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Welcome to my personal blog where I write post my day to day rambles. If you are looking for one of my other sites see the navigation on the right.
A few months ago I came across the above image. I wasn’t sure just who wrote it but I knew from my low quality jpeg that I liked what it said and what it stood for. Those of you who know me personally are probably acquainted with my philosophy on pursuing the things that interest you and constantly learning. Well I gotta say that this sums up so much of my thinking, I wish I wrote it myself! Anyway, I thought I’d share it with you so you can kick your week off to a positive start. You can get the high-res version HERE I suggest you set it as your iPad home screen so you can feel the inspiration every day. Oh before I forget I came across this article in my Inc. subscription that lead me to hearing about the story behind the image. Hope their inspires you as much as it does me. Have an awesome week folks!
I love sharing visual information. working in the sector I work in it sometimes doesn’t work like that thou. Some people get it and appreciate the work and effort that go’s into visually creating an informative story. Others just want mind numbingly boring decks full of text and charts that they never read anyway. After reading the well known Slideology a few years back I became obsessed with drawing out data and ideas in my moleskine, this evolved into Photoshop and now I use Illustrator. I love it when a plan comes together and people appreciate my work. I’ve been asked time and time again how to do it. I normally reply “What would you like to do?” and the response is “Cool presentations!”. the truth is its more than being cool, its being informative and creating something clear from multiple layers that joins the dots for your audience. The other request is to create a CV that visually looks impressive. Heres and easy answer to that one http://resumup.com. It creates an inforgraphic from your LinkedIn data. Its quick, requires minimal interaction on your side and looks pretty awesome. Have a look at mine and let me know what you think.
Click on the graphic below to zoom.
Fascinating video from Corning on intelligent surface design. I’ve seen the Samsung technology which blew me away but this is a whole new level.
I wasn’t sure what to make of iTunes Match when I first heard the announcement back in early 2011. I’d seen plenty of reports online of its functionality after the developer version went live but I just couldn’t figure out what it would mean to me. So 48h ago I decided to cough up Apples requested €24.95 to try out the new service for myself. Its only a 12 month subscription and the price isn’t bad but I suspect the portable music space will be a different world in 12 months time with the emergence of tools like Spotify so I wonder if it is something I will be renewing in the future?
I store 90% of my music on my 27′ iMac in the office. The other 10% is on the Macbook Pro. I’ve kept them separate because the capacity of the iMac is 2TB so theres no shortage of space and I don’t really listen to all that much music on the MBP. Over the years whether I ripped a CD, got a track or an album from a friend or purchased it in the iTunes store I’ve been meticulous about how I manage my music. If I don’t like a track/album I delete it. I like to have correct 500 x 500 album art and I like my tracks to be in order. I expect that when I access it on my mobile device the quality matches that of the original file and everything carries across via cable or by WiFi overnight.
Setting up Match was simple. In the latest version of iTunes a cloud icon popped up and when I clicked it then I went through a one click subscription process. My machine (iMac) began indexing my music and preparing a file to send to Apple, this took 20 minutes to complete and ran in the background as I listened to Thomas Newman and surfed the web. I could click into the iTunes Match icon to view updates and when the indexing had completed it start matching artwork, this was a bonus I didn’t think was a feature. Following the matching iTunes notably replaced some album covers, I should probably say ‘corrected’ some album covers. The only real absences from my album art were from compilations. It seems the CDDB Gracenote service has a conflict when it comes to compilations because it can’t decide whether the song is a single, an album or part of a compilation. For some reason I’ve always ended up with a blank image for compilations because of this reason. What’s amazing is that this issue has carried over in iTunes Match.
So the next step was to enable it on the iPad 2 and on the iPhone 3GS. The process for doing this is not immediately obvious but it is where you should expect it Settings > Music > iTunes Match on. Because this is an Apple process I’d almost expect a popup on your idevice that asks you “Would you like to enable iTunes Match on this device – Yes / No?”. After a bit of a daisywheel rotation beside the network indicator it became apparent in the music app that my entire iMac library was now available to me on my iPhone. Thats pretty cool because I can envisage situations where I’d think “I’d really like to hear [insert cool band here]” and now I can just click the band name on the iPhone app and click either “Download All” or just download a specific track.
So thats the setup and the basics covered but is it worth €24.95. Yes for some and no for others is the answer. Its a yes for me because I have been collecting music digitally since I got my first mac in 2003. I have taken tracks from a diverse number of sources and the quality varies from track to track. iTunes Match now replaces your lower quality track with a 256kbp ACC (DRM FREE) version. I only use Apple devices so I’m not worried about the format being ACC and if I wanted to change the format I can do that via iTunes. All round win for me! Who is it not for then? Well I think its a little unfair that if you have purchased all of your music from the iTunes store that your being asked to pay again. Surely Apple and the record companies would like to reward these customers for their loyalty? If I fell into this category I’d be disappointed.
Conclusions: So I feel that iTunes is a dinosaur in comparison to the likes of Spotify however it still serves purpose with or without Match. Living in a country with 100% mobile coverage and 70% 3G HSDPA population coverage I can access fast reliable(ish) mobile broadband most of the time and I’ve used Spotify on numerous occasions streaming over 3G. A problem arrises commuting however. Spotify grabs a chunk of the track at a time so when your 1.26 through its already downloaded 90/100% of that track but should you hit a bad patch in coverage boom your music stops. This is particularly apparent to me on long stretches of road in low populous areas where operators don’t pump out full bandwidth. iTunes Match doesn’t fix this and also needs 3G to download its tracks but when there on your device this network issue just isn’t a problem. I love streaming Spotify and access to millions of new tracks but it has an obvious achilles heel with the network issue and I’d much rather have some music I like than no music at all! Whether you sync your iDevice over WiFi in iOS5 or by cable I feel that iTunes Match adds a third option to sync on the go.
I definitely see the value in iTunes Match in this past 48h! I have it for the next 12 months now and I also have the option of using Spotify (network permitting). I’m interested to see if movies and books will now sync on the go and when I import them into iTunes do they pop up on my iPhone and iPad. I’ll know Apple have done a good job when I forget iTunes Match is there but I use it daily.
[EDIT]
- iTunes Match can’t match two machines at a time under the one iTunes login.
- Some artists artwork has simply disappeared?
- Noticeable quality improvement on tracks.
- Replaced iTunes artwork is less than 500 x 500 in size. More noticeable on Retina displays.
- It looks like Movies/Episodes need to be purchased via the iTunes store before they are available on iDevices for a download.
As a regular runner of about 5 miles a day at the moment I generally run alone or with my dog Vesper. I quite enjoy it, I listen to my favorite iTunes playlist and I map my runs on Nike+ so I can compare them later. I’m not breaking any records but I’m keeping fit, balanced and happy. However I do like running with a group and particularly when its social and not in competition. If I want competition I’ll enter a race! There’s something really great about running (or cycling) with others and having a bit of banter (that’s like the Irish saying for chat). As I recently went back to college (part-time) to study towards a masters and I run a small design business I don’t have the time to fully commit to joining a triathlon club at the moment. I want to, I’d love to but balancing work, college and life the triclub seems a little out of reach at the moment.
I’ve been a runner for about 5 years. I’ve run national and international marathons, half marathons, 10k’s, 5k’s you name it! One thing I’ve seen is that there are lots of ‘pop up’ groups in the US, Canada and the UK but nowhere else really. I always see great photos and video and I always feel I’m missing out. Normally these ‘pop up’ groups are one-off’s sponsored by the likes of lulu lemon (yoga people), Nike of course or (which I really like) local small businesses. The groups that survive and actually become a gang of gaggling runners are all sponsored by local businesses. To be honest I don’t know what they do with the sponsorship? Maybe they buy t-shirts or something but it seems a little un necessary to have Nike or Lulu Lemon involved to motivate people to do something. Maybe its the marketing reach I don’t know but I still think its great that there doing it and if it makes somebody’s day happier its worth it.
So I’m hoping to do something similar in Galway. Social Running Galway will meet once a week and head out on a 5k fresh and early on a sunday morning. We might organize t-shirts for regulars and even a monthly social night but the overall goal is to help keep fit, motivated and social. Its a bit of an experiment as there’s no marketing budget just word of mouth so if your interested you can click here and like our group on Facebook or you can contact me with any suggestions you may have to make the group really stand out.
Here are some of the benefits I see for people who are interested:
- Meet new people with a similar interest.
- Running (even a short distance) is great for your health.
- Being social is good for your mental health.
- Getting out early on a sunday morning is a good reason not to drink too much on a saturday night.
- Even getting out early in the morning makes you feel awesome for the day ahead.
- We might organize a themed fun run for a local charity, it’d be cool to be involved.
So its launch season at Apple. That wonderful time of year where everybody go’s Apple bananas (excuse the pun). This year was a little different thou because Apple fanboys seemed to be let down with the announcement of the iPhone 4S and not an iPhone5. We’ve seen in the past Apple launch events of epic proportion but this one was far more low key with the new CEO Tim Cook at the helm. The crowd of 350 or so journalists, exec’s and developers squeezed into a much smaller hall than usual (the normal venue was booked by Oracleworld) and the event to my surprise was not broadcast live. Did the low key event and lack of a live stream mean Apple were not going to live up to the hype or did the lack of a live stream build on the hype because all the major outlets would live blog, live stream and create a much bigger buzz?
What did I expect from the event? I expected Siri, no seriously I did and I even commented in my Google+ stream earlier in the day. I didn’t expect an iPhone 5 either but that doesn’t mean I was right. First off Siri and why I anticipated it. I read in an article a few weeks ago (sorry can’t quote it as I can’t find it and there have been similar reports since) that Siri was bought out for over $200m. It didn’t say by who but something made me think/hope it was Apple. Why? Well I picked up the iPhone 3GS because of its voice command functionality, yes seriously I did but as it turned out it sucked. I downloaded Siri what must be over a year ago and tested it out. I remember reading in a number of feeds that if you asked for various “not so legal services” it would respond with a witty comment. So I downloaded it more for novelty than function. The functionality like many apps didn’t work very well in Ireland as it was built for an american audiance so eventually I canned the app and forgot about it.
Fast forward 12 or so months and I keep constantly reading posts about deeply embedded voice activation, commands, dictation and its all about a new level of interactivity. As a friend @dbspin pointed out to me this morning – clearly what I’m reading is in breach of Apple developer TOS. I thought to myself Nuance/Dragon Dictation (which was already an app I played with) its cool but it makes so many mistakes and thought “that’d be useful if it worked”. It wasn’t until the rumor mill went stratospheric a few days before the Apple event I thought I’ll take a stab at what would be announced. I honestly thought that Apple would announce a mega cheap handset to even further widen their reach into the market and they did in a way by keeping the 3GS alive at a rock bottom price and bringing the iPhone4 price crashing down also. Obviously as I mentioned I hoped intelligent voice interactivity would be a big part of iOS5 and I would have been a lot more confident if I had seen the @Scobleizer interview with the Siri guys in advance of the event. I wasn’t too sure if Apple were going to announce an iPhone5 or a 4S but I thought it was quite likely there was a phone with a bigger camera, a iPad2 processor and basically a refresh to keep up with the market but I just wasn’t clear on what to call it.
What would I have done different if I were at Apple? Well to save the disappointment (and a $2 drop in share price) I would have kept more of iCloud to myself. People are disappointed theres no major leap in innovation here but there doesn’t need to be. I mean who has a reliable 4G network to utilize a 4G device on seriously? Apple obviously had to announce iCloud and the iOS5 features in advance so developers could test, break, tweak, suggest etc but all the cool stuff has sunk in for the consumer and Apple have set there bar so high theres an expectation that theres …one more thing! I get the impression from blogs, threads and conversations that a lot of people were holding there breath for a iPhone5 feature set so they could decide if they go Samsung, Android, WinMob etc. I think people will start jumping ship soon and I think developers will soon start producing a one-size-fits-all price plan for apps so you pay once and you can get the app universally across platforms. This will begin in the coming months when people start migrating away from iOS and act as an enabler for mass migration between platforms thus enabling a real push on platform innovation.
So have Apple done enough to convince me to upgrade my 3GS? Well I haven’t seen enough of Siri yet to decide if it is a factor. I am however very interested in the 1080p video and the camera, iOS5, iTunes match and finally iCloud. One big thing about iCloud for me is something quite simple, Calendars. Seriously! I use Google calendar, just one calendar synced across MBP, iMac, iPhone and iPad but I want more. I want a College calendar, Work calendar, Family calendar and a Training calendar but since my MobileMe subscription lapsed even SpanningSync on OSX Lion can’t do a good job managing my calendars and its really annoying. I know its a small thing in the scope of what iCloud can do but I’m an organized person and this is such a big deal to me. I like that my photos backup OTA also because I got to the front row at a U2 360 rock show with a friend in 2009 and got some great closeup shots of Bono on stage then that night I lost my phone. I would have paid anything to get my hands on those photos and now with an unlimited data plan and iCloud I’ll never have that problem again.
In June of this year (2011) I finally picked up an iPad2 3G in a local store. No wait time, no delay in shipping I just walked in and they had a 16GB white iPad2 in stock. It was almost inevitable that at some point I’d get one and I was surprised I could hold out so long being a long time customer of Apple. I picked up the iPad before my wedding (in Italy) for two reasons. Reason one, I enjoy reading books and magazines on the device and since its now considerably lighter I can take my reading anywhere. Infact I actually read more since I got one. Reason 2, I wanted to video Skype with my mum over 3G on my honeymoon with my new wife.
Sadly I picked the bad Apple! The mic in the iPad2 I received didn’t work so I let Apple know about it immediately. Unfortunately I had to take defective device with me to Italy because Apple couldn’t collect it in time so I didn’t get to Skype like I wanted. When I returned from honeymoon I arranged for the device to be shipped to Apple for repair after lengthy calls, multiple reboots and software updates and lots of unnecessary troubleshooting. The device was returned four days later still broken with a letter explaining how Apple had toughly tested the device and deemed it to be functioning as intended.
I was disappointed in Apples response because clearly its still not working and its not a minor issue its huge the mic doesn’t work and it only records a static noise. The Apple support forums are filled with people complaining about the same thing so I’m not alone with this issue. Even the UPS guy commented to me on collecting my device “We pick up so many of these things you wouldn’t believe, is there something wrong with your screen or is it the mic?”. Infact the device was lucky to make it to me because Apple had addressed it to a small rural town in Connemara (Aasleagh) and UPS could only find one “Castán” in the book so it by chance made it back to me.
So Apple didn’t believe my story and that the device was defective. Now I’m not angry I’m just disappointed in Apple and its such a pain we don’t have an Apple store in Ireland so I could demonstrate the issue and get the device repaired under warrantee. So I opted for PlanB – YouTube. I posted a 26 second video demonstrating the issue on YouTube (you can see it here) and within 2 minutes on the a follow up call with Apple support I was put through to a senior Apple advisor to be told I would be shipped a brand new iPad3G immediately upon collection of the defective device. They didn’t even watch the video, it was no questions asked. I found it interesting that a 26 second video made the decision process so quick and easy for Apple.
I’ve spent most of the past decade working in Product Management and I’ve launched some costly and high profile products that require forensic analysis of business processes to guarantee the absolute minimum amount of waste. In literally 2 minutes I scribbled down numbers on a page of what this cost apple and its crazy.
- Shipping €45.87¢ x4 = €195.48¢ (based on .5kg package Galway to Lutterworth UK UPS Standard declared value €600.00¢)
- Time on bench = €100.00¢ (complete guess-timation)
- Time on support calls = €25.00¢ (€25c per minute)
- Total cost to Apple an rotten €320.00¢
So what went wrong?
Communication – In my last call the first agent I spoke with mentioned (after reading notes on the case ID) that I was having problems with sound. She explained that the note on the system said that the device was having issues with sound and was collected for repair and subsequently returned after Apple deemed it to be working. That description doesn’t really give an apple engineer much to go on.
Process failure – In my previous x2 calls we’d gone over all the same troubleshooting steps again and again which should also have been logged so to save Apple and myself time and money. As a person I’m very patient but persistent but I understand from seeing first hand how wound up customers get being repetitively asked the same question. Unfortunately this usually ends up with the customer barking down the phone and an upset rep who’s only trying to help.
Awareness – Sadly the apple staff I spoke with claimed to be unaware of any pre existing issues with iPad2 mic’s. Its really undeniable if you read some of the Apple forums (like this one here) and even from what the UPS guy said its not an isolated incident. Apple didn’t impress me when I mentioned I want to use Evernote to record lectures for my Masters. Infact for a few minutes one of the reps had to Google Evernote and then questioned me on how I intended to use it which I found very confusing as I couldn’t use it and I felt like I was being told that Evernote was the reason for the defect. I would expect apple to be aware of pre existing issues with the device and have a familiarity with one of the top 10 apps on the app store.
I love apples products and recently Apple were rated the highest in support customer satisfaction compared with their direct competition (see here) but the bottom line is this mistake cost Apple €320.00¢ which is in my eyes unacceptable as a business practice. I didn’t even include the fact that I received a brand new device and theres probably a repair, reconditioning and shipping cost involved with re selling the old device.
My message to Apple is simple send Irish customers to their local authorized Apple service provider or Have the UPS guy ship it to a Apple service provider with an option for collection.
- This provides business to local Irish companies.
- Dealing face to face almost eliminiates the risk for human error in diagnosis.
- It reduces the cost to Apple and cost/inconvenience of the customer waiting for the UPS guy.
Its that time of year when people suddenly realise there taking on a monster. For me this September is the start of my Post Grad Dip in Technology Commercialisation at AUA which is an alliance of NUI Galway, University of Limerick and University College Cork but ultimately my qualification will come from NUI Galway where I will sit my end of semester exams. Its a fascinating programme covering Innovation and Technology Transfer, Marketing Technology Products, Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Technology Finance & Capital all in the first academic year.
The course format itself fascinates me because of this alliance of the three most prestigious colleges outside Dublin it affords me the opportunity to study and attend lectures in each. This helps students access the best lecturers and facilities that each academic institution can provide aswell as a great excuse for a weekend away. I’m excited to finally formalise my product management experience with with such a relevant qualification and as I work for myself I can now easily manage my time effectively so I don’t trip up on deadlines in the coming months.
The Post Grad Dip in Technology Commercialisation is part of a bigger picture which is the MSc Technology Management. The MSc is a combination of the Post Grad Dip in Technology Commercialisation and a Diploma in Innovation Management which covers Managing Innovation, Product Design and Development, Managing Technology Projects, Enterprise Product Modeling and Simulation. So technically I’m in the masters programme with the masters students at the moment and by the looks of things I’ll continue on into the the overall MSc programme with exemptions from the Post Grad Dip modules and to tackle some of the meaty elective modules and finally the thesis.
I’ve decided to approach it as a masters because I feel breaking it into chunks (Post Grad then MSc) makes me feel like I’m setting milestones only to find there are more challenges further down the road. I’m honestly so happy to have found a discipline that matches my interests so closely and by all accounts the coordination support between the three colleges has been impeccable.
- You can find out more about the The Post Grad Dip in Technology Commercialisation here
- You can find out more about the The Post Grad Dip in Innovation Management here
- You can find out more about the MSc Technology Management here
Brian is a Creative Technologist from Dublin, Ireland. He lives in Galway with his wife Majella and Vizsla Vesper but commutes to London to work with incredible clients. He's a small business owner, occasional video journalist, Leinster fan and want-to-be triathlete. Currently studying toward a Technology Commercilization MSc in NUI Galway this is his personal blog. 
