The North is Not Ready for the iCloud

On Monday Apple will introduce a new service called iCloud.

It will instantly make what’s known as “cloud computing” mainstream, changing the way we use computers in a fundamental way.

We’ll no longer store our stuff – our files, music, and movies – locally on our computers.

It will all be moved to the internet for instant access from anywhere, anytime, and on any device.

Except for Northerners. Our lamentable internet services aren’t nearly ready for such a significant paradigm shift.

So as an exciting new era in computing arrives, we’ll be left even further behind than we already are.

Is Apple Killing the Mac?

By far, Apple’s great success has been its mobile devices: the iPhone, the iPod, and the iPad.

The popularity and tremendous sales of these devices have overshadowed the company’s legacy Mac platform in recent years.

That’s lead a lot of people to wonder if Apple is phasing out the Mac OS in favour of the iOS.

It’s an interesting question, and one that deserves consideration.

Is Apple killing the Mac?

Some Alternatives to Northwestel’s Internet Shortcomings

Like an aging porn star, Northwestel just can’t keep it up.

And by “it”, I mean that which is most important.

And in Northwestel’s case it is the internet. (So get your mind out of the gutter, already.)

Yet, despite the fact the current incumbent constantly flubs it like a clown in a circus, in the itsy-bitsy market of the Great White North no hoser would be fool enough to directly compete.

So it’s up to we citizens to seek alternative means of accessing the environment we all now live, work, shop, and socialize in, to fill in those gaps when Northwestel suffers from what I shall henceforth delicately refer to as Internet Dysfunction (ID for short).

It might surprise you just how many alternatives there are.

A Recipe for Dirt-Cheap, High Quality Phone Services

You just got a new North American toll free phone number.

It has an unlimited North American long distance plan.

When someone calls, it hunts for you in a manner that you define. First it rings your iPhone, then your Blackberry, then your anachronistic landline, then your computer.

If it can’t find you, you can tell it to look for someone else, like your assistant or partner.

If it can’t find anyone in the end, it takes a voicemail message and emails it to you.

It offers all those annoying “PBX” services that the big companies use: press 1 for this, press 2 for that, etc, so you can integrate it into a multi-user environment and look all big business (assuming you aren’t to begin with).

In other words, it does everything you’ve ever heard that a telephone service can do, and then some.

And it costs you $15 a month.

A dream? Well, yeah, but not yours. It’s actually the dream of quality, easy-to-use voice-over-the-internet finally realized.

And here’s how to put it together yourself, super-cheap and super-fast.

Apple’s confusing iPhone OS grammar

I was managing my calendar on my iPad last night and something was bothering me about the experience.

Every time I deleted a repeating event, I found myself pausing in thought, losing trust in my instinctive nature.

Managing my calendar is something I do naturally in iCal on my Mac, and it’s a very natural process. So I took a moment to examine the process on my iPad to see what might be tripping me up.

I was surprised to find that it was Apple’s poor sentence structure.

Check these screen shots:

Repeating event deletion in iCal on Mac OS X

Repeating event deletion in iCal on iPad

Repeating event deletion in Calendar on iPhone

Do you see what tripped me up? It’s Apple’s funky grammar and sentence structure, regarding the word only.

The use of the word only in different positions of the sentence is confusing, not only for a user like me who uses both the Mac OS and the iPhone OS, but also for anyone using iPhone OS to delete repeating events.

On the Mac, the sentence is: “Delete Only This Event”. On the iPad and iPhone, it is: “Delete This Event Only”.

In iCal on the Mac, only is used an adverb, so it is modifying the action the user is taking. (Or that’s how I read it. I’m no grammar king, so I could be off in my technical specifications there. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) Whether adverb or not, however, the fact that only comes early in the phrase is primarily important to communicating the meaning of the button’s action clearly.

On the iPhone and iPad, Apple turns only into an adjective (again, I could be wrong on my grammatical specifications, but that’s my take). Only now modifies the sentence’s subject, rather than the action. Not only that, but the word falls off the end of the sentence and could be ignored. And that was my problem. I was reading just “Delete This Event”, which is a full sentence and represents what I was essentially trying to do (delete one event in a collection of repeating events) and ignoring the modifier that hung off the tail end: only.

I think Apple’s got the phrasing wrong on the iPad and iPhone. The correct sentence structure to communicate the meaning to the user is, “Delete Only This Event”. The element of modification occurs early in the sentence and is immediately communicated. “Delete This Event Only” is, imho, not only bad grammar, but bad user interface design.

Life after files and folders

It’s silly.

We still use this rigid system of files and folders on computers almost 4 decades after it was conceived of in a lab.

Even back then it was only a moderately good concept. Better options existed.

But like the combustion engine, it’s a bad idea we seem to be stuck with.

Fortunately, the end is in site.

What I call the “library model” of document management is gaining traction. It’s the electric engine of the computer industry.

Putting the Tired Metaphor of Files and Folders to Bed

Who actually likes filing?

Not me.

And, judging by most people I know, not very many of you do either.

Our desks, shelves, floors and even walls are littered with vast amounts of loose paper, documents, pictures, and other stuff.

When we gaze upon this mess, a thought briefly flashes at the back of our minds: “I should sort this all out.”

And then we go outside to play.

The vast majority of normal human beings – those who enjoy their sanity – hate and avoid filing stuff.

The very thought of paper file folders gives even the most robust among us painful hives.

So it occurs to me: what ever possessed the geeks of yesteryear to adapt files and folders onto computers?

Was it some private joke? Did they think it was funny?

101 T-Shirts for Apple Fanboys and the Mac Faithful

This guy has done his homework. He found over 100 t-shirt designs, any of which any Mac fanboy (who, me?) would be proud to wear

Here’s my fave:

101 T-Shirts for Apple Fanboys and the Mac Faithful! | Coty Gonzales | T-Shirt Reviews, Interviews and Coupon Codes.