First, create a new Keynote presentation, and use the Inspector to adjust the slide dimensions to match the screen resolution of your iOS device. iPhone and iPod wallpapers can match the dimensions exactly; iPad wallpapers should be square, so the image fits the screen in either portrait or landscape orientations.

• Non-Retina iPods and iPhones have a screen resolution of 320 x 480.
• 4th Gen iPods, the iPhone 4, and the iPhone 4S have a screen resolution of 640 x 960.
• 5th gen iPods and the iPhone 5 have a screen resolution of 640 x 1136
• For Non-Retina iPads and the iPad mini, your image should be 1024 x 1024.
• For Retina iPads, your image should be 2048 x 2048.

Then orient the image how you would like. I recommend against stretching images to make them fit. Pick images whose vertical measurements are equal to or greater than the vertical resolution of the device your working with.

Once you’re done, export the backgrounds using Keynote’s Share menu. I export mine as PNG files, but JPG will save more space on your device as long as you don’t mind the reduced image quality.

Finally, create an album or an event for your new images in iPhoto.

Once you sync that album or event to your iOS device, it will appear in your Brightness & Wallpaper Settings. This keeps your cameral roll from becoming cluttered with saved backgrounds, but it does require you to occasionally sync through iTunes. While I think the tradeoff is worth it, your mileage may vary. What I haven’t tried yet is sharing the images via a shared Photo Stream, which might bypass the slow iTunes process.

Then voilà! You have your very own, nicely organized, custom iOS background that fits your device just right.

Remember, though: the images you create this way are not original to you, so do not go posting them to your site or distribute them in any way. And please do not take credit for creating the image. They’re for your own use. With that out of the way, I hope you find this useful and that you are able to give some of your old wallpapers and images new life on your iOS devices*.

*This method should really work with any mobile device, but you’ll have to go investigate your screen resolution yourself.

I can’t tell you how many apps I’ve downloaded just because they have great icons. This site is like my kryptonite. Wrapped in bacon.

Some great artwork and typography here. And space.

Amazing visualization presented as a simple webpage.

1. Search for the app you want in Safari* on your iOS device.
2. Click on the iTunes link in the search results.
3. Safari will open the link in the App Store where you can download it just as if you had searched for it within the store.

It’s a pain that there should be any workaround here at all. Searching the App Store is one of the most basic and common things a person will do with their iPod, iPhone, or iPad; yet Apple is yet to fix these crashes on older devices. Fortunately, this solution is pretty painless and removes any need to sync your device.

* I tried this in Chrome as well, but App Store did not always launch when I hit the iTunes link. Your mileage in other browsers may vary.

This is a sentiment you often hear from people: casual users only need “entry-level” performance. Even casual users themselves perpetuate it: “Oh, I’m not doing much on my computer, so I always just go with the cheapest.” And then they buy a horrid, underpowered netbook, find out that it has a tiny screen, is incredibly slow, the keyboard sucks, and they either never actually use it, or eventually come to the conclusion that they just hate computers.

In reality, it’s exactly backwards: proficient users can deal with a crappy computer, but casual users need as good a computer as possible.

I completely agree with every word of this post.

Amy Cuddy shares how your body language can change your perception of yourself.

I have to say that, as one who often speaks publicly and also is autistic, this is powerful. And very true.

The Dark Knight Rises was a very good ending to Christopher Nolan’s trilogy, but the absence of the Joker was an almost palpable thing. He was a force of nature in the previous film, easily becoming one of the most fully realized and convincing villains in the history of comic book movies. It was easily Heath Ledger’s best performance on the silver screen, but it was doomed to be his last. The actor died from a toxic combination of prescription drugs mere months after shooting the role, casting a shadow over the already dark character. With the tragic death of the actor who so thoroughly defined the role of the Joker to a modern generation, what were the filmmakers to do? The conclusion of The Dark Knight seemed to point at the Joker returning in the next move, but he’s simply not there.

The approach taken by the director and writers of The Dark Knight Rises is perhaps the most respectful they could have for Heath Ledger’s memory as well as for surviving friends and family. They don’t bring up Joker at all. Every villain in the trilogy appears on screen, but Joker barely gets a mention. It’s as if Gotham is actively repressing the memory of his reign of terror as one would block a traumatic childhood memory. His presence is felt, though. The lack of a Joker is as evident and powerful as his involvement. He was too large of a character to be simply ignored.

So where is the Joker? Could the filmmakers have handled his absence better? There are only two possible answers to the absence of the Joker: either he’s alive and unacknowledged, or he’s dead. Let’s play armchair quarterback and play with both possibilities.

The Joker Lives

Was he one of the many criminals who were busted out of Blackgate prison? The painfully written novelization puts that theory to rest quickly but still refuses to give any clues regarding the Joker’s fate.

…Blackgate Prison had replaced Arkham Asylum as a preferred location for imprisoning both convicted and suspected felons. The worst of the worst were sent here, except for the Joker, who, rumour had it, was locked away as Arkham’s sole remaining inmate. Or perhaps he had escaped. Nobody was really sure.

So, if alive, Joker either has to sit out of the entire third movie, or he is at large. I greatly doubt that Joker would have sat nicely in his Arkham cell throughout the events of The Dark Knight Rises. It’s unlikely the staff of Arkham would have been in a position to maintain security, so breaking out would be likely. Additionally, I would think Crane would take great delight in unleashing Joker on an unsuspecting public. I simply don’t buy the notion that Joker could have been left locked up and forgotten about.

If Joker had been at large, would he have cooperated with the League of Shadows? Again, I doubt it. In fact, I’ve spent way too much time amusing myself with alternate plot lines that insert the Joker as a character trying to disrupt Bane and his colleagues’ plans. Joker would have viewed Bane as another force trying to impose a form of order upon chaos, and he would have likely been a perpetual thorn in the League’s collective side. While he would have not gone out of his way to help Batman or the Gotham resistance movement, Joker would have been actively hindering Bane and his authoritarian presence. It would be too big of a challenge to pass up. Like Batman, Bane could potentially be “too much fun.”

Any acknowledgement by the filmmakers that Joker was still alive would all but require he become a major character in the move, and casting an alternate Joker was probably off the table from the beginning – rightly so. A living Joker does not sit on the sidelines or hide in the shadows. A living Joker would have escalated his own war of terror against Gotham’s new oppressors – not seeking to restore the original order of things, but merely to propagate pure anarchy.

The Joker Is Dead

I don’t think the plot leaves much room for Joker to still be living. He’s dead. It’s the only logical explanation for his absence. That’s why no one worries about him escaping from whichever facility holds him. That’s why he never antagonizes Bane. That’s why he never tries to carve anyone’s face in a dark ally. He’s simply gone. I think, however, it might not have been a bad idea to acknowledge his death somewhere in the movie. With the authoritarian reach of the Dent Act established in the first act, it’s not a reach to assume Joker was sentenced to death for his deeds in the preceding movie. The Dent Act could have removed any hope for an insanity plea, and it could have also accelerated the appeals process in such an extreme case. Thanks to the Dent Act, Joker could have been executed for his crimes – swiftly and without recourse.

In the opening scenes, perhaps Deputy Commissioner Foley or the mayor could have said something about the Dent Act helping Gotham to rid itself of such heinous criminals as the Joker, or Gordan’s initially unread speech could have acknowledged the domestic terrorist had been executed in a fit of citywide vengeance. Another opportunity to acknowledge Joker’s death under such circumstances could have come when John Blake rebukes Commissioner Gordan for participating in the lie that had precipitated the passing of the Dent Act.

Because various explanations are possible, however, does not necessitate that they are needed. Remember that Joker had been played by a real person who died a real death. Yes, in my head (and likely in the minds of many others), Joker dying in the eight year interim between The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises makes the most sense. But would it have been disrespectful to the memory of Heath Ledger to have cinematically killed off the character? I’m sure Christopher Nolan and his team considered many ways to address the gaping hole left by the Joker’s disappearance, and they may have even considered some of these solutions. Despite what you and I may have liked, they chose to remain silent on the issue of the Joker.

So what is it? Is Christopher Nolan’s Gotham a violent, objectivist, conservative wasteland only Ayn Rand could love, or is Batman a secret liberal because he refuses to kill criminals and condemns those who would? Or are we missing the point trying to pin partisan values on a figure either side of the political aisle would be hesitant to embrace were he real?

The character of Batman has always been a delicate one when the topic of politics gets inserted into the world of comics. On the one hand, he is the epitome of the successful capitalist, but how he uses his wealth (outside his wonderful toys) is up for debate. Also, Batman is capable of brutalizing his victims as capably as any professional torturer, but he will not kill – nor does he believe any individual has the right to proclaim themselves judge, jury, and executioner.

The simple fact is, though, that comic book characters are more a commentary on the time period in which they are residing than they are consistently partisan. Pick out a period in which Batman or any other hero is portrayed, and you’ll find the popular values of the day reflected. Take the Cold War undertones in the later Christopher Reeves Superman movies for example. Is Superman political? He is (or was) for Truth, Justice, and the American Way, but he also strives for world peace with the single-mindedness of an activist. Those movies of the eighties portrayed both the heady optimism of Reagan conservatism alongside the fears that we were putting too much faith in militarization. More recently, what do we make of Green Lantern’s coming out of the closet? Is it a sign that DC has picked sides in the culture wars, or is it just a reflection of our times?

Yes, comic books and their varied media adaptations sometimes do promote certain societal and political values, but those same characters may be on the opposite side of those same issues a decade later. If we can then strip our political preconceptions from Nolan’s Gotham (especially in light of his statements that he had no intention of promoting political values), then perhaps we can see a more valuable lesson in the Dark Knight trilogy, one of the dangers of extremism and escalation.

Oh, and I guess I should point out that minor spoilers are contained beyond this point.

• In Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne turns to a group of extremists, the League of Shadows, to help him fight the rising crime in Gotham City. Their solution is one of destruction, which Wayne rejects. His solution is instead to escalate the war on crime in a way the police cannot. He hopes to inspire hope, which he does, but he also inspires the criminal element to escalate in kind, as Jim Gordon points out in the conclusion of the film.
• The Dark Knight displays the result of the arms race between criminals and Batman, and the result is a completely unhinged psychopath named Joker. Joker becomes to the underworld what Batman is to the law. He is the one willing to go beyond normal means to stop a threat, and the battle between the two reaches a fevered climax that ultimately destroys Batman’s reputation and nearly plunges Gotham into irreparable despair.
• The Dark Knight Rises brings escalation to a new level with the Dent Act, a law that gives the district attorney’s office and the police force unprecedented power and authority, a law that is creating an air of civil unrest in Gotham, and a law that is predicated on everyone believing a lie. Bane offers an extreme solution to the authoritarian state Gotham has found itself in. No longer is the war between vigilante and psychopath; it has grown to the point of tearing Gotham apart.

Yes, shadows of the Occupy Movement exist in Bane’s revolutionary movement. Yes, there are shadows of the Patriot Act in Batman’s surveillance system in The Dark Knight and in the Dent Act of the sequel. None of this is the point, though. They are merely reflections of the time in which these movies were made, and those reflections will lose their power with time. How many people still understand the fear of nuclear war during the 80s that underscores the plot of  Superman IV: The Quest for Peace? No, the bigger message is not one of partisan values. It’s not about vilifying or glorifying one set of political ideals over another. If there are any political messages in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, it’s this: extremism begets extremism, and we should always be wary of using escalation as a means to an end.

© Warner Bros.

Now that all of the uninitiated have fled (or are foolishly foraging ahead despite the warnings), let’s talk about the conclusion of John Blake’s story arc in The Dark Knight Rises. Initially, I thought the ending of the movie pointed to him becoming Robin or Nightwing – despite his name appearing nowhere else in Batman canon.

Now, I’m sure that initial idea was wrong, and here’s why:

• Ducard in Batman Begins: “If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal and if they can’t stop you. Then you become something else entirely…A legend.” Later, Bruce Wayne: “…As a man I’m flesh and blood I can be ignored I can be destroyed but as a symbol, as a symbol I can be incorruptible, I can be everlasting.” From the beginning, they lay out the simple fact that Batman is bigger than Bruce Wayne, that Batman can outlive Bruce Wayne.
• Bruce Wayne/Batman makes a couple of references to the fact that “anyone can be a hero” in The Dark Knight Rises, and he repeatedly tries to convince Blake of the importance of the mask. This leads to the logical conclusion that John Blake will become something more, that he will fit into the DC universe as a recognizable character.
• At the very end, after he leaves the police force, John Blake receives a GPS that helps him locate the Bat Cave. Here, he will find all of the equipment used by the Dark Knight as well as his suit. When he enters the cave, Nolan very deliberately replicates an abbreviated form of Bruce Wayne’s first exploration of the Bat Cave, including a shot of him being encircled by a colony of bats.
• Finally, as Batman’s command center begins to rise from the water, with John Blake standing atop it, rising as it does, the title of the film appears for the first time…The Dark Knight Rises. 

Put simply, John Blake is not going to be Robin. He’s not Nightwing. He’s Batman. He will carry the mantle left behind by Bruce Wayne. The revelation that John Blake’s first name is Robin is nothing more than a red herring or perhaps a nod to the role he plays throughout the film as a near-equal to Batman. It does not reveal his future. (And think about it: why would he use his legal first name as his alter ego?) His future is to be the next Dark Knight.

It’s a time of transition and risk-taking for the technology giants. Companies that were once very focused on a narrow set of products have been diversifying their portfolios in the face of an ever-changing market. Those who have refused to change – Yahoo!, AOL, Research in Motion, Digg, for instance – are finding themselves relegated to greater and greater irrelevancy, even financial ruin, despite their once being giants in the tech sector. Companies that are maneuvering too slowly, like Nokia and Nintendo, are facing large hurdles in maintaining mindshare among their potential customers as well as encouraging existing customers to return. Companies have to be nimble, and they have to be willing to gamble to stay ahead of the mobile curve and remain interesting and relevant to consumers who are growing increasingly tech savvy.

The most reluctant to change among the big three (Microsoft, Apple, and Google) has been Microsoft. It took them years to respond to the iPhone, and it feels like their response to the iPad has been agonizingly slow coming. Still, the first hints that they recognized the Windows/Office cash cow could not sustain them forever came with the release of the XBox all the way back in 2001. Microsoft entered the risky, loss-leading, and Japanese dominated realm of console gaming. Their failure seemed inevitable, but Microsoft’s console proved to be a modest success, and its successor has been a much larger success. After XBox, Microsoft tried to enter the music market with Zune, a product that never took off but whose software would inspire Windows Phone 7 and eventually Windows 8. Now, Microsoft is taking another hardware risk by creating their own tablet, trying to define the Windows touch experience at the risk of alienating their own partners. I think they’ve learned their lesson with Windows Phone, however, and don’t want to be relegated to the back burner with tablets the way they have been with phones.

Apple is perhaps the safest when it comes to their gambles. They’ve built on their own successes since the introductions of the iPod and OS X in 2001. Both were guaranteed failures at the time, and both proved to be very successful. What was the iPhone but a touchscreen iPod that could make phone calls? The next release of iOS (then called iPhone OS) moved the phone closer to being a handheld computer. The iPad enlarged the experience, and Apple have been cross-pollinating their products the entire time. They take a leap and ride it for a couple of years before announcing the next shift in the evolution of their products. Other risks are taken in a more gradual manner – the introduction of the Retina Display, the new MacBook Pro, the MacBook Air, even the Intel transition – but they keep rolling, determined that the only people who will make their products feel obsolete are themselves.

Now comes Google. I never thought I’d say this, but I think Google may be the most exciting of the large tech companies at the moment. They have so much potential, but they are placing so much on ventures that stray from their usual revenue stream while not providing the immediate, short-term profit margins that investors love so much (and that keep Apple jockeying for the position of the most valuable company in the world). The announcements from Google’s recent I/O conference exemplify the gambles being taken on by the search giant.

The Nexus 7

The Nexus 7 was perhaps the announcement to create the greatest amount of buzz and excitement. Google’s new partnership with Asus, however, is risky on multiple levels. Like Microsoft releasing their own branded tablet, they put themselves in a partner/competitor relationship with other manufacturers. They risk alienating companies they have historically relied upon to create flagship Android tablets while still partnering with one of those manufacturers in the creation on the Nexus tablet. They have not taken the leap Apple has always relied on of keeping the vast majority of their hardware in-house, but they have invested heavily in creating a definitive Android experience.

The seven-inch form factor has not been historically sustainable, though. Similar products like the Kindle Fire and the Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet saw initial success followed by tepid sales. The size has proven to be a novelty, but it is the direction through which Google is differentiating the Android experience from the iOS one. It can’t hurt that the Nexus 7 is significantly more powerful than any other seven-inch tablet on the market, and the promise of quick software updates will make it all the more appealing. Initial sales for the Nexus 7 have been brisk, particularly for the modestly more expensive 16 GB version, but it will take a few months to see if Google has a runaway success in the form of the Nexus 7 or if it will be yet another novelty.

The screen resolution presents another risk for the Nexus 7. I initially thought they chose the smaller screen because scaled-up phone apps wouldn’t look as bad on a seven-inch screen as they would on a ten-inch screen. With a 1280 x 800 display, however, the screen sits at an impressive 216 pixels per inch. No, it’s not as pixel dense as an iPhone or an iPad, but it’s close to the latter. With such a high resolution display, phone-optimized apps will look terrible. Google is placing a great deal of faith in their developers to deliver apps that will look great on this display, but could that faith be misplaced? After all, Android has been tablet-ready since February of 2011, and developers have been surprisingly slow in creating apps that take advantage of the extra pixels. Perhaps the relatively slow sales of Android tablets have fueled developer apathy, though, and a successful Nexus 7 may spur them to more rapidly adapt to greater screen resolutions.

The final risk surrounding the Nexus 7 comes with the fact that Google is selling the tablets at little to no margin, perhaps hoping that greater sales through Google Play will help make the tablets profitable. The device is not exactly a loss leader, but they aren’t generating profits for Google the way the iPhone and iPad generate revenue for Apple. This is another point that could serve to alienate other Android manufacturers who won’t be able to compete with the Nexus tablet’s combination of price and performance for the simple fact that they will not be able to sacrifice hardware profits the way Google can.

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

Jelly Bean looks to be a fantastic update – a fantastic update I may never see without rooting my device. The new version of Android is not much of a gamble for Google outside the usual odds surrounding carriers and manufacturers actually letting their customers take advantage of Google’s newest offerings. This is one place I’d love to see Google take a major risk: asserting themselves. I know they want to be the anti-Apple in the mobile industry, and one of those contrasts comes with the amount of control they let mobile carriers have over Android. But the results have not been good for consumers. The vast majority of Android devices are running a version of Android that came out two years and three major versions ago (though, I guess this partially excusable since Android 3.0 Honeycomb was tablet specific). Furthermore, carriers are allowed to put their own unremovable apps on Android devices along with their own proprietary tweaks and launchers – all of which increase the time between a new Android release and carriers actually adopting it. To date, only 10% of Android devices are running version 4.0+, released a year ago.

It may be time for Google to put their foot down with carriers and definitively define the Android experience. Like Apple and iOS, Google should be in control of when a device gets a software update, and the only fragmentation should come from the hardware the system is running on, not the whims of a mobile carrier that doesn’t want to support new software on older devices, companies that are only interested in their customer satisfaction at the beginning of a new contract cycle and are uninterested in interacting with their customers in the interim. Android is the dominant player in the mobile industry, and Google is in a prime position to consolidate control over the Android experience. Such intentional fragmentation is unprecedented in recent technology history. Can you imagine Apple being okay with 60% of iPhone users using iOS 4? Could you imagine Microsoft allowing Dell to prevent users from upgrading to the most recent version of Windows? Why is Google okay with such disparity? My guess is they aren’t, but they’ve given so much control to the carriers, they may not be sure how to take it back.

The answer may simply come in the form of an internal update mechanism – one the carriers cannot block or disable – that offers the latest Android updates to users whose devices are capable of running it. The carriers may not like it, but they will have no recourse. To whom else will carriers turn if they don’t like Google regaining control over their own product? Neither Microsoft nor Apple will cede so much control to the carriers, and no other mobile system is close to competing with the features and ecosystems built into the big three. Furthermore, carriers don’t make as much money per unit from Windows phones or iPhones as they do Android devices. Google has tried to invite carriers to more quickly adopt new versions of Android in the past. It didn’t work. It may be time for them to use their position of dominance to force carriers and Android device manufacturers into line.

The Nexus Q

The Nexus Q places itself head-to-head with devices like Apple TV and Roku, but it does so with a higher price and fewer features. The big sell for the Nexus Q comes in its great social features (unique to a device of its kind) and the fact that it can proudly proclaim: “Made in the USA.” No joke. The Nexus Q is basically a domestic product, but this comes with a serious tradeoff for Google – price. Manufacturing in the United States costs more than offshoring, and the Nexus Q’s price reflects that. The question is, if the device is a success, can that money be thrown at a more efficient process, resulting in lower prices? If the Nexus Q can later become price competitive with similar devices from other companies, will Google turn to the States for more products? And if they can prove you can make compelling and price-competitive products while avoiding labor that flirts with human rights abuses, will other device manufacturers follow suit? Can Google help tip the balance to a revitalization of American manufacturing? It may seem far-fetched, but there is a lot of pressure on companies to stop outsourcing their products from people who don’t understand the logistical difficulties of their own demands. If Google can prove those challenges can be overcome, perhaps others will follow.

The challenge comes with the Nexus Q becoming a sustainably successful machine. To do this, I hope Google rolls out some updates to it that bring it more in line with (or even leapfrogging) the likes of Apple TV, and content on Google Play is paramount. The variety and quality of media available through Google Play pales in comparison to the iTunes or Amazon stores, and a device like the Nexus Q is nothing without a healthy ecosystem behind it. Google seems to view this as a chicken-and-egg problem and are facing the problem head on with products that demand consumer attention. Historically, consumer interest in Google Play (outside the downloading of Android apps) has been tepid at best; this makes it hard for Google to draw in and negotiate with content providers. The potential customer base is too small, so interest from the studios is low. This feeds into the problem of Google Play being uninteresting to consumers. With the new Nexus products, Google seems to be hoping that selling great hardware – even with low profit margins – will drive enough people to Google Play to perk the big studios’ and labels’ interest.

Unfortunately, this strategy hinges more on the Nexus Q than the Nexus 7. With an iPad, for example, iTunes is definitely the main source of media consumption. Other avenues are available, but none are as compelling, integrated, or as convenient as iTunes. Google Play, at least until now, has not been as compelling a market to Android customers. Others – like content from Barnes & Noble or Amazon – are available and work just as well as Google’s. This is both a testament to the open nature of Google’s platform and an obstacle to their position as a content provider. Unlike a tablet, for the Nexus Q, Google Play is the only game in town. If Android enthusiasts want to support Google’s foray into the living room, they will have to spend more time in Google’s media store, and, if they do that, more and better content may follow. As it sits right now, the Nexus Q has sold through its first batch in one day, so demand for the device is apparent. The question for Google is whether or not demand will continue after people get their hands on it and experience both its strengths and its limitations. Will it be a sustainable product, or will it become a technological novelty – much like the PowerMac G4 Cube, the iPod Hi-Fi, or the Microsoft Zune?

Wrapping Up

In a few short years, Google has moved from being a search giant to being a major player in the mobile industry, a media content provider, and a compelling social networking alternative. They are building more and better tools, and recent talent acquisitions prove they are not satisfied with sitting on their laurels. They want to raise the standard of their product experiences, and they are willing to make some gambles to make their vision a reality. Despite initially strong sales, nothing guarantees the Nexus 7 or Nexus Q will be long-term successes, but I hope they are. Android is a compelling operating system, and the Nexus 7 looks to make the case for Android better than any tablet to come before it. Jelly Bean looks like a great update, and I want it to find its way to as many people as possible. Google has proven to be an exciting and innovative member of the technology sector, and I hope their current risks reap great rewards that not only help them, but, in the end, will both benefit their customers and their competitors’ customers in the long run.

One of the difficult things about reviewing technology products objectively is when your brain starts saying, “I’m not used to this. I don’t like it.” It’s the first hurdle to overcome when you switch from using a Mac to a PC, from an iPhone to an Android device, or vice versa. The first instance you hit something you’re not used to, there’s a strong inclination to give up and retreat back to the safe harbor of your preferred device. We tend to equate bad with unfamiliar, and, while the tendency applies to things other than operating systems, the hesitancy with which many approach technology in general only strengthens the unfamiliarity aversion.

This is the perspective I am trying to avoid in covering the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9. As a longtime Mac and iOS user, I’ve made sure to use the device for several weeks before finalizing this post, continuously returning to my thoughts, cuttings some things as purely subjective, and firming down precisely where I feel the strengths and weaknesses are. And, despite my bias for iOS, there are some things Google undeniably does very well in their Android operating system. There are also some areas where things fall short, however, and your values as a technology user will ultimately inform your decision between an iOS device and an Android device. I’ll be inevitably comparing the two operating systems, but I also want to look at the Tab’s merits on its own. How does it stack up against the variety of other Android tablets on the market?

The Hardware

Samsung’s tablet hardware is generally good without noticeably standing out from the crowd. I’ve always like the looks of Samsung’s televisions, speaker systems, and media players, so I was surprised how ambivalent I felt toward their tablets. The front has the usual black bezel with a power button, headphone jack, and volume slider along the top. The bottom has two small speakers and a dock connector. The back is plastic with a faux brushed metal texture. The Tab weighs very little, but feels solid in my hands. Still, I’d recommend getting a case for the device as carrying it bare feels like daring gravity to have its destructive way with the Tab.

Samsung lists the Tab 8.9 at $399 (when I started writing this review; it’s now gone), and that price nets you a dual-core 1 GHz processor sitting on NVidia’s Tegra 2 chipset. It has 16 GB of storage and 1 GB of memory. The 8.9″ screen comes in at 800 x 1280 pixels for roughly 170 pixels per inch. It’s not Retina Display, but the pixel density is better than the similarly priced iPad 2. All expansion is handled through the dock connector at the bottom with mixed results – video out can be terribly flaky when it works. The price is not bad for the hardware, but it’s strange that Samsung lists the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 for the same price with more up-to-date hardware and software.

The only gripe I have about the device build comes with the power button, which also functions to wake the device up like an iPhone’s home button. The button is not recessed at all, and it is very easy to push. Before I picked up a folio case for my Tab, the button’s design led to several accidental activations while being toted around in something. This, in turn, led to an unexpectedly depleted battery at times. Either the power button should be recessed like the home buttons on Apple’s mobile devices, or it should offer more resistance to being pushed.

The battery is good. I didn’t calculate hard numbers, but I pay attention to its battery no more than I do my MacBook Air. Samsung claims a 9-hour battery life, and I have no reason to doubt that. The cameras are acceptable but nothing to shout about. If you are considering using a tablet as your main camera (and shame on you for thinking that), you can do better than the Tab 8.9. The rear camera is 3.0 megapixels and uses an LED flash, and the front camera is 2.0 megapixels. The results are images and videos that are fine for uploading to Facebook, but you won’t be winning any photo contests.

an image taken by the Tab’s rear camera

The real differentiating feature with the Tab is its distinctive size. As far as I can tell, only the LG Optimus shares a size with the Tab 8.9. Unfortunately, the uniqueness is not necessarily a good thing. While it still comfortably fits in my glove compartment, it’s definitely bulkier to carry around than a 7″ tablet, being just slightly too large to cradle under my arm like a book. Also, the size makes buying a case difficult unless you are okay ordering a case online without feeling the build quality first. In searching from store to store, I found only one store that had a case for an 8.9″ tablet and none that actually stocked the Tab 8.9. The size factor makes this device a niche product in the already niche Android tablet market, and nothing I’ve done with it really makes a case for a size between 7″ and 10″.

The Android Experience

There’s a temptation to evaluate Android tablets as if they exist in a vacuum. You see things like, “Scrolling through webpages is better than on other Android devices, with only occasional stuttering,” and iOS advocates will look at that and claim Android is being graded on a curve. There is some merit to that criticism, for many reviews assume that you’ve already decided between iOS or Android. Perhaps that’s the case for some readers, but, since I’m switching between iOS and Android, it’s impossible for me not to compare their unique merits and drawbacks.

The Stock Apps

• CLICK HERE FOR A GALLERY OF GALAXY TAB SCREENSHOTS

The Galaxy Tab 8.9 runs a modified version of Android 3.2 “Honeycomb” and comes with a mixture of Google apps, Samsung apps, and promotional apps. I’m going to be honest with you; for the most part, I don’t know which apps come from Google and which are from Samsung, though the Moviefone app sticks out as an obvious promotional placement. The apps that are certainly Google’s – GMail, Play Music, Play Movies, Play Books – look great. On the other hand, they sometimes suffer in terms of functionality. The GMail app, for example, seems to have no support for a unified inbox; so, if you have multiple GMail accounts, you have to browse each inbox individually. The media apps fare better, but there is a dearth of content available through Google Play when compared to Amazon’s or the iTunes ecosystems. Still, each Google app is definitely tablet-friendly, and they get the job done. They look good without being iOS clones.

The quality begins to drop off when using Samsung’s apps. Social Hub, Readers Hub, Music Hub, and Media Hub vary greatly in user interface designs, and they all seem to miss some major functionality. The Social Hub app integrates with a variety of social networks but implements that integration at a very shallow level. Media Hub repeatedly showed me incorrect information for the movies I was browsing, and the selection of films seems even poorer than Google Play’s. I suspect the stock email app and file browser are also Samsung’s, and they too feature awkward design and inconsistent functionality. A couple other media and reading apps are included – even one just called eBook that requires an Adobe ID – but they bring little but redundancy to the system. Samsung even includes their own app store to supplement Google Play, but I have no idea why. The selection is far worse, and the vast majority of apps are not tablet-ready.

One interesting thing Samsung does with their TouchWiz UI is bring some mini-apps to the system. These are apps that don’t run in full screen and behave much like windowed apps on a desktop would be expected to. These include a task manager, a calendar, and a calculator among others. I really like this approach for these apps that don’t necessarily need all of the real estate provided by a tablet for their full functionality. Some app developers have done some really great stuff on iOS, trying to justify using the full screen for simple tools like calculators, but the ability to run these mini-apps enables simple applications to run without any fullscreen awkwardness. In addition to the mini-apps, Samsung’s custom software keyboard is good too. I find myself alternating between it and the default Honeycomb keyboard regularly.

The default browser is decent. It’s no mobile Safari, but it gets the job done, and it no longer renders the mobile version of Facebook’s homepage, instead bringing up the desktop version. It offers private browsing, bookmarks, Flash (for now), tabs, and the other features you would expect in a modern mobile browser. Also, the included office suite, Polaris Office, is pretty good. It capably handles Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. The only odd thing I’ve noticed about it is that there is no easy way to sync with services like Dropbox or Google Drive from within the app.

The main problem I have with the included apps is that not one of them is user removable. You can have the same criticism of an iPad, and it does come with twenty preloaded apps. All of them, however, are optimized for a tablet experience, and none of them duplicate each other’s functionality. Yes, it’s a pain they can’t be removed, but they create a full experience out of the box. The included apps on the Tab, in contrast, are redundant and heavily mixed when it comes to quality. The included Moviefone app, for example, is a phone app through and through. It has no business on a tablet screen, so why include it on such a device? I appreciate the choice of multiple e-readers and music players, but, once I’ve settled on the one I like (Play Music if you must know), let me delete the others. I’m up to 120+ apps on my Tab, and over a third of them cannot be deleted. Even when manufacturers were at their worst installing bloat on Windows PCs back in the 90s, it was all removable. Android is about freedom, and Android manufacturers need to respect that philosophy by making their stock apps removable.

The Good Stuff About Android

Make no mistake, I still prefer using iOS over Android, but there are some things I feel Google does very well with their software. Multitasking works great almost all of the time, and few apps drain battery life when in the background. The interface is beautifully minimal, and Samsung does nothing to get in the way of Android’s natural great looks. Widgets are great, and the iPad’s screen seems incomplete without them now that I’ve had a chance to use Android. Sharing is another strong point that leapfrogs the current version of iOS. Any app that has sharing capabilities automatically populates a system share menu that can be accessed by any other app. It’s great and makes maintaining data across multiple devices a snap.

Another detail I love is the ability to choose a different default app for completing certain actions. Let’s say you download a different browser. The next time you click on a link, a prompt screen will appear asking which browser you want to open the link in; included is an option for Android to remember your choice, so that browser opens every time you select a link. On a related note, I also enjoy the ability to browse the file system. This is one feature I would like to come to iOS, but I also wish the Android file system was friendlier to browse. Part of the problem is that Android is essentially a Linux-based system, and the file structure in most Unix-like distributions is very complex. Mac OS X, however, is also a Unix-based operating system, and presents a very friendly file structure to the user, hiding much of the complexity and creating a shell that is both logical and easy to browse.

I cannot stress enough how much potential Android has at being a stronger tablet OS than iOS in its current form. Google does a nice job skirting a fine line between desktop and mobile interfaces to bring something truly unique with the tablet version of Android, and they seem committed to keep improving the tablet experience. Now if they can only get developers on board with the same level of commitment. Even with their first attempt at a tablet OS, Google has made a system that is very attractive, fairly easy to use, and makes good use of the tablet’s larger screen.

Quibbles & Bits

Despite the promising start, Honeycomb still feels like an emergency landing in many ways. While I admire Google’s flexibility and innovation, there are a number of small issues that hold Honeycomb back; and I don’t know which of these have been resolved with subsequent Android releases. I’ll also admit that some of these issues may have more to do with Samsung than Google, but most users don’t stop and think where a problem originates. They just think, “Why doesn’t this work?”

• The number of home screens is locked at five in the default launcher. If you are only using two or three screens, the extras will always be there unless you download a third-party launcher.
• There is no support for folders in the launcher or on the home screen. Again, you have to download a third party app or launcher to gain folder support.
• I can count the number of hard crashes my iOS device has had on one hand. I’ve already lost count of the number of times I’ve rebooted the Tab.
• Setting a custom desktop is a pain. The OS scales nothing, so you’re left often using only a portion of the image you downloaded.
• Multitasking is great, except for when it isn’t. Occasionally, it forgets what the last open app was and will not display it in the switcher.
• The other problem with multitasking comes with apps running without the user asking. I cleared memory thirty minutes ago, and I now have 23 apps running, using 620 MB of the available memory. I launched only three of them.
• Notifications can be a bit invasive, and managing them is an app-by-app task. There’s no central location to manage notifications like in iOS.
• I’ve run into more than a few apps on Google Play that require additional large downloads at launch after downloading the app from the store. Why is this okay?
• The Gallery app is decent, but it loads every image on the machine without the option to filter out certain folders, so you may end up with albums of app resources.
• Emailing to a group from the Contacts app is a pain. Choose the group, and then individually select every recipient. Then only one of them may appear in the address field when you choose to compose a message.
• Samsung places the button to activate their mini apps in the dead middle of the bottom of the screen, right where you might tap if you miss the spacebar by a millimeter while typing. That never ends well.
• The back button is like the green window control in Mac OS X. You’re never quite sure what it’s going to do when you tap it. You know what you want it to do, but it might have other ideas.

Let’s talk fragmentation. Put simply, I can’t legally download Bejeweled for my Android device, and I have no idea why. Google Play just says it “isn’t supported.” I get this more often than I’d like. Part of the problem may be the in-between nature of the screen, but I run into phone apps I can’t download; I run into tablet apps I can’t download. I run into things I can download but immediately crash the device because they were designed for a stronger chipset than the Tab has. To further befuddle matters, I’ve successfully side-loaded a couple blocked apps as experiments, and they worked fine. What apps can and cannot be downloaded for the Galaxy Tab 8.9 feels entirely arbitrary, and I don’t see that situation improving as Samsung has discontinued the device.

Speaking of apps, the quality in the Google Play store is wanting when compared to the iOS App Store. Yes, the axiom is true that it is just as easy to find junk on the App Store as it is Google Play. The problem for Android is that the reverse is not true. It is more difficult to find quality on Google Play than in the App Store, and the problem is compounded when you are using a tablet. The vast majority of Android apps are phone apps that have to run in a ridiculously pixelated mode, or they will have distorted interface elements, or they will simply run in a portion of the tablet’s screen. You need look no further than the Twitter or Facebook app on iOS verses the same official apps on Android to see a stark contrast, both in quality and in the developers’ usage of the tablet form factor. At this time, Google Play doesn’t even separate out tablet-optimized apps the way the iOS App Store does, making tablet app discovery all the more challenging. I find myself frequently appending tablet or hd to the end of every search query in Google Play in the hopes of finding more high resolution apps.

miss the spacebar by a bit, and you find things in the way.

I also have a love-hate relationship with the ever-present task bar at the bottom of the screen. It’s great to quickly access the software control buttons, notifications, and system controls, but there are times I wish I could make it go away. For example, my daughter loves to draw on the tablet, but her motor control is still developing. On my iOS device, she has caught on that her drawing screen will stay in place as long as she doesn’t touch the big round button at the bottom of the device. On the Android tablet, however, she may get energetic with her strokes, and the stylus will brush something in the task bar. Suddenly, the app disappears, or a calculator appears on the screen, or the notification center appears – and she doesn’t know why. Even I feel this pain while typing. On an iPad, I can type fairly quickly, but on the Android keyboard, I catch myself slowing down to avoid tapping the bottom of the screen when going for the spacebar. It would be nice if you could dismiss the task bar in some way.

Finally, the issue of system updates is a serious weakness in the Android ecosystem. By Google’s own stats, roughly 10% of Android devices are running version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich at the time of this post. 64% of devices are still running version 2.3 Gingerbread, and Honeycomb only ever made it to 2% of devices. This Galaxy Tab arrived almost a year after Android 4.0 was released, and it shipped with Android 3.0. Running a system update bumped it to version 3.2 (which resolved a great deal of app crashes), but version 4.0 is yet to make an appearance. I’m going to write about this in another post, but Google has ceded too much control over the Android experience to the carriers and manufacturers, leaving users in the dark. Could you imagine Microsoft letting Dell dictate when Windows updates roll out? Google should be in control of which devices get updates.

Syncing

Samsung makes an app available, called Kies, designed to make syncing media and data with the Galaxy Tab easier. I’m happy to say that it works pretty well. You can add music, photos, and movies to the app at any time, and, when you next plug the Tab into your computer, it will begin transferring those files. I’m especially happy that they make a Mac version of Kies since the Tab does not appear as a mounted volume in the OS X Finder, and other methods of mounting the device, such as Google’s Android File Transfer for OS X, have proven ineffective.

There is also a Kies Air app available for the tablet that makes it possible to transfer files from your computer to the Tab through a wireless network. It works with your machine through a brwoser plug-in, but it should be reserved for relatively small tasks. It did not support selecting multiple files at once, meaning transferring twenty photos would involve selecting each file to sync individually. Also, the plugin became a resource hog on my MacBook, utilizing about 90% of the CPU when not in use and all browsers closed.

When not using Kies, I find apps like Google Drive and Dropbox incredibly useful. For example, when writing this review, I shared my folder of screenshots with my Dropbox account. Within a couple minutes I had a full folder of Android screenshots sitting on my Mac. I also use it and Google Drive to keep important documents available across both devices, and I’ll occasionally move music and video over to my Tab using Dropbox. The trick with tools like Dropbox is that you have limited space on their server (5 GB for a free account), so you have to remember to remove items from your Dropbox folder when you’ve put them where you want.

Wrapping Up

The Galaxy Tab 8.9 would not be my first recommendation for someone looking to buy a tablet – not even if they insisted on an Android tablet over an iPad. It is a curious product, and one that has no future in Samsung’s lineup. If the transition to the Galaxy 2 tablets is any indication, it looks like Samsung is wanting to simplify their offerings to the more standard 10.1″ and 7″ devices that have been standard among other Android manufacturers. The Tab 8.9 is no longer even listed on their website (which I think speaks to how long it took to write this review). It was an experiment, and they’ve abandoned it.

Even after nearly 4,000 words, I’m sure there are nuances and features of the Tab I’m neglecting. I don’t want you to come away from this thinking I have no interest in Android or that I think it is a poorly implemented mobile operating system. It’s very competent, and, as I’ve written before, Android is an amazing accomplishment for such a disrupted development cycle. Google is nimble on their feet. Even Honeycomb is a testament to this, and I’m sure the Android tablet experience will continue to improve. Right now, if you love tinkering and tweaking your system, Android is the way to go. If, on the other hand, you prefer simplicity and predictability, then iOS is the way to go.

If you want a larger tablet, my recommendation is still an iPad. iOS has as many limitations and quirks as Android, but the difference is one of consistency. iOS’s limitations are consistent with its own design philosophies. Android’s seem arbitrary. (“We’re all about customization! But you can’t group apps into folders or even rearrange them…”) The developer tools for Android 4.1 may help change this, but Android is still very much a phone OS in terms of third-party apps. The Android tablet ecosystem is still floundering. If you insist on going Android (and there are many reasons you may want to do so), I’d either go with the inexpensive Lenovo IdeaTab S2 or a high-end Asus Transformer if you’re serious about performance. If you’re looking to go smaller, the Asus Nuxus 7 is the way to go. It’s very price competitive with Amazon’s and B&N’s offerings, and the Nexus’ performance will run circles around either the Kindle or the Nook. The Tab family is neat, but I feel like other manufacturers offer more compelling products at similar or better prices.

Notes:

• Don’t forget to check out my gallery of Galaxy Tab 8.9 screenshots. (74 images)
• I’ll be following up this post with some apps and customizations I’ve found useful, allowing for a very different user experience than the stock software.

• CLICK HERE FOR A GALLERY OF THESE APPS

Productivity

I have to admit that I didn’t think of the iPod touch as a productivity device when I purchased it, but these apps have helped me stay on top of my projects while on the go – even with such a small screen.

• Keynote ($9.99) is a wonderful compliment to Apple’s desktop presentation application. I keep backups of all my presentations on my iPod as I need them, and Keynote’s editing is far more usable on the small screen than most other productivity apps. It’s the most expensive app I have, but it’s worth every cent.
• Byword ($2.99) is my favorite app for distraction-free writing. I have to admit that I do little writing on the iPod, but I’ve used this app to take some quick notes or compose some thoughts frequently enough. It syncs with Dropbox or iCloud and also features a custom keyboard that makes editing a bit easier.
• Sparrow ($2.99) is my email client of choice for both iOS and Mac OS X. The interface is beautiful. Everything works smoothly, and the app integrates some GMail functionality not supported by Apple’s default mail app.
• Clear ($2.99) has become my list keeper of choice. Grocery lists, to do lists, book lists – everything goes into this app. The interface is highly gesture driven, and it feels very natural on a touch screen. It’s also fun to try and figure out how to unlock the various themes.
• Agenda Calendar ($0.99) has replaced Apple’s default calendar app on my device. Sleek and minimal, Agenda gives you a quick way to look at what’s going on in your life. That it also automatically syncs with iCal, Google Calendar, Facebook events, and more is an added bonus.
• Evernote (free) is my organize-everything app. I start a note on my iPod, and I can finish it on my MacBook later. Then, when I have my Android tablet with me at a meeting, that note is already there, ready for more editing or for perusal. To-do lists, voice memos, image capture – there’s little Evernote doesn’t do. It’s the most useful app I have on my devices right now.

Handy Tools

Sometimes, I just want to do a quick conversion or see find a new recipe. These apps help me out in a pinch.

• Calcbot ($1.99) is a fun and useful calculator. Yes, Apple’s default calculator is just fine, but Calcbot records your history, does calculations while you type, and doesn’t hide it’s scientific functions in landscape mode.
• Convertbot ($1.99) is a great way to get quick unit conversions. As long as you have a WiFi connection, it can even do currency conversions. This app is very handy when you need to figure some conversions on the fly.
• Snapguide (free) is a very nice way to discover and share how-to guides. The community around this app has grown quickly, and I can waste an entire afternoon discovering new recipes and projects in this app.

Reading & Media

The iPod touch comes with nice reading and media capabilities out of the box. Here are a few to make things even better.

• Kindle (free) is loads faster than iBooks on less modern devices (like the iPod touch). I use it for most of my ebooks and for all of my PDF files. iBooks is prettier, but Kindle’s better performance makes it much more appealing.
• Reeder ($2.99) is hands-down my favorite app for keeping up with RSS feeds. It syncs nicely with Google Reader, which means my articles are synced across devices, and it looks nice while doing it. I already use Reeder on my Mac, so grabbing it for iOS was a no-brainer.
• Pocket (free) is the newest version of Read It Later. It allows for offline viewing of content and presents articles and blog posts in a very friendly, non-cluttered layout.
• Flipboard (free) is another app that takes online articles and puts them in a more readable format. Flipboard treats content like a magazine, and it also reads from popular social networks. In fact, I use Flipboard primarily for distraction free feeds from Facebook and Twitter.
• eBible (free) is a very clean, simple Bible that syncs with an ebible.com account. I’ve also used and liked Olive Tree, but eBible’s online features and cleaner interface nudge to the top of my Bible readers.
• Rhema (free) is a simple collection of Dr. Wendell Smith’s Rhema cards. It’s a good Bible study tool, and Rhema has helped me prepare devotionals in a pinch on more than one occasion.
• Rdio (free) is a great music streaming app. I subjectively prefer Rdio to Spotify, but either will cost to use on a mobile device. The app is free, but you need a $9.99/month subscription to use it.

Social Networking

Stay connected to the world around you with style using these great apps. You might notice I don’t have a Facebook app recommendation; that’s because I have none. I’ve been using Flipboard to read friends’ posts, and I use the official app to track notifications, friend requests, etc.

• Goodreads (free) is a social network built around sharing and reviewing books. I’m just getting started there, but I’ve enjoyed the community so far. The app is simple and makes book discovery fairly easy.
• LinkedIn (free) is a great looking app. The whole look centers around being at a conference. While I have to admit that I’ve let my LinkedIn account languish, the app makes me want to jump back into using the network more.
• Google+ (free) is an amazing looking app. I’ve grown to really enjoy Google+ as a network, and their official app outshines the official apps from a number of other services.
• Tweetbot ($2.99) is my favorite Twitter client on any platform. It takes advantage of the touch screen in ways many other app don’t. It looks great. It remembers where you left off when browsing the timeline. You might notice Tapbots has three apps in my list so far. They really get iOS app development, and I’ve been more than happy with all of their apps.
• Google Voice (free) is going to win no design awards. Still, it gives me visual voice mail from my non-smartphone, which makes the app pretty useful.

Games

There are some wonderful games available for the iPod touch – some of which are every bit an artistic experience as they are entertaining. Here are just a few of them. Please note that many of these games have free versions, but I’m quoting the prices for the full versions.

• Anodia ($1.99) is a very nice take on the Breakout formula. Its touch responsiveness is perfect, a factor that weighs against so many similar games. The visual design is great, and the physics behave exactly as expected.
• Anticlon ($0.99) is a puzzle game that is both incredibly simple and devilishly challenging. The simple visuals complement the nature of the game, and the simple mechanics make Anticlon very addictive.
• Astronut (freemium) is a wonderful game from the Iconfactory. It’s easy to pick up and play, has fun physics and even better art. It costs $1.99 to unlock the full game. Fortunately, it’s such a quality production, the price is very palatable.
• Canabalt ($2.99) is the quintessential endless runner. The sound and visuals are sublime. It’s incredibly simple to play but manages to stay atmospheric and exciting despite (or because of) the simplicity.
• Cut the Rope ($0.99) was the first game I downloaded, and it’s still my favorite. Full of personality and charm, the puzzles are great, and the visual style is beyond adorable. Fun, addictive, charming – what’s not to love?
• Fruit Ninja ($0.99) is a game where you slice through flying fruit. It’s practically perfect in every way.
• Hunger Games: Girl on Fire (free) is a surprisingly fun movie tie-in. Similar to Canabalt, the game is a 2D runner with a shooting mechanic smoothly integrated into the experience. The bit art and chip tunes add to the fun atmosphere of this game.
• InstaGamer (free) tuns Instagram’s popular photos into a game of memory. The app is very well designed, and a $0.99 in-app purchase allows you to tie your own Instagram account to the game.
• Jetpack Joyride (free) is a fun endless runner from the makers of Fruit Ninja. Running, jetpacks, and tons of upgrades keep this game exciting and fun. The fact that the developer keeps updating the game with new additions adds frosting to the cake.
• Osmos ($2.99) is a gorgeous game of cellular endocytosis. It’s a very atmospheric game, and it’s also quite relaxing to play – until you have to escape larger cells in a panic.
• Ramp Champ (free) takes the game of skee ball to a very enjoyable place. Themed lanes and objectives add to the fun and challenge, and, since it originated as an Iconfactory project, the art direction is fantastic. Additional lanes are available for $0.99 each.
• Superbrothers: Swords and Sworcery EP ($4.99) is what you might get if King’s Quest came to iOS with perfect touch controls and an incredible soundscape. It’s almost an interactive album combining engrossing music with simple yet compelling adventure gaming.
• Temple Run (free) is a game I simply cannot stop playing. I tried to resist, but I can’t. The force is strong with this one.
• Tiny Wings ($0.99) is one of the most heartwarming games I’ve played. The simple gameplay is tricky to master. The art is charming, and the soundtrack is perfect. This is another game I have a tough time putting down once I launch it.
• World of Goo HD ($4.99) is another wonderfully executed physics-puzzler. Like many other games on this list, it is almost literally oozing with personality. (See what I did there?) The difficulty scales well, and it never seems frustrating, even at its most difficult.
• Zen Bound 2 ($2.99) is simply sublime. The developer describes it as a meditative puzzler, and I can’t think of better words. It’s easy to lose yourself for hours in the atmospheric visuals and audio, and it’s another challenging game that sidesteps becoming frustrating.

Other Stuff

I can’t think of a way to categorize these last few apps, but I really enjoy having them around.

• Garageband ($4.99) is Apple’s incredible portable recording studio. You won’t find a better collection of touch instruments in any other app. My only complaint is that it’s a tad slow to launch on the iPod touch’s hardware.
• Ness Dining Guide (free) has quickly become my favorite app for finding new places to eat. It learns from your likes and dislikes, integrates with Instagram, and is wonderful to look at.
• Five Guys Burgers & Fries (free) makes ordering food from Five Guys dangerously easy. It’s a contender for the best app ever.

One of the things that amazes me is the number of developers really concentrating on the quality of iOS apps. The attention to detail is amazing in most of these, with even simple elements like turning a page reacting to your finger in exacting ways. And the apps keep coming. Not all of them are great, but there are a great number of developers who are bringing a very high level of quality and innovation to Apple’s iOS devices. I’m sure I’ll post more apps in the future. For now, head over to the gallery where you can see pictures of these apps in action.

As usual, the rumors surrounding this year’s WWDC reached a fever pitch, and, again as usual, the actual product announcements failed to live up to the incredible hype built up by not only enthusiasts, but also by people who make a living as professional analysts. The Mac Pro was going to get a serious redesign. Siri was going to become ubiquitous across all of Apple’s device. Apple was going to unveil an HDTV as a successor to Apple TV alongside a TV-specific variant of iOS and a developer SDK. Some even hinted at the possibility of a MacBook Touch. None of these radical changes happened, and absolutely no one should be surprised, least of all the people who have been following Apple for years and decades.

This is not to say Apple doesn’t have an iOS-powered television in its labs. I would be surprised if a few touchscreen Macs aren’t floating about the Cupertino campus, and Tim Cook assures us that the Mac Pro will indeed see some love in the future, though not necessarily the near future. Still, Apple very seldom disrupts their product line or enters new markets without very good reason. They need to feel a certain level of inevitability when entering a new market – not that their entrance in the market is inevitable but that their success in that market is inevitable.

Rolling Momentum

Changes at Apple roll out slowly – or they seem slow due to Apple’s relatively rapid release cycle. Take their laptops as an example. From the PowerBook G4 to the current MacBook Pro, you’d see little change from model to model if you bought a new one every year. (Note: I don’t recommend buying a new laptop every year.) If you jumped from the original PowerBook G4 to a more recent model, however, the differences would be more striking. The same is true of OS X, iOS, or even the iPhone hardware. Each iteration is very similar to the one directly before it, but those iterative changes add up over time to a product that is much more advanced than the one upon which it is built.

I’ve linked to this article before, but I think it’s worth revisiting. When the iPad came out, John Gruber wrote for Macworld about Apple’s process in a piece called This Is How Apple Rolls. In it, he states:

They take something small, simple, and painstakingly well considered. They ruthlessly cut features to derive the absolute minimum core product they can start with. They polish those features to a shiny intensity. At an anticipated media event, Apple reveals this core product as its Next Big Thing, and explains—no, wait, it simply shows—how painstakingly thoughtful and well designed this core product is. The company releases the product for sale.

Then everyone goes back to Cupertino and rolls.

…The iPhone is following the same pattern. In 2007 it debuted with no third-party apps, no 3G networking, and a maximum storage capacity of 8GB. One year later, Apple had doubled storage, added 3G and GPS, and opened the App Store. The year after that, Apple swapped in a faster processor, added a compass and an improved camera, and doubled storage again. The pattern repeats. We may never see an iPhone that utterly blows away the prior year’s, but we’ll soon have one that utterly blows away the original iPhone.

Neither does Apple feel the need to be first-to-market with their products. They had already had phenomenal failures with PDAs and digital cameras that were early entries into fledgling markets. After Steve Jobs returned and stripped the company down to its core components – software, desktops, and laptops – Apple remained very hesitant to trail-blaze new markets. Instead, they have watched for markets that are struggling to grow and bring out a product more compelling than the existing competition. When the iPod came out, it was far from the first digital music player; it was merely the easiest to understand. The iPad was not the first tablet computer; it was just the first to be truly friendly to fingers.

iPhone was the exception. It really was the first smartphone to do away with the hardware keyboard and ship with the screen-as-input model the majority of phones now follow. Still, how long did rumors persist that Apple was looking to get into the phone market before it actually happened? The development of the iPhone was long, and it wasn’t until they were convinced that they had something that would succeed that Apple shipped iPhone. The same will be true if they bring a television to market. The device will have already rolled through several iterations in Apple’s labs. It will be pared down to the features with the most polish, and it will be released to the lamentations of the press. But it will only happen when Apple feels they have a winning solution. That’s how they roll.

Quiet Disruptions

Apple is unafraid to disrupt themselves, however. Their method of doing so, however, is usually so muted it hardly seems a disruption. Yes, the company that rolls out every iteration of their iDevices as the Next Big Thing is never quick to lay the most attention on their greatest changes. Even when they made the tectonic shift from PowerPC to Intel processors, Apple did so using the same enclosures as the previous model. They looked exactly like their predecessors despite being built upon a wholly new and entirely different architecture.

Yes, Apple has given Siri and iCloud a great deal of attention in the media – Siri, in particular. You can’t go ten minutes without seeing an ad featuring Siri during prime time. But what we see is a product in its infancy, a product that is growing through use and is subtly changing the habits of millions of iPhone (and soon iPad) users. Speech recognition has been around for years, but how many people have actually used it? Speech-to-text has been around for years, but how many people dictate to Word? Even my 2001 PowerBook G3 had speech control functions in Mac OS 9, but they always seemed like a niche feature, and a buggy niche at that. What Siri is doing is bringing a speech interface to the masses through the two most popular mobile devices available.

Slowly, Siri is overhauling how we interact with technology, and it’s changing how we think about searching for information. On top of that, the goal is to do these things in a way that is natural, even conversational. It’s ambitious, and it has been and will continue to be bumpy as the technology evolves. One indicator of where things may be going with Siri, though, is the Eyes Free feature coming in iOS 6, a feature that allows you to interact with your iPhone or iPad without the display ever being active. Now consider the efforts Google is putting into hands-free computing with Project Glass and what is theoretically possible with a screen-free device using Siri. The possibilities are positively staggering, but Apple will continue to roll with Siri until we’re at that destination without realizing how we got there.

Consider also iCloud. It’s a simple way to access data over the cloud, but there’s something very important at work here. Yes, you can access files, photos, music, and other data from the cloud using services like Dropbox, but user intervention is involved to make it happen. With Dropbox, for example, you have to remember to save the file you want available to your Dropbox folder. As hard as this is to believe for many readers of this site, a great number of people will get hung up on that basic step because they have little knowledge of how their computers are organized or even how to change the directory in which a file is saved. iCloud seeks to erase that barrier, and I’ve already seen it in action with my own device running iOS 5.

The first time I launched my iPod touch, my Address Book was full the first time I launched it. A month’s worth of photos were instantaneously on the device. There was no syncing involved I didn’t have to tell the device to search the information out. It was simply there.  iCloud does the same with my iWork files. If I’m editing a presentation on my MacBook, the changes are already on my iOS device the next time I pick it up. I don’t have to worry about syncing through iTunes. I don’t have to worry about saving to specific directories. In fact, the way iCloud integrates with Apple’s apps depreciates the file directory. It just works. I have to admit that I was initially dubious about iCloud; after all, iTools, .Mac, and Mobile Me before it were all pretty bad. iCloud is great. It’s ambitious, and it makes cloud computing accessible to anyone.

Always Another Horizon

Because Apple keeps such fluid releases, there is always a sense of momentum to their products. The fact that the iPhone 3GS will see few of the new features in iOS 6 hints that the iPhone 4 may soon be taking its spot as the lowest-end iPhone. The Retina Display MacBook Pro brings Apple’s entire line of traditional computers into question. Like the MacBook Air before it, the Retina Display MacBook Pro is an expensive niche product now that is signaling where their other products will inevitably head. The improved screens will slowly roll into other devices as it becomes less expensive to manufacture them, and, in a couple of years, they will be another feature we take for granted. And it will be another feature competitors will be scrambling to match while Apple is busy rolling toward another subtle disruption.

image by moparx on Flickr

In 1993, six years of research and development culminated in the release of the first Newton MessagePad, and, while handheld computing devices had been on the market for some years by them, the release of the Newton popularized the term personal digital assistant (PDA). The MessagePad left a mark in history, so much so that Newton is still a popularly recognized name – both for its successes and for its failures. It was Apple’s first big push into the realm of handheld computing, and it’s a push that ended in 1998 with the return of Steve Jobs to Apple. Ending Newton was perhaps one of his most infamous and controversial decisions at the time, and rumors ran for years that the Newton would return in some form. But it never did.

Then came iOS.

In many ways, iPhone and iPod touch are a modern realization of what Apple put forth with the original Newton devices; but they have decades of technology improvement to help them succeed where the MessagePad floundered. At a fraction of the size (the original Message Pad was nearly the size of a Kindle Fire), the iPod touch can take the vision of Newton to a whole new level, and the iPhone adds yet other facets to the vision of handheld computing – perpetual connectivity and instant communication. It is through this perspective I use my iPod touch. It is not a media player that can do a bunch of other great stuff; rather, it is a personal productivity device that also happens to play music and movies.

The iOS Experience

• CLICK HERE FOR MY IPOD TOUCH SCREENSHOT GALLERY

iOS 5 is nearly an ideal operating system for a small screen. Everything is very compact, yet nothing feels cramped; and the built-in apps make the most of the small space without cluttering or overcomplicating things. Every icon and button seems perfectly shaped and sized for finger taps, and the entire system is very smooth and responsive. After experiencing numerous Android phones (all running Gingerbread, admittedly), I found iOS to be a far superior experience in terms of touch response and visual aesthetics.

The first experience anyone will have with iOS is the Home screen. All app icons are spaced nicely in a loose 4 x 4 grid with slightly more vertical than horizontal space. App icons can either sit on the top level of the Home screen (which is what I prefer), or you can group them into folders. Folders and apps have distinct drop shadows behind them, clearly separating them from the background and keeping them visible even against similarly colored wallpapers. Note, though, that you can only put twelve apps in a folder, probably so folder contents don’t scroll off the screen. You can have as few or as many Home screens as you’d like, and I have several, each dividing my apps into categories. One tap of the Home button will return you to the main screen.

The Home screen is not without flaws, though. Row upon row of app icons can get very cluttered very fast, and the linen-backed folders are unpleasant to look at in quantity. iOS users have been calling out for Apple to rethink the Home screen for a while now, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it receive a facelift in the near future. The appeal of the customizability of Android’s Home screen – particularly on larger screens – is hard to deny. Some apps act like widgets when you launch them, Stocks and Weather particularly come to mind, but they are still simply apps. I imagine the designers and engineers in Cupertino are taking note regarding the limitations of their launcher, and I wonder if iOS 6 will bring any changes this summer.

Music and Other Media

Media consumption is at the heart of the iPod’s history. From the beginning, the iPod has been, first and foremost, a music player. Later generations added photos and videos, and some games were even available for the later clickwheel models. It comes as something of a surprise then to see how little Apple emphasizes the music and video aspects of the iPod touch when compared to its gaming and social networking features.

That said, the iPod touch is a capable media device. Its tiny built-in speaker is even capapble of a surprising amount of sound, though I wouldn’t recommend watching Iron Man with that speaker. Headphones are a must. The video and music apps are straightforward enough, and it can play back 720p video without a problem. The Retina Display renders high quality video very crisply, and album art looks great too.

I have to admit that may favorite use for the iPod touch is as a photo album. I keep more photos on my device than anything else, and all of the images look great. Photo management is very no-nonsense. (Sadly, iPhoto is not available for the iPod touch.) Everything stays easy to find and navigate, and Photo Stream ensures my latest pictures are on the device before I think about it. If all you’re going to use an iPod touch for is music, video, and images, you’ll come away very satisfied with the experience.

Using Apple’s Apps

Apple’s default apps are very functional and will serve most users perfectly well. Reminders easily handles your to-do list while syncing those items with the Calendar. Mail handles all of my accounts easily and even syncs up with my Exchange account at work, and Messages is a simple and capable IM client. Pretty much everything you’d expect the device to have is there when you launch it. Yes, you can find more capable apps in the App Store if you like, and I have replaced many of Apple’s default apps with third-party programs, but Apple’s supplied apps will serve the majority of users perfectly well.

One stand-out app is Safari. I’ve tried numerous iOS browsers, and I keep coming back to iOS’s default browser. It handles tabs well on the small screen, renders pages quickly and accurately, scrolls smoothly, and zooms in and out with ease. I’ve caught myself with eight or more tabs open without the browser stuttering at all. Safari set the bar among mobile systems, and it is still the best mobile browser I’ve used. It really makes iOS devices stand out among their peers if you do much browsing.

If I have any complaint about Apple’s default apps, it’s a fascination with skeuomorphism to the detriment of aesthetics. To an extent, applications emulating real world counterparts can lower the barrier to entry, but Apple’s designers are inconsistent with their implementations and sometimes even include interface elements that look like they should do something – but they don’t. With the Calculator app, skeuomorphic design makes sense; the blatant use of leather in apps like Reminders and Find My Friends, though, can be more distracting than helpful. And don’t even get me started on Game Center. Perhaps, like the brushed metal interfaces of last decade, this trend is just a temporary diversion for Apple.

Some apps associated with iOS are not actually included. Find My Friends, iBooks, and iTunes U are all separate downloads. Find My Friends is capable enough for stalking friends and family, but, if you are already familiar with Path or Foursquare, you may find its limitations (and leather interface) annoying. iBooks is a wonderful e-reader/PDF manager, but I can’t really recommend it for the iPod touch as it runs very slowly, and iTunes U stands out as a very capable way to access numerous courses from various schools. It even includes syllabi, an assignment manager, and notebooks for each of your courses. Oddly enough, it runs much more smoothly than iBooks even though it looks virtually identical.

On the theme of reading, Newsstand also works well for magazine subscriptions, though the actual issues’ file sizes can become cumbersomely large. Many magazines have free issues you can download with the option of purchasing back issues as well as subscription plans. My only real issue with Newsstand is that you can’t pop it into a folder – it being a folder itself. Oddly enough, each magazine is treated like a separate app and will individually appear in the application switcher right alongside the icon for Newsstand.

Finally, none of this would mean anything if trying to type was unpleasant, but the iOS keyboard is very accurate and fast. First, you should turn auto-correction off (unless you want potentially disastrous hilarity to ensue). Even with my large thumbs, I make very few errors, and the magnifying glass for placing the cursor makes corrections easy, if a bit slow. I really thought I would dislike typing on the iPod touch, but I find the experience surprisingly tolerable. I won’t be blogging on the soft keyboard anytime soon, but I haven’t minded posting a few tweets or composing short emails. It works very well.

Notifications, Multitasking, and Sync

Let me be clear from the beginning: I do not like notifications in general. Perhaps my early years as a Windows user turned me off of them thanks to the task bar perpetually popping unnecessary messages in front of whatever I was doing. Therefore, I may not be the best person to review the way iOS handles notifications. In fact, I turn most of them off. Nothing is allowed to pop up in the middle of the screen or even descend from the top. I keep everything hidden in the notification center and on the lock screen, so I’m only pestered by them when I want to be. Perhaps that’s what I like best about iOS notifications – the ability to hide them away.

Multitasking in iOS is limited and accomplished through some specific background tasks. Audio, local and push notifications, and location services can all run while other apps are active. If you switch apps while completing a task, the busy app has a given amount of time (usually ten minutes) to complete the task before being cleared from memory. All apps are suspended in memory when you switch from one to another, and the first four to five icons you see in the application switcher are usually still stored in the system memory, unless it’s been ten or more minutes since you switched apps.

iOS perpetually quick saves everything you do, so, even if an app is forced to quit and clear memory, chances are you will be able to relaunch the app exactly where you left off. iOS is very conservative when it comes to memory management, and it’s probably one of the reasons the system, as a whole, is so responsive. It’s a very different approach from Android, that takes a more desktop-like approach to memory management, and it comes with its own unique tradeoffs. The benefits in battery life and overall performance, however, are worth the minor inconveniences.

Syncing is very easy if you have iTunes and an iTunes account, but it’s slow. Fortunately, thanks to iCloud, I do very little syncing. My iPod is a self-contained machine, and I let iCloud manage music, document, and photo syncing. All my apps are backed up in iTunes on my Mac, but that also happens automatically through my iTunes account without me having to plug the iPod into the computer. Syncing iPods has always been easy but painful. Thanks to iCloud, the painful part is all but gone.

Acquiring Stuff

There are four major venus for adding apps, music, books, and videos to your iOS device. Apps are acquired through the App Store. Music and video come from separate iTunes stores, and books can be purchased in the iBooks store. Each of these stores is contained in its respective app, but they all look strikingly similar. I’ve discovered that, as long as you know what you want, browsing Apple’s stores is very easy. Discovering new and exciting apps can be a bit more problematic.

If you use a third party media app, like Amazon’s Kindle reader, chances are you won’t have direct access to that app’s store. It’s a bummer, but it’s seldom tough to get your purchased content onto the iPod. Various video and music streaming services are also available as alternatives to Apple’s offerings.

Software Wrapup

I could probably write another two thousand words on iOS and still be missing features. It’s a very robust and mature mobile operating system. It set the standard for touch-based computing before anyone thought it would catch on. It still has some rough edges, and some of Apple’s business decisions are unpalatable, but iOS is as popular and ubiquitous as it is for a reason. The system is simply great. If I had to choose between an iOS device and anything else on the market, iOS would come out on top every time.

The Hardware

Where iOS represents the culmination of Apple’s work in mobile computing, the iPod touch’s hardware is a blast from the past. It is extremely thin and light, but it is very underpowered when compared to Apple’s other iOS devices. It utilizes a single core A4 processor as opposed to the dual core A5 in the current iPhone. Storage starts at 8 GB instead of 16 GB, and it only has 256 MB of system memory (compared to 512 MB in the iPhone 4S and 1 GB in the new iPad). The performance hit is noticeable too.

iBooks and GarageBand are extremely sluggish, with launch times hovering around twenty to thirty seconds. Many games are also slow to launch (yet still faster than the Kindle Fire in my tests), and the keyboard can even be unresponsive at times. The system is too modest, and the low end model comes with too little storage. It takes no time to fill 8 GB. Better that it should have 16 GB like the other low-end iOS devices.

The camera is frightful. It captures decent video, if somewhat noisy in quality, but still images are worthless. The camera is 0.7 megapixels. There’s just no point in trying to capture a shot with it. That Apple includes the ability to take still shots at all is almost insulting. The iPad can take competent shots; the iPhone 4S takes very nice photos; why does the iPod touch get the short end of the stick here?

All complaints aside, the hardware is sturdy. I’ve dropped the iPod more than a few times now, and the glass on front has taken only one scratch. The back is fairly scuffed, but is easily protected with a small case. The Home button is perfectly recessed, making it nearly impossible to accidentally activate the device, and it feels very solid in my hand. Despite the meager tech specs, this does not feel like a cheap device.

The greatest feature is the screen. With a pixel density double most similar devices, the screen stuns. Images and text render beautifully without a single visible pixel in sight. Colors are bright and vibrant. Reading is very pleasant. Even video stands out nicely on the minuscule screen. It makes my MacBook Air’s screen look positively archaic by comparison.

Conclusion

The iPod touch contains both the best and the worst of Apple’s iOS devices. The build quality is great. The screen is amazing, and iOS is a beautiful and smooth operating system. Still, the device’s sluggishness and the poor camera mar the experience. It’s not a bad device by any stretch of the imagination, and it still feels more responsive than many inexpensive Android devices on the market; it just falls short of the high standard Apple’s other iOS devices set. If you want a small iOS device and you can afford a data plan, get an inexpensive iPhone. Even the previous generation iPhone 4 will give you faster performance, more storage, and a better camera.

If you are set on getting an iPod touch, throw in the extra $100, and get the 32 GB model. The 8 GB fills up far to quickly, and that very slight premium nets you four times the storage capacity. By the time you pay for a 64 GB model, you’re at the same price as an iPad 2. The 32 GB iPod touch is the sweet spot.

As far as the future goes, it’s hard to tell what’s in store for the iPod touch. Rumors persist that a 7-inch iPad is on the horizon, and, if true, it will undoubtedly hover close to the iPod’s price. The last iPod touch refresh saw no hardware updates – only the addition of a white model – so we’ve no gone almost two years without a real update to the device. With the exception of the Galaxy Player, nothing else is available quite like the iPod touch, but it’s unclear if this is a niche Apple wishes to continue to pursue.

Given the opportunity, would I buy my iPod touch over? Yes. I like it. The only difference would be that I would get the 32 GB model. Despite its flaws, I find it extremely useful, and it’s become an essential part of my daily routines. Yes, I’d still recommend an iPhone first, but, if you want a capable handheld computer without the burden of a data plan, then you can’t go wrong with an iPod touch.