What is this thing? Well. I’ll tell you.

I built it a few years ago.
It’s an invention of mine. You see the button on top? What do you suppose it does if I push it! You see it’s wired to a bazzillion explosives under a random city in Arkansas!

Oh no! I pushed it!

Ha ha. No it’s not really going to blow up a city!

Just your house!

the iPad as it sits right now, price and functionality, is not what I’d deem worth my money.

it’s an excellent tool, but I can’t use it without thinking, I wish there were a few differences.  The screen and camera need to have better resolution and pixel density.  But where it’s really lacking, is audio.

I understand for really good sound you should use headphones, but what about people viewing videos with the kids, or skyping with others around.  Or what about just using it in the privacy of their own home.

Having the speaker blasting away from you is stupid and inefficient.  in order to hear it better you need to cup your hand around it or blast it at everyone and everything infront of you before the sound reaches the viewers ears.

internally the speaker location is here.

and let me tell you, it’s small.

Just earlier today i was playing around with an ipad and I had an idea for the audio.  Now if they were to use Open air speakers, you’d be able to get better sound and cool the processor at the same time.  If they were to perforate the sides where I’ve circled.

they could put 2 speakers on each side with a corresponding air vent on the opposite side that woud run over a heat sink connected to the processor.

To insure the best sound you would need to have 4 speakers so you don’t cover them up while gripping it.  Just like the screen, the speakers polarity would be effected by the accelerometer.  in the photo shown above the top and bottom left would play the left audio channel, while the right the right, but when flipped to portrait, the red circles would be isync just as the blue would be.

In my opinion, Audio is a major factor in the experience.  DAC’s have been getting better and better and smaller and smaller.  my iPhone 4s has the best DAC of any of my apple products.  There is so little hiss as compared to my laptop, it’s amazing!

I know this a lowly blog, but I just like to post my ideas somewhere.  let me know what you guys think.

I don’t want every app that’s open to be using processing power, but the newest 2-3 would be nice. Maybe it’s my lack of patients, or maybe my short attention span, but I’d like to be able to queue up my Netflix while I check my email or send a text. And if I get an email/text during the show, I’ll pause it if I want to. Odds are however that I’ll let the video keep playing while I respond.
One other thing is like to have different takes place on this screen.

Clearly it does show my recent texts, but if I want to respond I have to open up my text messenger. I’d like to be able to just respond there. No more of this quitting one app to text.
Also I’d like to see an email feed similar to the stock display. Not the viewed ones just the new ones.
The last major update I’d like to see involves Siri. Siri is not completely there just yet. It bugs me that apple released a “major” function and selling point that’s still a beta. That’s the exact reason I don’t want to own an android device. However Siri is awesome. I love it. Yes it screws up my commands sometimes, no it can’t do everything I ask of it, and that’s what I’d like to see changed. I’m sure it’ll happen but I’d like Siri to be able to access my Facebook status, twitter, google+, and my rss feeds.
Even with all this, I am very satisfied with my phone. It’s better than any other phone out there (sorry overly zealous android fan boys). If you don’t believe me that the iPhone is the best, why else does everyone compare their phones to the iPhone. Samsung being the worst. I hear complaints that the iPhone isnt 4g, clock speeds show little to no difference from 3G to 4g. And 4g networks haven’t proven to be as stable as 3G.  All things aside, iPhone is the industry standard and has been since the release of the first generation phone.
One last thing before I place my last period. I’ve re enabled comments on my blog. So feel free to do so.

We, the teachers, are given manuals filled with lesson plans and activities for teaching about Christ’s church and teaching to the children.  Along with the manual, we have pictures we show, scriptures we reference, talks we quote, and songs we sing.  That’s a lot of books to carry.  So, what do I use, that’s right, my iPhone.  In our primary class we have one student who even brings an iPod touch to class and uses that for his scriptures.  I encourage it.  We have a reward system for those who remember to bring their scriptures and one time he was not rewarded for having his iTouch because it wasn’t charged.

Well, after class we have a reunion of half the primary classes for one final class of the day.  (the other half meets before us.  there are a lot of kids in primary.)  Today we had a scripture chase game.  that’s where a reference is given and the children have to look it up, the first one to get it wins.  The primary president excluded those that had been using mobile devices for scriptures.

I understand that older generations have a hard time seeing technology as anything but a toy, and that women (typically) have a hard time accepting that as well, and maybe that’s what we were seeing today, but it seemed to juvenile of her to just exclude them.

This world isn’t traveling in a direction of continued paper use.  We are moving away from our books and pulling out our mobile devices, e-readers, laptops, and tablets to information and entertainment.  on my phone I can carry hundreds of pounds of information in my small 4.9 oz device.  It’s convenient, easier to use, more compact, and frankly, smarter to use these devices than to carry books.

I’m not banishing books to the darkest corners.  I have a hard time believing books will stop existing, but I do have a hard time believe you’ll see books on the go as much, and possibly at some point, never again.  We’re moving fast to a mobile information planet.  Accept that.  it’s not sacrilegious, it’s not offensive, it’s not even a personal insult, it’s brilliant!  Every child in primary could have one, it would have all their scriptures, hymns, friend magazines (a religious publication of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later day Saints), and other little helps in class.  It’s an enabling tool, opening up a world of information to you with just a swipe of your finger tips.

So, you older generations who despise the ease ability of our new technology, try it out, adapt it, and see why we prefer to carry an iphone in our pocket than 15 books under our arm!

To clear out their inventory, they sold all their new touchpads with webos for $99 bucks for the 16gig model and $150 for the 32.  The touchpad was the first tablet (in the new race of tablets) to not run an operating system designed for a phone like any android tablet or iPad does.  Not a super bold move, but still a bright idea.  This tablet was said to be the iPad killer (sort of like every android phone that comes out it seems).  it rocks a 9.7″ screen and has a decent resolution at 768 x 1024.  It is a wifi only tablet (not a deal breaker for everyone) and has a 1.2ghz dual core chip.  Where this thing really shines is that is has a dedicated gpu, so it’s supposed to be a better experience video wise.

On Sunday, Dec 11, 2011 at midnight, HP will be selling off the rest of their stock of refurbed units at this same price.  it seems a good deal considering the closest price for a tablet would be the kindle fire at $199.  So why am I not excited about this?  I have a lot of reasons.

We’ll get one thing out of the way, even though this isn’t really a road block for me to get one, I’ll say it anyway.  I am an IOS guy.  I love my iphone.  I’ve invested hundreds of dollars into my multiple iPhones and apps.  It wouldn’t make sense for me to start buying apps for android or webOS.

ok, so the first reason, those that own the hp touchpad, those “lucky” few to snach one up before they were sold off the first round, when I come accross them on forums for this new release, are offering theirs for sale as well.  One guy sold it for $25 and even told the buyer, it wasn’t even worth that.  so what’s the problem?  first off, there seems to be a firmware issues with the GPU.  review after review brings up frame dropping as a serious issue.  Other problems, webOS is dead.  aside form indie programers, you won’t be getting very many new apps or support.  HP has said there will still be updates, but if they’re not making a successor to the Touchpad, it’ll turn out like most android devices and stay NOT updatable.

Web browsing on it is said to be very fast, that’s a plus.  It also supports flash, which opens up a large portion of the web closed off to us mobile safari users.

Because webOS is dead a lot of people have been putting android on it.  I’ve read a few accounts where they’ve bricked their device, and those that were successful say it’s very skitish, crashing regularly, missing support of some of the interface, and one guy said it heated up a lot, to the point that he thought it would melt the plastic casing.  I read one forum where a guy loaded linux on it, but he didn’t say anymore, just that it successfully loaded.

so the reason I don’t care.  I don’t like android devices because you have to reprogram the thing to play nice with other devices.  sure it’ll work, but I want a tablet I can just pick up and run with.  I want a tablet that movie watching will be an enjoyable experience, the touchpad hasn’t offered that with it’s dropped frames.  It seems like those who are excited about the touchpad, don’t own one.  and those that own one are excited to get rid of it.

although, one review I read said it made a great picture frame!

I don’t really want to talk about my condition on here but more abou what I feel like and how it effects me.  After one day of little to no sleep, I feel just like anyone else does.  A little warn out but usually I can make it through the day just fine.  2 nights however I start to feel really weak.  I find myself getting distracted and lost very quickly.  Migraines are very common from here on out.  3 nights and I get frustrated very easily.  I find I can’t remember what I was trying to do or where I was walking towards.  on days like these I find simple tasks refreshing because I don’t have to think about them as much.  as soon as a difficult task gets put in my way I become irritable and confused.  4 days and I can barely carry on a conversation.  I’m usually ok if I just sit down.  5 days and I’m close to useless.  I find myself having a hard time distinguishing between reality and my own thoughts.  I find I focus on negative things, anything from a hurtful word to a full on fight.  6 days, I shouldn’t be driving anymore.  my eyes don’t focus on anything at this point.  it’s like someone is riding the focus ring on a camera going in and out and in and out.  reading and tv watching are basically pointless.  7 days, I have no apatite at this point.  I feel completely sick.  I threw up, a lot.  I have no balance.  I was working at a grocery store at the time and had to call in sick.  8 days, if feels like my body has decided that death is the best option.  nothing seems to work right.  I could drink a gallon of water and still feel dehydrated.  I sweat uncontrollably but feel cold.  I probably had a fever, but I hadn’t fully unbacked my luggage for that area of my mission and didn’t know where my thermometer was.  9 days, I actually started feeling better.  Incredibly weak but my body finally accepted food again.  I had to rest (sit down) constantly throughout the day, and I had to use the bathroom multiple times as well.

fortunately 9 days is my max.  I was given a  prescription for pills that day and I slept about 20 hours.

I hate taking pills to sleep.  most of the time I don’t feel rested at all.  I feel like I was unconscious the whole time and never once rested.

I still have problems sleeping.  fortunitly not as bad as it once was, I might make it to day 3 with no sleep, but usually I get 2-4 hours of sleep a night, which catches up to you quickly.

I love actually sleeping, when it happens.  Dreams I find so relaxing, even nightmares I enjoy because I entered the 4th stage of sleep, REM sleep, the only time when you are actually resting not just unconscious.  now that winter is upon us, I find I sleep a little better.  cold weather seems to help with that.  maybe I’ll turn my wife’s and my bedroom into a giant refrigerator.  if we get hungry at night we could just eat cold left overs.  Or maybe one day she’ll let me convince her we need to move to alaska or northern canada!