Musings

Every Apple user will have met Skeumorphism - faux leather in the calendar, tape reels in the (old) Podcast iOS app etc. There is hope, that Jonny Ive will free OSX and iOS from the tired “trying to look like reality” look. The worst offenders in terms of skeumorphic interfaces however aren’t coming from Cupertino - there are legion of software producers that build interfaces that mimic “reality” down to the shadows on the knobs. Check out these samples: ...

We had released the first (of many) updates to our Mobino iOS app over a month ago, but got shot down by the droids at Apple for using the word “beta” on our splash screen. The easy way - of course - would be just to scratch the Beta tag, but we spent quite a bit of time on again improving the user experience for signups, signing in with Facebook (in order to pre fill name and photograph) as well as dozens of other small enhancements to the general feel of the app. ...

This long weekend comes to an end. I haven’t done a whole lot, but enjoyed lots of laughter with my kids and wife. Today we even went for a 29km bike ride - cold, but at least no snow. No other intelligent communications from me today I am sorry to say.

My kids love their iPhones (My daughter even bought herself an iPhone 5 for x-mas). While I (and my wife) do have some reservations about the quite high usage those phones get, it is none the less fascinating to see, how todays kids are using technology. Instead of them learning from me, I start to learn from them. I still have some geek cred with them, because as a long time online user, I know most of the acronyms they use. But still, they are using the communication technology as easily as breathing. My daughter especially is constantly on Whatsapp with her friends and school mates. Homework, going out - everything is coordinated through a constant chatter in the group rooms. ...

Just a quick note of outrage. I was planning to send EUR 150 to Germany for some guitar gear. As this wasn’t a commercial transaction, I choose to foot the bill in terms of commissions. PayPal wanted to take EUR 7.70 (or a bit over 5%) for this transfer. 5% - that is outrageously expensive… Time for someone to step up to the plate and provide an alternative… Oh - wait… ...

The weather being what it is, what better to do, than to rent a bunch of movies from the friendly neighborhood video rental (highly recommend if you are in Zurich, we have been customers for around 15 years and Lillian who runs Filmriss is just a wonderful nice person, with a huge film knowledge and a selection of movies that strays from main stream). Today we watched To Rome with Love, by Woody Allen. We have seen a few of the late Allen moves in the past years (Midnight in Paris and Vicky Christina Barcelona come to mind), so I had a vague feeling of how this film might be. I really enjoyed Midnight in Paris and Vicky Christian Barcelona, the light handed way of Allen telling simple (yet touching) stories. While “To Rome with Love” had some neat ideas (singing in the shower, being famous for being famous), most of the film lacked Allens magic touch. There were a few laughs (seeing Allen play again after so many years was good), but most of the short stories weren’t that interesting (or touching). Young naïve couple from the country side, coming to town, both making sexual experiences outside their marriage? Check. Old man, seeing his younger self making costly mistake by fucking with his girlfriends best friend? Check. Well off older US couple flying to Europe because her daughter fell in love with a native european? Check. ...