Hypergeek.net

I wrote (and actually sent) this letter to Phil Schiller.  We’ll see if I get any response.

Dear Mr. Schiller,

I am a long time Apple customer.  My first computer (which lead me to a college degree in Computer Science and a 10+ year career in Information Technology) was an Apple ][e.  At home right now I have no less than 4 Macs – 5 if you count the MacBook Pro that I use for work.  My company (a small web startup) is over 90% Mac.  Have no doubt: I am a loyal and enthusiastic Apple consumer.  Apple continues to release products that are a joy to use.  However recent actions by Apple make me worry about the future of Apple as an innovative leader.

My concerns revolve around around the removal of any and all Google Voice applications from the App Store.  The first part involves the fact that an application I purchased in good faith, GV Mobile, is no longer working.  This is not directly Apple’s fault – Google changed their website and Sean Kovacs (the author of the application) simply had to update his application (which he has done).  However due to the fact that Apple has removed the application from the App Store for reasons I view to be specious Sean is unable to get the updated application to his users.  I could request a refund but given your Apple’s hostile refund policy (wherein the author has to not only refund the money he received for the application but the cut that Apple gets as well) I refuse to do so.  Sean is not at fault here – Apple is.  Having spoken with him I know that Sean would love to be able to get an updated application to his customers but Apple won’t let him.

The second part of my complaint is the fact that Apple’s response to the FCC’s inquiry about why GV Mobile was pulled is full of so many inaccuracies that I am rather confused.  I am willing to apply Hanlon’s Razor in this case but either possibility (malice or stupidity) is somewhat disconcerting.  GV Mobile, at least, did not replace Apple’s Visual Voicemail.  Nor did it replace the SMS app.  And at no time was my contacts database transferred to Google.  I am at a loss to explain how a company so full of smart people – the people who could design and create a device like the iPhone in the first place – could so grossly misunderstand the situation.  I find the ignorance option hard to believe, but I do like it better than the alternative. 

What makes this all so amazingly weak is that not only was GV Mobile personally approved by you and in the App Store for quite a while, but the Line2 app has been approved after all this happened.  The Line2 app is remarkably similar to GV Mobile as they were written by the same author.  All of Apple’s “complaints” about GV Mobile apply to Line2 and also seem to apply to the recently released Vonage app as well.  An obvious conclusion I could draw is that the reasons for withdrawing these applications from the App Store are not truly the ones that you submitted to the FCC.  I would love to see a detailed explanation of why Line2 and Vonage are allowed in the App Store while GV Mobile is not.  Looking at the reasons Apple gave the FCC I am truly baffled.

In closing, let me say that I eagerly hope to see Apple change course on these actions.  As much as I am enjoying my iPhone 3GS I am keeping a close eye on Android.  Verizon’s recent “iDon’t” commercial is very telling – your core users, the strong evangelists, are getting frustrated with the things the iPhone can’t (or won’t) do. Some of these things are not directly in Apple’s control (like AT&T’s poor network performance, their refusal to unlock iPhones when other carriers will and in fact when AT&T will unlock their other handsets) but many things, like this Google Voice debacle, are under Apple’s control.  These things are making it harder for me to recommend the iPhone to people.  Those of us who truly enjoy mobile technology are going to be keeping a close eye on developments in the Mameo and Android camps.  I’m afraid I disagree with Mr. Cook – the Verizon Droid, for example, could truly be a challenger to my 3GS.  I hope Apple doesn’t overestimate how captive their audience is.

Sincerely,
John A. Kilpatrick      

Finally, after a nice long wait, it has arrived.  All of Battlestar Galactica on Blu-ray.  Well, almost.  I won’t bother going into detail of what’s here and what’s missing – Bill Hunt does a much better job of that in his official Digital Bits review. 

My only real gripe is the packaging.  It will have to go.  There are a couple of options out there.  One option that is pretty cool is what Bill Hunt came up with.  It certainly fits the show (and cheaper than buying one of the prop binders).  It however doesn’t solve the problem of the show not fitting on the shelf.

The solution I’m leaning towards is going with some nice custom cover art:

The only challenge here is that the 6-disc blue cases are hard to find (currently the only known place to order from is in Australia) but if I can talk a friend into getting me a few it would be worth it.  I love the art style and they would look nice on the shelf and not take up too much room.

All that is somewhat minor, however.  One thing I’ve realized is that I haven’t seen every episode of BSG.  I’m hoping to change that before The Plan hits.  And then Edward James Olmos says The Plan will make you want to go back and watch it all again.  Woah.

Based on my rants below you might wonder if I find the FCC’s interest in the Google Voice/iPhone situation to be interesting.  Why yes – yes I do.  I am downright giddy.  Who would have thought that a government entity so focused on nipples could actually do something useful?

Every once in a while, on a certain IRC channel, I like to tease someone I consider to be a Google fanboi.  He loves his Android phone, thinks Apple is evil, Google is awesome, etc.

Well, he’s kinda right.  Apple is evil.

My first computer (that my family owned) was an Apple ][e.  But after I outgrew that I ignored Apple for a long while until I bought my first PowerBook.  I came back to Apple because they made products I wanted.  The hardware was sexy and the software wrapped a great user experience around a very powerful core.  It was still a Unix-ish experience, just not the user-hostile exercise in headbanging that is Linux.  And that is still the case for their computers.  Yes, a MacBookPro is more expensive than the cheapest Dell.  I will happily pay for eye candy.  I don’t think I’m really a fanboy (maybe I am), I just like well designed products.

That’s why I bought an iPhone.  It’s very powerful and very pretty.  Android is powerful – and ugly.  (It’s resembalance to Linux is striking.)  You can make it do what you want – if you want to expend the effort.  (I, usually, don’t wish to.)  And on the G1 at least you were paying for really suck hardware, combined with a lock-in to Google services.  I didn’t see it as any less evil than Apple.  And I like Apple more than I like Google.  (Many Google folks you run in to around the valley can be…annoying.)  And I don’t really use Google services.  I use Google Talk to talk to exactly one person.  (Love you, girlfriend!)  I don’t use my Gmail account because I don’t want the G-unit reading my mail.  I do use Google Calendar because it gives me a good CalDAV experience that talks nice to my iPhone and iCal.  (Uh, yeah, that’s why I didn’t buy a MobileMe account, Apple.  Sorry.) 

But my feelings for Google have change a bit with Google Voice.  This thing is rocking my world.  Finally someone who took phone service and made it smart.  Could I do all this with Asterisk?  Yes.  Do I want to?  No.  I’m sure Google Voice will mature and get even better.  I dream for the day I can tell it “If these people call between the hours of X and Y then send them to voicemail.”  That will rule hardcore.  The coolness of Google Voice outweighs my fear and loathing of the G-unit. 

Now since I’ve been waiting for my GV invite (got it a while ago) I was tracking the iPhone apps.  I was thinking I might get GV Mobile but would wait for the official Google app.  I figure it’d do push, which would rule.  Notifications when I get voicemail!  SMS!  And it would be free.  So far, after more than a month of iPhone ownership, I hadn’t bought any apps.  The free ones were Good Enough.

Then..Apple decided to ban GV apps from the iPhone.  This pissed me off.  Severely.  Once again AT&T was being an ass and making the iPhone painful to use.  Lack of MMS?  Ok, not that annoying but lame.  Tethering?  Same (I have an EVDO card).  But this?  They were taking something I was excited about and crapping on it.  I was able to sneak in under the wire and buy GV Mobile.  It works – for now – and works well.  I won’t ask for a refund because it’s only $3 and would cost the author money. 

Some folks say blame AT&T – they are the ones who said GV apps had to go (and I think that’s true).  Others say blame Apple – it’s their app store.  I say why be so stingy?  I have enough hate for both.

Apple sucks because their app store policies are inconsistent, opaque, and very wrong.  Why was GV Mobile ok in May but all of a sudden pulled for “duplicating functionality”?  Why wasn’t it caught earlier?  It was personally approved by an Apple VP!  Oh, and recently Apple claimed that allowing jailbreaking would support drug dealers, terrorists, and threaten to crash the cellular network.  Seriously, guys?  You forgot to say “in a post 9/11 world”.

AT&T sucks because…so many reasons.  I need a list:

• They have refused to upgrade their network as promised.  They take the iPhone users money but don’t often deliver the service.  (I get <56kbps data rates in downtown SF.)
• They subject the iPhone users to restrictions they don’t subject other platforms too.  (GV apps for blackberry on AT&T, Sling app, etc.)
• They will unlock any other phone BUT the iPhone.  After I’ve met my two year commitment they should let me do what I want with it.  What’s the danger?  It won’t support 3G on TMo.  I’ll stay an AT&T customer.  I just want the option of using an Orange UK sim when I go to the UK. 

So the bloom was worn off a bit.  The phone is still sexy but Apple is seriously pissing me off.  I hope this incident gives them a serious black eye.  They deserve it. 

1. The iPhone now has voice control (or my 3GS will).  Cool.  It doesn’t work with Bluetooth.  Fail.  Every Bluetooth headset (including my sexy Jawbone Prime) I have supports a command that tells the phone “Hey, the guy wearing me wants to voice dial.”  How in the world could Apple have missed that part?
2. No To Do app/Task List.  This is FRIGGIN INSANE.  Especially since they HAVE A DESKTOP APP THAT DOES THIS (Mail.app).  I can buy “Things”.  It’s a staff favorite on the App Store and supposedly the best task manager out here for the iPhone.  It’s $10.  I just bought a $300 phone and I need to spend another $10 to get it to do something my Centro and Treo 650 both did?  Oh, and if I want the matching Things desktop app it’s like another large chunk of change.  And it won’t push sync with the cloud.  Eat me, bitches.
3. No IMAP-based push email.  I could  do MobileMe – but MobileMe isn’t smart.  If MobileMe was smart it’d be like Blackberry works (I think) so that it could go out, log in to your mail account, get the emails and then push them to you.  I don’t want to move all my mail to @me.com.  I like hypergeek.net.  And I doubt the email client will be as pure Awesome as Chatter.
4. I can’t change the sound for my text messages?  I have 6 stock sounds to chose from and that’s it?  Srsly?  Like many folks who work in Operations I use my phone as a pager.  Apple has made the iPhone ill suited for this.
5. Apple are clearly a bunch of control-freak Nazis that like to shit on their developers.

Items 1-4 are ALL things that I can do on my Centro.  Other things that my Centro can do that the iPhone can’t (yet): Turn by turn directions (Mapopolis still works on my Centro with my bluetooth GPS), Talk to the file system, use flash cards….

Now I suppose you ask: Hey John, if you feel that way why are you getting the iPhone?  It’s sexy – it really is.  The App Store is pure geek porn.  And while I have hope for the Pre it’s just not there yet.  It’s time to upgrade and right now I’m picking the iPhone.

But I’m also waiting for the “Google Ion” to show up on the develop connection – if I can get an unlocked Ion for $400 from Google I will rock that like a hurricane.  

I ordered an iPhone 3GS (no space, I keep it old skool) on Monday.  I’m excited – every time I play with one I want one badly.  Real bad.  Scary bad.  So I’m getting one.  Yay me.

However, what pisses me off is that you can’t cancel the order with AT&T. And they’re sold out.  But the frigging Apple Store has them RIGHT NOW.  I could have one already.  If I went and got one then guess what – I’d have to pay a 10% restocking fee. 

Thank you, AT&T.  I don’t even have my iPhone yet and you’re already pissing me off.

OK, watch this:

Yeah, so it is a game trailer.  A game I have no intention of playing – PC MMORPGs don’t work for me.  And the game will look nothing like that.

But that’s not the point.  The point is – isn’t that AWESOME?  And wouldn’t you LOVE to watch that movie?  George Lucas made a point in stating that the Star Wars universe is VERY old.  The Sith have risen and fallen a few times in it’s history.  And it’s oddly stagnant – in games like Knights of the Old Republic (by the guys who made this trailer) things look pretty similar to the universe we know, just sightly off.

If the success of the latest Trek movie has shown us anything it’s that regardless of how stale and weak a franchise has become as long as you give us a great story and a great movie we’ll welcome it with open arms.  I think that’s even *more* true for Star Wars than for any other SciFi franchise.  I didn’t camp out for Star Trek.  I did camp out for Star Wars.

George Lucas wrote and directed Star Wars.  He tried but really couldn’t repeat that success.  The best movie of all 6 is the one where he just provided the story.  And I know it’s his baby and all, but in the right hands I really think he could give us a Star Wars that’s slight different, but perhaps even more awesome than anything we’ve see yet.  This universe he created has so much awesome in it – if he’d just let it out to play.  

So E3 2009 is upon us and I’ve watched the press shows.  It didn’t really change my mind about anything – it just made me more excited.  Here’s my “list” – games that I consider “Must Haves”.  If it’s multiplatform and I haven’t noted a platform it means that I haven’t made up my mind yet.  I was sure, for example, that AC2 would be a 360 title for me but then Sony mixed it all up.  And these are just games coming out in in the near term – there are some 2010 titles, like Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, that I will be getting but are just too far out to list now.

Anyway, here’s the list in the order they will hit my pocketbook and free time:

• Halo 3: ODST (September 22, 2009)
• Bioshock 2 (November 3 2009, 360)
• Assassin’s Creed 2 (November 17, 2009 – PS3, because of what’s next…)
• Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines (November 2009 – PSP – and it interacts with AC2 on the PS3…)
• Modern Warfare 2 (November 10, 2009 360)
• Mass Effect 2 (“Early 2010”)
• MAG (“Q4, 2009”)
• God of War III (“March, 2010”)

Nothing here should surprise anyone who knows me.  A lot of shooters in there – I like shooters.  On the other hand there are couple of things on there that I’m surprised about.  I didn’t expect to be as interested in ODST as I am.  It seems pretty cool, though, *and* it comes with Halo 3 Multiplayer with all the Map Packs so far – and I haven’t bought those.  So it makes it a bit of a better deal for me.  (Kinda like the Fallout 3 GOTY pack gives you $110 worth of gaming for $59.  Bastards.)
 
However, that’s a lot of games.  More than $420 worth (insert weed joke here) between now and Q1 2010.  How much will I spend on any other hobby?  No where near as much.  What I’ll probably do is “prioritize”.  Modern Warfare 2 can’t wait, and I need to play the PSP Assassin’s Creed game before I can start in on the PS3 version.  So I’ll put Bioshock 2 and AC 2 on the Christmas List.  It helps out the parents to be able to go to the Gamestop next to the grocery store and get me presents. 🙂 

Oh, and that was just the “must have” list.  Other games I have my eye on:

• Infamous (already out, I know)
• Prototype (June 9, 2009 – maybe a birthday gift?)
• Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack In Time (“Q4 2009”)
• SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals Fireteam Bravo 3 (“Q4 2009”)

Another thing of note – Sony is making it way too easy to buy stuff for my original old school PSP.  I think that (and I could be totally wrong) one will be able to buy *any* PSP game that comes out new on the Playstation Store and download it.  With an 8GB card in there that could hold 6 games at once.  I need to go buy that 8GB card, though – I bought FF7 tonight and sure enough I didn’t have enough space.  It may also get me to look at a PSP Go.  More evil…

Come June 12th I will have been at Metaweb for 3 years.  All that time I’ve commuted via Public Transit.  Go ahead and tell me I’m not green because I don’t own a Prius – I take public transit EVERY DAY to get to work.

My boss has asked me to be in around 10, which is fine, but it means I can’t park at Caltrain.  (I could go earlier or later and park at the station, which would certainly make life easier.)  So my commute consists of going to VTA Light Rail, which I take 2 stops (I wait 5 minutes for a 4 minute train ride), then I get on Caltrain, then I take a bus.  My commute, usually, takes over 90 minutes in each direction.  It takes 3 different transit agencies.  My green commitment is not to be questioned.

However, my commute often shows just how completely fucked up public transit is in this country.  None of the three agencies involved ever talk to each other and try to co-ordinate things to make life easy for people.  Of course not – that wouldn’t make any sense. 

When I started at Metaweb there were 2 lines I would take from work to get from the office to Caltrain in the afternoon – the 10 and the 15.  They both stopped at the same stop.  The 15 ran twice as often as the 10.  Getting a bus to Caltrain was not a problem.  These days it’s not quite the same and its going to get worse.

First they cut the 15 completely when they brought up some new trains.  They really want us to take the train.  The problem with taking the train is that it’s a 3 block walk (takes me about 15 minutes, since I’m slow) and then it’s a 15 minute or longer train ride.  To do the same thing the bus does in 5 minutes (if no traffic).  And the bus stop is about half a block away. 

Now, due to the budget mess, they’re going to cut the 10 in half.  As it stands right now the 10 is always standing room only.  And often I have been left standing at the bus stop because the bus was too crowded to get on.  Now they’re going to cut the number of runs that bus makes in half?  Really?  So now the bus will always be completely full and never even stop at my stop.  That’s a win.

If I push it, I can probably get a handicapped placard out of my doctor.  This would be win.  I could then drive up to the city and park for free on the street.  Driving, if I don’t have to pay for parking, costs about the same as the train and takes a lot less time.  Gives me more freedom.  Oh, and I would be putting more traffic on SF’s streets, adding smog and carbon, and not giving the city any money.  All this because Muni is too stupid to get their shit together.  Between what they’re doing and what Caltrain is doing (cutting service, killing weekends completely) I think we’ll see a complete death of public transit in the Bay Area.  Yay green!