Heavyweights

Saturday brought to hand two big books that have been on the horizon for a while. Wasn’t sure that both would arrive on the same day, but that’s the way it happened, adding a little weightlifting exercise to my day, with the combined pages of the two coming to 1,581 pages. Not possible to have already read very many of those pages, so the purpose this time is to briefly introduce the two books in advance of saying more about one or the other in a longer and future post. The author of the first is hugely popular, the subject of the second a name on everyone’s lips recently.

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

The title of this novel is a play on the Japanese pronunciation of the year 1984, a reference to George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. The Japanese reading of the title is Ichi-kew-hachi-yon and the letter Q and the Japanese number 9 are homophones, a type of wordplay not uncommon in Japanese literature. Prior to the publication of 1Q84, Murakami announced that he would not reveal anything about the book, feeling that pre-release talk had diminished the novelty of his previous books. Despite the secrecy 1Q84 received an unprecedented number of advance orders.

The book was first published in Japan in 2009 and 2010 where the first printing sold out on the day of the book’s release. An English translation was published on October 25 of this year by Knopf, the translation by Jay Rubin (volumes 1 and 2) and Philip Gabriel (volume 3). The English translation is three volumes in one binding designed by Chip Kidd and Maggie Hinders.

Before reading even the first lines of Murakami’s novel, the book’s size and design are impressive. There is a look to the whole package that impresses. First off is the almost three-pound weight of its 925 pages, but heavy or not, immediately clear is that this Knopf edition was beautifully put together to accent the author’s story. There is none of the expected in opening the book and turning over the first few pages. Chip Kidd and Maggie Hinders have given 1Q84 a look all its own from front cover to back. Facing pages are interesting for the way title and page numbers appear on left and right margins, straightforward on the left but flipped on the right, as if reading through a mirror.

The first two chapters have me eager to continue on.

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

It’s a good guess that Simon & Schuster will have a hard time keeping up with demand for the recently released biography of a man whose influence reached into personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, digital publishing and retail marketing. In August of 2011 Apple become the most valuable company in the world. There was something Olympian about Steve Jobs and the impact he had on many of the things that occupy a majority of people in the twenty-first century. Forget the fact that Jobs has long been something of an enigma. Apple developments of the past year leading up to, and including his death on October 5, played out like a storybook of greatness, the timing of everything happening in such a way that by October 6 the man and his company stood at a pinnacle of greatness. And nineteen days later a biography of Steve Jobs by the highly respected Walter Isaacson hits bookstores. The presses must be working night and day.

The biography is based on more than forty interviews with Jobs, and more than a hundred others with family, friends, adversaries, colleagues and competitors. Jobs asked for no pre-publication agreements, or opportunities to read any of the chapters prior to publishing. He gave Isaacson total control over the content, asking only that he write the story honestly, including the recollection and opinions of anyone interviewed. There is no gilding of the lily in this biography.

As a longtime Apple fan and buyer of at least one of everything the company has ever made, it's no mystery that Isaacson’s book has been on my wish list. Published on October 24 by Simon & Schuster, the Steve Jobs biography, like the Murakami book is also a hefty read of 656 pages weighing almost two and a half pounds. So far, there’s been time to read only the introduction, but that was enough to assure that I will have to steal some time from the reading of Murakami’s book.

Another one I am itching to get back to.

Take a Message, Siri

Excitement running high on Saturday. Funny how a small gadget that fits in the palm of the hand has the juice to send a happy buzz whizzing up the arm and down through the toes. Until very recently there was a most uncommon man who was inarguably the best at generating this kind of excitement all around the world. The death of Steve Jobs saddened millions of people, and no one would wish to make light of his passing, but talk about leaving with a bang…Nine days later Apple releases the incredible iPhone 4S, sending the company stock soaring even higher and fans in seven countries swarming to buy one. You gotta think he’s looking down with a pleased smile.

So what about that iPhone 4S, the one that talks to you, works anywhere in the world, takes 8 megapixel photographs, syncs your mail, photos, music, calendars, contacts and bookmarks wirelessly with desktop, laptop and iPad? For about five years I’ve used an iPhone, an old Japanese iPhone 2, which for the last eighteen months has been unable to make calls, but has continued to send and receive email, run all the apps unrelated to calling and take excellent 3 megapixel photographs. Had my ups and downs with it, mostly when I was using it as a telephone and never quite felt the jolt of excitement experienced with other Apple products. That old phone, the one that took the photograph below is a clunky old Ford Pinto with rust spots compared to the iPhone 4S.

It’s no secret that for the past six months telephone trouble has been an almost daily headache with the unsmart, flip-top Sanyo clunker I’ve been carrying. The hardware, the chip, the magic, whatever was or wasn’t inside its dull case made it a semi-dependable device at best. Basic telephone calls have been an ongoing challenge with this giveaway phone from Sprint. With all that, it wouldn’t surprise anyone to hear that on Thursday I began thinking about an iPhone 4S. Long lines, people camping out in front of Apple Stores, reservations required, delivery promises; I figured that the day before its release was much like going to the party way late. Still, I drove over to Best Buy at noon on Thursday, made a reservation and paid a $50 deposit. The store rep said that I would be notified by email later in the day stating whether I could have the phone on Friday, or at most no later than the end of the month. It all depended on how many Sprint iPhones they would get late Thursday, and how many people were ahead of me. I figured the end of the month would be the earliest.

At 2:00 on Friday I got a call saying my Sprint iPhone 4S was ready for pick up.

Got the phone, along with a free invisibleSHIELD™ and a free set of earphones for hands-free talking, and by 3:00 was walking out of Best Buy telling the iPhone to call B. Oh, yeah, it follows spoken orders! Something called Siri. The worst part about the day was getting home with the new iPhone and short of time, having to put it in my pocket and join some friends for dinner. With every bite the thought uppermost in my mind was getting back home to snuggle up with the new phone and learn its magical secrets.

The photo above was taken with the old iPhone and the one below with the new iPhone 4S. Almost embarrassed to admit it, but the new phone has me doing something I’ve never done before—been sending text messages to friends, typing out stuff like ‘4S-2G2BT’—iPhone 4S, too good to be true.

Desktop Demise

This past Monday my old iMac began showing some ominous symptoms, signs which in my experience didn’t bode well. Despite its decrepitude (a seven year-old hard run machine) I wasn’t too eager to add my contribution to the Apple coffers, figuring there were other things the price of a new computer could be channeled into. So, I called up my meager technical skills in a last ditch effort to staunch the drain of life from my old, dependable standby. But those skills were not enough, and I watched late Monday as the final curtain literally came down on the iMac screen. A slowly descending curtain of transparent gray scrolled down the screen, and a message window struggled through to suggest restarting the computer. But I knew the life blood was running thin and at last ebb, that a restart would raise no heartbeat. Sayônara old friend.

On Tuesday morning I put up a post on this blog using the MacBook Pro laptop, then got out my thinning wallet and called the Apple Store. I considered it a good sign that the store rep I spoke to had the same name as Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak. The guy (unrelated to the Apple “Woz”) has probably sold a hundred or more Apple computers, still I felt a little bit special buying a new iMac from someone with a name so meaningful in Apple history.

Whether the Apple rep’s name had any significance or not, no one short of Steve Jobs could ask for better service than I got. My order for a new iMac was processed after 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday; the computer was delivered to my door at 11:30 Thursday morning. In other words, it took forty-one hours for my order to be processed, shipped and delivered to my door. In this case, I believe the computer shipped from Pennsylvania. Mr Wozniak, the Apple Store sales rep is in Austin, Texas. Pretty good service by anyone’s standards.

With this iMac I didn’t exactly experience the ‘plug and play’ claim Apple has long made, but that was the fault of no one. I spent an hour running around looking for a new connector cable for my external backup drive. It was essential to copy the files from the deceased iMac onto its successor, and that’s easy enough provided your Firewire plug fits into the slot on the new computer. But standards have changed, so I had to drive to Daytona for an adapter cable.

Once the new iMac was up and running with all the transferred files and system settings—thanks to Apple’s terrific Time Machine software—I ran into problems with the Photoshop Essentials software and spent two hours on the phone with Adobe tech support in New Delhi.

But there is now new, vibrant and lightning fast widescreen life on my work table and I feel the exhilaration. Especially thrilled with the HD resolution of the iMac screen. What a huge difference in the screen resolution of then and now.

Technology: Battles & Bait

Consider for a moment Associated Press technology writer, Peter Svensson’s analogy of having to buy a new set of CDs every time you buy a stereo system.

For all my faithfulness and consumer support for Steve Jobs and Apple, I sometimes fear he and his company are leading us to just such a crippling state of affairs. The soon to be released (and totally awesome!) iPad is an example in point. Lurking beneath the sleek ‘cool’ and handheld power of this new device is a recipe for even greater technological addiction, one which includes increased consumer spending, and a battle of alternate operating systems.

But make no mistake about my own two-sided position in this issue. Since the 1990 Macintosh Classic computer I have owned a least a baker’s dozen Apple computers, a Newton, more than a few iPods and the now the iconic iPhone. I have all but worshipped at the altar of Apple technology from the very beginning, but in recent years have had to admit to some fading of the rose. I now see questions where once I jumped with complete trust at everything coming out of their warehouse doors.

Two examples may illustrate my disillusion. Many users, including myself, look forward to, and quickly buy system upgrades from Apple. How rare is it to discover that the latest upgrade frequently makes one or two installed applications obsolete? Nothing for it but to shell out for application upgrades. That may be small beer when the software application is an inexpensive one, but another altogether when it’s one with an upgrade costing hundreds of dollars. My experience on two occasions. (I’m still getting over the Snow Leopard OS upgrade.) Then there is the fabulous iPhone, which becomes not so fabulous when you travel abroad, or move to another country. In such cases the iPhone becomes a basically useless toy. Without paying overseas rates there is no phone, no email, texting, YouTube, Apps Store, navigational maps, or anything Internet connected. A Tokyo acquaintance recently spent a month in Australia, where he used his iPhone as freely as he does at home in Japan. He later received a bill in the thousands. Pleading ignorance of the system fell on deaf ears. Unless you’re rich as Croesus, outside of home ground your iPhone becomes a glorified iPod.

The dazzling new iPad now threatens to ignite an e-reader systems battle between Apple, Amazon’s Kindle, the Sony e-reader, and the Barnes & Noble Nook. All but Apple and Amazon (including libraries) use an Adobe system for their e-readers. Apple is nearly infamous for its reluctance to collaborate, and Amazon claims the leader’s position. So where does that leave me if I want to transfer my Kindle books to an iPad? In the end it will surely leave me spending more money for something that should have been designed to include an element of collaborative spirit.

I doubt that Steve Jobs would lose much sleep in learning that the iPad is not on this follower’s shopping list. Sort of leaves one to wonder about the Orwell-Huxley dilemma wherein we are killed by the things we fear, or on the other hand by the things we love.