Disqus - Latest Comments for MattRadford

Re: Panic Stations at Cupertino: Why Apple’s iOS 6.0 Maps is a multi-billion dollar problem happening right now

Matt Radford — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 05:27:54 -0000

I think this sums it up:
https://twitter.com/tomi271...

Re: Panic Stations at Cupertino: Why Apple’s iOS 6.0 Maps is a multi-billion dollar problem happening right now

Matt Radford — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 04:27:15 -0000

Fully committed Apple apologist here, and I say Ewan nailed it with "It's a search app with a maps interface". I don't really care what the map looks like, I don't care whether I use Siri or the Maps app to find what I'm looking for. I *do* care immensely about the quality of the data set which the interface queries, and that's where the problem is.

I expect my iPhone to return me correct information; it's critical to how I use my phone. If I can't trust the data, then my experience on the device is severely degraded. Apple can't pull a 5 minute fix on this, as its data is clearly sub-par compared to Nokia and Google.

Hurry up and approve the Google Maps app Apple, so I can return to using a maps app with confidence.

Re: The Data Disgrace: Two readers sound off on their frustrations

Matt Radford — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 15:33:31 -0000

There is plenty of scope for a disruptive operator offering. 3 have done pretty well IMHO with their "the network for data" shtick, but aside from that, is there anything distinctive about any of the carriers?

How about offering unlimited data and texts on a monthly plan, but with PAYG minutes?

Or offer something genuinely useful rather than tinkering with the price plans. My operator has control of my PHONE NUMBER. That's so important to me. Make it more useful with your network than any other, so I don't want to port. Add Hullomail intelligence to your voicemail. Give me web-based access to my SMS, and allow me to control it like I do email - auto-replies, Gmail-style easy search and archiving.

While you're at it, make it easier for me to interact - let me send a blank SMS to your customer services, and get a call back, rather than wading through your God-awful IVR.

None of this is very hard, so I can only assume the operators prefer to lazily trade punters on the way to becoming bit-pipes.

/rant

Re: How do you manage your personal cloud data, accounts & backup?

Matt Radford — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 16:42:13 -0000

Follow a 3-2-1 strategy: 3 backups - 2 local, 1 remote.

As you're all-Apple, this is very easy. Upgrade all your machines to Mountain Lion, which permits encrypted, rotated Time Machine backups. Buy two Time Capsules.

For remote, use a full-service backup such as CrashPlan or BackBlaze. CrashPlan is £6 a month for 6 computers (I think), and gives you access to all your files through a web interface.

Extra bonus backups: Dropbox & iCloud.

Re: Mac users: Take a look at Cloak to secure your open WiFi usage

Matt Radford — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 16:31:11 -0000

Alternatively, there's an open source version called SideStep: http://chetansurpur.com/pro...

There's a donation option for reasonable use. Or you can proxy it through your web server, which will work out much cheaper - on mine I pay 8p/GB, if I go over 100GB :)

Re: I’m getting serious pain from Apple’s ‘services’.. enough to move away? Quite possibly.

Matt Radford — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 05:19:45 -0000

Your main problem is geography, Ewan. iTunes Match does all of what you want: stores everything in the cloud, allows downloading and streaming of music and video to iOS devices and anything running iTunes. But it's not out in the UK yet. Video demonstrating it here:
http://www.macrumors.com/20...

Amazon is the other one to watch here; especially with the Kindle Fire - which will allow a limited amount of downloading for offline viewing, I understand. But again, not in the UK yet. And they currently have little music or video love for iOS devices.

Spotify will allow you to stream and download music without worrying about ever storing anything locally, but it doesn't necessarily have all the music choices you may want.

There is only one alternative to iTunes or Amazon that will provide you with the ability to download any music, TV show or film and play it on your computer or iOS device, and that's bitorrent (or usenet, to be fair).

Your other problem is storage, but if you want local copies you're going to have to manage them. Either deeply meditate on the acquisitive nature of modern consumer society, or just get a Drobo ;)

Re: What’s the best way to mobilise an old content management system?

Matt Radford — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 18:59:44 -0000

Q1: What's driving this?
Q2: What's the budget?

If they just want to present something more appropriate for mobile users, a mobile-formatting intermediary may do the business. But if the driver turns out to be something more comprehensive, then +1 for a responsive redesign, and an overhaul that presents a consistently experienced site across a variety of devices.

Changing the CMS is a different matter, but if it's old and creaking, it's probably got a load of security holes that will eventually bite them in the arse.

Re: So long and thanks for all the iOS

Matt Radford — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 17:35:48 -0000

Couldn't agree more. MC Siegler summed it up quite well: http://techcrunch.com/2011/...

Re: Help with satellite broadband: Does it actually work?

Matt Radford — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 08:28:50 -0000

A friend of mine in Wales has it and the speed is acceptable, but the download limits are tiny - 2GB/month - which really minimises its usefulness.

Whatever happened to those WiBE "Super Mifi" units from Deltenna? I could do with one here as I only get 0.5Mb in deepest Berkshire (55mi from the City). Are they coming to market anytime soon?

Re: HP Touchpad: The breakout success of the summer? Only at £89!

Matt Radford — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 04:12:26 -0000

As Gruber pointed out $99 isn't a sustainable price - you can't take a billion dollar haircut for ever, and once you've set the price, people won't want to pay more. But $249 is still in the affordable range, and it's the price that's being floated for Amazon's Android fondleslab...

Re: Experimenting with a new theme

Matt Radford — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 04:58:36 -0000

Looks good. WooThemes - solid choice (although it's a shame they don't offload a lot of the custom JS and CSS into external files rather than putting it into every page).

Can I recommend that you do the following as well?

* Add caching using W3 Total Cache - it'll speed up your page loads. Page speed also affects Google ranking these days.
* Remove stuff from your head if you don't need it, such as RSD and Windows Live Writer links
* Remove the meta detailing your WP version (why make it easy for people to attack the site using scripting?)
* Move JS to the footer where possible, and minify all HTML, JS and CSS
* As you have a global audience, offload stuff to a CDN wherever possible (you can do this easily, to Amazon S3 or others, using W3 Total Cache)

Oh, and implement everything up to Grey Hat in this presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/n...
It'll do wonders for your SEO.

That'll do for starters!

Cheers
Matt

PS One more thing: change your username from "admin" (there's a plugin that'll allow you to do that easily, without going to phpMyAdmin). Offers some protection against scripting attacks.

Re: You can now unlock your iPhone 4 from O2 and Orange

Matt Radford — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 12:14:00 -0000

I'm afraid not - I haven't had a chance to ask.

Re: Operator Innovation: Let me access my SMS everywhere?

Matt Radford — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 08:31:37 -0000

Much of the above could be solved with a simple move: make SMS available via the web, and allow others to integrate using an API. That would allow for platform-specific apps too.

I know people who really want to use SMS more - a friend of mine who runs a letting agency for students wants to be able to text groups of people from the web, and get replies back to his own phone*. I'm looking into setting up this for him using txtlocal, but as "it's complicated, techy stuff", I'm having to walk him through it. If an operator offered it, there'd be no futzing about with the return path for replies, and the operator would reap the revenue. Instead, it'll be going to a third party.

SMS on the web would also allow me to use a John's Phone for when I go to the park with the kids, as that's perhaps the only mobile that doesn't do SMS. I could properly set up an auto-reply function. As it is, I've jailbroken my iPhone and installed AutoResponder to get that functionality.

* Also interesting: the students are not interested in real-time email. That's for uni and other "professional"-type stuff. SMS is instant and everywhere.

Re: You can now unlock your iPhone 4 from O2 and Orange

Matt Radford — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 09:39:11 -0000

Great! Are you in contract or out of contract?

Re: Operator Innovation: Fancy a MacBook Air, iPhone, iPad for £100/month?

Matt Radford — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 04:42:32 -0000

Alternatively, this option is also available to Apple. They already offer financing over 36 months ('We are able to bundle together your complete requirements for hardware, software, accessories and after-sales service into affordable monthly payments.'), although it isn't heavily promoted. You can also get AppleCare ('Direct access to Apple experts, Mail-in or carry-in repairs, Express replacement service').
With Apple's end-goal being a carrier-neutral data-centric device, and financing and AppleCare, it would just take a few tweaks to deliver your idea. However, I still think this may feel like more of a commitment to the average consumer. "Financing" is a scary word, whereas "we'll just raise your monthly tariff a bit" doesn't have so much friction.

Re: Help Apple: I need a child lock for FaceTime!

Matt Radford — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 05:08:18 -0000

With my iPhone, I hold my hand over the bottom portion of the screen so that little fingers can't end calls. Bit of a pain though.

Alternatively, go go SuperFaceTime! Mirror an iPad 2 (or jailbroken iPad 1 or iPhone with DisplayOut) to a TV, and move it out of reach.

Re: Surprised to see iCloud support on iPhone already

Matt Radford — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 13:21:32 -0000

Bear in mind this gotcha: switching between two Apple IDs is possible but it will deactivate the download ability for the originally activated ID for 90 days.

I can see why Apple would do that to avoid people sharing media, but it's a huge PITA for those of us with more than one Apple ID.

Re: The Deltenna WiBE has arrived in the office

Matt Radford — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 07:27:45 -0000

Middle of nowhere with hardly any mobile signal? Send it on over for a test ;)

Re: Just bought one of these…

Matt Radford — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 06:05:55 -0000

I imagine it's queued at the SMSC until validity expires, or just vanishes into the ether…

Re: Just bought one of these…

Matt Radford — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 05:31:04 -0000

This isn't a phone for everyone. It's more a phone for people who want the features of a basic landline, but mobile.

Saying that, I'd also happily buy one (almost). Why? Focus. I find that, with a smartphone, I'm able to do almost everything, anywhere. But that's also the downside. I play with my phone ("I'll just check Facebook quickly" - 20 minutes goes by) when I should be focussed on other, more important things, or not focussed at all, just enjoying the moment.

So John's Phone follows the Do One Thing Well mantra. Simple functions with a huge battery life, for those times when you don't want all the distractions of a smartphone.

What's stopping me from buying one of these? Lack of SMS reception. I don't even need to send an SMS with this phone, but I do need to be able to receive. Why? It's the expectation of availability. You have a mobile number, people expect to be able to text you. So this would be an ideal second phone for me if either the small display was adapted to display a text message, or there was some web-based system (hello, carriers?) to manage or set an auto-reply ("The phone I'm using right now can't receive texts, please call me instead).

Re: How big is your flatscreen TV and do you have one in the kitchen?

Matt Radford — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 05:56:05 -0000

iPad + Wallee http://www.thewallee.com/ = happydance

Not too intrusive either.

Also, don't forget: http://www.theonion.com/art...

Re: Why all Apple users are rubbish [linkbait]

Matt Radford — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 18:17:25 -0000

Despite my lengthy reply on the Fisher-Price post, I quite agree. There's nothing wrong with a critical tone so long as you can back it up, and in most respects, Ewan's rants about the iPhone and the iPad are bang on. But Apple may not be heading in the direction that power users want, and may well implement solutions that many people don't expect e.g. push notifications.

Slight tangent: I'd recommend a post on Asymco called "The parable of the PDA", about users' expectations. Short version: "...early adopters are not the audience that should be consulted on how to improve the product."

http://www.asymco.com/2010/...

Oh, and I'm neither worried, nor surprised nor concerned for the well-being of this site. I just hope any of Ewan's private rants to mobile industry bods are heeded :)

Re: The iPhone is the market’s Fisher Price smartphone: It’s time to reach beyond!

Matt Radford — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 04:21:50 -0000

I concede the lock screen Raj - I need that, and can't upgrade my iPhone until a jailbreak is available because of it. But notifications - I manage these by ensuring I don't get too many in the first place. I don't need that level of distraction, so perhaps I haven't noticed it as an issue.

Re: The iPhone is the market’s Fisher Price smartphone: It’s time to reach beyond!

Matt Radford — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 04:07:31 -0000

My rebuttal was intended to be delivered in the style your original piece, i.e. slightly ranty ;)

You're making the argument for customisability - tweaking to the nth degree. You could argue that the iPhone has never been a geek phone. That's not what the Apple offers - it's more of a curated experience. So I think I agree with you.

But as I said, a geek will always make their device their own. The only difference with the iPhone is perhaps some extra effort, and delay, e.g. I'm still stuck on firmware 4.1, waiting for an untethered jailbreak so that I don't lose my essential customisations.

Taking your argument to the logical extreme, there's only one geek phone around right now - the HD2, able to run MeeGo, WP7, Android, WinMo 6.5. Should we ditch our iPhones in favour of that? Give me the curated experience every time.

Re: The iPhone is the market’s Fisher Price smartphone: It’s time to reach beyond!

Matt Radford — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 19:35:26 -0000

For starters, you want to change that Notes font to Helvetica. Good job you're a tech, not a typography, geek ;)

So "iPhone is over" boils down to:

1. lock screen
2. "multitasking"
3. notifications
4. an alarm bug

Let's disregard the alarms thing, which is annoying for users, and bad PR but not much else for Apple (although would an alarm bug in Android make the BBC 10pm news? Never).

You're right about the lock screen and notifications. Apple has been surpassed by others in terms of usable and useful features in these areas. I have to jailbreak my iPhone 4 to install LockInfo and get a usable lock screen. And notifications are clunky compared to the subtle way of Android. But these are niggles, that's what they are. If you're a mobile geek and the standard iPhone Way isn't cutting it, jailbreak the thing and be done with it. If you're a mobile geek you'll probably be rooting your Android anyway, so what's the difference? Hacking is hacking.

But anyway - 7.5 hours of wasted lock screen time? Pah! I've spent longer trying to install Windows! Steve Jobs has saved me far more time by making things simple and elegant, thereby allowing me to get stuff done rather than try and make my devices work.

And you're wrong on multitasking. I know it's not apps-still-completely-resident-in-memory multitasking, but if it *feels* like I'm running multiple apps at once, and it enables me to *do* many things at once, then we're just quibbling over definitions. Oh, and I'll take the nice iOS multitasking implementation that preserves battery, as opposed to "true" multitasking than requires a task manager to stay on top of things.

The fact is that geeks, including myself, will find always something deficient in any mobile - including the iPhone - that needs fixing. That's just part of searching for The Ultimate Smartphone. One day, one day...

And here's my one more thing...

Apple passed $300Bn market cap today. BOOM! How's that for over?