes time to type up a reminder, and even more if you geo-locate it or time it. I think a scruffy piece of paper in my pocket with the stub of a pencil would do the job, or a tame and sensible wife is also useful. Calendar anyway gives a current way to book appointments and give alerts, so why Reminder?
Twitter. I have a confession to make. I have tried 6 times to load and understand Twitter. I have failed to see how to work it. The only interface I can get working is the mobile.twitter in Safari, or the TwitterFall program. Both of which allow me at least to follow what is being said. But I cannot find out how to join the conversation... sad really. So its integration into other apps will no doubt baffle me too.
I like the improvements to Camera, volume button to take a shot, improved zoom and self focus/exposure on a selected subject. But the big problem I have had and which I will continue to have is the pesky Still/Movie switch, I cannot remember how many times I have accidentally hit this and found myself shooting a movie when I meant to take a photo. Please Apple make the whole bar go away when not in use. I just want to point and shoot. By the way note that using the volume button top right makes you hold the iPhone upside down and makes it easy to cover the camera accidentally with your finger, better to use it with the Home button on the right, and the shutter release on bottom left then push it with your thumb?
Updates to Safari are welcome anytime, both tabbed browsing, swipe to go through History and use the Reader to just view the main story - advertisers will hate this? How will web sites survive? Will they all become pay-walled? And goodbye Instapaper.
Local WiFi sync has been a long time coming, I would have thought they could have done it very much sooner, after all there are plenty of good apps that sync stuff with your Mac - for example PhotoSync for your photos, which is excellent. But finally its coming in iOS 5, right from the first switch-on. Funny thing is that it seems that syncing only happens when you charge the device, not on request. Why?
Multitasking on the iPad is a great idea and the new way to change apps by a swipe is great, it is a pain today to shut an app, then open another, or to hit the Home button twice and chose another app. Just wiping your four or five fingers across will be great.
Finally it is also wonderful that all the iOS 5 stuff will be compatible with all the current hardware, iPhones 3GS & 4, iPad & 2, iPod touch 3 & 4.
Waiting
So that is what we are waiting for. "The Fall", is all they are committing to today... let's hope Fall comes early this year.
Thursday, 2 June 2011
This is the broadband problem, BT
A recent survey in Oxfordshire, where moves are underway to improve broadband across the county shows the current status:
And that just about says it all, Oxfordshire is a broadband backwater. 54% get only 1Mbps.
Moreover other reports show that 90% of Oxfordshire is linked only to BT exchanges, so if anyone is to do anything about our poor broadband service it is BT.
We need a couple of simple goals
1 Minimum 2Mbps for everyone, target 10Mbps.
2 Do it by 2013. Installation and delivery just like electricity, sewage, telephone and all other services.
So we need to but a boot up the backside of BT to get a decent service. Every effort I have made to talk to BT about this has simply met a brick wall, they are a company that could not care less about its market (as it has a monopoly) and couldn't care less about its customers.
And that just about says it all, Oxfordshire is a broadband backwater. 54% get only 1Mbps.
Moreover other reports show that 90% of Oxfordshire is linked only to BT exchanges, so if anyone is to do anything about our poor broadband service it is BT.
We need a couple of simple goals
1 Minimum 2Mbps for everyone, target 10Mbps.
2 Do it by 2013. Installation and delivery just like electricity, sewage, telephone and all other services.
So we need to but a boot up the backside of BT to get a decent service. Every effort I have made to talk to BT about this has simply met a brick wall, they are a company that could not care less about its market (as it has a monopoly) and couldn't care less about its customers.
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
My web page please
Wouldn't it be nice to have all my personal stuff on one web page. Tax and NI, health care records, DVLA licences, TV licence, direct gov, bank, local council costs & payments... both public body web sites and private one's, all of my choosing, with one login / password for them all.
You get my point. Instead of chasing around multiple web sites to do what I want I just go to one place. I have no doubt widely different system and security issues make it challenging, but all the same it would be a revolution and a brand new way to use the web for people's benefit.
Now imagine that you get your web page when you are born, and use it all your life...
You get my point. Instead of chasing around multiple web sites to do what I want I just go to one place. I have no doubt widely different system and security issues make it challenging, but all the same it would be a revolution and a brand new way to use the web for people's benefit.
Now imagine that you get your web page when you are born, and use it all your life...
Sunday, 29 May 2011
Content contained or delivered
Copyright and the internet
There is an ongoing battle today:
In the past the content industry's aim was to capture value by putting it in containers. TV, Cinemas, Records, Tapes, CDs. These industries are based on creating scarcity, using copyrights held in commercial distributor hands, and exploiting that content's value. Often with very small payment to the creator or artist, but huge profits for themselves.
Today's industry focuses on providing the flow of content. By delivery at live shows, on the internet by purchasing and by streaming media. It opens up the content, and allows it to be delivered directly from creator to audience, cutting out the middle man. There is a downside to the digitisation of content in this way, and that is the infringement of copyright and illegal distribution. But this is another matter...
Let battle ensue
This has naturally caused huge tensions as the old industries try to protect their business model. Even governments have listened to them and got involved. Which is exactly the opposite of what we need them to do, they must grasp and fully support people's desires and the internet as a free, open delivery channel.
Friday, 27 May 2011
Presenting with TV or Projector
I have worked out how to make presentations in four ways using Apple stuff.
The iPad Photo app can use Airplay to stream photos/slides to the Apple TV.
There is some work involved to get the slides from Keynote on the Mac to the iPad or Apple TV:
- by exporting from Keynote to iPhoto, then syncing using iTunes via USB to the iPad,
- or by exporting the slides as JPEG (or PNG) files to a folder on your MacBook, then syncing them to the iPad Camera Roll using the wireless sync program PhotoSync,
A local network can be created by a MiFi, the iPhone or a MacBook to link the system together. What would be very good is if an iPhone with Personal Hotspot enabled could Airplay photos directly to the Apple TV, without the need for a separate WiFi network, but it cannot (Apple BIG upgrade needed).
As far as I can see it is no use transferring the Keynote presentation itself, using Mobile Me iDisk, to Keynote app on the iPad, as this cannot use Airplay nor save as images to the Photo app!!! (A BIG upgrade request to Apple)
Keynote on the MacBook cannot directly use Airplay (A BIG upgrade request to Apple). So the slides must be exported to iPhoto, and iTunes started. Then the slides can be found in the Photo album on the Apple TV and the Apple TV remote can be used to present them.
A network can be created by a MiFi, an iPhone or simply by the MacBook itself to link the system together.
This is pretty simple, the projector will most likely have a VGA input, so a Mini DVI to VGA adaptor must be used to connect it to the MacBook. Then the slides can be shown from Keynote and use the MacBook remote to present.
A variation on the previous setup is to Create a Network on the MacBook, join it with the iPad then use the Keynote Remote app to present to show.
You can use an iPhone in place of the iPad.
iPad to TV
The iPad Photo app can use Airplay to stream photos/slides to the Apple TV.
There is some work involved to get the slides from Keynote on the Mac to the iPad or Apple TV:
- by exporting from Keynote to iPhoto, then syncing using iTunes via USB to the iPad,
- or by exporting the slides as JPEG (or PNG) files to a folder on your MacBook, then syncing them to the iPad Camera Roll using the wireless sync program PhotoSync,
A local network can be created by a MiFi, the iPhone or a MacBook to link the system together. What would be very good is if an iPhone with Personal Hotspot enabled could Airplay photos directly to the Apple TV, without the need for a separate WiFi network, but it cannot (Apple BIG upgrade needed).
As far as I can see it is no use transferring the Keynote presentation itself, using Mobile Me iDisk, to Keynote app on the iPad, as this cannot use Airplay nor save as images to the Photo app!!! (A BIG upgrade request to Apple)
MacBook to TV
Keynote on the MacBook cannot directly use Airplay (A BIG upgrade request to Apple). So the slides must be exported to iPhoto, and iTunes started. Then the slides can be found in the Photo album on the Apple TV and the Apple TV remote can be used to present them.
A network can be created by a MiFi, an iPhone or simply by the MacBook itself to link the system together.
MacBook to Projector
This is pretty simple, the projector will most likely have a VGA input, so a Mini DVI to VGA adaptor must be used to connect it to the MacBook. Then the slides can be shown from Keynote and use the MacBook remote to present.
MacBook to Projector, iPad remote
A variation on the previous setup is to Create a Network on the MacBook, join it with the iPad then use the Keynote Remote app to present to show.
You can use an iPhone in place of the iPad.
In touch with the facts, TV & iPad
A TV and an iPad
What we need is a way to provide background or factual information while watching a TV program. The idea is simple
- a TV only is no use by itself, no facts, just discussions and opinions
- a TV that accesses the internet on screen is no use (only one screen, TV is a shared experience, no one wants to watch someone else browsing the web)
- So we need two screens, the TV (Communal) and the iPad (Individual)
- The content must be synchronised (the web/iPad content can be updated as the program proceeds)
Advantages
The TV could be released from Advertising Interference, this could be shown on the iPad, maybe tailored to the individuals profile...
The web/IPad interface allows more factual and persuasive data to be presented, and the charts and tables can persist after the TV program has moved on, for user thinking time...
Comments
Web comment is possible, maybe relayed live to the studio and presenter.
Separate twitter-like streams are also possible.
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