Category Archives: Apple

My Dad and the iPad

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Much has been written about the iPad the past week or so, from the inspiring to the inept. I doubt I can be as elequent as the folks mentioned below, but I want to tell you my story.

My dad is 71 and has Parkinson’s. He’s had it for over 10 years now, and I can see the desease progressing in him, slowly but surely.

Last fall I moved from the US back to Canada to live in his home town. I wanted to be able to spend some quality time with him before he passes on. A few weeks a year for the past 14 years just wasn’t going to cut it for me.

So I’ve moved home. I’m spending time with him, and I want to introduce him to the internet. You have to understand my dad, he’s computer phobic. I think he understands computers, but wouldn’t know the first place to start on a Macintosh. He understands email and internet websites, but would have no idea how to participate in emails or find web sites, or even probably scroll to the lower part of a page.

“What’s a scroll bar?”

“How does a mouse work?”

That’s brings us to the iPad. I wrote the night before it’s introduction that the iPad would need some killer app to really show us the potential of the device.

I think what we saw in that hour and 33 minute introduction was multiple applications, all re-done to support the larger size. All redesigned to truly support doing computing with your fingers.

(As an aside, I saw Avatar for the first time last weekend. When the first glimpse of the pad computers appeared on the screen, the iPad as version 0.01 of the devices is what came to mind).

To my dad. He still has pretty good dexterity with his hands, the Parkinson’s shakes haven’t hit him too much. I’m quite certain that if I set up an email account for him, and set up some web sites for him – cars, news, weather – that he could actually use the iPad, actually become a participating member of the internet society. And, frankly, that thought brings me to tears.

So, yes, I will be getting an iPad. Probably two, one for my dad, and one for me as well. Frankly, if the walled garden approach to applications is what it takes for my dad to get online, I’ll deal.

I’d encourage you to think about someone in your family who could truly use an iPad. Think of all those seniors in homes who are on fixed incomes – a lot would have family that could afford the $499 to bring them online. Or maybe you know of someone who has no immediate family, but you could help by setting up an email account, buy them an iPad, and show them around the device. Set up some favourite bookmarks. Buy them a few cool applications in their hobbie area.

This type of expansion of the accessibility of computing to so many more is what gives me hope about the future. It’s what is slowly making me believe the iPad is really the future of computing. And I’m going to do as much as I can to see that the iPad and future devices are a roaring success.

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Further reading:

Greg Knauss: ‘The Days of Miracles and Wonder’

Rob Foster: On iPads, Grandmas and Game-Changing

Daring Fireball: Various and Assorted Thoughts and Observations Regarding the Just-Announced iPad

Fraser Speirs: Future Shock

Steven Frank: I need to talk to you about computers.

The Apple Tablet and iDVD

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Bear with me:

The Apple tablet is going to be awesome, we all know it. But in my mind, what is going to make me want to buy one? The software..

Right before the PowerMac G4 came out, I was ready to plop down some money for a new Macintosh. I was leaning towards the next laptop that was coming out. What changed my mind was the introduction ofiDVD. Here was a way to put those home movies onto an actual dvd! Or make an awesome slideshow of pictures of a particular event for family.

It was a solution that I didn’t know I needed or was really possible. That’s what the tablet needs tomorrow. Something that I didn’t know I needed or was really possible.

An iPhone four times the size with the same applications isn’t going to cut it.

Xcode: Duplicating a target and changing it’s type? Don’t…

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ProTip of the day – if you are adding a new target to a project in Xcode, and you want to duplicate a target (say an application target and you want to add a library target), you can’t.

It’s not supported currently in Xcode 3.2 on Snow Leopard. Your best bet is to start from scratch, and do the manual move the build settings to the new target from the old target.

Wanted

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This strikes very close to home for me – about 4 years ago I passed on a job at the 11th hour, after signing the offer letter, after giving notice at my old job. In hindsight it was a very poor financial move, but life isn’t all about money.

I might expand upon what happened in the future, but you could have easily substituted my name for Jesse’s in this blog post:

Wanted

(Via Rands In Repose.)

Nooma Rain as an iPhone/iPod app

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I was quite excited today to learn that Rob Bell’s Nooma videos are starting to come out as applications for the iPhone/iPod. If you at all believe in God, it’s worth the $4.99 to download and watch his video, and talk about it with some friends.

Nooma Rain Screen shot

When I was volunteering with high school youth at our old church in Lake Oswego, we played the DVD version of these videos, and had small group discussions about the particular topic – it’s still some of my fondest memories, being in these small groups and listening to youth explore their religious beliefs.

I hope more of these dvd’s show up as apps! I can’t wait to start showing these to my daughter and discussing them with her.

This is why Apple is still cool..

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Steven Frank: They understand there are problems, and they are listening and acting.

Recently an update to my small pregnancy tracking application was unexpectedly delayed for a month and a half. Towards the end of that time I was pretty frustrated, with no communication at all from Apple.

But then I got a very nice call from what I would call the person that gives developers the bad news. He was extremely polite and pleasant to talk to, and informed me that the application description can’t have any mention of giving part of the proceeds to charity. The reason being someone might come back to Apple asking for a charity receipt or proof that the money actually went to the charity in question.

I changed the description while we were talking, and a day and a 1/2 later the update was available on the app store.

What did I glean from my conversation with him?

• There is a ‘first level team’ of app store reviewers that go through a predefined list of things to check.

• If anything is found, it’s marked for follow up or outright rejected, and the first level reviewer moves on to the next app.

• At some point these next level people get around to looking at the marked apps and contact developers.

I do believe that Apple is working hard to be more transparent with the process, and over the upcoming months we’ll see the app store become a better place to sell our software.

Steve Jobs Liver Transplant

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There’s been confirmation today that Steve Jobs did get a liver transplant, and he was pretty sick when he got it.

From the press release:

He received a liver transplant because he
was the patient with the highest MELD score (Model for End-Stage Liver Disease) of his blood type and, therefore, the sickest patient on the waiting list at the time a donor organ became available.

From Wikipedia:

In interpreting the MELD Score in hospitalized patients, the 3 month mortality is:
40 or more - 100% mortality
30-39 - 83% mortality
20-29 - 76% mortality
10-19 - 27% mortality
<10 - 4% mortality

Take that for what you read into it - but I pray that Steve gets better, not so that he can go back to Apple and make the stock go up, but so he can live a long life with his wife and family. Those of you who have gone through losing a loved one will understand. Pray for him and his family please.