richardproctor.net

Reach out and touch someone.

Some call me an Apple fanboy, others call me a geek (not sure why?), but to most of my friends and colleagues I am a designer. Not a “I have a copy of PhotoShop, therefore I can design”-designer, but  a real life graphic designer who started out designing for print some 20 years ago.  I like to think of myself as a person who appreciates technical prowess and industrial design beauty. So, when Apple recently released the iPad, I was sat at my computer with bated breath.

I mentioned the Apple Tablet last April as a possibility, so as the hype grew, so did my obvious excitement. Then, with the launch, I have read most news reports and what ‘professional’ tech bloggers have to say. So what are my first thoughts?

Let’s be honest, the name is… well… not good…

iPod = spacey, futuristic

iPad = I think all the obvious puns have be done, let’s just say it doesn’t conjure up the best images for your iLife

Then there is the form factor, It’s a huge iPod Touch for goodness sake! It even runs the same games and applications!

Do I like it?

Hell YEAH!

You see, from my perspective, all these so called ‘experts’ have completely missed the point. They have completely ’slated’ it (pun intended). Let’s address some of the issues.

“It doesn’t have a camera” – Seriously?!

Would you watch other parents at your kids sports day, taking hires video and photos on the latest microscopic mega-pixeled, pocket-sized cameras and pull out your 9 inch iPad?! I don’t think so! Ok, a ‘cam’ for video conferencing with the grandparents would be cool but think about it from a practical point of view, when you’re sat with your kids on the sofa, the images will be shaking all over the shop as the kids bounce around .

“It doesn’t have Adobe Flash” – YESSSSS!

Don’t get me wrong, there are some great flash applications, but do you want your kids borrowing your iPad to play Yoville, Farmville or whatever? Flash is great technology, but it has been an amazing processor resource hog for years! Whether on a PC or a Mac. I would rather live without it. Lets face it, YouTube, perhaps the largest flash video site on the internet has started using alternatives such as HTML 5 (supported by Safari and Firefox). You would think they would know.

“There is no physical keyboard with it” – I use my iPhone ’soft’ keyboard for writing quick emails and text messages, often far quicker than my laptop keyboard because of the predictive nature. If you spend you life doing a lot of typing, you can purchase a keyboard dock. Or if it is that much of a problem, buy a laptop. But be aware, the price of a laptop will be double than an iPad (unless you buy a cheap netbook which have there own problems).

Perhaps the biggest gripe.

“I was expecting a flavour of Mac OSX, not the iPhone OS reused.” – This one is quite simple actually.

The iPhone OS is robust and extremely battery efficient. It is also proven in portable devices (around 100 million).

Additionally, the iPhone OS continues to earn Apple money after the initial purchase.

Usually, you buy a Mac and that’s it, Apple revenue stops there, unless you upgrade to the latest iWork or iLife every couple of years. The iPhone OS earns for Apple through the app store. They get 30% of every app that is sold. Forever. In December 09, Apple earned a staggering $75 million. That was in just one month from app store purchases. This system works for the iPad too. Why would they put a version of Leopard in a portable machine, that would force developers to create new versions of their software to run with a full touch interfaces? Developers of the big apps have historically been rather slow at making the giant leap to large OS updates.

Which brings me to my next point. Some pundits calling it a large iPod Touch, don’t get the point that an iPod Touch with it’s small screen real-estate can only handle input from just four fingers at a time. What can the iPad handle? Cool interactions as seen in some Hollywood blockbusters are finally going to make it into our own hands at a price that is getting affordable! Imagine the possibilities!

Apple have placed the iPad between an iPhone/Smartphone and a fully fledged laptop or desktop computer. This is netbook territory. The cheaper end of the netbook market consists of under-powered linux based machines and the higher end runs either Windows XP or Windows 7. Apple have squarely targeted the higher end and on price, I would say they are on top. They have this gorgeous display which some have complained is ‘only 1024×768′ which for starters is higher than most netbooks on the market. Combined with a solid ‘touch’ user base already in place, I think they have a winner.

It would seem, Google agree, they have posted images of Google Chromium (Their upcoming OS), as potentially used in a tablet form factor. Anything look familiar?

Until I actually have an iPad in my hands (it is my birthday soon! Pretty please!) or indeed until ANYONE has one in their hands, how can we be so dismissive?

It has been many months since I updated my blog. I have gone through a period of reflection and depression. If you have read my ‘about’ page (recently updated) you might have guessed that the last two years have been extremely stressful and upsetting.  If you have not read it, this post will make no sense! This post is for anyone that has tried and failed, their fault or not. It is to say, I understand, I have been there.

He who dares… Doesn’t always win…

I can’t help but feel angry with what happened. I did what every self-funding entrepreneur was supposed to do.

• Have an idea
• Be passionate about it
• Produce it
• Sell it

It was in the bag, deal made, job done.

Yet fate or whatever said:

Stuff you! Here’s a monster recession that will put your 2 years of development and x thousands of pounds of your own money down the toilet and don’t think you’ll see a cent of the 2m deal you’ve made!

I hear the immortal chorus of the PetShop Boys “What have I, What have I, What have I done to deserve this?…”

It just feels so wrong. I feel raw and sick when I think that we lost our home, our pride and self respect. That my kids don’t look at me the same way anymore. They have lost hope and faith in their Dad, their sweet innocence taken away by the stark reality of having to move into a rented house where we could not even keep our family dog. I sometimes catch their thoughts… “It’s your fault Dad, you lost us our home, you said we would never have to move. You said we will be able to have holidays…“. I see it in the eyes of my partner “This is YOUR fault, I gave up work as you said we had finally made it! I can’t go back to work as the rules have changed over my employment. YOU said we would be OK…”

I feel life has been peeling away my skin with every crooked twist-of-fate it deals, bankcruptcy, RIP! home repossessed, Another rip and it just doesn’t seem to heal.

I guess it was my pride. I felt proud of what I had accomplished, I mean how many people go through the process and actually make a life-changing deal like that? Maybe I needed to be brought down a few pegs after my initial euphoria.

I know I should be grateful that my family is well and we are all together. I know we have a roof over our heads. I know we have food on the table. I know I should not feel sorry for myself, I know I do not have any idea what suffering is! I know my problems are absolutely nothing compared to the victims of the Haiti earthquake. I know I live in a country where we have a level of freedom unknown to the many who are oppressed. I know I know!

Yes, we live off ‘Sainsburys Basics foods’. Yes, I have clothes from charity shops. Yes, some of the kids Christmas presents were from Car Boot Sales. But it IS NOT the end of the world!

I’m now blacklisted by banks, because of our home repossession. I saw a fantastic business opportunity a few months back and required a relatively small amount to purchase it. The banks said “No” due to the outstanding mortgage debt on a house we are no longer allowed to live in. What am I supposed to do? My income is so low, it makes ’savings’ impossible. I know I can make a significant living if I could fund any of the ideas I have.

And I DO have a plan (several actually). I DO KNOW I have a future. I am not suicidal or anything. One fine day I’ll make it again, of that I am sure. Why? Because if I wasn’t, what would be the point? I cannot afford to think otherwise!

So, this post was just for me to say, where I have been emotionally and I hope in some way that it might help anyone going through anything similar. I HAVE been there, I know how degrading and tough it is. I have experienced first hand the disappointment in my children’s eyes. The feelings of paranoia that tell me people in the street are more than aware of my past failings and think how could a father let this situation effect his kids so much. It is awful to lose your home, have your dreams taken away. But, I hope I am stronger.

Still full of hope, still full of dreams,

Richard

I seem to be getting over my recent Twitter addiction. That is not to say I do not enjoy tweeting, because I do immensely. I love the immediacy and strange intimacy that it brings. I can be personal, yet anonymous at the same time.

The reason I am tweeting less is purely down to time. As a rule, I live at my desk 10 hours a day. Yet lately I have been very busy with one thing or another. June was practically written off, due to moving home and then not having an internet connection. I could not even Tweet via my iPhone as the signal coverage where we now live is abysmal (and no, it is not an iPhone signal issue, we have 5 mobiles in our household and I receive the best signal out of all of them).

July has been busy due to a sudden surge in work, both freelance jobs and setting up my own new business websites. Once completed, I have a few business partners willing to help push work my way. So, the plan will then to push my business and Tweet my adventures on the way. Without selling my services via Twitter! It is a personal choice. I have friends on Twitter and I like to treat them with respect, not shove pointless posts at them trying to sell my latest wares.

Anywho… I just wanted to post that I will be making the upmost effort to Tweet, update Facebook and MSN Live. I will do as much as possible with my usual dry humour and generally entertain or help people.

Not the most interesting blog post, I just wanted to keep you updated.

Rich

I decided last night to update my main work computer, my 17″ MacBook Pro, to Mac OSX 10.5.7. Whilst I was at it, I thought I would install the latest Safari 4 Beta which I have been running successfully on my Vista PC which I use to check my work.

I am not going to mention any of the OS updates, or anything other than tab management in Safari.

Working all day on my mac, I did not realise how many tabs I have open on a daily basis in Safari. I maintain many websites so I always have them open along with the relevant backend interfaces. Being on Twitter, I also receive many web links which I like to check out from fellow websites designers, coders and e-marketeers. I have always used Safari, since it came out and as such have many usernames and passwords stored that I have long since forgotten. I mainly use Mozilla Firefox on my Linux machine and PC, but always faithfully return to Safari on my mac which in my opinion is far quicker at rendering pages than any other browser, period. I usually manage my tabs in Firefox using the excellent ‘Session Manager’ plug-in and use Saft on my mac for Safari. So, when installing the latest Safari 4 Beta I also installed the latest version of Saft which worked like a charm as it re-opened all 11 windows with 112 tabs open…

The result… (with 6 windows not even showing as they are open on my other display!)

If this is the future of Safari, I think I will have to convert to Firefox on my mac. The best feature of Firefox 3, was the ability to have virtually unlimited tabs open without a screen real-estate hit. The genii put an amazing feature called an ‘arrow icon’ which allows you to scroll horizontally through your tabs! On my PC, I had 87 tabs open once without any really performance hit or any loss of screen space. Come on Apple, Please implement something similar.

How do you manage tabs? Have you tried Safari? Let me know your experiences…

I am currently sitting at my computer in a state of fear and trepidation. Twitter is currently undergoing maintenance and I can’t Tweet Tweeple (Yes Twiiter has it’s own vocabulary, some of it a bit Twee…). I have been using Twitter fairly regularly since February this year and have only really recently discovered the joys of ‘Tweets’ or Twittering. The beauty of it is that it is an instant blog, or microblog as you only have 140 characters to post your message. So it is really a cross between traditional blogging and instant messaging.

Let me try to explain. With this blog richardproctor.net, I receive a very low volume of traffic. That is fine with me to be honest as (to be fair) it wasn’t very well conceived. Not very well written, design leaves a lot to be desired (from my perspective, I rushed it out saying “that’ll do”), but it serves it’s purpose. The only reason I have this blog (apart from using it to ramble on about things occasionally) is as a test platform to try out new ways of communicating and generally test WordPress. Anyway, back to the subject in hand. This blog does not receive much traffic but Twitter does. With Twitter you can start following people of similar interests fairly quickly and 9 times out of 10 they follow you back. What this means is the people following you will see your posts immediately and then comment, reply or even reTweet your message. It really is a great way to communicate. Some say it is narcissistic (my word of the month) to post comments, quotes, links and get the immediate gratification of someone actually replying to you fairly immediately. I say so what?! Everyone likes to feel good and from my experience Twitter is a useful vehicle for me. Don’t get me wrong, there are far better tools to communicate with groups of people. Forums for example are far superior for many applications due to the fact that ‘conversations’ are stored and archived and there are no restriction to how much content you put up. However, I have never used any forum that allows me to make friends and communicate as quickly, as widespread or as immediate as Twitter.

If you would like to discuss this in my forum I’d be more than happy to.

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Could it be? Should it be? This image came via Mac Format UK, Twitter. Is it some nice 3d and photoshop work? or something potentially awesome. If it were real and judging by the size of the keys on the keyboard, it would be around 7 to 8 inches in width. Assuming it were portrait (to be consistent with the iPhone and have the ‘home’ button at the bottom) it would make it a touch larger than an A5 sheet of paper. Would it run the full Mac OS X Leopard or a pimped out iPhone version? I hope it is not a hoax. Apple certainly have the technology to create something like this, but would they?

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I came across Blackout Europe the other day which totally took the wind out of me. Why? Because it is suggesting that a new directive proposed in the European Union will restrict access to websites depending on ISP subscription  services.

Under the proposed new rules, broadband providers will be legally able to limit the number of websites you can look at, and to tell you whether or not you are allowed to use particular services. It will be dressed up as ‘new consumer options’ which people can choose from. People will be offered TV-like packages – with a limited number of options for you to access.

So is their any basis of fact? I do not know. I have emailed various media outlets without any response. As a guy who makes a living out of designing and building websites, I am concerned at the new legislation if it turns out to be correct. I can design and build a website which may be blocked by european ISPs without my knowledge. I would assume there would be some kind of white-list you could apply to, but how long would this process take? Would I need to pay for my application? What about the sites I have up and running for current customers who make a living out of them? Will there be a legitimate claims process for lost earnings?

These questions and more remain unanswered. If you have any information regarding this legislation, please let me know.

Well those fantastic guys at Apple  were listening…

• MMS – Check
• Copy & Paste – Check 
• SMS forwarding – Check
• Push notification – Check

How great is it that a multi-national corporation like Apple could listen to me, ‘the little guy’!

No seriously, I can’t wait for the official release and what app developers will do with the slew of amazing new features.

Anyone who knows me, will know I absolutely love my iPhone. I have owned one here in the UK as soon as Apple UK allowed me to get my hands on one. There are a couple of features that I would love the guys at Cupertino to sort out.

• MMS – I mean, come on!
• Copy & Paste – I do appreciate why this has not been implemented yet, due to the potential security issues involved. 
• SMS forwarding – How hard can it be?
• Push notification – Developers were excited to recieve this in the last major OS. Except in never quite happened.

With iPhone OS 2, Apple concentrated on Enterprise applications like  Microsoft Exchange support.

Anyway, it appears Apple are having a preview session for selected media people on March 17th of the the new iPhone Operating System. I sure hope they address the issues above. I cannot wait to see what amazing new features they are going to release. With any luck, they will get iPhone App developers in on this as soon as possible. Enabling them to implement any new core technologies into their applications without too much of a delay from the OS release date.

Me a fanboy? Much!

 

 

Color Scheme Designer

There are many fantastic design resources on the net, but this one caught my eye in particular for it’s fantastic design and implementation.

You can set how many colors you want for your theme and choose a base color. The interface then allows you to pick complementary colors and allows you to preview what they could look like in a website design in Light or Dark variations. It even shows you what the colors will look like for anyone with color blindness.

Check it out http://colorschemedesigner.com/