Here I Stand

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And though we are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are—
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will;
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
— Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Ulysses)

Tuesday, June 18th, 2013 ∞

Designers spent more time complaining about the #ios7 icons than it took Apple to develop the entire operating system.

— Design Stats (@DesignStats) June 18, 2013

Every life is made up of tiny moments that bring us to where we are. What if one of those tiny moments hadn’t happened, where would you be today?

Everyone dies sometime, kiddo. Some of them before you, some long after you.
— Christian Shephard

Monday, June 17th, 2013 ∞

What iOS 7 is missing

Monday, June 17th, 2013 ∞

There’s been a lot of fuss about iOS 7’s new UI changes and while some are valid, I actually like the direction Apple is headed in and I believe as the betas come out, the UI will become more polished.

What probably won’t happen is the addition of more features. I’d love for Apple to prove me wrong here though.

Here’s a list of features iOS 7 is missing and a start to my iOS 8 wishlist:

  1. Default apps: This is an easy, no brainer request. At the time of this posting, there’s no way to change default apps, so we’re stuck with Calendar, Email and Safari. Apple could easily implement an options page in Settings to change default apps.
  2. Alternative keyboards: Is there another mobile OS that doesn’t allow or have these builtin? I want a predictive keyboard. I don’t need to own a Blackberry 10 to know I want that predictive typing experience.
  3. Widgets: Widgets could make iOS an extremely powerful OS without ever having to open up an app. A quick glance at the widget and you know the information you were looking for. Tristan Edwards has done a fabulous job putting together what tasteful widgets should look like on iOS 7: image
  4. Multiple user accounts: I’m really hoping that this is the real reason for now iPad version of iOS 7 beta 1. I know it is unlikely since there’s been nothing found in the beta 1 for iPhone/iPod, but I can dream; can’t I?
  5. Do Not Disturb: I appreciate Control Center a lot. I believe it is one of the best new feature for end users in iOS 7. But I’d still like to see DND tie into the Calendar app so that I can set an appointment to auto turn on DND.

There are plenty of other features or tweaks that I’d like to see done to iOS, but these are my current top five. You can read more over at my Google+ post that I wrote a few days after WWDC.

Lindsey Graham & Joseph Goebbels

Friday, June 14th, 2013 ∞

Lindsey Graham & Joseph Goebbels

When someone, who’s sitting in front of a computer, asks me how to spell something.

Friday, June 14th, 2013 ∞

When someone, who’s sitting in front of a computer, asks me how to spell something.