Rich can be arranged

"If you've got an area of excellence - you're good at something; you're the best at something; Anything; Then, rich can be arranged. I mean rich can come fairly easy."


from which movie? You should pause here and read these quotes again. We could replace the rich with success, or power, or anything. The point is that we need to find an area that we are really good at it, and we need to slow, pause and ponder this idea. 

iPhone shortcuts for wifi, bluetooth, 3G

Have you ever wish there is a fast way to turn off the bluetooth, wifi, or 3G on/off on the iPhone? Here is how Android does it: there is a bar that hosts icons that represent these functions. Of course, this is not standard cause the bar span across the whole screen sort of. Apple won't do it that way. 

And it has been bothered me for a while. and last night on the way to the airport something simple yet elegant struck me. A shortcuts screen left to the spotlight search screen could just easily solve this issue. 

One shortcuts screen (16 shortcuts with each icon represent one) ought to be enough.

this is simple, easy, and elegant. Personally I would like these icons:

1. wifi

2. bluetooth

3. 3G

4. Brightness (need two icons, one for brighter, one of dimmer)

5. What else? maybe shortcuts to favorite phone numbers, contacts?

iPhone 4 first day impression

After playing with the iPhone 4 for a day, the feeling is like this: this is a phone should be from day 1.
It is snappy, it is solid, it is cool.
1. Love the multitasking, put the Pandora to background for an hour, put the NPR news to background for another hour. it is crazy. the drawback, the battery went down like hell. Need better, much much better battery in the next incarnation. Wondering what does Apple do with it? maybe in the iPhone 5, that would be the killer selling point
2. The display is absolutely beautiful, but I am from the iPhone 3G camp. Watched some movies, and then the Harvard Justice iTune U video. The quality is stunning.
3. Many apps I used yet to get compiled and small changes to support at least the fast app switching.
4. Maybe I did something wrong. I restored from my 3G but the folders were not completely restored. I have to spend about 30 minutes to organize apps into the folders the way I have it with the old 3G. The synch speed is super, 10 times (i may exaggerate a little bit) faster than 3G. 

Signing off today's blog with a special signature: GCB.

From iPad

So I just want to try it out to see how easy/difficult it would be to use iPad to write a blog. It turns out the iPad exceeds my expectation.
1. It renders the page as expected. No issue whatsoever on displaying the page
2. The virtual keyboard is pretty good to use
3. I expect apple to continue improve the dictionary and the AI of the virtual keyboard
4. I will use more and more on iPad and reduce my usage of my iMac. My Dell notebook has basically been coverted to a entertainment center that hook to my TV and play netflix etc. I expect to move on to AppleTV when the next hardware upgrade hit.
5. I am eager to see iPad to be upgraded to have a better display and more memory. Really looking for the next version as well as the ios 4 for iPad.

look ahead in anger

http://chronicle.com/article/Look-Ahead-in-Anger/66152/

This is a very very good article i have read in a long time.

"Are not all civilizations, either openly or in secret, always archives of collective trauma?" 

Sloterdijk asks in his recent book.


wow!!!

Apple's bargaining

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kübler-Ross_model

It is pretty clear that Apple is still in the third stage. It is bargaining with its user base: could you please forgive us if we just give you a free bumper?

Apple really needs to own up to the issue. I expect there will be more ads from rivals poking fun at the Apple's antenna issue. Eventually Apple's hand will be forced to admit the flaw. And if iPhone radically change the antenna design I could imagine class action law suit will be brought up to target the iPhone 4 design issue.

Even though Apple didn't really hide their head in the sand, they also want to just spin around the issue as long as they could. We will how if would play out. At the mean time I am still waiting for my iPhone 4.