“The original iPad is nearly two years old, runs iOS 5 well, and will probably get a few more significant OS upgrades.” (link)

as a way to imply that Apple users are better cared for than Android users.

That might be true, but I disagree with Marco’s “iPad 1 runs well with iOS 5″ statement.

I have an iPad 1 and it was snappy and responsive. I enjoyed using it. Note the past tense.

Then I upgraded to iOS 5.

Now apps crash far more often than with iOS 4, and *everything* is slower. The response to touchscreen interaction is so slow that I sometimes can’t tell if the iPad actually registered a touch; one or two seconds will go by and an app doesn’t appear to have seen the touch… and then it finally responds. Apps that never crashed before now crash at least once a day. Even Safari crashes on a daily basis, which you would think wouldn’t happen since that’s Apple’s own app.

As a tech geek you might think that I’m being too picky, and I might agree, except that my wife also agrees. She never complained with iOS4, but after a week with iOS5 she declared that it’s too slow to use. And she’s no cutting-edge speed demon; she’s perfectly happy on her 2006-era laptop.

I tried a couple of resets, reboots, and other potential solutions the Internets suggested, but nothing seems to help.

It looks to me like Apple crammed more functionality into iOS5 than the iPad 1 is able to comfortably handle. And I’m concerned that any further updates will do more of the same.

Just because Apple supports OS updates longer than Google/Samsung/etc. doesn’t mean that their devices are any better supported. Apple seems to have supported iOS5 on the iPad 1 in name only, not in spirit.

If HipChat refuses to start for you on your Mac like this (“HipChat quit unexpectedly”):

then you might be able to fix it by unchecking “Automatic graphics switching” in the Mac System Preference “Energy Saver” pane.

For some reason Adobe Air (the platform HipChat runs on) doesn’t like it when “Automatic graphics switching” is enabled.

After HipChat is running you can safely re-enable “Automatic graphics switching” to save energy when running on the battery.

Unfortunately right now you’ll have to disable “Automatic graphics switching” *every time* you want to start HipChat. Bummer. The HipChat folks and Adobe are all aware of this issue, hopefully we get a fix soon.

(I stumbled across this “fix” here on the Adobe forums: http://forums.adobe.com/message/4080052#4080052)

Greg Wilson, one of the editors of the book, (the other editor is Amy Brown) tweeted that they were looking for coverage for embedded software. Well, I thought, I’ve been wanting to learn about FreeRTOS, and that fits the embedded and open source bills, so here we go!

I learned a lot reading the current edition of the book, and I hope that others can learn something from my forthcoming chapter on FreeRTOS.

It’s perfect for when the Macbook is running on battery power I but don’t want the display to dim or go to sleep. I’m happy to leave my sleep/dim settings where they are and use Caffeine to keep my Mac awake.

Get it here: http://www.lightheadsw.com/caffeine/

Created by: Lighthead Software

Price: Free

Rating: 8    (1=never use it again, 10=first thing I install on a new computer)

This is a fundamentally different vision for the coming decade than Google’s. In both cases, your data is in the cloud, and you can access it from anywhere with a network connection. But Google’s vision is about software you run in a web browser. Apple’s is about native apps you run on devices. Apple is as committed to native apps — on the desktop, tablet, and handheld — as it has ever been.

Google’s frame is the browser window. Apple’s frame is the screen. That’s what we’ll remember about today’s keynote ten years from now.

Google sells ads – search and the browser make sense for that market. Apple sells apps and devices – appstores and screens make sense for that market.

But doesn’t Google sell apps? And doesn’t Apple sell ads? Yes, but neither is very enthusiastic about it.

Gruber’s commentary is succinct and right on.

But what about Facebook? They sell ads, too, and Facebook’s frame is the browser window. But Facebook also has device-native apps, so their frame is the screen too.

Is Facebook going to get the best of both worlds? Their own ad revenue built on the backs of Google’s browser and Apple’s screens?

The first is from Des Traynor’s post, “Playing their game”:

Apple always look out for their customers. They will always look to improve the experience. If that means adding software to their platform then so be it. If that software is in direct competition with your software, then so be it. If they roll out the software as a free update across all operating systems, leaving you for dead, then so be it.

Their ball. Their game. Their rules.

The second is from Marco Arment’s post, “What Safari’s Reading List means for Instapaper”:

So I’m tentatively optimistic. Our world changes quickly, especially on the cutting edge, and I really don’t know what’s going to happen. (Nobody does.) But the more potential scenarios I consider, the more likely it seems that Safari’s Reading List is either going to have no noticeable effect on Instapaper, or it will improve sales dramatically. Time will tell.

Des says you should stay the heck out of Apple’s way. If Apple might ever create it, you don’t want to be anywhere near it. If Apple decides to create the thing that you’ve created, they’ll kill your business. That makes sense.

(He also says that Apple looks out for their customers, which is almost, but not completely, incorrect. Apple looks out for their customers’ money, not their customers. It’s an important distinction.)

Marco says a rising tide lifts all boats. Apple’s new (free) product looks a lot like Marco’s existing (not free) product. Most people don’t know offline reading exists, so with Apple’s (free) publicity he hopes more people use an offline reader, and if he gets some new revenue he makes out okay. That makes sense too.

It sounds like Des thinks of Apple as powerful, childish tyrant. “You don’t want to be around when Apple loses its temper!”

Marco, however, seems to think of Apple as a morally neutral, unstoppable force of nature. “Good thing my boat is ready to sail, because we’re gonna get a lot of rain!”

Des and Marco each seem to be glad to be where they are, out of Apple’s direct path or in it.

Who is right? Apple: steer clear, or sail near?

And where are you? Out of Apple’s direct path (or Google’s, or Microsoft’s, or Salesforce’s, or Oracle’s…) or in it?

http://www.ember.com/company_careers.html

We develop the chips, software, and tools for wireless sensor networks.

I’ve worked at Ember since December, and it’s the best place I’ve ever worked (and I’ve worked at some pretty good places!) And, no joke, all of my coworkers say the same thing. So either we’re that great of a place to work, or there’s something in the water, but either way, it’s awesome.

But, as Levar Burton says, you don’t have to take my word for it: We were just voted one of the top places to work in Boston: http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2011/05/03/bbj-announces-best-places-to-work.html

Our QA engineers are more “developer-y” than many QA roles, so definitely check it out even if you’re not in the market for a more traditional QA position.

Email me if you’re interested!

We need our abstractions, our black boxes. Black boxes are great and enabling when they work. But when something goes wrong, the walls of our abstractions need to go transparent as fast as possible.

From: http://joyeur.com/2011/04/24/magical-block-store-when-abstractions-fail-us/

I tried to sync some old maps of Boston from my Mac to my iPad and iTunes 10.2.1 and 10.2.2 crashes every single time while trying to “optimize images” during the syncing process. I assume that means that iTunes converts (or at least examines) all images it sends to an iPad, and iTunes really didn’t like that particular JPEG2000-formatted image. When I deleted that image from my pictures-to-sync directory iTunes completed the sync just fine. When I put the file back in the pictures-to-sync directory iTunes crashed.

I filed a bug with Apple.

Hopefully they fix it. Even if JPEG2000 images aren’t supported on the iPad (which I found out they aren’t), iTunes shouldn’t crash when processing them.

“To a machine, all here’s are equal.”

“To discover that between the blinks of the machine’s shuttered eye – going on without pause or cease; simulated, imagined, but still not caught – was life.” (the last sentence of the book)