Siri and iPad

Siri has the potential to be a game changer. It starts with a great promise and delivers more often than not. This lets me make the obvious assumption that Siri is coming to the as of yet unreleased, iPad 3. I believe it could come out to older devices once its out of beta but that’s another discussion. Siri shines on the phone because the things it is capable of doing are well suited to a phone.

Here are the top example Siri features on Apple’s Siri page.

Set reminders

Send a text

Check the weather

Find information

Schedule meetings

Send an email

Find a contact

Set an alarm

Get Directions

Track your stocks

Set the timer 

Dictation 

What’s interesting to me is that out of this list of twelve, only about three are relevant on the iPad. Dictation should be the most important of these followed by sending an email and finding information. The other features are mostly relevant only when you’re out and moving or when you can carry the device with you at all times. Also the large physical size of the iPad makes the use of Siri awkward. I find it hard to imagine holding the iPad with one hand and long pressing the home button with another and then talking to Siri. This means that the use case of Siri on the iPad is going to be much different than it is on the iPhone. This could also be one of the reason Siri is not yet available on the iPad even though it as capable internally as the iPhone 4S. Come Apple’s rumored event in march for the new iPad release, we could see Siri being integrated with more services sooner than we expected. Also those new services are likely to be iPad specific. It’s hard to know what those iPad specific use cases would be because the iPad still works best as a consumption device rather than a device used for organizing your life. Apple could pitch Siri’s dictation as a great strength of the iPad to cover up its relative weakness in typing but I’m still skeptical about the masses being comfortable dictating everything they need to type. 

Why Sugar Makes Us Sleepy (And Protein Wakes Us Up) →

The switch to eggs in breakfast has been working for me.

Facebook's Timeline rollout begins today →

I have zero photographs in my facebook profile and yet I want to decorate my timeline. I tried it when it was first announced and didn’t want to go back. Specially liked how I could go back in time and check my first ever status update ( it was ‘facebook…’ ). Can’t decide on a cover photo now. Like I can’t ever decide on a profile picture. 

Android: A visual history by Chris Ziegler →

Android has come a long way. 

I might just finally buy a new phone

I’ve waited for a new phone long enough now that I can afford myself any company’s flagship phone. Its a tough decision as its going to stay with me for the lifetime of the phone which I hope won’t be a short one. This won’t be the first smartphone I will be buying, heck I’v been using them from the days of Sony Ericsson’s P800 and the Treo 600. But this will be the biggest leap in technology and user experience that I will jump into when I buy one of these future devices. In full disclosure I’ve bin using (or not using really) a basic Nokia dumb phone after I lost two phones in 4 days,  that can basically only make calls. I however have also had a second generation iPod touch to help me survive this tech draught. I’ve used iOS and I’ve used the phones who’s operating system nobody knows about. The huge gap in between thats being filled by a bunch of mobile operating systems from Android to Windows Phone 7 is where the decision rests now. 

I definitely have a list of things I  don’t want in my phone. I don’t want lag. I hate a bad touch screen. The iPhone is the winner here. I want a great battery life so all the 4.3 mammoth phones are out. So are any 3D gimmicks. The build quality is important otherwise I would already have bought a Galaxy S II which sports cheap plastic. 

Motorola has Motoblur going which isn’t my favorite and I hate HTC’s fancy animations so the Sensation just got voted out too. On the Windows Phone side where the software influence of OEMs is much more subtle, I love the way the HTC Mozart looks. But, it is already an year old and has only 8 gigs of memory. No other WP7 looks half decent even though I’m stoked about their mango update. The mango update is a promise in the future and to fulfill that promise they need developer support who need an install base. I really want Nokia to succeed with their Microsoft partnership though traditionally I’ve disliked them because of Symbian. If the N9 is sign of things to come then the sign is looking very good indeed. But all this is still vaporware and the reality is that I still can’t buy a Nokia running WP7. 

The Nexus S with its pure Android experience is a great bargain after the price cut it got recently but it has Samsung’s same surplus cheap plastic including a relatively old processor. Maybe if another Nexus comes out, not made by Samsung, I’ll consider. 

I guess if you’ve read any of my previous posts you know I live in the Apple ecosystem and the cupertino office is ready to introduce a ‘magical and revolutionary’ device once again with their new iPhone due in September. iPhone doesn’t have great Gmail or Google maps, the two killer apps right now on Android but there isn’t any Android device whose hardware excites me, still. After androidifying  iOS 5 with notifications and other features, Apple has closed the feature gap between the two operating systems. Its more polished, the hardware looks way better and it has airplay, a bonus for the ecosystem lock in. 

So I guess there isn’t a choice to make. Wait for the device that hasn’t even been confirmed by the company but which everybody knows will come out in September. And then let Steve Jobs clear the little doubts I had about buying their new phone in his latest keynote. As long as the reality distortion field is strong enough and stays for long enough, I’m not complaining. 


P.S. I forgot to mention blackberry. Well nobody cares. 

Next Level Notes

I recently got my second Kindle because my first one stopped working. Amazon was very prompt in sending me a replacement but even in those 5 days without the Kindle, I realized  I was using it much more than I’d thought I would. 

Here’s what I do with my Kindle

Send web articles from the chrome browser using the ‘Send to Kindle’ extension. 
For articles I don’t wana instantly read, I use Instapaper to email articles automatically to my kindle later. 
To get the latest news I’ve set calibre to automatically download the latest news articles from the Times of India and Wired. 
And of course I also read books downloaded from the Amazon Store. 


The kindle has fast become the device of choice for reading long editorials, books and magazines. Recently I started using Evernote. The wonderful cross platform app that makes notes taking easy. Combine that with the Kindle and now I can take my notes from all my devices and read them on my Kindle.
This is how I did it: 

Evernote allows you to email those notes. Kindle allows you to receive documents as emails. The problem is that Evernote does not send attachments and kindle only accepts attachments. 

To solve this problem I needed a way to automatically email a file as an attachment as soon as its added to a folder. The files that will be added are notes exported in HTML format from Evernote. Thankfully Mac OS X has a very useful feature called Folder Actions. Here’s the basic idea : Enable a folder action on a folder and attach as an action an applescript that automatically mails the files (Evernote Notes) to the specified sender (Kindle’s email). The detailed tutorial for adding this auto email folder action is given on Murphymac.com here . Just replace the sender email address with your Kindle email address and you’re done! A perfect marriage of Evernote and Kindle! 

Now I have all my notes on Evernote synced on all my devices and to read them I just drop them to a folder. 

Design

Simplicity. Design. Order out of Chaos. These are all words that resonate with me. As I’m growing up and figuring out life, I’m finding myself being attracted to more simple things. The definition of design is changing from ‘make a product look attractive’ to ‘make a product look functional’ . The design philosophy of Jonathan Ive works extremely well for Apple. Take away that which doesn’t belong. I’ve landed myself a website design project. The company makes money off people who like to experiment. They modify cars and make outrageous designs. From stretch limousines made from an ordinary car to extravagant sports cars getting an even more extreme makeover. In short, it is the diagonal opposite of what I like to see in a product. Making a website for this company, Limousine Auto Care is a challenge. A website that showcases the variety they have and yet be simple enough to make a potential customer be drawn to a single object or picture that he can explore. Here are the key words. Variety. Simplicity. Simple geometric shapes. Within them a mosaic of cars. Cars of every kind. The complete home page consists of the navigation menu and pictures. Nothing else. Click on a picture and it takes you to a page which tells its story. It gives the context of the picture and shows cars that have undergone similar modifications. Here is the first rough draft for that site. A black background, red highlights and an array of pictures. A visual treat for a car enthusiast and understated simplicity to not overwhelm the design enthusiast.

Mac + Windows Phone 7

I currently own an iPod touch because iPhone 4 isn’t available yet. I’m currently in the market for a new phone. The Apple device is off limits so I’m looking for an android or a WinMo 7 device. There was a time not so long ago when I believed that Microsoft had no chance in the smartphone market. Windows mobile 6 had buried them deep and they had lost the battle. It was going to be bing all over again. But slowly the idea of flipping views to the side started to make more sense. The OS looked beautiful. Microsoft had definitely outdone Android with their smooth and polished UI.

Now here’s my problem. I’m in love with look and feel of windows phone 7. Things like live tiles and glanceable information make perfect sense. I also happen to use a Mac. And I know that the Mac version of the Windows Phone 7 software can make itunes look usable. Even the name is silly (Windows Phone 7 Connector, really? ). I’m trying to follow the Apple philosophy. I’m trying to ‘think different’ and Microsoft isn’t making it easy.

Shuffle

Music is *insert your word of appreciation*. Sound waves twisted in a certain manner can have a powerful effect. What’s music to me is noise to my family. That’s okay though. I’m glad to be born in a world where headphones exist. I can have my own private little world. Makes me aware of my solitary existence. 
Sometimes on a long drive when I make the decision to be quiet. Eyes closed, headphones in my ears, wanting to get away from everything for a while, a song comes on that turns my mood around. Like recently on a cold morning with rain to give me company. Sitting in my college bus waiting for my destination “Yellow” by Coldplay starts playing, beautifully complementing the weather. That’s the magic of shuffle on my music player. Just throw a few hundred songs, turn on shuffle and be ready to be delighted and amazed. There are times when I feel the need to solve every problem in my life. Take care of my studies, health, deal with relationship issues and the list goes on. But then again, music, almost always in shuffle, coming without warning, into my ears, gives me a gentle reminder to take life less seriously. And that is a lesson that I wouldn’t mind being reminded of once in a while, even if that means waiting for that one song out of a thousand, chosen randomly, by shuffle.

3 Phones

I recently lost two of my phones. A windows mobile 6.1 Asus Galaxy mini and a Motorola L7 feature phone in one week. I didn’t particularly like either of these phones but I definitely wasn’t glad to loose them. Because of this unfortunate scenario, I’ve now bin using barebones basic Nokia phone. 
I love apple products and I love the iPhone. If I could, I would get an iPhone 4 right away. But the reality is I’m now stuck with a phone that can do two things. Make calls and with some effort, send text messages. Oh and it also has a torch. Spending a month with this phone has brought to my notice a few things. I don’t have to worry about loosing it. It’s cheap and completely dispensable. My cell phone reception has improved and I now drop less calls. I can send text messages with one hand and its really small. These are all the things that were issues with my previous two phones. Making calls on the Asus phone was a nightmare. I was actually talking to less people because of it. It had a resistive touch screen which is a curse to use and typing anything required a good amount of physical and mental effort. Even though my old phone had more features, like bluetooth, gps, camera and wifi, their implementation was so bad that I barely never used them. Bottom line, my phone experience, that of making calls and sending text messages has actually improved and if I need to get fancy with the screen, applications, email support, games, instant messaging, I can always turn to my iPod touch which I always carry anyway. 
Waiting for Android 3.0 gingerbread or the next iPhone to buy as my next phone isn’t as bad as I thought it would be.