Steve Jobs is an asshole.
Now that I’ve got that out of the way… I finally got around to getting iGot. As in I got an iPhone. And it’s an amazing piece of hardware. So awesome I didn’t think twice about shelling out the 80,000 yen for it last weekend. It’s easily manouvered and manhandled with the stroke and/or slide of a thumb. It’s also fairly light, slim and sexy… like if Jessica Alba was a cellphone.
However, that’s also its biggest problem: gadget. Steve Jobs and his Apple Army design and create smooth, curvy personal electronics with too much of a gadget-minded approach. The App in “Apple” is certainly not for Application. Because the stock applications in the iPhone just plain suck.
The Contacts stock app is utter crap. There are no tabs, no folders, no groups. My (Japanese) cellphone in 2003 had 9 separate folders for different types of contacts. Do the morons at Apple Interface think that everyone is my friend? Do they not think that possibly I may want to add a business contact or two (or 200) into my Contacts list?
There is of course a way to group my contacts into Business, Personal, Public, etc… I simply have to (being a Windows-based PC user) go home and plug my iPhone into my home computer. Then I import all my contacts into Windows Address Book (WAB), a nice and shitty contact manager barely updated by Microsoft since 1996 (when people may actually not have had more than one email address - a fact nicely reflected in the WAB). Then I can use the outdated WAB to create Groups. Then I can sync my iPhone to my WAB and my contacts will appear in nice tidy groups on my iPhone. However, I cannot modify or add new groups or delete people from groups or move people into different groups on my iPhone. It’s really simple. Kinda like how frustrating shit was done in 1997 before the term “user experience” was even uttered in the world of IT.
What were those Apple Assholes thinking?!
I guess in the cozy foosball-playing, licorice-chewing gadget design world everyone is everyone’s BFF and they have no need for distinguishing between types of contacts.
And is there a killer third-party app available on iTunes to tackle this obvious cry for attention and application development? No, of course not. There are 400 versions of Sudoku that got approval for iTunes, but not a single solid contact manager. Priorities Mr. Jobs, priorities.
Next: The “main menu” (or “Immovable Four” as I call them). Phone, Mail, Safari, iPod. Okay, I can almost understand Steve Jobs wanting to be the big prick on campus and have everyone use his subpar browser Safari (as he seems to be cock-blocking Mozilla and Opera from developing for the iPhone platform). And I can understand the “iPodness” requirement. But why does he think I want Phone and Mail on the menu bar? Can’t they just get together in that warm and fuzzy Apple-gadget-world way and become one thing called… oh, I don’t know… CONTACTS? But instead, that seems beyond the mental scope of the User Experience Team at Apple. “Contacts”, after all, are completely separate from Phone and Email, located somewhere up on the page of your choosing. Even though (at least in my world) Contacts are effectively made up of primarily two ingredients… PHONE NUMBERS AND EMAIL ADDRESSES!
That all said, I’m happy (to a great degree) with the iPhone. I just wish Apple and Steve jobs weren’t so shit when it comes to applications. If they want the iPhone to actually be used for business purposes (and not just by pimply-faced gadget geeks wanting portable porn and ubiquitous access to their World of Warcraft character profiles), then they’ve got to actually open up development for third-party apps and not run everything through their brain-dead, Sudoku-loving iTunes App Store Division.
They’re selling me an iPhone after all. iPhone, not iGadget, not iGame, not iSteveJobsIsGod… iPhone.
August 26th, 2008
Canada may have waited eight days to get our first medals at the Olympics, and may still not be much of a threat to overtake first (or second or third or even tenth place), but we’ve come out on top of the world where it counts: Monopoly.
Canada is one of only two nations (the other being China) to receive three properties on the new Monopoly World Edition. And, if that’s not enough, Canada also gets the gold when it comes to property values: Montreal takes the place of the coveted “Boardwalk”.
August 25th, 2008
Dog dies after walk in Burnaby park
“Police in Burnaby are warning dog owners to be vigilant after a possible dog poisoning on Friday evening. … RCMP officers located and seized a number of sticks from the park. Further testing on the dog should reveal the cause of death.”
All those people in South Ossetia reading Canada’s top stories must be feeling really sorry for Canadians. The horrors we must live with in our society!
August 17th, 2008
Tried a new place for lunch today: Kojimachi Cafe.
It was a nice change to eat in a place with windows and a lot of open space rather than some cramped little joint with artificial lighting. It was also packed completely with women. Not a single Japanese salaryman was anywhere to be seen.
I ordered the “A Lunch” from the set menu: an open-faced sandwich on homemade rye bread with cream cheese, red onions, organic cucumbers and marinated salmon. Also on the plate were (all organic): a mixed greens salad, marinated eggplant, and a ramekin of seasoned chilled golden lentils. Lunch also came with a cup of corn soup and unlimited freshly-baked buns and bagels.
And it was only
1000 yen.
It was nice. It was like having lunch in Vancouver.
August 12th, 2008
9:00 AM: Chorei (morning meeting)
9:04 AM: It is agreed that it is humid.
11:44 AM: It looks like rain, but no drops yet.
11:47 AM: Head out for lunch (12-minute walk).
11:48 AM: It starts to sprinkle.
11:50 AM: A few more drops.
11:52 AM: Torrential downpour.
11:54 AM: Hiding under storefront.
12:01 PM: Decision made to abort plans for Italian. Turn around and do Chinese.
12:02 PM: Rain lets up “a bit” – our window of opportunity.
12:03 PM: Torrential downpour resumes – window of opportunity slams shut.
12:04 PM: Arrive at Chinese restaurant soaking wet.
12:12 PM: Five workers swept away in a Tokyo sewer..
12:48 PM: Head back to office. Still raining.
5:16 PM: News of rain reaches Canada. Workers: one dead, four missing.
6:19 PM: Trains are toast. Considering a good time to leave office.
8:39 PM: Leave office.
August 5th, 2008
I’m an AU customer. I went to “try” to get an iPhone today. I’ve got 25 months left on my work visa. Gaijin card good until 2012. But no national healthcare card. And no drivers license. Thus… no iPhone. Unless I drop 80,640 yen of course.
And of course I was pissed. I’ve got 25 months on my visa, but they require 27 for a 24-month contract. She explained the math to me: iPhone payments don’t start until the 3rd month. Thus, 27 months are required to ensure full compliance.
What I don’t get though is that they will turn down someone who has been here for 5 years, or someone who’s been here for 10 years, or someon who has a Japanese spouse and children, just because they don’t have 27 months left on their visa. (And they have private health care and don’t drive.)
BUT they’ll hand one over in a nanosecond to some fresh uni grad who’s just gotten off the plane to do the “experience Japan” thing while they teach English for a year. And have a 95% chance of booking off in the next 12 months or less. All because they just got their 3-year visa yesterday.
AND in the end, everyone actually ends up paying the same for the bloody thing: 34,560 yen:
IF you pay 80,640 up front and they take 1,920 off your bill every month. If you’re one of the “lucky ones” to qualify for the installment plan, they add 1,440 to your bill. They do this for 24 months, and in the end both have paid the same. If you quit the installment plan they charge you “remaining months x 3,360″. If you quit early after up front payment you (naturally) don’t pay anything. It just sucks coughing up 80,640 yen at once for a stupid (albeit awesome) mobile phone.
Give me the bloody phone for 34,560 and screw the “reduce my bill” or “add to my bill” crap. You’d think Softbank would be happy to be taking customers away from the competition. Hell, in Canada phone companies GIVE us INCENTIVES for switching companies.
August 4th, 2008
Previous Posts
