Procrastination is the thief of dreams

So I did my second marathon a week ago. This girl tried to beat me at the finish, I looked over and said “Hell No!” 26.2 miles in 3:29.06 woot woot!

Reparto Corse! (Taken with instagram)

Well, the first few days of CES are over and I suppose now is the best time of any to start speculating on the new iPad and iPhone that will be released this coming year. 

Here’s 10 things in each that I think are likely (The first 6 are highly likely while the last 4 are more speculative):

iPad

1.) Screen resolution doubled - I think this is a given seeing how many new tablets are going with the higher res ips panels. For example, here’s a link to that super dense 20.4 inch 4k panel Panasonic is bragging about (4k x 2k at a density of over 8,000,000 pixels - yes, that’s 6 zeroes - definitely retina display quality). 

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/09/panasonic-outs-worlds-smallest-and-thinnest-4k-x-2k-ips-lcd-m/

2.) Gorilla Glass 2.0 - this is also a given being that it has the same resistive properties while being 20% thinner allowing for more brightness and increased touch sensitivity.

3.) Quad core A6 - It’s a sure update that the iPad 3 and iPhone 5 will have upgraded processors. Whether they are quad core or not is more speculative, but I think it is in the cards given the little nuggets found in iOS 5 that hint at quad core support. To throw a number around, I’ll guess between a 1.5 - 1.8ghz A6

4.) Upgraded front and rear cameras - Apple is on a camera-upgrade binge, and quite frankly the iPad cameras blow, so this is a given.

5.) Dual CDMA/GSM 3G chipset for the 3G version of the iPad 3. It’s in the 4S so it’ll trickle down.

6.) Siri is a given as well, there will definitely be an outcry if she is not included at the party.

Okay, now for the more speculative stuff!

7.) Increased battery life - with all the extra umph under the hood of the iPad 3, there has to be an upgraded battery. However, the iPhone 4S has a shorter battery life than the iPhone 4 so this is debatable.

8.) Storage upgrade - we might see a 128GB version of the iPad 3 but I wouldn’t hold my breath, especially with all the investment in the cloud.

9.) A design change - I honestly think this will be more of an internal upgrade to the iPad like the 4S was. If anything, there has been evidence of a smaller home button, so the bezel may well be reduced as a result of the higher quality display panel. 

10.) Call support - this is a long shot, but on a 4G network it could be possible. If the iPad 3 gets 4g LTE, I could see video call support over 4G being a pretty nice killer app for Apple.

iPhone:

1.) Upped screen size and resolution - The Apple fans have spoken and there is an outcry for a bigger iPhone screen. It will go up to 3.7 or 4 inches and the resolution will double as well. Gorilla Glass 2.0 - this is given for the same reason as the iPad

2.) A complete design change - thinner, lighter, less industrial and more organic. More curves, a curved, aluminum back. Maybe a teardrop shape. It will be about the same size - the screen size will be upped but the form factor will stay about the same. The bezel is in need of a drastic reduction so I see more of an edge to edge look for the display.

3.) 4G LTE - the standard has been set so the iPhone will follow

4.) Upgraded camera - 10 megapixels minimum, likely 12-16

5.) Siri will be out of beta - she will be on track to complete artificial intelligence and taking over the world. 

6.) Quad Core A6 processor - lower clock speed than the iPad 3 - 1.2-1.4Ghz.

More speculative stuff!

7.) Upgraded speakers/headphones - are we done with the god-awful white ones yet?

8.) Inductive charging - I would love this

9.) Seamless wireless display capabilities - think of going in a room with a projector, seeing it on the wireless network and seamlessly taking it over.

10.) Elimination of the home button - This is radical, but will happen eventually - will this be the time?

Let me know what y’all think of these speculations. Like I said, none knows, but we will see shortly what Cupertino comes up with.

~ Jake

Well all, it has probably been two months since my last post so this is long overdue. I might as well share what’s been going on in the life of Jacob Barrett that caused an utter stagnation of my blogsites that I’m sure caused mass world panic and chaos. 

As many of you know, I’m a senior in college at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, TX. I’m majoring in “strategic communication” which is just fancy talk for advertising/public relations - why they use this verbiage I don’t have any idea, because every employer or person on the street I talk to really has no idea what “strategic communication” is. 

This past spring, I had planned to study abroad in London for the summer. I was signed up, paid off and packing my bags, however, an opportunity came along that I could not pass up. I was offered an internship with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth, TX in their Branding, Marketing, Advertising and Trade Shows department (BMATS for short) three days before I was supposed to leave. The internship would be a once in a lifetime opportunity to work for a fantastic company and get a great line on my resume for future internships and permanent employment. 

I had a dilemma, pass up the internship and go to London which was already paid for, or lose $5,000 and go work 40+ hours a week for the summer. Many people would have passed up the job opportunity in fear of wasting the $5,000, but I took it as a pricey investment into my future. I took the internship, unpacked my bags and worked at the micro-city that is the F-35 final assembly plant in Fort Worth. 

If there was one word that could describe the experience it would be “unbelievable.” From the people, to the products, to the actual jobs I had to perform; Lockheed Martin is a company that has it all in spades: fantastic employees, amazing products, and meaningful work. At the end of the internship I thought that there was no place that could equal what I could do at LM, but then I received another phone call. 

My original plan for my senior year was to put my nose to the grindstone and just focus on raising my GPA a few points; no internships, just schoolwork. As I was ending my internship at LM, I received a phone call from another DFW area company: Southwest Airlines. If you don’t know, Southwest Airlines is the largest carrier by volume in the United States. It is a low-cost airline that prides itself on its corporate culture - specifically its fun - “Luving” attitude. Where else would a flight attendant have the freedom to beatbox the flight safety regulations, or have the band “Green River Ordinance” perform an in-flight concert. 

I immediately accepted an internship within their Media Monitoring and Measurement department where I was working three days/week in Dallas along with taking a full course load. First, I absolutely recommend Southwest as a company - if you ever have the opportunity to work for them, do it. However, don’t do it on a full course load if you’re interning. This past semester, I had on average, 5-6 hours of sleep per night trying to keep up with 15 credit hours while working 32 hours per week and an hour drive each way. Was it worth it? Absolutely. Would I do it again? Not with a full course load. 

I am now going into my final semester at TCU. What will it bring? I have no idea, but I’m certain good things will continue to happen. From the National Student Advertising Competition to the TCU Advertising Association advertising and PR professionals meet and greet, there are opportunities everywhere to meet even more great people and create meaningful work. 

I will also try to be more consistent in blogging for the New Year - that’s my resolution.

Have a fantastic New Year y’all!

Everyone’s pissed off.

Where is the iPhone 5?! This is the same thing as last year. There’s nothing new? Apple’s stock is dropping, oh no, the world is coming to an end! What a let-down…

Seriously people, stop and think a bit.

Apple made a good move today. Just because it wasn’t the number ‘5’ doesn’t give you the right to complain. They did the same thing with the iPhone 3GS and that was quite an improvement, just as the 4S will be.

The iPhone 4S is the beginning of even more prosperity for Apple. Not only does it bring with it some notable new features and upgrades (SIRI, a great new camera, dual core graphics and processor), it is establishing the Apple 3 tier product selection in the smartphone market.

It’s really just a business decision at the core of the issue. Apple wants to sell more iPhones, how do you do that? Well, you lower the price to reach another demographic or hope that the current demographic will upgrade.

Apple did both with the decision to not pursue a redesign this year.  They made the decision to use the existing supply chain and manufacturing infrastructure. The factories in China don’t need any new equipment and workers don’t need new training to assemble the phones. There are no new manufacturing techniques and costs for the internals of the iPhone 4 have decreased due to Moore’s law and the progression of processor technology.

The development costs for this iteration are also assuredly lower than last year which will translate into lower prices for the consumer and higher margins. The only costs that are likely to be consistent with last year are the new internals for the 4S version. 

Oh and by the way, the utilization of the old design allows for the simultaneous production of a lower cost iPhone 4 and the higher spec iPhone 4S which drives the cost curve down. 

Early adopters and technology nuts (like myself) may be a bit disappointed by the lack of a redesign but the consumers who haven’t been able to switch to the iPhone because of its high initial price and lack of options will surely notice that the 3GS is now free on contract, the iPhone 4 is only a hundred bucks, and the highest end model is $199.

The switch to the three tier structure is a move consistent with Apple’s Mac products. For desktops you have the Mac Mini, the iMac, and the Mac Pro. For Laptops there used to be the similar structure of the Macbook (recently discontinued), Macbook Air, and Macbook Pro lines. 

This switch to a three tier system will increase the relative health of Apple’s supply chain and make it easier to phase its mobile devices through the relative life cycle. This could possible be a sign of Apple increasing the frequency of hardware updates, or merely a recommitment to being a major competitor in the smartphone market. 

Google may have something to worry about now because there’s a legitimate competitor emerging in the lower price points. And with that, I say thank the iPhone 4S

Alright everyone, it’s been three days of playing around

and looking for bugs, but here’s my take on the new

changes to Facebook.

In the beginning of the week there were a few key

changes to the home page: the addition of the live feed in

the top right, the separation of the news feed (top stories,

recent stories, and from earlier today), lists, and the ability to

subscribe to others and allow them to subscribe to your own

posts.

For the visual elements, it honestly just takes some

getting used to. It was extremely frustrating at first to figure

out why there were hundreds of notifications on my lists. All

that took was actually organizing friends into each list,

deleting and creating new ones. They remind me of circles

in Google+…but not nearly as intuitive or well executed. The

ability to now mark posts as “top stories” seems to simply be

a play off of Twitter’s “Favorite” to make Facebook more

adept at news content (I didn’t find it currently useful, but the

blue corners do draw the eye so I can see where they could

be successful).

Alternately, the live news feed on the top

right is useful for glancing at new posts by friends. The spit

of the news feed into “recent stories” and “earlier today” is

also useful in that not as much time is spent scrolling down

the page looking for where today started and yesterday’s

blue corners do draw the eye so I can see where they could

be successful). Alternately, the live news feed on the top

right is useful for glancing at new posts by friends. The spit

of the news feed into “recent stories” and “earlier today” is

also useful in that not as much time is spent scrolling down

the page looking for where today started and yesterday’s

posts ended.

The subscribing feature is where it ends for me.

Facebook is where I have conversations with my friends, not

coworkers, or anyone else. You can go to my Twitter or

LinkedIn for that. I find it creepy that if I allow people to

subscribe to my profile, they can see every status I post as

well as all my pictures, videos, etc.

Moving on to the more interesting thing - the new

individual profile. It’s pretty, unlike the Facebook profile of

old, it’s fun, visually appealing and intuitive. “Timeline” is

what the new design is officially named and it is exactly that,

a timeline, and it goes ALL the way back…to the beginning,

so if you have any ugly posts, go delete them before the

29th, because they will now be easily accessible for any

curious friend to see if you don’t.

In regards to the actual design, you get a large image

called a “cover” at the top with your profile pic overlaying

that on the left bottom corner. Your basic info is under that

along with the posting pane and underneath that is the

timeline…where you can scroll as long as you want all the

way back to the beginning if you feel like it. There’s not

much to it besides a line down the middle and posts on

either side with breaks for years. Pretty simple.

That’s pretty much it for the new stuff, there is one final

issue I’d like to take up with Facebook though. Why make

the profiles simpler but not the homepage, that one’s a

cluttered mess. What gives?

At Starbucks: “Starbucks for the second time today #addiction ”

At Starbucks Coffee

So I just got this email today from Microsoft. Looks like they’re finally trying to trim the fat and making Windows Phone 7 their only mobile operating system. It’s a rather good PR move as the email is written really well. I applaud you Microsoft, now hopefully when Windows 8 comes out you can trim the fat also by making the ARM version non backward compatible and only having the tile interface. I really like what’s coming out of Redmond in recent years and hopefully you can keep focused and push innovation even more. You may even be able to get me as a customer if you speed up the updates to Windows phone 7. If the “Mango” update was coming out in July rather than in the fall I’d be hard pressed to not buy one. I may hold off and see what the fall brings now that Apple’s iOS5 was a lackluster update in my opinion and I don’t really like Google’s current Android Interface. Windows Phone 7 has the best interface bar none. Well, we’ll see come fall…..

Shut-down of Windows Marketplace for Mobile Web Site and My Phone Service Notification

June 8, 2011
Dear Windows Mobile 6.x customer: 

Microsoft will be discontinuing the My Phone service for Windows Mobile 6.x. We will also be discontinuing the Windows Marketplace for Mobile web site. Because you may be affected, please review the details below:

Windows Marketplace for Mobile Web Site To Be Discontinued

The Windows Marketplace for Mobile web site at http://marketplace.windowsphone.com will no longer be available starting on July 15, 2011. After July 15, 2011, you will no longer be able to browse, buy or download applications for Windows Mobile 6.x phones via the Windows Marketplace for Mobile web site.

The Windows Marketplace for Mobile service will continue to be available on your phone, however. You will continue to be able to browse, buy and download applications for Windows Mobile 6.x on your phone.

My Phone To Be Discontinued

On August 7, 2011, the My Phone service will stop saving content from phones to the My Phone service. If you rely on the My Phone service to back-up the content on your Windows Mobile 6.x phone, you will be affected.

Starting on August 7, 2011, Microsoft will begin moving your My Phone content to Windows Live SkyDrive. SkyDrive is Microsoft’s free online storage service that helps you access and share your files such as photos and Microsoft Office documents. Contacts, calendar entries, text messages and photos will be moved to SkyDrive for you. Once moved, you will be able to access this content by logging into SkyDrive using the Windows Live ID that you used to register for the My Phone service.

Other content types, including videos, music, documents and favorites will not be moved from My Phone to SkyDrive for you. If you want this content, you must save it from the My Phone service to your local PC.

On October 6, 2011, the My Phone web site at http://www.microsoft.com/myphone will no longer be available. On this date, you will no longer be able to log in to the My Phone service to access your content stored to the My Phone service. Microsoft will continue to store your My Phone content for one (1) year. Physical copies of your content can be shipped to you upon request until October 5, 2012.

Take Action

To learn more about the My Phone service shut-down, including information about your content moving to Windows Live SkyDrive and how to save other content to your local PC, please visit this web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2557520

Microsoft is committed to making this transition easy. In the meantime, we want to sincerely thank you for your use of Windows Mobile 6.x. 

 -The Windows Phone Team
 

Microsoft respects your privacy. Please read our online Privacy Statement. 

Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052 USA 

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