Mike Meredith

iPhone: What’s Missing (2): Where’s The Keyboard ?

 Computing, iPhone  No Responses »
Jul 122009
 

I’m very fussy about keyboards; perhaps ridiculously so. But I cannot understand the criticism of the virtual keyboard that comes with the iPhone. It takes some getting used to, and the auto correct feature whilst very useful can also be very irritating. Enough so that Apple should probably have a keyboard button marked “turn off auto correct for a while”. But it is perfectly adequate for what it is  – something to do a little text entry from time to time.

So why am I complaining about the lack of a decent keyboard ? Because quite simply if I’m doing any writing (and I don’t at present) on the iPhone, I would like to be able to type at full speed – which for me requires a decent clicky keyboard so I can get up to a reasonable speed (apparently about 120wpm!).

Adding bluetooth drivers to the iPhone should be pretty trivial for Apple after all there are already OSX bluetooth keyboard drivers available, and the iPhone operating system is OSX. So why does Apple not include one ? Sure there’s an excuse for the first release not to include one – Apple wanted to make sure that the phone was rock solid in a totally new market to them. But now?

Surely it cannot be because they feel that releasing such a driver would be an admission that the virtual keyboard is no good. After all, I’m not exactly an enemy of the virtual keyboard, but I want a real keyboard interface for those occasions when one would be useful.

iPhone: What Is Missing (1)

 Computing, iPhone  No Responses »
Jul 122009
 

The iPhone is hardly perfect, although it is quite good for a smartphone. However now we are loading up our iPhones with dozens of added applications, the old swipe-able screen interface needs a bit of care.

The first improvement would be the ability to tag particular screens with names. This would be merely an aid to organisation, but in practice would be very handy. There is plenty of space in the status bar for the “name” of a screen, or Apple could do something funkier involving putting the name onto the background.

Secondly it would be handy to have icons that could “warp” to a particular screen – presumably by name. This would work as a simplistic form of ‘folders’ for the applications.

Finally it would be useful to be able to make certain application icons “sticky” so that they remain available no matter what screen is currently active.

Theft Insurance – Who Should Pay For It ?

 General  No Responses »
Jul 122009
 

Just a random thought that just occurred to me … who should pay for insurance on the theft of things … cars, the contents of homes, etc. ? We all know that is normally the victims of theft who pay for it, but why should we ?

Why shouldn’t those who are convicted of theft pay for the cost of insurance ? Attach their earnings after they leave prison until they have paid back enough to cover the cost of insurance in proportion to the amount they have stolen.

The Apple iPhone App Store – A Year On

 Computing  No Responses »
Jul 112009
 

Apparently the Apple iPhone app store has been open for a year now. It has not been quite a year since I have been using it, but nearly so. It is not really anything new in itself as most smart phones allowed you to download new applications, but it does present the available applications in a very usable way.

The ease of use (which is something Apple are very good at) is sufficiently good that other smartphone vendors are effectively copying the concept. But that is something that is well known, so lets have a look at some of the warts.

The most obvious problem is that there are so many applications available that it is hard to find anything. Browsing for anything and you will find yourself in an endless list of possibilities. Searching is a little unsophisticated and has one very irritating feature – after searching for something, getting a list of applications, you will obviously touch an application to get a closer look at one of the applications. The search then changes what you searched for to the application name! This makes it very difficult to compare applications.

Some observers have criticised the number of applications by saying that they only select a small number – perhaps 4 or 5 that they use on a daily basis. They imply that all those “excess” applications are a waste of space because they do not use them. However they all overlook one thing – everybody’s list of 5 “daily” applications is likely to be different!

Besides which there are applications you load “just in case”. For instance I have “Vicinity” not because I need to know where the coffee shops are where I live or where I work. But because I am sometimes away from home and will need that information. Similarly I have an ssh-capable terminal client installed, because it may be useful in an emergency.

Apart from improving the search function, one other thing that would improve the app store is some method for allowing reviews of applications to be viewed. The easiest way to pick the best application out of a category of similar applications is to resort to what somebody else has discovered. Add a tab for reviews, and allow organisations to publish their reviews to the app store.

But more serious is Apple’s draconian policies on what applications get into the store. I am not talking about “adult content” here (although those who wish such, should be allowed it) but rather more ordinary applications. Applications seem to get rejected for seemingly arbitrary reasons even though very similar ones get allowed through.

That gets more than a little irritating when Apple releases an update to the operating system that breaks certain applications, and then refuses to allow an update to that application to be released. For an example, see here.

Living With A Robot Cleaner (Roomba)

 General  No Responses »
Jul 032009
 

Well, I have been using a robot vacuum cleaner for a few months now and it’s brilliant. No need to push around a vacuum cleaner once a week; you can set the robot going in the morning just before heading off to work and it gets going.

Of course there are a few “issues” involved :

  • If you have anything that is just the wrong height, the robot can get stuck underneath. It is short enough to vacuum under sofas and the like, but gets stuck under my coffee table, and my storage heaters. I can move the coffee table, but the storage heaters need to be blocked somehow.
  • It has not happened to me, but if you have something a little on the wobbly side it is possible that the robot could knock something off when it nudges around. In fact it is a bit more of a knock than a nudge.
  • You cannot really leave things lying around. Of course that is really good if somewhat tedious. And of course you’ll find things you thought you lost during the first week whilst it nudges all those hidden things into the light.
  • Cables need to be tied up out of the way of the robot. You may think that seating them carefully against the wall will be fine, but the robot will try and drag that cable into the middle of the room. I’m sure it found more usb cables than I’m supposed to have 🙂

Lastly, it may be worth thinking more carefully about whether you need a clock and a scheduler on the robot. I do, but have only used it once to make sure it works. It is easy enough to hit the ‘start’ button that scheduling seems unnecessary. Besides it is always an idea to give a room a quick scan to check that the robot isn’t going to try to do something you don’t want.

Now all I need is a robot that will go up and down the stairs!

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