Raymond Brigleb

Apple’s Attention to Detail

floodlite:

In July 2002, Appled filed a patent for a “Breathing Status LED Indicator” (No. US 6,658,577 B2). They described it as a “blinking effect of the sleep-mode indicator in accordance with the present invention mimics the rhythm of breathing which is psychologically appealing.”

The average respiratory rate for adults is 12-20 breaths per minute, which is the rate that the sleep-indicator light fades in and out on most Apple laptops. Older models such as the Macintosh PowerBook, however, use a blinking LED indicator, with discrete pulses in one-second intervals.

The other day, I noticed that my friend’s Dell laptop had a similar feature but with a shorter fade-in-fade-out period. Its rate was around 40 blinks per second, or the average respiratory rate for adults during strenuous exercise—not very indicative of something in sleep-mode.

It’s interesting how a lot of companies try to copy Apple but never seem to get it right. This is yet another example of Apple’s obsessive attention to detail.

Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to stare at the gentle, soothing light on my Macbook Pro.

Baby, Crying

No ba ba Oooh ba ba
My ba ba woo ba ba
Oooh me he Ooo ma ha
Oooh ba ba Yay ba ba
Yaaah Yaaaah Ba Ba

Oh ba ba.
Ew ba ba, oooh ba ba
Oh ba ba oh wa wa
No! No!
No, ba ba, no ba ba
No bah No Bah Bah

Ew bah ew wayeee ew ba
(wail) aaaaaah eehhhhhh
ooooooh oooooh
Eeeeeeeh ah!
aaaaaaaaa mommy
aaaaaaaaaaaaagggggggggg

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh
ahhhhh wa wa ba ba ewwwww
ahhhhhh (scream) aaaah woooo weeee
ewwwww haaaaa baaaa baaaaaaa

aaaaaaaah aaaaaah oooooooh oooooooooh aaaaaaaah aaaawwwww aaaagggggg uuuuggggg oooooooooowawawa oooOOOOOOwawa ooOOOOOOGGGGG wayaya oooh oh oh aaaaa kyaaaaaa! aaaa kyaaaaaa! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH aAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!! aAAAAAGGGGA AGGGGGAGGGA AHAHAHAHAHAH AAAAAAH OOOOOOO WA OOOOOOH OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH OWEWEWEWEWEEWEHHHHHH

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Wakeeeewakkkkeee OOOOOOOHHHH

(cough) (cough)

My Brief Review of OmniFocus for iPad

I’ve been using OmniFocus for the Mac for years. Probably since it came out. I seem to remember it being a much-anticipated app at that time, as well. And the iPhone version has been handy - it’s the todo app I always come back to, mainly because of its mostly-solid sync features.

Now that it has arrived for the iPad, it’s time to look into it. After some internal debate, I decided to spring for a copy. I spend so much time keeping my task lists in order that it kind of seems worth it. And it is nice to have another device that lets me brainstorm out a project quickly, something the iPad seems particularly well-suited for.

However, I see three main drawbacks to this version in particular.

Firstly, cost is an issue. I don’t think that these folks respect their customers’ existing investment. This app is not sufficiently different from the iPhone version, despite their claims. It does add some nice touches and UI, but for someone who thinks that all productivity apps should ideally just run on both the iPhone and iPad by design (unreasonable curmudgeon, I know), paying an additional $40 seems steep.

Second, their are glitches. This is a 1.0 and it shows. I’ve run across numerous difficulties using the software, and it doesn’t really seem finished. Dragging items between lists sometimes just doesn’t work. And I’ve already had some crashes.

Third, the design sucks compared to competitors like Cultured Code. OmniGroup just doesn’t have a good eye for design and they seem unaware of this. The lists of projects and their tasks feel like they take up a lot more space than they need to. The whole interface reeks of “chartjunk.” And so the app is full of lots of little eye sores that add up to an uncomfortable user experience.

If you’ve already given them a hundred bucks for OmniFocus, like me, then what the heck. Throw another $40 in their direction and hope for the best. They do have the best sync around, and that matters. But if you’re a bit more of a casual user, pass. You still need your Mac version anyway.