iPad 2012 Summary of Reviews

As of 2100 EDT on the 14th of March, the media embargo from Apple was lifted and the reviews are in. Everyone LOVES the Retina Display and LTE.  I might as well reiterate it again; EVERYONE LOVES THE RETINA DISPLAY!!!

Truth also be told, I'm glad I went with the 32GB Verizon model and can't wait to pick mine up on Friday.  Some have already asked and yes, I might end up asking if I can up it to the 64GB version being that applications are coming in weighing at at least 1.5 times the size and some even up to 5 times larger!  Here are a couple of snippets from the sources that I believe run true to the way that I analyze new hardware, tech and software.

"...it just looks otherworldly; like a glowing piece of paper." - Joshua Topolsky; The Verge

" The new iPad is the most functional, usable, and beautiful tablet that any company has ever produced." - Joshua Topolsky; The Verge

"It has the most spectacular display I have ever seen in a mobile device. ... Using the new display is like getting a new eyeglasses prescription — you suddenly realize what you thought looked sharp before wasn’t nearly as sharp as it could be." - Walt Mossberg; WSJ: All Things D

"Since it launched in 2010, the iPad has been the best tablet on the planet. With the new, third-generation model, it still holds that crown." - Walt Mossberg; WSJ: All Things D

"Reading on the big retina display is pure joy." - Jon Gruber; Daring Fireball

Techcrunch has a great review with pictures detailing the difference in Tweetbots's iOS Twitter client; Retina vs. non-Retina.

Check it out:

Props out to Tapbots for hurrying up the development of Tweetbot for iPad and getting it rushed out into the Apple App Store Ecosystem! SWAG! (you'll be getting my donation in first thing on Friday!)

Here's another close up from The Verge on the difference in screens of non-Retina vs. Retina.

Update 1: One of the newest and one of my personal favorite sites, The Wirecutter, also just posted their tablet recommendation. I've also included The Loop's review as well.

"This is the tablet you want." - Brian X. Chen; The Wirecutter

"The bottom line is that it's the best tablet and everyone who reviews one agrees. And even people who love Android phones kind of can't say much about how Android tablets stack up against the iPad. And unlike with computers or stereos or cameras, you don't really need my help, or anyone else's help, to understand that. So, I will end here." - Brian X. Chen; The Wirecutter

"So, what did I like about the iPad? Simple — the experience. Nobody in the market today can touch the Apple experience." - Jim Dalrymple; The Loop

The Difference Between Us and Them

An interview with Apple's Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, Sir Jonathan Ive. (via This Is London)

...it’s not about price, schedule or a bizarre marketing goal to appear different - they are corporate goals with scant regard for people who use the product.

I've always thought the "others" had it wrong and Jony hits it precisely on the head.

Evolution vs. Upgrades

Ryan Block intelligently argues why the next generation iPad (2012) is a buy. I agree 100%. The screen of every touch device is the experience. You see what you get and in this case, you fall in love. via gdgt:

So when a device comes along like the iPad that doesn't just display the application, but actually becomes the application, radically improving its screen radically improves the experience. And when a device's screen is as radically improved as the display in the new iPad, the device itself is fundamentally changed.

Here's a new quote taken from Sir Jonathan Ive, Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple. (via This Is London)

Our goal is simple objects, objects that you can’t imagine any other way. Simplicity is not the absence of clutter. Get it right, and you become closer and more focused on the object. For instance, the iPhoto app we created for the new iPad, it completely consumes you and you forget you are using an iPad.

The only tablet is the iPad

One of the biggest insights into today's tablet market can be read in this fine article by Slate's Farhad Manjoo.

It’s been two years since Apple’s tablet went on sale. Rivals have released dozens of alternatives, but the iPad still represents more than 60 percent of market share. Worse, the rest of the market is dominated by two devices that are being sold at a loss—Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook.

Simply put, if you think about what people use as their MP3 players today and the last ten years combined, does anyone think of anything else besides an iPod?

Read it in entirety here: The iPad Is Unbeatable

Catching up to the iPhone

With the release of Google's Galaxy Nexus by Samsung tomorrow on Verizon, I couldn't have pointed it out better myself than Daring Fireball's Mr. John Gruber:  

...The 2008 G1 had a hardware keyboard; a hardware up/down/left/right controller for moving the insertion point in text and navigating menus; dedicated hardware buttons for Menu, Home, Search, and Back; and SD card storage expansion. All of these things were held up by some critics as advantages against the iPhone. Today’s Galaxy Nexus has none of these things.

vs 

"A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them." - Steve Jobs (BusinessWeek / 25 May 1998)

Affirmation: Galaxy Nexus

Amongst my friends, some might call me an Apple Fanboy but at heart I know that I always take into consideration all the pros and cons of all technological devices. I really do try my best to be unbiased and after extensive research, I'll make an argument / recommendation for whatever device will fit your needs. Someone told me last week that I like to be right (duh) but they're missing the bigger picture. It's not about being right or wrong. It's all about making sure that it fits the personality / requirements of that individual and from there I can claim success as long as they enjoy the product. But alas, affirmation from tech pundits always puts a smile on my face.  As some of you might know, I like to be in the know and now!

Onto Google's first Android phone running Ice Cream Sandwich - Galaxy Nexus. Techcrunch editor MG Siegler just released his review and here are some key points:

• ...it feels like I’m Zack Morris holding his Gordon Gekko phone
• still feels rather cheap and plastic-y
• the camera is definitely worse than the iPhone 4S, both in megapixels (8 vs. 5), and in image quality

but of course MG Siegler does admit, "It’s important to emphasize the fact that the Galaxy Nexus is without a doubt the best phone I’ve ever used that’s not an iPhone."

Google also released a pretty cool commercial.

Update: It's official, you can purchase this phone tomorrow for $299.99 + two year contract on Verizon! (via BGR)

The Future of Gizmodo and Responsible Journalism / Blogging

During the last week, the tech world has been all a buzz on the next generation iPhone (iPhone 4th Generation).  With blogs posting pictures of a phone that was left in a bar to actual video and tear down followed by the final outcome of a letter from Apple's Executive Counsel demanding the return of stolen property, there have been positive and negative views in terms of how this whole thing was handle.  Jason Chen went on video showing the actual iPhone 4th Gen, then hours later Gizmodo posted a story on the actual individual that left the iPhone at the German Beer Serving Pub.  Granted because of this, Lufthansa is offering an all expense paid flight in business class to Germany for the poor Apple Engineer, but I feel it's still a little harsh that Gizmodo publicly harassed the guy. Who knows, Mr. Powell will be forever infamous just like the little kid who cost a team the championship. I don't know. To date, Gizmodo has been accused and admitted to purchasing the device for a purported $5,000. It has been pointed out by others (prominently John Gruber of Daring Fireball) that these acts were a clear violation of law. Codes in California were even outlined and discussed concerning the transaction and sequence of events that transpired during the resulting loss of the 4th generation iPhone.

It has come to my attention that this entire mess, now comically dubbed iPhonegate, while it did generate an absurd amount of page views on Gizmodo, was mishandled. I have to admit that I am, what some might call, a geek, a tech fan boy, a lover of Apple and such but there is a line to be drawn.  I believe that media outlets, have a responsibility; a civic duty to the companies we all love.

The secrecy that Apple goes through to product their product launches and hide their work from competition is second to none in the industry.  This is also a reason why we get so excited and that excitement was taken away by the greedy.  What kind of "umph" does Steve Jobs and the rest of the crew have?   I'm sure they are scrambling around to get together some new slides (probably some depicting Gizmodo in a bad light.)  sidenote: are they still going to be invited to the conference?

Admittedly, I can't wait to fall in line all over again, buy two iPhones, one for me and the other for my fiance, and start video chatting.  I want to know more about the new iPhone but that's what the pent up demand and interest lead to... anticipation and excitement.  Leaks are completely different and are approached as rumors which make it fun. With the devolution of almost all the surprises, June/July 2010 is going to be less exciting.

It would have been a smart move to keep it amongst themselves and "do the right thing" for this slip up crossed the line.  If you want to read all about the next iPhone...check out Gizmodo's iPhone page!

Apple's Free Marketing?! updated: lost and not a hoax // Apple wants it back

Spanning over the last couple of days, two of my favorite tech blogs (Gizmodo / Engadget) released amazing images of what appears to be the next iPhone 4th Generation.  (I'm not going to refer to it as the iPhone 4G because I don't think that it is going to have a 4G chipset i.e. MircoSIM card slot or maybe that's what LTE is going to have)  Initially deemed to be real, then fake, now *definitely* real after a tear down revealing Apple logos in the internals, the weekend included people calling each other names, pointing out pictures from other forums, and tying this phone to a Japanese knock-off.  But the most blatant fact is that it happens to be recognized by iTunes.  Conveniently being remotely wiped by Apple when it was reported by the scared individual, I hope that this guy still has his job.  Although now I'm even thinking that it maybe was his job. I initially thought that there was only "one" lost iPhone 4th Generation but both blogs, I guess, are playing nice and sharing their spoils!?  The internet, particularly Techmeme, is all the buzz on iPhone 4G news and it's two months before the purported launch.  That's 60 days of free marketing and stock price adjustment!  Can anyone say amazing marketing scheme?!  It's all free, becoming viral and an exponential rate, and everyone knows that us tech pundits that haven't upgraded to the 3GS are eagerly & tirelessly waiting for a complete redesign since last year.  Of course the nerd, geeks, Apple fanboys, and dorks are going to be gobbling up all these good stories.  People at work today are going to be talking all about the good news.  Daring Fireball has even went on record stating that he does believe in fact that Apple has lost an iPhone.

The question here is who dropped this phone?  Was it really just an accident or a planned & amazing way to generate crazy excitement and hype?!  Did an exchange of money happen?  Viral explosion has definitely proven to be the best way of marketing on the internet.  Trending on twitter already for the last few days as well is creating a lot of buzz.  Even Jonathan Ive just reported via twitter "This isn't good" What really is going on lately with all the leaks at Apple?  If this leak was unintentional, I hope Steve Jobs doesn't go crazy or have a heart attack due to an increase in blood pressure.  I can imagine emergency meetings all over the Cupertino Offices right now.  On the other hand, I bet the guy that's tied to this phone is in Apple's dungeon getting some form of punishment.  All these stories in just the past few days are causing a frenzy and it's not going to stop until it's released!  It seems to be trumping all the iPad news but I guess in tech world, the Apple iPad is old news.  Coinciding with AT&T revoking any vacation for June, it's working out to bet a perfect media storm.  Everyone loves summer and I'm hoping that the "one more thing" is that it's going to be offered on Verizon!  Better yet, Sprint with it's $69.99 EVERYTHING plan!

(another story one about a Canadian Wireless Carrier claiming the iPhone 4th Gen in June)

update: Well, there we have it...the lost & stolen iPhone belonged to an Apple Software Engineer by the name of Gray Powell.  He happened to be drinking too many German Beers and the result: left his disguised iPhone at the bar.  I wish him well in the tech world. I'm sure he's famous now and can start his own blog too. (via @Gizmodo)

update2: Apple wants it's phone back. Gizmodo states that they didn't know it was stolen!? Seriously?! Here's the letter and the link! (via @Gizmodo)

Situational Awareness...I GET IT!!! (I Think?)

I can clearly remember back to what my sky diving instructor told me on my first jump, "Elijah...you're going to gain more situational experience as we continue this."  I was like,"Sure," not knowing what the heck he meant.  That first jump rocked!  Weeks later, I jumped a second time scaring every ounce of courage I had left in me.  The entire time, I was wishing I was on the ground and scared for life.  I thought I would never do it again!  It was only then that my body told me what I was really doing.  The third jump took away those nerves and I enjoyed ever minute of it.  I can't proudly say that I ever finished the course to jump #10 but it's something that I still want to do later in life.   Back to the story...situational awareness. During the first few months of flight training back in 2005, we were taught and embedded within our minds an idea about the ever expanding "situational awareness" that we as young aviators would develop along with the accumulation of hours.  Flying in and out of clouds, new airports, different scenarios, terminology, aspects of flying and meteorology, even history began to paint the larger picture that our instructors kept on talking about.  I started to slowly understand, specifically within the confines of aviation, leaving all together life as a whole.  It was rather easy to tell you the truth since I was comfortably placed enabling me to focus on training.  My first actual line experience in April of 2007, after seeing a myriad of moves and learning experiences at a failed cargo airline, brought together the "end picture."  At least what I thought was the end picture.

Three years have gone by, rather too quickly, and things in my aviation career couldn't have been brighter (looking at the brighter side of life not from a 3.5 year first officer with upgrade a long ways away). Of course, not to mention the things back in my personal life have been rather exciting as well.  First off, I'm engaged, planning a wedding that is taking me a little out of my element, contemplating life's stresses which include the money factor, housing factor, where to live for the next few years factor, work, commuting, taking care of an additional home body (hi babe!) and dealing with LIFE.  The most stresses have come from these past few months because it feels like I'm not in control of things or certain aspects which I swore I use to pwn (master).  My tech life is still going strong with one project on standstill and yet another about the launch.  Slowly but surely, I'll find my niche, and of course everything else will fall into place?!

Yesterday after mass...I yet again realized I have gained more SITUATIONAL AWARENESS points.  Count me in at a level 4 geek of life!  There are certain times in life where it seems like everything is automatic and then when it slows down, one curls up into fetal position and "wishes" it keep on going.  I found those times the hardest because it wasn't how I operated normally.  Things were accomplished, taken care of and *poof* onto the next thing.  Now, knowing that I'm making the personal choices in EVERYTHING that I do, I have to learn to CRUSH IT EVERYDAY!!!

I use to call it "the Funk" or "tele-porting"  but now I know, it's just the growing inside my head that is distinguishing certain moments or pinnacles in my life.  Don't let your body control your spirit, have your spirit control your life!  I love it!

more on tele-porting: it's like when you think you're somewhere one moment then the next, you're somewhere else and your mind isn't keeping up with your body.

Web 2.0 and the Posterous New Blog

Intro:

I recently signed up for a posterous site, http://adellelijah.posterous.com, to host both Adelle and I together in one cloud space and in doing so, I actually ended up creating two more different posterous sites, http://adellelisa.posterous.com and http://elijahnicolas.posterous.com so that we can post on an individual basis.  Adelle actually didn't like me posting my stuff to "our" site so I decided that we each needed a separate one for self preservation.  I'll just admit it already: I am a posting whore.

Over the last few months, I've been using the Thesis Wordpress Theme in order to help with Search Engine Optimization on elijahnicolas.com.  I love the simplistic layout of the Thesis Theme so much that I even ended up buying the commercial license to use on Peak Interest (www.whatspyi.com) as well as my fiance's blog (www.adellelisa.com) which she is very hesitant to update but at least it's there.  Over the years, I have graduated from the Blogger platform hosting a multitude of different sites, to trying out joomla for a hot second to finally settling down on wordpress as my choice for a content management system.  Of course, twitter came around along with friendfeed and now posterous all within the last year or so and I indulged.  All the while, I was only looking for that singular reasonable mean to have all my personalities talk to each other and reflect each other's status'.  With posterous, I think I may have found the perfect solution!

Body 1:

The basic idea of Web 2.0 was to forge a design template that allowed for an easy GUI interface for those that weren't code savvy.  It was to provide a simpler means to update ones' online mediums / personality sites and in doing so, collaborate with others in the virtual arena.  That's my personal spin in layman's terms.  If you want the "real deal," here's Wikipedia's here.

Posterous has done just that.  They simplified the entire process.  They have taken out the horrific means of uploading to an FTP site or Content Management System and instead substituted it with the easy medium we use everyday: e-mailing.  You can "attach photos, videos, MP3s and files" to your e-mails, send it off to space and boom...it's that simple!  You could always do that on Blogger.com with text and photos and use a not so great plug-in with WordPress, but with one touch, I can upload a picture with a small post to my posterous account directly from my email address, it detects where I want it to go and publishes instantly without a hitch not only to posterous, but to anywhere else that I'm connected to be it my facebook, blogger, wordpress or even twitter account.

I was thinking of having it update my actual wordpress blog, but that's when things started to come together in my head.  I finally drew somewhat distinct lines.  I have come to the definite conclusion that my posterous and mobile blog are one in the same.  That's almost a no brainer, with a slight difference that the blogger site has a black background and posterous has a white one.  Posterous and my trelijah mobile blog are just quick snippets of my life.  Twitpic and twitter are just even quicker moments that I deem "3rd class" per say.  Of course the hierarchy of it all would be a long post, such as this one, on elijahnicolas.com, a picture accompanied by a posterous moment then a tweet.

Conclusion:

It is however convenient to have one place to update every personality, but duplication starts to become rampant and I don't want that to happen.  For now, I guess I'll keep trelijah going along with elijahnicolas.posterous.com and maybe with time, just end trelijah.  But as I always keep on saying, you can always count on me for some type of update.  That's enough.

p.s.  I had to edit the template of trelijah to fit the new format of pictures.  I like them in the full form.  Nice stuff!

Starcross'd Creative and the Johnson Wedding

With the technology that's been trickling down over the last decade, same-day edits have become more and more popular among various wedding reception activities. Finding the right videographer who can produce a video in such a short turn around time is not too difficult, but finding the right one that can amaze, and shock and awe the entire reception is a whole different story. Over the past weekend, a couple that I've known since their inception back during our  second year in high school finally tied the knot at the Immaculata Catholic Church in San Diego.  I had the honor of being a groomsman for Mr. Gregory Johnson and enjoyed the entire day hanging out with the couple, the bridal party and everyone else later that night.  Following their ceremony, we ended up taking pictures for a couple of hours around various San Diego sites, then headed to the reception where we danced the night away.  My job was simple and now complete but back in a corner of the reception hall was a video editor hacking, cutting, cropping, splicing and post producing various little snippets of film at a rabid pace transforming them into another masterpiece.  His name, Christoffer Dumlao from Starcross'd Creative.

Running around throughout the entire day capturing various shots of the event with his creative eye and Canon EOS 5D Mark II, he created yet another Starcross'd Creative Same-Day Edit exhibiting the entire day of the Johnson Wedding.  You can always visit their website, peep their other amazing films from full on scripted wedding videos to other multiple same-day edits as well as their new animated film // a true love's story or better yet, sign up to have their exclusive touch grace your important day.

Here is their final product which was shown at the wedding that night from Starcross'd Creative: you fill my heart \\ melanie + gregory’s same-day edit

Melanie & Gregory \\ Same-Day Edit from Starcross'd Creative on Vimeo.

Offline Writing and the Future of elijahnicolas.com

Most of the time when I come across various topics that I want to write about, they usually pop into my head at the most inappropriate time. While I am in the middle of my commute, without an Internet connection and / or just too lazy to log in to a hotel wifi hotspot, my thoughts end up lost in the cloud. I also end up thinking about random topics while I am on an "off day" being a heffalump. The trend that looms... I end up writing a new entry publishing every 4-8 days wishing that I could update more often. With that, I'll have to admit that in order for my blog to stay current and lead to a more successful following, I'm going to have to update it at least quite a few more times increasing the average to at least 3-5 entries a week. It should be a lot easier than I make it out to be but in reality, there are just too many things on my mind to talk or write about and I hate writing multiple topics in one day. The post following this entry will mark the beginning of what I would like to call a more technical / review stance of where I want to take my blog. I've written a few articles and just ended up "sharing" my RSS News Feeds through Google Reader but I have yet to actually share notes, write my opinions and share my analysis of the current day to day.

More or less, it wil remain a mix of my daily activities but I will also gnaw at the various technology trends, rumors and what not posting as if I was an editor for a higher website. It should get a little more exciting here at elijahnicolas.com ... I promise!

Plane or No Plane or Just Different Plane

Everyday, every plane that I fly is a different story.  With various maintenance issues that are posted from time to time, line pilots have to learn how to deal with each occurrence.  Each plane is unique in there own way but of there are similarities between the various anomalies.  The Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) has morning sickness (has to warm up a little bit in the cool months in order for the electronics to "come alive"), has an awfully hard time getting cool during the feverish months of summer and little bugs here and there that “pop” up from time to time.  Today was just one of those instances. (actually a week or two ago) Getting pushed back from the gate is when we usually begin to start our engines in order to move about and head towards our respective departure runway.  Because of this, we don’t’ usually become aware of the problems that we might have with our electrical systems or our powerplant systems.  After our electrical system switched over from the APU (auxiliary power unit) to the right-side engine driven generator, we noticed that our main battery was being activated and the backup TIES were switching back and forth showing us that there was an abnormality within our system.  It was posted to be a short roundtrip flight but it was leg one of four so any delays were going to prolong our duty day.

After talking to maintenance we were advised to go back to a gate for further inspection.  We had to wait around for about 20 minutes for a new gate and then once parked, we were told my maintenance that it would take about 30 minutes for a battery swap.  Mind you, we had a plane full of passengers from moms with strollers and multiple bags to businessmen and other various clientle of Delta.  Since it was only going to take “30 minutes” we were advised that the passengers remain on the plane so that we could get out of there as fast as possible once we were ready to go.  Well, after the first battery swap, 30 minutes later, we ended up finding out that we would need to deplane as maintenance would have to diagnose the issue for about 2-3 hours.

We deplaned, ended up getting assigned a different aircraft, which was still enroute from another destination and waited as the clocked raced on.  From being on-time, to being 1 hour delayed, we ended up being 3 hours delayed by the time we took off.  With so many variables in the airline industry, these types of delays end up creating negative publicity and passenger dissatisfaction.

Needless to say, we got our passengers to their desired destination safely and ended up having our day cut short.  This was made so with a standby crew that ended up operating our 3^rd and 4^th leg so that the passengers on those flights would remain on time.   I got on the next available flight to San Diego and am home relaxing until the next adventure begins.