An Apple Break

An Apple Break

Byrichard

A few weeks ago I bought some software via the Apple Store but changed my mind about wanting the software. I requested a refund, as I have in the past, and they asked for a justification so I gave them one, and they refused again. Out of principle I then cancelled all my app subscription renewals, as well as stopped looking at the Apple book store.


One reason for using the Apple store, rather than buying apps direct from companies, is that reimbursements and more should be simpler. It also means that we have a single point of failure, rather than a dozen. In theory this keeps us safer.


Refunds as a sign of Good Will


Although Apple should refund, or not refund, at its discretion, refunding is a commercial gesture. By this I mean that if we’re browsing through apps, and our curiousity is peaked, then we are more likely to spend, if we know we could get a refund.


Apps on the app store are sometimes, crap, whether for the phone, laptop, or tablet. If we make a mistake then it is usually very easy to undo. and we can keep behaving in a “risky” manner. If a refund is refused, and we make a mistake then we are thrown into the lake of remorse, and our spontaneous habit changes.


The Long Tail of Refusing a Refund


It is over a month since the incident and I have hardly browsed the app store, I have forgotten about Apple Books, and I have not considered getting any apps for the Apple universe. With books the impact is felt immediately but with apps the impact may take up to eleven months to be felt, as apps are cheaper, when bought for a year, than a month.


Although the app cost 30 CHF, the cost of refusing a refund is not 30 CHF, but several hundred francs, in theory. Every app is 30CHF or more per year. Every book is 5-10 CHF. The willingness to get a better version of icloud is 10CHF per month. By refusing 30 CHF, Apple have potentially lost hundreds of francs. They sell devices, but their key revenue stream is services, and if we are given a reason not to contribute to that revenue stream then their model slowly erodes.


It is a raindrop in the pacific ocean.


Locked In


The more we move to digital the more we are locked in. We are locked in to Amazon with Kindle books, we are locked in to Apple, via the apps we buy either on the phone, laptop or tablet, and we are locked in to android with other products. We can’t jump around like we could before.


There was discussion about Portable web apps, and cloud based services that can be used on any device, without being locked into an OS. This is a good move. I would prefer to use a website on my phone, than be locked into one platform or the other. I want to slide from android, to iOS, to macOS, to Windows, without having to make the decision of which platform to purchase something from.


And Finally


And finally it is a shame that apps are not developed either for all platforms, or if not, then for the web. This app costs 30 CHF on individual platforms, but 80 for windows and mac. This isn’t much, compared to how much software cost in the past so the issue is not with paying for an app. The issue is with paying for an app, and being locked in. From now on I will buy apps direct from the vendor if possible.

Taking a Break From The Apple Watch

Taking a Break From The Apple Watch

Byrichard

Yesterday I decided to take a break from the Apple watch for up to a week. I am tired of two behaviours. The first of these is the watch’s habit of saying that I did not stand for two or three hours in a row. I know that I have. I need to stand to cook, or to brush my teeth and other tasks. It also annoys me that if you bend your arm it counts that you sat down. Bend your arm to check if you have been standing for at least one minute and it resets the counter.


The second flaw comes from the monthly challenge. The challenge for this month is to do 4900 minutes of exercise if I remember and this is absurd. It will always push you to strive more, to reach further and to work out harder. It lacks flexibility.


If the workout goal is 4900 minutes, then that’s over two hours per day. In theory that’s a nice challenge, but in the long run it leads to exhaustion. Last year, I would let the app tell me to do up to 600 calories or more of exercise a day. That goal led to me exhausting and fatiguing myself because there are no breaks. It pushes, and pushes. It doesn’t think “You need to rest” or “you did sport A rather than sport B so we will adjust the monthly goal. It’s AI, without fatigue built in.


The other challenge, having three watches with three ecosystems. There is little to no interoperability. The steps aren’t transferred from Suunto to Apple from Apple to Suunto. Garmin wants other data than the other two. To feed all three databases you need to wear three watches. It would be nice to sync the data between the three without thought. This would give us the freedom to slide between platforms. This would give us the opportunity to wear a single watch.


Running Up Four Floors at a time, Walking Two Hours A Day


I almost never walk up the stairs, especially a single step at a time. I always run up them. I run up at least two steps at a time and I sprint three or four floors without getting winded. I also walk from one and a half to two hours a day. The Apple watch tells me that I didn’t stand for two hours in a row. If I don’t stand for one or two hours it is because I am studying or working. By telling me to stand the watch is telling me to procrastinate.


For clarity, the watch doesn’t tell me anything. I turn off notifications. I check the fitness app to see how the day is going, and that’s when I see that it says I haven’t stood for two hours. That little light blue bar annoys me. I have a compulsion to have a perfect collection of filled bars, every hour.


That’s why I need to take a break from the watch. It makes me care about something that doesn’t matter at all. Standing is a recommendation, for people who need to get into the habit of working out. I don’t have that problem. I can ignore it.


Turning It Off


I looked for an option to turn off the standing trend but can’t. I can cut it down to six hours a day, but the issue is not standing six or twelve hours a day. It’s wanting to have a “perfect” day, and keeping the trend in the fitness app increasing. This benefits my life in no way, so turning it off would be the ideal solution.

I Completed the Apple May Activity Challenge Yesterday
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I Completed the Apple May Activity Challenge Yesterday

Byrichard

I completed the Apple May Activity Challenge yesterday. The goal was to walk or run 349 kilometres within one month. I finished this challenge two days early.


Using the Apple Watch Series 3 and the SUUNTO Spartan Sport Wrist HR BARO I tracked all of my activities. For the first two or three weeks I tracked activities with both devices and then deleted the duplicates on Strava and then I stopped tracking with the Apple Watch as I saw that activity data could be communicated to Apple’s Activity tracking.


During the past month I walked 10-15 kilometres a day and when I didn’t walk such distances I was cycling. As a result I have had a sporty month. I’ve walked in the rain, the wind, and recently the heat. I took up running again and this provides me with an opportunity to play with a podcast, and to play with apps.


Running requires for my legs to adapt to the sport so I’m doing shorter distances than my cardiovascular system can cope with. I don’t want to feel knee pain so I’m doing less than I know I could. It’s about building up gradually, and eventually exceeding my previous best.


Now I have two days to recover, before the next challenge.

Of AirPods – useful and simple

Byrichard

What do you have to say about AirPods? I see them as useful and simple. I have tried earphones, headphones, and Bluetooth variants. With some earphones, I found that they hurt my ears. With others, I found that they slipped out too easily. With yet more, I found that the noise cancellation feature was unpleasant. All in all, AirPods are still the earphones that I prefer.


Earphones and headphones are curious, because we may keep them with us every day for weeks, months or even years. Eventually, they break. The most common problem that I had with earphones is that the solder from the speaker in the earpiece to the cord would detach. Another problem, with headphones, was that the soft fabric would wear out and break.


With work headphones, I found that the leather/plastic part that rests on ears gets warm and unpleasant after hours of wear. My favourite headphones were Koss headphones. They folded into a little egg. One day I was opening them before a shoot and they snapped and I was sad. They were the best headphones I ever owned. They were also the most expensive. They were given.


As I slipped from cassette players to minidisc and CD players to iPods, Symbian devices, android devices and iPhones I have usually used the earphones that came with the device and i never bothered to put the plastic fabric on the earpieces.


Recently the left ear on my AirPods died and so for a few days I tried the various earphones I have, to see if one would be an apt replacement. I lost the habit of hearing the noise of the cable that runs from the earphones to the device it’s plugged into. I could hear it rubbing against my collar, against my sweater and against the coats I’ve been wearing. I don’t know whether that was an issue a few years ago. I don’t know whether it’s because the earphones are relatively old or whether I’m more demanding.


Replacing AirPods


Replacing AirPods is not as easy as switching from a wired charging case to a wireless one. Apple’s website makes buying new charging cases a matter of a few seconds.


The journey to replace AirPods is more complicated. To replace AirPods you have three options. The chat window, a phone call, or going to the shop in person. The chat experience was bad. The first time I tried I got disconnected because it took me too long to find the serial number.


In the second case, the experience was bad because I gave the serial number and a description of the problem but the person or bot kept asking questions as if my simple sentence had not answered the question. “My AirPods are at least two years old and the left ear has stopped working” . “Ok, can we do a diagnostic test?”


When you’re a geek, and when you’ve tried pairing the AirPods, and you’ve tried following their suggestions to resolve the problem before joining the chat it’s frustrating. It’s also frustrating because AirPods are 75 CHF per ear so you’re speaking about 150 CHF to replace something that costs 169 CHF to buy new if I remember correctly.


Due to the current health situation, and due to having to schedule a meeting with a genius I decided that going to the Apple store to resolve this issue was not worth the time.


Buying a New Pair


As I browsed various online stores I saw that Mediamarkt had new pairs for 129 CHF instead of 159 CHF. For 179 CHF I could have upgraded to wireless charging. I didn’t go for this option because I hardly ever use wireless charging. The charging case needs to be charged every few days so wireless charging is uninteresting. I use wireless charging for the phone infrequently.


The Upside


I decided to replace my iPhone SE because the battery was beginning to weaken and the screen touch interface was not as responsive as it used to be. With the AirPods, I have once again used a device until it was at the end of its useful life. If buying new AirPods was as simple as buying a charging case I would have kept the right ear and charging case. I have broken the habit of buying something new just because I wanted to try something new.

Indoor Climbing and the Apple Watch

Indoor Climbing and the Apple Watch

Byrichard

After just three climbing activities the Apple watch screen broke, rendering its smart features unusable. 


Indoor Climbing and the Apple Watch are a bad mix. They are a bad mix because the Apple watch has an unprotected glass screen. The screen is so exposed that last Thursday I shattered the screen without realising until I got home and tried to use it but the capacitive screen did not respond. 


At first I couldn’t see anything so I tried to feel it with my nail (whatever is left of it after an evening of climbing) and I could hardly feel anything. Eventually by trying to look at the surface with light from different angles I could see two distinct cracks in the screen splitting the screen in to three distinct segments. 


If I was your average smartwatch user I’d say that this is normal because smartwaches are made to be intelligent, not solid. I’d then point you to the fact that I have had suunto diving watches, Suunto feature watches and then Suunto Flagship watches such as the Ambit 2, 3 and then the Suunto Spartan watches. The Suunto Ambit 2 and Ambit 3 survived years of climbing, both rock climbing and via ferrata. 


My Apple Watch Series 3 was “accidentally damaged”, the way Apple describes the condition of my watch, after just three climbing sessions. I had bouldered once, climbed once indoors, and once outdoors without issue. It’s when I went climbing indoors the second time that I must have done something to hairline fracture the glass. 


In my humble opinion, with over 700 tracked activities with Suunto devices without issues, Apple is fatally flawed. In my opinion a smartwatch should be designed so that the screen is protected. The screen should be designed to survive what life has to throw at it. My Suunto Ambit 2 and 3 have had countless impacts on rocks over the years. You can see on the bezel of my Suunto devices that they have countless scratches. The glass however is fine. You need to look carefully to see any sign of scratches. 


It is with this in mind that I strongly feel that Apple should take responsibility for making a device so mediocre that it gets cracked while climbing indoors. Indoor climbing is on wooden panels and fiberglass holds. It’s not on granite or other hard rock surfaces. A watch screen should survive this environment. 


Replacing the watch screen via Apple would cost 230 CHF without taxes, possibly about 250 CHF with taxes. The watch itself cost 397 CHF new. It goes without saying that I did not ask for the unit to be fixed. It is because of Apple’s poor design that this watch suffered damage and it is Apple’s responsibility to replace the unit free of charge. 


I didn’t drop it, I didn’t smash my wrist against something. I didn’t even know the unit was damaged until I got home and tried to use it. Fitness tracking watches should not be this fragile. 

Corporate Social Responsibility and Apple

Byrichard

I have read numerous articles and I think that Corporate Social Responsibility and Apple are hot topics at the moment. When it was found that European firms were cheating on their emissions reports it was a great scandal and the European and German automotive industries took a financial hit. Their cheating cost them billions. In the US people were financially compensated whilst as one article put it Europeans got a plastic tube.

We should look at the Apple Back taxes story within the context of Brexit, the rise of the far right in a number of countries and the emerging popularity of Trump within certain sectors of the American voting public. The group anonymous is defending the rights of the 99 percent. They protest against Wall Street and the abuses of corporations and the wealthy.

When houses in the US were foreclosed because of the bubble bursting because of complex dividends those who suffered were the poor and the middle classes because they borrowed money at a rate that they could not pay it back. A number of documentary makers have explored this issue and there have been talks at the Graduate institute and other places.

Apple is currently making billions per quarter and that money is being stockpiled in offshore accounts so that neither the US government nor the European union can get to it. Other writers and journalists have written about this extensively. The perspective that I want to take is a moral one.

Apple products are expensive, they can cost twice as much as their android equivalents. People in the European markets are paying for these products. They pay the country’s VAT along with the product’s cost. They are contributing to the local economy.

Tim Cook argues that what the European Commission is doing is a “load of crap” and that it is abusing of its power. From an ethical and moral point of view though it is Apple that is being unethical and amoral. They are part of the economy. When they sell products they make huge profits that are taxed at less than one percent. 12 billion dollars could do a lot of good within the European Union if and when it is recovered because it could contribute to the road networks and transport infrastructure. It could contribute to housing, education and much more. In contributing to the economy those billions that Apple owes in back taxes could improve the quality of life of millions.

They hide behind the mask of job creation. They believe that because they contribute to the creation of 6000 jobs in Ireland that their corporate social responsibility stops there. It does not. Apple must be ethical enough to pay taxes like every other business is expected to do.

In effect Apple is providing a concrete example of what Brexiters voted against, the corporations syphoning off money to the detriment of living conditions of many populations around Europe. If corporations are allowed to make billions in profits without paying taxes because of creative accounting then society as a whole suffers. It also ferments resentment and encourages people to vote for the right.

In my opinion, based on the reading of numerous articles and watching many documentaries Apple should agree to pay the 14 billion as a gesture of good will and as a Public relations exercise. Imagine what a positive effect those billions would have for the European Union as a whole. Imagine how much social good having that money re-invested would do.

I believe that Tim Cook and Apple need to pay these back taxes to diffuse the tensions caused by austerity movements across Europe. A wealthy, rather than austere Europe could buy more Apple products. Other corporations would also benefit directly from people’s increased disposable income. A few weeks or months ago I watched a documentary about how the United States benefited from corporations paying their fair share of taxes.

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About the Ipad, which I will refer to as the Itablet in this post.

Byrichard

Designers must understand that user interface as well as ease of use are the two most important features of any electronics device. The more intuitive the device the more likely people are to keep using it. As a first generation Ipod touch user and an iphone 3gs owner I see the value of simple, intuitive confident design.

Looking at the itablet (ipad) what I see in this design are three key qualities, ergonimcs, ease of use and versatility. All of these combined make this device one of the most interesting on the market at the moment.

The smooth, slick design reminds us of the macbook air but without the keyboard.  As it is a laptop we will expect less from it but get more out. The macbook air is running the same OS as the Macbook Pro therefore we expect it to do the same things but when it cannot then we say it underperfoms. The tablet doesn’t have that problem. It’s sold as a slate that has a touch screen that can serve as a multimedia device.

Ease of use is another key feature. When you’re using a netbook, an N97 or many other devices you need some understanding of how things work. You need to understand how to configure an exchange server, you need to type the right character to complete the word and if you want to transfer files you need specific software. Of course the tablet has the same thing, you need itunes to do this. That’s an advantage and a dissadvantage. The advantage is that whenever you connect to any laptop (With the right library key) you can update podcasts and other content intuitively.

The second advantage is that the app store is so much easier to use on the mac than other platforms. We are used to buying apps and music on that device. Who hasn’t downloaded 10-15 apps for their iphone or ipod touch already? Imagine the facebook app on the tablet, or the flickr app.

In fact think about the day after a party. Hundreds of pictures were taken and you want to show them to friends, and have a good laugh. With the computer you can do this but you’re stuck at the desk, or you’re sitting down to be more comfortable. With the Ipad you hold it comfortably and a few people can stand around to see these images. Of course it’s less intimate than showing them on an iphone ;-). It’s also a way of demonstrating your picture portfolio or your multimedia showreel.  

Versatility is the last point of interest for this device.  If you want to use it for picture viewing then it could double as a photo frame, if you want to use it as a calendar and e-mail client then you can. If you want to play games then the larger screen means that all the games you already have for the iphone and ipod touch can be used.

Finally you can dock a keyboard to the screen and it becomes a 750 gram laptop. The advantage of this device’s keyboard, bought seperately is that you now have a laptop. You’re free to tweet, blog, sort through pictures and edit documents if iworks works well on the device.

Now the question you’re wondering, would I buy one? Not until July 2010 after the summer keynote. I want to see how they implement these new features into their line of futre laptops. Will they give us a dual screened laptop where the keyboard and mouse are replaced by a second touch screen or will we get the conventional keyboard and monitor where the screen is now touch based? That’s the point at which we can decide whether the tablet or a new laptop make more sense.

(CR)apple and authorisation issues.

Byrichard

No doubt you remember that my laptop motherboard died. The effects are still being felt today. When you have applications, and when you have several computers you authorise them in order to have access to the same applications and music on more than one machine.

This works fine most of the time. You can easily authorise and de-authorise a machine depending on necessity. The problem is when you have hardware failure though. As hardware fails so the device number changes. Itunes thinks it’s on a new machine and all the permissions are gone.

That’s the problem I’m having. Over 129 applications have just been removed from the ipod touch as a result of having five machines authorised with my itunes account. There’s not much I can do to change this situation.

What I love about this situation is that it’s another reason not to use an iphone. Why would I buy a device which relies on another device in order to function. If the N97 crashes I don’t need to rely on this computer to sync things, if my n95 crashes same lack of concern. Same with the e51 and other devices.

With anything apple though as soon as five machines are authorised if you have a hardware failure you’re stuck.

Apple have to resolve this issue because everyone has access to more than five apple computers, either through friends or through machines of their own.

If I need to use a wifi connection to sync my ipod then I might as well have any generic device. I am one step closer to going back to using Linux for personal computing, windows for work and apple for nothing but editing.

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Two mobile content mentalities.

Byrichard

When’s the last time you visited a wap site? Have you thought of how content displays on mobile phones other than the Iphone? I hadn’t until quite recently. Recently I moved back to Switzerland and have started to work for Allthecontent / Toutlecontenu.com and they provide multiplatform content for devices ranging from televisions to mobile phones and more.

As a result of reading too much American press I lost interest in what Nokia were doing until it was mentioned that the iphone is not true mobile web use. At first that statement didn’t make much sense but since then I’ve bought a Nokia N95 8 gig model and I’ve been playing with vodafone live, seeing how content is presented. It’s very simple, quick and to the point. Images are small and sparse but text is heavy.

Naviguate from one menu to another and you eventually get to content that’s paying. That’s where it becomes interesting. There are quite a few topics, from sports to entertainment to adult content. Some of this content is in video form, some in MMS form and yet some more comes as text. As a result content is easily accessible from most media handsets.

Then there’s the question of data packages. Look at Swisscom. For 18 swiss Francs you receive a hundred megabytes of data transfer. That’s not much when considering the 3 gigs a day of transfers via my laptop. Mobile is different. I read that not more than fifty megabytes a month are downloaded over the air.

Take a look at Iphone optimised pages in contrast. They’re graphic intensive, slow to load and designed for one specific screen resolution. As a result of this that content is not accessible on most data plans or mobile devices. Iphones have a good part of the market but they’re excluding many users. You can’t download content on the iphone. You’re losing revenue right there.

What I think will be interesting over the coming months is to see how the European Vs. US mentality of mobile delivered content will affect telephone operators in these markets.

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The Macbook Air

Byrichard

I really wanted a small device mid way between the ipod touch and the macbook but Apple have decided to come out with a thin rather than small device with five hours of battery life and a solid state drive.

These are great features but the device is so incredibly limited that it’s not interesting for me. I’ve got a macbook pro and it’s a great machine for anyone that wants to do video editing. I’ve also got an ipod touch which is great for twittering and keeping up to date with current affairs. One of these devices is great for computing, the other is great for browsing.

What I wanted is a small machine that’s easy to carry, along the lines of the powerbook but I’ll have to wait a little longer.

The key limitations I see with this device are the need for an external optical drive, only one USB port and a phone jack. That’s great for business men who travel a lot but what about the rest of us. If you plug in the USB drive how are you going to plug in anything else. If you’re like me you charge your ipod and your phone from the laptop because it’s convenient.

The price is also prohibitive. It’s a luxury product that doesn’t fill any new market niche. Let’s wait and see for new devices. I will drop by the apple store and play with it of course and give you a hands on review.