Google has just released a new feature in Google Analytics that allows you to express your inner rock god by playing back your site statistics as though they were staves on parchment. You have the choice of two different instruments, the fairly pedestrian piano, and a rather exotic sounding sitar.

I must admit, I was sceptical at first, but after listening to a few staves of a site I’m currently working on, I could really hear the nuances!

I’m not sure how long the feature will last, but hopefully they will realise the benefit of listening to your stats while doing things like housework and taking cat pictures.

UPDATE: The Googlers responsible for this awesome April Fools joke are Leo Deegan (G+ Profile), who came up with the idea, and Sergey Yaroshenko (G+ Profile), the engineer who implemented it. Brilliant work guys . Ben McCann suspected it was them.

Telstra only took the wrapping off their LTE network a few months ago after extensive testing in Sydney yielded very satisfactory results.

There may be a consolation prize though.

LTE is an important development for high speed broadband in Australia. It enables an extremely stable high speed alternative to fixed internet connections. I would consider it to be the first technology that provides a high speed “fixed wireless” service that will potentially rival high speed ADSL 2 and cable connections.

So why is Telstra’s LTE incompatible?

The new iPad is the most connected mobile device ever created with more support of different wireless bands than any other tablet or phone. It’s a true “world phone” sorry, “world tablet” that supports the following standards:

LTE (700, 2100 MHz); UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz).

Unfortunately only two bands are supported by the iPad at this stage (highlighted), 700MHz and 2100MHz. Telstra currently operates it’s network at 1800MHz, so at the moment, 4G is not supported on the iPad connected to Telstra.

This must surely be disappointing to Telstra, Apple has effectively locked out LTE on the iPad and most likely the new iPhone when it arrives later this year.

So what is the “consolation prize”?

Apple has included DC-HSDPA support in the new iPad. This means that a theoretical speed of 42 mbps is possible when dual 21 mbps HSPA+ downlinks are utilised using this technology.

While it’s not as stable and fast as LTE (LTE’s theoretical limit is 72 mbps), it’s still a fantastic speed for browsing the internet while away from wifi.

I have clocked DC-HSDPA on a Telstra Sierra Wireless 4G dongle at 16 mbps, shich is nothing to sneeze at.

When will Apple support 1800 MHz?

Of course Apple has not made an announcement about what other LTE MHz bands it will support in the future. At the moment the current LTE bands globally are as follows:

The LTE standard can be used with many different frequency bands. In North America, 700/ 800 and 1700/ 1900 MHz are planned to be used; 800, 1800, 2600 MHz in Europe; 1800 and 2600 MHz in Asia; and 1800 MHz in Australia. As a result, phones from one country may not work in other countries. Users will need a multi-band capable phone for roaming internationally.
Source: LTE on wikipedia  

The iPad supports only 2 LTE bands, so the likelihood of Apple supporting so many bands even on the next iPad seems remote to me. All of this hinges of when Qualcomm (the company that provides Apple with modem chips) will bring out a chipset that works across so many bands.

Conclusion:

I don’t see LTE coming to Australia any time soon. The likelihood of Apple creating an iPad or even iPhone that supports LTE for the Australian market seems a distant fantasy to me.

Do you disagree? Add a pithy comment below.

I set about over a day ago to write down some of my thoughts on where I thought the iPad was headed and I have to say from a specs point of view I pretty much nailed it, with the exception of one important factor: no 3D maps… yet. My projection of the Apple TV however was an utter failure on almost all counts…

Read on the find out where I was right and wrong.

Apple TV failure

I was wrong about the Apple TV. It’s still a hobby, there was no rebirth, and no major content deals were announced. Sure it did get a bit of a UI cleanup, but thats all it was. Sadly Siri is not invited to your next home movie night with friends. The Apple TV does not have a beefy enough processor to support a major gaming announcement in the next cycle, so we can kiss away playing the new Infinity Blad Dungeons on the Apple TV. I still think Apple could steel a huge amount of market share from Microsoft and Sony. They could kick the ball out of the park… oh sorry no sports games on the Apple TV yet.

The “new” iPad quad core graphics processor

The chip was indeed the rumoured A5X – a dual core chip with much beefier graphics capabilities care of a quad core graphics unit.

I think this is a master stroke by Apple, not only have they removed the unnecessary waste of adding a power hungry quad core chip to the “New” iPad, but they have handed games and app developers the next level while keeping the same threading and development framework with dual processors. I would love to see Android tablets try and keep up.

I correctly felt that if Apple were to introduce a retina display, then they could use a dual core display with “much faster graphics” capabilities. I was right on that count. The strange part about this was that I was right on both options I presented! It indeed does have a quad core chip in it… just not a quad core cpu, but a quad core gpu. So if you read that post in the fine light of todays sunshine (I’m not a revisionist at heart… honest!) I can honestly say I predicted both scenarios correctly… it’s strange days indeed. Rimmer would be proud.

The much rumoured iPad retina display

I was wrong on this count, the iPad did come with a retina display. While I could wriggle out of it by quoting some squirrel phrases, I won’t, I’m a man enough to know when I’m wrong. That doesn’t mean I can’t make excuses… the whole iOS 6 / Ars Technica thing was probably a red herring after all. Of course 5.1 has retina support!

Name change / truncation to the “new” iPad

No one saw the confusion coming.

LTE support

I was dead on the money. LTE was included… but I missed one important factor for iPad users in Australia; the modem doesn’t work on Telstra’s LTE network at 1800mhz.

I’m struggling to process the implications of this it raises a few questions. Will Apple release an iPad in the next refresh (a year from now) that supports 1800mhz? Or will we be stuck in 3G doldrums for the next few years waiting for support?

iPad Camera

No surprises - a better quality camera was included. While it was only 5 MP, it’s still good for filming HD videos.

Conclusion: No 3D maps or iOS 6… yet

I left this to last because I was the most wrong. While I think Apple are still working on 3D maps, I feel they have a released an iPad more than capable of delivering a great user experience with LTE and a quad core processor… and more importantly, better than a quad core cpu, it’s a quad core gpu that will deliver silky smooth 3D graphics on the retina display. Not only is this great for game developers, but Apple has a device that can handle 3D maps when it’s released in this current cycle later this year.

My musings about about an iOS release on the iPad before the “new” iPhone “5″ or whatever they plan on calling it was way off and I should have known better.

What do you think? Did I get it mostly right or mostly wrong? Do you have other thoughts?

I think thats all about to change tomorrow. Keep reading to find out why.

The Apple TV is about to be reborn

I always felt that the Apple TV was half a product. I own a 1st generation Apple TV and while I adore it for watching movies and TV shows, I have found it has very little utility beyond Apple’s limited catalog of content. I also have felt that there is much more room for better discovery of content on Apple devices, this includes music in iTunes and Apps in the Apps Store.

They Say Content is King

Back in the 90′s I got my start cutting interactive training CD’s as a multimedia designer. Back then the mantra of “content is king” was just as strong then as it is today. It’s a theme that has continued to disrupt every content delivery paradigm since, when a whole industry suddenly wakes up and realises that extraordinary content is the key to driving sales.

A great example of this recently has been the SEO industry and Content Farming, they realised with a great deal of pain after the Google Panda update that one cannot simply game the “discovery system” i.e. Google, and expect people to flock to them, not bounce away from their site and return at another time for more. Delivering quality content is what drives views and sales. The old adage applies, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.

Content is king but “discovery” is queen

The App Store is an example of a system that favours the few, there are 40 categories of apps by my cursory count in the App Store with 25 “Top” paid and free listings and latest releases. So basically the App Store has only 2000 apps in the top 25 of each category. I won’t go as far to say that the App Store only has 2000 apps, but it would help to explain how important the next “Discovery” shift will be. I think this is the single biggest user experience failure of Apple to date, there is no simple way of “seeing” interesting apps that you never thought you needed. A find field and is not enough anymore Apple, Google knows this with universal search, auto-suggest and Google+, there is no simple way of exposing great content without the help of my friends. A combination of curation and social signals are needed to fix this. Ping was a good attempt, but fell well short of it’s potential. I think their recent acquisition of discovery and app aggregator Chomp shows that they are making progress in this regard.

The point I’m making is, what is the point of great content if no one can find it?

The Apple TV will crack content discovery

It’s hard to guess how Apple will do it, but it may be a combination of algorithms and good old fashioned curated “channels” or Channel Apps that Apple will allow the major studios to curate themselves, similar to cable TV. Like I mentioned, social and curation signals may come into play that will expose great content. A system that effortlessly allows remarkable content to lift through the user experience. I think of a feather wafting up on a updraft.

The Apple TV needs a major UI update

Wafty metaphors aside, I think that Apple is about to do a major interface overhaul of the Apple TV. I would love to see Apple add a “Siri Remote” to the Apple TV as some have opined, imagine a microphone built into the remote control that allows you to control the TV. “Show me a list of new procedural police dramas that my friends like to watch”. Never mind shouting at the TV, I just don’t see this happening, I’m sure the best way to do it is to build the mic into the remote. Problem soved.

Games, games, games

What I would really love to see is apple add games to the Apple TV. There is no question in my mind that the A5X chip coming to the new iPad 3/HD would have the power to turn the apple TV into a fully fledged console. Will Apple do this? I’m not sure, it would need a hard drive, and the rumour mill isn’t grinding out articles about it, but it would sell a lot of Apple TV’s, and they have the developer base and ecosystem to pull it off.

Live video streaming

I think that Apple could pull off a major coup with live pay-per-view streaming of one off events, as well as subscriptions to live streaming of sports and other time sensitive events. The hard part is pulling off the deals with the studios.

Conclusion

The Apple TV was always the only child cousin, sullenly sitting in the corner getting little attention. But no longer! Tomorrow it will get the attention it deserves by becoming a fully fledged member of the Apple ecosystem. Will Siri make a showing? I don’t know, but I do know that Apple will change the way that we relate to content on the TV.

Read on to find out my reasons for why I think Apple will up the specs on the next iPad.

3D Mapping: features drive the specification

After reading a lot of speculation about the iPad 3 I was dismayed to read that many commentators have forgotten about a mapping software company Apple bought a few years years ago called Placebase. They backed up this purchase in August last year with the acquisition of a 3D mapping outfit called C3 Technologies that was spun out of the Swiss military.

You can see an amazingly visceral demonstration of this 3D tech here. I was gob-smacked to see the progress that this company has made toward automating 3D data mapping of surfaces and buildings using airplanes. None of the data is hand modelled, all the 3D and textures are taken in realtime and then reduced down for display on an iPad.

I think that if Apple is nearing commercialisation of this technology in this release of the iPad then I suspect that it will have a number of features needed to display mapping data of this size. More of everything would need to be shoehorned into the iPad 3 to support functionality like this. Here are the contenders…

Apple’s fast graphics and processor for displaying 3D maps

I think that Apple could add a quad core processor to the iPad, this type of application requires a fast processor and I think Apple would want to create a smooth and fluid user experience. This would possibly require a quad core processor and faster graphics processing – possibly the rumoured A5X processor. I wonder however if it could do what it needs to do with a dual core chip and much faster graphics processing – hence the incremental A5 update.

Extreme Tech goes into a bit more detail about the possible forthcoming processor here.

I want a quad core processor. But my gut says it’s an incremental update to the A5… Extreme Tech supports my thinking that it’s a dual core chip with a much beefier graphics processor to keep up with my next point…

The rumoured iPad 3 retina display

The guys at Ars Technica have noticed a bunch of visitors with 1,536 x 2,048-pixel displays on iOS 6.0 devices – this is a strong indication that Apple is at least testing a 2x “retina” version of the iPad screen. While it would be wonderful to see a screen of this size released on this version of the iPad, it just doesn’t seem to quite fit the iOS release cycle to me. iOS 6 probably won’t arrive until July – October with the iPhone 5. We can either hope to see the iPad retina display added now and supported by iOS 5.1 or wait a whole year for the next iPad. On the other hand, what is stopping Apple from releasing iOS 6.0 on the iPad 3 first? Stranger things have happened.

My hope is that it is a retina display, and realistically with 5.1 support. But in the back of my head I’m just not sure if it will be ready, even though a prototype case has been caught in the wild by M.I.C Gadget and MacRumors pulled out a doozy by sourcing a retina prototype display.

My point is that Ars Technica would have iOS 5.1 devices showing at 1,536 x 2,048 resolution, not just version 6.0 if we expect Apple to release the retina display in this release cycle. I hope we aren’t setting ourselves up for another iPhone 5 disappointment. There was enough miss-information circling about what was to become the iPhone 4S that I wonder if this will be released as the iPhone 2S?

High speed data with LTE

This is one thing that I am almost certain about. The iPad will be released with an LTE radio. The time is right for LTE and I don’t believe Apple can miss it in this release cycle. Extreme Tech don’t think LTE is mature enough, but I don’t buy it. I think this is a big reason for the slightly thicker case, more battery life would be required. I also believe that if 3D maps are released in this cycle then an LTE modem would be necessary to stream all that 3D data. Imagine what will happen in this Post PC era? Average Joe renter only requiring LTE data on their iPad at home and eschewing their wired connection for the simplicity of LTE? While not every segment of the market would go for this, I think it has its place.

Camera’s

I don’t think it would surprise anyone if Apple releases the same complex of cameras in the iPad 3 as is currently in the 4S. This seems a natural progression to me, and a great match for Facetime over LTE.

Conclusion

I know I have been vacillating a bit here on features. But the crux of my forecast is that if Apple releases a retina display and a new 3D mapping platform then we will see a big spec bump, maybe a quad core processor in the form of an A6 processor with improved battery life and larger batteries thanks to the thicker case, throw in LTE and Apple with still own tablets for the foreseeable future. My feeling is that this will happen next year.

On the other hand, if 3D mapping isn’t ready and the retina display is due for the next cycle, then we may only see a more incremental iPad update with a “A5X” processor that has good energy saving features for LTE and better cameras. This also doesn’t negate the possibility of a retina display as well, but my concerns about the release cycle of iOS 6.0 not withstanding, I think this whole argument hinges on whether Apple has retina support ready in 5.1. If this is a more muted announcement for the iPad in terms of specifications, then Apple may have another major “feature” in the wings as well, it was definitely Siri on the iPhone 4S, if it weren’t for Siri’s soothing voice, there would have been rioting on the streets when the 4S was announced and the iPhone 5 no-where in sight.

As I have speculated, I think it’s a 3D mapping platform, but there may be something else (another Siri) up their sleeve to wow us all with. Maybe they have taken 3D mapping even further… integrated it into something social with augmented reality, if there’s anyone can get AR right it’s Apple.

Like I said before “stranger things have happened”, the iPad could bump up the 6.0 sooner than we think. These prototypes floating around tend to throw of speculators scent like the 4S did. Maybe the iPad 3 will get the A6 and the iPhone 5 the A5X – who knows?

I know who does, the guys at Apple are working around the clock to see this release out the door. And know one thing, we will be surprised and we might be disappointed, but I can’t wait to see what Tim Cook and his team have to show us on Thursday morning!

I hope this works! We are using WordPress as a kin of social image sharing tool for churches…

I loved the experience so much that I decided to start my own SUP blog to record my experiences Suppin and also explore the possibility of selling SUP boards & accessories online.

So I created my first blog chronicling my experiences that day, so go on over and check out my first SUP blog post.

Until one day I did a google search to see if anyone else had the same issue!

Fortunately someone else had the same problem, asking the same question I had in a forum somewhere “why is my wireless keyboard dead?”. Everyone had a possible answer, batteries. No!

The issue wasn’t actually with dead batteries but with the contact that the batteries made inside the keyboard. Apparently over time the springs ware out a bit, much like Grandma’s old spring mattress and need a bit of help to make the difference.

The fix? Grab some steel wool from the kitchen and tear off a small piece, take out the batteries and pop in the steel wool, put the batteries back in and it should work!

Failing all else (and I do think this is a last resort) take it in to your nearest Apple store for a warranty claim.