Howboring

Macro Creme. Almost impossible to hand-hold focus with the macro clip. #olloclip #macro #espresso (Taken with instagram)

Rancillio #olloclip (Taken with instagram)

Almost Like Another Planet… Pamukkale Blues (UNESCO World Heritage)
flickr.com

Under the Sheets with iCloud and Core Data: The Basics

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There can be no doubt that iCloud is an impor­tant part of Apple’s future. It’s now less than a year old, but it has been a mixed start. The ser­vice itself seems up to the enor­mous data traf­fic it has to push, but some aspects of client-side…

I’m sure this replacement iPhone 4 is faster. Seem much snappier unlocking and switching apps etc.., maybe that’s a by product of a full restore and reinstall.

The Apple Store wasn’t too busy this afternoon, so it was actually a good experience. The staff are always very professional and impressively well trained.

On a glum note: seems my iCloud backups hadn’t been properly working due to insufficient space. Apple need to get serious here. There was no warning that the backup hadn’t happened. Also there needs to be a way to do a backup to iTunes locally as well as iCloud. It shouldn’t be one or the other.

Apple don’t really get redundancy in backup. Or maybe they think it’s too complex for users. Time Machine has the same lack of multi-location problem. But at least on OSX you can use something like Crashplan. On iOS you have no choices.

So I lost five days worth of data. No big deal. Just a few pics. Most other data is cloud synced.

So I’m off to the Apple Retail Store with two dead iPhone 4’s. One with a shattered screen and the other with totally dead with a black screen. One moment it’s glowing and full of life. The next it was instantly dead. The screen literally went black as I was looking at it.

Now I’m not a big fan of the Apple Retail Store. They are better than no Apple Retail Store at all, but as a shopping experience they could be improved. I like to be able to go into a store, select what I want from the shelves and then buy it. I dont like having to ask someone to check it they have it and then hang around in the store whilst they ‘go fetch it from out back’.

It’s hard to argue the Apple Store model is broken. These stores are heaving with customers 7 days a week at all times of the day. They are obviously doing something right.

But I do think the Apple Store experience could be revolutionised in two simple ways:

1. Introduce a queuing system

Give me an obvious place where you can select and then pay for goods.

The last time I purchased a Mac Book in store i waited ages wondering what to actually do, then when I finally got the attention of one of the blue shirted fickle deities I asked “Do you have the new Mac Book Pro 13?” and Lord Blue Shirt shirt responded “yes, we have them over here… blah blah” But then seemed a bit confused when I said “no, I don’t need to finger one, I just actually want to buy one”. Clearly this is unusual to them. Why wouldn’t a customer want to spend an entire afternoon fingering Apple products in the Apple Store? Surely customers don’t have lives and appreciate fast efficient service so they can get back to the office and get some work done!

2. Introduce Deli Counter style numbered tickets for the Genius Bar .

I always sign in at the Apple Store with my iPhone. It tells me the genius will find me. They never do. I’m left hanging around looking lost for ages. It’s horrible. Just give me a place to sit and then call me when the Genius Bar is ready.

Going to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store is literally the worst thing I can think of doing with my day. But I need working phones, so I have no choice.

One good thing about Apple though: They offer $179 refurb replacements for your iPhone 4. Similar deals are also available for iPads. I Wish they did the same for Mac Books - I’ve been going through those like a bag of fresh Jelly Babies.

There is something worse than Apple Stores however: The Telstra T-Life Store.

Good god Telstra Stores are awful. I bought a $99 3G WiFi point. Which failed virtually right away. I went back into the store and was told it would be 10 days to fix. They have to send it away to inspect it so they can check I haven’t deliberately broken it and am trying to scam a new one for free. Telstra, just swap it out for gods sake! It’s only a $99 device. It’ll cost you more money to send it off and have a tech take it apart.

Telstra try to make their stores look like Apple Stores.: Shiny and wooden. They even have a manager hanging around with an iPad. Who tells you that you need to wait for assistance. Whilst they stand around and do nothing.

I clearly frustrated the Telstra sales assistance after I was forced to admit I’d understood nothing that he just said after he spent five minutes trying to explain the insanely complex range of products and plans that Telstra offer. I’ve yet to meet anyone outside of a Telstra shop that pretends to know anything about the products and services they offer.

fuckyeahbehindthescenes:

Maurice Sendak sought out Spike Jonze personally to direct the movie.

Where the Wild Things Are (2009)

Aaron Sorkin Will Adapt Walter Isaacson Steve Jobs Bio For Film

parislemon:

Insanely great news — but expectations will be through the roof post-The Social Network.

This image of JFK Airport from 1962 really gives you an appreciation of Jet-Age styling. The swooping delta wing shaped seating is just fantastic. 

A curved ceiling and glass walls are distinctive features of the lounge at TWA’s new terminal building at New York’s Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport), on May 29, 1962. (AP Photo)

Why do people hear wisdom in the Dalai Lama's empty rhetoric and meaningless tautologies?

By Rob Crilly, telegraph.co.uk

What plan­et is the Dalai Lama liv­ing on? There were many rea­sons to be shocked at the riots that engulfed Eng­lish cities last year, but the quaint notion that Eng­lish­men don’t riot was not one of them. Yet that’s what this liv­ing god seems …