iPad 3

Whenceforth art thou, iPad 3?

Everyone is talking about the iPad event on March 7th - it’s all retina this, quad-core that but no-one seems to be asking why would Apple release a major hardware revision this year?

Consider:

  • the iPad 2 was released only a year ago
  • the gap between the iPhone 4 and the 4S was about a year
  • manufacturing 2048x1536 10" panels must be a complex process
  • the iPad 2 is still ahead of the competition and …
  • … selling very well indeed (15 million in 2012Q1)
  • quad-core, LTE, a retina-sized display, etc. surely use a lot of battery


There’s no pressing financial or sales need for them to release something as advanced as the retina quad-core LTE iPad 3 this year.

What if they release an iPad 2S (CPU bump, Siri, longer battery life) instead of a retina iPad 3?

  • gives them an extra year to work on manufacturing reliability and costs
  • loses them no ground in their lead over the competition
  • doesn’t cannibalise the exisitng iPad 2 sales as much as an iPad 3 would
  • fits with the general “big leap every other year” schedule


On the other hand, the tagline for the event is “We have something you really have to see.” - although the screenshot doesn’t look retina to me (you can clearly see jaggies on “Calendar”.)

Mac + Garmin ANT Agent 2.2.0 = Forerunner 310XT activities not transferring to Connect?

If you've recently updated Garmin ANT Agent to 2.2.0 and your activities are missing from Garmin Connect, despite claims to the contrary in the status window, create a meaningless goal of type "Any Activity Type".

Connect-goal

That seems to free up the synchronisational confusion caused by "Could not download goals" (I had no goals) and get your activities transferred correctly.

Link dump from RSS backlog

Apologies if I've covered any of these already.


http://laughingsquid.com/the-ultimate-hamburger-by-modernist-cuisine/
Mushroom? No chips? RUBBISH.

http://www.architizer.com/en_us/blog/dyn/35672/an-urban-emoticon-that-measures-the-happiness-of-cities/
Someone buy some EL wire and make a UA version of this please

http://www.bridgestone.com/corporate/news/2011112901.html
Yet more "airless tire" vapourware (see what I did there?)

http://www.loweringthebar.net/2011/12/the-homeland-security-snow-cone-machine.html
Anti-terrorist snow-cone machines

http://www.loweringthebar.net/2011/12/the-homeland-security-snow-cone-machines-were-also-over-priced.html
...are over-priced.

http://www.kuriositas.com/2011/12/funny-fruit.html
Fruit abuse

http://sutured-infection.tumblr.com/post/14015285437/craniopagus-parasiticus
"No, you have a big head"

http://circuitousroute.wordpress.com/2011/12/10/teabags-into-potholders/
Random word poetry

http://www.myinnergie.com/MCT/Default.aspx
This is just for David

http://www.kuriositas.com/2011/12/best-ad-placement-ever.html
When real-life imitates The Far Side

http://www.kuriositas.com/2011/12/goat-tower-caprine-condominium.html
Because goats occasionally need alone time



Dudley Moore was an awesomely talented pianist

http://enwandrews.tumblr.com/
Postcards from virtual worlds

http://undertheinfluenceoffood.wordpress.com/2011/11/30/banana-cranberry-bread-pudding/
Might try and make this at the weekend, it sounds lovely

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150415177928920
Making PHP go like the clappers involves magic, unicorns, and tracelets

http://mindhacks.com/2011/12/12/explore-your-blind-spot-free-ebook/
We've all got one; why not nurture yours?

http://comicsansproject.tumblr.com/
Logos reimagineered with Comic Sans

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/12/mommy_why_is_that_man_covered.php
Creationists are the dumbest of the dumb

Dear Path (and other social networks trying to get my business)

It's not that I don't trust you - I do - but I don't want to put my surname in. Most places I go by a single name that people know and love*.

Why insist on first name and surname? What's the rationale? It's not like it even has to be my real name since I can create new Paths with fake names.

Really, what's the point except inconveniencing me and jwz?

* people may not actually love it.

A Twitter-free week?

Trying to shamelessly copy @lipsticklori's idea of a twitter-free week and being scared at how embedded Twitter is in my life:

  • iPhone gets DM notifications from Tweetbot (turned off, app moved off homescreen)
  • Blackberry gets notifications of mentions and DMs (signed out)
  • Email gets notification of DMs (turned off)
  • tweet.im is on my Jabber contacts list (de-friended)
  • A select bunch of people are irc-tweeted via a bot (muted via /ignore)

I'll still be sending my Instagrams to @zimpenfish_p which is possibly cheating but I can live with that.