Tech Reviews

A list of Technology Reviews.

This is a collection of Technology Reviews that I've done over the years.

ℹ️ Info

~ Aristotle Sabouni

Technology Reviews • [18 items]

2003.05.15 PowerBook Repair
I've had quite a few good, and a few bad experiences with Apple Support. This was support issues around a finicky model, that Apple wasn't good about supporting. (Certainly not as good as Old Apple / Pre-Jobsian). New Apple has shorter warranties, but they enforce them looser to convince you they are giving your grace. Sometimes.

2015 iPad Pro (1st Gen)
A better iPad. iPad Prois better in every way -- bigger, faster, longer battery life... and more expensive. OK, better in all ways but price. The bigger screen, a keyboard that works, and the iPad fills a niche for me as a great travel/note-taking and entertainment device, when it's not worth bringing out my laptop. Or as a second screen for my laptop.

2016 MacBook Pro (Touch bar)
There's a lot of whining and complaints about the New MacBook Pro's (MBP2016). Some valid, many overstated but heartfelt. But I think the problem was more about messaging than delivery. For me, and most users, it's a great product. But it would be as great without the touch bar.

2019.01.31 Apple Chairs
I regularly visit the Apple Park, and I've noted that the wooden chairs they use in the Café and Apple Store there are comfortable, solid, simplistic, and a nice aesthetic. So out of curiosity, I looked them up. They're by a designer Naoto Fukasawa, called the Hiroshima Chair, and they're $2,500 each.

Apple Mouse
Until Steve Jobs came back, Apple could design a mouse. After that, form over function, and they suck. The USB Mouse (Hockey Puck), the Apple Pro Mouse, and the Magic Mouse all suck. Hard! I use a Microsoft Mouse, because even though Microsoft is mediocre at design, they're still better than Apple on Mice.

Apple TV+
Apple TV+ is an subscription video on demand service of Apple, that debuted on November 1, 2019 (announced on March 25th at a Special Event). It is accessible in about 100 countries (fewer than competitors), includes custom programming, but so far is proprietary to Apple devices (no native Android/Windows players).

Apple Watch
Watch is hit and miss for me. Enough value to get me to wear a watch again. Annoying quirks that could be easily fixed. Kevin Lynch was my old boss at Adobe, so I was sort of rooting for him. And I like the idea of wearables, and there are usecases that add enough value. But 7 years, and it still can't keep up-to-date, or have a multi-day battery?

Apple killed my Music
One of the most assholish things Apple has ever done (and they've done a few), was a few versions ago, when I did an upgrade from one Mac to another their "backup" to New Machine decided that they would secretly NOT copy any Music if that Music was ripped from CD. No notifications, backup complete, and so on. By the time I figured it out, the old machine had been wiped.

Apple's Greatest Misses
I'm not an Apple basher, or Apple fanboy. The former looks only at the worst, the latter at only the best. I prefer to admit both. This article isn't into their many revolutions and successes, just a few highlights of technologies or ideas they went splat. Not to bash my Fruity friends in Cupertino, but any mistake is useful if you learn from it.

Belkin
Belkin/Linksys/Wemo: American manufacturers of consumer electronics: including routers, iPod and iPhone accessories, mobile computing accessories, surge protectors, network switches, hubs, (USB and computer network) cables, KVM switches, racks and enclosures, and other peripherals.

Bidet
I did a training at Google, and they had the fancy Japanese style bidet toilets in their visitors center. Since I was using the facilities, I tried it out. Not bad. I decided to get one for the home -- hey, a few hundred bucks to a squeaky clean pooper sounded like a fair trade to me.

Business Card Composer
Business Card Composer intro: a cool tool for creating business cards. This is an old review (circa 2003), but I'm happily amazed that the product still has been maintained and is used. Most software doesn't last this long, but I guess everyone needs business cards, and a decent little app for creating them has survived the test of time.

IPod
The iPod is a little device that is much bigger than people realize. For a complete technology nerd, I'm fairly socially aware and can actually interact with humans as well as hardware. But when something new and cool comes out, my technaholic tendancies tend to come bubbling to the surface. The iPod will be revolutionary in its simplicity.

ITunes
iTunes (💩🎶) started out as a mediocre Music app, and got worse year after year until the shit show of Apple Music. I stopped buying Music BECAUSE of Apple. I won't support their proprietary Music store, and they don't work well with things outside their music store. So we're not friends; and I only play music I already have or use other streaming services.

Luddite Phone
One person (Joshua Haskell) experiments with rejecting a full-featured smartphone, to become more engaged in life. This Luddite reaction was a way to deal with the temptation for distraction, and to become more engaged in living in the moment, instead of the virtual world. It worked for them -- but probably isn't for everyone.

Mac OS X 10.2 - Jaguar
Apple acquired NeXT, Steve Jobs had a palace coup and replaced old Apple's Not-Invented-here and leadership with NeXT's Not-Invented-here and leadership. NeXT did some things better, some worse, and had even more arrogance and inflexibility than old Apple. But they did have competent management, a stronger vision, and a willingness to just ship "good enough" and fix it later.

Pixelbook

The other day I got a Pixelbook (at a great discount), which Google delivered to my house (same day, with 30 minutes of setup help): an incredible customer experience. For work? The Pixelbook is better than an iPad but worse than a MacBook, with a ton of caveats. iPad is better at single app workflows and iPhone/Mac integration, Pixelbook at multi-apps, keyboard/trackpad/browsing or as laptop replacement.

Tayogo Waterproof Headphones
Tayogo 8GB Waterproof MP3 Player Bone Conduction Bluetooth Swimming Headphones - Bluetooth and FM are useless under water. But as an MP3 player, it's not loud, but nice enough that I don't want to swim without them. They last about a year before the charger port fails. But the service/support is nice.

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