Main

The Curious Case of the 8GB 3rd Gen iPod Touch

2012-02-01T23:12:18Z

The Impetus

In developing some apps that had to support older devices, I had to acquire a previous generation iPod Touch for testing purposes. I figured a 3rd generation 8GB iPod Touch would be fine. So I set off to eBay to quickly grab an iPod.

After a few days, my new-to-me-but-used iPod Touch arrived in the mail. I took it out of the box and plugged it into the iMac, only to have XCode tell me I had a 2nd gen iPod Touch in my possession.

I checked my eBay order to make sure I hadn't ordered the wrong thing. Nope; 3rd gen 8GB iPod Touch. So I assumed the seller had sent me the wrong item. I contacted the seller, and was informed I'd received the correct item. I was ready to go off on the seller, but I first checked the Apple page on identifying iPod models. It turns out, we were both kind of right.

You see, technically, there is no such thing as a 3rd generation 8GB iPod Touch.

The Confusion

In 2009, Apple introduced the 3rd Gen iPod touches; they released new 32GB and 64GB models, but didn't release a new 8GB model. So for a time Apple sold the 2nd gen 8GB iPod Touch alongside the new 3rd gen 32 & 64GB models (Wikipedia reference).

So what had occurred, was that the seller had identified the 8GB iPod as 3rd generation, because it was sold alongside the actual 3rd generation iPod Touches. It's easy to see how this confusion might occur, but in looking at Apple's own page on "Identifying iPod Models" (source):

iPod touch (3rd generation) features a 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen multi-touch display and 32 GB or 64 GB flash drive...

...The iPod touch (3rd generation) can be distinguished from iPod touch (2nd generation) by looking at the back of the device. In the text below the engraving, look for the model number. iPod touch (2nd generation) is model A1288, and iPod touch (3rd generation) is model A1318.

it becomes clear that there is no such thing as an 8GB 3rd generation iPod Touch. And that Apple would refer to the model number of the 2nd generation iPod Touch in the blurb about the 3rd gen suggests that this confusion may be common.

Why Does This Matter?

If this were simply a matter of getting the wrong model, that would be one thing. But if you look at the pricing (as of the date of this post) of the 8GB 2nd gen vs. the 8GB 3rd gen, there's a big difference:

These are the exact same thing; iPod Touch model A1288. It would appear that sellers on eBay are profiting from this confusion; selling the mislabeled 2nd gen iPod Touch for a higher price than the correctly labeled 2nd gen 8GB iPod Touches. Whether this is intentional or not is difficult to say, but it is something you should be aware of if you're in the market for a used iPod Touch.

In my case the seller was friendly and willing to accept a refund, but not everyone might be so fortunate.

Bottom Line

If you're looking to buy a used 8GB 3rd generation iPod Touch (or any used iPod Touch, really), refer to Apple's page on "Identifying iPod Models" first to make sure you know what you're looking for, and don't end up paying more than you should.

What's That Colour?

2012-01-31T04:41:50Z

Ever need help telling what a colour is?

What's That Colour to the rescue!

Just tap to find a colour name, as well as RGB values for anything you can point your camera at.

Get it now!

Sketch : Review

2011-08-09T18:01:01Z

I've been messing around with Inkscape lately, just for fun. But what's not fun is seeing your Core i7 iMac struggling to redraw your document while zooming in. You see, Inkscape isn't multi-threaded. So, during intensive tasks I'll just see a single core at 100% while the other 7 are just chilling, presumably talking smack about integers.

Thus began my search for a cheap, Mac-native vector drawing application. And after a grueling 10 minute search of the internets, I decided to try out Sketch.

Initial Impressions

Sketch touts "Infinite Size" documents as one of its features. When you open Sketch, you have an infinite sized canvas on which to do your vector drawing thing. When you've achieved something worth exporting, you make a "slice" or selection of your canvas to export. That's nifty.

I was using a mouse when I started up Sketch, and was going nuts trying to find a way to scroll around the canvas. I went into the toolbar configuration, and found that there was indeed a hand tool; it just wasn't in the default toolbar. "Why is that?", I wondered. But switching to the Magic Trackpad, I was easily able to scroll and zoom my way around using the two-finger scroll and pinch. It seems Sketch was made for use with the trackpad, so that's something to keep in mind.

Sketch has a stroke width tool that's easy to use, and the transforms (stretch, scale, skew) are easy to apply. But that's where the ease stops.

Annoyances

I spent a few minutes trying to figure out how to select a vector I'd already drawn. Not modifying it; just selecting it. You see, Sketch doesn't have a mouse tool. Whenever I tried to select a vector, I'd find myself applying the effect of whatever tool I had selected. It wasn't until I realized I had to deselect my current tool, that I could select elements. That was annoying.

Also, Sketch seems very green; it feels buggy in places. Selecting layers and then deleting them doesn't always work on the first try. Additionally, a reference layer I had put in the document and hid, wouldn't then un-hide. Useful.

Which brings me to the layers. Sketch definitely supports layers, but that isn't apparent when you open up the application. You have to enable layers in the View menu. And once you have your list of layers, you might be inclined to order them… Well, good luck with that.

For whatever reason, Sketch has decided to make the process of ordering layers as maddening as possible. You might assume that sending a layer backwards, would change the relative order of the selected layer. Guess again! Rather, in order to send a layer backwards, you must first click the behind tool, then click on the layer you want your selected layer to go behind. Get it? It's so intuitive!

Sketch also includes a set of distortions:

These distortions are easy enough to use, but they aren't very precise. Thus, I don't really find them that useful. But you know what are useful? Bezier handles.

In working with already made vectors, I found it difficult to grab the Bezier handles; sometimes they were easily visible, other times they weren't.

Bottom Line

Sketch seems very promising, and I look forward to updates and seeing where it goes. But for right now, I'll put up with the sluggishness and stick with Inkscape.

Sketch is made by Bohemian Coding, and is available on the Mac App Store for USD 39.99.

Apple & Google: Different Goals

2011-08-09T16:43:06Z

Apple's goal has been to achieve maximum profit from the sale of hardware:

"Apple captured two thirds of available mobile phone profits in Q2"

Success.

Google's goal has been to increase the number of eyeballs looking at ads, growing the search market:

"Android takes almost 50% share of worldwide smart phone market"

Success.

Everybody wins. I don't see what all the bickering is about.

USBFever 2x Optical Lens for iPhone 4 Review

2011-08-03T00:56:34Z

I've been snapping some pictures on my iPhone 4 recently. The iPhone 4 is a great casual camera, but I've been running into situations where I wish I had just a bit of zoom. The iPhone doesn't have any optical zoom abilities. What it does have is a ditigal zoom, which produces a very pixelated and ugly result.

After doing some searching, I recently picked up the 2x Optical Zoom lens from USBFever. In my search, I'd found that there were lenses that offered up to 12x zoom (again, which you can get from USBFever). But, besides being rather bulky, these lenses require a tripod. Anyone who's tried taking a steady picture with a smartphone camera knows the difficulties of trying to hold the phone steady. Stick a 12x zoom lens on that phone, and it's not humanly possible to hold the phone steady enough in your hand. But my goal was to get something which I could easily snap on or off in casual use, and lugging around a giant lense and a tripod doesn't seem that casual to me. At that point, you might as well carry around a real camera.

So, a week after ordering, the lens found itself to my door from Hong Kong ready to take for a spin.

The lens itself is screwed in place onto a specialized iPhone case which comes included in the package. The idea is that you keep this case on your iPhone at all times, and then just screw in the lens whenever you need it. I actually really like the case, so that won't be a problem.

General Use

After taking some shots, a few things became apparent. First of all, it does indeed zoom. But there's also a very noticeable distortion around the edges, accompanied by a vignette effect. The distortions are more noticable in some shots than in others.

Comparisons

Without lens:

With lens:

Without lens:

With lens:

Conclusions

The distortions will have to be something I keep in mind when deciding whether to use the 2x lens, but I like having the option when I want to see something a bit more closely.

Lion: Quit Without Auto Resume

2011-08-01T16:02:50Z

Mac OS X Lion introduced a feature that allows applications to restore the exact state of the program when quit. So, the next time you open the application, every document, window, and panel will be right where you left it. But what if you want to quit an application and DON'T want to see all those windows again? Apparently you can override the auto resume behavior, by using the key cominbation:

Command(Apple) + Option + Q

Messing around with Inkscape

2011-07-31T02:15:21Z

Spring Grove Cemetery

2011-07-25T06:19:51Z

Click to see the gallery

Rainy Day at Eden Park

2011-07-25T06:13:24Z

Lion Review

2011-07-21T04:18:00Z

On July 20th, 2011 OS X and iOS gave birth to Lion, the latest and… latest from the überminds in Cupertino. There's some cool stuff in the newest update to OS X, but my initial reactions were of the less-than-amused variety. I thought I'd jot down some of my impressions while using Lion for the first few days; the laughter, the sorrow.

First of all, I installed Lion on the Core 2 Duo aluminum unibody I had lying around. I thought I'd test Lion out on the lappy before throwing the cat some big, beefy iMac. Alright then, let's get to it.

Day 1

I'm in between like… and rage.

Scrolling

First of all, the very first thing that happens when you boot into Lion, is this giant dialog shows up telling you, "Hey, we reversed the way scrolling goes. Why? 'Cuz screw you that's why." And of course you can turn off this behavior to go back to the way things were, but you have to un-tick the box that says "natural scrolling" in the trackpad preferences. Meaning the way you like to scroll is unnatural. Which means they probably ran tests with iPod touch users who had never seen a computer before... users who were dumbfounded by the über tech that is, the TRACKPAD. So that's just your welcome into the new hotness.

Finder

I had to flick a few settings just to get my Finder window functional again. By default, it throws an item into the side bar called "All My Files" and makes it the default view for new open windows. "All My Files" is literally… all your files; regardless of where they are on your filesystem. Who the heck would find that useful? That's why I put crap in folders. Folders = crap holders.

So I fix that in the preferences.

After getting rid of that, I notice Lion has gracefully removed the bottom of the Finder window showing me the number of items in the current directory and free disk space. That's useful information; I want to know how much space I have free to load up with lolcats. So to get that back, I have to go up to the View menu and select "Show Status Bar".

So I fix that in the preferences.

And to top it off, my friggin library folder isn't visible, because apparently I shouldn't be messing with that witchcraft. So to see your library folder, which is totally there, you have to go up to the "Go" menu, (which, what self-respecting user ever goes to ?) hold the option key, and THEN you'll be graciously shown the option to see your own Library folder. It's like XP where you went to your settings folder and it asked you, "These files are hidden. are you sure you want to see them?"

So I fix that in the… no wait, what? There's no preference for that?! $@#%#*&!

Spaces

I use spaces all the time on my Snow Leopard iMac. I like seeing at the top on the menu bar, the number of the screen I'm on. I also like being able to organize my screens in grids. I also like being able to go to the spaces preferences and choosing how many spaces there are.

But apparently I like all the wrong things, because those all went away. There's no option to show the screen number you're on anywhere; you have to go to the Mission Control app to see that. And now, you can't organize spaces in grids; you get one long, linear streak of spaces. I really liked being able to pop around the grid; up, down, diagonally, and in linked-list back-forth. Sigh…

Safari

Full-screen Safari is pretty cool. It feels very snappy and oh man why did they have to mess with my Spaces?!?!

Day 2

Snap to Grid

So this is something relatively minor, but Lion decided to kill my snap-to-grid preference for items on the Desktop. A simple change in the Desktop view options under the "Arrange By" menu, which Lion now calls the "Sort By" menu. Because apparently the word "arrange" was too cryptic.

Dock

While the Dock doesn't look any different at first, I heard buzz about something having to do with the indicator dots… you know, the little blue dots that show up in the Dock under applications that are running. Well there's this tick box in the Dock preferences called, "Show indicator lights for open applications". Why would that option even exist? Well, apparently the default behavior is to NOT show the indicator dots.

As was explained in the very thorough ArsTechnica review (which I strongly suggest you read), when you quit an application, Lion reserves the right to show the application quitting, but keep the application's process alive in the background. Lion also reserves the right to quit applications it determines you're not using. So, in a very real sense, those blue dots don't mean as much in Lion.

Individually, these all seem like minor changes. But all together, Apple seems to be messing with some things that haven't changed in computer-age eons; stuff that hasn't changed since System 1.0. Things like the concept of a "running" application. Ah! And messing with the fundamentals brings me to the scrollbars…

Scroll Bars

I don't want to say too much about this, because it seems to have been mentioned in every review I've read thus far, but… the scrollbars. By default, Lion only shows you the scrollbars when you're scrolling. This works great on an iPhone, but on a laptop/desktop those scrollbars are indicators of where you are in a document, and the relative size of the document. If the scrollbars are hidden, then that information is no longer readily available to you. And that's not cool Lion. Not cool.

You can change this by going to the "General" pane (renamed from the "Appearance" pane) in the preferences. By this point, there are quite a few toggles to switch to get the system back to just useable.

Speech

Alright, so most of this has been griping so far, but there are changes in Lion that I think have changed for the better.

Lion has some MUCH improved voices to choose from, and I do mean choose. In Snow Leopard, if you went to the "Speech" pane in preferences to pick a synthesized voice, most of the choices would look familiar to someone who hadn't used a Mac since System 7. But now when you go to pick out some new voices, you're presented with an array of high-quality voices, in different languages and locales.

About this Mac

Selecting "About this Mac" under the Apple menu shows you the same dialog you'd see in Snow Leopard, but the "More info…" button now takes you to "System Information". It has much of the information that you would have found in "System Profiler" (though if you still want to see the classic profiler with all the additional information, you can click the "System Report" button in this window).

This should prove more useful to people who just want to grab some quick information on their system, but what I like most about this is the added view for Storage. Now you can view the usage of your storage space by content type, à la iTunes iPhone usage view.

Day 3

Print Dialog

The default print dialog has been reduced to a shadow of its former self. Actually, I don't have much of a problem with this change. All the dirty printing details can be gotten to by the "Show Details" button. Making things easier up front, and putting the details another click away; a common theme in Lion.

Command-Tabbing

Okay, now this is a big deal for me. Traditionally, you've been able to hold down the Command (or Apple) key and Tab to cycle through open applications. If you try that in Lion however, it won't work.

Oh, you'll get the list of open applications alright. But when you then select an application to go to, nothing happens; it doesn't take you to the application you've chosen. Which makes command-tabbing through your applications pointless. So this is the first thing in Lion I've encountered that actually feels broken.

Harumph.

Front Row

It's not a bother to me really; I knew it was coming. But just in case you were really fond of Front Row, or "Fronty", as I call him... I regret to inform you that Uncle Steve drove him out to a farm with lots of open space where he could run around forever.

Dashboard

By default, Lion now puts Dashboard into a separate screen within Mission Control, putting it two gestures away from the desktop. You can restore Dashboard's pre-Lion behavior of fading over the current screen in the preferences for Mission Control.

I don't get the usefulness of burying Dashboard within Mission Control... when I want to use a widget in Dashboard I just want to see some information, and get out in a couple of seconds... kind of like a rest-stop map in a shady state.