My bumpy road to iOS5

It’s funny when you get an error message and you start to Google it and see the undercurrent of comments and posts about how other people have been having similar errors. It’s almost like an underground movement of fellow victims, trying to help each other out. Anyway, when I tried to update my iPhone 3GS and iPad (v.1) to iOS5, I quickly encountered an error during the backup step of the upgrade (when iTunes backs up all your info and media so that it can restore it after it’s wiped out your device and put on the new OS).

An error occured while backing up this iPad (-5000).  Would you like to continue to update this iPad? Continuing will result in the loss of all contents on this iPad.

Don’t you just love those scary parts at the end? “Oh, BTW, you can click continue if you like, but you’ll mostly likely be screwed if you do. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!” So, I didn’t click. I started to Google instead. Apparently this problem has been around for a while, going back to several updates, and has happened with iPhones, iPod Touch, etc. Since it was happening with both my devices, I figured that it wasn’t my device’s fault, but something more general.

The help on the boards was not great. There were people who found that retrying the process did the trick (but others tried it over 30 times with no joy). Some people said that turning off their Microsoft antivirus did the trick (which was useless for me, as I had no Microsoft anything). There was also some suggestion that just using the Restore to factory default would give you iOS5 as well and you could just use one of your backups to restore the rest afterward. Some people found that to be the solution, however there was a whole conversation string devoted to people complaining how backup errors wipe out your previous backups so there is no way to restore once you encounter the backup error.

Hilariously, there are often people on these boards who have too much time on their hands and like to deride others with real problems. One guy complained at having lost all his years of tweaking and customization done to his iPhone. I totally get that as my number one priority was not to lose my Angry Birds progress! So another guy responded to the first post by expressing disbelief at the amount of tweaking the first guy had done, suggesting that he’s just being a whiner. Have some sympathy, man! Don’t kick us when we’re down. We have the right to have all our tweaks (no matter how trivial) preserved if they can be.

Finally, after weeks without any luck (even waited for 5.0.1 to see if that version was any better), my plan was to do normal backups (which I could do for some reason) and copy the backups out of the backup folder (\Library\Application Support\MobileSync\Backups) into another folder. Then when the upgrade process wiped out my backup I could still copy them back after I clicked the Continue button to install iOS5, wiping out my device. Then I could restore my files and tweaks from a backup of the backup. However, in the process of backing up the backups, I discovered that the backup folders were protected (at least for me). I could only copy them, not move. And even after copying, I had to log in as administrator to rename them. This turned a light on in my brain. [Cue flashback dissolve effect] When I got my new MBP and restored my folders from Carbonite online backup, I unwittingly changed the name of my admin account from my previous iMac and so the folders that I copied over were protected in this odd way. I needed to log in to make changes to them.

Realizing the problem, I didn’t need this backup of my backup anymore. I decided to try an experiment and I renamed the original backup folders in the original location, and made a new folder called “Backups” in the same location (new folders are not protected in the same way as the other ones were). Then I went to run the update in iTunes, and voila! It worked!

Now I am happily using Notifications, enjoying the multi-touch gestures on my iPad, and trying to manage the confusion that is iCloud. Plus, ironically, I’ll be able to do future updates through the cloud, and avoid these same problems. (I wrote this post not because it’s likely that any casual reader would be having this problem, but since I found no one out there posting this exact same solution to their -5000 problem, I wanted to put my story into the ether and hopefully in future if someone else does, they will Google my blog and find this solution. Here’s to you, future backup error sufferers!)

Where’s the logic, Apple?

If you’ve been following my little saga, you’ll know that my new MacBook Pro is around three months old. You’d expect that it should be humming along perfectly, right? Me too. Unfortunately, a few weeks ago I was plugging in my old 7 port USB hub for the first time on this computer when it quickly started to smell like something was burning. The computer itself had a hard time waking up from sleep (I later learned that a white frosted-over screen with little white markers at the bottom counting up the boot up progress is actually the computer waking from deeper than normal sleep).

Anyway, when I shut down and unplugged everything and retried, I found that my USB ports were no longer functioning. In a typical error-induced panic, I proceeded to back up my data files to my Drobo. Then I quickly made an appointment online to have my computer looked at by the local Apple store genius bar.

Genius Appointment Day arrives

A few days later, when I got to the store for my appointment, the place was packed! It was like there was a sale on or something (btw, this was before the back to school sale had begun). It was hot in the store and they had multiple mega-fans blowing around the Genius Bar area at the back of the store. I went up to the greeter-genius and told him of my appointment. He told me that while shifting my status to “late” (I was less than five minutes over my appointment time) he had accidentally deleted my appointment. So he reinstated me and told me that there would be a 15 minute wait.

Cut to me 45 minutes later, feeling a bit ticked that I’m still waiting for my appointment in the steam room that is the Genius Bar. Ahead of me was a humorous pair of buttheads who wanted to exchange their busted iPods. I was very impressed by the patience of the Genius, who nicely informed one of the guys that he would have to buy a new iPod as his had no screen and clearly looked like it had been run over by a car. (Some companies just don’t stand behind their products, eh?)

Anyway, the dramatic moment came when I finally got my audience with the Genius, and I have to say that they make you wait for it, but the geniuses definitely deliver. He was friendly, patient, and clearly knew his stuff. He quickly ran all kinds of diagnostics on my computer. It wasn’t hard for him to tell that the USB port wasn’t working.

Surprisingly, he also listened to me talk about all kinds of other quirks about my computer booting slow, or running hot. We even hooked it up to the network for another set of tests only to find out that the only thing wrong was the logic board. Its failure had caused my USB ports to fail and it needed to be replaced. (When he told me that, I laughed a bit in my own mind because if you read my posts from a few years ago you’ll notice that my only other Apple computer — the beloved white iMac — also had to have the logic board replaced!) What’s up with that, Apple?

Anyway, the evening at the Apple Store concluded with my leaving the computer behind for them to send off for repairs. I left the store with an empty MacBook Pro box in hand and, humorously, another clueless greeter perked up as I exited, congratulating me on my “new” computer: “Yay!” she ignorantly proclaimed. (O, the irony!)

Cut to me…

Cut again to a week later and I get a call that they are ordering the parts (and warn me in a voicemail that it may take up to 3 more weeks to fix. I call back to double-check, and it turns out to be more like a week.) Cut once more to another week later, and I’m again in the same mega-fan cooled Apple Store waiting to receive my newly-repaired computer. A different genius than the guy who first helped me brings out my computer, and I sign some papers. However, I want to check that it works before I leave the store.

As I turn it on, I get the white screen with the spinning ring of dots that keeps spinning and spinning. The lady genius who helped me has long moved on to another customer, but I finally flag someone else down to tell him that it’s not booting up. He takes the computer to the back room to have someone else look at it. A few minutes later he comes out and asks me if I’ve backed up my hard drive. That’s not the kind of thing a computer owner wants to hear, buddy! I stammer out that most of my files are backed up, but I want to know why he’s asking. He tells me that the technician wants to reformat my hard drive. I am extremely flustered now. Then he reassures me that they will try to reinstall the operating system first. Slightly relieved, I respond more pleasantly when he tells me to return in 45 minutes. Happy endings in 45 when I leave the store with a fully working MacBook Pro. Phew! That wasn’t easy was it?

Cut to me a couple weeks later when I discover that there’s a permanent white line across my screen. I’ve decided to wait a bit before taking my computer in for another hospital visit. Ironically, I am starting another night school program (which I was also doing the last time I had to get my Mac logic board replaced) and I may need my computer for a while. Sigh! I still love you, Apple, but you really testing that love, aren’t you?

Help, I’m frozen in Carbonite!

As I’ve said already, for the last while, my venerable white iMac had been acting up. Fearing the inevitable, I decided to listen to all that advice out there about backing up my data. One of the solutions I chose was to sign up for Carbonite. Carbonite is a backup service that I’d heard about on the Macbreak Weekly podcast with Leo Laporte. You pay a fee (a relatively reasonable one at that) and download the software onto your computer (Mac or PC) and Carbonite goes to work backing up essentially your entire computer (minus apps and videos). It sounds like a great idea, right? Yes. It’s probably still a good idea, but I want to share a few lessons from my experience so far that they don’t tell you about on the podcasts.

A long long time (… ago, in a galaxy far far away)

If you’re anything like me, with a modern computer and modern computer needs, over time you gather more than your fair share of files. After several years, you end up with a nest egg of more than just a few itty bitty text files. I didn’t really realize how much stuff I had on my computer until I started my initial backup. It was going to take days and days to upload these files to Carbonite’s servers. Thankfully, one of the features of the software is that you can make exceptions, to choose which folders (the ones with large, expendable files) you could leave out of the backup. So I started cutting out large folders, especially stuff that I had backed up elsewhere. Eventually, I shaved the upload time down a bit, but it was still no blink of an eye. Just so you know, in the end I had a total of 60GB of files — so I’m not blaming Carbonite for taking its sweet time, but it’s not how I thought things would go.

Do, or do not. There is no try.

So since I was slightly selective about my backup, I fully expected to be selective about my restoration now that I’ve got my new computer. Carbonite is also equipped with a feature allowing you to browse through your backup files and folders. You can choose what you want to restore: keep one file and discard another. At first I intended to do that very thing, but do you have any idea how many files there are in 60GB? Over 315,000 in my case. Not about to spend my 40s going through that huge haystack, I decided to use the automatic restore mode on Carbonite, where all I had to do was match the user account on my backup against a user account on my computer and Carbonite would take care of the rest.

A long time ago (the sequel)

I have now been waiting on my restoration for 4 whole days. The computer and the software have not stopped running in that time. I am just glad I have unlimited Internet access!

I should tell you about my first experiences with Carbonite. There’s a little progress bar, and a countdown telling you how many files (out of the total) have been restored. Sometimes the numbers don’t move. When I woke up the next morning to check my progress I was amazed that several thousand files had been restored. However the count seemed to have stopped. I thought the software had frozen (oh me of little faith!) and I restarted the preference pane. When the preference pane started up, the progress bar was all swirly and the message indicated that it was still calculating the file count. This went on for at least 15 minutes, at which point I gave up and hit cancel. Y’see, I was under the false impression that once I restarted the restoration, progress would continue from where it left off. When I saw it start from the beginning again, my jaw dropped. There’s one day of solid computing that I won’t get back.

Next time round I did not hit the cancel button no matter how much I doubted the progress. My faith was rewarded as the numbers slowly crept towards the finish line. I even had a Carbonite miracle when I woke one morning to find that almost 100,000 files had been restored overnight. Unfortunately, that was a bit of a tease as the pace has now slowed down to parity with a dying snail. Now I just hope that I can get this done by the end of the week, so my computer can move on with its new life.

As for me, I still don’t doubt that it’s a good service, and it’s not as if another service can really do any better, but this has been an eye-opening ordeal. Now that I’m in the home stretch I just hope that nothing bad happens to disrupt the process before it’s done. If that happens, just look at Han Solo’s expression in the image above to know how happy I will be about that!

Update: A New Hope

After almost a week of solid restoring, I got home from work and found that the Carbonite pref pane was not displaying anymore on my screen, replaced with a pop up warning message about how Carbonite encountered some errors restoring some of my files. There was, unfortunately, no confirmation that my long restoration was complete. I looked at some of my folders and found that they appeared to be full of restored files. It took me a while to find the error log, but it was actually just sitting on my desktop. I opened the file, much to my shock, there were hundreds of files listed, which couldn’t be restored. I panicked a bit and immediately clicked on the button for Carbonite Support that was on the pref pane. I submitted an email form with my problems and clicked submit, but never really felt like the message actually got through.

There was also an option to go with live chat support. There was even the status message saying that there was someone available to receive my chat, so I clicked the link. A friendly support guy came up on the other end of the chat window and I asked about whether my restoration was complete, and what the error log meant. He was very helpful to confirm that the process had completed, but he wasn’t quite clear about the error log. He asked me a few questions about it, and eventually I uploaded the log to him. He recommended seeing the files on my computer by taking remote control. I have always been wary of situations where support folks have to take control of your computer. I feel kind of powerless, but I’d done it before at work, so I figured it’d be OK. Eventually he was combing through the folders on my computer, looking to see if the error log files were indeed restored. They weren’t, but as I looked through the log as well, I saw that the missing files were simply non-essential files, or files that I had already backed up to my Drobo drive. I quickly told the support guy that we could stop the remote control process because I didn’t need the files restored. He also told me that if I needed those files back, I could always come back to my backup and manually transfer them to my computer.

In the end, he wasn’t super helpful, but at least he was very nice about it. Carbonite’s support seems pretty good, but I think it would have been preferable if the software and web site were built with more newbies in mind, who may not know everything that’s going on. Plus, when someone loses their computer, it’s a very stressful time and people are very attached to their files, so there should be a whole lot more handholding within the restoration process.

All in all, I can’t say that I’d recommend Carbonite as a backup solution, but it’s alright. There may be better, more user-friendly ones out there. Hopefully there are also some quicker ones out there.

In the end, between my Drobo drive and Carbonite, I think I’ve got everything back that I needed, so I guess that was the point all along.

Mac is dead, long live Mac!

So it finally happened. After months of long startup times, of not knowing when it might shut itself down with little warning, and of my Address Book menus mysteriously appearing in Danish (yes, that really happened), my iMac finally faded to white (it was mid-startup when it would not go beyond the white screen — oddly symbolic, actually) and gave up the ghost.

At first I was just waiting out the refresh on the iMacs and that came. The new iMacs got upgraded to Sandy Bridge processors and to Thunderbolt for peripherals. However, after my brother and my friends all got MacBook Pros, I started to think about getting one instead.

On one hand, the iMac has that huge, gorgeous screen. Every time I go to Best Buy or the Apple Store to try it out, I am mesmerized by that screen. On the other hand, I live in a tiny condo and for years I have given up my dining table to my iMac (content to eat on the coffee table in front of the tv instead). Also, I’ve long been eyeing the Boxee Box because I want to enjoy its fun little interface on my big tv. When I had my iMac I could run Boxee there, but it was always on my immovable desktop. It felt ridiculous to watch tv on my computer when I was only a few feet away from the tv. With the laptop, I can simply hook up my computer to the tv and get the best of both worlds.

Finally, there’s much to be said for portability. I think it still hasn’t sunk in for me yet, but it’s hard for me to really fathom that my whole, powerful computer will be able to travel with me wherever I go rather than having to sit down at home before I can do some serious computing.

My new Mac arrived the day before my birthday, and I’ve enjoyed it so far. I think my favourite thing is the nice hi-res screen. I hardly feel the loss of inches (it’s as if my iMac were just a bit further away). Plus, the keyboard that I wasn’t sure I’d like (y’see I loved the old white iMac keyboards a lot!) is actually pretty comfortable. Who knows? I think I still might pick up a nice big monitor (maybe not from Apple, since the beautiful 27″ cinema display still costs a pretty penny), but it’s definitely nice to have the flexibility.

So so long, iMac. We’ve been through a lot together, but I’m a MacBook Pro guy now. It’s all good so long as we keep it in the family, right Steve Jobs?

Qwiki, Hitpad, Zite & Flipboard: The next generation of iPad info apps

In only one short year, the iPad has changed the way we consume internet information. Wikipedia, RSS, Twitter, and other online sources of info and input are not new, but who isn’t sick of scanning through endless streams of text headlines? The iPad provides a great platform for users to get this kind of info in a media-rich way, and the latest batch of apps (all free!) makes that experience even more enjoyable and exciting.

Qwiki is a brand new app which makes interacting with Wikipedia much more lively. While Wikipedia takes the traditional paper-bound encyclopedia and adds not only the mass-authoring dimension, but also the online searchability of the information provided. Qwiki takes a leap forward by making Wikipedia more like a tv/video program. It takes the various images associated with a topic and shifts focus from one image to the next all the while a pleasant computer voice reads out the summary text from the Wikipedia entry itself. For most of us raised on TV and other kinds of active media, this is a lot more engaging than having to read each entry for ourselves. It even makes me want to browse around Wikipedia even more than before. For those who are interested in more detail, there are links to the actual Wikipedia page as well as other relevant sources at the end of the readout, so people can click to open those within the browser.

Hitpad a slickly-designed aggregator of info from a few different sources. Across the screen it displays columns for News, Twitter, Videos, Web and Photos. Each column pulls from various sources to collect different types of info and media about the topic in question. On the left there is a trending topics bar which allows users to discover topics which are popular on the internet at the time (according to Hitpad, anyway). Once you click on one of those topics, the columns all repaint with info and media relevant to the topic you’ve selected. While the trending topics are mildly interesting, I often prefer to look up other topics, so the search bar allows me to enter my own. Hitpad will pull together info and media from across the internet for topics that I query as well. So far I don’t find Hitpad as useful as the other apps simply because the limited number of topics (or the additional steps required to enter my own topics) make it slower to get info that is of interest to me. However, Hitpad brings back all kinds of media results which the other apps don’t, and the interface is extremely well made and fun to use.

Zite and Flipboard are similar apps that aggregate from your RSS feeds (specifically whatever you’ve subscribed to using Google Reader). Both apps use the iPad’s touch interface to allow you to swipe the screen to flip pages and tap on articles arranged in grids in order to read more. They both take images and fill the grid with them in order to increase visual appeal, and they both make use of the folders you’ve set up in Google Reader to organize feeds by topics. The one main difference is that Zite will also seed articles from other feeds that you haven’t subscribed to or selected (which got them in a bit of trouble from some publishers of those feeds/sites). Nevertheless, this feature is both a plus and a minus in my books for using Zite over Flipboard. When I run out of new posts on Flipboard, I’ll probably fire up Zite to find more posts to read. However, I prefer Flipboard on a regular basis because it’s less cluttered by feeds that I didn’t actually subscribe to. (I know it’s a bit of Catch-22, but that’s how I feel, OK?) Regardless, both are very nice to use and make reading RSS feeds much more of a pleasure than NetNewsWire and other similar apps ever did.

Infinity Blade – Game Review

If you think that games on the iPhone and iPad are all puzzle games about cutting the rope or flinging birds at pigs, and wish that there were something more exciting, visually impressive, and more violent (You can’t help it, you’ve been desensitized by TV, right?) then you should try the impressive Infinity Blade. Originally there was a free demo that showed how amazing the 3D environment could be rendered on an iOS device, but now it’s a full-blown game. The title is completely apt because essentially you play a knight in a fantasy realm trying to get to the top of a castle where you face the evil God King (this isn’t much of a spoiler because it happens right away when you start the game) and you end up dead very quickly. Fortunately, your descendant (who’s got the same equipment, gold, experience as you did) comes back to try again. Along the way into the castle and up its tower, you do battle with a number of enemies (though not a very large number of enemies) before you face the God King again (and probably die again). This cycle keeps going again and again until you defeat him (and even then it goes on).

What makes this game good is firstly the graphics. The 3D CGI is amazingly sharp and you really feel a sense of the virtual depth. The characters, their weapons, armour, etc. are really imaginatively-designed and look good (My favourite enemy is called a Wood Jester, look for him!). The gameplay functions perfectly for a player like myself. I like things simple. I don’t like having to manipulate 10 different parameters, or perform a complex series of gestures just to get my character to do something. Instead, there are two arrows at the bottom corners of the screen to allow you to dodge to the left or right when the enemy attacks. There are also blocking moves, parries, stabs, etc. To attack, you just slide your finger over the enemy in a slashing motion. Again, the graphics are nice and fluid. On top of all that, there are spells that you perform by drawing a certain pattern on the screen with your finger once your magic gauge is full. Even on my iPad 1, the responsiveness is excellent, and my knight moves quickly and responds to all my commands (for the most part) immediately.

As you continue to fight, after each victory, you get gold and experience. The experience also goes towards mastering your weapons and armour (which is actually kind of a bad thing because there’s a gauge on each item which fills with experience points and as they fill up, they increase your overall experience and allow you to level up. Unfortunately, once you master an item, there are no more points added to your overall experience, so levelling-up goes much slower until you can buy and equip more items. Items cost gold, but there is a way to make in-app purchases for more game-gold in exchange for real-world cash. If you have the patience to spend many virtual bloodlines to do it, you probably can earn the gold in the game world eventually without shelling out more actual dollars.

Anyway, after you level up and get good weapons and armour, you will probably defeat the God King. Unfortunately that doesn’t automatically get you to the next level (I thought that surely the Infinity Blade which the God King uses would have been given to me and then I could use it to unlock the second level in the basement, but I have to earn the gold to buy the Infinity Blade myself — and it’s not cheap!). Anyway, once you get the Infinity Blade, you put it into a small obelisk in the castle basement which then opens three more doors to the Deathless Kings cells (this is the new content that was part of a free upgrade from the company). The Deathless Kings are even tougher than the God King, and pretty cool looking to boot.

As far as tips go, it was a great tip that I got from another blog which recommended that after a certain point, I should restart level 1 (keeping all I had acquired) because the enemies would be easier now that I’d levelled up and I could get more gold and experience quicker than ever. Another tip is that a healing ring is a must-have for any big battle. It allows your knight to become almost deathless himself.

Unfortunately there are a few flaws to the game as well. I already mentioned problem with mastering items. Another problem is the repetitiveness of the game (but that can actually be fun because you’ll become a better fighter by learning how each enemy fights). It would be nice if there were more paths within the castle, more choice. Also, maybe because it’s such a large app to have in RAM, it crashes not-infrequently. Thankfully your progress will likely be saved in the system so you can come right back to where you left off.

After I beat the final boss, I’ll have to look back at how distracting this game has been. I’ve spent many hours playing this game, and enjoyed every minute. (4 out of 5)

Alvin & iMac: The End of an Era?

Lately my beloved 19″ white iMac is not doing so good. I know my computer is just an object, but it’s amazing how intimate some of us can become with our machines, how emotionally invested in them we can become. Frankly, it’s because of an emotional incident that led me to become a Mac owner to begin with (no, I was not swayed by charming commercials featuring Justin Long and John Hodgeman) but it was when I had a virus attack on my old Windows PC on Christmas Day. I was so frustrated and annoyed (beyond annoyed, downright panicked) by it that the idea of a computer/operating system without viruses was like a lifeboat to a drowning man. Now, almost six years later, I’ve been an Apple convert (some would say fanatic) since day one, but my first Mac is showing some signs of its age.

First there was the freezing

So, I’d be working on my computer (maybe I’m doing a few things at once, but that’s normal, right) and then suddenly I’d click on Firefox, or Quicklook, or any darned thing, and I’d get the spinning beachball of death, then eventually that would go back to the arrow pointer, but I couldn’t click on anything, and the clincher was that the clock in my menu bar stayed frozen as well. There was no response from anything. I might have preferred to believe that time had stopped in the universe at large, but I quickly admitted to myself that I needed to do a super-hard reboot by pressing the power button until it shut down my computer, then power on again. Sad.

Then there was the blackouts

Now, I’d already had black screen of death experiences a few years back when my Mac’s logic board died, but I got it replaced and had no problem since then. This problem was different. The screen would go dark all of a sudden, but I could still tell that the computer was on and running (I’m not sure how). It’s like I’m on the other side of a closed door, and even though I can’t hear any footsteps or sounds of movement, I know that there are people on the other side. Anyway, without the screen, I couldn’t do anything. Reboot. So sad.

Then there was the progress bar

At first the reboots just were like normal, but then one time I started to notice that the grey startup screen with the Apple logo had a new little grey progress bar (isn’t it cool that even when the computer’s breaking down, everything looks nice and matches? I’m clearly an unrepentant fan-boy). I didn’t know what the progress bar was for, but it made the startup a lot longer. Sometimes taking 5, 10 minutes. Googling the problem led me to learn that while people don’t really know what the problem is, there is general agreement that it’s a hardware problem. Booo! Super sad.

In the mean time, I ran Disk Utility and it told me that there were some misreported bytes or something. So, I had to even boot off my Snow Leopard DVD and run Disk Utility again and the problem was fixed (not my real problems — see above — but the misreported bytes were fixed). Disk Utility told me that my hard drive was just fine. Great.

Now my preferences panes don’t work

The latest thing to fail is that when I go into System Preferences, some of them don’t work. When I click on Security, I get the message that it needs to restart System Preferences to run. Then I restart and click again and it tells me that the preference pane failed to load. Sadder than sad.

Nevertheless, given how emotionally invested I am in my computers, I am surprisingly un-sad. It’s about time for me to get a new computer. When I bought my iMac, I told myself that 24″ was too big. 19 was enough. But now when I see the 27″ iMacs in the Apple Store I think, “Yes, I deserve one of those.” However, I’m still going to wait things out. Rumours abound of an imminent refresh of the iMacs (they finally announced the Macbook Pros being refreshed so the iMacs can’t be far behind), plus I want to have Mac OS X Lion pre-installed on my new computer (and that’s supposed to be coming in the summer), so I am going to bide my time, and sit next to the sickbed of my dying iMac. Maybe I’ll bring him some soup or a nice hot cup of tea now and then. I’ll pat his hand soothingly or sing soft lullabies when he’s sleepy. I just want my iMac to rest and enjoy his last days in relative peace.

Now cracks a noble heart. Good-night, sweet prince;
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

In Defense of iPad

In the tech world it feels like old news, especially for the US who have had their iPad for months. In Canada, it’s been less than a month since the magical little device made it to our shores and I still get all kinds of questions from people when they first see me with mine. I guess it’s a testament to the hype and reputation of Apple that everyone seems to have heard enough about the iPad to form some opinions about it (can’t say the same for the latest HTC smartphone or Google Android device). Most people are just curious and are not really intending to judge me for buying an iPad, but since I shelled out the big bucks for the top of the line 3G model, I guess I always feel some need to justify myself as an early adopter and why I don’t think I got scammed.

Do you love it? What do you do with it?
I have to say, even though I don’t believe it’s magical, I do love my iPad. I use it every day, a few times a day. Mostly I’m either checking up on my Godfinger worshippers (it’s a game where you are God, taking care of a bunch of farming minions), or reading on Early Edition (it’s an app that lays out my RSS feeds to look like a newspaper — very cool!). Also, it’s a lazy-man’s device for sure. Even though I’m only a few feet from the computer, whenever I get notifications of new gmails or tweets, instead of getting my butt off the couch to check, I just pull out the ol’ iPad and saved myself from burning a few extra calories. On top of the convenience, I actually find myself really liking the way it runs so smoothly and the way everything looks on it. I’m looking forward to journaling on it as well when vijournal M (a journal app that syncs to my Mac and my iPhone) makes its way to the iPad.

Isn’t it just a big iPod touch?
It’s true that in essence it’s a big iPod touch. It is not as revolutionary as all the marketing from Apple would have you believe. However, my counter-argument is that it’s a big iPod Touch in the same way my recently-purchased 42 inch LCD TV is a big version of my old 26 inch CRT TV. Everyone is clamouring for new big flatscreens, but they’re just essentially bigger versions of the smaller TVs we used to have — but there’s the rub! The larger TV allows for an HD signal to look noticeably better. Similarly, the larger screen real estate of the iPad makes games look better, but also many apps can take advantage of the extra space for menus, lists, etc and still maintain a good sized screen on the right. (Case in point, an app called Air Video lets me stream video from my computer. On my iPhone, the menu takes up the screen until the video comes on, at which point that takes over the entire screen. On the iPad, there are menus on the left, while a decent sized video can fill in the right.) And don’t get me started on how great a reading device it is for comic books, magazines and regular eBooks. The bigger screen makes all the difference.

But it still doesn’t have a camera, or support Flash, right?
Well, those are both true, but frankly, I have yet to care. I have a camera on my iPhone, and I don’t do much chatting, let alone video chatting. I definitely don’t need to be doing that on my iPad. Plus, there’s no way I would be caught dead holding my huge iPad up to my face to take a photo. Similarly, there’s only been a handful of times I’ve come across sites on my iPad where missing Flash posed a problem (plus I was reading something recently stating that for most mobile phones, the Flash they support is not the most recent or capable of displaying a lot of the flash video out there on the web.

Does anyone really need an iPad? I could have purchased a computer for that price.
It’s also true that the iPad is a luxury item. For the most part, if you have computing needs, you’d be better off getting a cheap laptop (or maybe even a netbook) but for the rest of us, that is not nearly as fun. Apple does a great job of creating things that developers get behind and support with 1001 inventive new apps/functions. It’s cool to be part of that community. No one needs an iPad, but everybody wants one (at least those people who have had their hands on one). It’s an easy sell.

Bottom line is that it puts so many wonderful things at my fingertips and fills so many of my needs for convenience. It’s a fantasy come true after watching years of Star Trek and seeing them hold their PADD devices in their hands. Now I finally have my own version of one (now if Steve could work on getting me that starship!)

“Slingshot” games for the iPhone

I know everyone else is talking about iPads, but since I live in Canada, I don’t have one yet. However, I would still like to revive my Apple blog by talking about something cool — iPhone games!

Do you remember when games first started coming out for the iPhone and iPod touch? A lot of them tried to make use of the accelerometer (since it was one of the cool new things about the hardware) and we got lots of games like Monkeyball, Dizzy Bee and Labyrinth that made us tilt our phones a lot. Now I noticed another trend: slingshot games. What I mean is that the game’s central element is that you have to pull some kind of virtual elastic and shoot your character forward like a slingshot. I recently discovered these three slingshot games which are similar but different. After wiling away subway hour upon subway hour with them, I’d like to share my review (and my addiction) with you all.

Parachute Ninja

Basically this one is the slingshot version of a platform game (i.e. the Mario Brothers genre). Your character is a little yellow ball. But no ordinary yellow ball — you are a ninja, but no ordinary ninja — you have an umbrella that can pop out of the top of your head (yes, it’s weird but incredibly cute and fun). You start from a elastic green string and slingshot yourself up or sideways depending on the level, avoiding falling into the water below. To help you are other strings along the way (you can rest on the string and then shoot yourself further), fans (they give you lift when you open your umbrella), and bouncy platforms. Unfortunately there are also challenges in the form of spikes that zap, and hovering monsters. This game is very well designed and the levels are challenging (so you have to think about the physics and plan ahead) but not too difficult that you can’t keep going forward. Who’d have thought that being an umbrella ninja yellow ball would be so fun?

Angry Birds

Did you know that there’s a war being waged between the birds and the green pigs? Well there is one in this game. On one side the birds are armed with a big slingshot and various abilities. On the other side, the green pigs build shelters out of wood, bricks, glass and metal. The object of the game is to finish each level by squishing all the green pigs. You are the birds and you slingshot yourselves kamikaze-style at the green pigs in their shelters. Not only is it fun to figure out all the right tactics for taking out the pigs, but what makes this game addictively fun is that each species of bird has special abilities. Little blue birds will split into three birds in mid-flight. Yellow birds gain a sudden burst of power. White birds drop explosive eggs, and black birds are themselves destructive bombs. You probably have to play it to get how enjoyable this game is, but I encourage you to take up arms in this conflict. The Angry Birds need YOU!

Must.Eat.Birds.

Instead of being on the side of the birds, now we use our slingshot to defend ourselves from the birds. In this game we are little round monsters with big mouths and apparently the birds are parachuting onto our picnic and once four birds sit in our four plates, the picnic is over. I know this sounds bizarre (all these games probably do) but this one seems to be a Japanese translation, so it’s probably even more wacky. The way to stop the birds (basically the only thing you do) is slingshot yourself into the air and gobble the birds in mid-drop. The special defence of us orange monsters is that we can shoot out and gobble multiple copies of ourselves. Each time we do, we double in size until we become a large, massive orange monster. But that’s still not the best part! The best part comes when you eat a whole bunch of birds in quick succession a large cake rises up in behind you and someone yells out “Maximum bake” in a strong Japanese accent. At that point, you bounce around the screen like crazy, and your points just go up exponentially — it’s the wildest monster cake picnic ever!

I know all these games probably sound insane and weird, but that is what will get you hooked. Maybe it’s something about slingshots that just cries out for something a little bizarre, but I promise you won’t notice that by your umpteenth hour with them. Just watch out for repetitive sling injuries.

Can’t you feel it f—in’ tingle?!

Is there an app for proving that you are not insane? And why should I have to prove that I’m not insane? Isn’t the customer always right? Apparently not when it comes to iPhones.

So, my brand new 3-week old iPhone kind of sucks. Well, not really, but it does something that not only really bothers me, it contributes to the appearance of my insanity (or at least senility). The darn thing tingles. No, it’s not the vibration mode of the ringer — god! if I had an iPhone for every time someone thinks it’s as simple as that. It gives of a kind of charged tingle, when I hold it in my hands. Most notably down my leg when I keep it in my pocket. It’s so bad that I eventually want to take it out of my pocket. And when I hold it in my hand, before long (i.e. 10 minutes) it tingles up my arm and after about 15 minutes my knuckles will even start to ache a bit, like I have the flu or something. The iPhone flu.

So, being so naive as I am, I bring it in to the store. Of course, there’s no one to help me. I have to make an appointment with the “genius” and come back in two days. Whatever. So I wait and come back at my assigned time. Of course, I have to wait 15 minutes for that assigned genius, and in that time, the phone has tingled my hand like crazy. Speaking of “crazy”, when I tell the guy, he can’t feel it! He looks at me like I’m crazy. I know how it sounds, but I’m not crazy. Why do I have to prove that? After I keep insisting, he hands it to some other genius who’s busy doing something on the computer. She tries to feel it, but she doesn’t. Of course not! It’s not exactly quiet in the store, and I don’t think they are really focused on the feeling (which is subtle at first). They’re busy thinking of how many customers they need to see or when they’re done for the day. Plus they are probably thinking it’s something like the vibrating ringer so they don’t think it’s anything softer than that — it’s not the vibrating ringer, OK? So he takes the phone back to check “inside”. He comes back and tells me that there’s no sound, nothing audible, and he put it on something to feel vibration and it didn’t register any. Of course not! It’s not frakkin’ vibrating. It’s tingling!!

So, he looks at me and says that he can’t replace it because he can’t find anything wrong with it. Why the hell not?! When you buy a shirt and you take it home to wear and it’s scratchy, you can return it or exchange it. When you buy a CD player and you don’t like the sound, you can bring it back to the store. What is so special about the iPhone that I can’t get it replaced? “What’s wrong with it?”! I paid mucho bucks for a phone that I’m stuck with for 3 long years and I don’t even want to touch it! That’s what’s wrong with it! If they suspect me of some phone exchanging scam, what on earth do I have to gain by coming in and exchanging my phone. It’s not like it’s damaged or anything, it’s good as new. I just want one that doesn’t give me the shivers. Is that too much to ask, Apple?!