Life
Work done for the year and it’s 2 1/2 weeks off. Boom. Looking forward to…doing very little to be honest. Need a recharge. I do have an itch though – mechanical keyboards. It may happen.
Media
The Last Jedi. No spoilers apart from I really enjoyed it despite there being some cheese and also being a tad long. Interesting that the film is so polarising, critics love it but some hate it. Combination of the film not pandering to fan’s (and their many many theories), some flaws if you think about it for more than a minute and maybe the non-PC brigade being annoyed that their heroes are no longer white males? Or maybe it’s just not for everyone. Hey ho. Well worth catching on an IMAX near you.
Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds – Hot game of the year finally hit the Xbox last week. It’s a mess. Poor frame rates, lag through the game, a real hack of a PC control system on the Xbox, crashes…yet I love it. Aim is to survive and there’s many many ways to do that. Start with 99 competitors and be the last to survive. I’ve got down to the final four but I find the gameplay really addictive, and this is with only one map. It’s been released as an Xbox preview so expect it to improve over the coming months. Reminds me of old Ghost Recon games. Lots of hiding and prepping for the odd skirmish but with a larger map, time pressures and vehicles.
Estonia, the Digital Republic | The New Yorker
Its government is virtual, borderless, blockchained, and secure. Has this tiny post-Soviet nation found the way of the future? The digital work in Estonia is so smart. Light years ahead of what the UK is doing.
FT Person of the Year: Susan Fowler
The software engineer who lifted the lid on sexual harassment at Uber and inspired women to speak out Hell yeah. Well done FT.
Google – Year In Search 2017 I’ve seen some comments that this is a political message from Google and they should focus on positive messages…it’s a year in review video and for much of 2017 it’s felt pretty fucked up.
Life
3 more working days and then I stop for the Christmas break. Jedi on Thursday to look forward too as long as I can avoid spoilers!
Media
Peaky Blinders and Motherland. Both on BBC2 and both quite magnificent.
Links
DeepMind’s AlphaZero crushes chess | chess24.com
20 years after DeepBlue defeated Garry Kasparov in a match,
chess players have awoken to a new revolution. The AlphaZero algorithm developed
by G… Amazing but surely the AI could be put to a better use?
The iPhone X. Is it the future of smartphones, an expensive rehash of the iPhone 8 or is Apple playing catch-up? I’ve spent a few weeks with the new iPhone X and I have a few thoughts.
Unboxing and Setup
The first time you switch on an iPhone X the screen just hits you. Bright colours, deep blacks and a phone that really is all screen…apart from the notch.
Setting up FaceID was painless. Scanned my face a couple of times and I was good to go. As for the rest of the setup, Apple has done a lot to make the process easier than ever. Out of the box the iPhone X came with iOS 11.01 and not the recently released 11.1 which I needed so I could restore from backup. I had toyed with the idea of starting fresh with the new phone but impatience got the better of me. Anyway, instead of having to manually connect to WiFi and iCloud on the new device you can now easily transfer usernames and passwords from another iOS device. In less than a minute I was online and downloading the update.
Restoring from backup, encrypted of course so all passwords are saved, also brought a new surprise. My Apple Watch was unpaired from the old device and setup for the new phone. Another small step to make the swap to the new device a little more painless. And with that it was time to finally use the iPhone X.
So What’s New?
The iPhones move to all screen means saying goodbye to the Home button, a staple of the iPhone and every iOS device for the last 10 years. The first couple of days were pretty rough as muscle memory found me reaching for the old faithful, but the new gestures for the iPhone X more than made up for it. In fact after a few days the gestures now feel more fluid and faster to use than relying on the Home button. Swiping to multi-task or move to another app is so much quicker via a gesture compared to using the button.
Apps embracing the notch
Embracing the notch is the mantra from Apple and in practice I just don’t notice it. The screen is gorgeous and if the price to pay is having a small notch in landscape video’s then it’s a price worth paying. Above are three of the app’s taking advantage of the larger screen. Halide was already a great camera app but the iPhone X update has placed extra information in the two horns (what else do you call them?) at the top leaving more room to focus on controls and the image.
Overcast has included a pure black mode like many other app’s. This looks so good on the OLED screen and also helps with battery life. Finally Netflix which again looks great on the X’s screen especially during playback of HDR content.
FaceID was met with a lot of questions in the run up to the launch. Will it work, is it fast, can it be hacked, will it be awkward and can it really replace TouchID? At first it felt a bit slower as I was waiting for FaceID to work then swiping to unlock the phone but I was “doing it wrong”. Instead of waiting just swipe, and the phone will unlock as if by magic. Most app’s are now updated replacing TouchID with FaceID so unlocking 1Password or Day One are done just by looking. Buying via Apple Pay is also easy, just double tap the side button and look at the phone to pay. Simple. Accessing sites in Safari and using FaceID to fill in a password is awesome. Slightly slower but more secure, and if you aren’t worried about someone logging in using a password in Safari as only you can only unlock the phone you can always disable FaceID for Safari passwords.
I had early issues with unlocking overnight and early morning. I think it was because I wasn’t aligned with the camera properly and also holding the phone to close to my face but since those first couple of days I’ve been trouble free. Face ID also trains when you unlock with a pin code after it’s failed so whether it’s me that’s got more used to it, or the system itself has better aligned to my face I’ll never know. It’s not like TouchID wasn’t without issue. Wet or dirty fingers failed and I certainly had to re-add a finger or thumb over time to make it more reliable.
Tap to Wake is another iPhone X only feature. While it works as advertised, the limited angle offered by the camera means it won’t always unlock unless the iPhone is directly in front of you, or on an angled stand on your desk. Handy when raise to wake doesn’t fire or seems to time out, but not the best when on a flat surface.
Also new are the camera’s. I’ve not had an iPhone with a dual lens so was looking forward to trying the new system and I’ve not been disappointed. Both lenses have taken great pictures and Portrait mode does take some great photo’s. Yes it’s false and some pics can look a bit wonky compared to using a grown up camera with some nice glass, but it’s a phone lens producing some fantastic photos in the right conditions so it’s hard to knock it. The video is also super smooth and if you switch to slo-mo you get 240fps which looks great.
The front camera also supports Portrait mode and has an extra trick up it’s sleeve. Rather than using a dual lens, the front camera uses the TrueDepth camera that powers FaceID to deliver a slightly better/different Porttrait mode effect. This can be best seen using an app like Focos which allows you to visualise the depth map that was captured using Portrait mode. Video above shows Focos in action.
Final notable addition is Animoji. This feature relies on the front facing camera and TrueDepth sensor to animate your face in real-time with a variety of different emoji’s. It’s a great demo of what the hardware can do but it’s a shame you can only access it in the Messages app unless you get creative. Surely Apple will open this up over time via a standalone app?
I’ve deliberately left out wireless charging as I don’t have a charger and it’s not something I’m interested in at the moment. I’ve charge cables everywhere I go and don’t want to replace them with a wireless system where charging is slower. No doubt that will change over the coming months but for now this is something I happy to pass on.
Day to Day with the X
One of the biggest surprises has been battery life. I moved from a year old iPhone 7 and the battery life on the X is much better. Even on heavier than normal days I still have around 30% battery life and typically have around 50% which is fantastic. Not sure if it’s the OLED screen or the bigger battery but it’s something I didn’t expect.
The screen is something I’ve really gotten used to along with gestures and no home button. Moving back to my work device (iPhone Plus) and it feels a bit alien now. It’s amazing how quickly the new becomes the norm and what was once normal now feels dated. The X is physically smaller than the Plus but the screen is bigger and the X is easier to handle.
I vowed before getting the phone that I’d go caseless. It feels great in the hand and looks amazing. However the night before it arrived I ordered a case and I’m glad I did.
iPhone X on the nightstand, caseless. Dog wakes me up this morning, bumps into nightstand, iPhone drops. This is the result 😔
(Genius Bar appointment tomorrow. I have AppleCare. That’ll teach me not to use a case and leave my iPhone close to the edge.) pic.twitter.com/vdfyEtUGoF
Ouch. Accidents happen and with a glass back that costs over £500 to replace it’s just not worth the risk even with Applecare. The X felt pretty slippy and my hands are dry which doesn’t help. The case is a pretty cheap clear one but I’ll upgrade in a few weeks once most case manufacturers have their decent cases out. Challenge with the X is getting a case that doesn’t interfere with the gestures.
iOS 11.2 adds a horizontal bar to highlight where control centre is now
As ever with a new device there are a few niggles. On the iPhone X the swipe up gesture unlocks the phone so how do you get to control centre? Swipe down from the top right. It’s awkward and not ideal. iOS 11.2 has seen a slight change in the addition of a bar under the top right horn highlighting you can swipe. Really Apple? That’s it? You also end up fighting the gesture when moving between devices. I’m hoping Apple will change that how to trigger control centre before iOS 12.
I’m also hearing glitches on the AirPods since moving to the X. Every couple of tracks I’d hear a slight playback glitch but thankfully since iOS 11.2 was released earlier this week this seems to have been resolved.
So is it worth it?
The iPhone X is expensive. It cost over £1000 but the iPhone X has left me in no doubt…this is a fantastic device and it really ages the previous generation iPhones. They look dated and feel even more so when using them. This is a real jump in function and feel. FaceID just works and it reduces TouchID to yesterdays news. It’s also as close as we are going to get to an all screen device until the tech in the notch can be tucked behind the screen. No doubt that’s only 2-3 years away, but once you get used to this much screen without the borders it’s hard to use anything else without it feeling old. Gestures also make using the iPhone X a far more fluid experience helped by FaceID.
Apple have been accused of being stagnant regarding the iPhone despite the hardware inside being best of breed however with the iPhone X they have reimagined what a smartphone personal computer looks like in 2017. This feels like the start of a new generation of smartphones from Apple and I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Life
Tis the season…to break early from work. Finish on the 13th which isn’t far away. 3rd of December and still haven’t had a mince pie!
Media
Picked back up on Star Trek Discovery and really enjoyed the last few episodes. Blue Planet II still the best thing by far on the tele – stunning.
Apple’s MacOS High Sierra Update Reintroduces “Root” Bug For Some Users | WIREDWhat a week for Apple bugs. The root bug was a shocker, then releasing iOS 11.2 on a Saturday to remove a notification/date crasher. Yuck. Talk of them releasing too much software every year, but it’s not like they couldn’t employ more engineers to address this, no?
iPhone X Camera Review – A Week in Italy — Nanda Kusumadi
I was lucky enough to be able to get my iPhone X before my vacation in Italy last November and was very excited to take it with me given what I’ve heard about the newer camera modules in the iPhone 8 Plus. Could this be the best pocket camera ever? Stunning images shot and edited on the iPhone X. An amazing device.
Life
Managed to bypass most of the Black Friday deals but did pick up some, what I think were, genuine deals in that I was about to buy the same products at full price but got 30% off. Way-hey. However the whole thing around Black Friday has got pretty tiring. Still, role on Cyber Monday, December sales, Boxing Day sales and January sales. Bleuch.
Media
Blue Planet is such an amazing program. Most pleasing is the fact that it’s doing so well in the ratings as well. More please BBC.
BBC iPlayer – Labour – The Summer that Changed EverythingReally enjoyed this behind the scenes documentary of the Labour party campaign at this years General Election. Kinnock looked lost as did most of the old guard. Oh what could have been if the party had united behind Corbyn. Worth catching on iPlayer while you can.
Are Programmers Headed Toward Another Bursting Bubble?Always thought AI wouldn’t threaten IT…but of course it will. Cloud and serverless are already impacting traditional IT admin jobs, chatbots removing helpdesks. Slippery slope.
The Generalized Specialist: How Shakespeare, Da Vinci, and Kepler ExcelledLoved this as it resonates with something I’ve always wrestled with. Focus on one skill and master it or spread skills and be a generalist? I’ve done the later as I love variety and hate being pigeon holed but always doubt it’s the right call.
Life
Full week off work, almost, and got a lot done around the house that had fell behind thanks to the kitchen. Also got to enjoy the iPhone X and the Xbox One X and with a fair wind I’ll get a post up later in the week on the iPhone X.
Media
Justice League. What a mess of a film. Flimsy plot, some dodgy acting especially Ben Affleck and some amazingly bad CGI. Throw in another crap baddie and you’ve got a typical DC Universe film. Only one that I enjoyed was Wonder Woman and Gal Gadot again shines in this film. So frustrating as Zac Snyder wastes some of my favourite comics and characters with completely shite films. Don’t bother watching at the cinema, only a box office pounding will change opinions it seems.
Why Apple Should Buy Netflix – Bloomberg Apple need to do more than this. I picked up an Apple TV 4K and while the upgrade in quality is nice, there’s so much the platform could and should do in software and with features/technology that has been obvious for years. While chasing AR and other opportunities, put some fecking effort into the Apple TV.
Life
New toys this week. The iPhone X is expensive but very very good. The Xbox One X is also dear and very good but needs some new and exclusive titles to really make it sing.
Media
First proper look at Forza and it is really nice. Kept it back until the Xbox One X was released and it looks glorious in 4K.
Life
Lot’s done this week including getting a new car ordered, but it’s not here until next March. However health took a hit and then had a pretty shit weekend – hate seeing friends being hurt. Onwards.
Media
Finally watched Baby Driver – really enjoyed it.
Apple engineer ‘fired’ over early iPhone X leak – BBC News Initially this seemed extremely harsh but I work in an environment where you can’t video your work and the engineer knew the rules. Still a sad end to an avoidable situation.
iPhone X review – YouTube Really enjoyed The Verge review of the iPhone X. Couple of weeks before I get mine.
Review of Apple’s iPhone X at Disneyland
Most iPhone reviews are done by technically savvy writers that put them through their paces locally or in a lab. But what if you took an iPhone to a place.. Real world test’s always better than in the lab nonsense that some review sites do. Camera looks really impressive.
OneThirtySeven / PR Biggest surprise of the iPhone X launch wasn’t anything to do with the product itself, but Apple’s approach to marketing. This is a really smart view of why Apple hit the reset button.
Nintendo Switch – Matt Gemmell Loved this write up on the Nintendo Switch. I’ve had a post in draft for months and need to get my finger out and finish it, but Matt’s post captures much of what I love about the Switch. Best games console for years.
Life
Dark nights are here. Boo. In hopefully better news I’ve pre-ordered an iPhone X, delivers mid to late November. Swithered all week but ordered on Friday. An every two year purchase from now on.
Media
Saw Thor: Ragnarok on Friday. Funny, colourful and a great Marvel movie, easily the best of the Thor films which in truth isn’t saying much. Can’t say any more as spoilers.
Also started on Super Mario Odyssey. What a game, Nintendo does it again. Didn’t expect the Switch to be the best console to own this year but so far it’s winning easily.
No, of that I’m innocent. – Scobleizer Always that Scoble was a tit and this post just proves it. The allegations are all untrue, even though he apologised for them just a few days prior…and here’s my new company. Oh dear.
iPhone Service Pricing – Apple Support
Pricing for iPhone screen repair, battery replacement, out-of-warranty repairs, and express replacement service. The repair prices for the iPhone X are eye-wateringly high. Applecare+ pretty much essential now.
Super Mario Odyssey review – Polygon If you’ve got a Switch you’ll have picked up Mario Odyssey…and I really receommend the Switch if you are at all interested in gaming. It’s got 2-3 game of the year contenders already and a really strong line up of smaller games.
Life
Kitchen is done. Finally. Just need to get everything moved back in again which is only half complete and get used to the new equipment and where everything is. Feels like we’ve moved house! What’s also done is my week off. Got lots done around the house but not much else. Was also a sad week as a friend suffered a personal loss. Getting old sucks.
Media
Picked up Stardew Valley on the Switch. Lovely game and well worth picking up if you’ve got a Switch.
Kirsty Strickland: Why it’s time for me to speak up about sexual violence | CommonSpace
CommonSpace columnist Kirsty Strickland shares her experiences in a powerful bid to highlight how normal brutality has become for women This article contains descriptions of violence IT’S been a painful week for women. As more and more have come forward to tell of the grotesque behaviour and abuse that Harvey Weinstein subjected them to, it’s sparked conversations among women of their similar experiences. One of the many must read articles this week in the Weinstein fallout.
The War To Sell You A Mattress Is An Internet Nightmare | Fast Company
Why did Casper sue a mattress blogger? A closer look reveals a secret, multimillion-dollar battle to get you into bed. A bizarre tech story this week, who knew there was so much skullduggery within the mattress market?
iPhone 8 Plus vs. Sony A7 Part II — zeiPAD I posted a link a couple of weeks ago comparing the iPhone and the Sony and this is the follow up…still surprising how good the iPhone is.
Meet the New Lightroom CC – Jeff Carlson | Never Enough Coffee Creations Thanks Adobe, I’m now using Lightroom Classic which is better than what I had, allegedly, but now sounds old…and will it be a second class citizen compared to Lightroom CC? What a mess. Will seriously look at alternatives.
