My experience with the 2015 MacBook Pro Retina 13" approaches the 24-hour mark and I have come to several conclusions. First and foremost, the Force Touch trackpad is a nuanced, simple enhancement. I would not have noticed the changes without hearing discussion of it first. Second, Force Touch is actually useful and offers another depth to trackpad use which feels as if the interaction should have been there all along. Finally, and most importantly, nothing has changed. It feels the same, it acts the same, yet natural interaction is added. Now if only the name wasn't cringe worthy.
Spiderman Will Be An Avenger Once More!
Today Sony Pictures delivered us the best news of all: the custody agreement for cinamatic Spiderman!
"Under the deal, the new Spider-Man will first appear in a Marvel film from Marvel's Cinematic Universe (MCU). Sony Pictures will thereafter release the next installment of its $4 billion Spider-Man franchise, on July 28, 2017, in a film that will be co-produced by Kevin Feige and his expert team at Marvel and Amy Pascal, who oversaw the franchise launch for the studio 13 years ago."
Comic book and super hero enthusiasts alike will find great elation today and in months to come with this news as it shows even Sony and Disney are able to talk things out for the benefit of the fans. Because in a world where the fans come before decade old licensing deals, anything is possible!
Windows RT 8.1 is the New Windows Phone 7.5
I genuinely feel bad for the people that were tricked into buying the following tablets with the false hope that Microsoft would carry a candle for the crippled software they have to use.
- Asus VivoTab RT
- Dell XPS 10
- Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11
- Samsung Ativ Tab
- Microsoft Surface RT
- Microsoft Surface RT 2
Microsoft is failing to learn from its own history from the Windows Phone 7.8 debacle by repeating the exact same response to "outdated" hardware by providing a half hearted sudo update.
Pebble Talking A Big Game For 2015
As the proud owner and frequent user of a Pebble Classic, I am encouraged to hear about Pebble's continued success. With the sale of their millionth watch, the campaign of showmanship and big talk has begun. Will Eric Migicovsky and company be able to keep up with more premium smartwatch brands such as Apple or Motorola? I believe they will, simply by innovating with more platform/application support and undercutting all brands on price and battery life. Heck, with such bold talk of a new system framework in the works, we might finally see the wearable innovation we thought Apple was going to bring us late last year.
Windows 10 Will Be Raspberry Pi 2 Ready
In what will likely be the most expansive and tide shifting news of the week, Microsoft announced that a build of Windows 10 is coming for the new quad-core Raspberry Pi 2, which was also announced today. The Raspberry Pi 2 also received double the memory alongside micro SD support and four USB ports. The entire package ships today for $35 just as the original Raspberry Pi did nearly three years ago.
Raspberry Pi has been a valuable education tool since introduction. With the addition of a Windows 10 compatible model, teachers will now be able to teach their students computer interaction and development concepts on a platform they are both familiar with and can use on a regular basis. Now a child can compile their sample code and take it home to use on their family PC. Such a step will bring pride and intrigue to the surface of many students.
Makers, the bread and butter of the modern technology movement, are going to run with the new expanded Input/Output capabilities of the Raspberry Pi 2 and will also be able to use the full software stack that has made Microsoft so popular amongst enterprise users and developers. Code which runs as a simple task on a Raspberry Pi 2 can also run seamlessly run on any PC with Windows 10 thanks to the universal app framework introduced by Microsoft last month.
What makes this so interesting is how little was know and is still not known about this announcement. Signs point to strong positive influence and bolstering of a number communities in the technology world that desperately needed the validation of Microsoft. The humble Raspberry Pi Foundation and the software and services behemoth of Microsoft managed to hide their secret relationship in order to surprise educators and makers around the world. I'm sure Microsoft Build 2015 will hold many juicy details details about Windows 10's future on connected systems such as the Raspberry Pi and other modern connected systems.
Welcome To Tevilo
Hello Internet, welcome to Tevilo. Tevilo is a long overdue brain child born out of a mixture of complements and criticism. Tevilo as a concept addresses the world of thoughts and opinions I normally present on my Twitter account, @ghost_reiter. Over time, personal friends and industry peers have shown interest in my opinions on topics ranging from technology to cultural transformation both online and in real life conversations. Tevilo expands on these ideas and provides detailed insight a more expansive form. I may drop links and short opinions or I may write long form opinion pieces, only the future of technology and culture can tell.
Before I set loose on the feeds of the Internet, let me introduce myself. I'm Alex Reiter (yes this explains the horrible pun that is my Twitter name). My life path can currently be described as a twenty-three year old male web applications developer in Naples, FL. Aside from my constant barrage of opinionated tweets and hours of conversation with anyone that will engage me in debate or discussion. I have also served as the technology writer for my college paper. I know I know, how stereotypical, everyone writes for their student paper. As true as it may be, I also never scratched the surface at The Glimmerglass. I wrote stories there that made sense to a very small subsection of modern user world views. By telling you about my previous experience, I simply want you all to know that this isn't my first walk around the park.
With Tevilo, I don't have to hold back or be "politically or topically correct". I don't have to tone down my message to only address the everyman. I can speak to a wider range of world views and present both fact and thought in a much wider range of tones. As you will see, my experience in professional technology and culture study is defined by passion and the need for knowledge. As my Twitter account will clearly reflect, I have long been an avid technology and culture pundit with a special interest in the answer to the question "What's next?".
By seeing what is next in technology and in culture, we can see how the world will look so we can shape it to be better. This is my vision for Tevilo. To portray the stories, opinions and overall topically relavent facts that can tell us what life will be like tomorrow, next year and a generation from now. I sincerly hope you join me and provide your own voice in this greater conversation. Tevilo isn't just my thoughts, it also portrays your actions in culture and your opinions of what can make the world function better for everyone. Heck, what is better than a future shaped by only the best ideas and opinions of culture? To me, nothing is more imperative than a well-formed future where functionality, practicality and morality meet in harmony. Join the conversation in this space and hopefully we shape the world for the better.
Let's go.
Google Made a Big Mistake - The Motorola Machine Belongs in America
Everyone in my apartment building knows how upset I am about this particular subject.
There are several hundred reasons why this shouldn't happen, but I am going to name four reasons why Google just made a bad decision for the consumer.
- Google was making progress with the Moto X and Moto G. These devices were fantastic, they got updates quickly and the customization idea was inspirational. Unfortunately, I can already see the faux-leather backed Moto B (for business and only business) in 2016.
- America just lost quite a few jobs. Lenovo will downsize the current Motorola Mobility staff to remove redundancy. Lenovo will close all U.S. manufacturing facilities to give jobs back to China.
- Google was just getting good at hardware. The Moto G, Moto X, Chromebook Pixel, and especially the first Project Glass hardware all showed promise for a Google combination of hardware and software. Unfortunately, the sale of Motorola has given much of this hardware expertise away to Lenovo.
- Let’s be honest, when was the last time Lenovo had an original thought.
I hope for Motorola’s sake I am wrong, but the writing is plain and clear, let’s hope we get the best outcome for mobile consumers and the Android community.
My First Mac - The Unlikely iBook G4
I have a knack for finding cheap computers in odd places. If there is anything I learned from college, finding these odd balls was my highest scored class. Listing out all the computers I have bartered for or bought would probably take quite some time. Many of these computers were bought cheap and turned for a profit, while others were bought to be a part of my growing collection. As I look back, I think of my favorite score, my first actually. This is the story of how I was inspired by my first Mac.
Summer 2008 was tremendous. I had completed my Sophomore year in high school and was working part time in the sausage factory that my dad ran. When I wasn’t packaging sausage, I was driving all over town with my church friends, having a great time. One such adventure was the giant yard sale we had to raise money for a missions trip. Everyone in the church brought something to donate. I even drove around pulling things out of people’s trash (I sold some of it too). When we had brought everything together, one thing immediately stood out to me in dramatic fashion: one of the families had brought in a used Apple iBook G4.
Now Apple products were no stranger to me. I had used old System 7 Power Macintoshes going through elementary school. By 2008, I was also on my second iPod (an iPod Video 30 GB). My parents had almost been talked into buying me one of the Apple Macbooks after the Power PC to Intel transition in 2006. This was not to be because of the steep cost and my average grades (in hind site, I am thankful that they didn’t get it).
Back in iBook land, I immediately tried to buy the iBook G4. Turns out, it had a broken screen and no battery. This made my task even easier for bartering. Unfortunately, when I tried to buy it, my youth pastor told me to set it aside. He wanted to sell it for parts and get more money for it. I was devastated.
That night, I went home and told my brother Adam what had happened. Adam also loves Apple products and was immediately on my side. After some pestering and persistence on both our parts, we finally talked our youth pastor into selling the computer to us for $50 several weeks later.
Our next task was to find new parts. This is where our connections came in to play (remember, connections make things happen). As it turned out, a family friend actually ran a computer recycling center in Chicago. She immediately set to work finding us a the parts we needed. Two weeks later, she stopped by our house with another iBook G4! This iBook G4 had no keyboard, no hard drive, and no battery. Adam and I immediately found screen replacement tutorials online and set to work replacing the screen.
After several hours of moving cables, removing screws, and plucking off electrical tap, we had a fully running iBook G4 with a replaced 12 inch 1024 by 768 display, a 60 GB HDD, 1 GB of DDR2 RAM, and a single core 800 MHz Power PC G4 processor. Our “new” machine ran OS X 10.4.5 (the cat known as Panther). We shared this machine for syncing our photos and iTunes libraries until my brother got his Macbook in October of 2009. The iBook G4 was our first Mac. Many computers had been used in our family previously, but this laptop was our first Mac. The iBook G4 was the first computer we used to edit pictures, make music, and watch downloaded videos. Two brothers created, shared, and loved this old computer, even for the short time we used it.
Finding that iBook and making it something I could use is one of the biggest inspirations that brought me to being a computing professional today. I love making things that don’t work work again. I love giving life to old hardware, and breathing new air into an old piece of code that just needs some love. I REALLY love telling other people what works best for them, especially when they come to me for help. Computers create and inspire amazing things, so why not be the person that creates the modern tool of inspiration.
Today is the 30th anniversary of the Macintosh. On January 24th, 1984, Steve Jobs introduced the original Macintosh. The Macintosh changed the world. Macintosh System 1.0 inspired every computer operating system that followed. Macintosh made beautiful computing a reality (thanks to inspiration from the geniuses at Xerox Parc). We see results from it everywhere we go. What takes me aback and makes me think is the front page of Apple.com today. It has the original 9" 1984 Macintosh next to a 27" 2013 iMac. It shows how far we have come.
Front page view of Apple.com on January 24th, 2014
I think back to my first laptop (a Toshiba with 6 GB of HDD space and a Pentium II mobile) and my first Mac. I think of the technical gap betweem what I did with those two laptops and what I do with my iPhone, Macbook Pro, and PC desktop today. We have come so far as an industry and a society. We have created things that have changed the world, but the thought that Apple put forward in 1984 still holds true today:
Here is to the next 30 years.
Here is to the hope that someday soon a young high schooler will also find a 2014 Macbook Pro that needs some love, fix it, and become an inspired creator for the next generation and generations to come.
Seven Types of Users - A 2013 iPhone Buyers Breakdown
- iPhone 5 users: You have no need to buy an iPhone 5s unless you have broken your current device or you have a lot of money (if you have a lot of money, please Paypal me some).
- iPhone 4 users who love their phone: If you still have an iPhone 4, buy an iPhone 5c. For one, you obviously aren’t on the cutting edge of technology. You also appear to be on a budget and therefore in the need of a cheaper option. The 5c is cheaper, stylish and still incredibly functional.
- iPhone 4S users who love their phone: if you have a 4S, you are about to finish up your two year contract. Get the 5s, a strong, functional phone to keep you going for the next two years (plus, you deserve the latest and greatest).
- iPhone 4, 4S & 5 users who hate their phone: Buy an HTC One. It is Android, but on a device that is well built and incredibly fast. Anyone who finds their current iOS device to be less than useful will find the HTC One to be either on par or far greater.
- Android users who hate their phone: Buy the 5s. The 5s is polished, has software that is consistent and performs well. The battery life is more palpable while also providing industry. Most of all, the new UI is refreshing and provides an inspiring piece of visuals for daily use.
- Android users who love their phone: If your phone uses a version of Android older than 4.1, buy an HTC One. It will be far superior device compared to what you are currently using. Android 4.2 supports much more functionality and holds very few superior traits to that of the iPhone 5s or 5c.
- Windows Phone/Blackberry/Feature Phone/No phone users: Start small, buy an iPhone 5c. The 5c is an inexpensive device that will not overwhelm you with the latest technology. Plus, you will actually have an advantage over other users. You won’t remember iOS 6 and therefore you will have no complaints or learning curves between the old and the new! Take the leap!