San Jose Mercury News Weather Section 2011-12-18

Picked up the Sunday paper (San Jose Mercury News) this morning for the first time in eons — wanting to check out the coupon inserts for my latest gig at Coupons.com — and it’s amusing to see how the content is both obsolete by the time it hits the newsstand and inferiorly static compared to the Internet.

A few obvious examples:

• Front page and other actual news content:  Just about all of this is online and supplemented by more current and extensive information from blogs, RSS feeds, Tweets, etc.
• Weather section:  Print has a visually-appealing half-page summary of local/national/international weather (above), but Web sites and the Weather and The Weather Channels apps on my iPhone and iPad provide up-to-the-minute snapshots and forecasts from across the planet.
• Ads:  Print ad units, with larger formats (half page, full page) and more variety to unit sizes, catch one’s eye better than online ads — at least for me — but can’t be clicked on.
• Real estate section:  Hello Zillow, Trulia, et al.
  
• Free-standing inserts:  There surely are a lot ‘em, but unless I’m a deal hunter or in the market for a particular item or planning a trip to a specific retail store, these go straight into the recycling bin.  Also, I bought today’s paper to look for clip-able grocery coupons — and I can’t find them!
• Sunday Comics:  I read comic strips a lot less since I stopped getting a print newspaper.  I get my Daily Dilbert in my email inbox but otherwise don’t flip through my favorite comic strips as I once did.  Score one for print.
• Tactile feel:  I’ll always hate the feeling of newsprint on my hands.

No real news here in any of these observations but fun for me to note.  Looking forward to seeing the inevitable day when print newspapers are entirely a format of the past.

2004:  I’d never owned any Apple product.

2005:  I bought my first Apple product, an iPod Classic.

2007:  I bought my first Apple computer, an iMac, through a friend of a friend’s Apple employee discount.

As of today, I’ve already owned and retired:

• That original iMac
• 2 iPod Classics
• An iPod Shuffle
• iPhone 3
• iPhone 3GS
• iPad

• MacBook Pro 13″
• Apple Cinema Display
• Apple Airport Extreme
• Apple Airport Express
• iPhone 4
• iPad 2
• Apple TV
• MacBook Air 13″ for personal use
• MacBook Air 11″ for work
• Apple Thunderbolt Display for work

Having carelessly left my iPad in a Southwest Airlines seat-back pocket in December, I’ve been waiting impatiently for this day to come for months!

I used TaskRabbit to arrange for a runner to wait in line on my behalf. If you haven’t used TaskRabbit yet, try it. Define just about any task — such as buy groceries, drop off donations at Goodwill, pick up dry-cleaning — or even wait in line at an Apple Store for 12 hours on iPad 2 launch day. Then, set a maximum price, and “rabbits” (runners) make offers for how much they’ll perform the task. If they bid under your maximum, you pay less. Pick a runner, and off you go.

Thanks to TaskRabbit, rabbit Katherine D. and her husband Brian lined up as first in line for me at the Apple Store in Los Gatos at 3:00 a.m. PT on the 11th. Which meant that I was first in line when I sauntered up to the store around 4:00 p.m. to join in the opening day spectacle. At the time I took pole position, the line stretched down and around several blocks and easily was 500 people long.

Apple’s launch day retail experience — especially for those first in line — was wonderfully warm, welcoming and whimsical. Just inside the window front, a black velvet curtain veiled the entire store. Waiting outside for that final hour, we heard repeated cheers from within as the retail staff psyched up for the opening. Minutes before the doors opened at 5:00 p.m., Apple folks spilled out the doors, asked those first in line which models they wanted and distributed small white reservation cards with specific SKUs written on them for inventory control. At 5:00 p.m., the curtain dropped, and Brian and I were greeted with a double line of 40 employees inside the store wildly clapping and cheering and high five-ing the first dozen customers permitted to enter the store. With classic Apple retail efficiency, a retail associate greeted me, hooked me up with a white 64GB wi-fi + 3G AT&T iPad 2 (plus another I bought for friend) and a navy Smart Cover, and I walked out the door 10 minutes later to the cheers and envy of the waiting crowd. Felt like Marky Mark in “Rock Star.”

The out-of-box was what we’ve come to expect from Apple: easy to open packaging, minimal contents (iPad, charger) and intuitive set up (plug in, connect to iTunes and follow the onscreen instructions). I haven’t activated the 3G service yet, but that looks to be very easy too.

So first impressions?
- As reported, it feels great. Thinner, lighter (although it’s only marginally so) and the tapered back is more comfortable to hold than the original’s.
- The white looks even better than I expected. From the images I’d seen online, the white looked too bright, and possibly cheap. On the contrary, the color is almost ivory and reminds me of Steinway piano keys. Gorgeous.
- So far, it does seem faster and the graphics look better thanks to the new dual-core processor. I’ve been playing Infinity Blade and Angry Birds on my iPhone 4 for months and didn’t realize what I’d been missing until yesterday. Fast switching is also faster than before and faster than my iPhone 4.
- Mixed feelings on the Smart Cover. Slick design and works great — but I don’t like that the back of the iPad is unprotected, and when using it to type on an uneven surface (my lap), the magnets and cover occasionally detach. I’m eyeing the bamboo and leather cover by Grove.
- The camera quality is noticeably poor as reported. It’ll serve for video calls, and I expect to continue to use my iPhone 4 for snapshots and short video clips.
- One note on FaceTime: Not sure about this, but it appears that if you’re already using FaceTime on one device, say a MacBook Pro, with one Apple ID, then you may need a separate, new Apple ID unique to your iPad. So far, I’ve been unable to verify my existing Apple ID to use FaceTime on this new iPad 2.

Overall, this is the day for which I’ve been waiting like a kid on Christmas morning, and I’m completely delighted with Apple’s latest offering. Fanboy I am.

But I’m not switching quite yet.  Here’s why:

• No simultaneous voice and data — This is a non-starter. I frequently access the Internet while on a call. AT&T allows it, Verizon doesn’t, because of the nature of CDMA.

• Limited international reach — GSM is the global standard, and just a few months ago I was in Korea making calls and going online with my iPhone. With Verizon instead of AT&T, this wouldn’t have been possible — and this is true in many more countries than not.

• Not an early adopter here — I won’t buy the first Verizon iPhone for the same reason I didn’t buy the original iPhone: First generation new products — and granted ostensibly only the CDMA antenna is new — rarely work as predicted.  I’d wait for the kinks to get worked out first.

• No guarantees of network superiority — I love Verizon’s network, especially in the Bay Area, and switched from it to AT&T only when I wanted a more global network for international travel. That said, no one can really predict at this point how the iPhone will perform on Verizon’s network. (Although it’s hard to imagine worse performance than we get with AT&T).

• Switching costs — Not a sole deciding factor, but given the other concerns, no reason to pay early contract termination fees to plunge into another unknown.

Will be very interested to see how Verizon’s network performs!

Early thoughts and observations:

• Mitch Kupchak did an awesome job in the off-season.  I’ve been the most excited about the addition of Steve Blake, a point guard who can run the triangle and spot up for outside shots, and his performance yesterday — well, I hope it’s representative of the whole season.  With Matt Barnes, and, to a lesser extent, Theo Ratliff, added to the existing core, the Lakers are poised to be an awesome, gritty defensive team this year.  Love everyone’s sheer aggression and effort.
• Of course it’s too early to tell, but if Shannon Brown‘s game against the Rockets yesterday is any indication of his off-season improvement — wow, the Lakers are going to be tough.  Love how much confidence and poise he’s exuding — now if he could just learn to dribble with his left hand.
• In general, I just can’t remember any time I’ve been as excited about watching the bench play.
• I’d say the only bummer about yesterday’s game and potential concern for the bench was/is Sasha Vujacic.  I thought I’d imagined it, but Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register noticed it too:  Sasha was ungracious in a ring ceremony in which every other Laker was effusive in his open affection and praise for a teammate.  As a fan, one never knows what’s up with players.  But Sasha surely seems to wear his emotions on his sleeve and seems alternatively insecure, oblivious and petty with regard to his role on the team; his resentment of lost playing time appears evident.  If he could return to his humbler years as The Machine — tenacious on defense, in control on offense — the Lakers would be all the better for it.

Last, check out this cool video of the making of this year’s championship ring, which includes as a component a piece of the championship game ball!

In contrast to all the privacy policy problems Facebook and Google have run into over the past few years, myspace appears to be trying to simplify — I received this email Wednesday:

For the complete policy, click here.  Interesting that they are simplifying but now have much more blunt instruments to tune one’s privacy.  I imagine the discerning user will be miffed at both myspace’s blunt instruments and Facebook’s often fine but confusing tools.

Unlike FourSquare and Gowalla, the feature allows your Facebook Friends to check you in to locations without your prior knowledge.

Yes, you will receive a notice and can delete the check in post by your Friend.  But isn’t that too late if you don’t want your whereabouts known?  I’ve already received several half-joking threats from friends that they will be checking me into … well, let’s just say locations into which I would not want to be checked.  Can you say “ripe for abuse?”

Places, if you opt-in, also allows you to share your location with non-Friends and see both Friends and non-Friends checked in where you are.  ”People Here Now” the feature is called

If you’re uncomfortable with any of this, here’s how to change your privacy settings:

STEP ONE:

From any Facebook page, in the upper right of the screen, access the Account menu and select “Privacy Settings.”

STEP TWO:

On the “Choose Your Privacy Settings” page, at the bottom of the chart, select “Customize settings.”

STEPS THREE AND FOUR:

On the Customize Settings page, in the “Things I share section,” for the “Places I check in” setting, use the pull-down menu to choose with which groups you will share check in information.  You may have to select the “Customize” option within the pull-down menu.  I’ve chosen to share with “Friends Only.”  If and when I check in of my own volition, I’m okay with sharing that with my Friends.  There’s also an option to share only with specific Friends; I think that’s great.

Just below the “Places I check in” setting, enable the “People Here Now” setting if you desire.  For now, I’m opting out, although I’m opted in to the same feature on FourSquare.  I just don’t care to know what strangers are about and also geeking out with social networking apps.  And I might or might now want to bump into Friends while out and about in the wild.

STEP FIVE:

On the same page, the default setting for “Friends can check me in to Places” — Facebook got this one right — is “Select One,” which I assume is an opt out choice.  From the pull-down menu, select Enable or Disable as desired.  I’m definitely opting out of this one.  I can’t imagine I would ever want a default setting that allows others, even Friends, to check me into locations.

Very interestingly, the button paradigm for this setting is different than the other two “Enable” settings on the page . . . .

Via: Term Life Insurance