MacRyu – The Worst Mac Blog in Singapore, and Some Say the World

My podcast (listening) journey – how I found 5by5 Studios

Posted February 4th, 2011 by Ryu at 6:29 am in Editorial, Podcasts and Recommendations. 5 Comments

Happy CNY people, even though I hate it personally. But then I guess I am one of the few people in Singapore to detest CNY – the two days when Singapore turns into Dead Space.

Now onto something else.

As some of my Twitter peeps know, I am an avid podcast listener, particularly of the podcasts from the TWiT network and the pixelcorps network. I started years ago listening to the Macworld podcast that some guy who worked under Chris Breen produced. Even won a free iPod accessory from listening to it. Then one fine day the guy resigned and moved to Engadget, and then Chris Breen took over. While Mr. Breen is the buffoon of all Mac knowledge, the podcast with him and him only wasn’t really entertaining, and I stopped listening.

And then one day I found MacBreak Weekly. It is hosted by Leo Laporte, with regular guests Alex Lindsay, founder of Pixelcorps, Merlin Mann from 43folders.com, and Scott Bourne, long-time Mac fanatic, accomplished wildlife photographer and business man and of course, Andy Ihnatko, tech journalist of the Chicago Sun-Times.

MacBreak Weekly was really interesting when I first started listening to it a few years ago. Merlin Mann’s neverending list of Mac app recommendations, Scott Bourne’s insight on Apple’s ways of doing business, and Alex Lindsay’s experience in video and audio production just made the show so much more interesting to someone like me, a Mac nerd with a history of video production. And Andy Ihnatko was just totally entertaining, so much more than Leo Laporte ever was, MacBreak Weekly today would have been so boring without him.

Leo Laporte, was really just an entertaining host, but it was quite obvious that he wasn’t that knowledgable on the deeper aspects of most of the technical shows he hosted, but his guests filled in that gap and the shows were enjoyable.

Then one day it started changing. Leo Laporte began blasting out at Scott Bourne over certain differences in opinion of how Apple does business (Scott Bourne’s opinion turned out accurate eventually, as it always had been) during the live show, and as part of the audience you get the feeling (very strongly) that Leo was picking on Scott Bourne. Eventually Scott Bourne starting to turn up lesser and lesser for the show, and one fine day he was just gone. I eventually found his Photofocus podcast and began listening to that regularly. Even in a recent show last year where Scott Bourne turned up as guest, Leo Laporte blasted out at him over some small difference in opinion, on-air, as always.

Merlin Mann, citing his busy work schedule and the fact that he was, and apparently still is, working on a book, left the show as a regular guest as well. That apparently didn’t stopped him from doing other regular podcasts(including a weekly one that he just started), I can only wonder why that is.

These days quite often MacBreak Weekly is just Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko and Leo Laporte. And you do get reminded more often these days whenever Leo makes a comment that shows his lack of insight on the topics being talked about. Leo Laporte’s TWiT network might be expanding at a frantic pace, branching out to new offices, hiring lots of new peeps, starting lots of new shows. But you often get the idea that his core shows are suffering from neglect as a result. His staffing choices are also seemingly debatable, especially with his hiring of Sarah Lane, formerly from Revision3. Sarah Lane was laid off from Revision3, apparently because her shows there haven’t been popular. And TWiT listeners have responded similarly to her shows on the TWiT network. Net@Night was a lot harder to listen to everytime Sarah Lane filled in for Leo Laporte. And iPad Today was just generally boring. Last year I just found myself slowing giving up on listening to most of the TWiT network’s shows. I used to listen regularly to the following shows;

1. MacBreak Weekly
2. This Week in Tech
3. The Tech Guy
4. Net@Night
5. Security Now

Only MacBreak Weekly remained on my list of subscribed podcasts, mainly because of Alex Lindsay’s regular appearance. He probably won’t be leaving MacBreak Weekly anytime soon, because of his involvement in the TWiT network. Most, if not all, of the production aspects of the ever-expanding TWiT network is the result of Alex’s involvement. The shows on his own network, Pixelcorps.tv, are generally more appealing to me personally, such as This Week in Photo, which I still listen to.

As the list of TWiT shows I listen to dwindled over the course of 2010, I have been casually looking for replacement entertainment. Then one day I noticed it. Because the Daring Fireball RSS feed is part of a Google Reader folder that has 60 other Mac-related feeds in it, I found myself ignoring John Gruber’s short posts about The Talk Show, until some day in August 2010.

The Talk Show is a two-person show by John Gruber, arguably the most respected Mac blogger in the whole Mac-niverse because of his deep insights and knowledge of about the workings of Apple, Inc, and his close proximity to some of Apple’s important employees, and Dan Benjamin, the founder of 5by5 Studios. While Dan Benjamin was a nobody to me at the start, it become quite apparent that he was a great host that complements his co-hosts very well, making for an extremely entertaining show format where his co-hosts’ knowledge and opinions are communicated very well to the audience, while he adds his own opinions and questions in a very effective, show-entertainment enhancing sort of way. So for the last quarter of 2010, it was The Talk Show for most of my podcast listening on priority over everything else, including MacBreak Weekly.

And then in early 2011 John Gruber mentioned that Dan Benjamin started two new shows with another two extremely respected personalities in the Mac-niverse, John Siracusa of Ars Technica and Merlin Mann. John Siracusa, as many will know, is the extremely technically-proficient writer of Ars Technica well-known for his long and deeply technical articles about Apple and their technologies. And so I visited the 5by5 site and found Hypercritical, with John Siracusa, Back to Work, with Merlin Mann, and as a bonus, even Build and Analyze, with Marco Arment, the developer of the highly popular Instapaper. And not to forget some of the other interesting but slightly less popular shows on the 5by5 studios network such as The Mixdown, which appeals to me because it is about audio and video production.

And only today I realised that 5by5 studios is only in its second year, when Dan mentioned at the starting of Build and Analyze episode 11, that 5by5 studios just celebrated its first anniversary. There are already shows on the website’s list of shows for the network. Granted, some of them were started before 5by5 studios even formed, and some of the shows no longer run, this is still pretty impressive to me, considering that 5by5 studios worked off a much much lower budget than TWiT ever did.

My current list of shows subscribed in iTunes thereby consists of the following;

1. The Talk Show (John Grubber is THE Apple man)
2. Build and Analyze (surprisingly highly entertaining)
3. Hypercritical (technical, entertaining, and highly informative)
4. Back to Work (who can ever get enough of Merlin Mann?)
5. MacBreak Weekly (Alex Lindsay and Andy Ihnatko should run the show)
6. Film Riot (for obvious reasons)
7. This Week in Photo (Ron Brinkmann is entertaining!)
8. Photofocus (Scott Bourne! Sometimes I wish he’ll run a Mac-focused show on his own)
9. …and various other Apple official feeds.

In case you still can’t tell, I am highly passionate about this stuff.

Why is Apple hiring for the “Apple Travel Team”? What is that?

Posted January 29th, 2011 by Ryu at 5:59 am in Apple Call Centre, Apple Travel Team, Breaking, Rumors and Speculation. 2 Comments

Maybe I am really ignorant, but this is the first time I have ever heard of the “Apple Travel Team”.

Apple is currently hiring for the following positions in the “Apple Travel Team”;

i. Travel Counselor

ii. Operations Manager

iii. Operations Supervisor

For example, the Apple Travel Counselor position lists;

The Apple Travel Team in Singapore is seeking Travel Counselors who will be responsible for providing outstanding service and professionalism to travelers, make accurate and timely travel reservations, and maintain high levels of productivity in our fast pace Regional Service Center (RSC). This is an exciting position for an individual that is extremely customer focused and has a passion to provide service excellence to customers. The right individual must have a thorough knowledge of the travel industry, travel reservation systems, pricing, and international markets.

The successful candidate will:

â€¢Professionally interact with travelers to respond to all travel inquiries including reservations, price quotations, and customer service issues

â€¢Ensure optimum customer service through effective use of phone system, e-mail and positive telephone service techniques

â€¢Achieve individual and team service level goals related to telephone, quality, accuracy and productivity

â€¢Knows and properly uses airline terminology, codes, fare basis, airline rules and tariffs, resource guides, books, and industry contacts

â€¢Maintaining a favorable company image when interfacing with outside resources

â€¢Effectively work in a team environment supporting management and staff, follows policies, providing feedback, assisting in special projects, and taking on additional responsibility

â€¢Outstanding organizational skills that result in high productivity

â€¢Efficiently and effectively respond to customer service issues

â€¢Must work weekends, may require night shift..

All these positions have been posted a few days ago. No one seems to have reported anything strange, which is why I am skeptical of this being something interesting. But never before have I seen the words “Apple Travel” on the Apple jobs site in all my lousy attempts at applying for a job at Apple.

It’s no secret that a large part of Apple’s call centre services for their Online Stores and sales is located in the Singapore campus, but I have never heard of Apple providing “outstanding service and professionalism to travelers, make accurate and timely travel reservations, and maintain high levels of productivity in our(Apple’s) fast pace Regional Service Center (RSC)”.

Pardon me but that totally sounds like the work of a TRAVEL AGENT.

And since when is Apple a travel agent?

Is Apple providing a new service? Maybe this has something to do with their purchase of some company providing mapping solutions a while back? Or to do with the Tim Cook visit to the Singapore campus a while back?

Or am I just plain dumb (well there’s a big chance) to the obvious presence of a “Apple Travel Team” in Apple Singapore all these years?

Anyone in the inside mind dropping me a PM? LOL.

Interesting.
Continue reading ‘Why is Apple hiring for the “Apple Travel Team”? What is that?’

Google Nexus S unboxing

Posted January 29th, 2011 by Ryu at 1:18 am in Android, Complaints, Google, Google is Evil, Hardware and Unboxing. 1 Comment

Okay well I did the unboxing days ago, but so what? This phone is Google’s iPhone. It is exactly what Google will and did make if there are no manufacturer’s input involved in the whole dumb Android ecosystem. Google’s finest, you may say. It is therefore the perfect target for attacks on all the bad points of Android, which in this phone cannot be blamed on manufacturers’ software mods, there isn’t any.

Nevertheless it’s a pretty nice phone. Software is fast, much faster than the crappy XT720 in my family. The phone is really light, probably as a result of being made from really cheap-arse plastic. The curved glass on the screen is a total gimmick. The thing just made it a lot more difficult to make proper screen protectors for it, since many won’t stick properly due to the curving of the glass. And I’ve heard, the curving of the glass is exactly why the glass is NOT Gorilla Glass, despite the Galaxy S having those, due to the simple fact that the costs for curved Gorilla Glass, if it’s even possible, will be much higher. And the reason why girls and fashionable guys will never be spotted using this phone? There are simply no decent accessories for it. Have been trying for weeks and still haven’t come across a half decent case for the phone. Anyone with a source for decent cases let me know in the comments? Thanks.

Will eventually do an in-depth write-up on the phone, but right now the well-known Android faults are very obvious – nonsensical lack of decent battery life, lousy browsers, etc, as well as some of the pros of the OS, like the ability to have the HTC weather/clock-lookalike widget on my phone.

Read the rest of the article for the other unboxing pics.
Continue reading ‘Google Nexus S unboxing’

What will happen after Oracle wins the Android suit against Google

Posted January 22nd, 2011 by Ryu at 11:57 pm in Android and Oracle. 0 Comments

A pretty detailed explanation of the current situation and what will happen if the judge does find (and will) Google guilty is already given by Engadget’s Nilay Patel, who happens to be a copyrights lawyer previously;

Link: Android source code, Java, and copyright infringement: what’s going on?

His view: Google is in trouble.

Oracle will charge Google and probably all the handset manufacturers a licensing fee for every Android handset shipped.

Which I will argue, will be actually a good thing for Android lovers.

Making Android into a product that actually costs money will probably result in the following situations;

a. Android will probably become as expensive an mobile OS as Windows 7 is, and manufacturers will no longer stuff Android onto handsets with shitty hardware that are not capable enough to support the OS anymore, simply because they will have to pay for it. Android will only be reserved for higher end handsets that can support it, and justify paying the licensing fees for that particular handset by the manufacturer. Better hardware on Android means a much better Android experience for all Android lovers.

b. It will paint a much clearer picture of how influential Android support by consumers are. Right now the majority of Android market share is probably made up by the millions of cheap arse 0-dollar handsets whose owners know nothing about the OS that runs inside of these devices. If Android is strictly a smartphone OS, that ensures only people who understand what Android is will be buying Android devices for use.
Continue reading ‘What will happen after Oracle wins the Android suit against Google’

Steve Jobs announced Medlcal Leave of Absence for the second time in two years…..

Posted January 18th, 2011 by Ryu at 2:22 am in Steve Jobs. 0 Comments

…but he will be okay. We know it.

Here’s hoping he will be back as soon as possible, and that Tim Cook and the other guys don’t pull another White iPhone 4 and iPod Shuffle 3 during his absence again.

iPad 2 to have a pixel-doubled screen resolution upgrade after all?

Posted January 16th, 2011 by Ryu at 7:33 pm in iPad and Rumors. 1 Comment

If this is to be believed, the next iPad must have seriously powerful graphics hardware, stuff that can power resolutions almost as high as that of Apple’s 27 inch Cinema Display.

Stuff that will Kill all the current iPad Killer-wannabes like the next generation Galaxy Tab and the Motorola Xoom even before they come to market.

I have always doubt the possibility of the next iPad debuting with a retina display (aka. original resolution “pixel-doubled”) due to simply the kind of hardware and processing power involved in supporting such a high resolution display, not to mention the negative impact it will have on battery life. But rumors of recent weeks have been more detailed than the usual speculation, and it’s hard to ignore them now.

Link: iPad 2 Likely to Have 2048×1536 Screen Resolution

Microsoft: “An Open Letter from the President of the United States of Google”

Posted January 15th, 2011 by Ryu at 7:32 pm in Google is Evil. 0 Comments

I rarely speak well of anything that comes out of Redmond, but this is an exception.

This guy is spot on in his portrayal of Google’s act of war.

An Open Letter from the President of the United States of Google

On the whole Google Chrome dropping H.264 support to start another format war fiasco

Posted January 15th, 2011 by Ryu at 7:27 pm in Arguments, Google and Google is Evil. 0 Comments

I wanted to write something myself but this article seems to sum it up pretty well.

Google, H.264 and Video on the Web

Fact to remember – Chrome is an insignificant browser in terms of market share, Safari and Internet Explorer have way bigger market share on mobile and desktop. However, if Google pulls H.264 support from Youtube, this means you can no longer watch Youtube videos on your current iOS AND ANDROID devices (at least not without sacrificing a crazy amount of battery life. Android devices probably won’t even last an hour with its poor battery life management).

Continue reading ‘On the whole Google Chrome dropping H.264 support to start another format war fiasco’

Why iOS 4.3 will bring Mobile Hotspot to the majority of iPhone owners before Android does to its minions

Posted January 14th, 2011 by Ryu at 4:09 pm in Froyo Fail and iOS. 1 Comment

So I posted a tweeted the other day declaring that the majority of current Android phone owners will never see their phones ever getting the Mobile Hotspot feature despite Android announcing the feature first in Froyo, Android 2.2, which was released in May 2010.

Why did I say that?

It’s very simple. The majority of Android handsets simply do not qualify for Froyo updates, usually because the carrier can’t be bothered or they just want to push sales of their newer handsets that come with Froyo installed, like the hundreds of new handsets slated for release in the next six months in a world when Gingerbread already exists.

Some guy replied to my tweet, stating,”I don’t think that applies to SG. I’ve been able to tether internet access from my HTC Desire for months now.”

Right.

And the majority of Android-using Singaporeans are using the presumably fugly HTC desire as their phone.

That is simply not true.

Continue reading ‘Why iOS 4.3 will bring Mobile Hotspot to the majority of iPhone owners before Android does to its minions’

On the whole iPad and iPhone losing their physical home buttons rumor….

Posted January 14th, 2011 by Ryu at 7:28 am in iOS, iPad, iPhone, iPhone 4 and iPod. 0 Comments

This whole rumor was probably triggered by the fact that iOS 4.3 beta 1 for iPad comes with multitouch gesture controls for changing applications (by swiping multiple fingers horizontally, like on the Mac for changing pages), returning to home screen (by the 5-finger pinch), etc. These gestures definitely will be familiar to current Mac users who already have similar multitouch gestures, and will no doubt will work on the big and nice 9.7-inch iPad screen.
Continue reading ‘On the whole iPad and iPhone losing their physical home buttons rumor….’