Adventures on the Journey
The mathematics of weight loss is, in fact, quite simple, involving only subtraction. “Take in fewer calories than you burn, put yourself in negative energy balance, lose weight,” says Braun, who has been studying exercise and weight loss for years. — Weighing the Evidence on Exercise
U.S. consumers spend over $60,000,000,000 dollars a year on weight loss products, when the real solution is to eat less.
If you are paying for identity theft protection, you may want to reconsider.
All loaded into the van and heading for the beach!
“Daddy, can I have some brown cake?”
“Brown cake, I inquired?”
“Yes, the one you brought home,” Lucas answered.
“Sure,” I answered, as I watched him grab one. Not wanting to miss out, Kayla came running and grabbed one too.
“Take a small bite,” I cautioned as they both took big bites, and proceeded to spit them out on the floor.
“Ewww, what is that?” they asked, between sputters.
“Coffee grounds from the expresso machine.”
In his article, Why the iPad and iPhone don’t Support Multitasking, Robert Love says:
Apple says they do not support multitasking because it is a hamper to stability and a drain on battery life. That clearly isn’t true—the iPad has plenty of processing power and battery capacity.
Two words Robert: legacy devices. While the iPad and iPhone 3GS both have sufficient CPU to handle multitasking, neither the original iPhone nor the 3G does. I am reminded of this every time I use a 3G. Further, while the iPad seems to have plenty of battery life, that is a word very few people use to describe the battery life of any touchscreen phone.
Rumor is that Apple is going to add multitasking in a future OS release. This rumor likely is true. Is Apple somehow going to make background applications not consume any battery? Of course not. These excuses are straw men.
Except that’s almost exactly what Apple did. They provided application developers with the utility of background processing, but without the egregious consequences. Not surprisingly, multitasking only works on the current generation of iPhone OS devices.
The real reason that the iPad and iPhone do not allow third-party applications to multitask is likely more complex, more technical. …
I believe the rest of Robert’s argument is spot on. Where I differ with Robert is that he thinks the CPU and battery life are straw men. I believe they are very real issues that Apple has to contend with.
In her article, Why You Shouldn’t Buy an iPad (Yet), Gina Trapani writes:
Apple’s iPad arrives in stores tomorrow and reviewers agree that it’s a magic revolutionary new class of computer. But you shouldn’t buy one. Not yet, anyway.
Let’s break this down.
First-generation Apple products are for suckers. Only lemmings with no self-control and excessive disposable income buy first generation Apple products, especially in a new gadget category. When they do, they pay the double the price for immature hardware and software.
The 2nd generation of Apple products has never been discounted 50% less than previous models. Further, I can’t remember a single case where I sold an Apple computer, iPod, or iPhone for less than 75% of the purchase price.
Remember the iPhone? It debuted in 2007 with two models priced at $500 and $600, with no native applications–only mobile Web apps, few of which came in an iPhone-friendly format at launch because it was such a new device. A year later, in 2008, a faster iPhone 3G went on sale for $300 less, with native application support.
The iPhone 3G is carrier subsidized and requires a contract. The original iPhone was not subsidized. The 3G costs less initially, but has a 2-year AT&T contract attached. It appears Gina has an anti-Apple grudge, as witnessed by her inability to compare an Apple to an Apple!
I did buy an original iPhone. I paid $300 on Sep 12, 2007, unsubsidized and contract free. Even today, the only unsubsidized contract free competitor to the iPhone is the Google Nexus One, priced at $529.
When 3rd party apps became available for the iPhone, they were not, as Gina implies, limited to use with the newer iPhones. All iPhone owners gained the capability via a free software update. The same will hold true for the iPad.
Despite the initial lack of third party native apps, the included apps on the first iPhone were excellent. Google Maps was available for many phones, but until the iPhone, it was barely usable. The email app was far better than any other phone, except perhaps the Blackberry. I vividly recall an airline stewardess blocking the aisle as a happy iPhone owner showed off the photo app with pinch to zoom. The web browser was so good that the mobile web finally got off the ground.
But the iPhone succeeded so dramatically because of its ability to share information with other computers. Even non-techies could sync music, movies, photos, and calendars. We all know someone who painstakingly entered their contacts from their old mobile into their new one by hand. The iPhone heralded a new era in which everyone could install iTunes and share data between their personal computer and their phone. Better still, the data stayed in sync.
I sold that first iPhone in July of 2009 for $225. The total cost to own that first generation iPhone for 22 months was $75. When I sold my iPhone 3G, I turned a $75 profit. When I upgrade to the next iPhone, I expect to make money on my iPhone 3GS.
Truly, first-generation Apple products are for suckers.
Don’t be the guy who bought the first-gen iPad when Apple slashes the 2011 iPad price in half.
Apple will not be dropping the price of the iPad 2.0 in half. It’s already priced very competitively. Odds are extremely low that they’ll drop the iPad price at all. Based on the history of iPhones and iPods, it’s almost certain that the 2nd iPad will cost almost exactly the same as the first.
Next year’s iPad will be faster, cheaper, less buggy, and have better apps and worthy competitors. Let all the deep-pocketed Jobs apostles be your canaries into the iPad coalmine. Give developers time to fix their apps to work well on the iPad. Give Apple a year to lower prices on faster hardware and fill in all the gaping feature holes. (Remember how long early iPhone owners lived without copy and paste?)
Yeah, don’t be that guy! After a year, you might want to sell your iPad 1.0 and buy a new one, resulting in a TCO of $50-100 to own the iPad for a year. During that time, you’ll have to put up with people curiously watching you use it, with mouths agape. You’ll have to endure dozens upon dozens of conversations about the iPad with friends, family, and strangers. All because you are one of the first to own the hottest new computing device on the planet. Don’t be that guy!
While the Apple faithful could argue that the iPad’s application platform matured during three years of deployment on the iPhone and iPod touch, keep in mind: iPad developers have been working on their software not with an actual iPad, but with a software simulator. You can’t truly see how your application works in a simulator. The great iPad apps haven’t grown up yet–and most of them haven’t even been born.
What percentage of iPad developers were already iPhone developers?
If you’re interested in the iPad because of what it will be someday, put your $500 in an interest-bearing savings account between now and when the device (or a competitor’s) realizes that potential. You’ll get a better product for less dough.
translation: $2.50 is more fun than owning an iPad for a year.
New gadgets create friction in your life.
translation: my gadget buying advice cannot be trusted.
In one year the iPad will be a much better device, and an entire ecosystem of competitors will offer you more choice and features for your money. When the heat of the iPad launchlust cools, and you’ve still got your 500 bucks in the bank, you’ll be glad you stayed out of the Apple store this weekend.
The iPhone had exactly zero competitors one year after its launch. After two years, the iPhone gained its first credible competitor, and now there are three. Something about Gina’s arguments smells a little fishy. Red herring, to be precise.
I won’t be at the Apple Store this weekend, but I will be buying an iPad. I’m waiting for the 3G version.
Before buying HDMI or other cables locally, check the price on them at monoprice.com or Amazon.com. Both will have low prices. I buy almost exclusively at monoprice because of their cheap USPS shipping. For example, a 6′ HDMI cable is $4. A toslink female to mini male adapter is $0.66 (use this to connect a Mac to your receiver via optical).
Have you had the chance to play with a Blackberry Storm? Or a Palm Pre? Did you get the feeling that the touch screen, the primary input device, just didn’t feel as good as the iPhone? I’m not talking about the ignored taps that the Google Android suffers from, but that, “darn, I’m sure I tapped the right spot, but I sure didn’t get what I wanted” feeling. It turns out there’s a quantifiable reason the iPhone touch screen seems to work better.
TV doesn’t just make you stupid and fat, it also makes you obedient:
…the manipulative power of television further increases people’s willingness to obey. – Fake TV Game Show ‘Tortures’ Man
Even the Iranian regime is willing to play Hollywood movies to entice its citizens to stay home and watch TV.
It makes me wonder what we’ll be discovering and saying about the internet in the next couple decades.
Playing a HD movie against the snow white ceiling of a snow cave is unreasonably appealing. Thankfully, the 3M MPro120