While traveling in Australia, the data roaming plan that I added to my account simply stopped working. This became annoying since there isn’t ubiquitous wifi in Australia like in the States, and I really wanted to keep up with things at home (like, my family) while I was out and about.
The following is the conversation I had with the representative in trying to get my iPhone to connect to the internet via 3g
Sometime late last night, I became bored with the internet. It finally occurred to me simply that nothing new is happening, and even if it was, it’s all happening inside the computer. And basically, who cares?
Prior to last night, it seemed like the internet was a never ending source of new things. But the reality is that the new things are made out in the real world, and simply reported on via the internet. Moreover, the tings that can be new on the internet - new tools and websites - simply make it easier to manage what’s online, or our lives entwined there, and serve no real purpose outside of the internet where someone hadn’t figured out how to solve these problems years ago.
I recently won a contest to receive a prototype Dungeonmorph Die from the kickstarter campaign that I backed a few months ago. I had written about Kickstarter before, so I’ll focus solely on the die I received from the project.
The Dungeonmorph Dice are six-sided dice that display a small, square portion of a dungeon on each side. The sides are numbered, so they can be used as regular six-sided dice, but their primary purpose is to be used to create random dungeons. You simply roll a handful of these dice, assemble them together (all of the flat edges will join), and you have a random dungeon waiting to be explored.
The Fitbit, as far as I can tell, is a perfect device. What is a Fitbit? Fitbit is a device and a website that you can use to track your physical activity. Yes, at first glance, the Fitbit is essentially an electronic pedometer, but it is actually a lot more.
Firstly, let me say that the Fitbit packaging design rivals anything Apple produces – it’s pretty. The box is small and contains a lot. You get the Fitbit device itself, the charging/syncing stand, a belt clip, and a wrist strap. To start, you install some software on your PC and plug the stand into a USB port. Registering the Fitbit device to your computer is simple. You set the device on the stand, press the button, and type the code that appears into the software on the PC. This simplistic setup is very much appreciated in the age of complicated devices. The Fitbit just works.
There’s no shortage of tablet devices available today, and demand for them seems pretty high. Scanning through Engadget, it seems like we’ve got a good stock coming in the future, too. The problem, as I see it, is that the future tablets that everyone is so excited about are exciting (at least to media outlets like Engadget) for the wrong reasons.
Tablet onlookers seem enticed by the latest versions of operating systems, faster processors, and additional cell network capabilities. The latest versions of iOS and Android certainly are improvements over prior versions, but they don’t add anything groundbreaking or genre-defining to the fundamental features of a tablet. Faster processors are nice of course, but they also tempt battery drain, which is an essential, oft-overlooked feature of a tablet. The latest LTE connections are certainly alluring as our dependence on the cloud and correlating bandwidth needs increase, though the dependence on cell networks and their high-cost plans are strange things to look forward to. I think there are other things that we should concentrate on for producing the “fundamental tablet”.