In 2008, I had used an Apple G4 Powerbook for a few years and I had just purchased my new Macbook Pro (Core 2 Duo, non-unibody). Sitting around reading Daring Fireball and looking at my online brokerage account, I realized that I wanted to invest but Apple was really the only company that I knew about. I don’t know where Microsoft is headed, I don’t know where Google is headed but I had enough insight about Apple to be confident about their future.

I didn’t have any kind of strategic insight into Apple’s roadmap but I knew one thing. I was going to keep buying Apple products for the foreseeable future. So why not buy some of their stock as well? It helped that mid-to-late 2008 was around the time when the world had lost confidence in the stock market. I bought small, conservative lots of stocks at various prices. As the iPhone and the iPad continued to grow, I stopped buying because I didn’t want to take on more risk. A few weeks ago, I finally decided I didn’t want to wait for AAPL to continue soaring so I cashed out, turned my unrealized gain into realized gain.

Yay for me! I bought an iMac to celebrate.

P.S. I’m still awful at stocks. I look at the current landscape and I don’t see any bets worth making.

iPhone Alarm does not loop, large gap between end and start

Description

1. Set an alarm on your iPhone
2. Let the alarm start ringing

Expected: Alarm tone should sound and continue to repeat until dismissed. When tone is repeated there should be no gap between the end and the start of the tone.

Actual: Very large gap. Approximately 1 second of silence between the tone finishing and starting again.

Justification

Fixing this would be the kind of attention to detail that differentiates Apple from other companies. Also, I have a loop of M.O.P.’s Ante Up as my alarm sound and sometimes it goes off while I’m in the shower and I like to freestyle while the alarm is ringing. As of right now, I cannot do this because of this unsightly gap.

As you know, I’m in the midst of seeing if I could switch back to Windows. Using Windows Live Movie Maker made me miss iMovie dearly. Mostly because iMovie is very familiar to me and I was kicking and screaming as to why everything had to be different. But there were a few legitimate gripes too.

I recorded a video recently of me doing a (very amateur) cover of Radiohead’s No Surprises. I recorded this in my living room with my Flip MinoHD, a cheap but popular consumer-grade camera that many geeks are tinkering around with for super-casual video. Here’s what my video looks like in Movie Maker:

It’s a familiar layout for anyone that’s used iMovie before. On the left is where you watch the video. The other part is a “film strip” where you get to see your entire video laid out like a long sentence. Unlike iMovie, there’s no third pane where you can cut and paste film strips from the raw video. Instead, Movie Maker will just import the entire thing into your work area and leave you to work it into your finished movie like flour into dough. Biggest problem here: the thumbnails are all identical. I had about 15 minutes of footage and I only used the last 4 minutes and it doesn’t help when I have no thumbnails at all to reference. It’s most likely because Flip is using some MP4 format and I guess I should be glad that it imported the video at all.

Number 2: No timestamp over the playhead in the film strip area. I get absolutely no sense of time scale.

Number 3: There is no obvious split button. There’s a cute little bar down the bottom to control the size and time interval of the thumbnails but nothing to split it into separate strips that can be moved around. How do we do it then?

It’s under this Video Tools > Edit part of the ribbon! Which is entirely redudant because this is Movie Maker and practically everything I want to do involves “editing video”. Split and Trim should be made as first-class citizens of the toolbar where the thumbnail buttons are.

Transitions are super easy and better for novices. You just click and it makes the transition. iMovie gives you finer control but it gets a bit fiddly trying to manage it all. Adding transitions in Movie Maker is as easy as making text bold.

Last bitching point, the volume slider:

Drag this around to change the volume of your selected clip. Except it starts at 100% and that means you can only decrease volume. Consumer video is shitty and we don’t have sound technicians and boom mic operators. My video turned out super fucking quiet even though I was only sitting three feet away. We need 1) to crank shit up to 400% (I think iMovie doesn’t go this high) and 2) a basic noise or “hissing” filter.

Overall, I actually kind of like Movie Maker. It’s a rare gem because it’s a Microsoft product that’s on a strict diet. It does the very basic video stuff and little else. It hasn’t morphed into the strange creature that iMovie is today. It just needs to take a few more (big) steps to make home videos look automatically brilliant and I could actually recommend it to people. Personally, I’m still more of a power user and I’ll continue to maintain my allegiance to iMovie.

Well, I bit my tongue on the last one. They dismissed it as simply fashion and they think as soon as the iPhone loses its fashion appeal, it will go away. I’m probably being a fanboy when I say this but: they just don’t understand Apple’s success.

One, the iPhone’s true appeal: the market for smartphones was a wasteland before Apple joined. There were these Windows Mobile phones where you had to fire up task manager and kill Internet Explorer because it had hung, just like we do today on our computers. There were these Blackberry things that were super popular amongst the hyperactive typist crowd but had a hard time appealing to the casual people. There were all these other phones that each came with a slightly different variation of the core operating system, slightly different user interface, every single app had to be re-invented for each new iteration and it was about as convincing a sell as those Casio calculator-watches. The iPhone came and brought you a common set of hardware platforms and a common software platform that everyone could build off. As Apple updated things, updates were sent to all iPhones of all ages and your existing apps still worked with the new hardware. The UI is far more obvious than other phones. The advanced touchscreen is bucketloads of fun (yes, fun) to play with. When the App Store was introduced, apps were dead easy to find, install and play. Apple controlled the entire experience from the bottom up so that customers didn’t have to suffer the same problems as other phones today.

Two, the fashion thing: this is a terrible argument. Yes, there will always be uninformed consumers that buy according to peer pressure but sometimes peer pressure ain’t so bad when there are a hundred different products in the marketplace and there’s all this jargon you need to read up on before you can make an informed decision. We’re in the middle of a recession and people are still lining up to buy these things, you don’t think there’s a reason beyond trying to look hip? iPhones are actually useful and fun things that people love them and it’s just sour grapes to dismiss it as a fashion accessory. I bet when your company’s product beats out Apple and has people lining up for it, you won’t be dismissing it as “just fashion”.

Finally: once the iPhone loses its appeal, it will go away. This is true of umm… everything in the consumer electronics market. Everyone is trying to build something better than the iPhone. You know who is in the best position to obsolete the iPhone 3GS? Apple. With the iPod mini to iPod nano transition, they proved that they’re willing to innovate and kick any of their existing products to the curb. Because each new iteration of their products makes the old one look like turds and they have a proven track record that makes buyers and investors trust them more than say, the makers of Windows Vista.

One of the biggest reasons I’m glad I switched to Mac and started following Apple news is that I can see things from both sides. I don’t ever want to be one of those software developers that is firmly in one camp and just takes pot shots at the competition. And yes, I understand that Apple is doing a lot of things wrong with its App Store because its new territory for them but, look, the App Store is only one year old. In one year, they introduced this runaway success that has pulled in hundreds of smart developers (and thousands more stupid ones) and all its competitors are now following suit. If they aren’t able to fix this App Store in the next year then it will be because all the smart people that built iTunes and the App Store have collectively died and been replaced with morons.

• Personal laptop (an old 15″ MacBook Pro)
• Work computer (dual monitor Dell machine, running the Windows 7 Beta)
• iPhone 3G

I have illustrated this with a professional-looking Venn diagram. You can see the kind of data that I need access to on each of the devices.

I want to say I use each of these computers for very different things but it’s not really true. It’s mostly checking email and dicking about on websites. I attribute three factors that allowed me to justify going multi-device: 1) Web 2.0, 2) Wider adoption of Macs, especially amongst developers and 3) iPhone developer gold rush.

Web 2.0 is a horrible buzzword that has sadly slipped into my vocabulary. I basically mean websites that function like applications do. Things like Gmail, Flickr and Google Reader do the things that desktop apps used to do and they have the added benefit of being accessible from any computer in the world with an internet connection. These days, the website version comes first and then the desktop apps follow later.

Adoption of Macs among developers is probably a catalyst to the whole Web 2.0 thing. Before, Mac users and Windows users suffered a lot of segregation. They each lived in their own universe of applications and file formats and getting them to talk and share with each other was about as frowned upon as interracial marriage. Nowadays, everybody uses the same frigging websites and they work fine in any major browser. While it’s still hard to introduce a Mac into an old corporate environment with lots of legacy, Windows-only cruft, you’ve got a much higher standard of features, interoperability and compatibility.

iPhone developer gold rush has inspired a lot of big wins for the consumer. Mobile internet only a short while ago was a barren desert going through long periods of drought. Quality was low and applications were either written by hobbyists or the lowest bidder that your phone provider could find. The iTunes App Store has proven quite notably that there is money to be made and customers to be won; Apple solved the chicken and egg problem by building an incredible hype machine and selling a jillion phones. Hence, the gold rush. There’s actually a bit of Wild West mentality in the App Store, it’s more of a bazaar where people are churning out all kinds of trivial apps to cash in on all these trigger-happy customers before the App Fatigue (or the economic recession) sets in.

I like all this data convergence that’s going on. It means I can move between devices without losing access to my data and, more importantly, it means I could move away from devices.

This is a big part of why I love buying stuff on Etsy. Those sellers freaking love you. They send you little thank you cards and they wrap your item up all nice and personal. It reminds me of the ridiculous attention-to-detail displayed by some retailers in Japan.

Anyway, today I want to talk about Full Body Films. They are actually pretty hard to Google and could probably work on their website a little. Basically they sell these sticky adhesive plastic sheets (the film) and they adhere to the face and body. Why would you want this? To protect from scratches and life’s other little scrapes, of course!

So I order my film for the low price of $17.00 (plus shipping) and they send me the goods packed between two pieces of environmentally friendly cardboard. Inside you get three films. One is for the body. The other two are for the face, one is the Glass Film which is super transparent and the other is the Pro-Finish film which is glare-resistant and feels a little thicker. I picked the Pro one because it sounds cooler. This was the easy part, it took two seconds to apply and everything looked awesome.

Now, when it was time to apply the body film, it was much harder to apply and their instructions stress that you exercise caution and patience in this part. The body film has a much more temperamental adhesive and it can stretch quite easily which sucks because you want the perfect fit. Around the curvy parts of the body, you can run into problems if you have not thought this out well.

You should know by now that I’m a klutz. I fucked it up royally and the adhesive wore off after repeated peelings and the corners didn’t look quite right and it started to look like a ill-fitting condom. I did not follow the instructions closely because the first part was so easy and forgiving and I got complacent.

Here comes the cool part, I just email the guys at Full Body Films and they send me a replacement. I was polite and apologetic and I told them I was genuinely impressed with their product. For them to make a protective film that looked near-invisible, I can certainly understand why it is difficult to put on. Without skipping a beat, they said they’d love to send me a replacement and asked for my order details. Usually this would be the part where they mumble something about store policy and I limp away and listen to Linkin Park but not today!

There are various other near-invisible films on the market but this one comes recommended by my favorite review site and, after you apply it correctly, it actually looks really classy. So, if you’re looking for a protective but unobtrusive body and face film, look no further than FullBodyFilms.com.

1. It costs money

Yup, it’s not free. It’s not even cheap. You spend a lot of money to take part in AT&T’s exclusive deal with Apple. Even worse for other people who live in certain unfortunate countries. Why does stuff cost money? I did save some money by buying accessories from MonoPrice.com and Amazon.com.

2. Battery life

If you dick about with the phone all day, you’ll run out of battery. The main thing that sucks it up is 3G, GPS and maybe 3D games. I haven’t done measurements but if you’re a heavy user, you’ll want to charge it daily or maybe twice daily. All I know is that if I keep touching it, eventually it turns off and starts ignoring me; just like my first wife.

3. It’s a phone?

The “Phone” app isn’t great. My last mobile phone was the “dumb” kind with the numbers 0-9, * and #. It was very easy to dial numbers. Now I need to press Home, select Phone, select Keypad. The screens take a little longer than I want to show up. I want it to be lightning fast but it’s not. Partly because the software is slow and partly because it feels weird using a touchscreen to dial a phone number.

4. App Store

There’s nothing that you absolutely 100% need off the App Store. It’s going to take some time for the really awesome apps to bubble to the surface. Apps where the developer actually gives a shit about quality and support instead of snatching a quick buck off the iPhone gravy train.

What I’m not complaining about: the on-screen keyboard, the smudge marks, the DRM, or the developer NDA.

In terms of coolness, I want the iPhone 3G more than ever. It lives up to the expectations I had, the App Store looks like it’s the bee’s pajamas. My one reservation would be the battery life. I never knew that using 3G would suck up battery so quickly. So much for next-gen technology.

In terms of cost, I still have a hard time convincing myself. It would be a very generous present to myself. I’d essentially be doubling my phone bill every month. And the upfront payment. And the cancellation fee for my existing service. And the tax of having co-workers and hipsters notice my shiny new gadget when all I wanted was a pocket-sized porn machine.

In conclusion, buying an iPhone would be my Christmas and Birthday present rolled into one. If I took the money and just bought like 15-20 stocks in Apple, I could use future earnings to offset my tech lust. But that’s about as sound a financial idea as trading my family’s last cow for magic beans.

I mean, it made sense back in the day when everything was done over the phone because internet was still new and scary. You could call people and co-ordinate meetings, disseminate little bits of timely information or just bitch about your day. Those are all great things that are done so much better by SMS and the internet. My want to be online, have email and write short little pieces of text is so much bigger than my want to hear someone’s voice.

There are very few people on this planet that could tell me, “Hey Jack, carry around this cancer box with you in your pants. When it rings, drop whatever you are doing and hold it up to your ear so I can beam my voice directly into your brain.” If my mother asked me to do that, I would decline. My boss? No way. My friend? I’d tell them to email or IM instead. Barack Obama? Yes. He could read me the Illinois phone book and I’d just sigh and tell him he has a dreamy voice. (Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring, Obama-phone!)

Carry around the internet in my pocket? Yes. I find it so darn useful. I can check for directions and never be afraid of getting lost anywhere that has decent Google Maps coverage. I can search for restaurants and check out reviews. I can entertain myself on bus rides, coffee lines or waiting rooms. I can find answers to those stupid questions that come up during everyday intellectual curiosity.

At the end of the day, having mobile internet is not super important. I love having directions all the time though because I get lost a lot. Otherwise, I can do without. I can almost do without the phone part too. So in reality, my lifestyle is such that I could be one of those people that lives without a mobile phone and it would be a small-ish inconvenience, like, not having a credit card but I would not die. Being the gadget freak and Apple fanboy that I am though, I lust after the iPhone. It is my current obsession in the way that you obsessed about the Sex and the City movie, the way you think it’s important to buy extended warranty, the way you think a Collector’s Edition is somehow more valuable or perhaps why you spend so much time being anxious about petrol prices. It’s irrational, it’s crazy, it’s expensive but I must have it.

You see that $720 for 24 months of data? That’s scary. It’s a compulsory part of the bundle but the benefit is that it is hellishly fast compared to the excuse of a mobile internet connection I have now. I could probably add another $300 for the iPhone they will no doubt release in 2009 to make the existing model obsolete. Heck, I could add $100 in there just for accessories alone (car charger, dock, new earphones, matching earrings, etc.).

Here’s how I’m going to crunch the numbers: I’m going to compare it vs. my existing T-Mobile plan with awful non-EDGE internet and less minutes. I’m going to assume I’d spend $300 on a new phone anyway because I hate the free ones they give out. I’m going to be extra generous and assume I would have eventually caved in and purchased a $300 GPS navigation for my car and the iPhone would replace that.

So it would cost an extra $655 over the next 24 months, give or take. That’s quite a bit of change there. It could fund a nice vacation, a few romantic evenings, two tanks of gas, a nice TV or a big ol’ box of sex toys. But let’s not kid myself. I don’t have much willpower. For now, let’s assume it is inevitable I buy one.

To that end, I will set myself some goals:

1. Don’t buy any expensive electronics between now and iPhone
2. Be debt-free before buying
3. Find a way to weasel out of T-Mobile’s early cancellation fee

I think by the time I do pay off my car, I’ll probably somewhere in early 2009 which means my current contract will be about to expire anyhoo. Sigh. Between now and then, I have my trip to Korea later this month as well as whatever other travel will occur in that time.

Ok, so if I frame the iPhone in terms of my other financial commitments, it looks like I can’t afford it. If I just look at the monthly costs and my credit card limit, I can afford it. I could buy it on launch day and I wouldn’t have cornered myself into living paycheck-to-paycheck but at this point for me, I could swing either way. I think the thing for me to do now is sit on this for a month. Let’s re-examine this on July 17th.