Apple Going Rotten?
by Raju Vegesna on November 17, 2007
Lately, my experience with Apple is not very convincing. A series of incidents keep bringing down my expectations on quality from Apple. I agree with Scoble on the brand promise, which simply is not there lately. I don’t see the same customer friendly staff in Apple’s store as I used to see an year ago. I don’t see the same quality in products lately….
I thought I’d never see a blue screen on a Mac….and I didn’t, except that it comes in black. I was working on some important stuff and when I launch a program, it came up with this black screen of death on my MacBook Pro.
Sorry for the poor photo quality….but then, my iPhone cannot take better photos in low light. BTW, iPhone also has a Black Screen of Death.
There are more issues on software. I upgraded to iLife 08 and it completely made my iDVD unworkable. If I need to fix it, I have to take it to the Apple Store (I like Dell better in this case as they service it at your home/office).
Its not just the software issues I had. I had some hardware issue too….right from the day one. First, the CD Drive sounds scary. If you have your laptop on your lap and try inserting a CD, you’ll almost notice a hit on your lap. Another common annoyance is a whining sound you hear at times near the power.
If you bought an iPod Touch, you’ll notice that the accessories it comes with are very minimal. You don’t even get a dock for your touch after spending $400.
These are just some of the annoyances and my rant can go on and on….one thing for sure. I am not such a happy customer I though I’d be with Apple. I am starting to see this Apple going rotten….and of course, I sold my AAPL stock.
Web Apps: Another helping hand for Apple?
by Raju Vegesna on September 10, 2007
Lately, Apple is on a roll. iPod brought Apple back as an ‘active’ player and now they found their rhythm. When you are in rhythm, everything will automatically fall into place.
I think there is one unexpected factor playing a big role in apple’s latest success – The move of applications to the web. As more and more applications move to the web, the OS becomes irrelevant as all we need is a browser. When all you need is a browser, then why not go with a ‘pretty’ OS? MS also seem to be doing its part by screwing up its latest supposedly ‘pretty’ OS.
I recently gave up Windows and moved over to Apple just because the underlying OS simply didn’t matter as all the apps I use are online. I thought I’d miss Maxthon, but they made it easier for me by screwing up their latest version.
All these trends seem to be working well for Apple. I have no complains currently….except, I’d like Apple to be more open (frankly, I don’t think they will).
AdBlockPlus: I hope Firefox includes it by default
by Raju Vegesna on September 3, 2007
AdBlockPlus is one of my favorite Firefox add-on. In fact, it is the only add-on that is present on all my FF installations. Today NY Times talks about this plugin and its impact on the Ad driven market. I recommend reading it for more details on that topic.
I am not a big fan of ad based business models. They simply wont survive long-term. People do get immune to ads as they spend more and more time on the net. Today if I visit any site with lots of ads, I unknowingly ignore the portions with ads and concentrate directly on the actual content. This kind of immunity to ads develops as users spend more and more time on the net. The $$$$ companies like Google make on online Ads will eventually go down….but then, plugins like AdBlockPlus can help the user a lot by removing the annoying ads altogether.
Many users don’t know such plug-ins exist in the first place. It’ll greatly help if browsers include such plugins by default. I dont see IE doing it anyway, but if Firefox can bundle such plug-ins by default, it’ll greatly improve its value and usefulness against its competitors. If I were to vote between Offline support in FF 3 and AdBlockPlus bundled by default in FF, I’d vote for the later.
Now, I am off to figuring out how to turn off the annoying pop-ups on NYTimes site when I double click on some text using ABP.
I may be a fool (along with 2.5 Million others) as per Mark Evans, but then, I don’t work for Google or any other company with Ad-based business model and I don’t mind paying for services with good value.
Windows (Dell) to Mac: Thats a smooth ride
by Raju Vegesna on August 20, 2007
Two weeks back I was helping my cousin restore his Windows system corrupted while upgrading from IE6 to IE7 on his Dell laptop. I was able to help him out with this as there are hundreds of people with the same problem on the internet.
Two hours later, my Dell laptop reminded me that it needs some work too….my mouse stopped working. I managed by connecting an external mouse, but then an hour later, my keyboard stopped working. So I reluctantly called Dell and was pleasantly surprised when someone answered my call in less than 10 minutes. This is a great improvement from Dell. The Dell rep asked me to do several tests for about an hour and while doing this, my hard drive crashed. When asked Dell about this, they said they’ll send me a replacement and they cant do anything about the data. WTF? I lost all my data while doing the tests they asked me to do and they cant do anything about it?
I asked BestBuy if they can do something about it. They said YES with $1679.00…thats to restore the data. Luckily, most of my data is online….but to restore some of the videos and other image data, spending almost $1700 was too much.
When Dell shipped the replacement, I spent almost 2 days installing the OS and the software only to realize the blue screen of death to appear again and that was the trigger point for me to get rid of Dell and Windows. Instead of spending $1700 to restore the data and wasting my time on this crap, I decided to go with a MacBook Pro.
With Apple, I didn’t have any problem opening any boxes…..I just spent couple of hours installing the apps I need and I am all set. I couldn’t think of anything else. For just in case scenarios, unlike Zoli, I bought Windows XP license and installed it on Parallels…and it is all working like a charm now. At this point, I am glad I moved out of windows and I wish I never have to go back to that deadly Dell/Windows combination. With an iMac, MacBook Pro, AppleTV, Airport Extreme and an iPhone, I guess I am too much tied into Apple now.
iMovie '08: Movie creation in less than 30 mins & Rendering more than 30 mins
by Raju Vegesna on August 14, 2007
As I write this post, I am waiting for one of my video to render in iMovie 08 and it says that it has 45 minutes remaining to save my video in MOV format.
Today I bought iMovie ’08 primarily to edit some new movies. I am really blown away by its simplicity and it is very very well done. Great job to whoever is involved in this project. It saved me lot of FinalCut Pro time. I was able to finish editing a seven minute movie in about 30 mins, but when I wanted to save the movie in .mov, it is taking forever on my iMac. While this is happening, my CPU usage is less than 25%.
While it is doing its job, I thought I’ll quickly post on this.
Apple's Next Product: iTv?
by Raju Vegesna on July 13, 2007
No, I am not refering to Apple TV. I am speculating about a possible upcoming product. Looking at the trends, I cant help but speculate on this. You’ll find details on why I think it makes sence for Apple to do a TV.
In a recent (I actually wrote this prior to iPhone release) Q&A Session, Steve Jobs said the following.
Q: So many analysts have suggested that with the expected success of the iPhone, Apple is about to be transformed into a different kind of company. What’s your take?
Jobs: I hope it doesn’t change Apple too much, we like it the way it is. We’ve got two strong legs on our chair today — we have the Mac business, which is a $10 billion business, and music, our iPod and iTunes business, which is $10 billion. We hope the iPhone is the third leg on our chair, and maybe one day Apple TV will be the fourth leg.
We know that iPhone (and its successors) have the potential of being a third leg to apple adding another $10Billion.
On the other hand, anyone who have used Apple TV can easily say that it doesnt have the capability to be another leg (I mean another $10Billion business). I see Apple TV as an experiment to test the waters for a possible TV product from Apple. Having released excellent 30” displays and products like Apple TV, I dont see Apple far from doing an iTV.
…and BTW, if you remember, Apple initially named its current Apple TV as iTV initially. If iTV is supposed to be the third leg, it suites its current naming convention. But why did it change the name, well, I can guess there is another product named ‘iTV’ that is on the way. Apple is just testing the waters with its AppleTV.
When this happens, assume that iTunes playing a more central role. It is the only application that’ll connect the four legs of Apple – The Macs, iPods, iPhone and ofcourse iTV. Now with a Computer, Phone, Music, Movies and a TV, Apple will completely control your living room. I am not going to say no as I love their products.
The next questions is, how can iTV be better than current TVs? Well, there are lots of things you can expect. Here are a few quick ones.
- Current Apple TV will be part of iTV (streaming photos, movies, audios, movie trailers, YouTube etc)
- TV will have a web cam embedded for virtual family gatherings
- Wont you love it if your TV has WiFi (to Sync photos, music, movies from iTunes)
- Tivo like functionality to record your TV
- Your iPhone or your Touch Screen iPod becomes the remote for your TV (or even the keyboard for your TV)
- If you get a call on your iPhone while watching TV, it’ll show up right on your TV
- With Steve Jobs on Disney’s board and with iTunes succesful, it sure can get all the content
Anyway, this is all speculation. But if I were to bet on Apple’s next category, it would be this one.
No wonder Apple dropped ‘Computers’ from its name.
Facebook + Spock can be a KILLER Integration
by Raju Vegesna on July 12, 2007
Robert Scoble responds with a great post to some of the discussions going on regarding Facebook. Reading through his post, one part caught my eye. Facebook is not good at, as Scoble explains, is capturing the information regarding a person and a relation. To quote him…
Second, how could the friends definitions and ties be improved? 1000 ways. I’ll be honest, I don’t use the at all. I just add you as a friend and don’t put any details in there about how I know you. For one, adding that kind of detail is a competitive advantage for me and for PodTech.
For instance, my first result is for Danny Krimgold. I’ve never written about Danny. You don’t know who he is. But he was one of the first people I talked with on Netmeeting back in 1996. He was in high school then and I could tell he was damn smart. I kept in touch with him as he went to Cornell, got a masters in computer science, and now is working at McCann Erickson as a project manager. There isn’t a good way to tell Facebook how I know Danny. In fact, I found that there isn’t a good way to tell Facebook how I know people for about 70% of the people I know through the Internet. So, I just leave them all blank. I guess the best choice in NetMeeting is the “met randomly” choice, but that sounds so stupid. So, I leave it blank.
In my view, there are two areas where Facebook can be further improved.
- Easy way to find the right people
- Good way to capture relations
This is exactly where Spock shines. Spock finds people and it does it well and keeps on improving as more people are on it. Earlier I was searching for ‘Matt Marshall’ on Facebook and I find 200+ people in Facebook. If I do the same search in Spock, I get more than 500 results. But if I search for ‘Matt Marshall VentureBeat’ in Facebook, I get no results (I know he is on there) while Spock is spot on with the correct result.
As Scoble says, the relation ships are not captured well in Facebook and I completely agree with him. Again, this is where Spock shines. The ‘Related People’ section in Spock is very flexible and can greatly help Facebook.
I can go on with different scenarios. I think Facebook and Spock can be a great couple. Will it happen? Lets wait and see.
Scoble’s Spock video is here.
iPhone Experience: 5 Days Later
by Raju Vegesna on July 4, 2007
I want to jot down some of my experiences with iPhone in the last 5 days. First of all, I should say, I LOVE it. I cant imagine myself switching to any other phone now. If you are a gadget freak like me, I recommend getting it. But if you are not, I’d say WAIT. It is soooo 1.0 product.
Why do I say it is 1.0 product? Well, it crashes. It crashes so often, it gets frustrating at times. In the last 5 days, I have seen applications crash tens of times. Just today I was using Safari and it crashed….it crashed 8 times in an hour. I see this as the biggest issue. I really hope Apple will fix this issue soon.
I really like the way music fades out when a call comes in and when the call is done, it simple fades back in. This is awesome. But I really wish they use this concept for others too – Like Music-Safari especially if both these apps cannot work together. If I play Music and then open Safari, guess what happens – CRASH – both safari and iPod. I have seen many other scenarios like this which will crash different iPhone apps. I have also seen YouTube and Mail apps crash several times.
Another key issue with the iPhone is, it is VERY hard to operate it with a single hand. You’ll need both the hands to make any decent entries/changes. The interface is designed for two hands. You sure can operate it with one hand, but you’ll drop it one day. Ofcourse, the iPhone can withstand a drop, but not a flat-drop if you are unlucky.
Many people say they use their mobile for their email. My question is, how is it possible especially when these email apps have no filters. Am I missing something here? Currently, I get about 250-300 emails a day. Not all are addressed to me. There is no way to filter and fetch emails addressed directly to me. I hoped that the email in iPhone will have filters. But it doesn’t. So I cant iPhone for my work email. This is sad. But I love the email app, it does work well for my personal email.
Overall, I love my iPhone, but I do hope that the issues will be sorted out soon. The good news is, everything is software in iPhone. A simple update one day could fix most of the issues. Its like SaaS in that sense.
iPhone is locked at SIM Level too
by Raju Vegesna on June 29, 2007
I got my iPhone today. So I tried different stuff. First, I could’nt use my phone number that belonged to a business account. It asked me to contact customer care and they had no clue on what the error is and I wasted about 30 mins on that. When I asked the AT&T rep on how to activate my number from a biz account, she said it cannot be done and she suggested me to return my iPhone for my account to work. Are they kidding? Anyway, after putting me on hold for several times, she gave me some contact info of National Biz Ordering center and they are open during weekdays only.
I later went ahead and signed up a new account.
After the activation is complete, I thought my other AT&T SIM Card would work, but iPhone throws a SIM Card Error and it asked me to reactivate the phone. Well, I did try few things, but no luck. I cant believe this….it is not just locked at the carrier, but also at the SIM Card level too.
Update: I was able to get this working. If you want to use your Biz Phone Number with the iPhone, follow this procedure.
- Activate your iPhone signing up for a new account. You’ll get a new phone number
- After the activation is completed, insert your other SIM card. It’ll throw a SIM Card Error. It’ll ask you to activate again.
- Activate again with your existing SIM Card in, but provide the details of the number you previously got
- AT&T will say that it’ll activate it after verification. Give it few hours time. You’ll get a confirmation from AT&T to your email address once activated
- Once activated, your new SIM should work fine
- Now, you can cancel your new phone number saying that you dont have service at your house (I need to try this yet). Will do next week
RSS Reader for iPhone
by Raju Vegesna on June 27, 2007
Engadget reports that Apple has an RSS Reader coming for iPhone. The URL is currently active on Apple’s website. I am sure it’ll be taken offline soon. Here is what the says currently.
We probably will see more such apps for iPhone coming soon from Apple….and ofcourse from many other app vendors.