Category Archives: Apple

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So let me get this straight: Apple follows the letter of the law and pays only the taxes it is legally required to, and these blowhards in the Senate are trying to make them out to be the boogeymen because they are taking advantage of the same tax laws that they themselves created. Do I have that right?

People, the U.S. Tax code is an punitive system put in place for the Government to make you do what they want you to. It restricts freedom, it impedes economic growth, and lately, it has been used to bully those that the current administration doesn’t agree with politically. 

It has to be removed.

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Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for iPad mini - photo © 2013 Ted Lee

I love my iPad mini. I consider it my ‘desert island’ device. WIth LTE, I’ve got high speed access just about anywhere I need it. The one area where it is not as good as a full sized iPad is in long form data entry. Luckily, for those times that you need a good keyboard, you have several options.

New to the party is the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover Black for iPad Mini. This bluetooth keyboard also doubles as a stylish cover case for your iPad mini, attaching via magnets in the same fashion as the Smart Cover case.

On the black version I tested, the finish matched the iPad mini finish very closely, and when attached and closed, looked like a near perfect match to the tablet. As a case, the Logitech iPad mini Bluetooth Keyboard Case works flawlessly.

Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for iPad mini - photo © 2013 Ted LeeWhich brings us to the keyboard itself. Unfortunately, this is where the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for iPad Mini falls down. The keyboard makes many concessions to fit the iPad minis constrained size. The most problematic is the A key, which doubles as a tab key, and is wider like a tab key. This constantly threw me off, and my left hand kept wanting to move over one key, resulting in mistyped characters. Complicating the issue is the key markers on the F and J keys that give your fingers feedback so they know where they should rest. The markers themselves are not very prominent, and I often found myself slipping off of them. I found myself typing better on the keyboard after about 20 minutes, but you have to invest a little bit of time before using this keyboard will give you any speed advantage over using the software keyboard. Buyer beware. If you don’t need to travel with the keyboard, a slightly cheaper and better option for typing on is the Apple Bluetooth Keyboard.

Apart from that issue the keyboard itself has some other nice features. It features a ‘home button’ key in the upper left hand corner of the keyboard. It also features function keys for cut, copy and paste. Additionally, top row function keys allow you to lock the iPad, bring up Siri, activate the software keyboard, start a slideshow, or control your audio. On the arrow keys, there are functions to select type to the left and right.

A couple of other notes about usage: When typing with the bluetooth keyboard, iOS disables autocorrect.

Overall, I’m happy with this keyboard and the purpose that it serves. It will allow me to use my iPad mini as my sole travel computer, and save my bacon when I need to compose a document/email that would not be easy to accomplish with the software keyboard.

Pros: Fit and finish is top notch. Keyboard has useful function keys for several repetitive typing tasks.

Cons: Left side of keyboard can take some getting used to.

Amazon: Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover Black for iPad Mini (920-005021)

Amazon: Apple Bluetooth Keyboard

Amazon: AmazonBasics Bluetooth Keyboard with Mini Travel Stand for iPad, New iPad Mini, iPhone (Black)

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iPhone 5 Closeup

iPhone 5 in front of Arc Stand - © 2013 Ted Lee // Reproduction allowed only with full attributionFor the last 20 years, more often than not, when it comes time to plunk down cash on electronics, if there is an Apple product in the category I’m looking at, it usually earns my money. I’ve bought their products when they were the scourge of electronics shops, and I’ve bought their products when they’ve been the darlings.

For me, it’s always been about practicality. My time is money, and I don’t want to waste my time with shit that either doesn’t work, or doesn’t work well. Over the years, I’ve owned many non Apple products, and it’s not a stretch to say that every non Apple purchase I make reminds me again why I buy Apple in the first place.

For the last couple of weeks, my iPhone 5′s power button has been acting flaky. At first, it would require an extra press every now and then. In the last week or so, it’s gotten to the point where just about every press of it would require a few attempts to register. So today I decided to set up an appointment with a Genius and see what they could do.

Now, the thing to keep in mind here is one – I bought my iPhone 5 through Verizon, and two – I have not purchased any Apple Care on it. It’s still under warranty, so of course I was hoping they would replace it.

When I got to my Genius appointment, the Genius asked me what the problem was, allowed me to demonstrate it for her, and quickly said, “Yes, that’s a problem. We’re going to have to replace that for you.”. After verifying that I had recently made a backup (I had – and it’s something you should do before ever making a Genius appointment), she logged a few notes in her iPad, went in the back of the store, and came back with a brand new unit to replace mine. 5 minutes later after swapping out the SIM card and having iCloud restore my contacts, calendars, and email, I was out the door.

I get why some people buy other smartphones. Apple’s prices aren’t the lowest, and the other offerings have some slick features. But if downtime is something you don’t want and can’t afford to have, and piece of mind is worth something to you, you’d be remiss to buy anything other than an Apple product.

If I had bought a Galaxy S III back in September, and was having a simliar issue, where would I go to get this level of service that Apple provided? The Verizon Store? I doubt it. If they would even handle such an issue, they most certainly would have swapped out my unit with a refurb or even worse, make me wait while a new unit gets shipped to them from Samsung.

Apple may not be the cheapest, but it is more often than not the most economical brand to buy in electronics.

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Lately I’ve had a renaissance in iPad usage, spurred by the release of the iPad mini. In short, I find that the smaller size of the mini means that I’m able to tote it to more places than I ever was able to with the full size iPad. Additionally, I opted for the mini with LTE, so I’m also able to use my iPad in more places than I could with the Wifi iPad.

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iPad mini with Bluetooth Keyboard

One of the new things I’ve started doing though, is using a Bluetooth keyboard for text entry when I’m at my desk. I can’t believe in owning an iPad for 2 and a half years that I never tried typing with a Bluetooth keyboard. In my short time trying this I’m finding that it makes the iPad a much more capable content entry machine. That said, there’s a number of areas where it could be drastically improved. These are all software issues, and I hope in the future, Apple will add them as iOS updates.

  • Keyboard Navigation: When in Mail, or other apps that feature a 3 pane layout or allow you to use arrow buttons to move forward/backward, you really should have the option of using the keyboard arrow keys. Having to constantly go from touching to the keyboard is tiring, and any navigational task that can be accomplished with the keyboard should be available to the user.
  • Switching Apps: Command-Tab on the Mac brings up the app switcher. Why can’t the same keyboard shortcut do the same on the iPad? Even better – let the user map it to one of the unused fn keys, like F5 or F6. All the other fn keys (except F3 and F4) evoke some action on iOS, it’s a shame that this productivity enhancer isn’t represented via a keyboard shortcut.

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It seems that Apple’s Maps application is stranding people looking for Mildura, Australia. Apparently Apple Maps seems to think the location is about 40 miles away from where it really is. Confounding the issue is that the location Maps thinks is Mildura is very remote and and has very sparse cell phone coverage. This has left several people stranded, and in need of police assistance to get out of the location.

Police in Victoria, Australia have issued a bulletin to warn people about this error, and it has obviously now gotten world wide attention.

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Apple has already taken it on the chin with the new Maps application, and this won’t help matters any.

I’m curious if this glitch affects Tom Tom devices as well, since Apple gets most of it’s GPS data from Tom Tom, I would assume this inaccuracy/bug would be present in their data as well.

Personally, I’ve had very good luck with Apple Maps. On my last trip, when coming home from Plainville, CT, we used Apple Maps, and it suggested a route we had never taken that would supposedly shorten our trip by 45 minutes. I was very skeptical, but we took it, and it really did end up shortening the trip. As with anything as large and vast as a database of world data, your mileage may vary.

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Ever since the introduction of the iPod, Apple has been making a shift towards becoming a consumer electronics company. In 2007, at the iPhone keynote introduction, Steve Jobs famously declared that Apple was changing its name from ‘Apple Computer Inc’ to just ‘Apple Inc’, to better reflect that change.

In the years since, Apple has taken many steps that have left many in the professional markets scratching their heads and stomping their feet. Need a reminder? Here are some of those steps:

1. The Mac Pro: Apple let the Mac Pro languish for 2 years without an update. More than any machine Apple makes, the Mac Pro is the workhorse of the professional market. Hollywood studios, print shops, animation professionals, music professionals… all of these markets count on the Mac Pro and the numerous apps that Apple makes to get work done. And Apple went 24 months without an update to the hardware. It looks like we might finally get a Mac Pro update next week at WWDC, so keep your fingers crossed.

2. Final Cut Pro X: Apple takes a solid, popular and industry leading application and rewrites it from scratch, leaving out dozens of features Pros rely upon, and forcing many to reconsider their entire investment in Apple applications.

3. Aperture: Apple dropped the price of Aperture from $199 to $79 when it went to digital delivery via the Mac App Store. However, no new version of Aperture has been released, and with Lightroom 4, many long time stalwart Aperture uses (myself included) have taken Apple’s silence and lack of new Aperture version as an abandonment of the application and switched to Lightroom.

4. XServe: It probably didn’t sell a ton, but for those who bought in to a Mac OS X Server environment, XServe was an inexpensive way to serve websites and files without needing Windows or Linux server experience. Apple tried to steer users over to Mac Pros running Mac OS X Server, but when that product languished for 2 years, well, you can guess what that says to people.

5. Mac OS X Server: With Lion, Apple changed how Mac OS X Server is delivered. No longer a full stand alone OS, it is now a bolt on to Mac OS X, again available for download from the Mac App Store. While the new pricing is a huge improvement over the previous $499 price, the update has made many who use Mac OS X Server for web hosting angry, as Apple removed MySQL, and changed the admin configuration to the point that many who upgraded recommend staying away until the bugs are fixed.

And the trend continues with OS X Mountain Lion. In Mountain Lion, Apple removes the built in connection to start/stop Apache from the Sharing Preferences pane. The underlying Apache web server is still present, but why take away something that has been present in Mac OS X for 11 years, and force users to the Terminal to handle something that was drop dead easy before?

The above issue is a small one, but I feel it illustrates the problem at hand: Apple, even when it doesn’t have a financial reason to do so, is reworking their products to appeal to consumers, even if it means making the products less appealing to professionals.

I’m sure Apple has hard numbers that show that sales lost to the Pro market are inconsequential in comparison to sales gained in the consumer market, but it doesn’t have to be an either or proposition. Apple can make the best tools for professionals and still make tools that appeal to the general public. Hopefully Apple doesn’t lose sight of the benefits of being the darling of the professional market, and continues to take their needs in to consideration.

Update: I couldn’t have said it better myself.