Attack on Titan Live Action Movie Impression #rant

Just watched the live action interpretation of Attack on Titan. Let’s say it’s a huge disappointment.

Rant and spoilers ahead.

Part of the draw of Attack on Titan manga/anime is the intense drama and non-stop action that keep readers/viewers on the edge of their seats. The plot was very tightly done that you can relate to the characters and felt huge shock when things happen to them. None of those things happen to me in the movie.

Let’s start with the basic setting. The idea is the same, about how humanity is “trapped” inside walls due to concerns of titans attacking. And that’s pretty much it. The movie took the liberty of setting things in “Japan” instead of Germany, thus many characters’ names are changed to be Japanese. Sure, the main ones like Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Jean, and Sasha remain intact. But you are suddenly faced with these Japanese names that you are not familiar with. This is the same trap that most adaptations made by Hollywood fell through, and I cannot believe the Japanese filmmakers fell for it. Didn’t they realise that Attack on Titan has created a huge following of fans? One of the worst things you can do is change the setting and characters’ names. Sure, some of the characters’ behaviours mimic the original ones, but it’s difficult to relate to them again when you know them with a completely different names previously. Besides, if you want to make things Japanese, then how can you explain Eren Jaeger and Armin? This is one thing that filmmakers never seem to consider when they decided to change names. When you do that, a whole slew of inconsistencies start showing up. How hard is it to keep things in Germany? It’s not like the characters have to speak German. The anime manages to translate the manga faithfully, with everybody speaking Japanese, and it’s all fine. Heck, one can look at Nodame Cantabille, where Japanese were playing as foreigners, and it was okay, since the characters were intact.

The time period seems to be changed also. In the series, other than the 3D manoeuvre gear, humanity doesn’t seem to have much technology. People are still riding horses. In the movie, they showed an undetonated missile (???) and a helicopter junk. Oh, and they all ride tanks instead of horses. WTF? They can make tanks, yet they have old canons protecting the wall? See, that’s the problem of changing things around.

Also, the 3D manoeuvre gear is reflected to be a new thing, only designed after the titan breaching the wall. So I don’t know how humanity defeated the titan before then. Nuke maybe? See filmmakers, you have the simplest thing to just follow the source material, but no, you like to change things around and create more inconsistencies.

Okay, let’s focus of the main characters then. I mean they are the MAIN characters right, so the least the filmmakers could’ve done was to make them right. Nope.

The manga and anime of Attack on Titan started the story of Eren, Mikasa, and Armin when they were kids. Let’s start with Eren. The horrific event that befell Eren with the death of his mom led readers to follow his hatred towards the titan and his determination to kill them all. This does not exist in the movie. Eren’s dad, who was quite critical in the series, was not portrayed nor mentioned either. The movie started with all the characters already reached adulthood. Eren was portrayed to be an orphan since young. In the series, Eren already had a determination to do something about the titans. In the movie, he was oblivious to the threat and thought that the titans were no more, and there might be paradise outside of the walls. So… what led to his “determination”? Oh, he thought Mikasa was killed, and that is quite lame as he did not even see Mikasa being killed/eaten by a titan. There was a mere explosions, and Mikasa was gone. So it is hard to relate to Eren being so determined, especially when later Mikasa was shown to be alive. Yup, no scenes on Eren seeing his mom being eaten (which was one of the most powerful scene in the anime/manga). No development nor build up of Eren’s character. Worse, due to time constraint, they eliminated all the training scenes. Part of the emotion related to Eren in the anime/manga is that he was portrayed to be not having a good skill-set, but his total determination to kill all titans allowed him to go through and succeed at all challenges thrown at him. In the movie, there’s none of this. He simply was told to “fly” by a person named Shikishima (I guess that was supposed to be Levi?). SUPER WEAK SAUCE!

Now let’s take a look at Mikasa. OMG! WTF were they thinking? Mikasa’s character is very important to the series, yet they butchered it completely. In the manga, Mikasa and Eren had a really deep and dark background, which led Mikasa to be totally obsessed/thankful/protective of Eren. That backgorund also created a very strong Mikasa form the get go, a girl that can kick three boys’ asses, and the scarf has a very deep meaning. None of these were represented in the movie. Mikasa was portrayed as a typical cheerful girl that might have a crush on Eren at first, and Eren simply gave her the scarf because she sneezed. ULTRA WEAK SAUCE! The movie did not explain how she escaped the titan breach (maybe in the sequel), but after that, she finally became the cold Mikasa we kinda know, but she was falling for the Shikishima guy. WTF? Furthermore, during a scene when she saw Eren half-dead with his leg cut off, she decided to ignore Eren and attack one of the titan. In the series, Mikasa would’ve immediately come to Eren’s rescue.

How about Armin? Well, I know it’s going to be difficult portraying a blond feminine-looking guy, but come on Japan, you have plenty of pretty boys, and a blonde hair shouldn’t be an issue. In the series, Armin is the brain of the team, a strategist. In the movie, they started by portraying Armin to be a tinkerer. Well, this would’ve been okay if they push through it, but no. Armin in the movie pretty much does nothing other than making a vague plan of plugging the wall using mash potatoes. The least they could do is maybe making him part of the designer of the 3D manoeuvre gear, but no. He’s just there to be the liability in the scene of Eren being eaten.

How about the other characters? Souda is Hannes, I guess. Unlike in the series, he did not have much involvement as he did not even know Eren survived the breach until he met him when Eren signed up with the scout unit. Sasha is there, eating potatoes and having a crush on Armin. I have no clue about the rest. There’s a farmer/strong guy that carry an axe(?) to attack the titans. I guess he’s supposed to be Reiner? There were the lovers that are supposed to be Frans and Hannah. Then there’s Shikishima, which I guess is supposed to be Levi or Erwin. I do have to give the movie credit as they at least keep Hanji’s character to be accurate (really passionate about the titans). Then there’s this single mother…. It’s all messy. The point of adaptation is for fans to see the characters they love on the big screen, not characters that sort of similar with completely different names.

Okay, let’s start walking through the movie. The movie started with presumably Armin’s mom complaining that Eren was fired from his job. Armin then went looking for Eren, met girly Mikasa on the way. Eren was standing on top of an undetonated missile, saying that he does not feel satisfied being trapped inside the walls, and thinking that the titans are no more and there is a paradise outside the wall. They then sneaked the frontline to get to the outermost wall (the soldiers seem to be wearing Japanese WW2 military uniforms). They were caught, but Souda/Hannes let them be. Then the armoured titan showed up, and the wall was breached. Souda led the soldiers guarding the wall to attack the titans using canons. Armin got separated, claiming he had to check on his house. Eren and Mikasa were evacuating to a building when they saw a mother and her baby being trampled over. Eren decided to save the mom while Mikasa saved the baby, but the sea of the crowd separated them. Mikasa got left outside with the baby. Eren wanting to get back to her, but there were a loud boom, and all he saw were dust and the city being destroyed. Meanwhile the titan feast upon the people that got “trapped” inside the building.

Fast forward 2 years, Eren and Armin (magically alive) joined the troops. It’s led by somebody that seem to wear WW2 era military uniforms. Hanji was the leader, and told them their new invention the 3D manoeuvre gear. Blah blah blah, Eren met Souda again, and Eren got into a fight with Jean. To cover the hole in the wall, the plan is to detonate the wall on top of the holel to cover it, but they need more explosives, which is available somewhere on the breached region. (WTF? They clearly saw the armoured titan that is much taller than the wall, so why do they think just covering the hole and creating a short wall will be okay?).

The military load up their AMV (??) with the young troops. The went out at night.. They stopped, and the single mom heard a baby. She and Eren looked for the survivor, but found out that the baby was actually a titan. The noise invited more titans, and the troop did not know what to do. (WTF? They did not learn how to use the gears yet?). Suddenly appear the Levi-guy and Mikasa, slaying the titans. Apparently they have been keeping the explosives safe. (WTF? How did they survive out there? Only two of them?). Shikishima saw Eren, told him to fly. Eren heard Mikasa playing piano, and Shikishima showed up showing that Mikasa is his. Eren was shocked, and screamed. Then the single mom tried to seduce Eren by letting Eren touch her boob. (WTF?) Suddenly a titan appears and ate her.

Bla bla bla, the troop is in battle with an army of titans. So far, we have not seen Eren use the gear yet (nor anybody other than Shikishima and Mikasa). That’s how lame this movie is. People are being eaten left and right. Eren met Jean at the top of a building. Eren put his determination to fly, and use the 3D gear to battle the titans. Shikishima was instructing him as if this was Eren’s first time using the gear. Eren managed to get one titan, but another titan bite his leg off. Shikishima doesn’t seem to care, only saying some people are unlucky. Mikasa saw Eren dying, but decided to continue her battle. (WTFFFF!!!???) Blah blah blah, Armin got caught near Eren. Eren saw Armin being eaten, decided to save Armin while being eaten himself. Armin got Eren’s arm, showed it to Mikasa, and Mikasa coldly responded by slaying more titans until her gear ran out of gas. Cornered, she faced the titan that ate Eren. The titan suddenly felt ill, and titan Eren popped out from inside. Titan Eren started beating up the other titans, and people magically know it’s Eren.

After titan Eren beat all the other titans, he grabbed Mikasa, but then his time was up and the titan body started decomposing. Souda magically knows that there’s Eren inside. Mikasa cut Eren out, and the movie ends.

Yes, WTF alright. I understand that making a series into a compact movie is difficult, but it’s no excuse to take so many liberties form the source material. Some characters and scenes can be cut, but the more you detract from the source material, the more inconsistencies you are creating as you are trying to come up with something new in a short time against the source material that has been building for years. It’s as if the filmmakers did not even read the manga nor watch the anime, just like the people from Hollywood. Sure, this is not Dragonball Evolution bad, but considering this is made by Japan itself, I had high expectations. The least they could do is keeping the characters intact, but no.

To add result to the injury, a pop/hip-hop tune is playing during the end credit scene. The anime was known for the rock metal theme song, Guren no Yumiya. The lame hip-hop tune seems to indicate the filmmakers spitting on the fans saying “Ha! Fooled you!”

If this was Hollywood, I would be upset, but at the same time accept the butchery. Considering this is Japan itself, it’s highly disappointing. With so many live-action manga/anime adaptations being done, filmmakers should know already that staying true to the source material is what fans want to see.

The first movie ended just after Eren transformed into titan for the first time. I don’t know how much more butchery they can do for the sequel as they would need to compress even more stuff into one movie.

Attack on Titan is one of the best manga/anime I have ever read/watch. Attack on Titan live action movie is one of the most disappointing movie I have ever watched. I guess watching Tom Cruise Action Hero 5 might be a better option.

 

Why I might be switching back to iPhone #rant

I was an iPhone user, the iPhone 5 was my last iPhone. Since having the iPad, I find that it duplicates many things that I would do on the iPhone, so might as well use Android to diversify.

Things went well in general. As a gadget geek, android offers so many choices. But my patience is running dry.

First, my favorite Android phone, the OnePlus One. The price and the spec you get is amazing, $349 for 64GB snapdragon 801, and the battery life was awesome, especially since my iPhone 5 couldn’t even last half a day anymore. Well, came lollipop and CM12, and the bugs are getting into me. Google apps and maps are force closing here and there. Lags are aplenty. Even the camera app sometimes freezes. Just not a pleasant thug to use anymore.

Second, support from manufacturers. I have a Sony Xperia Z1 that I use as a Walkman. Suddenly it’s dead. Great. Went to Sony support in Singapore, and they said they don’t support phones bought outside Singapore (mine is a U.S. Z1). Bullshit. In contrast, I can have my iPhone and Macs, bought in the U.S., serviced in Singapore. Seriously, a mobile device is mobile, meaning users will be using it wherever they are around the world. If your support system is still regionalized, you shall not get my money anymore.

Oh, and guess what, there’s a vulnerability on stagefright. Google it. It allows hackers to obtain system privileges just by sending an infected media. And worse, even Nexus phones with latest Android are not patched. Forget about other phones. To me, this is too much.

Too bad we are in the middle of the iPhone cycle, with the iPhone 6S not coming out till later this year. 

I guess I better start saving some money then.

 

Too Many Messaging Services

Look at your phone’s apps and count how many messaging services like whatsapp or kakao talk you have. I bet there are more than two or three. On my phone, I have whatsapp, Line, Facebook messenger, Path/Talk, Skype, Telegram, Kakao Talk, Snapchat, Twitter, BBM, and probably more. It’s ridiculous. The problem is that none of these clients talk to each other, so if the person you want to contact uses a specific client, you have no choice and have to install that particular client.

In the recent weeks, I had to switch between phones due to travel. This action rears its ugly head when you try to keep these messaging services in sync, keeping your current account and chat history. It gets annoying real fast. I’m going to share my 2 cents on some of them.

First, whatsapp. If you have been following my tweets, I don’t like whatsapp. It is clunky and not keeping up with modern tech trends, yet you will be forced to have one since many people are on it for some reason. I mean there’s a reason Facebook was willing to buy them with a boatload of money.

So where do I start. One thing about whatsapp is its low barrier of entry. All you need is your smartphone’s phone number for verification. If you only have and use whatsapp on one phone, you are good to go. Thing is, we have more than one smart devices now. More and more people have more than one phone, in addition to tablets. Well, you cannot use whatsapp on multiple phones at once, and you cannot even install it on non-phone devices. You are pretty much stuck with your single phone. Now are you seeing why I think whatsapp sucks?

How about switching the SIM of the phone? No problem here. As long as you are using the same phone, whatsapp will still work, albeit it is linked to your older SIM number. Luckily whatsapp makes it easy to change your number if you want to. Note that if you register a new account with the new SIM, it will be a separate account. I have seen people that travels having multiple whatsapp entries since they don’t know any better.

What if you want to use a different phone? This is where the fun starts. I would be referring to Android from now on as iPhones have the ability to do full backups via iTunes or iCloud. You can simply reinstall and reverify the new phone with the same SIM, but you will lose your chat history and media as they are local to your old phone. So how do you retain them? This is where the process is broken. Basically, he app is actually keeping backups on your local phone, but getting them to a new phone is hardly something a lay person would be able to figure out on his/her own. Basically you have to connect your phone to your computer, copy the whatsapp folder to your computer, and transplant that to your new phone. Luckily his is fairly easy on Android, plus there are many apps that allow you to copy files via wifi. After the transplant on the new phone, simple install and verify the app and it will ask to restore a previous backup. Not easy, but doable. Now, one thing I found is that sometimes whatsapp simply refuses to do backups on the new phone for some reason. This can prevent future transplants to other phones as you won’t have the latest chat history. One way is to do a clan transplant. If there’ san existing whatsapp folder on the new phone, delete it first before transplanting the folder from your old phone. Also check immediately on the new phone if the app is able to back things up.

Now, let’s get to the usage itself. Whatsapp is very basic, and most people can figure it out. You can create groups, etc. You can auto-sync your friends as long as you have their phone numbers that they registered with whatsapp. But functionality is fairly barebone. You can attach pictures and multimedia, but there are no stickers nor VoIP. It feels like the yesterday’s messaging app. It’s less personal. Add on to that the inability to install the client on non-phone devices and lack of clients for PC, it just doesn’t feel like a service that fits the modern days of IM. It feels like the ICQ of mobile IM.

Second client I want to talk about is Facebook messenger, the IM solution from the company that bought Whatsapp. Like it or not, in terms of usability, Facebook messenger is probably one that is at the top. First, it is platform independent. You can install the client on phones and tablets, and you can use them all simultaneously. Furthermore, it’s Facebook so you can always access your chat on the web on any computer. Considering that most people are on Facebook already, it is likely that you can contact your friends this way. Furthermore, it is cloud based, meaning you don’t have to do backups and whatnot. All your chat history are stored on Facebook’s server, so whenever you access the service, they are all there. And since the client is linked to your Facebook account, it can be independent of your SIM/phone number.

Big problem is, it’s Facebook. Some people just don’t want to deal with Facebook (even though it also owns whatsapp). Second, people associates Facebook with the website, not the messenger client. Plenty of people I know are not even aware of the client, and some still think of it as part of the bigger Facebook instead of just as an IM service. So it’s unfortunate that even though Facebook has a superior client than whatsapp, most people still use he latter.

Usability is there. You can attach your standard multimedia stuff. You can even do VoIP. But the stickers are piss poor, less personal that I would like.

Next, I want to touch a bit on Skype. Skype is pretty much the de facto standard for free video conferencing, but obviously one can also use it for messaging. Personally though, I feel the client is too heavy for a simple messaging need, and no great stickers. Furthermore, there’s barrier of entry in creating yet another account with Skype/Microsoft. Other than that, it is platform independent, and cloud based.

Fourth one is Telegram. It is touted as a secure solution for the privacy conscious. It is actually a great platform/service. It is open source, and platform independent. You can have it running on your phone, tablet, computer all simultaneously. Yeah, whatsapp starts to look clunky right? In Telegram, all chat history is cloud based, so no need to worry about backups and transferring stuff. Verification needs a phone number, but it can even be a Google Voice number, freeing you from the traditional phone number. Alas, no stickers, and so far I have only one friend using it…

Last but not least, Line. I have a personal bias on Line, mainly because of the stickers. Yes, I am a sucker for stickers of things that I like. For example, no other services offer stickers of Attack on Titan and Sword Art Online. To me, Line is very personal due to the stickers.

Usability wise, it is in between. Unlike whatsapp, it has a PC client so you can keep on chatting in your computer (Windows and Mac). However, just like whatsapp, the mobile client can only be installed on phones only, and you can only use one phone at any time.

If you are switching SIM on your current phone, it’s straight forward like whatsapp. If you want to switch to a new phone, things get more complicated. Unlike whatsapp, you can link your line account to an email or Facebook so you are not tied to a single phone number (which is ironic that you cannot install it on a non-phone mobile devices). This allows easier log-ins on new devices. The problem is the chat history. The platform has some sort of cloud-based storage, but it’s not comprehensive and reliable as the client forces you to delete the current content if it detects a duplicate log-in. Furthermore, you starts fresh on any new device you want to use, forcing you to re download stickers and having no chat history unless you manually restore conversations. Backup feature is available, although it is also clunky. Unlike Whatsapp, you can email your chat history and restore it on another device by simply downloading the email attachment and having the app restores it. Problem is, it is per conversation so it can be tedious if you have many conversations going. Also, it doesn’t backup media.

My personal bias is towards Line. It is not flexible and it’s a hassle when moving to different devices, but it is still more personal to me than whatsapp. A PC client is also a bonus. If Line allowed installation and usage simultaneously on multiple mobile devices, it would be perfect. What won me over are the stickers.

As I mentioned in the beginning, I still end up with a slew of clients on my smartphone. A social messaging service relies heavily on what your friends are using. If they are more comfortable using a certain platform, you end up having to use that platform. Whatsapp is a clunky and dated platform, but most of my contacts uses it. Annoying, yes, but it’s the unfortunate side effect of the preference of the masses.

 

Installing Windows #rant

I am a Mac user, and there is a reason why I switched to OS X a while back. Well, apparently there is a Windows only program that I have to use. So, here’s an adventure in installing Windows 8.1 on my Macbook Air.

First thing first, I would need an ISO of Windows 8 for OS X’s boot camp. Why Windows 8? I have a Windows 8 upgrade key, and no, Windows 8 key cannot be used to activate Windows 8.1, despite Windows 8.1 being a free update. It’s amazing the things Microsoft went through to make sure legit users are inconvenienced.

Now the ISO itself. Guess what, Microsoft does NOT provide one. Yeah, Microsoft has gone above and beyond to ensure that you rather purchase a new Windows 8 computer. If you have a friend with a Windows 7/8 PC, you are in luck as you can simply download the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant and it will allow you to download the installation set and create an ISO.

But what if you are stuck with only a Mac at your disposal? Well, Microsoft does provide an ISO for the Windows 8 Enterprise trial. (Hint: their link for the 64bit actually will download the 32bit version, and vice versa.) Yes, Microsoft, a huge software company, cannot even put the right link to their software. Just another step to discourage user from downloading an ISO, I guess.

After downloading that and running boot camp, I managed to install Windows 8 Enterprise trial. Can I use my key to activate this into a regular Windows 8? Nope. Apparently this trial version cannot be used for anything other than a trial. But at least I have a Windows installation now that I can use to download Windows 8 upgrade assistant, right? Nope. Apparently Windows 8 was not available for download in my area for some reason. WTF Microsoft? Still, all hope was not lost. I Googled “upgrade windows with only a product key,” and Microsoft has a utility that can download an ISO for Windows 8. Great, progress.

Now that I have a real Windows 8 ISO instead of the trial, I purged the Windows 8 Enterprise trial install, created a new boot camp with an actual Windows 8. So far so good. But then it cannot be activated since my key is an upgrade key. Yes, Microsoft makes sure that you cannot use the product you bought. Good thing there is an easy workaround for this one, using the “rearm” technique. I still had to make a phone call to a Microsoft rep that gave me a set of numbers, but finally my Windows 8 install was activated. So time to update to Windows 8.1. Easy, right?

Nope. Windows 8.1 is available from the Windows store, and Microsoft forces you to download it from the store (no ISO). If you use the utilities I mentioned above, they will tell you to go to the Windows store. Problem is, downloading Windows 8.1 from the store would always result in an error and failing to install. This was extremely annoying as the error happened AFTER I had to wait for the 3+GB download to finish. Subsequent retries forced me to redownload the whole thing again and again. Oh my Lord.

After browsing the net to find a solution, I finally decided to do a “reset” of Windows 8. This is a nice feature of Windows 8. It basically “re-install” your Windows 8 installation without deleting your data. Programs not from the store will be deleted, but it’s still more convenient that having to do an actual full re-install. Problem is, this process uninstalled all the Apple drivers and boot camp, so I had to re-install those afterwards. Oh, and of course there were 92 patches that I needed to download and install for every fresh Windows 8 install I did.

After days of downloading, installing, and installing stuff, finally, Windows 8.1 update from the store managed to run properly. Yes, finally! Such a ridiculous process. Really, does Microsoft expect a lay person to be patient enough to go through all these just to use a Microsoft product?

So Microsoft, if you want people to install Windows from your store like Apple, make sure it fuckin works. If you cannot do that, the least you could’ve done is to provide straight ISO downloads so people can simply do an update the traditional way. But no, you rather have your legit customers annoyed and confused.

There is a reason why I switched to OS X.

/rant

 

WWDC 2014 Impression

Apple was streaming the keynote live, and it is up for streaming on demand. This is a great trend as couch commentators like me can talk crap about it without having to wait for Apple to “post produce” it.

Anyway, let’s get on it.

As usual, the keynote started with a video of people saying how various apps have changed their lives. Looks like the focus is on the people. It would’ve been great if Apple had mentioned more groundbreaking apps instead of some useless ones like Candy Crush, but oh well. Tim Cook started with the usual stats. Mavericks vs Windows 8. Oh, Windows 8 only has 14% of market share. But 14% of how many users Tim? Remember that world wide market share of OS X is really tiny, minuscule compared to Windows. So even 10% of Windows users count as a LOT. Typical Apple reality distortion technique. Fact is, we are seeing more and more Windows devices in tablet form factors that are only $300-$500. 

Craig was up next to talk about the new OS X. Craig Federighi always seems like a d-bag to me, but the script of the keynotes and his jokes were usually quite funny. The joke was on trying to find new name for the next OS X. OS X Weed? That would’ve been awesome. 😀 So the next OS X will be named Yosemite. And, another video, showing the new flatter look, inspired by iOS7.

So, what’s new? Translucency everywhere. Kinda like Windows Vista. New dock (flat, just like right now if you put the dock on the sides), new trash can icon. Dark mode, with white on black translucent background. I have a feeling I will like the dark mode, a lot.

A big update is for the notification center. Now you can have different widgets on it. Just like… yes, Windows Vista’s Gadgets. Remember those? 😀 New Spotlight. In previous versions of the OS, Spotlight has always been on the top right corner, out of the way, simple. In Yosemite, it will be at the center of the screen with huge search bar. I don’t like it. It feels that it is on my way, blocking what I am doing. Why the change? It was fine on the top right corner. Context wise, it fits as the search icon is on the top right corner. In Yosemite, having it in the middle of the screen just doesn’t feel natural. Boo. On the bright side, you can do unit conversion on Spotlight now. Sounds like it’s baby step of putting Siri on OS X. Maybe next version. Spotlight has become universal search ala Siri.

Oh, Craig kept showing the translucency. Seriously, who cares? Do people really want to be reminded how Yosemite is copying Windows Vista?

Next, iCloud Drive. What? Remember when Steve Jobs announced iCloud, how it’s not another “drive in the sky.” Well, Steve Jobs is rolling in his grave now. iCloud is basically just like Dropbox/SkydriveOneDrive/Google Drive in Finder. I don’t think this is the vision of iCloud. Is this the signs of Apple crumbling without the vision of Jobs? Mail drop, basically using iCloud as a reservoir for your email attachments, kinda what Microsoft and Google have been doing (using OneDrive and GDrive respectively). Oh, the file size can be up to 5GB. Whoop dee doo, as free iCloud accounts has ONLY 5GB. :roll eyes: An interesting feature is the built-in markup within Mail. Signature on PDFs is also great.

Safari now has more awesome bar, with built-in Siri Spotlight. More power efficient, which is great (poor Firefox, but I still prefer Firefox). Demo by somebody named Brian. Err, yeah, not sure who he is… 😀 I don’t think Favorites in the search bar is good. If you only have few websites, sure, but I have a boatload of sites in my Favorites. I never realized the “Send to” feature though, even though it’s been there, at least on Mavericks. The auto shape and dialog bubble recognition of the new Markup feature in Mail looks neat though, but I hardly use the OS X Mail app anymore ever since I have the iPad.

Airdrop between iOS and OS X. Finally! Although I wonder if there’s a limitation on which hardware is supported. The Hand-off feature seems too good to be true. Will have to see how it works in real life. Ability to do a hotspot when you have an iPhone nearby is awesome though. iMessage syncing all messages with all devices. And phone calls too, including using the Mac as a speakerphone. Gee, sounds familiar… I think Palm did this, and Motorola also did something similar. Of course, Palm is gone and Motorola is bought by Lenovo. These features may not be new, but Apple’s implementation across all Apple devices and Apple’s presence would probably put these feature to the mainstream. Oh, and a call to Dr Dre, hinting on Apple’s purchase of Beats Audio.

Free OS X Yosemite in the fall, with public beta program in the summer.

100 million iPod Touches. Maybe it’s time to update that Tim. Oh, time for a jab at Android, and how people bought an Android device by mistake. Ha ha Tim, very funny. Your iPhone is not water proof yet Tim. What Tim Cook was suggesting is the superior experience of iOS, unless if you have A5 devices or older, which are bogged down by iOS7. Another jab to Android is fragmentation. Valid point this time. Malware on Android, 99%… Err, oookay, good point, but Apple has its own problems.

iOS 8. “Giant release.” Spoiler: new programming language with Swift.

Craig is back (since no more Scott Forstall). Interactive notification, eg. ability to reply to a message right in notification. Android has something similar, but it’s not universally supported, and the variants between OEMs don’t help either. Better Safari UI for the iPad. One thing I find annoying with the Mail app on iOS is that when I’m composing a new email, I cannot do anything else. No multi-tasking within the mail app. This is highly annoying. Luckily, looks like Apple noticed that, and on iOS 8, you can swipe down the compose “window” to get back to there mails. Nice! People probably won’t appreciate this as I see most people are still using web-based emails (instead of using the mail app to access their accounts).

The task switching screen is now cluttered with favorited contacts at the top. Not sure if this is a good idea as there’s no context between the task switching screen and contacts. On the iPad demo, the auto recognition of messages for calendar events seems neat. Spotlight on iOS gets richer ala Yosemite (and overlapping with Siri). This extends to the search bar on Safari. QuickType, predictive typing. Just like the various keyboards on Android like Swype or Swift key. Neat, but I rather have support for multiple language in one keyboard instead of switching keyboards back and forth. Continuity brings integration with iDevices. This is going to be great.

Messaging app gets a lot of improvement. I still think iOS Messages to be better than the dozens of SMS apps on Android. Video and voice messages. Nothing new, but iOS 8 makes it easier to actually do it right on the Messages app. The summary on group messaging is great. Many SMS apps, even well known ones, on Android cannot even handle location on Vcards properly (many not at all). The skit with Craig is pretty funny. I can see the auto reply audio messages can be frustrating though, with people sending unintentional messages. Looks like now Apps can share files, instead of importing and exporting stuff when dealing with multiple apps.

Enterprise, with Craig focusing on security and privacy. Those two words seem to be the buzz words of the year. Imo this is where Android is lagging.

Health. Yup, the rumored Healthbook, dubbed HealthKit and Health app. Integration with other apps and Mayo Clinic. This is going to be interesting, and we will see which companies that can adopt this. Healthcare companies are usually slow in adopting new techs. Interesting is also the mention of Epic. Many hospitals are using Epic, so this can be huge. See, a lot of tech bloggers only care about iWatch, but Apple is taking a much bigger leap than the others by working together with healthcare providers. That’s real innovation. 

Family Sharing, a long awaited feature. It’s basically the ability to aggregate purchases of family members, and great notifications for parents.

Updated Photos app. Seriously, I think it’s time for Apple to just consolidate iPhoto into this. Updating the stock Photos app seems dysfunctional when there’s iPhoto (that seems to be ignored). The new editing features are really great. It basically make the editing I usually do in Lightroom into a simple scrollable setting. The inter-devices editing is great as previously, you will have multiple copies of the photo. Photos on the Mac? WTF happened to iPhoto? Did Apple just kill iPhoto? Oh, and an app for Windows too? This is BIG imo.

And now, your photos, and videos, will be using the iCloud drive’s storage space (previously, photo stream doesn’t count). Oh and yes, stingy Apple only gives you 5GB free. For photos, that may be okay, but for videos? Come on Apple. Of course, Apple wants you to pay more. 99c per month for 20GB. In contrast, Google gives you 15GB free. Microsoft gives you 7GB free, and an additional 3GB if you use the auto camera upload feature. Apple’s 5GB free doesn’t look as great anymore. Apple has 200GB plan for $3.99 a month. This is actually not that bad. In comparison, Google gives 100GB for $1.99 a month, while Microsoft wants $100 annually for 200GB. Dropbox, which imo is the gold standard, offers 2GB free (with many promotions to add more free storage), and 100GB for $9.99 per month. So iCloud drive is not bad if you are willing to spend some money, but for freebies, you get better deal elsewhere.

Okay Hey Siri, basically a copy of Okay Google. No demo, so I wonder if this would be more of a feature for the new iPhone. I would think the “always on” feature would drain the battery on current and older iPhones.

Tim is back. Now developers can bundle apps. App previews, which is just a video trailer/preview for an app, something that is nothing new on Google Play. TestFlight, ability for debs to invite users to beta test their apps. Craig (Superman… Really? :roll eyes) came back to the stage with some new features form the SDK, namely extensibility. It allows apps to share things back and forth more openly, just like Android, but Craig said it is still secure. Yes, hopefully more apps will utilize the sharing feature. Widget on notification tray. By the way, the extension has three dots, just like… Android. The extension on Safari seems awesome though. The demo is for Bing translate, but I’m hoping there will be deeper extensions to allow things like Adblock or things like that.

Third party keyboards. Say what? Yeah, now iOS allows third party keyboards. Hopefully there will by Swype for iOS. TouchID for 3rd party apps. Camera APIs for manual controls. I can sense more fancy camera apps. HomeKit API, common protocol for home automation. CloudKit, basically offering developers a free “server.”

Metal, replacing OpenGL. (?) Yeah, Apple was big in pushing OpenGL ES as the standard, but now that they are the major player in portable gaming, looks like Apple decided to do its own, called Metal. SpriteKit for more casual games. SceneKit, to create 3D games easier, I guess? I sense Apple pushing more into gaming. Maybe a new beefier iPod Touch? Of even games on an Apple TV? Very interesting, but I wonder if this is more of an incentive to make games exclusive to iOS.

New programming language. This is very big. From Objective-C to Swift. Native Cocoa and Cocoa Touch. It is going to be interesting how this would attract new developers, and how current developers would adopt it.

iOS 8 in fall, supporting anything with an A5 chip onward. Yes, no iPhone 4 there, so that’s it for iPhone 4 users. The support for A5 is important as many small businesses are still using the iPad 2 (since Apple themselves was still selling it until recently).

Tim returned to wrap up the keynote. No hardware here folks, purely software. We actually saw a lot of new stuff here. iOS 8 is pretty much redesigning iOS under the hood with Metal, Swift, and the various Kits in the new SDK. Now I’m actually excited to see what Apple has in store for the iPhone 6 to take advantage of many of these new features. My 2 cents.

 

WWDC 2014 Prediction

Obligatory post about the next Apple event. To be honest, I don’t feel like it’s going to be as exciting as some people would be hoping. Part of the excitement of past Apple events was the performance itself, by Steve Jobs. His mastery in the presentation is what makes the events enjoyable imo. Now, it relies more on the products.

So, what to expect on this WWDC? Well, the banners are up, so we will see announcements of iOS 8 and the next OS X. The next OS X is rumored to be called Yosemite. There are rumors that it will get some design cues from the “flatness” of iOS7. I think the big push will be on tagging. I think Apple is inching itself away from the traditional file system. Tagging is helpful, but it is not pushed as much as it is supposed to. Many apps still rely on the old file names paradigm, thus only provide that interface to the user.

Another interesting step is whether Apple is going to introduce OS X on ARM. I think this will be the next big thing. It’s no secret that Apple has prototypes of MacBooks running their Ax SoC. The move to 64 bit on the A7 is a big hint on what’s to come. These SoCs are becoming more and more powerful. Sure, they won’t be challenging intel in a Mac Pro anytime soon, but imagine an even lighter and thinner Macbook with even better battery life. And while on it, comes with built-in cellular radio. That would be THE laptop for everybody.

iOS 8’s banner has what seems to be an ocean background. I’m hoping for waterproof iPhones, but I think this will be more about the iOS, not a new iPhone. Can’t expect too much other than for Apple to fix the bugs of iOS7, and optimize it further so it is lean and fast. Right now, even on 7.1.1, my iPhone still has the annoying springboard restarts, even when it is just lying on the table. That’s ridiculous. But typical Apple, I’m afraid they will focus more on utilizing the co-processor of the A7 SoC, thus pretty much rendering anything with the A6 or older to be “less desirable.” Planned obsolesce. Annoying, but won’t be too surprising. When I had the iPhone 4, I thought I would not need to get any newer iPhone. It runs iOS6 okay. I upgraded to the iPhone 5 mainly for the camera and RAM. But we saw iOS7 putting the aging iPhone 4 to its knees. Even A5 devices are not doing so hot on iOS7, and Apple is still selling the 4S and iPad mini. Apple is using software to entice people to upgrade. I just hope Apple sees the legacy they have created. Due to the popularity of the iPad, there are a lot of people and businesses that are still using the old iPad 2, or even the original iPad. Imo Apple needs to start thinking about legacy support. The least Apple should do is optimize iOS8 to run great on the older devices, instead of just putting in more useless animations to make the older devices buckle.

Another rumor is Health book and wearables. There are leaks of a new Health book app, and the rumors of wearables from the legendary iWatch rumor to simply certifications of health/medical devices that are compatible with iDevices. I have a feeling the later to be more accurate. And I still think Apple won’t do an iWatch. The iWatch was simply a rumor conjured up by the tech bloggers, just like the rumor about Apple making an actual television. The tech bloggers keep using the iWatch rumor so much that they themselves are believing that it would be real. Personally, nah.

Some hardware rumors are an updated Apple TV. I think at least Apple need to update the chip as the last Apple TV is still running a single core A5. However, this can wait for the later events, not in WWDC.

How about new Macs? Apple is just starting to ship the new Mac Pro, so I doubt anything new on that. Intel does not have a full refresh on their lineup yet, so I don’t think any of the laptops would see a refresh. The rumor is for a 12″ retina Macbook Air. Not so sure about this, but the Macbook Air do deserve some refresh on their screens. More and more Windows tablets have better screens than the current Air. If Apple is doing a new hardware design, I think it would be linked towards the goal of making an ARM based Macbook, so I don’t know if we will see anything right now.

The only hardware remaining that has not received Haswell treatment is the Mac mini, but updating the Mac mini is not that exciting unless Apple is doing some major hardware update (making it look like a mini Mac Pro, for instance). There’s a rumor of a cheaper iMac, but even if that’s the case, I think that will be only for the educational institutions, something that Apple has been doing in the past. The current iMacs are all running pretty up-to-date hardware. If Apple need to do something, my wish is to make the fusion drive as standard.

Another rumor is the iPad Pro, or something like that. Basically a larger screen iPad with multi-windowing system. Maybe that’s what iOS8 will bring. Samsung definitely thinks Apple would do this as they came out with their 12″ Tab Pro. I personally think the 12″ ARM running Macbook to be more plausible than this larger iPad.

On the business side, there’s the purchase of Beats audio. However, I don’t know how this would relate to WWDC. Even if Apple is announcing some new music streaming services or whatnot, the typical September media even would be more appropriate.

We will see what will happen in the next few days. I have a feeling this will be focused on developers, not hardware, so it might be disappointing to the gadget-lusting tech bloggers. I can’t wait for the headlines next week about Apple can no longer innovate and that they are doomed. 

 

Restoring from Time Machine on Thunderbolt Drobo

Apparently I tend to make my life more complicated than it should. I have been backing up my Mac to a Time Machine on a Thunderbolt Drobo. No problem, right? Well, I guess I spoke to soon.

Doing a complete restore of a Mac from a Time Machine is pretty straight forward using OS X’ Migration Assistant, but in real life, the result is not usually perfect, and can be quirky. Of course, I have to add an additional confusion to the mix, by using a Drobo. I love Drobo, but they can initiate a heart attack when they do not behave as expected.

The scenario is, I wanted to transfer the content of my Mac to another. There are many ways to do this, but OS X’ Migration assistant is usually pretty foolproof and fairly easy, especially since it has the option to do it from a Time Machine backup so you don’t have to have the original machine. So I reformatted the target Mac with 10.9, connected my Thunderbolt Drobo, and Migration Assistant could not seem to find it. Uh oh. So I set up the target Mac as a fresh Mavericks install, and although System Information detects the Thunderbolt Drobo, it’s not shown in Finder. A knowledge base from Drobo said that I have to have Drobo Dashboard installed. 

I downloaded and installed Drobo Dashboard, and the Drobo is mounted. Great. So I started Migration Assistant again. No go. Seems like Migration Assistant kinda did a “reboot” to run. Well, based on the knowledge base from Drobo, since it needs Drobo Dashboard to mount the Thunderbolt Drobo, that means Migration Assistant will never be able to recognize the Thunderbolt Drobo as it started before Drobo Dashboard is loaded. Double uh oh!

So I dug up the drobo box to get its USB cable. Meanwhile, I let the target system to update itself to 10.9.2. After 10.9.2 was installed, I tried Migration Assistant again, saving the USB route as last resort. Luckily, the Time Machine partition was shown. Hallelujah!

Moral of the story:

1. Although restoring form Time Machine works, sometimes it is easier to just do a direct migration from the old Mac. So if you buy a new Mac, don’t sell or reformat the old one yet until you get everything transferred
2. Update the target Mac to the latest OS X version and its patches. 10.9’s Migration Assistant did not recognize the Thunderbolt Drobo, but apparently 10.9.2 did (with Drobo Dashboard installed)
3. Thunderbolt is great and fancy, but don’t dismiss USB just yet

Well, just another doki-doki adventure with Drobo.

 

Apple Special Event October 2013 Impression

Well, that was quick. Apple live streamed their keynote, and the stream is already available. As an armchair critic, time for yet more 2 cents from me. 😀

The keynote started with a very deep video that is basically Apple explaining to those bloggers that are shouting that they are no longer innovative because they don’t have huge phones with swimming fish as a wallpaper like Android. Typical Apple, the video is highly produced. It’s simple, yet enjoyable to watch.

As usual, the keynote started with Tim Cook with the stats. 9 million iPhones sold since the 5s/5c launch. Damn, and I thought we are in recession. Tim Cook showed a video, a very highly produced one, showing the launch day with people lining up and getting excited. Plenty of Asians in the video, kinda hinting Apple is serious in targeting China as their market. This is one of the reasons watching Apple keynote a lot more enjoyable than any other companies’. They just produced their stuff extremely well, unlike the other companies that seem to stuck in the 90s style of rigidity. I mean seriously, try watch Samsung or even Microsoft’s presentation for the Surface 2. And they wonder why Apple is garnering the brand awareness and mindset of the public. Genius marketing.

Oh, in the video, there’s a dude buying five of the 5c cases. Scalper alert!

“Biggest and fastest software upgrade in history… ever.” Yeah, Cook was talking about iOS7. Sounds great, but can you fix the battery drain and cut back on the animations please? They are getting old after two days. Tim Cook stated how great it is that consumers can experience the latest features. Yes, tell that to iPhone 4 owners.

A mention of iTunes radio with a plug for Justin Timberlake. Meh. Wake me up when all Avex’ catalog are in. Apps. Yes, we heard this before. Mac, with mentions of OS X, iLife, and iWork. Tim Cook seemed to be stumbling, hope he’s okay.

“The competitors are confused. They are making PCs into tablets and tablets into PCs.” LOL. Yes Microsoft, that’s you.

Craig was next with OS X Mavericks. Echo… Somebody is going to get some spanking later.

We heard many of these before in WWDC. Craig is claiming you can get an hour more battery life on the Haswell Macbook Air. That’s quite a feat if it’s true. Variable graphics memory allocation. Tags, which is not new as older OS X already has it, it was just called label. Why tags? I think this is Apple’s way of eliminating the file system from the user. I can see this being expanded on future versions of OS X, and the files and folders that we are used to getting more and more hidden.

Even Craig seemed to be stumbling, rushed. The presentation does not feel as tight as when Jobs was running the show.

Demo on Mavericks feature, showing integration between notification, mail, calendar, maps, etc.

Windows 8 pro for $199. Yep, jab #2 at Microsoft. Mavericks? Free! Even for those running Snow Leopard! Well, not completely unexpected. Many people have said this when Apple dropped its upgrade price to $20. Apple get their money from selling hardware. Still, a nice touch. I can see OS X updates will be just seamless in the future. Since it is free, it will be just an ongoing software updates. People do not have to worry anymore about what OS version they are running.

For me, I am sticking on Lion a bit longer (yeah, I have not even upgraded to Mountain Lion). It is always wise to wait for the first of second point update before upgrading an OS.

Phil was up next. Great reviews on Macbook Air. New retina Macbook Pro. That old Macbook Pro? Yeah, they are step children now that Apple doesn’t even upgrade it to Haswell. New Retina Macbook Pro is lighter and thinner. Gee, what’s new. 😀 Better battery life thanks to Haswell. Oh, and a keynote tip from Apple. See how Phill talked about the increased battery life, then showed a Macbook Pro with a screenshot from Batman movie, and then from behind, showed two more Macs and stated how you can watch the entire trilogy in one charge. Great presentation indeed!

Of course, everything is upgraded. PCI-e SSD, 802.11ac, Thunderbolt 2, Mavericks. Base 13″ model starts at $1299, pretty much set to replace the old Macbook Pro. Oh, best yet, shipping today! Again, this is why Apple is so successful. Many other Windows laptop OEMs have not even shipped their Haswell laptops that they announced earlier this year. The 15″ model is getting Iris Pro, with higher priced option for nVidia GPU, GT 750M. Interestingly enough, the 15″ model has less battery life than the 13″ model (8 hours vs 9 hours). 15″ starts at $1999 with Iris Pro, and shipping today too.

Mac Pro. In short, $2999, shipping in December. Yeah, not cheap. Nice, but too rich for my blood. Typical Apple, to entice you to spend that much money, they make a documentary on the making of the Mac Pro in the assembly line. Unlike Jony Ives’ documentary, the background is black. 😀 Can’t wait for the parodies people will make.

Next up was Eddie, with iLife, new versions for iOS and Mac. Finally, matching icons on the iOS version to match iOS7 style.  Eddie simply blazed through the apps without much demo other than Garage Band. I’m curious on the new iMovie and iPhoto, but alas, no demo. In-app purchase for Garage Band! Yeah, Apple made these apps for free, and they went into the IAP game. I just hope they don’t do that for iMovie effects.

New iWork. More syncing with iCloud and web version, plus collaboration! Take that Google Docs. Fun demo. Seems better rehearsed than Craig’s Mavericks demo. Free. Office 365 for $99 per year. Jab #3 at Microsoft. I guess it’s better to poke fun at Microsoft than Google.

They are all available today, but I cannot install them!! 😦 Why? They require Mavericks! No fun for me and my Lion. Oh, and no free iWork for me too. Have to buy new Macs. 😦

Tim Cook returned with stats for iPads. Yet more jabs at Microsoft in the most indirect manner. Yet another highly produced video showing iPad in a variety of usages, with Asians and Chinese in them. 😀 I wonder how they record the movie of the guy with a tent hanging on a mountain at the end though.

Phil with new iPads, finally! As expected, the new big iPad follows the iPad mini’s design with thinner bezel. The name becomes iPad Air. iPad Air? Doesn’t sound right. But I guess it’s better than what it could’ve been, ie. “The Newer iPad with retina display.” Even thinner than the previous iPad. What’s amazing is the weight, 1 pound. It runs the A7 SoC. Wait, no A7X? Yeah, I guess Apple sees the A7 is fast enough to push the retina iPad on its own. No TouchID though. No 802.11ac either. Same prices as the iPad 4, November 1, with a new breakthrough in LTE. Just one single SKU for LTE support for all carriers in the world, including all four US carriers. That’s amazing.

Previously, despite all iPads with cellular are unlocked, LTE support is carrier/region specific. You can buy a Verizon LTE iPad 4, for example, and although you can use it on AT&T, you will only get 3G/HSDPA speed. Seems like that’s over now with the iPad Air. It’s quite an amazing feat that we are at this point of universal LTE support this quick. Remember how long it took to even have phones with penta-band HSDPA? Yeah, that Nokia WinRT tablet with carrier branding? Good luck with that. The only downside left is the mess that is the iPhone 5s/5c, with every region having their own SKU with LTE that only works with the carriers in those region.

And, the iPad 2 lives! Yes, still at $399. More like the iPad for suckers, especially when you see the new iPad mini having the same price. I mean really, the iPad 2 was great, but it was released in 2011, running the old A5 SoC that doesn’t even get many of iOS7’s new features. You are better off buying a refurbished iPad 4 or the new iPad mini.

Of course, another documentary starring Jony Ives.

Ah yes, the new iPad mini. It finally received retina display thanks to the A7. And Apple didn’t stop there, they used that as an excuse to increase the price. The new iPad mini now starts at $399, shipping November (but no specific dates). Yeah, you still want to buy that iPad 2? 😀 Space gray is the new word for black. The old iPad mini hangs around at $299 for the 16GB wifi. I guess that’s Apple’s answer to the new Nexus 7.

Seriously, the iPad 2 and old iPad mini are for suckers, considering they are running a two generation behind SoC.

Tim Cook returned to wrap up the show.

So, how was my prediction? I got pretty close, although I got the order wrong. I thought Apple was going to do a 12″ retina Macbook to sneak in between the Macbook Air and the retina Macbook Pro, but looks like Apple managed to push the price of the retina Macbook Pro down, making the old legacy Macbook Pro a step child. Mavericks is free, which is unexpected but not surprising. New iLife and iWork. New iPads as expected, with a price jump on the retina mini, and the old ones linger around for suckers.

Of course, no Apple TV, and no smartwatch. Cue in the tech bloggers bitching on how Apple lacks innovation, ignoring the feat of engineering that brings 1 SKU to support all LTE around the world. As for me, I have been waiting for a retina mini since the original iPad mini was announced, so I’m getting that one. Bye bye Nexus 7, it’s nice knowing ya.

What’s on your shopping list?

 

Apple October 2013 Event Prediction

Another month, another Apple event, and another 2 cents from me.

Since the iPhone 5c/5s are out already, the checklist is getting shorter. Kinda obvious that this time, it will be new iPads.

First, redesign of the big iPad into a slimmer model, using the iPad mini’s design language. I think this is pretty much a given considering the leaks. The question is the inside. Will it have the fingerprint sensor that Apple debuted with the iPhone 5s? I think so as I think it will be running off a souped up A7 processor, probably dubbed A7X. Ever since the iPad 3, Apple always pushed their SoCs on the big iPad to take advantage of the bigger room and battery. Everything else will be familiar though, same price points as current iPad 4 with same capacities. I mean I don’t see why Apple would change anything as they are selling these by the boatload at these prices. I wonder how the LTE versions would fare though, considering the mess it is with the iPhone 5c/5s, with their multiple region specific SKUs that pretty much “lock” the LTE support only for that region.

Second, the mini. Last year’s mini was a disappointment due to the lack of retina display. Also, it’s running the old A5 SoC, the one on the iPad 2. I think Apple would finally put retina on the mini this time. The challenge of putting a retina display on the iPad mini is two-folds. One is the smaller battery powering the much higher resolution, while keeping the “legendary” 10-hour battery life. Second is performance/head dissipation, as the retina display requires more GPU power to drive. Apple learned that lesson with the iPad 3, where even the A5X was not good enough to drive the retina display. I think this time though, even the plain A7 would be able to do it. Apple has been pushing the GPU capabilities of their SoCs a lot, and I think now they can finally pair retina display with the mini. Also, I think Touch ID is going to be present, because why not (the A7 supports it). Same price points and capacities.

What else other than iPads? The retina Macbook Pros have not been updated to Haswell yet, which is not too surprising considering the number of Windows laptops with Haswell on the market are still very few. The iMac just got its silent refresh. I have a feeling the retina Macbook Pro update to Haswell might be silent too, unless Apple want to brag about the battery life and iris pro GPU. But other than that, there is not much to say about Haswell. Performance is not a huge jump compared to Ivy bridge, so the marketing point to spin is mainly the power savings.

Will the regular Macbook Pro get a refresh? I don’t know, and I doubt it. I think Apple wants to replace the regular Macbook Pro with the retina Macbook Pro real bad. The regular Macbook Pro didn’t even get a display upgrade last year. They are serve well thanks to their optical drive, and they are great as a stop gap between the Macbook Air and the retina Macbook Pro price points. If Apple can push the price of the retina Macbook Pro down, I think we will see the regular Macbook Pro abandoned/discontinued (or it won’t get any updates and will be just faded out silently). There is a rumor about a 12″ retina Macbook rumor, which I think Apple might do if they cannot push the retina Macbook Pro prices down to replace the regular Macbook Pros. It will bring back the old Macbook lineup as the stop gap between the Air and the Pro, now with retina! And with intel’s iris pro GPU, I don’t think we have to worry too much about intel’s GPU performance anymore. If this is true, then I can see them taking over the previous Macbook Pro price points, keeping the retina Macbook Pro as the higher end for better margins. Apple still want you to buy the Macbook Air if you want something cheaper.

Another mac that has not received the Haswell treatment is the mac mini. I think it will get a silent upgrade. The mini is not too exciting to be presented on keynotes, and since Haswell’s main advantage is power saving, it’s not that big of a deal on a desktop. The mini has received plenty of silent refreshes so it’s not too surprising.

Of course, when we talk about Macs, the question linger about the new Mac Pro. Apple said it’s coming this Fall. Well, it’s Fall already, yet nothing much else coming out from Cupertino. It would clash to do a big presentation for this with the iPads on the spotlight. Maybe a separate smaller event.

Then comes OS X Mavericks. I think it would be time to release Mavericks if Apple would also release the new retina Macs. It just gives you a nice flow in the keynote. And same story, $20 for all Macs. Rumor is that Apple might give it for free. Not outside the realm of possibility as $20 is already very inexpensive when you compare it to the price of a single Windows license. 

Apple TV? I don’t think we will see much of it. I mean the end point for that device is to playback 1080p content properly, and the current Apple TV already achieves that. Updating it won’t give much to talk about unless you are doing 4k, and I doubt we are there yet.

iPods? Nope. We already see a color refresh, so I doubt we will see any new ones until next year.

So let’s see how the keynote would go. First, Tim Cook will start with how great the iPhone sales is, and how great their retail business is. Next is the new iPads, and boom, retina iPad mini. Then it’s Mavericks release info and demo, followed by the refresh retina Macbook Pros. And one more thing, 12″ retina Macbook. Sounds good, right? 😀

Smart watch? Meh. Seriously, the rumors about Apple making a smart watch circulating a lot on tech blogs are because that is a rumor started by the tech blogs themselves, so they are basically using their own rumor as news, and keep regurgitating it. It is just a flame bait they will use later when Apple does not do one (simply because there is no reason why Apple would), to criticize Apple being not “innovative” anymore, and that Apple is “disappointing” for not fulfilling the rumors. Seriously, you have a phone that is smarter than ever. Why would you want a half-baked “smart” watch that can’t do much? Let a watch be a simple watch. I personally have stopped using a watch ever since I have a cellphone.

We’ll see what happens tomorrow, 10am PST.

 

Started a Tumblr page

Started a Tumblr page, mainly for my AMVs for now. We’ll see how it goes. I still kinda prefer a classic blog than Tumblr.