Tech

Back in January I wrote about returning to the fold of desktop computers with the purchase of my 27″ iMac with Retina 5K display. After four and a half years with a MacBook Pro (2011, 15″) I was not in love with the laptop concept.

In that post I said I didn’t see myself returning to a laptop for my primary computer, which inferred what I had and have been thinking – a laptop as a secondary computer was still appealing.

A week ago I decided to make that leap and what I found surprised me.

I’ve been hearing a fair bit lately about how amazing Google Photos is at intelligently identifying the subjects of photos. On numerous podcasts I’ve heard about people searching for “hugs” and “dogs” and “patios” and getting “astonishing” results. So I thought I’d give it a go.

On the other side of the coin from my last post, something happened this week that gave me warm fuzzies about Apple.

Marco Arment wrote about it. Friends Scott Willsey, and Allison Sheridan have written about it. I’ve lost count of the number of podcasts I’ve listened to in the last while that have discussed it. Apple’s software is not living up to fairly basic expectations – that it do what it says on the box. Every time.

Mostly I’ve tended to think “yeah, they have a point, but it’s not so bad as I see it.” Today I’m writing this blog post because it is bad as I see it and it’s getting beyond being simply disappointing.

I’ve seen many internet “explosions” where large numbers of denizens have set about cutting down someone for a controversial action. In New Zealand we call this tall poppy syndrome. I’m certainly guilty of lashing out at times, too, when an action is particularly egregious in my eyes or affects me more directly, but as much as I can I seek to remain objective. In the last year or two, however, I’ve taken a slightly different approach.

You’ve got mail. I’ve got mail. We’ve all got mail. Specifically, email.

On previous incarnations of this blog I’ve written multiple times about my frustrations with modern email software and this is yet another occasion. I’ve had a startling change of heart in the last week and I thought it was time, once again, to air my grievances and this time explain why I’ve gone back into a fold I swore I’d leave behind forever.

I was listening to Accidental Tech Podcast (ATP) episode 158 on my commute home and was not in the least surprised that the Apple vs FBI topic came up, nor by how the hosts covered it with their usual deep thinking.

But what did surprise me was a monologue by John Siracusa which, I think, really hit at the biggest, most important point of this debate. The point being that it isn’t just about this single debate, but something far, far bigger.

Today, I nailed it. Again.

My goals were 12 hours in which I stood up (for a minute or more), 30 minutes of vigorous exercise, and 600 active calories expended. My actual totals were 15 hours standing, 98 minutes of vigorous exercise and as at the time of writing, 868 active calories.

And it was easy!

On January 13th, 2016, nine years to the day after my first iMac, I purchased a 27″ Retina 5K iMac with 3.3 GHz Core i5. I’d been eyeing up a 27″ iMac to replace the MacBook Pro for a while and when the Retina model first appeared, I moved from eyeing to lusting after. When the time finally came, it was merely a choice of the precise model.

I’ve prettied up the data used in the last post so here it is.