I recently read and highly recommend The Martian by Andy Weir. I cannot remember the last time I read a book with so much anticipation for how it was going to end.

I have not read a lot of books in the past few years. Possibly not the best way to follow that short review. I read more than enough online content but I have recently returned to more regimented reading before bed. Books usually sit on my bedside table for many months. Especially non-fiction that I really wanted to read when I was buying it or asked for it but then I seem to forget about. I often instead chose to read RSS feeds on my iPad, battle my Instapaper backlog, or during a bad phase: watch Netflix with headphones in bed.

Reading Sci-Fi has made me actually want to read again, instead of being something I try to make myself do, to wind down from staring at a screen all day, or to stop my mind from wandering and thinking too much about the work not done. It may be partly motivated by a longing for another great Sci-Fi TV show to watch, which I seem to be lacking, or it is just something I've not explored beyond a few popular books.

I also recently started and finished The Wool Trilogy but I'll leave that for another day.

iPhone 6

iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were pretty much as expected. I think they'll both sell very well, as already demonstrated by a record setting launch weekend for Apple, and still limited availability. I was a little surprised by the 6 Plus' resolution scaling but that kind of thing might allow greater flexibility in future sizes with less rushed developer changes. Although given the Twitter complaints about scaled Apps, maybe not.

I was pleased by the rounded edges. Both devices seem more comfortable for that point of contact. The iPhone 6 Plus with Zoomed interface enabled looks great for older users (as long as they can grip it) and those with vision issues.

Increasing the size of the standard iPhone with the Plus has made room for a possible nano at a later date for buyers less happy about the change. Current choices are ‘go big or go old’.

@mantia: I think Apple made a huge mistake this year by not releasing any smaller phones.

I think it's a very clever move by Apple. Going big makes some of the previous complainers happy this year. A new or major upgrade to a smaller model next year gives the New factor the press and public want in an ‘S’ year of the usual cycle. A potential 6S and 6S Plus (sounds like an Android phone) being less significant improvements in the Year of the Apple Watch. It's far too early for predictions like this.

Websites of the UK phone networks handled the launch day badly as usual, except Vodafone who seemed to cope.

My first close up sighting of an iPhone 6 Plus was in a coffee shop and my immediate response was ‘Wow, that's ****ing huge!’. After finally using it in an Apple Store, it is definitely too big for me and I have fairly large hands. It crosses over into the small tablet category with other phablets. If you get a 6 Plus you would have much less use for the current iPads and especially the iPad mini. The iPhone 6 also seemed quite large but more manageable. It will take some time to get used to it. My one handed usage will have to decrease a lot but I was trying to do that anyway for the sake of my thumbs.

With my previous iPhone increasingly crying for retirement, I was ready to walk out with iPhone 6 but UK Apple Stores have limited stock and none of the (probably) most popular 64GB Space Grey/Black. As an App developer, getting experience on these new sizes will be very important as I start to consider work after my PhD.

Apple Pay

Apple Pay, NFC based... interesting, waiting for the magic words...
US Only
I wonder if it'll beat iTunes Radio to UK availability. I also wonder whether it would be the same given the much stricter EU requirements on card transactions. Contact-less NFC payments here are limited to a set relatively small limit but that's plain touch and go without the additional protection of Touch ID (fingerprint).

US release so far seems very well received but expansion may be hampered by some big retailers only supporting their own rival mobile payments solution. CurrentC by MCX (a consortium of retailers) is QR code based payment App not yet widely available. It seems to be much more in the interest of retailers than customers, designed for gathering data about customers and purchasing habits.

Apple WATCH

On a Mac it's Shift + Option/Alt + K  (updated: on non-Apple devices you probably cannot even see the symbol).

My initial response was intrigue more than real want. They did not sell the reason why we should have one as well as other announcements. It just seemed to be flashes of features which all seemed to be given quite equal weighting. Ben Thompson's Stratechery articles provide a better discussion of this than I could possibly write here.

The other memorable thought was being concerned about the longevity. A good watch normally lasts a long time and some of the integration aspects may no longer work as well a few iPhones down the line. Combine this with the fact that the initial yearly releases could be significant improvements, especially in terms of battery, the lifespan of the first may not be that long. Others mentioing this speculate that Apple might provide good trade-in value, especially for those involving expensive metals, or move towards an upgradeable core.

With the coming of iOS 8 and Yosemite brings a new feature titled iCloud Drive. iCloud Drive is Apple's 2nd attempt at iCloud data syncing for Apps. It also brings a more Dropbox like drive interface for file access and management. I currently do not use iCloud for documents. I mainly only use it for App settings and less important data.

Replacing iCloud Documents & Data, iCloud Drive is not backwards compatible with OS X Mavericks and iOS 7. Your existing App data can be migrated to iCloud Drive but with iCloud Drive enabled that data is only accessible to iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite devices. iOS 7 and Mavericks devices either no longer sync or continue with a parallel branch your data, very difficult to merge again later.

Since Yosemite is not finished and released (late 2014), you are given the option of whether you wish to turn it on yet. It is accompanied with warning in the post-iOS 8 installation wizard and in the iCloud section in the Settings App.

(I'm avoiding screenshots until released)

It's pretty clear, while still using iOS 7 or Mavericks and syncing App data don't upgrade to iCloud Drive yet.

During the beta testing, Apple and other users mentioned it and generally recommended using a different iCloud Account on iOS 8/Yosemite test devices. I did and turned on iCloud Drive. I have been managing separate iTunes Apple ID and iCloud ID since MobileMe. This was also used as an opportunity to finally start the changeover to one Apple ID to rule them all!

While most highlighted just the ‘iCloud Documents & Data’ part being affected, some loosely said ‘iCloud data’ and I found it unclear until recently whether other iCloud data (Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Safari, Notes, Passbook) would be affected by using an iCloud Account with iOS 8 or migrating to iCloud Drive.

So I tested it. After a lot of backups and migrating some data, I signed into one iCloud account (with iCloud Drive previously enabled) on Mavericks, iOS 7, Yosemite and iOS 8. Changes made to Contacts, Reminders, and Bookmarks worked in all directions.

Given these results, I upgraded my iPhone to iOS 8 without losing the mentioned data syncing with primary Mac (using Mavericks). Other third party iCloud App data and documents will obviously no longer be available to Mavericks but for my usage this is not a problem. I could always use the iCloud website for documents if required.

Many pundits and iPhone users have long made fun of ‘too large’ Android phones and phablets. I was one of them. My preference has always been for a thinner, more compact version of the current screen size. I was happy with the 3.5-inch retina display of the iPhone 4. The slightly taller 4-inch change was a minor improvement with a slight reduction in the ease of one handed use. The thinner lighter design more than made up for this. From iOS 7 fowards, the increased use of swipe to go back and other gestures have decreased the need to reach for that slightly more distant navigation bar.

I am possibly using my iPhone more than I used to but less and less as an actual phone. Putting the oversized phone to your ear becomes less of a problem when it is a computer first and phone second or lower. Yet my feelings right now are largely unchanged. I would not mind a phone that is slightly bigger but I do not really want one like other prospective smartphone buyers, some of whom are changing to Android just for the bigger screens.

However, I am not the key audience for the largest predicted iPhone. I also own and use an iPad, mostly for reading and portable video watching. To me these larger screen iPhones would be best for those choosing to have one iOS device rather than two. It is also seems like something for teens who use a smartphone for everything but homework.

Will I get one? Friends always seem to presume I'll be getting the new one every year but I am on a 2 year upgrade cycle like many others. Each time my urge for an upgrade has decreased, while the wow factor after has not. My iPhone 5 is a great phone and has been solid performer. I do not know if it's iOS 7 Background App Refresh, Bluetooth or usage habits but my battery life has gotten a lot worse recently. My other reasons for upgrading would be performance and Touch ID rather than screen. To be honest I have not decided yet but look forward to seeing what they announce.

With regards to how these fit with into a new model range, I like Ben Thompson's predictions on pricing and models:

• The 4.7″ iPhone will take the 5S’s place at the $650 price point ($199 subsidized). I suspect it will have the same processor, RAM, and camera as the big iPhone; Apple will market it as being completely the same except for the screen (I suspect John Gruber is right that the 5.5″ will have a 3x display, while the 4.7″ will have only 2x)

• The 5S will move down a notch into the current 5C slot and be sold for $550 ($99 subsidized)
• The 5C will be the low end with a price of $450 ($0 subsidized)
• The 4S will probably stick around in select markets like India and China for $350...

Size Classes and other iOS 8 features announced at WWDC make it possible to more easily support and optimise for variable screen sizes. My understanding right now though is that developers will have to drop support for iOS 7 and go iOS 8 only to get the best out of this. John Gruber's estimates on screen resolutions and DPI seem to make a lot of sense. From an App development point of view I'm not particularly looking foward to a possible @3x while also taking into account variable screen sizes. But we will have to see what really happens tomorrow...

Last year I attended after winning a Student Scholarship ticket. It was an amazing experience and I immediately understood why people want to go every year. This year I didn't really want to risk that route with less to show on the App Store. More importantly, I thought it was time I left those places to the younger student developers, especially those who couldn't have gone without one. So I entered the lottery, won the right to buy, and made the compulsory Golden Ticket joke on Twitter.

Apple was kind enough to schedule the conference the week after a wedding in USA I planned to attend, making the trip seem a little more cost effective. After some careful budgeting, with a huge urge to repeat last year, and knowing I would likely have even less chance next year I pushed the button.

I was too busy in the weeks leading up to it to write a prediction and wishlist post but I did make the usual last minute prediction tweet. With little already revealed that surely still counts.

iOS 8 incremental but lots of integration stuff, AirDrop finally. Yosemite different but not iOS 7 shocking, more energy stuff. #predictions

— Robert Cain (@RobertCain) June 2, 2014

Not particularly impressive but fairly accurate. The keynote itself was full of energy and enthusiasm, they clearly had a lot to get through. In the audience there was a general sense of satisfaction with what we saw before Part 3 ‘for the Developers’. Part 3 blew everyone away, just when you thought you were recovering and taking in the last surprise they hit you with another. I am pleased I did not queue really early as I would not have taken it all in that day. People have called it one of the best WWDC keynotes in recent years and I was there for the week.

Today was the keynote developers need Rather than the keynote tech press or end users want #WWDC14

— Robert Cain (@RobertCain) June 3, 2014

Last year was all about design and meeting people. This year with that much new stuff, and my batteries low from a great stag do and wedding, I was much more interested in the content. Often struggling to choose between 2-3 sessions.

Pre-WWDC there seemed to be a general consensus brewing about the App Store getting saturated and more difficult to make money and differentiate¹, extensions and integration could lead the next wave. WWDC provided new opportunities and a renewed excitement. ‘What are you most looking forward to trying?’ became the most popular thing to talk about with new people even though it was difficult to answer yourself. It was closely followed by ‘Have you tried Swift?’ and then the usual ‘So what do you do?’. I wanted to try many of the new things as soon as I got home and watch videos of the sessions I missed with a greater urgency than previous years.

As most of the links below say, it's a great time to be a developer
which made it even harder to go back to my PhD.

The core of this was written during and shortly after the conference. There were a lot of good posts shortly after about people's similar responses to WWDC. Confidence by Craig Hockenberry, Opportunities, not Obligations by David Smith, New Territory by Marco Arment, Together by Casey Liss, WWDC 2014 by Matt Drance, and Only Apple by John Gruber.

^1. There has since been even more discussion of the difficultly in making money from your own mobile Apps. Quite a bit motivated by Jared Sinclair's post on Unread's disappointing numbers. Developing Perpsective did a Round up and more.↩

At school I never enjoyed long form writing unless it was something I cared deeply about and often only on my terms. Yet I have chosen to do a PhD² and I must do an awful lot more writing to finish it. In all probability this writing will not be great on first attempt. I need to break tradition and give myself permission to initially do badly. To draft content and be told that a large portion of it is crap and must be improved. Permission to sometimes fail at the first attempt and learn from it.

Now Dr. friends and many related books and websites advise similar to get into the habit of producing at volume. Just write something, anything, it does not matter the quality that can be improved later if necessary. What's important initially is getting into the habit and letting it flow.

The same applies to my blog. From a mixture of the above problem and often cited ‘time constraints’ I have published hardly anything while experimenting with various platforms³. I have ocassionaly started notes on things I would like to write about, usually technology related but not always. If I can apply the same writing freedom here, regardless of any readership, I expect both will benefit. I am not going to promise some new frequency, only more than zero and that it may not be perfect.

I think this post is partly inspired by recent posts and writing progress of Matt Gemmell.

^1. I spent longer than I wish to admit writing this and could continue. I even looked up how others have used the phrase for the title while quite certain I still wanted to use it.↩

^2. A decision I often question. To friends, yes I'm still doing it due to three valuable job experiences during my time. ↩

^3. Wordpress (before it took over), Tumblr (mixed amongst funny images and videos), Scriptogr.am (clever but possibly abandoned), and Ghost, amongst others.
↩

I am no longer involved in these updates, other than providing critical feedback as a typical but picky experienced user.

We parted on good terms and I hope the transition goes well. I will explain more about this and discuss the student response as needed in a later post. I am also free to use my work with other Universities, which is something I hope to explore.

On iPad the Month View of Timetable had to be disabled as this view requires a complete redesign, but it should allow me to enable Landscape orientations on iPad in the next minor update.

Other 1.1 Release notes

• Timetable events now show all related rooms instead of one. Nobody actually reported this bug
• Open webpages in Safari or share via Email
• Other Bug Fixes

^1. Ideally both App releases and blog posts.↩

In time for the start of International (Student) Welcome week, the Newcastle University App for iPhone is now available on the App Store. More details about it can be found on my new Apps page.

We had some minor self inflicted problems getting it through App Store review, which may be worth writing about at a later date.

Update: This App is no longer available and has been replaced

Was this a surprise or a let down? No. There were leaks and rumours, and little real evidence supporting a major revamp. Apple has done this before with the iPhone 3G to 3GS (minor) to 4 (major). I wouldn't be surprised if the iPad follows the same pattern although I don't expect to see a major case redesign.

The iPhone 4 is a fantastic phone with the best screen I've used on a mobile device and camera that I'm happy to use as my only camera. The few complaints I have are mainly software related and a most of those are solved by iOS 5. From a phone hardware point of view I can think of these:

• The ‘you're holding it wrong’ Antenna problem. You can get less signal strength when holding it a specific way. We heard about it a lot when first released and then everyone seem to stop caring. When wrapped in a case it's not a problem so I had pretty much forgotten about it until I recently tried going without a case.

• Battery life: I'm a heavy user with lots accounts syncing and regular network traffic. Battery life is a problem for all smartphones. We all want more battery sapping features without any performance hit.

• Speed: some things can occasionally seem relatively slow and unresponsive. This is often a software problem and is sometimes more evident because so much of the iOS experience is fast and fluid. I've been told many Android phones are quite unresponsive all the time so I probably shouldn't complain.

• The glass back: When case-less the glass back is pretty but can be a little impractical. You become reluctant to put it down on potentially scratchy surfaces and mine seems to have gained a habit of sliding off the arms of the sofa.

iPhone 4S New Features

• Better Dual-core A5 chip that should fix the odd speed issue and more.
• New antenna design for better call quality and I expect less problems from holding it wrong.
• Improved Camera, SQUIRREL!

• iOS 5 and iCloud. You can get these on any iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS (update October 12th if you can). These look excellent but don't really count.

• Siri your digital personal assistant. For me this was the most impressive addition. Think somewhere between old phone voice recognition and Ironman's JARVIS.

  Just talk the way you talk. Siri understands what you say and knows what you mean.

  If they can hook in other apps this could eventually become a huge feature across all Apple products but only if you can get used to talking to someone that doesn't exist. I only want one to play with this.

iPhone 4S Drawbacks

Other missing features, according to questionable reviewers, include: no Larger display - no thank you, I'd like a smaller device but the same size screen, and no 4G data capability which may be a disappoint for the big US cities but in the UK we can expect 4G in 2013 at the earliest. A slightly less reported disadvantage is that the iPhone 4S has been reduced battery life compared to an iPhone 4 when you're not really using it, ~100 hours standby time.

Recommendations

Usually when talking to non-geek friends about buying iPhones, once you reach a certain month, geeks say wait for the next iPhone. Not necessarily to get the latest model but because other models often become cheaper. So my recommendations based around the now standard 2 year contract are:

iPhone 4S, get it if you can afford it or if you want an iPhone that will support the latest software updates for as long as possible. Also if you travel around the world a lot. Available October 14th

iPhone 4 is still an excellent choice. Especially if you can get a reduced price 16GB rather than the new 8GB.

iPhone 3GS is also surprisingly still available. Only good for 12 month contracts or if you really can't afford to get either of the other models. It's still an iPhone but is now a bit dated. Don't expect anything new in future software updates and expect to be envious of your friend's newer phone.

And finally, the funniest review I've seen has to be:

Biggest problem to me is the unchanged design. Seriously, what's the point of getting the new iPhone if nobody can notice that you have the new iphone? - Engadget commenter