iOS 7 on iPad 2

After a painless download and installation, everything worked quite well.  Animations were smooth, and I changed the background to one with stars and having a subtle parallax effect - I really like it.  (No I didn’t get any nausea as reported by many people….).  The one with the moving bubbles, I put on my lock screen as it was just too distracting.

The flat icon style is really too colourful and almost childish, but overall, it some brings a much required change and freshness to the OS.  Still no widgets, but that’s Apple I guess…

Speed-wise, it may be a tad slower than iOS 6 and some apps look too plain, especially notes, which looks quite boring and white/ yellow.  Other apps like Safari look cohesive with the system and changes seem to be for the better.

iTunes Radio is my favourite new feature.  I listen to it all the time.  It’s similar to Pandora, but hey it’s Apple and there are only a few ads.  While listening to it on my macbook, it actually syncs with Lastfm, just like the songs in my library.  Plus, you get to listen to latest releases (just listened to Justin Timberlake’s new album).  With extra features like this, I think it will definitely give it an edge over other services.

I also like the fact that apps auto-update by themselves...Yeah!  No more irritating small red icon telling you that you need to update your apps...

Why is there no weather app for iPad like the iPhone?  I don’t know why it is present only on the iPhone.  Apple needs to rectify this.  And, they should also update the weather icon, like they do on the clock icon and date.  Also, some apps don't work too well and I've had a few crash on me.  However, for an OS upgrade that supports 32bit and 64bit, I think it's reasonable to expect a few bugs and crashes..

Overall, I’m pretty happy with iOS 7.  And I'm glad that it still runs on the iPad 2.  Apple has added a lot of useful features and apps, and it’s a great start.  Some Apple made widgets would really spice up the system….Maybe that's coming in iOS 8.

On Being an iSheep...

I’m proud to be an iSheep.  There, I said it, loud and clear!  And I’m sure there are millions of people like me all around the world..

But I’m not an iSheep because Apple brings out a new product and says it’s good for me.  I’m an iSheep because I’ve TRIED OUT other alternatives, and realized that this is the best device/ software for me.  Everything from the design to the hardware and software is admirable, and that is why I’m such a Rabid Fan of Apple.  Are the products perfect?  No!  But they’re the closest things to ideal of all the different products I’ve tried...

Let’s start with the design.  Whether you are a fAndroid or Windows fan, you have to give Apple credit for their terrific design sense.  Why else would so many manufacturers (Barring probably Sony and Lenovo) copy, or should I say clone, Apple’s designs, whether they are desktops, laptops, phones or software?...Yes, I’m looking at you, Samesung...Sure, your products are great, but you ain’t winning any awards for innovative design, because you really actually stole design plans from Apple while you were manufacturing chips for them, you backstabbers, bite-the-hand-that-feeds-ers!!!

The Apple tax is another myth these days.  Yes, sure, Apple products are somewhat more expensive initially, but the overall value for money and longetivity are simply unmatched.  My wife’s iPod Shuffle has been used regularly for the past seven years and it SIMPLY WON’T DIE!  And these days, even the prices  for Apple tablets, computers and phones seem comparable to similar specced Windows or Android products. 

The software, I’ve already discussed at length in my previous posts, both the OS X side and the iOS side.  What helps in binding these two operating systems is iCloud which seems clunky at first (and Apple does need to work on it more) but as I use my iPad and Macbook together, it helps maintain a sense of cohesiveness between the two operating system and makes it feel as one.  The whole ecosystem is beginning to gel together very well.  And with the implementation of iWork on iCloud, Apple has finally got a product which will compete very well with Google Docs and Microsoft SkyDrive Office... High time!  Also, I can’t wait to try iTunes Radio as well.  A complete ecosystem..

THANK YOU APPLE, Thank you Steve Jobs, Johnny Ive, both the Craigs (Forstall and Federighi).  Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for all that you’ve given to the world.  Your designs, your computers, your softwares, and electronic devices have inspired many manufacturers to improve and think outside the box, and given us the consumers, better choices and better devices, whether Apple or otherwise.  We, the iSheep, love your products and hope you keep bringing out innovative and well-designed products like you have done through the years.  We don’t mind spending our iMoney on such great quality products.

If being an iSheep means getting to use great computers, electronic devices and software, then count me in!  Baa  Baaa or should I say “iBaa  iBaaa"

OS X Mavericks 10.9. It's Finally Time To Upgrade

OS X Mavericks is the biggest thing to happen to OS X since the debut of OS X.  I've been using it as my primary OS for the past week and even though it is still in beta, it is totally stable and performs extremely well.

If OS X Lion and Mountain Lion seemed to be incremental and updated for the sake of updating, OS X Mavericks 10.9 is THE update to get!  Everything just flows together, works well and has been tweaked and efficiency has been pushed to the max.  Less thrashing of the hard drive, Compressed Memory, App Nap, Safari and Finder Tabs are the highlights of this operating system.  Everything has been fine tuned to such an extent that it just seems perfect.  (I'd been always wondering why Apple doesn't put the unused apps to sleep to save RAM and energy, and Apple has done it!  I also really wished for a bigger iPhone after squinting to read on my iPhone and Apple did that too, and made the iPad....Apple seems to have habit of thinking before most people do and provide them the facilities...Maybe that's why there are so many iSheep...me included  :)    )

It is equivalent or even more monumental than Windows XP or 7 were to the Windows operating system.  It doesn't seem like it on the surface, but it is a landmark operating system.  If you have been holding off upgrading till now (and like me downgraded back to Snow Leopard for it's efficiency), it's finally the right time to upgrade....

Memory Compression in OS X Mavericks 10.9

O.K.  I was dying to try out the memory compression feature in OSX Mavericks.  After the first boot post installation on my Macbook 2009, memory usage was 2.4/4.0 GB so it was just a bit more than the previous instalment of Snow Leopard.

However, after the update and reboot, memory usage was 3.9GB and I kinda panicked, thinking," Lord, not again...Gonna have to downgrade back to Snow Leopard".  Someone very rightly said that "Snow Leopard is the Windows XP of Mac OSX...It simply will not die!

Another reboot later, things settled back to 2.4GB so that was good.

I opened up Safari (Still a memory hog!  Apple, do something about it, for God's sake)...Opened a lot of tabs, opened Microsoft Word, iTunes, and few Finder windows....Virtual memory usage showed 4.5 GB, and I expected the swap file to be used and the thrashing of the hard disk, but NO!  Apple's Compressed Memory was starting to work and it started going up to a few hundred megabytes.

So this is how it works.  First, the programs use up all the available RAM and when that's about to finish, Compressed Memory comes into play.  I really haven't overloaded the system with a lot more apps and intend to do so in a few days...Will post again.

Immediately, I uninstalled a program I'd been using for the last few months - FreeMemory.  A very good utility, but rendered useless due to Apple's superb memory management.

Fantastic job, Apple!!!