someone who's doing some things
Stuff
I’ve been thinking about this ever since the 6s came out and 3D touch was announced. It is of course the 3D touch feature that I’m most interested in. Aside from that it is just another iPhone. But I’m torn. Should I wait for the 7, which will invariably have more features and I might want one of those, or should I dive in now and get a 6s and use the 3D touch?
I’m not sure. The cautious part of me says to wait, but I’m not sure it’s right this time.
Yep, they’ve arrived, and in good time for Christmas. I backed these on Kickstarter and I’m looking forward to playing with them over my Christmas break. There’ll be a video I’m sure!
These are really amazing little devices. Brilliant design, really interesting sounds, but not an intuitive interface. Fun, fun, fun, though.
This post over at PalmSounds is all about my favourite apps, or rather, favourite music apps anyway, that I’ve been using this year. There’s 24 in my list and it was pretty hard to keep it to 24 too.
Today is the turning point in the year. When we hit the shortest day and then the days start to get lighter. I like today for that reason and also as it is a little palindromic too. It’s 21.12 in the UK. I know it doesn’t work in the US. But I’m in the UK so it works for me.
I was really pleased to see even a small mention of SoundLab in NESTA’s predictions for 2016. I think it should be a big part of what happens next year, and I hope that it’ll be a big part of what I do next year anyway. Their top 10 is in effect a series of topic areas, audio or sound being one. Inside of that they’ve got a series of things they mention. In a way it isn’t strictly speaking a prediction, or at least not as I’d recognise anyway.
Even so, SoundLab is in there and I’m pleased to see it there, especially after the event we delivered for them last month.
If you’re interested in reading about their predictions, you can find them here.
As usual a little Christmas message (a tiny one actually) from David Sylvian on his web site. Nice.
It’s interesting to see how a bookmarking app can evolve over time. Now it seems to be becoming a social network in its own right. All the usual things are there, like following and followers, sharing and liking etc. As a matter of fact I don’t think it is a bad implementation at all. I like the way they’ve done it. Time will tell if it works out or not. So far, I think it’s ok. Good start.
One of the things I wanted to do in 2015 was a lot more automation and getting things to work by themselves. Largely that hasn’t happened. However, there are reasons, the main one being that for the most part I haven’t had the need for it. This opens up a bigger question about technology though. I was having a conversation with a friend of mine who was telling me about something cool he could do with his new phone. It was cool, but when I asked him if it was something that he’d actually use, he said no.
That started me thinking. How many times to we (I) think that a thing is cool and would be really useful only to find that actually, whilst it is a cool use of technology, it is in fact a use that we (I) have no real need for. So in actual fact, it isn’t so cool after all. I’m starting to find this a lot these days. Things I thought I’d use or assumed I’d use are actually just cool, or fun, or more often both, but fundamentally, not of any practical use after all.
It’s a shame, but I’m beginning to start questioning myself when I look at a new app, or gadget or whatever, and say, would I really use this? Would it just collect dust? Would it end up taking up time and effort to show me that I’m not going to find it very useful? This is starting to happen more and more. In many ways it is a good thing though. It means I will waste less time and effort, but it’s also a bit sad. Sometimes it’s nice to play with cool stuff just for the sake of it, and now, I find myself just asking, why?
I am Ashley Elsdon 