It's a holiday weekend here in Canada. Victoria day if you must know. Except in Quebec where it's Patriot's day. Yeah, I don't care beyond the "holiday" part either. Actually, I don't care about the "holiday" part either -- I've heard of such things but rarely if ever experienced one myself. Still, I have family and friends congregating, and they're pressuring me to "get off that damn machine", so I'll keep this brief. Ish.
Grappling with Google+
I'm trying to use Google+ again. It's not easy but I'm trying. I go to Twitter and the last post is seconds or minutes old. I go to Google+ and the last post is hours if not almost a day old. I go to Twitter and I can interact with most of the people I know online. I go to Google+ and mostly I only see my friends from Android Central. And Scoble.
Maybe iOS and Google+ don't mix the way iOS and Twitter do, but Google put some effort into the new iPhone app. And Phil Nickinson swears it's a great platform for discussion.
So if you're there too, give me a shout and let me know what you love about it. Or hit me up on Twitter and tell me what you don't.
You can find me at +Rene Ritchie (or @reneritchie) -- and you we have a fantastic forum thread going where you can swap user names with other iMore members.
Mulder or Scully
One of the most frequent questions I get asked online is "do you believe Apple will do XYZ." Right now it's "do you believe Apple will do a 4-inch iPhone."
Here's the thing -- my personal belief doesn't matter, and often doesn't exist. I'm not all Mulder or Scully about this stuff. The truth is out there, and I'm happy to wait on it.
If Apple announces something, I'll report it. If we get a story from a solid source, or we can corroborate a story with a solid source, I'll report it in that context.
If you think I have secret information I'm not sharing, then either I don't or I can't. Either way, it won't inform any answer I give before it does a story I'll write.
So if you ask that question, the answer I'll give you is "I don't know".
Now if you ask me what I'd like or what I'd want...
Meet Gary, he's here to help
One of the biggest challenges we face at iMore is the incredible range of our audience -- from hard core geeks who want nothing more than the latest tweaks, to the soccer parents who just want to know how to iMessage a photo. It's an incredible challenge to balance our content and coverage to serve both extremes, and the many, many people somewhere in the middle.
Our current strategy is to do lots of really good stuff for both, and hope readers will congregate around what interests them, and either pass over, or pass along what doesn't.
And helping us do that is Gary Mazo, Mobile Nations' newest Senior Editor and all around how-to guru. Some of you might be familiar with Gary from the Made Simple Learning series that covered everything from BlackBerry to iPhones and iPads and back again.
Gary's done a few reviews and ninja-level how-tos for us so far, but this month he's going to be kicking it up another several notches.
If you want to know everything you can possibly know about iOS, or want handy links to pass on to friends and family so they can learn to do without you, he'll have you covered.
And he's starting a new series tomorrow.
3D movies are terrible
I've had 4 family birthdays in the last couple of weeks and all of them wanted to go see the Avengers. Yes, my family has good taste in movies. The first 3 times I saw it in blessed 2D. The last time I saw it in 3D. The 3D was, as expected, horrible.
Human eyes didn't evolve to focus and converge on different planes. That's why 3D makes overly sensitive people nauseous. The technology also isn't there yet. It's dark, and in the case of post-produced 3D, it looks more like layered paper bring dragged across the screen than actual depth.
It makes fight scenes look jumbled, special effects look cheap, and interferes with the narrative far more than it accentuates any experience.
The industry likes to tell us it's the next evolution and as natural a progression as silent to sound, black and white to color. It's not. It's a gimmick. And that they use it as a way to hike up ticket prices is a joke.
Hopefully Apple never announces anything 3D. Not a 3D display, not 3D content in iTunes. Not anything unless and until a technology comes along that works.
Like a holodeck.
Picks of the week, now more picky
One of the editorial goals of iMore is to more carefully curate what we present to our readers. We want everything we post to be deserving of your attention. With that in mind we're changing the way we do picks of the week.
Instead of editors and moderators choosing apps that interest them, we're reducing the quantity and upping the exclusivity considerably. Georgia, Leanna, Simon, and yours truly, with input from everyone, will make the calls.
Starting this week, we're picking one app, one game, and one accessory each week. And that's it. It might be brand new, or it might be a classic. It might be über popular or it might be a hidden gem. But it will absolutely be the best thing we could find.
Check it out, and let me know what you think. (We might even do them as three separate posts next week, if that works better?)
Features
Once again, an embarrassment of riches.
- The 4 inch iPhone by yours truly. If Apple does make the iPhone screen bigger, how could they do it, what would the benefits be, and what problems would it cause?
- Best free iPad games by Simon Sage. The definitive list of the best fun to be had on your iPad.
- Instacast vs. Downcast vs. Pocket Casts: iPhone podcast app shootout! by Ally Kazmuch. Which podcast app for iPhone reigns supreme?
- What Samsung's rise and Nokia's fall means for Apple and the iPhone by Chris Umiastowski. The smartphone market has almost literally turned upside down. Can the iPhone keep on capitalizing on the disruption?
- Facebook Pages Manager for iPhone review by Leanna Lofte. She had to review the Canadian App Store version, because Facebook hasn't seen fit to release it in the U.S. yet. Seriously.
- How to integrate all your social networks into your iPhone and iPad Contacts by Gary Mazo. He misses web OS and Windows Phone style social network integration. A lot.
- How to stop Twitter from tracking you across the Web by yours truly. Because knowing is half the battle.
- Pogo Sketch Pro vs. Kuel H12 vs. Jot Pro vs. Bamboo: iPad stylus shootout by Georgia. The results of our week long look at pro-level stylus pens. Which one is best, and which one is best for you?
Reading List
- Multiple Nexus devices could be a game-changer for Google and Android by Alex Dobie. If Google does press ahead with several hero devices from several manufacturers, what if anything does it mean?
- Four years of App Store by Federico Viticci. MacStories interviews developers about the state of Apple's mobile marketplace, and how it's changed -- and hasn't changed -- since 2008.
- Are apps bought or rented? by Ricard Gaywood. TUAW's resident number cruncher takes a look at the push-back on Instacast's new paid + in-app-upgrade pricing model.
- iCloud is the Difference Between Great and Excellent by Benjamin Brooks. iCloud is Apple's next generation digital hub. Competitors should be very afraid. (But probably aren't.)
- Web design manifesto by Jeffrey Zeldman. Finally, someone who proudly types even larger than Kevin Michaluk.
- Creating the Windows 8 user experience by Jensen Harris. An interesting look at the design decisions behind Microsoft's "no compromises" desktop to tablet to phone interface.
- How Yahoo! killed Flickr and lost the Internet by Mat Honan. A no-holds barred takedown of one of the worst corporate mismanagements in recent history. Something HP likely followed to the letter when running Palm.
- Hey did I miss anything? by Dan Harmon. Sony pictures drops the creator and show runner of the up-until-now-fabulous TV show Community, and apparently all the writers along with it, yet someone expects us to think the show will still be returning next season.
And now...
I'm getting off this damn computer.
