Hey Apple: Why Hast Thou Forsaken Us?

I have been an Apple fan boy ever since I owned my first Apple Computer (an Apple IIe) back in 1984. Beyond the aesthetics and hype surrounding Apple, I have always believed, even in dire times, that they had an edge over their competitors. The deep integration of Mac OS with Apple hardware and services made for an unsurpassed user experience that could not be found anywhere else.

As much as I hate to admit it, I have, unfortunately, grown very frustrated over the last few years with their latest services because they don't just work anymore! The philosophy of Apple products used to be about making things simple for the end user by empowering them with metaphorical and intuitive tools that made every task a tap or a click away. Hence, the legions of blind Apple fans that have been blessed by such a wonderful and unbelievable user experience that their dedication to the brand can only be compared to a religion in which Apple Stores are churches, and masses are held by "Genius" priests… One can't help but wonder why services don't end with Apple flavored drinks at the bar.

Ok, ok... I digress… Let's get back to my point:

We now live in the age of cloud computing and I must confess that if there is one thing that Apple never got right it is Cloud & Sync services.

iDisk was their very first attempt at creating an online Hard Drive for Mac users and it was an epic failure… As much as I wanted to use it, I could never understand how they expected me to use such a slow and buggy tool… Upload speeds were close to zero, iDisk would often crash the Finder and files kept disappearing…

The came MobileMe which promised to be "Exchange for the rest of us"… Even Steve Jobs admitted a year after the service was released that it was unreliable and didn't quite fit with all the great products that Apple had.

Then came iCloud that, I'll give you that one, worked for a few years… Syncing contacts, calendars, Notes, Reminders and backing up iPhones & iPads mostly worked as advertised… Mostly because sometimes Apple fan boys that trusted iCloud to back up their iPhone data learned the hard way that iCloud backups were not to be trusted as they would sometimes only partially restore their data when in need to do so…

But Apple didn't learn from their mistakes… They went on to release iCloud Photo Library which promised to solve everyone's problems with photos and videos by automatically syncing them to the cloud and across computers… What a brilliant idea… If only it had just worked…

I was one of the first users to blindly install the update as soon as it became available. After a whole week of uploading 100Gb worth of data, I came to the painful realization that the service magically resurrected long deleted photos that were not present on any of my iOS or Mac computers… To put it in a simple way: Apple had kept hidden from me pictures that I thought were gone forever after I had carefully deleted them from my camera roll, photo stream, and deleted pictures folder… This is just not acceptable in terms of privacy.

Although this may have disastrous consequences in the lives of many, it keeps getting worse as iCloud Photo Library (the one and only stop Apple would want you to think of when it comes to saving & syncing hundreds of gigabytes of photos & videos) can't deal with large photo libraries… Oh wait ??? Isn't this service all about such huge libraries?

Well… I have 100Gb worth of photos and videos. I use an iPhone 6 Plus with 128Gb of memory and have activated the "optimize iPhone storage" option for photos & videos (otherwise I wouldn't have much memory left to use my iPhone for anything else).

Every time an app needs to access my photos it takes about 15 seconds… I can only name two apps that behave correctly in doing so: Facebook & Instagram. Those 2 apps actually access, by default, the most recent photos instead of accessing my entire library. This is an easy and simple work around that every app should use and most importantly that Apple should enforce and write guidelines about. Unfortunately, none of these measures have been implemented since iCloud Photo Library was released more than 6 months ago.

When I take a picture, it sometimes takes 30 seconds to show up in my camera roll (using the buit-in camera app and camera roll)…

For the last 6 months, I have been dreading doing anything that involves photos or videos on my iPhone 6 Plus and iPad because I know that I am going to have to wait 30 seconds for any task related to this… This is not acceptable…

There are forums describing this problem which seems to appear with Photo Libraries that have more than 25.000 pictures… I have 52.000 pictures and 600 videos in mine…

So, as sad as I am to announce this: I'm not gonna buy Apple's next iPhone and am switching to Android as I have lost faith in Apple which made my user experience a nightmare for the last 6 months.

So long Apple…

Why A Dumb iPad Would Be A Great Device

As smartphones are ubiquitous and tablets are becoming more and more common, we frequently find ourselves configuring two different devices with nearly identical settings. It just seems to me as an awful waste of time and CPU.

I love my iPhone and my iPad but I hate to configure them and keep them up to date. I don't need an iPad with a slightly faster CPU than my iPhone and most importantly I don't notice the difference. What I want and has yet to be released is a totally dumb iPad which only purpose would be to mirror à la Airplay the content of my iPhone on a bigger and more comfortable screen.

As many apps are universal (i.e. contain the code for both the iPhone and iPad version), it wouldn't be complicated to scale them to take advantage of the iPad display.

What I want is simple :
- An easy way to pair my iPhone with my dumb iPad using either bluetooth or Wi-Fi (iBeacon ?).
- Once they are paired, I want the iPad to automatically mirror the content of my iPhone on its bigger screen scaling apps to take advantage of the iPad screen estate.
- An Easy way to unpair them (time-out after 5 minutes and/or a gesture).

This would be awesome and allow for sharing the same tablet amongst a household. It just doesn't make any sense to me to have a full-blown ultimate specs iPad with the same apps than on my iPhone. I don't want to download, install everything twice and I don't need twice the memory storage. I just need a device that has enough horsepower to mirror my iPhone content.

Please Apple, make a Dumb iPad!

FaceTime Vs. VoiceTime

Am I the only wondering when Apple is going to unleash the real power of FaceTime by not implementing a new feature but actually giving users the option to choose between videoconferencing and voice calls?

Videoconferencing has been the holy grail of communications for a very long time until it was actually released and most people realized it was actually uncomfortable and awkward to broadcast their image.

Nevertheless, Apple managed to make Apple fans use their FaceTime product more than they had ever used any kind of videoconferencing software or device. One of the best features of FaceTime is that it uses data connectivity (originally wifi and now cellular as well) to establish a session, hence letting people communicate internationally for free.

The next best thing, in my opinion, will be when Apple decides to let users opt out of the video and and only use Voice (they should name this VoiceTime), therefore letting people call each other for free using internet connectivity.

Now, I see you wondering: this is not new, Skype did this years ago... Well yes and no... The genius idea behind FaceTime was to use one's cellular phone number as a FaceTime ID. In the same line of thinking, Apple could very well allow users to use their cellular phone number as an ID to make voice calls, effectively looping the loop by doing so: users will use their phone number to call other users' phone numbers but they will be bypassing cellular carriers' voice infrastructures and only be using data networks. I could very well see Apple becoming a data-only carrier and be a game changer in that area.

Now do you get it? VoIP calls using one's cellular phone number as their ID!

How To Officially Unlock Your iPhone

If you're amongst the lucky ones that are able to have their carrier officially unlock their iPhones, here's a quick tip as to how to properly do it. As a matter of fact, some carriers will send you unclear instructions once your unlocking request has been approved.

There are two ways to use an unlocked iPhone: you can either re-activate it every time you insert a new sim card in it or unlock it for good so you won't have to go through the process of activation ever again.

Here's the breakdown:

Why The iPhone 4S Is Great

It seems many people were disappointed by yesterday's Apple event just because the new iPhone wasn't named the iPhone 5! I, however, believe that the iPhone 4S tech specs are in line with what was expected for the rumored iPhone 5 (dual core A5 processor, 8MP camera, 1080p video recording, SIRI assistant, faster graphics etc.). Surprisingly, the overall feedback on the Internet seems to be solely based on the fact that this new iPhone was not named with the number 5.

Of course, Apple could have named it iPhone 5 but that wouldn't have been in line with their practices. As the iPhone 4S sports the same form factor than the 4, they decided to keep the number 4 in its name (as for the iPhone 3 & 3GS). The press and most customers would have applauded if that same phone were named iPhone 5 instead of iPhone 4S as its specs are, for the most part, what were expected for an iPhone 5.

iOS 4.2.1 8C148 Is Available: Important Microsoft Exchange Information

Apple's just released iOS 4.2.1 for all compatible iDevices (iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G, iPad, iPod Touch 2nd Generation, iPod Touch 3rd Generation & iPod Touch 4th Generation). The build is 8C148 which is the one that was released to developers last Thursday.

Microsoft Exchange users, be aware that upon upgrading, it is very likely that the default Contact account will be set to "On My iPhone" instead of your Microsoft Exchange Contacts. Make sure you change it back to Microsoft Exchange Contacts in the settings if you use your Exchange account as your primary contact database. Make also sure to go to Contacts, tap "back" and choose your Microsoft Exchange Contacts to be displayed instead of "All". This will ensure that new created contacts are synced with your Exchange account.

Don't forget to re-enable FaceTime if you're using an iPhone 4 or iPod Touch 4th Generation.

That's it for the tips! I'm now anxiously awaiting the release of the Apple TV 4.1 firmware to try out Airplay!

Update:
Apple TV 4.1 firmware update is live!
iPhone 3GS 4.2.1 firmware update isn't the same build than the one that was seeded to developers last week. The build  released today is 8C148a.
All other builds are the same than the ones released to developers last week (8C148)!

Open Letter To Steve: Do Something About International Roaming Charges

Dear Steve,

Could you please find a way to make carriers understand that by charging an insane amount of money for data roaming, they are alienating their customers and actually losing money since more and more of us, iPhone-addicted customers, choose to go prepaid when traveling abroad?

I don't wanna see this anymore and I strongly advise any sensible smartphone user to go prepaid when traveling to a foreign country. I strongly encourage readers to post tips and tutorials in the comments as to how to go prepaid in each and every single country.

Best regards,

Fred, your homie from da hood!

Note: A special shout-out to Orange France for their lousy data roaming plans that can only be activated for a maximum of 7 days and for making it impossible to activate it for 2 7-day periods in a row other than by calling at midnight on the 7th day. Add to this that customer service is closed at midnight and that activating such a roaming plan can take up to 48 hours, and you have a recipe for mass protests in the streets of France.

Today Is Already Tomorrow: Wake Up Steve!

I hope Steve won't miss his bus to work!

The Future Of Apple

As Apple is about to release iOS 4.2 to the general public, rumors are spreading as to what the next iPhone might be about. Most rumors were, until now, about the implementation of CDMA technology but it seems that the next iPhone might also integrate an RFID chip and/or some kind of proximity field technology. This is rumored to allow users to make any Mac their own by creating a proximity link between any Mac and their iPhone. The former would, then use whatever settings are saved on the iPhone or the MobileMe account of the user to allow them to use this computer as their own. If MobileMe users had the ability to sync all their info to the clouds, this could, indeed, become reality. Let's not forget that Apple heavily invested not so long ago in a server farm and let's not forget Steve Jobs' comment to SugarSync CEO during a conference "Yeah, I know you guys" and this would all make sense.

By using this technology, every iDevice owner would have the ability to use any Apple computer as their own, using their settings, files and apps that are stored in the clouds (a major leap forward compared to the poor cloud storage possibilities of MobileMe at this time). All their info would be backed up online making the process of regular and boring hard drive backups history.

The new iPhone is also supposed to be used as a payment device. Since it can already unlock cars using the new BMW app, why not bring it even more into the future by allowing it to open building and apartment doors?

There you have it, the iDevice will be at the center of everyone's lives, rendering wallets, keys and money as we know them obsolete.

I have already contacted a locksmith to get rid of my front door lock, as I will be using my iPhone to open the door from now on (and while I wait for this functionality to be implemented, I will camp in the streets outside my apartment building). The next thing that Apple should implement is a way, in case one loses their iDevice or it is stolen, to wipe it off remotely even if it does not have a network connection or if it is off. This would quite easy to implement through the use of a time machine that could bring the user back to the date & time their iDevice left their possession. It would then be easy to wipe it off and even prevent it from being stolen.

When Apple completes this, my friend Steve (whom I've never met) will become the ruler of the world and the universe and we will all live by his rules! Can't wait for that to happen!

Should You Read On An iPad Or Kindle?

This might sound like a stupid question, but the answer isn't that obvious. Surely, the iPad can act as a Kindle by either using its built-in iBooks app or the Kindle app (or even the Nook app). So why would you consider buying a Kindle (or Nook)? Well, the Kindle is much cheaper but will basically only enable you to read books (browsing the web or reading emails is too cumbersome and not practical on a grayscale screen). So if you have the budget to purchase an iPad, this sounds like a no-brainer and many people would not even think about the Kindle.

In my opinion, both products have their own strength. Reading a book on an iPad is ok if you're inside an apartment. It gets very annoying if you're exposed to direct sunlight. But this is not even main the reason why you wouldn't use an iPad to read. I believe that the main obstacle to reading on an iPad is the fact that it is too versatile. I, indeed, can't manage to read two pages of a book without being tempted to either check my emails or Facebook or Twitter when I'm using my iPad. This renders the whole reading experience terrible. It is, in fact, much easier for me to read on my Kindle where I'm a lot less tempted to do anything else than reading.

So, if you're considering buying an iPad to read, be aware of this. As a growing number of people are affected by some kind of technology related ADHD where  they are having trouble concentrating on the same task for more than five minutes, the iPad potential for distraction is huge. So keep in mind that, sometimes, less is better!

As a side note, I should also point out that I'm very surprised that hacking the Kindle 3G Sim  Card hasn't gone mainstream since this device offers international cellular connectivity at no cost at all (no contract, no fee).

What Was Announced in 12 hours At The Back To The Mac Apple Event

The Internet is going crazy right now as every single tech site is trying to figure out what will be announced tonight at the Back To The Mac Apple Event. I could have, like everyone else, decided to blog live from the event in order to let the world know what is being announced but then, I figured that my site has no chance of going down due to excess overload which kinda removes the fun out of doing so. In addition, I never understood why people would go to an alternate site to hear about live events when they can watch a live broadcast of it.

Anyway, I had the greatest idea about this event! I contacted one of the Aliens that allegedly abducted me in my sleep two nights ago and thanks to the advanced knowledge of his civilization and a bit of fumbling with quantum mechanics, we went forward in time (and while at it in space as well) in order to attend the live event.

This is how, now that I'm back in my timeline, I can tell the world about was announced (past tense for me) in 12 hours:

- Fantastic and unbelievable quarter with record earnings, sales and revenues.
- Apple is the coolest brand in the world and Steve Jobs one of the coolest guys on the planet (wouldn't he wear something else than his usual pair of jeans, sneakers and black long sleeve t-shirt if he needed to assert his coolness on anything else than his achievements as the CEO of Apple Inc. ?).
- The iPhone is the greatest thing ever.
- The iPad is the coolest computer and tablet altogether.
- Apple has never sold so many Macs. Ever.
- Tonight was announced a new MacBook Air. It will come in 2 sizes: 11.6 inches & 13.3 inches. Both versions are cool. Don't bother about tech specs, just buy one of them or even better: both!
- Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion": Apple has been working on this Mac OS X implementation for 20 years (Yes 20 years!!! Can you believe it?) and they are now ready to announce it. The coolest feature: it will support touch based devices! Screen protection manufacturers worldwide rejoice: you guys are gonna sell even more film protections and now in bigger sizes just for Macs.
- New Macs may or may not have been announced (at the time Steve was talking about this, I realized my iPhone 4 had no signal... I realized this was due to my alternate self probably using his at the same time. This anomaly in the space-time continuum probably crashed my carrier (Orange France)... Sorry about that but wasn't it worth it? At least, it was to me)
- Hybrid GSM-CDMA iPhone: it was not announced in 12 hours but should be in January (at least in the timeline I was).

That's it! Don't thank me! Don't watch the live event tonight, you already know everything. You should use the saved time to work overtime in order to be able to afford the new Macbook Air, iMacs & Mac OS X Lion. You can buy it all here: Apple Store.

Disclaimer: due to the unusual way I was able to obtain the information mentioned in this post, some of it might be actually pertaining to a different timeline than yours and mine and hence might not reflect exactly what our timeline might learn tonight.

Note: For those of you who are wondering how I contacted the Alien that abducted me, the answer is a very simple one: I called them on their iPhone. Actually, the main reason why Aliens visited Earth in the first place was to obtain iPhones. They now have a saying on their planet: "We may be more advanced than humans, but we have no Steve Jobs amongst us".
Note 2: This is my 69th post! I'll let each and everyone of you decide in which way (hmmm) you want to celebrate it.
Note 3: I love notes!