'What Comes After Reading on the iPad"

Khoi Vinh wrote a thoughtful analysis on the future role iPads (and other tablets) may play in our lives:

Traditional publishers are pouring millions into establishing a beachhead on tablets and e-readers, perhaps with good reason. But the intense competition and experimentation (much of it misguided) is almost assuredly unsustainable; almost all of the content apps that we see today will be gone within a few years, I predict, or they will be supplanted by browser-driven editions as their native iOS or Android apps prove too expensive and impractical to maintain.

What’s more, all of these efforts conform to a familiar pattern: at the start of nearly every technological shift, legacy brands manage to command a disproportionate amount of attention as they attempt to stake their holds in the new space, but almost always find themselves unable to sustain that attention through genuine innovation. Ultimately, it’s the pure play companies that realize the medium’s true potential.

Baby Update: It's a Boy!

My wife--who is now 20 weeks along--had her 2nd ultrasound done last Friday, and although the baby seemed unwilling to cooperate with us at first, we finally determined that we're going to have a son! For some reason my instincts told me we'd be having a daughter, but my wife and the other ladies in her family all predicted otherwise, even her 5-year-old sister. Guess their 6th-sense trumps mine... [edit: my sister would like to make it known that she also predicted a boy. Carry on.]

We had no real preference one way or the other and are simply happy to know that the baby is apparently healthy so far. We have his name picked out already but we are still keeping it under wraps for the time being. The due date at this point is December 27th, so we may end up having a pretty awesome Christmas present :)

To save him some future embarrassment, I won't post the ultrasound proving that he's a boy, but I did find it hilarious that they labeled the photo "Boy Parts" with an arrow pointing right to the proof in case there was any doubt.

'On Succeeding Steve Jobs'

Gruber details his views on who may succeed Steve Jobs should he ever decide to step down as CEO of Apple.

A new Apple CEO would need credibility and the ability to instantly instill confidence with two highly disparate groups: Apple’s rank-and-file employees, and Wall Street. The only candidates who could satisfy both factions, to any degree, already work at Apple. Name one outsider who’d be accepted both inside the company and on Wall Street. I can’t. Not one.

I'm actually a bit surprised by some of the suggestions for outside successors that have apparently been made by others, such as Steve Wozniak or Guy Kawasaki  or Jack Dorsey. These seem like such obviously-bad choices, even to a guy like me who only follows this stuff as a hobby. Not that I have anything against those people; Jack Dorsey has certainly proven that he can create a quality product (such as Twitter and Square) but to suggest that he could just come in and take over as CEO of Apple is a bit ludicrous.

Gruber's top choice, Tim Cook, already seemed to be groomed for the position long ago in my opinion. I would have thought it readily apparent to anyone else who watches Apple affairs too, but the article that Gruber is responding to here would seem to indicate otherwise.

'Reading on the iPad'

Shawn Blanc discusses his views on his experience with (and the problem of) reading articles, both magazine- and newspaper-based, on the iPad.

And so — perhaps intentionally, or perhaps unintentionally — digital magazines that replicate their printed versions are, in some ways, feeding on the mindset that printed content has a higher value and novelty than digital content does.

They replicate their printed magazines in digital format because they are trying to convey some of that perceived quality and value that historically comes with the printed page. The reader may not be holding a piece of paper, but at least they’re looking at what would be the printed page through the window of their screen.

Unfortunately, replicating print onto a digital format doesn’t best serve the problems of great user experience, sharing through social media, and taking advantage of the rich media possibilities our iPads provide. It does, however, appease the publisher’s need to convey value with their content.

It's a great read and I agree with much of what he's saying here. He acknowledges that he doesn't have a perfect solution for the content publishers because it's obviously a difficult problem to solve, but does put forth a few good ideas. I also really like this analogy:

Apps like Instapaper and Reeder offer more of a “reading environment” (like a library); Wired and The New Yorker are more like an amusement park with words. One isn’t better or worse than the other, but people who like to read a lot certainly don’t spend the majority of their reading time at a noisy amusement park.

I'm Going to be a Dad!

Yes, you read that correctly, my wife and I are expecting our very first baby!

We've known about this for a little while now, but we wanted to wait until we had the first ultrasound performed before making an announcement, to verify that everything was okay. We also wanted to tell both of our entire families in person first before making it public. The ultrasound you see above* was taken Thursday, June 16, 2011. It was an amazing feeling, seeing our baby and hearing its heart beating for the very first time.

My wife is 13 weeks along now, and the delivery date is expected to happen around the end of December or beginning of January. We are unbelievably excited and can't wait until to find out if it's a boy or a girl (which should be around July/August). And yes, we already have names picked out, but we're keeping tight-lipped about all of that until we know for sure what it is ;)

Now the preparations will begin as we get the nursery ready and stock up on supplies in the coming months. Wish us luck, everyone!

*If you can't tell right away where the baby is in the above ultrasound, it's the small monkey-shaped figure in the upper-middle, facing right, looking almost like they're lounging back to the left. The curved black area on the right side is where their umbilical cord would be.

How One Blind Man Sees the World

Just read a fascinating piece published in March by Men's Journal. It centers on Daniel Kish, a man blind since infancy, who relies on an unusual method of sensing his surroundings. This allows him to ride his bike around town, hike through the wilderness all alone, and essentially experience the same type of lifestyle that most sighted people take for granted. The method? Echolocation. I'm serious, go read the article and it will explain everything.

One of the things I found most engaging about the guy is how he feels about peoples' misplaced kindness and unnecessary sympathy, when to him, blindness is more of an inconvenience than anything and isn't something people should feel sorry about. In fact, for most of his life he has seen himself as more capable than lots of his peers.

“Most blind kids hear a lot of negative talk. ‘Don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t move. No, here, let me help you.’ The message you get, if you’re blind, is you’re intellectually deficient, you’re emotionally deficient, you’re in all ways deficient.”

Reading Daniel's story has inspired me, to say the least. He has easily accomplished so much more in his life than most people can claim (myself included), and we should all take his example that there are no excuses for giving up on the things you want to do. I also found one section of the article particularly moving, involving one of Daniel's students, with whom he has shared his echolocation techniques. Go read the whole thing and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Ben Brooks on "It Just Works"

Nice analysis on what it means for a product to "just work" for consumers:

For me ‘just works’ comes down to three factors:

1. Understanding how customers use your product. This is likely helped by the ‘support emails’ Marco mentioned.


2. Using your own product often.


3. Not adding stuff, for adding stuff’s sake. (Feature bloat.)

Personally I agree most with #2, although they're all great points. Some of the best applications I've ever used have been developed by people who aren't just out to make a quick buck; they had a need for a particular tool or service, and (perhaps for lack of better alternatives) decided to come up with their own instead. Marco Arment's Instapaper app seems to be a great example of this, although I can't speak for him personally.

'Fantastical 1.0'

John Gruber linked to an interesting new menubar calendar app called Fantastical that lets you type your events out using natural language. I'll definitely be checking this out.

Totaled

I hate to say it, but I just experienced my first car wreck ever recently. I'm 25, so I guess making it 9 years without any accidents is a decent figure.

I was driving down the highway to work like normal, and it just so happens that it had been raining for about 20 minutes beforehand, and some spots of the road were still pretty slick. Well, after we came around a bend, I noticed that we were about to reach a traffic jam of some kind.

I tried to brake, but the car wouldn't slow down because it was skidding on some sort of slick material, probably oil that hadn't been washed away by the rain yet. Since I wasn't slowing down, I tried to steer to either of the lanes next to me, but the car wasn't getting enough traction and there was nothing to do except wait to hit the car stopped in front of me. I can't tell you how afraid I was in that moment. I thought, "This is it. This is where I'm going to die."

We slammed into this old couple's car from behind, and the next 10 seconds were a confusing mess. I remember the airbags deploying, some sort of dusty material filling up the car, and me making an effort to pull over to the side of the road despite not being able to see anything. After stopping, I realized that my wife had been hit pretty hard by her passenger seat airbag and had the wind knocked out of her. She recovered after a couple minutes, but it was scary as hell.

Once we calmed down and made sure we hadn't broken any bones or anything, we called 911 and got out of the car to speak with the old couple we had hit. They were okay too, and although the nice lady's neck was hurting a bit, she declined to have an ambulance sent.

To make a long story short, my car was totaled. The entire front end was ruined beyond the possibility of repair and we had to call my uncle-in-law, who owns a tow truck. For the next few days, as the insurance company figured out what the car was worth, I had to bum rides from friends and family, which always makes me feel like a mooch.

Today, we got our insurance check. We had actually been thinking about selling the old car (which was a 2001 Chevy Cavalier) anyway, but we never expected to get much for it. It turns out that the check we received was for more than the old car was even worth, so the wreck turned out to be somewhat of a blessing in disguise. We've had our eye on a 2008 Honda Fit, and it looks like we're going to be able to afford the down payment now.

I'm probably going to be scared of driving in the rain for a while, but everything and everyone turned out okay in the end.

GoGoStand

Recently I bought a GoGoStand for my iPhone 3G (I know, it's an old phone, but I don't have the money to upgrade very often). It's a little stand that folds up into the size and shape of a credit card, meaning you can easily keep it in your wallet.

This thing has been so useful for me. When I take lunch breaks at work, I can set this thing down on a table and watch videos while I eat. When I'm on a plane, I can set it on the tray in front of me.

It has 3 different viewing angles you can choose from, which is even nicer because you can use it on all kinds of viewing surfaces at different heights respective to where you're sitting. The website says you can put your phone (which, by the way, doesn't have to be an iPhone) in landscape or portrait orientation, but I've found that portrait is hard to balance and sometimes tips the whole thing over. The bottom of the stand isn't weighted, so it's best just to use landscape mode whenever possible, which you're likely to do anyway if you're using this thing to watch videos like I am.

I recommend picking one up, they're only like $5 and are perfect in a pinch.

iPhone app "Word Lens" translates languages on-the-fly via camera

There are days when you come across something cool and you think, "Wow, we really are living in the future!" I got that feeling today because of a new iPhone app called Word Lens.

What the app allows you to do is point the iPhone's camera at text in a foreign language, and it will translate that text into your native language in real-time and transpose that information where the foreign text used to be. It's a bit hard to explain, so check out their promo video to see it in action:

Pretty neat, huh? What's even nicer is that the app itself is free, but you will have to pay for language packs via in-app purchase. Currently the app only has language packs for Spanish-to-English and vice versa (both of which are 50% off until Dec. 31st, 2010) but they are sure to include more in the future.

There are also some other fun built-in features if you don't feel like buying any language packs at all, such as the ability to take the text you're looking at and have it spelled backwards.

The developer (Quest Visual) gives a disclaimer in the app's description that this technology is not perfect and is meant to be used only on clearly-printed words instead of someone's personal handwriting. Still, this technology has huge implications for international communication and travel in the future. It could also be a very useful learning tool for you budding polyglots out there.

Hello World!

I'm not much of a programmer, but I couldn't help using that title. Anyway, hi reader! I've been inspired to write a blog about technology and other stuff, so I hope you enjoy. I've decided to disable comments right off the bat, so if you need to reach me, I've set up a Gmail account specifically for this site: unretrofiedblog@gmail.com

Let's see where this thing goes.