apmeyer

Canceling my rdio account... with a tear in my eye

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:48:57 -0500

Far too often what I want to listen to is not available (or has been removed). I don’t blame rdio for the missing titles. I have no doubt they’ve done (and are doing) all they can to provide a comprehensive library.

rdio could be great. Their product has a beautiful UI and the user experience is very well thought out. There’s nothing better. They just happen to be in an industry that despises innovators; an industry that treats paying customers with nothing but contempt.

I’m sorry to leave you rdio. I wish you the best.

The straw that broke the camel’s back.

iBooks Author and iTunes U

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:09:00 -0500

I’m very excited for the future of education after reviewing Apple’s announcements today.

After experiencing the hell that is creating and fine-tuning ePubs and mobi files, it’s exciting to see some real tools coming to market that focus on creating this kind of content – rather than cramming features into an already bloated product that was built for something else (InDesign and Quark I’m looking at you).

My 2-year-old has been a master of the iPad for over a year. Watching him learn on this device is simply astonishing. It’s the future. There is no question.

In the words of John Gruber:

Apple: Digital transformation of your industry is inevitable. Here’s our plan; we’d like you to come along for the ride. But if you choose not to, we won’t hesitate to leave you behind.

From Dan Fromer:

It’s not going to happen overnight, but only a fool would predict that in the first place. But come on, do you think huge paper books are really the future of education? This is going to happen. And in many places, it’s going to start with us, not them.

Staying connected in 2012

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:33:00 -0500

The Old

What facebook is to me – Somewhat of a glorified address book. A place to toss everyone I know (or have known in the past) in the chance that I may need to connect with them at some point during my life – or they’ll need to connect with me. Of course, that assumes they’re on facebook.

What facebook is not, to me – A place to maintain a personal relationship with those closest to me. Between the advertising, feature bloat and nonsense from those I don’t care to hear from, there is simply too much noise. When something meaningful happens to “rise to the top” of the AI-driven news feed, the facebook environment sucks much of the life and meaning right out of it.

Google+ – I’m there… yet I’m not. It’s the same as Facebook, for all practical purposes. Only I have no plans to use it as yet another place to “toss” everyone. I check it once in a while. I may use it more to share and discuss tech-related content with friends and colleagues (since it conveniently integrates with Google Reader), but realistically I don’t see me using it more. I could definitely see me using it less.

Twitter – I enjoy it, and I’ll continue to use it as a tool to follow others and occasionally share a thought or useful/useless nugget of knowledge with the world. I’m using it less and less on a desktop these days – almost exclusively on mobile.

Tumblr – I hope to start writing (like this) more. This is where it will happen. I wouldn’t call it a New Year’s resolution, but certainly a goal.

The New

So, what am I enjoying right now?

Path.

I am absolutely in love with Path. The concept is that you DON’T add everyone under the sun to your “network”. You use it only to stay in touch with those closest to you – though you can also share posts with the masses if the need arises. That said, I don’t necessarily like that when you share something like a check-in to facebook it does it by making a public page then sharing that.

The only frustration I have with Path is that I need to get those closest to me to sign up. It’s happening. Slowly but surely – which is probably a good thing. When people flock to a new social service it’s typically because it’s the “new big thing” and they quickly abandon it for the “old familiar thing.”

I’m looking forward to seeing how Path evolves. They’ll obviously need to make money at some point — it is free after all. I hope that they can successfully support the platform with premium offerings vs. selling its users to advertisers. But, only time will tell.

Lake Superior at 8:30 pm

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 22:23:45 -0400

Lake Superior at 8:30 pm

OS X Lion Mail vs. Sparrow

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 10:06:55 -0400

I was really hoping I’d dig the revised Mail app in OS X Lion, but rather than feeling more “Apple-ish” it feels much more “Outlookish” — which is unfortunate. Until it has a “Sparrow” mode I’ll be sticking to Sparrow. That’s not to say Sparrow is perfect, but it’s much less intrusive and feels more intuitive.

Installing Xcode in Lion with iTunes running

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 23:27:49 -0400

About 3/4 of the way through the install of Xcode under OS X Lion, it requires you close (quit) iTunes if you have it running. The problem is, an exit of iTunes is not enough. The modal window still hangs there asking you to stop iTunes even after the application has terminated. You actually need to also terminate the “iTunes Helper” application running in the background. To do so, fire up the Activity Monitor in your Utilities folder. Find the iTunes Helper application and close it down. Xcode should resume its installation at that point.