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No 3/2015(3) ISSN: 2080-4776
Ricoh Theta S Spherical Photography
Less is more a Photo Editing Apps
The QuickTake 100 Apple’s first digital camera
Vifa
Copenhagen Bluetooth WiFi Loudspeaker
Watching My Weight | A year with the iPad Air 2 | Hunting a whale
Editorial
Dear Steve,
Krystian,
A few weeks ago Dropbox announced the demise of a popular email client - Mailbox. It was a bitter end for an app that million of users had to line up for online to get it activated after its release a few years ago.
It’s like you were reading my mind! I think it is odd how many of the more popular and sought-after email apps for both iOS and OS X end up getting dropped by their developers after too short a time.
Mailbox for iOS and its beta for OS X had been my primary mail clients for over a year until I realized last spring that there were no updates that would push it forward. I loved the idea of treating each message that got arrived in the Inbox as a task to be done. I could tick it as done (read), I could postpone it for later (afternoon, evening of the same day, next morning, weekend or next week). The main goal of the app was to get “inbox zero” at the end of a day. Mailbox introduced widely-adopted gestures to delete a message or mark it as read. Thanks to Mailbox, similar gestures can now be found in the default iOS Mail app. Unfortunately, Mailbox didn’t prove to be profitable for Dropbox or just didn’t fit in with the other services Dropbox provides.
But perhaps what we’re seeing is a trend towards more immediate methods of communicating with each other. A lot of us use Messages or other text messaging apps to send short bits of information back and forth when we used to launch the Mail app for that. For business, apps like Slack make it extremely easy to carry on a virtual “conversation” between a group of people without the hassles and confusion of a long threaded set of emails. Files can be sent via drag and drop, it’s possible to send emoticons, sound files, or even respond with GIFs, something that takes a lot more effort with an email app.
Mailbox is not the first really good mail app that bit the dust. It’s worth mentioning Sparrow for iOS and OS X, a great app that was bought by Google and finally killed last spring. I know there are a few good mail clients for OS X and iOS still available, but I can’t get rid of impression that mail clients are doomed. Steve, what do you think about that? Krystian
If I were Dropbox or another developer of a mainstream email app, I think I’d be reading the writing on the wall and realizing that email is quickly being supplanted by other forms of communication. I think that’s exactly what happened with Mailbox and Sparrow, and why the other messaging and collaboration apps are showing so much growth. So, Krystian, we can bid a fond farewell to the apps we once loved so much, while fully embracing the new collaborative apps. I look forward to the day that I can think back on email as a quaint but ineffective way of communicating that was popular back in those “early days” of the Internet. Steve
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The Ricoh Theta S Spherical Photography
Less is more
a Photo Editing Apps
The QuickTake 100
Apple’s first digital camera
Watching My Weight with Apple Watch
Fitbit Surge
a fitness super smart watch
No 3/2015(3) ISSN: 2080-4776 MyApple Magazine Publisher: MyApple s.c. Kaliska 10 97-400 Bełchatów; Poland EU VAT: 769-221-98-23 tel: 0048 666 493 493 fax: 0048 42 299 6333 Contact Us: magazyn@myapple.pl
A year with the iPad Air 2 Review
Vifa Copenhagen
Bluetooth WiFi Loudspeaker
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons for iOS
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/MyAppleMag Editorial Team:
Hunting a whale:
a few words about micropayments
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Editor in Chief: Krystian Kozerawski Editors: Steve Sande, Dennis Sellers, David Caolo, Jacek Zięba, Grzegorz Świątek, Max Pijanowski, Kinga Zielińska, Michał Masłowski, Marek Gawryłowicz Jaromir Kopp, Daniel Światły, Rafał Pawłowski.
Layout and composition: Radek Szwarc / ideeconcept.pl iOS App: Michał Gapiński Cover: Light Curves - Creator
Content published in MyApple Magazine as well as the design, layout, look, appearance and graphics, is copyrighted by publisher, authors and third parties. All trademarks published in MyApple Magazine are under legal protection. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of these materials without express and written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited.
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My First Mac Networks Oldboy’s Files
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Mobile photography
Spherical Photography
and the Ricoh Theta S Steve Sande
When we look at a photograph, we’re looking at a window onto a scene. With an iPhone or iPad camera, we can extend the width of the window by taking a panoramic shot, but we’re still just looking a small portion of the total scene that surrounds us. That’s where spherical photography has such an attraction to me. Think of looking at a scene in the real world — you can look up, down, side to side, or even turn around and see what’s behind you. Through spherical or 360° photography, you can capture everything around you in highly detailed photographs or even video.
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Mobile photography
Taking spherical photographs is quite easy with an iPhone or iPad through a number of apps that have come out over the years. The first one I remember using was 360° Panorama from Occipital, and it’s been refined over the years. Since then, other apps have been released that do the same thing: Sphere, and Bubbli are two examples of apps that do this. But this virtual reality photography got a real shot in the arm when Google released an app a few years ago that not only took spherical photos, but also uploaded them to the proper location on a map for use in Google Maps and Google Earth. That free app is now Google Street View for iPhone, and it lets anyone add their own spherical photos to Google’s mapping products.
I usually start by going around in a circle, then moving upwards and repeating the circle, then all the way up to the zenith, then move below the horizon and around, then down to the area beneath my feet. The Google Street View app takes 33 different photos, and then fuses them together into one large spherical photo. That’s what really starting getting me hooked on spherical photography. I have just 25 images that are on Google Street View, but those images have well over 300,000 views! I guess people are attracted to the idea of being
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able to go to a place I’ve visited, whether it’s the Notre Dame Basilica of Montreal or Nuuk, Greenland, and see what I’ve seen. But taking the photographs with an iPhone is time-consuming and problematic. To take a photo with the Google Street View app, for example, you start by pressing the shutter button and then raise the iPhone until a circle that is superimposed on the image coincides with an orange dot that is at approximately the horizon line. You see the screen flash to tell you that the photo has been taken, and then you move the camera in any direction — up, down, left or right — until you see another dot and repeat the process. I usually start by going around in a circle, then moving upwards and repeating the circle, then all the way up to the zenith, then move below the horizon and around, then down to the area beneath my feet. The Google Street View app takes 33 different photos, and then fuses them together into one large spherical photo. That processing takes a little while, and then your spherical image is ready to post. Well, if you’re in a location where there are people — and where on this planet but the most remote wilderness are you not going to find people — you’ll find that you get some odd and rather funny images. For example, if you shoot a photo that has a person’s lower body in one frame and they happen to move out of the way of any future show, you’ll see a pair of legs standing alone in the image with no torso or head! In addition, the algorithms used by Google Street View aren’t perfect. Sometimes if your alignment isn’t just right or you move just a few inches away from the point where you’re taking a photo, you’ll find that there are areas of distortion on the image. So how do you take a seamless, fast, and almost perfect spherical photo?
Mobile photography
For my first shot with the new camera, I set it up on a small tripod, put it on a table, and then hid behind a column to take the image. With a click it took the photo: no seams, no sections that were out of focus or cut off, in other words — perfect. Ricoh Theta S The Ricoh Theta S is a brand-new spherical camera selling for $350 that is a second generation of a one-shot spherical camera for the masses. It’s a compact little unit that can not only take spherical images in a fraction of a second, but even shoot spherical video. Yes, if you want to start getting into making virtual reality movies, there’s probably no more inexpensive way of doing it than through buying one of these cameras.
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The camera comes with an accompanying iPhone app called Theta S that makes it as simple as tapping a shutter button to remotely take your image or set up the camera for doing time-lapse or long-exposure spherical images. For my first shot with the new camera, I set it up on a small tripod, put it on a table, and then hid behind a column to take the image. With a click it took the photo: no seams, no sections that were out of focus or cut off, in other words — perfect. There was a bit of graininess in the photo, but since it was done indoors with natural light and closed blinds over the windows, I can’t complain. One can also use the Theta S with the Google Street View app, which is what I plan on doing since I really want my photos to be able to appear on that venue. So, how does the Theta S perform this magic? It has two 180° F2.0 fisheye lenses, one on either side of the camera body. The lenses focus the images onto two 12 megapixel CMOS sensors, which then store the image in 8GB of onboard RAM. That RAM can hold up to 1600 still spherical images or up to 65 minutes of spherical video. Each video can only be 25 minutes maximum in length, however.
Mobile photography
In case you think the Theta S is a clunky and large device, you’re totally wrong. It weighs just 125 grams... The stored full-size images (there’s a “medium” setting as well) are 5376 X 2688 pixels, and can be downloaded to your iPhone camera library. They’ll show up as rectangular and really odd-looking images; you really need to look at them in an app to appreciate them and be able to pan around the sphere. To view the images, you can use the Theta S app or share the images to a Ricoh website or the Google Street View website. Spherical videos can be uploaded and viewed on YouTube. There are also Mac and Windows apps available, making it easy to go big screen with the photo spheres. One intriguing feature is that the Theta S can livestream spherical video: this opens the world to the possibility of some interesting live feeds of historic events where viewers can literally look around them in real time. Use this with VR glasses, and you can feel like you’re actually at that location.
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In case you think the Theta S is a clunky and large device, you’re totally wrong. It weighs just 125 grams (4.4 ounces) and takes up a volume of 44 X 130 X 22.9 mm (1.7 X 5.1 X 0.9 inches). That’s perfect for those situations where you’re taking most of your photos with a “regular” camera — say a DSLR or your iPhone’s camera — but you’d like to capture the world as a bubble as well. What am I going to use my Theta S for? I want to take as many spherical photos as possible and upload them to Google Maps so that people have can see the beauty that’s around them everywhere, and even give people a peek into local businesses. Now that I won’t get floating torsos appearing in the middle of my photos and phantom feet below, the photo spheres are going to be a lot more useful as well. Give spherical photography a try with one of the apps listed earlier in this article, and if you like it as much as I do, I hope to see your world — in the round — in the future.
Photos: Ricoh, Steve Sande
Mobile photography
Less is more Kinga Zielińska
As the whole tech world focuses on the features of the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus — their thickness, case colors, 3D Touch or (theoretically) better camera — I would like to show you three applications which allow you to edit images in a way as if they were taken with something far more powerful than a smartphone camera. These apps are some of my favorites that I use on a daily basis when playing with mobile photography.
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Mobile photography
At first I thought I shouldn’t go into all-in-one tools, because it seems that everything has already been written about them. Instead I chose three smallsized but great-spirited applications, each of which does only one thing — but does it perfectly.
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At first I thought I shouldn’t go into all-in-one tools like Snapseed, Camera +, Enlight or the equally popular VSCO, because it seems that everything has already been written about them. Instead I chose three small-sized but great-spirited applications, each of which does only one thing — but does it perfectly. I’m talking about AfterFocus, TouchRetouch and Color Blast. The first app provides the image depth of field effect that is well-known from SLR cameras, making it easy to emphasize the subject of the picture. The second allows you to get rid of unwanted picture elements, just like traditional Adobe Photoshop does. The third app can be used to creatively transform the colors of an image. Let’s take a close look at these three useful tools.
Mobile photography
AfterFocus
The main use of AfterFocus is to narrow a picture’s depth of field to a selected image’s subject. There are many other iOS and OS X applications offering a similar effect known as “lens blur” or “tilt-shift”. However, only AfterFocus allows the photographer to choose what is or isn’t the subject of the picture, or focus manually selected individual planes. We can also use the “double photo” mode, which automatically assigns focus to elements of the image based on two photos. Additionally, the application has some interesting built-in filters that blend well with this kind of effect. Let’s see how easy is to use it in practice.
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Mobile photography
1. Let’s open the image, select “Focus” and mark-up the photo subject (these two old cars) by drawing the white lines. The application immediately indicates which image areas have been recognized as the Basic Plane by filling them with red. They will be the parts in focus in the target picture.
ing BG” tab at the bottom of the screen, select Natural (linearly fading the background based on distance from the viewer) and set the “Blur” slider so that the final image looks as natural as possible. Now add the “Vintage” filter and we have a perfect photo style for the subject (cars from the 1950s).
2. Switch to the “Background” and draw the background (black) lines, which define the defocused (blurred) areas. Don’t worry if the areas from the previous step accidentally lose their red color. Just zoom the picture with two fingers (or enter the “Pan & Zoom” mode) and make precise strokes around the image to recover the previous selection. White lines outline areas that stay sharp, while areas defined by black lines become blurred. Continue this process until you get a satisfactory selection of areas.
The application has many other interesting settings and options and I strongly encourage you to explore and test them on your own photos.
3. Select “>” (upper right hand corner) and check the result of your work. If it’s OK, then it’s time for a little touch-up. In the “Fad-
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AfterFocus by MotionOne is available for: iOS Android
Mobile photography
TouchRetouch
Have you ever taken a cool photo with something in the field of view that doesn’t fit perfectly into the image? Sometimes these things are powerlines, wires, an ugly picture on the wall or an ex-girl/boyfriend standing next to us. I’ve never personally erased any loved ones from my photos, but I have removed strangers who were breaking the whole scene. Object removal is a common and basic function in popular desktop software, but it’s rather hard to find on mobile apps. That function gap has been filled quite well by TouchRetouch from Adva Soft. Let’s see how to remove a few unwanted objects such as an electric pole and power lines from a picture.
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Mobile photography
1. Select a brush to mark the object to be removed (wires). We can set its thickness, which is very useful for marking small details. If necessary, pan or zoom in or out of the image with two fingers, or turn on the hand mode (fourth icon from the left in the bottom menu). 2. After marking the power lines, touch the triangle-shaped “Start” button. Hocus-pocus and all the unwanted elements magically disappear. 3. Now for the electric pole. It might seem that this is the worst part to remove because you have to select each of its parts. In fact it’s not, because we can use the “Lasso” tool, border the entire pole and the app automatically imposes a matching background in this place. 4. What else could be removed here? Maybe the little cottage house to the right? Here we go! Now all we need to do is touch up the final effect in our favorite imaging applications and we’re done. (Photo: 6,7,8)
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TouchRetouch can also clone image fragments from one place to another — there is a Stamp tool for that purpose. Its options set the cloning mode, the overlaying process and apply geometric transformations. TouchRetouch is definitely an application you can change reality with. In the crowd of apps adding layers, elements and stickers to your photos, this app removes them, allowing you to keep the subject of the photo intact and get rid of distractions. The object removal function is also present in another app from the same developer — HandyPhoto — but if you do not need the bells and whistles of filters, textures and frames, you should reach for TouchRetouch. TouchRetouch is available for: iOS Android Windows Phone
Mobile photography
Color Blast
The last application I’d like to show you allows you to create the so-called “color splash” effect, which means that only a small part of an image stays in color while the rest is monochrome (usually black and white). Color Blast is another small application that does one thing, but does it well without unnecessary fancy extras. So, now it is time to practice.
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Mobile photography
1. Choose an image to edit. It is immediately noticeable that the whole selected picture becomes black and white. 2. Select the brush from the bottom menu and mark the area that you want to remain in color. 3. All the rules of how to zoom and move around presented in the previous applications are valid here as well. The colorization effect is immediate. You can tune it up according to your taste with the help of sliders from the top menu, then save it to your Photos library. Color Blast from East Coast Pixels is available for: iOS
The biggest challenge and indicator of success for any photographer is taking a picture which justifies its existence by itself, which tells its own story, making words superfluous. Sometimes this difficult task goes off well for each of us. However, there are some situations where it is worth helping a photo to be what it should be — to accentuate some of its features and advantages, highlight the elements that we want to draw the most attention to, and put all others into the shade. How timely, in the case of photography, is architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s credo of minimalism: “Less is more”. We can get support on the way to photographic perfection from the applications described above, apps that won’t lure our creative process towards technical tricks but allow us to focus on a simple and minimal communication, that we would all like to include in each of our photographs.
Photos: 1,2 - Marcin Kosmowski Kinga’s archive and Apps screenshots
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Oldboy’s Files
Apple’s first digital camera:
The QuickTake 100 Steve Sande
In the last issue of MyApple Magazine, you were treated to a comparison of the cameras built into the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6 and iPhone 5s by Kinga Zielińska, and if you read that article, you saw just how amazing those cameras are. Apple got started in the digital photography market in 1994 with the QuickTake 100, a pioneer in the digital photography space as it was the first successful consumer digital camera.
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Oldboy’s Files
My nephew was a graduate student at MIT, and found the camera in a pile of technotrash that was being thrown out. Fortunately, he had the presence of mind to grab the QuickTake and sent it to me. The QuickTake could take and store a whopping eight photos at a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels, or 32 photos at 320 x 240 resolution. Those pictures were 24-bit color, and the camera had a flash for low-light photography. However, it was fixed focus with a 50mm equivalent lens, and there was no onboard screen for checking your photos — you had to download them to a Mac to view them (eventually a Windows version of the camera connection kit was released as well). The pictures were stored in a proprietary QuickTake format as well as the PICT format familiar to those of us who used Macs back in the pre-OS X days. How much did this cam-
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era cost when it was first released? $749, which is the rough equivalent of $1,200 in 2015 dollars. Needless to say, the QuickTake 100 didn’t exactly fly off the shelves at Apple dealers of the day. A few succeeding models — the QuickTake 150 and QuickTake 200 — were released, both with the same resolution and fixed focus lens, but the 200 could store more photos on a removable 2 or 4 MB SmartMedia card. The QuickTake cameras were among the products axed by Steve Jobs upon his return to Apple in 1997. Now you’re probably wondering why I’m writing about this little piece of Apple history. Well, I happen to have a QuickTake 100 as part of my little “Museum of Obsolete Technology”. My nephew was a graduate student at MIT, and found the camera in a pile of techno-trash that was being thrown out. Fortunately, he had the presence of mind to grab the QuickTake and sent it to me. It still takes pictures — I can pop three AA batteries into it and take my eight photos — but I have no way of getting the photos out of the camera!
Archiwum
You see, the QuickTake 100 camera communicated with old Macs through a serial port — an RS-232C connection to be exact. While there are USB to Serial conversion cables available (and I have one… don’t ask why), there’s no software available for modern Macs to read the files on the QuickTake 100. Basically, if you want to get the photos out of the camera, you need to have an old Mac running Mac OS that also has a serial port and the ability to be networked to modern-day Macs. Now while that’s possible, I’m not sure I want an old Mac sitting around cluttering up my already messy office. In addition, the driver software that was available in 2009 online is no longer out there. What I was able to find was the QuickTake 150 software for Windows (which would work), but I’d need to create a Windows 95 virtual machine. Sigh.
The QuickTake isn’t what we’d think of as a portable digital camera as it weighed 15.8 ounces (447.8 grams) without batteries. When it was released, no professional photographers thought it or any other digital camera was every going to replace all of the 35mm, medium format and large format cameras that were being used; now it’s hard to find a photographer who still shoots film, and it’s even difficult to find film or places that can process it. At this time, my QuickTake 100 camera is just a museum piece. Fortunately, there are some people who were able to take photos with the QuickTake 100 and use the still-available GraphicConverter app to convert the QTK files to more modern formats. Some of those photos are included in this article, courtesy of citynoise.org and photographer Franny Wentzel. Photos: 1,3 Jonathan Zufi - iconicbook.com 2 - Steve Sande
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Health
Watching My Weight with Apple Watch
Krystian Kozerawski
A few months ago one of my friends published a photo of us on Facebook that was taken over 20 years ago. In that photo I am a completely different person, and I don’t mean the time that passed that left wrinkles on my face. I am talking about my size.
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Health
... at the beginning I was cheating myself with wishful thinking, as if the Apple Watch itself, like a device from a science fiction movie, would put an army of nano robots into my body. They would burn all the fat, cut my stomach size… Over 30 kg (66 lbs) overweight — that’s the effect of a sedentary lifestyle behind my desk and computer. Unfortunately, for a long time my XXL size wasn’t enough motivation to work out on regular basis or just to be more active. My friends were witnessing kind of a flash
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in the pan on those occasions when I started to train intensively for a week or two. I am of the opinion that I didn’t have a proper tool to remind me about activity goals I set. Well, I was using RunKeeper and the Steps+ app on my iPhone. I was even checking the Health app to see how many floors I climbed each day (living on the fourth floor of a building without an elevator kept me in relatively good physical condition over the years). Unfortunately, all the information that could inspire me to be more active or keep going with my goals was hidden inside those apps. The only exception was the Misfit app on my Pebble Watch that presented progress towards a daily step goal on its own watch face. When I put an Apple Watch on my wrist for the very first time I already knew about its fitness features: the heart rate sensor,
Health
burned calories count, and distance recording. I optimistically assumed that it would help me keep my activity on a relatively high level. However at the beginning I was cheating myself with wishful thinking, as if the Apple Watch itself, like a device from a science fiction movie, would put an army of nano robots into my body. They would burn all the fat, cut my stomach size and “automagically” make me an in-shape and healthy person, and I’d wake up the next morning completely new. Unfortunately, or even luckily, that was not going to happen. I had to understand that the pleasure of achieving a goal is as big as the painful road that leads to it.
It turned out that the Apple Watch helped me in a much simpler way. It helped me to be motivated by keeping me updated about my progress to achieving my goal. It turned out that the Apple Watch helped me in a much simpler way. It helped me to be motivated by keeping me updated — without any hassle — about my progress to achieving my goal, my daily level of actively burned calories, the duration of workouts and number of times I stood up during a day. It even reminds me to stand up and stretch my legs once an hour. Those notifications and standing up motivateds me to do something else, like some simple exercises during a short break. What motivates me the most are the progress rings. The smallest represents standing up and moving a bit, set by default to a few minutes every hour for 12 hours of day.
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The middle ring represents the daily duration of workouts, set by default to 30 minutes. The biggest ring shows the progress in achieving a goal to actively burn calories. I set it to 1500 calories per day. Checking the time and my app notifications — and being an internet creature I do that frequently — I stare at those rings on the face of the Apple Watch, and I try to close those rings on daily basis. Maybe it is stupid, but this motivates me to go to the forest for a 6 mile walk or run for 30 minutes. There are days that I am not able to close those rings, but they are few and far between. I don’t mean that the Apple Watch is a magical device that will turn an overweight person like me into David Hasselhoff of “Baywatch”. It reminds me about my goals, and the pleasure at the end of the day after achieving my goals and all the sweat and pain, is only mine. Artwork: Radek Szwarc Photos: Krystian Kozerawski
Product testing
Fitbit Surge Krystian Kozerawski
Smart watches and fitness smart bands have seriously changed my life. These devices let us record all of our activity and exercises, and continuously measure basic life functions like heart rate. They are also helpful in setting and hopefully keeping fitness goals. There are, of course, people who don’t need electronic gadgets to motivate themselves to be active and healthy. However, these little devices can help people to keep their promises to go for a walk every day, to burn a certain amount of calories and to avoid unhealthy habits like eating pizza too often, then why not wear them? One of such devices introduced earlier this year is a fitness super smart watch — Fitbit Surge.
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Product testing
Fitbit Surge was introduced almost a year ago in January, 2015 at CES. I had a chance to try it out for a few months, and of course I was comparing it with the Apple Watch. Sometimes other runners would smile when they noticed that I had two watches on my wrists -- the Apple Watch on the left and the Fitbit Surge on the right wrist).
The Surge definitely catches one’s eye, either for good or bad. It’s worth mentioning that this device is available in three sizes: small, large and extra large. The size is listed on the front of the package. The large model looks quite good on my wrist, however I am as bulky as the device itself. The design of the Fitbit Surge is typical of other Fitbit products. It features a elastomer band available in three colors (black, blue and tangerine) that almost seamlessly turns into a thick and rather bulky device with an original, but far from subtle design. The watch is thicker towards the outer side of the wrist, which causes its screen to be tilted at a slight angle. That feature makes the Fitbit Surge easier to look at. You do not need to turn your wrist as much to see the screen clearly as you would with the Apple Watch or other smart or classic watches. The Surge definitely catches one’s eye, either for good or bad. It’s worth mentioning that this device is available in three sizes: small, large and extra large. The size is listed on the front of the package. The large model
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looks quite good on my wrist, however I am as bulky as the device itself. The main and most visible part of this smart watch is its display, which is a rather small 1.26 inch (32mm) LCD greyscale touch screen. It’s smaller than the front panel of the watch, so there is a black bezel around it. Both the screen and bezel resemble that of the Pebble Steel. Of course the screen is LCD, not e-ink, with greater resolution and it is touch-sensitive. Using simple one finger swipe gestures, it’s easy to navigate through menus and views - the current time, steps taken, distance walked, floors climbed and calories burned to name a few. The screen is always on and there is a backlight that is activated with a tap on the screen. Unfortunately, the screen is too dark for me even when it is backlit. Sometimes I really had to stare at it to read the information on the screen. The watch controls aren’t limited to the touch screen; there are also three buttons, one on the left and two on the right side. Fitbit Surge has a waterproof rating of 5 ATM, which means it can easily be submerged to 10 meters (32 feet). However, according to Fitbit it can only resist sweat, rain or a splash of water and should not be used while swimming or taking a bath or shower. That reminds me of the Apple Watch, which Apple says cannot be taken underwater (my own Apple Watch survived a simple swimming pool test).
Product testing
... there is a heart rate sensor that uses photopletysmography - a non-invasive method that illuminates the skin with green light and measures changes in light absorption. It is more or less the same method used as in the Apple Watch. On the bottom side of the watch case (the side that touches the wrist) there is a heart rate sensor that uses photopletysmography - a non-invasive method that illuminates the skin with green light and measures changes in light absorption. It is more or less the same method used as in the Apple
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Watch. The Fitbit Surge can continuously monitor the user’s heart rate, which is measured every five seconds during regular activity, and every second during an exercise. The results are usually the same as those provided by the Apple Watch. Next to the heart rate sensor is a charging cable port. Fitibit uses its own standard, so you definitely want to keep an eye on the charging cable. That’s a bit annoying, but Fitbit isn’t an exception. Almost all the smart bands and watches I had a chance to try use different charging plugs (Pebble watches, Apple Watch and a few other devices). The Fitbit Surge should work from 5 to 7 days on a single charge. In my own testing it worked from 4 to 7 days, roughly the same as promised in the technical specifications. Battery life depends a lot on use of the builtin GPS. The more frequently it is used, the faster the battery is depleted. The great thing is that the built-in GPS tracks a work-
Product testing
out without having to also carry a smartphone. All gathered data, including the recorded path, is synced with a smartphone or to the Fitbit web service via a computer. The other built-in sensors are a three-axis accelerometer, a three-axis gyro, a compass and an altimeter. Fitbit Surge tracks distance, steps, floors, burned calories, heart rate, activity time and quality of sleep. There is no need to activate the latter measurement, as the device detects when you fall asleep. Many different kinds of activities can be recorded including hikes, runs, bike rides and more.
The Fitbit Surge shows simple notifications for incoming calls and text messages, both SMS and iMessage, but there are no notifications for other apps like Twitter, Facebook, etc. because there is no way to install any third-party app on this device. All data gathered can be easily viewed in the iOS app or via the Fitbit web service. The user has to set up a personal account in order to use both the app and the website. The iOS app works with all Fitbit devices, displaying stats for daily, weekly and monthly activity and workouts. There is even a graph that is updated every time the Surge syncs with the app, displaying changes in heart rate over time. Since Fitbit Surge is not only a fitness band but also a smart watch worth to mention
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of its other features. It provides a simple clock functionality with four very simple watchfaces. I would like to see something more complex, with weather forecast and daily activity progress bar or circle (like on Apple Watch). There is also a vibration alarm. Unfortunately both watch face and alarm can be set up only in the app on iPhone. As a long time Pebble watch user who migrated to Apple Watch last spring, I can not understand it. It is just strange. The Fitbit Surge shows simple notifications for incoming calls and text messages, both SMS and iMessage, but there are no notifications for other apps like Twitter, Facebook, etc. because there is no way to install any third-party app on this device. Surge does have a very simple music controller that works fine with Spotify, but doesn’t work with Apple Music. It shows the title of a song and the artist or band of a song currently being played. The buttons on the right side of the watch work as pause/play and skip forward controls. The Fitbit Surge merges fitness band functionality with a very basic smart watch. Because of that, it is definitely a better option for people who are mainly focusing on activity and workouts and who don’t need a more sophisticated smart watch or just don’t want to wear both a traditional watch and a smart band at the same time. Measuring activities is the primary function of this device and thanks to a bunch of sensors and GPS it can work independently of a smartphone. Basic smart watch functionality is only an addition to this device. You can get a Fitbit Surge at Fitbit.com for $249.95.
Photos: Fitbit press kit
Product testing
A year with the iPad Air 2 Daniel Światły
Last year I lost my mind and decided to start PhD studies. We — the geeks — wouldn’t be ourselves if we don’t use such life decisions as a great excuse for buying new stuff. A geek and Apple fan? Even better! There are never enough toys with the Apple logo, right? Since they are rather expensive, having a good excuse is the key to going to bed with a clear conscience. Well, a PhD is not going to be easy and a thesis won’t write itself. The mind must be satisfied, the body relaxed and good stuff at hand for the great ideas that can come to mind at any time. My MacBook Pro is cool, but it’s a bit too heavy — I am not going to take it with me everywhere. I will have to go to other cities, walk through different universities and their departments. So, a MacBook Air or iPad Air? I sat down and started to think.
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Product testing
I had the first-generation iPad and I used to use it for writing. It was OK, but even during its heyday I wouldn’t say with a clear conscience that it was able to replace a laptop computer. But the last version of iOS for that model was 5.1, while the iPad Air 2 was running iOS 8. There were probably a lot of changes between those two versions of iOS, but were they enough to blur the differences between tablet and computer? I was sure they were not, but the way I was thinking about the differences was wrong.
So, what made me look at the new iPad more critically? It wasn’t a simple judgement. Nowadays I use and carry my computer more often, while the iPad can spend a week on a windowsill with being used. The answer is so simple. Well… I started to write more… I assumed that the iPad Air would be enough to work in every place: its size, low weight and access to the mobile internet are all advantages over the MacBook Air that I was also considering the purchase of. Finally, I decided on the iPad and purchased it. Sure, at the beginning I was amazed and happy with my new iPad. For taking notes, reading PDF documents, and working with emails it was perfect. In addition, its weight was almost imperceptible and it worked long enough on a single charge that I could leave its charger at home. At almost at the same time I bought an iPhone
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on which I was using Facebook and Twitter, listening to music, reading newspapers and quickly answering emails. The iPad was for more important tasks. So, what made me look at the new iPad more critically? It wasn’t a simple judgement. Nowadays I use and carry my computer more often, while the iPad can spend a week on a windowsill with being used. The answer is so simple that I wonder why I didn’t think about it while I was analyzing all the pros and cons before purchasing the iPad Air 2. Well... I started to write more and I don’t mean writing articles for MyApple Magazine or a book; in fact I wrote part of one on an iPad. I mean academic writing. Tedious research of a myriad of sources, drawing together fragments of text, comparison of versions and subsequent editions of independent parts of the text as well as access to descriptions, definitions, footnotes and links, and simultaneously preparing versions in two languages. Such heavy writing tasks expose all of the cons of using an iPad. All the new features added in iOS 9 — like split screen — don’t help much. I am not saying that I cannot have two documents open at the same time on the iPad. I can, but I’m unable to place them on the screen in a way that gives me access to the different parts of my research documents to join them together in my mind before I write them down. I like dictionaries, I weigh words, I think about their meaning. When I am working on my laptop, the system dictionary is almost always open, with a special extension that adds the Polish language. Even if I only need it once or twice in a few hours, having it at hand is one of the basics of real work. Among the iPad features and available apps it is hard to find anything that assures the same quality of work organization and sense of security.
Product testing
One could say that such things were obvious from the beginning, and that the iPad is only good for taking notes, reading documents, and doing simple web browsing. Sure. I didn’t expect anything else. Having had the previous generation of iPads I had watched the development of apps since from the early days and I am well aware of what the iPad is and what it is not. However, I have realized that I was thinking about this purchase decision and working with the iPad in a somewhat backwards manner. It’s not about the work itself — what I can do on iPad and what can’t I do. It’s all about the organization of your work. Do you want an example? Here it is.
I’d venture to guess that there were a lot of meetings at Apple headquarters filled with analyses of user behaviors and work methods… With the introduction of the iPad Pro, it could be all about Apple narrowing the target group of users to whom an iPad *could* be a integral part of a work setup. We can’t think about the iPad as a digital notepad replacement for a paper notebook like a Moleskine, something small that can be carried everywhere in a pocket. The iPad can be used to write down thoughts and ideas in some circumstances. It can be at hand
as a repository of quickly written tidbits of information, but it is not an independent tool. It supports the other elements of a greater whole, a system more efficient and comfortable to use. From that perspective, the term “digital notepad” better suits an iPhone. It may be an iPhone that is pulled out more often to quickly take notes about something, to answer emails or send messages. It is hard to write lecture notes on an iPhone or sketch something, but to compile all such things we could use an iPad... or maybe it is better to just use a computer. While optimizing our own model of work to make it more efficient we are starting to get rid of redundant elements, those that are less comfortable and that didn’t meet our expectations. Truthfully, which device can be removed and replaced with a better and more universal one? Yes, I am thinking about the iPad. Never mind the adapters required and the somewhat compromised applications for preparing good multimedia presentations — those just add to my argument. If we look at efficiency, quality and speed, the iPad loses its independent role. Mind that I am writing about working with the iPad, not about reading in bed or traveling. I’d venture to guess that there were a lot of meetings at Apple headquarters about the future of the iPad product line, filled with analyses of user behaviors and work methods, and probably because of that they decided to introduce the iPad Pro with a bigger screen and a pencil, emphasizing its graphical capabilities. With the introduction of the iPad Pro, it could be all about Apple narrowing the target group of users to whom an iPad could be a integral part of a work setup. Opposite to the previous philosophy of making the iPad a device for everybody, Apple may be making it the device for nobody. Photo: Apple
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Music
Vifa Copenhagen - Bluetooth WiFi Loudspeaker
Krystian Kozerawski
Scandinavia is a region that stands out from the rest of Europe with its specific style and products. It’s not just the well known car and furniture brands, but also sound devices (like great bass amps) that are appreciated by both audiences and musicians. One of the brands that has guaranteed the highest quality of sound for decades is Vifa.
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Music
The sound is natural and uncompressed and the individual instrument lines are not crammed together like sardines in a tin. The Copenhagen Vifa is perfectly suited to all kinds of music. I listened to smooth jazz, film soundtracks, electronic, rock and metal (mostly Scandinavian death metal). Since the 1930s, it has been producing components and speakers for high-end entertainment system, and recently Vifa has been producing its own devices of a new kind -
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wireless speakers. One of the most interesting designs I have had the pleasure (with a clear emphasis on the word) to test is the Vifa Copenhagen speaker.
Something for the ears Let me start with the most important factor, that being the sound quality. I must admit that I am rather skeptical about wireless speakers that are housed in just one box. Such devices will never replace well-positioned loudspeakers providing adequate sound. Wireless speakers that play only from one point create some limitations in perception. That being said, the quality of sound that came from the Vifa Copenhagen loudspeaker resulted in immediate jaw-dropping on my part. The speaker plays a full-band sound, with very clear middle frequencies, not too intrusive — but clear — bass, and high notes that are pleasant to the ear. The sound is natural and uncompressed and the individual instrument lines are not crammed together like
Music
sardines in a tin. When I turned it on the Copenhagen Vifa for the very first time, I reveled in the beauty of the sound for a few hours. The Copenhagen Vifa is perfectly suited to all kinds of music. I listened to smooth jazz, film soundtracks, electronic, rock and metal (mostly Scandinavian death metal). Listening to music coming from that speaker is pure pleasure.
thanks to an iPhone application one can alter the characteristics of sound emitted by the loudspeaker. There are all sorts of settings, like a night mode for listening to music at a very low volume level; bright, with a high frequency boost; party mode or high-pass filter. 32
Additionally, thanks to an iPhone application one can alter the characteristics of sound emitted by the loudspeaker. There are all sorts of settings, like a night mode for listening to music at a very low volume level; bright, with a high frequency boost; party mode or high-pass filter. The characteristics of the sound can also be adapted to the place in which the speaker was set (eg; the desk at which I work). Personally, however, the default settings suited me best. The sound is good enough that there is no need to tinker with it. Of course premium, quality sound doesn’t come out of nowhere. The device has very good components made by Vifa — two 28mm tweeters, two 50mm midrange drivers, and four 80mm woofers powered by four passive radiators. With all of those speakers, the device weighs 10.25 pounds and although it is a wireless speaker equipped with a handle, it is rather hard to call it a mobile device.
Music
It embodies not only Scandinavian coolness, but the warmth of a woolen hat and scarf. The device is in fact coated with a woolen blanket woven by the leading Danish textile manufacturer Kvadrat. The whole device is enclosed with an aluminum frame that creates a large handle for easy moving. Something for the eyes Scandinavia produces not only great sound, but also incredible design and that is where the Vifa Copenhagen shines as a masterpiece. It embodies not only Scandinavian
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coolness, but the warmth of a woolen hat and scarf. The device is in fact coated with a woolen blanket woven by the leading Danish textile manufacturer Kvadrat. The whole device is enclosed with an aluminum frame that creates a large handle for easy moving (though as mentioned, it is not a mobile device). On the front are just two volume control buttons and a LED device state indicator, all hidden under a blanket. I can not help but associate it with the design aestethics of Dieter Rams.
On the battery or on a leash As befits a wireless speaker, the Vifa Copenhagen has a built-in battery. Its capacity, however, is only sufficient for about five hours of operation. Given the weight, design and price, I wouldn’t treat this speaker as a boombox that I could take on a picnic or a walk. For me, it’s definitely a desktop loudspeaker that’s perfect not only for a desk, but for the living room as well. I would therefore plug it
Music
permanently into an electrical outlet and not be worried about the battery level. The device can be connected via Bluetooth (aptX), Wi-Fi Direct (Vifa Copenhagen creates its own network) or connected to a local Wi-Fi network and used via AirPlay. It can be also connected to a sound source by a cable plugged into a mini-jack socket found on the back side of the device. There’s also a USB port for digital audio streaming.
— to set up a regular stereo with separate loudspeakers, subwoofer and amplifier. The device’s minimalistic design pleases the eye, and at the same time provides the pleasure of listening to really good quality sound. For both, however, you have to pay a premium price. Copenhagen Vifa costs roughly $800 (you can find it on Amazon), but this price tag should not come as a surprise. For this price, you’ll receive the best sound quality, materials, components and a decidedly unconventional design.
Summing it up Vifa Copenhagen is a product that certainly will be appreciated by people who value good sound and style, but who cannot afford — probably not due to financial constraints
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Photos: Vifa, Krystian Kozerawski
Games
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons for iOS
Krystian Kozerawski
iPhone and iPad users usually can enjoy new games before those who use Android devices. However, there are games that become available for iOS and Android months or even years after their release on PC or game consoles. Luckily, many of them get old very slowly like “Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons”, which was released in the App Store last month, over two years after its release for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Windows.
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Games
In many aspects, Brothers is a very original game. It is a tale in which one leads the title characters - two brothers - through a dangerous world. After the brothers lost their mother through drowning, they face losing their father, who can be saved only by the water from a Tree of Life that grows — as it often turns out in fairy tales - over the hills and far away. The brothers - younger Naiee and older Naia - set off on a dangerous journey through towns, villages, mountains and caves in which the stake is not only the life of their father, but their own lives. On their way they meet other people and creatures, and have to cooperate with them, fight them, or avoid them. While traveling through the mountains they are helped by a mountain giant (who looks more or less like a troll) whose giant wife was kidnapped and jailed deep in the stone labyrinth of a town hidden under the mountains. For those fa-
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miliar with Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings, the town resembles “Moria” — the kingdom of the dwarves. In my opinion, the associations with the world created by Tolkien are not coincidental. The two brothers set off on a journey very similar to that of Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee. The surrounding land is also very Middle Earth-like: small towns and villages with wooden architecture, castles, mountains, valleys and rushing rivers. I mentioned that the brothers have to fight, but in this game there is not much true fighting. There are some interactions that can be regarded as fighting, like scaring wolves away with a burning torch. The success of the two brothers’ mission depends mostly on cooperation, especially on the cooperation of the brothers. Each of the brothers has special abilities that the other lacks. Those abilities are not only useful but crucial. The younger, smaller
Games
brother can squeeze through bars on gates, and thanks to that ability he can reach switches that open the path for the older brother. Naia is larger and much stronger, so he can move much bigger levers that are beyond the capability of his younger brother. He can also swim, while the younger brother Naiee is afraid of water as he witnessed their mother’s drownIng. Sometimes both brothers have to toil away turning cranks to move some machinery to get access further down the path. Sometimes the older brother helps the younger to reach a ladder, and in some cases the life of the younger brother is literally hanging in the balance in the hands of the older. A very original touch is the independent control of each brother using two screen pads, typical of those used in games based on the Unity engine. You can place them on the screen in a location that is best suited for your
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thumbs. This way of controlling the brothers requires some training as it is easy to control one character with a thumb, but controlling two brothers with two thumbs is much more difficult. There are no other buttons on the screen. Both pads also work as interaction triggers, letting each brother pick up or throw objects, or talk to independent characters. Both the brothers and the other characters use their own language. It is hard to say if it is as complex as the languages created by J.R.R. Tolkien. The language used in this game is based mostly on the Lebanese dialect of Arabic. That’s not a surprise - the director of this game is Josef Fares, who is originally from Lebanon. During the entire game the player listens to dialogues that aren’t translated in any way. There is no problem with that and there is no need to have
Games
different language versions of the game — it is easy to understand what’s going on thanks to the body language of the characters and the context of each conversation. Unfortunately, there aren’t many dialogues in the game, nor additional tasks or deeper interaction with the independent characters the brothers meet. Sometimes I got the impression that the world that the brothers travel through is both beautiful and empty at the same time, as in the playable demo of Unreal Engine — “Epic Citadel” — that was released five years ago. The rare additional tasks in the game can make one shed a tear, as when the brothers release the mountain giant’s wife or when they
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rescue a man, preventing him from hanging himself after his entire family died in a fire. Associations with “Epic Citadel” come from the beautiful 3D graphics generated by the Unreal engine. Everything looks gorgeous, from town houses and castles to the trees, mountains and rivers. Apart from the interesting plot, the graphics alone make this game worth buying and exploring. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons for iOS is available in the App Store for $4.99
Photos: App screenshots
Apps
Hunting a whale:
a few words about micropayments Marek Gawryłowicz
Almost exactly one year ago I had a chance to test and review an iOS game based on a series of popular shooters for gaming consoles and signed with the logo of a popular publisher. It was freemium - available for free, but providing a lot of opportunities for spending money during the game. The primary monetization mechanism was a special currency, available through in-app purchases, that let the user advance through the game much faster. As a reviewer invited for testing, I was given a lot of virtual means from the game publisher, roughly equal to about $200. It was enough to discover the game’s potential without spending my own funds or having to advance slowly through an arduous “grind”.
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Apps
Since I had never before had a chance to spend such a large amount of money on micro payments, I was as happy as a child when I started testing that game. I was imagining how flippantly I could buy all improvements, avoid time counters and gain an absolute advantage over other players in the multiplayer mode. The reality turned out completely different.
A recent survey by Fiksu concerning publisher spending on advertising shows that they’ll spend about $1.70 to attract an iOS user and about $2.40 for Android users to convince them to download a game. To keep a gamer for a longer time will cost the developer or publisher about $4. It not only shows that people who play freemium games without using in-app purchases are not filling developers’ wallets with money, but actually forcing them to spend money. The virtual currency I had to spend (more than the worth of my cell phone) was only enough for three evenings of middle intensity play. It was enough to get familiar with the main gameplay mechanism, but I could only dream about getting a good position in
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a global player ranking. As far as crushing other players in a multiplayer mode was concerned, it turned out that most of my opponents were able to spend much more money than I did. That made me realized that games of this type are simply not for me. Not only can I not afford to spend a lot of money in them, but they don’t play with me, making me willing to spend my own money. I am not alone in thinking this way. Aversion to in-app purchases is a common thing among players, who even more actively manifest their dissatisfaction on the internet. Unfortunately the computer game market is not a democracy and the voice of the majority has no influence on the developers. The majority is just small fry, so why be bothered catching them if there is a whale to be hunted. The most common mistake of adversaries of freemium games is the belief that inapp purchases are made with them in mind, and to be more accurate — with their wallets in mind, which they feel are tasty morsels for game developers. The truth is that developers are fully aware that the majority of players are not going to spend money in their games, and the anti-freemium crowd doesn’t expect that. A recent survey by Fiksu concerning publisher spending on advertising shows that they’ll spend about $1.70 to attract an iOS user and about $2.40 for Android users to convince them to download a game. To keep a gamer for a longer time will cost the developer or publisher about $4. It not only shows that people who play freemium games without using in-app purchases are not filling developers’ wallets with money, but actually forcing them to spend money. From the developers’ perspective, investing money in the gamers who aren’t willing to pay through in-app purchases is a necessity. Only a large number of such users can assure a high place in the rankings of popular app stores, as well as popularity on gamers’
Apps
forums and social networking sites. All this increases the chances of attracting to the game this much rarer, but more valuable kind of customer (from the developer point of view) — those who have no qualms about spending money on virtual goods.
Johny Rotten, leader of the legendary Sex Pistols, admitted in an interview with The Telegraph that in just two years he spent 10,000 British Pounds on his three favorite games: Game of Thrones Ascent, Game of War and Real Racing. His expenses are nothing compared to those of the people at the top of the Clash of Clans ranking, who are able to spend as much as $7,000 a month for upkeep of their virtual armies.
In most feemium games, almost all of the revenue of a single title is generated by a relatively small group of the most avid users. The last survey of Swvre shows that only 2.3% of people who play games with in-app purchases actually spend money. Most of them are confined to small, one-time charges, rarely exceeding the amount of US$5, but there are some people regularly spend large sums of money on micropayments. Despite being
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only 10% of all gamers who are willing to pay (that is, just 0.23% of all users), they invest a large amount of money in their favorite games so they represent 2/3 of all income generated by freemium games. These players are called by “whales” by game developers. The term is borrowed from American casinos, where it was used in the past to determine the regulars who would leave the most money at the box office. Since the number of whales is quite low, and the competition is getting tougher every year, freemium game developers are struggling more for such customers. Last September a company called “Whally” was set up. It specializes in analysis of “whale” behavior, and thanks to the company’s research, developers know exactly what type of games attract the highest number of paying players, and what they spend the most money on. Such knowledge lets developers continuously improve game mechanics towards the goal of persuading players to use micropayments. A few years ago this term was mostly associated by most gamers with buying clothing for their avatars or exchanging real money for virtual gold. Today, no one is surprised by clocks counting the time left until the end of a task that could be sped up with an expenditure of real money or energy counters that decide how many times a day one can play a game without paying. Continuous market research, modifying games to fit current trends and getting new gamers who will pay along with keeping existing customers is a difficult task for developers that requires a lot of work and money. But it is worth the effort, for hunted whales are willing to invest a large amount of money in their favorite titles; amounts that for an ordinary player would be ridiculous - from several hundred to a few thousand dollars a month. In most cases, amounts like this are not a serious expense for the whales, for they are just a small part of their monthly income. Good examples of whales are celebrities who often publicly admit to spending
Apps
a large sum of money on mobile games. Johny Rotten, leader of the legendary Sex Pistols, admitted in an interview with The Telegraph that in just two years he spent 10,000 British Pounds on his three favorite games: Game of Thrones Ascent, Game of War and Real Racing. His expenses are nothing compared to those of the people at the top of the Clash of Clans ranking (for the last three years this game has been in the top 10 most profitable games for mobile devices), who are able to spend as much as $7,000 a month for upkeep of their virtual armies. Unfortunately among the whales there are an increasing number of people who spend too much money on micropayments, even if they know they can not afford it.
In recent years, these type of freemium games repeatedly met with sharp criticism from society, not to mention a class action lawsuit by customers against the App Store concerning unfair micropayments targeting children, or similar charges brought recently against Amazon by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. In many countries, freemium games began to catch the interest of consumer protection agencies. 43
Dr. Mark Griffiths - a psychologist specializing in behavioral addictions - has been surveying internet games for years. He is of the opinion that many freemium games can be addictive in the same way as typical gambling games. He notes that in contrast to roulette or slot machines, games with micropayments do not provide hope of winning a real prize or even recovering the money spent. As a result, their impact is weaker and the number of people addicted to them is a relatively small percent of all gamers. His opinion is confirmed by research conducted by Mike Ross - a journalist from the site Gamasutra who two years ago conducted a series of interviews with players spending large sums of money on micropayments. It turned out that the vast majority of his interviewees did not treat their spending on micropayments as something disturbing. On the contrary, they believed that it was simply a form of payment for the entertainment they received playing their favorite games. However, among the people who spoke with Rose there were also several players who fell into financial trouble because they could not refrain from spending money on in-game micropayments. Both Griffiths and Rose agree that if the game industry moves further in this direction, it may be necessary to introduce some legislation aimed at protecting people prone to gaming addictions. Moreover, the two men are not alone in their opinion. In recent years, these type of freemium games repeatedly met with sharp criticism from society, not to mention a class action lawsuit by customers against the App Store concerning unfair micropayments targeting children, or similar charges brought recently against Amazon by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. In many countries, freemium games began to catch the interest of consumer protection agencies. Last year, in response to complaints from a number of EU member states a meeting was organized with repre-
Apps
sentatives of the biggest gaming companies to jointly develop ways of protecting users from unwanted expenses. Among the topics discussed during the meeting were ways of publicizing the genre of freemium games and protection against accidental / unconscious purchases, especially in games aimed at children. As a result of these and other events in recent years, some changes have been made in the games and specialized application stores have been created. These can easily be seen in the iOS App Store, where freemium games are no longer described as “free” and every purchase requires password confirmation. Sadly, the efforts made on behalf of the players are no match for the work done to separate gamers from their money. According to Dr. Griffiths, companies engaged in developing games that make money from micropayments will always be two steps ahead of the researchers and policy makers, and really nothing can be done about it.
Freemium won’t cease growing, but will remain exactly what it is now one of many different ways to make computer games “suck up” a small group of players who are willing to spend money on this type of production while also offering a little free entertainment for all the others.
The intensity with which the freemium segment is growing also has its positive effects. Increasingly fierce competition in this field and the accompanying constant battle for customers operates for the benefit of consumers, who can now choose from a really substantial range of interesting titles. Almost all popular genres of computer games are represented, ranging from puzzle and simple arcade games, through racing and shooters to complex strategies and MMORPGs. Moreover, the development of the freemium gaming market also increases the awareness of players who stopped playing free games a long time ago and started to reach for the titles that are able to provide the most entertainment. Although there are a huge number of new games offering micropayments, the vast majority of them quickly die somewhere in the depths of app stores. Taking a look at the rankings of highest earning games for mobile devices, it is worth noting that the leading place has been occupied by the same title for several years. The gloom and doom visions of the future, in which the growing popularity of the freemium distribution model makes all games a ragged remnant of playability just designed to suck money from players’ wallets, are so exaggerated. Freemium won’t cease growing, but will remain exactly what it is now - one of many different ways to make computer games “suck up” a small group of players who are willing to spend money on this type of production while also offering a little free entertainment for all the others. People who do not fit these rules can rest assured that contrary to appearances, premium games, in which we pay once and play without any restrictions, are not all doomed to extinction. On the contrary, the developers of games for mobile devices are increasingly eager to decide to adopt a “classic” distribution model ... but that’s a topic for a separate article. Photos: “Beluga Whale’s Tail” - Jason Pier - creative commons
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Oldboy’s Files
My First Mac Networks
Steve Sande
Today most of us don’t think at all about networking; we take it for granted. In our homes and businesses, most of us have access to relatively fast broadband Internet connections served up either through Wi-Fi or gigabit Ethernet. On the road, data is handled for us through free (or sometimes paid) Wi-Fi at businesses and airports or through almost ubiquitous 4G LTE cellular data connections. But it wasn’t always that way or that easy to network computers together...
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Oldboy’s Files
... it was incredibly cheap and anyone could set it up. There were some limitations; you could have only 32 devices on each network, and the network could have a maximum length of 1,000 feet (about 300 meters). If you had more than 32 devices then your network was divided into different named zones. Early on in my career as an engineering supervisor for a natural gas pipeline company, I also took on responsibility for the personal computers we were beginning to deploy. Fortunately — and due to my insistence — a majority of those were Macs. All of those Macs were standalone, meaning that if one person wanted to share a document or spreadsheet with another person, they had to do one of two things — print it out or save it
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to a 3.5-inch floppy disk and then carry it to that other person. This latter method was jokingly known as “sneakernet”, since networking protocols like Token Ring and Ethernet were starting to be deployed at this time in the early 1980s. But for many offices, networking seemed to be out of the question — why would you need to connect those computers together? Fortunately for my company, we had Macs and each one of those Macs had a simple networking capability built into it. Our initial need wasn’t for file sharing; it was to print on the Apple LaserWriter printer that we had purchased. Networking these Macs was relatively easy, since all we had to do is buy a $50 AppleTalk adapter for each device and then run cables between those adapters. AppleTalk was the protocol that had been touted as part of the “Macintosh Office” in 1985, and compared to the other networking methods that were still being ironed out, it was incredibly cheap and anyone could set it up. There were some limitations; you could have only 32 devices on each network, and the network could have a maximum length of 1,000 feet (about 300 meters). If you
Oldboy’s Files
had more than 32 devices — and we eventually did got to that point in about 1987 or so — then your network was divided into different named zones. We chose to name them after departments, like “engineering”, “finance”, and “operations”. The speed of AppleTalk was incredibly slow by today’s standards: 230.4 Kbps (kilobits per second).
That upgrade to Ethernet was a significant bump — for the first time, we had a real “network closet”, Ethernet switches, and the system was given support by professionals. Now, we were essentially rebels in a subsidiary of a large company. No other part of the company had a network, and there were no network techs to help us out. So our AppleTalk cabling was routed sloppily under desks and cubicle walls and up into ceilings, something that would give a modern network tech nightmares. By the late 1980s we started realizing that there were some functions that we could handle with a faster and more robust network. Fortunately the AppleTalk protocol had been updated to allow up to 255 nodes or devices per network, and Ethernet was winning the battle of the networks over Token Ring. Cabling got easier and cheaper since a company called Farallon Networks came out with an inexpensive adapter called PhoneNet that used phone cabling and phone jacks to connect the devices. This is where our parent company’s network techs first became involved. At the time, this
team did one primary task; they ran the phone cabling for the PBX in our company. We asked them to start adding a second jack to each phone wall plate, and that would be used for our network. Within a few years, the network folks decided to bump us up to Ethernet, which at that time was 10Base-T — 10 megabits per second. It was a huge increase in speed for us, but due to the changes in what we were using our Macs for, we needed that speed. We installed our first servers, we were running Microsoft Mail for in-house electronic mail, we had several shared fax modems so that our users could send faxes from their desks. That upgrade to Ethernet was a significant bump — for the first time, we had a real “network closet”, Ethernet switches, and the system was given support by professionals. Sadly, we had to get rid of a lot of those PhoneNet adapters, but me and one of my employees ended up being in a Farallon Networks ad piece in a photo covered by those adapters. Our in-house mail system used an interesting feature that allowed us — pre-Internet — to have our main mail server dial up mail servers located around the state of Colorado.. It was crude, but it let us do store-and-forward email between our offices and at the time, that was state of the art. In 1994, the subsidiary was absorbed back into the parent company, and in 1995, those of us who were working in IT ended up becoming employees of IBM. Our entire corporation was networked together via a fiber optic backbone, and in 1995 one of my first assignments was to set up the first website for that parent company. It’s hard to believe that in just ten years, we had progressed from a handful of Macs linked together with AppleTalk to thousands of computers connected to the rest of the world. But that’s part of the fascinating history of personal computing. Photos: Radek Szwarc, lowendmac.com
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