So Very Uncool

What’s wrong with you, Waze?

While I’m a staunch Apple guy, there’s no denying that Apple Maps is less than … optimal. My new vehicle has CarPlay and while I really like it the only choice you have for navigation in CarPlay is Apple Maps. While it’s gotten better in the five years since it debuted I just don’t want to use it. Waze, the Israeli-based navigation startup that Google bought in 2013, just can’t be beat. The…

In defense of the Smart Battery Case

I hate phone cases. I have friends who have their iPhones in OtterBox Defenders and the like and I find them garish and cumbersome. I hate having a phone that gets slimmer with each successive generation and having it end up perpetually having the heft of a brick. It stinks. That being said, there are good reasons to use those cases. If I am skiing in the winter or canoeing in the summer, I will…

So I built a small cell-tower …

My father-in-law lives in a small town in Kentucky with less than 900 people in Amish country despite not being Amish. The problem is that there is no real Internet provider where he lives.  There is a local WI-MAX provider and there is satellite Internet available but neither of these are really preferable and are more or less the last type of option available to extremely rural folks. If cable…

New Post has been published on http://soveryuncool.com/apple-to-fix-geolocation-bug/

Apple to fix geolocation bug

iOS 7.1 to Fix Geolocation Issue That Broke Location-Based Apps

That’s great and all but this has broken many geolocation apps since September 18th (iOS 7′s release date). It broke Apple’s own “Find My Friends” app too which now only works if both users have the app open. The only purpose of the app is to be able to find someone regardless of whether or not the app is open. How do you break the core functionality of a popular app and then take around seven months to fix it? How do you not catch this during testing? This wasn’t new functionality … it was keeping the same functionality around from a previous iOS release.

New Post has been published on http://soveryuncool.com/yelling-at-the-radio/

Yelling at the Radio

I’ve listened to the Accidental Tech Podcast with Marco Arment, John Siracusa, and Casey Liss for a while now and three things confuse me about these guys.

They hate trackpads – Mice are good for precision photo manipulation and first person shooters. Apple makes the best trackpads and if you spend a lot of time using the iPad and are used to gestures then how can you not like the Magic Trackpad?? Heresy.

They don’t use iCloud for backups – They asked “Does anyone pay for iCloud backups?” The answer is YES! THIS GUY! Apparently these guys back their phones up via iTunes. I bought my parents an iPhone 4S in 2012 to replace the 3GS I had. Because we use iCloud for backups, all they had to do was power down one phone, power up the new one, put in their iCloud username and password and their old iPhone content migrated to the new phone. Seamlessly. Painlessly. Ever have your phone die when you’re traveling and you have to replace it? I have. It happened in early 2010 before iCloud existed. Do you know how great it would’ve been to restore it without needing my home computer? I pay for the larger size because I want my photos and videos stored with Apple too. I also backup my photos and videos to CrashPlan and Dropbox. Multiple backups are good. It’s cheap enough I don’t know why one wouldn’t do this. A good rule of thumb: If someone offers you cheap, plentiful, automated backups … YOU TAKE IT! I believe Apple should make it free and give you enough to back up every device you’ve bought but that’s a different argument. If you support less tech savvy relatives with tech support, these types of backups are great.

They look down their nose at Facebook - I don’t use Facebook is the new “I don’t even own a TV“. All these guys use Twitter which, to me, is equally terrible but for them to be technologists and dismiss Facebook is strange to me. John Gruber, who covers Apple and has a podcast too, seems to do the same thing. WIRED recently covered Facebook’s many technical innovations … most all of which are open-sourced and free. The biggest problem with Facebook is the way a lot of people use it. It’s not inherently awful and it produces a lot of useful tech.

New Post has been published on http://soveryuncool.com/good-looking-people-have-no-spine/

Good Looking People Have No Spine

Philip Seymour Hoffman died this week of an apparent drug overdose. I won’t engage in hyperbole about how great an actor he was. What I will do is say that this site’s name was an homage to my favorite of his roles … Lester Bangs in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous in 2000. Here’s the scene in question:

  Lester Bangs: Aw, man. You made friends with them. See, friendship is the booze they feed you. They want you to get drunk on feeling like you belong. William Miller: Well, it was fun. Lester Bangs: They make you feel cool. And hey. I met you. You are not cool. William Miller: I know. Even when I thought I was, I knew I wasn’t. Lester Bangs: That’s because we’re uncool. And while women will always be a problem for us, most of the great art in the world is about that very same problem. Good-looking people don’t have any spine. Their art never lasts. They get the girls, but we’re smarter. William Miller: I can really see that now. Lester Bangs: Yeah, great art is about conflict and pain and guilt and longing and love disguised as sex, and sex disguised as love… and let’s face it, you got a big head start. William Miller: I’m glad you were home. Lester Bangs: I’m always home. I’m uncool. William Miller: Me too! Lester Bangs: The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone else when we’re uncool. William Miller: I feel better. Lester Bangs: My advice to you. I know you think those guys are your friends. You wanna be a true friend to them? Be honest, and unmerciful.

The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone else when we’re uncool.

Out of all his roles, this was the one I could identify with the most. Forget the historical Lester Bangs for a moment. Hoffman portrays a gregarious, wizened, burnout of a figure that’s a mentor for William Miller. A man who was great but unappreciated. Successful in spite of himself but never lived up to his full potential. Someone who recognized a basic truth about himself and his place in the world and what it meant to be “uncool”.