Terry Lucy

The iPad isn't just a PC, it's the ultimate personal computer

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:08:00 +0000

On this week’s episode of The Bro Show, we talked at some length about whether it’s right to categorise the iPad as a personal computer.

Shawn Blanc brought up the Wikipedia definition of a PC, which is as follows:

“A personal computer (PC) is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator.”

We came to some sort on consensus on the podcast that the iPad definitely fits the definition of a PC, though as Shawn Blanc tweeted, some are not convinced:

“It seems that those arguing against the iPad being called a PC are really trying to say that an iPad could not replace their PC usage.”

I put to those arguing that the iPad couldn’t replace the PC usage that what they are doing on the PC is not personal and perhaps the mistake we are making here is that the whole definition of a PC in the first place is, in fact, wrong.

What’s personal about working on a spreadsheet? Writing some code? There is absolutely nothing personal about the PC I use for nine hours a day at work — it’s a processing machine. That definition of personal computer above is one of the most robotic definitions I have ever read, thinking about it. It doesn’t make any sense on a personal level.

So here’s my definition of a personal computer:

A Personal Computer (PC) is a device that one can interact with seamlessly. A device that can store memories, media, books, TV and film for the user to consume on-demand. A device that the user can create and share their own content from. A personal computer is a device that is easy to use for anyone.

The definition of a personal computer sounds like it hasn’t changed since the eighties. Though I was born in 1988, I can tell you that in the last ten years alone the personal computer has completely changed beyond all recognition.

When Apple released the iPad, I would argue that it actually released the first, truly personal, computer.

Introducing the 70 Decibels Podcast Network

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 10:00:05 +0100

April 7 2010. This was the day that Myke Hurley and I launched our podcast, The Bro Show.

In truth, we had no idea where it was going to go at the time, we just thought it was a neat idea. Fast forward a year or so and we had gained an audience in its thousands, spanning over 70 countries around the world. We both participate in other podcasts, many of which are produced by the wonderful Mr Hurley, but we even get to guest on other podcaster’s shows too.

So today we start a new chapter in our podcasting careers, and it’s something we have been working on for some time - our very own podcast network.

We are proud to announce 70 Decibels.

70 Decibels will now be the home of all podcasts that Myke and I are involved in. The logo was designed by the wonderful Aaron Mahnke of Wet Frog Studios and we think it’s really something special.The name comes from the average level of human speech in Decibels, which is around 50-70dB.

Myke has worked tirelessly over the past eight weeks to design, build and organise the website, so all credit for what I think is a lovely looking site should be directed to him. So we invite you to go and check out the site, have a poke around and let us know what you think and if you find any bugs or broken links.

The co-hosts of all shows in the 70 Decibels network are all an integral part of its operation, and they have been involved with the development process from the beginning.

So yeah, check it out. This is massive for us and we thank you for your continued support. You people are awesome.

Iain Broome: 2000

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 17:57:46 +0100

Iain Broome: 2000:

Iain Broome celebrates hitting 2,000 subscribers with some stellar, and honest advice to the bloggers out there.

But blogging is not like most blogs about blogging would have you believe. Blogging, like writing, should not be about the numbers. It should be about you, what you have to say about the world and how you go about saying it.

Check out the whole post, it’s a great read.

Thoughts on the iPhone 4S

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 17:41:05 +0100

There was a time when tech used to get smaller and smaller, almost on a monthly basis. A decade ago, Samsung was leading the way with this in the mobile phone market with its iconic “washing machine” phones. As consumers began to demand more from their phones, they began to get bigger again, with Nokia releasing massive, heavy PDA phones, equipped with Internet access and email capability.

When Apple announced the iPhone 4S yesterday, I noticed a lot of comments about the lack of a larger screen. There has been a flurry of Android-powered devices come out of late sporting larger screens, but since when has Apple followed the crowd?

An iPhone with a larger screen makes little sense to me at the moment. If you look at the direction phones were going in ten years ago, smaller was better. Now it is about finding the perfect balance between form and function - something which Apple is a lot closer to doing than its competition. As consumers demand more multimedia, games and other features from their phones, screen size will invariably have to be upped, but I think the size of the iPhone’s screen is just about perfect, and I can’t much reason for apple to change it.

The Retina Display’s pixel density, the actual mobility of a mobile phone and the fact that developers build Apps to work with the iPhone’s screen size are just a few of the reasons I think it will stay around for now. That’s forgetting about the business end of it, and the fact that Apple will end up nailing down the price of its screens, thus improving profit.

I don’t want a bigger screen in my pocket, and those that want an iPhone with a larger screen should probably think about buying an iPad.

Unless…

Now, if Apple could make a device with roughly the same overall size, but with a five inch screen, it would be pretty cool to some. The fact we have the same form factor this time around follows the same pattern of the 3G/3GS, and it might be something Apple is looking to stick to. I suspect there was some issue with the 4S’ production, be it finalising Siri, or manufacturing issues which delayed the launch. It didn’t feel right that we got a phone with the same form factor as we had in mid-2010, over a year later and I personally smell a fish with the October launch date.

It would be a very “Apple thing” to do if they upped the screen size this time next year, or even earlier, to a five inch screen for the iPhone 5, but I don’t want to start speculating too early.

Apple is playing catchup in the mobile market, it always has been

Another gripe for many is that the iPhone is playing catch up in terms of hardware, and it’s amazing how many people forget that Apple has been playing catchup since it introduced the very first iPhone, which didn’t even have a 3G connection. Apple’s tech specs for its iPhone iterations have, throughout its history (minus the Retina Display), been pretty standard; there’s nothing truly amazing about the tech specs on the iPhone.

When the iPhone 4 was released, there was already phones on the market that had 10 mega-pixel cameras, but does that mean they take better photos? While other manufacturers throw in wonderful cameras, chip sets and even 3D capability, Apple has concentrated on getting the most out of what it has to work with, often with better results than its rivals. The 4S will have underwhelmed some, the instant drop in APPL stock went some way to prove this, but I very much doubt Tim Cook lost any sleep over it. I think I recall the same happening after the iPhone 4 was announced. Apple went gone on to sell millions of units and seeing its share price rocket again, to record levels.

The 4S is a compelling offering, and I will be investing in one, seeing as my current iPhone has been better days.

Many will accuse me of drinking the cool-aid, but the naysayers are out in force this time around, so I thought I would throw my hat into the ring.

What I will say, is that it’s nice that consumers push Apple to innovate just as much as its shareholders must. It is us, after all, that provoke innovation and changes. So keep complaining, folks.

O2 UK customers can now use Twitter via MMS

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:08:10 +0100

So, you can tweet a picture now by simply sending a text. I think this is pretty cool.

Using BlueVia’s MMS API, O2 customers can share photos from any MMS capable device. All you need to do is associate your mobile number with your Twitter account on Twitter.com. Once you’ve done that, you can share photos by sending an MMS to short code 86444 and, you’ll be charged at a standard MMS rate.

According to the Twitter Blog, you can also do this in the U.S.

This makes Tweeting a picture a lot more accessible to the masses, which will undoubtedly lead to a lot more people tweeting pictures.

Check out BlueVia for more UK info.

Microsoft should use Kinect for business

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 21:56:03 +0100

Microsoft’s Kinect is a great motion control peripheral, which adds depth to gameplay, as well as creating new and exciting areas to explore within a game. We all know this. Microsoft knows this, but Microsoft needs to take Kinect out of the living room and into the office.

While doing some research for some upcoming interviews, I came across a feature for Kinect I had seen before, but hadn’t thought about much. In upcoming racer, Forza Motorsport 4, players will be able to use a feature called ‘Autovista’ to literally walk around a car, open the doors, sit in it and take in the features of the whole vehicle.

While this may be thing of passing interest to those that play the game, if I owned this kind of technology I would be stuffing it under the noses of car manufacturers all over the world, telling them that they should be using this to show off designs, concepts and even finished products to the board.

Moving away from vehicles, a feature like this could be used to great effect in other industries. I don’t understand why its been out so long, yet we haven’t seen Kinect expand into business. Either Microsoft is keeping its cards close to its chest (Ballmer has said in the past that PC support could come) or it is completely missing a trick with this.

I hope it is the former. I would love to see what people outside of the industry can do with this, and I know I am not the only one.

5 Warning Signs to Watch for at Apple — Bob Sutton

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 00:49:17 +0100

5 Warning Signs to Watch for at Apple — Bob Sutton:

While the title of this post may suggest that Bob Sutton is running away with himself a bit, his five warning signs are extremely well thought out, and extremely hard to disagree with.

Reading this did make me wonder just how long Apple can continue its marvellous run of releasing one genius product after another. A good few years yet, I reckon.

Mac OS X Lion releases today

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 08:34:29 +0100

Finally we get to play with Lion today, which is set to release within the next few hours.

I wonder how many millions the Mac App Store is going to make in the coming weeks because of Lion. And of course, those millions will be added to the running total for the Mac App Store, meaning when Apple tells everyone about it at their next keynote, share prices will no doubt rocket once more.

While I’m excited for the release of Lion, I can’t help but feel that the fact it is being released solely in the Mac App Store is going to be much more significant in the long run.

Digital distribution FTW, you could say.

I interview the voice of Optimus Prime, Peter Cullen

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 17:52:14 +0100

Recently, I had the great pleasure of interviewing the guy who has voiced Optimus Prime since before I was born, Peter Cullen. I can’t tell you how excited I was to be interviewing someone of his stature, from a professional and a personal point of view.

It really was a dream come true for me, and another stepping stone to achieving my dream of doing similar stuff everyday.

I would love it if you checked it out over on God is a Geek. It is available in text and audio formats. Please let me know what think, and have a great weekend.

A tribute to Sonic the Hedgehog

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 19:37:00 +0100

Some of you may be aware that the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise turned 20 today. Those that aren’t may want to skip this post, as I’m about to gush.

When Sonic raced onto the scene in 1991, I was three years old. Obviously I didn’t play games at the time, but I recall from a very early age watching my father sit for hours and play this strange looking game, where he would guide a “small blue pointy thing” around the screen. It was truly enchanting to watch, even though I didn’t really understand what the hell was going on.

A couple of years later, I began to understand what all the fuss was about, and set out to usurp my dad from his gaming chair, and pop myself snugly into the indentation he had made in the cushion from sitting there for so many hours.

I recall going through the stash of games my dad had amassed until I saw this familiar “blue pointy thing” from the past. I sat down, waited for my dad to set the system up, and readied myself to play. The rest is history.

Looking back, I can still see why Sonic stood out amongst all the other games my dad played. It was full of colour, character, awesome music and imagination. I found Sonic difficult to begin with, and it probably took me months to pass the Green Hill Zone. Literally months of playing the same thing over and over again. It sounds truly painful now, but I can tell you it was completely the opposite — I loved every second of it, and still do today.

As time passed and my dad brought home this space age device, the SEGA 32X add-on, compete with a whole bunch of games he wouldn’t let me play. Truth be told, I didn’t really care for the 32X, I just wanted to pull the thing out, stick it in the bin and play Sonic again.

I recall spending hour after hour drawing pictures of Sonic, watching the animated series’ and reading about him in kids’ magazines — all before getting into my Sonic the Hedgehog bed covers for a cosy nights sleep.

I’ve been thinking about that little guy all day. Video game characters have changed so much these days — we admire them from a distance in the same way we admire celebrities. It was different with Sonic, he was as close as you wanted him to be. He was alive, part of your life on and off screen — and to some degree, he still is.

Sonic may be 20 years old, but he’ll never be old in my eyes. That is exactly why I still play the same port from 1991, and enjoy it just as much now as I did when I was a child.

Happy birthday, Sonic.

Get your wallet out, Icann is opening the domain flood gates

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 17:26:00 +0100

From the Guardian:

A special meeting of Icann’s board approved a plan to expand the number of possible internet domain name endings from the current 22 – such as “.com”, “.org” and “.net” (which are separate of the country-specific domain endings such as “.uk”) – to allow domains “in any language or script”, according to Rod Beckstrom, president and chief executive of Icann.

“Today’s decision will usher in a new internet age,” said Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of ICANN’s board of directors. “We have provided a platform for the next generation of creativity and inspiration. Unless there is a good reason to restrain it, innovation should be allowed to run free.”

I am already trying to think of smart money spinners and websites. Are you?

[Update] These domains will trickle down to us, right?

LulzSec: This is the Internet, where we screw each other over

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 21:22:03 +0100

LulzSec’s 1000th Tweet Press Release:

This is the Internet, where we screw each other over for a jolt of satisfaction. There are peons and lulz lizards; trolls and victims. There’s losers that post shit they think matters, and other losers telling them their shit does not matter. In this situation, we are both of these parties, because we’re fully aware that every single person that reached this final sentence just wasted a few moments of their time.

I really don’t know what to make of LulzSec. I don’t really know what to make of anything that doesn’t have a public face, and I suppose that’s what worrying about the whole scenario.

Full release here.

Should we all be using Tor to help protect ourselves online?

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 11:32:27 +0100

In the past few months, I have lost all faith in the ability to store my information online. This is mainly due to the epidemic of “hacktivism” which has seen web portals for some of the biggest and most powerful organisations in the world breached.

From the PlayStation Network attack to more recent attacks on the CIA, it is a lot clearer that the Internet isn’t as safe as we thought.

To tackle this, I have been looking at many ways of making the internet a more secure place for me to be. This ranges from using services like 1Password, to just being more aware of who exactly has my information on the Internet.

One service that made me take notice is Tor Project, which helps to protect the anonymity of its users to defend against network surveillance and traffic analysis. A step to far? A year ago I would have said yes, but not now.

I am sold on using the service, but wanted to know a little more about it, so I got in touch with Runa A. Sandvik, a Developer, Security Researcher and Translation Coordinator for Tor. She was happy to answer a few questions.

Having only just installed Tor, I am pretty new to it. How would you summarise the service and its ease of use to other new users?

Tor is a free software and open network that enables users all over the world to communicate anonymously and securely on the Internet. Tor prevents anyone from learning the location and browsing habits of the people who use Tor, and it enables users to evade many Internet censorship systems (even ones that specifically target Tor).

Tor is really easy to use, but picking the right package to download can be a bit tricky for new users. I recommend downloading the Tor Browser Bundle. The bundle has everything you need (including the Firefox browser), and it’s all pre-configured and ready to go.

The idea of Tor seems like a movement, a rebellion against the big brother society that we live in today. Can you tell me how many people use the service?

It’s a bit difficult to count anonymous users, but we estimate that we have somewhere between 300,000 and 800,000 daily users. We also have a graph showing the number of directly connecting users from all countries: https://metrics.torproject.org/direct-users.png

Why should the average Internet user install Tor?

The following page talks about why different groups of people use Tor: https://www.torproject.org/about/torusers.html.en

Average Internet users use Tor for various reasons; to protect their privacy, research sensitive topics on the Internet, prevent people from looking at what they are doing online, access Internet resources that are blocked in their country etc.

Are you worried at all that online organisations such as Lulzsec and Anonymous are using Tor for nefairious means, thus making Tor look less credible?

There are people who use Tor to do bad things on the Internet, but there are also thousands of people who use Tor because they care about their privacy, want to access censored websites and don’t want to be tracked while browsing online. We do not want to put any restrictions on how people can and cannot use Tor, and we cannot track the people who use our network.

So, to answer your question; am I worried? Not really. I think it’s sad that some people use Tor to do bad things, but I think it’s important to look at all the ways Tor can be used to do good things, and protect thousands of people, as well.

How many developers are on board with Tor and how many users are running relays?

We have a page listing core Tor people: https://www.torproject.org/about/corepeople.html.en

The number of relays in the Tor network keeps growing (especially now that EFF are running their Tor Challenge). At the moment, there are around 2500 relays in the Tor network: https://metrics.torproject.org/network.html

End of Questions.

If, like me, you guys are more concerned about what happens with the information that you put online, I would say that Tor is definitely something you should be looking at. It runs nicely in the background and is easy to set up. You can find out more information about the service here.

How to mend the Twitter trend

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 22:39:53 +0100

Everybody hates Twitter’s trending topics. They are often nonsensical and stupid. I hardly ever refer to them, but trending topics could become a powerful tool — if Twitter makes it happen.

I would love the ability to pick a series of topics, companies or names that I want to be kept abreast of on Twitter without following a million people.

Say I am interested in Sony, for instance. Setting up a personalised trend on Twitter that would notify me of a steep increase in discussion based around Sony would be an ideal way to make trends more relevant to me, the user.

That way, I could jump over to trending topics, and see if a bunch of stuff I am interested in is being talked about — rather than seeing how people would name a movie to make it relevant to their genitals.

In addition, it could really help Twitter make some more money by having promoted trends appearing to those who find it most relevant. The advertising would be more direct, allowing Twitter could have more than one promoted trend at any given time.

I feel that Twitter ignoring a good opportunity to allow users to make Twitter more of a tool than it already is, while making some extra buck at the same time.

Lodsys come out fighting

Tue, 31 May 2011 23:17:52 +0100

Lodsys come out fighting:

The Lodsys Blog:

We stand firm and restate our previous position that it is the 3rd party Developers that are responsible for the infringement of Lodsys’ patents and they are responsible for securing the rights for their applications. Developers relying on Apple’s letter do so to their own detriment and are strongly urged to review Apple’s own developer agreements to determine the true extent of Apple’s responsibilities to them.

Well, things are going to get a lot more interesting over the next few weeks.

Personally, I would like Lodsys to fuck off.

There is a chance they are legally correct, I understand that. But this is becoming something of a saga. I can’t help but feel Lodsys is just being outright greedy with this lawsuit.

[via Twitter]

I've been up to some stuff

Sat, 28 May 2011 16:13:57 +0100

A few weeks ago, I left my friends over at the wonderful Game Rant so I could buy back a little time for myself. While this was nice for a short while I soon came to miss the buzz of having video games news published to the Internet.

It was at this time where my buddy Calvin Robinson offered me the position of News Editor for GodisaGeek.com

Now, this isn’t something any aspiring writer turns down, being News Editor for any site is a pretty big deal, in my opinion. Tiring it may be, but I absolutely love it.

I have settled in with a fantastic bunch of people and already gotten to know some awesome industry people, not to mention attending an Activision pre-E3 press event and seeing 20 minutes worth of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 gameplay. That, for you non-gamers, is about as good as it gets.

I was lucky enough to be able to write about Modern Warfare 3 in a preview post I did for GodisaGeek.

For the first time in my life I felt like a true journalist. Taking notes like a lunatic in a dark room and then making sense of them the next day is a natural high for me, and something I’m looking forward to doing again and again as the time passes.

I know I still have a lot to learn before I have a chance of taking this stuff full time, but with GodisaGeek and my work at Macgasm — which I intend to do more of — I feel I am in the perfect place to learn from some great people which will help me to achieve my goal of leaving my shitty job.

Right, I’m off to write some news.

Microsoft needs to drop the silly Apple references

Sat, 28 May 2011 16:02:37 +0100

Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President, Joe Belfiore, recently demoed Windows Phone Mango, and I personally found it very impressive. The whole video was tarnished at around three minutes 51 seconds in for me. Here Belfiore is demoing Bing Vision with a book. The book is called This Will Change Everything and it appeared to me as an immediate reference to the competition, Apple.

Why? I don’t get it. Such a great product demo which had already shown Mango running at over 20 frames per-second more than the iPhone on an HTML 5 page didn’t need this reference. I found it distracting and childish.

I’m behind Windows with their Windows Phone program. I think they are doing great things and I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that they will shake the market up in a big way in the next 18 months or so.

So please Microsoft, drop the silly references, and place that energy into the good work that is obviously being done.

I am aware that this post may be total bullshit, but it annoyed me enough to write about it, so I’d thought I’d see if anyone else felt the same.

Less Is More: My MacBook Air

Sat, 07 May 2011 19:10:00 +0100

I’ve been enjoying posts by the likes of Stephen Hackett of Forkbombr and Ben over at The Brooks Review about using less software, and minimal computing in general.

Those guys have some pretty minimal lists, but for me, a relative Mac newbie (though I did fix one today, sort of) those lists are scary to look at. MarsEdit, NVAlt and Reeder seem entirely unnecessary to me. I see them as friction.

As I talked about on an episode of the Minimal Mac podcast, Enough, I have very little in the way of third party applications on my Mac. I have all of the stock applications, such as iLife but can’t imagine wanting to install NVAlt.

Here’s what I have installed on my MacBook Air:

Spotify — Music player. If it weren’t for iOS updates, I would delete iTunes.

Twitter for Mac — Can’t find anything else as unobtrusive and easy to use.

Linkinus — IRC client whereby I talk to my fellow Macgasm contributors.

Google Chrome — For Flash sites and for being logged into two WordPress accounts at the same time.

Dropbox — Best Mac application. Period.

Droplr — Currently trying it out, though it will be deleted soon due to lack of use.

Skype — I’m a Podcaster, I need it.

FaceTime — Because video calling on Skype is lame.

That is literally it. Nothing else. Na-da.

Some people say I’m missing out by not having Reeder or MarsEdit, but I generally disagree. I use Google Reader because it is in-browser, looks exactly the same at home, work and at my mothers house. I write in TextEdit or in-browser, I just make sure I save at regular intervals.

I’m new to this. I’m not branching out, not least until I’ve mastered the native applications that — from what I’ve read, seen and heard — many people simply ignore.

If that’s because they are bad, then fair enough, but I’m going to use them and find that out for myself.

It’s worth noting that it really doesn’t matter what any of us say. Good advice is there to be had but computing is very much a one-to-one task. No one can tell you what you need or what you should like, you have to figure that out for yourself.

For me, less is more. I enjoy my MacBook Air just how it is, and can’t see myself installing more software until it is entirely necessary to do so.

XYDO: A News Based Social Network

Tue, 03 May 2011 21:19:03 +0100

I have been a user of XYDO for a little while now. The site has gone public today and is a really interesting way of seeing what’s hot in the news that you care about. Users can follow a series of subjects and then the site pulls and prioritises the news on that subject from your social networks, as well as communities that you follow on the site.

The only way I can describe the experience at this moment in time is as follows: Digg gets drunk, has a threesome with Reddit and Newsboiler which results in XYDO.

Anyway, I think this site is definitely worth keeping an eye on, especially with its attractive and modern UI. Previously, I have only checked it out on the odd occasion, just to observe and consume as I like to do with most new things, but I plan to be more active with XYDO in the future.

One of the most interesting features with XYDO is that it allows you to create an original text post to spark a discussion of your own — no need to post to your own blog and then submit the story. This is great as it allows you to dip in and out of a limitless range of subjects without alienating anyone that reads your blog or follows you on Twitter.

So yeah, check it out.

How to get your Podcasts out of iTunes and into Instacast — Vemedio Blog

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 18:15:20 +0100

How to get your Podcasts out of iTunes and into Instacast — Vemedio Blog:

Instacast should be your go-to Podcast App by now. If it isn’t, Vemedio — the creator of Instacast — has just made it a whole lot easier to migrate your subscriptions.

Vemedio show you how to export your Podcast subscriptions from iTunes as an OPML file, and then import it into Instacast via email or Dropbox — it’s so easy, even Icould do it.

Instacast is a great App, listening to Podcasts has never been easier. Get it here.