iTunes Genius Fail Sunday, Oct 18 2009 

Rants and Technology , , GeekLady 8:26 pm

Would you like to know what the iTunes Genius is offering me while I’m listening to The Planets, by Gustav Holst?

Songs by Queen, Alice Cooper, Madonna, Black Sabbath, Rush, Billy Idol, Nirvana…

This is not music that “goes together”. It’s not the same genre. It’s not even from the same galaxy of genres. It’s incomprehensible. Ridiculous.

It’s stupid, that’s what it is.

Basically, iTunes wouldn’t know classical music if classical music shot a cannon at it. And you’d better watch it, iTunes. Classical music likes to use cannons.


 

It was perfect, until they had to go and screw it up… Thursday, May 21 2009 

Technology , , , , , GeekLady 9:53 pm

(Yes, it’s been awhile. No, this is not an excuse as to why.)

I appear to be alone in the world, but I hate Stanza. It has a terrible reading experience. It’s a bundle of UI sins wrapped in the one useful feature of its ability to get pretty much any text file onto your iPod. Reading a book with Stanza was haphazard at best, and infuriating at worst.

And then the Kindle app came out, and reading a book on that was everything reading a book should be. No longer did the text flip to horizontal at random moments if I read while lounging. The brightness stayed at the appropriate level. My child’s wandering fingers no longer turned undesired pages. I could easily adjust the font size without the constant risk of accidentally changing the font size and losing my place. Reading with the Kindle app was perfectly, simply, reading. The reading experience was so good, that I could forget I was using an electronic device. Sometimes I wore my iPod’s battery down twice in a day.

(I will admit, I tried Stanza again after several months and updates had gone by, and when a book I wanted to read wasn’t available on the Kindle store. While it has improved, I annoys me how many things I have to go into the options and turn off just to get just a decent reading experience. And I still can’t adjust the font size easily without digging deep into the settings.)

And then Amazon went and bought Stanza. And I started to worry when people said the Kindle app’s days were numbered.

I made Mike download the Kindle app so I could check out the updated version, I (wisely) wasn’t going to risk losing my book reader app. I’m going to play with it extensively this weekend.

My first impression is not a good one, and I’m tempted to pan it right here and now, but I haven’t played with it for more than 10 minutes, and I’m determined to give it a fair shot.

Just not on my iPod. Some things you just don’t risk.


 

In Defense of an iPhone Nano Friday, Apr 3 2009 

Technology , , GeekLady 9:05 pm

I know that the iPhone Nano is not a real possibility. But I really wish it was.

Right now, I’ve got a crappy little Motorola candy bar that I paid $20 for. It has no camera. It has no keyboard. It is just a phone. And I love it.

It sounds weird to love it, but it’s the easiest cell phone I’ve ever owned. And I have a soft spot for electronics that don’t make me hate my life.

But I still wish it was like my iPod touch. I wish I could sync it with my address book. I would rather have the keyboard for texting than the keypad. I don’t care about using it for internet, for email, for an iPod or a camera.

I just desperately want a phone that will play nice with my address book on my computer and that I can send a text message with in under 5 minutes. And if there’s going to be an iPhone Nano, this is what it should be. Just a phone that does cell phone well.

I’d buy it for $99. I bet a lot of people would.


 

Quality Versus Cost Monday, Jan 19 2009 

Musings and Technology , , GeekLady 1:00 pm

My dad and I keep having the same circular conversation, and it starts out something like this:

Dad:  ”I’ll tell you what, you would be stupid to buy an Apple laptop these days.  You can a laptop just as nice as a MacBook, with better graphics, for less than a Macbook.”

Me:  ”But I don’t want to use Windows or Linux.”

Dad:  ”I know, but the graphics in these laptops are just so much better and for less.”

Me:  ”I’d rather buy the laptop that has a lower chance of being borked in 18 months.”  (My Fujitsu Lifebook only lasted 20, which, given what I paid for it, was a crime.)

Dad:  ”Well, this Vaio is four years old now and it’s still running.  You just can’t play games on these new MacBooks, the graphics aren’t there.”

Dad and Me together, one at the other:  ”Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

Conversation ends.

We have this conversation at least once a month, and it always bugs me because he’s irrevocably correct, there are new OEM laptops that are just as specced as a MacBook (or better specced) for cheaper… but I look at them and still prefer the MacBook. 

It’s not that either of us are wrong.  Dad and I are just coming at the problem from different perspectives.   (more…)

 

Assessment of Resources Thursday, Jan 15 2009 

Life and Projects and Technology , , , , GeekLady 9:13 pm

Okay, learning Cocoa… I have the collective knowledge of:

  • one high school C++ computer science class taken over ten years ago
  • a book on Cocoa and Objective C written for Panther
  • XCode installed on my iMac
  • and the internet

Hit it.

 

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