The self driving car future

This is Google's latest self-driving car prototype, and it looks incredible.



I am so excited for this future. Driving is an incredibly stressful and time consuming activity, and humans are awful at it. Plus, can you imagine how wonderful services like Uber will be? Order up a self driving car, and it's there in a few minutes, even if nobody else wants to take your route. There will be no reason to own a car anymore, and that's perfect.

Comcast's Xfinity Commercial is ridiculous

Does anybody else find it totally ridiculous that this commercial from Comcast touts the company's ability to record 4 shows at once and watch another? They talk about this like it's revolutionary, and not just some artificially imposed number, no different than the 2 shows at once that other companies use as limits.

The only reason that this seems like a good option is because the other option are worse. We shouldn't be happy with this. Comcast shouldn't have the nerve to advertise this.

I hate cable companies.

It's said that good writer write a lot, and read even more. I've got the reading part down; between reddit, Flipboard, iBooks, Medium, tumblr, and Instapaper, I am reading during nearly any downtime. Where I am not optimal is the writing area.

Sure, I have this blog. I have a tumblr and a medium too, but there's something about the published longform post that seems to be intimidating, and this lead to not much getting written, and not often. I try, yes, but you can tell if you follow this blog that my posts aren't at consistent intervals. My tumblr, internetofme.tumblr.com is pretty active, but most of that isn't longform.

I'm sure part of the problem is that this isn't my main source of income, so it gets pushed to a lower priority, but I still really enjoy writing.

I want to be a better writer. I want to form better arguments, and I want to write more in general. I think it would be a good thing to write every day. That's where Day One comes in.

Day One is a journaling app that recently went free on iOS via the App Store. It emphasizes recording thoughts whenever they hit you, be it long or short form. There is also a version for Mac, so the app can be with you no matter what setting you're in. It supports Markdown syntax, so it simplifies writing for the internet. It also supports writing reminders, so as to encourage daily entries.

I hope this app will help me write. I often have an issue of forgetting brilliant writing topics when it comes time to actually write, so I hope that the short form thought recording abilities of this app will help me record everything I think about writing about. So far, in my days of usage, it has. I've even gone back and expanded on some of those ideas.

Maybe some of my entries in the app will end up as drafts for later posts, and maybe they won't. But I think it's beneficial to have a place for drafts to be stored and ideas to be fleshed out. It's worry-free writing. I will indicate which future posts arise from Day One with a "via Day One" at the end of said posts.

My plan is to use Day One's reminders feature to set up a time every day (or nearly every day) where all I do is write (on Day One, or on one of my blogging platforms). It'll be like my email hour, but for writing. We'll see what that yields.

via Day One

How many O's does it take to celebrate a goal?

Facebook compiled data of the average number of “o’s” used to spell “goal” while celebrating scores on the site during World Cup 2014 so far. This is the breakdown by country.

I thought this was incredibly interesting, but then again, I have a bit of a compulsion for proper spelling, football (soccer) is important to me, and I love data. So.

Source: Reddit

Weather Channel for iOS App Review

The Weather Channel app for iOS recently underwent an update, and I decided to try it out due to the lack of included weather app on iPad. I was also interested in the app since Apple will be sourcing their weather data in iOS 8 from The Weather Channel.

With this being said, it should be noted that I am by no means a hardcore weather app user. I find my needs well met by the default iOS weather app on iPhone. I just need to quickly check the current and near future temperature, the UV index, precipitation chance, and humidity/wind chill. Just about any weather app more than fills this need, so bear this in mind.

Source: http://alliosnews.com/wp-content/uploads/
2014/04/The-Weather-Channel-Icon.png

For me, the experience of an app begins with its app icon; if an app is going to be on my homescreen, I don't want to hate looking at it. The most recent update makes the icon much flatter, matching the iOS 7 style quite well. I enjoy the color scheme and simple design. It also holds up to the pixel density of the Retina Display on my iPad Air, which at this point every app icon should. I'm not deleting the app for pure ugly factor; that's a win. That being said, everyone has different tastes, so you can check out the design for yourself on the right.

The next part of the experiment is the loading screen, and unfortunately here the app falls short. The load screen is not Retina optimized, and I can definitely make out pixels on my iPad Air. This is a shame, really, since it's a simple, static image, and Retina Displays have been around since the 3rd generation iPad.

The main screen of the app displays a concise summary of the weather (high, low, current temp, description of weather) in an opaque circle atop a nice looking picture. This is not dissimilar to the Yahoo Weather app, although Yahoo puts a lot more emphasis on the photo, in my opinion. Tapping the circle yields a breakdown of more detailed weather information like wind speed, humidity, visibility, UV index, etc. Swiping to the right gives a 10 day forecast, and tapping on any of those days gives more detailed information.

There is a navigation bar across the bottom of the screen that has a section for radar, news, video and health. This is also where you access settings and search for locations. These features aren't really useful to me, so I won't comment on them. If you do like weather radar, though, this is one of the apps that does include that.

A unique section to this app is the "travel" section, located next to the "search" button on the bottom nav-bar. Tapping this airplane shaped button brings up a small window where you can search for and add locations that you will be traveling to in the future. Once you select your location, a new screen transitions in where you can view climate differences related to your current location and you can add dates for when you will be in this location. It's very useful for people who travel, or who are planning on traveling; I really like the idea of the feature. Unfortunately, the implementation is poor. The screen displaying the place you are traveling to only works in landscape orientation, despite the app being generally navigated in portrait. This is a major oversight, and makes the app cumbersome.

My other gripe with this app is that there is no way to clear warning alerts that appear at the top of the app. I have had 3 flood warnings for the area I currently live in, and they have stayed for a week now. I get it: it could flood. The user should be able to clear these warnings once they have been read.

Also, ads. And no ability to pay to remove them. This is unfortunate, especially in today's age of freemium/in-app purchase apps, but I guess that's they only way the company thought they could turn a profit (or break even) on a free app. The ads aren't everywhere, so they aren't as annoying as they could be, though, so there is that.

So, what's the verdict, you ask? Are you keeping the app after this review, or finding another? I am going to keep it for now, and I'll explain why. I like the icon far better than my previous solution, Yahoo Weather. Sure, that's a small thing, but it matters to me. Also, while Yahoo Weather has more advanced/fancy in-app navigation, it feels at times like too much, and even a little confusing for me. You may prefer this, and that's okay. I encourage you to try them both out and see which one you like better (they're free apps, after all). I'm willing to put up with the quirks of The Weather Channel for it's dead simplicity. I'll even put up with ads for it.

Earbuds vs Headphones

Which listening device is best for you? 

Source: http://i.imgur.com/iliib5K.jpg

I’ll dispel your worries right now: there is no catch all answer as to which is better. Each style of headphone is best suited for different circumstances and different people.

Within each of the two categories, there are further classifications that help to make this process further convoluted.

Earbuds come in in-ear and in-canal varieties. I will use the former to refer to earbuds that sit inside the outer-ear, but do not go into the ear canal. The later, then, refers to the variety that have a silicone nub that sits in the ear canal. Apple’s famous earbuds would be classified as in-ear models in this case. Beats urbeats would be referred to as in-canal devices.

Headphones come in on-ear and over-ear models which can be either open back or closed back. On ear headphones sit on top of the ear lobes, but don’t completely surround them. Think Beats Solo’s. Over-ear models, on the other hand, surround the ear completely, like the Beats Studio’s. Most headphones are closed back, meaning that they have enclosed drivers, only allowing sound out directed towards your ears.

Now that we have some background, we can evaluate each design option in terms of a couple important criteria. The elements I think are most important to consider in earbud/headphone choice are comfort, sound, and listening environment.

Comfort: You’re wearing these devices on your head, and might even be doing so for hours at a time. It should go without saying that headphone and/or earbuds should be comfortable. Comfort is something that will be different for everyone. With that being said, there are some general guidelines, in my opinion. If you are going to be putting in extensive listening sessions (greater than half an hour at a time), I would avoid on-ear headphones. The clamp force that they apply to your ears to stay on generally gets uncomfortable quickly. Over-ear and in-ear are most comfortable for me, and many swear by in-canal, though I dislike them.

Sound: These devices are meant to allow you to experience music; they should sound good. Generally, the best sound that you can get will be out of over-ear, open back headphones. They will leak sound, but this gives you an incredible soundstage, letting you hear the music as if it were all around you. For a more private session, in-canal and over-ear headphones will provide the best sound, generally.

Listening Environment: This is perhaps the most important consideration that actually differentiates earbuds from headphones, and the different styles within each category. Someone who uses their ‘phones on the bus to work will want something vastly different than someone who listens in their quiet home office. For noisy environments, or environments with lots of ambient noise like a bus, a train, a car, an airplane, etc, you really want to chose a design with noise isolation. Generally, then, you will want to chose a closed back, over-ear headphone. This will give you the best seal against outside noise. In-canal headphones, if fitted properly, can do this as well, if not better, but again, it requires a near-custom proper fit. Earbuds take up far less space than over-ear headphones, so it might be a better choice for the traveler with limited room in their bag. For quiet environments, I recommend open-back over-ear headphones, as long as you can afford the sound leakage.

So, headphones versus earbuds? I guess the answer is generally headphones for me. That being said, there are definitely advantage to earbuds. Just do yourself a favor and replace the earbuds that came with your phone with some halfway decent sounding “real” earbuds/headphones.

via Medium