I am trying Scribble in Drafts and this is really cool! The iPad Mini has just become more like the Newton MessagePad! I wrote this blog post using the Apple Pencil.
I just updated my iPad Mini to iPadOS 14 and I am still surprised that Apple doesn’t provide any type of “here is what is new” experience the first time you start a new version of the OS. I guess I am just left to stumble upon the new features.
Kevin Tofel’s review of the Microsoft Duo is worth reading because it might be the most optimistic, if not down to earth, of the reviews I’ve read. A reason might be that not once did he refer to the price and thus didn’t get in to the “for this price one should not have these problems” trope. IMHO any gadget priced north of $1K is too expensive even if it works perfectly!
So, if price is an issue, save the time and the pixels and just write, “it’s too expensive” and move on. Because Kevin is not on a mission to drive home the point that the device is too expensive, he focuses more on the actual problems and frankly, what he writes about seem to be something that Microsoft could address in software updates.
The most important point that Kevin makes, though, is about the biases toward what the Duo is, even though Microsoft has emphasized it is not a phone or a tablet.
I think people are calling the Duo a phone because that’s the closest device comparison they can make. And I get that. But the Duo truly is something different and, along with other folding or swivel screen devices, early in the trend of a new device class.
And I like this thought…
And although Microsoft dubbed it the Duo over a year ago, I think the company should have said that “Duo” is just an internal product code name. A better, more descriptive name would have been Surface Booklet because that’s really what it is: A connected book-like tablet.
To be fair, I noted before that Brad Sams also took effort to emphasize the Duo being a class on its own, although he used device classification of Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).
Can an Apple Watch function as a standalone device or does it require an iPhone?
Trebek says he has the “will to survive,” although there are days when the pain and depression is so debilitating that his optimism disappears. He also doesn’t like using the terms “battling” and “fighting” when it comes to cancer, because it implies there are winners and losers.
We have reached peak smartphone, thus the different manufacturers are working hard to create the next big thing. So far what has been produced functions janky and is expensive.
Our founding fathers rejected in word if not deed the notions of title and birthright. But they have substituted in its place race and gender maintained by wealth and property. All hierarchy, and especially military hierarchy, exists so that the privileged can maintain and exploit their servants.
Privilege is seeing yourself as independently good and not seeing that your goodness is built on the goodness of others.
“If we truly understand that the Church went off the rails by aligning herself with Constantine, then it shouldn’t be too hard to see that anyone who maintains political entanglements is still emulating that same Constantinian form of Church.”
Keith Giles , Greg Boyd (Foreword), Jesus Untangled Resurfaced with readwise.io
Religion is the most powerful force, as in “powers and principalities,” in the world. It’s why so much is written in the Old Testament about idolatry. Yahweh doesn’t “feel” the human emotion of jealousy that we humans think is why idolatry is offensive, but love naturally knows it needs to be free and that idolatry is true enslavement.
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution may be one of the most enlightened of the writings that were a result of The Enlightenment because James Madison and the Founders understood how Power uses religion to enslave and thus increase power. This recognition might be the heart of the freedom our country was founded upon, but it is no longer taught as such because Power has appropriated it into the modern understanding as only freedom of religion and not also preventing government from using religion.
It is easy to say the Duo is a smartphone but when you look at how Microsoft is promoting the hardware, to me, this is device reminds me more of the PDAs of the early 2000s than of the smartphones of the 2020 era.
Brad Sams' review of the Microsoft Duo is the first I’ve seen that calls it a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), which I suspect is a better categorization than smartphone or tablet. The problem again comes back to price, it’s just way too expensive and doesn’t not provide enough for that expensive beyond being a niche product. My hope is that Microsoft and Google don’t give up on it too soon and find a way to get the price down.
Based on my read of a few of the Microsoft Duo reviews, which are negative, I see that they are written in the context of the device’s $1400 price. Compare reviews of the Google Pixel 4a and the Microsoft Duo, in some ways they are the same, but because the 4a only costs $350 the issues are understandable or overlooked. Devices priced at $1k or higher need to be perfect; the Duo appears to be a beta, akin to Google Glass.
Introducing the Surface Duo for Business – Do One Better – Microsoft Surface
Got my first ad for the Microsoft Duo and note they emphasized it for business use, which makes sense.
I believe the main message our brains ought to receive in how we see the pandemic treated in the United States and how we see the contempt of life of those other than me is that the sin we are trapped in is the egoistic obsession with wealth. For example, have you stopped to consider why the checks the government gave at earlier this year were called “stimulus checks”?
Woodward’s book confirms what we always knew. While I think Woodward withheld what he learned earlier in the year for the sake of book sales, I am not convinced that reporting what he had or even playing the tapes would have made any difference. Republican Senators had plenty of evidence to find Trump guilty and ignored that for sake of party, THEY are the ones most at fault for the loss of lives and we ought not forget it. At this point the only remedy is to vote Trump out of office.
Like last year, Google has released a new version of Android the day after Labor Day. The Android 11 update is installing on my Pixel 4a right now.
Candy maker announces plan to fulfill desire to be Willy Wonka. Look for the golden dog tag, but really, no Oompa Loompas?
It’s mind boggling to me that people don’t accept that COVID-19 and colleges are a toxic combination. No college is dry and you can’t drink and wear a mask. And the real problem is that people don’t want to accept the fact that the consequences are unknown. It’s like when everyone knew smoking caused lung cancer and yet nobody seemed to want to accept that fact until years later.
“As a businessman, he played with other people’s money. As a politician, the stakes have been other people’s lives.”
David Frum, I Crossed Back Into a State of Denial
Based on what I read, I see two things about COVID-19. For older people, particularly those in poor health, it has a high risk for death. For everyone else there is a risk of long term, chronic, illness.
The most universal answer must begin with the observation that death is not a synonym for risk.