Categories
Apple

Don Melton on Debug 69

I was hoping we’d hear from Don Melton on the idea that Safari is the new IE and he didn’t disappoint. For those that don’t know Don is the man that started the WebKit and Safari projects at Apple. He’s also a former Netscape developer so he’s been around the web and web browsers for a very long time. If you have some time go listen to Debug 69, it’s a bit explicit, Don like to drop the F-bomb, but it’s also very informative.

Two things stood out about how the Safari team approaches development of new things. They really care about security and battery life, since mobile is now king. It’s apparent they introduce features quite a bit more slowly than Google. That fact goes a long way to explaining why Google forked WebKit to create the Blink project. They wanted to move faster and felt held back by Apple’s WebKit team.

UPDATE: 7/25/2015 – I sent a link to Mr. Melton via Twitter and he graciously took the time to come read this post, which I really appreciate. Afterward he provided some excellent feedback. Here’s a correction to the statement above:

Something I’ve been an advocate for is the implementation of the ECMA CLI in all web browsers. It was interesting to hear Don talk about the idea of Web Assembly, which is the new push to make languages that convert down to JavaScript so you can write in multiple languages on the web (which is why I’m a fan of a CLI implementation, we could have C# on in the browser, nifty.) Don’s take made me reevaluate my position. Why not let websites be websites and let applications be applications? Both need HTTP and the web. I’m a fan of web services and that is definitely the new backbone of any application development today. A lot of applications, be it in the browser, or native, depend on web services to do their job. The application I work on daily is no exception. At Agrian we have a web application and a native iOS App backed by a web service. The native application was created because Agrian wanted to create the best user experience they possibly could, not to mention provide a great offline experience. Our application is used by farmers that are often out in the country side, and often without connectivity. Changes are cached and synchronized when the farmer has a connection. It provides a good experience all thanks to the ability to save while offline and push changes to our web service when the time is right. Wow, sorry, went off the rails there.

The point is, I’m not sure making the web browser do everything you can do on the desktop is the right thing to do. Let the web be the web. If you want to do a native application embrace the platform and do the best possible job you can for your users. This holds true for Android or iOS. Both provide great SDK’s built to take full advantage of the platform.

Go forth and create.

Categories
Potter

More Harry Potter? Yes please!

Harry Potter, year five/Film: “Personally, I feel like the best way to have more stories in the Harry Potter universe, beyond Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, is to do a prequel franchise focusing on the original Order of the Phoenix, with James and Lily Potter, Sirius Black and more fighting Voldemort the first time. Sure, we know how it ends with Voldemort falling due to The Boy Who Lived, but we don’t know about the battle before that. I’m not saying that we need those prequels, but I wouldn’t be opposed to see those stories played out.”

My wife and I were talking about this a few days ago. We would love to see a series of books from J.K. Rowling about the original Order of the Phoenix. That would be amazing.

Categories
Apple

Jim Dalrymple on Apple Music

A cute little monkey.The Loop“Over the weekend, I turned off Apple Music and it took large chunks of my purchased music with it. Sadly, many of the songs were added from CDs years ago that I no longer have access to. Looking at my old iTunes Match library, before Apple Music, I’m missing about 4,700 songs. At this point, I just don’t care anymore, I just want Apple Music off my devices.”

Ouch. It sounds like Apple Music has some really serious problems to sort out.

Will Apple ever get the “they can’t build web services” monkey off their backs?

Categories
Life

Exeter – Internet Stone Age

My wife and I recently purchased a home in Exeter, California. I spent most of my life here, she attended High School here, and we raised our daughters here. Exeter is a small farming community and a great place to raise a family.

We came back because we know it well and like it. The housing market in California has mellowed a bit since the crash of 2008 and now was a good time to purchase. We are thrilled to be back and we love our new home and neighborhood.

When we considered moving back to Exeter the thought of Internet connectivity never crossed my mind. We live here up until the end of 2010 and had a decent Verizon DSL connection. I figured we would get Verizon DSL or a cable provider when we moved back. Boy, was that a mistake.

After all was said and done we spent a few days painting inside our new home before moving in. One day during our painting fest our real estate agent dropped by with a housewarming gift and asked how things were going. We chatted for a while and as she was about to leave she asked “What are you doing for an Internet connection?” I was a bit taken aback. I said I’d call Verizon to see about getting DSL. That’s when she informed us she’s had new renters avoid Exeter because they couldn’t get a good high speed connection provider. Uh, what? Isn’t it 2015? I thought high speed connectivity was available in towns large and small? Again, I was mistaken.

It turns out Verizon has “filled all their DSL ports.” That’s right. The ONE well know provider of high speed connectivity couldn’t help us. I asked about expansion. They offered to put me on a waiting list. Yeah, good luck with that. I can imagine a few hundred names ahead of mine.

That was a real kick to the gut. I work from home a few days a week so I need something better than dial-up. Dial-up? Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. Heck, we don’t even have a phone line any longer. My thoughts turned to using a cellular hotspot. Not a bad idea but it would prove expensive. I started looking for alternatives. They exist but they’re costly when you look at what you get for the price.

In the end we settled on Dish Internet. I signed up for a 50GB data plan that provides 15Mbps download speeds for $79/month, with a lovely two year commitment (oh yeah, they really stick it to ya.) Not ideal, but workable. By comparison we had a 30Mbps Comcast connection for $39/month in Visalia (the city we just left.)

But wait, it gets worse.

After our installation was ready to roll I gave the connection the old speed test. We only get 2.5Mbps down and 1.2Mbps up. Uh, that’s not right. Needless to say Dish Network and I will be having a conversation next week about improving our service or dropping the price dramatically. 

It’s really hard to believe in 2015 we can’t get a decent connection in our little town. The lack of connectivity will turn off a lot of buyers and I’d imagine most renters in today’s market. If you need connectivity at home or for your business and can’t get it you’re probably going to move your business or buy a home elsewhere.

I cannot recommend using Dish Internet if you need it for more than getting email or casual web surfing. Cellular is faster in most cases.

My hope is Exeter will realize the potential economic impact on the community and push for better solutions. Until that day arrives, we live with what we have.

Categories
Apple Google

Is Safari the new IE?

Duct Tape, fixer of all things!Nolan Lawson: “It’s tempting to interpret this as a deliberate effort by Apple to sabotage any threats to their App Store business model, but a conspiracy seems unlikely, since that part of the business mostly breaks even. Another possibility is that they’re just responding to the demands of iOS developers, which largely amount to 1) more native APIs and 2) Swift, Swift, Swift. But since Apple is pretty good at keeping a lid on their internal process, it’s anyone’s guess.”

The web is ever changing and evolving as is the mobile development community. Here we have a web developer that’s dying to take advantage of new technologies but is stymied by Apple’s lack of support for a set of open standards. Do I think this is deliberate on Apple’s part? Well, yes and no, but I don’t think it’s malicious. I think it’s a matter of priorities.

Compare and contrast Apple and Google. Apple is about creating and selling hardware with the best user experience it can possibly provide. That means investing in the native experience. On the other hand we have Google who is all about the web and web technologies. They spend their time investing in the web. It makes complete sense for both companies to invest in the thing they believe in. It’s part of their DNA. They can’t help but do what’s right for their respective platforms.

It is interesting to note Google forked WebKit into Blink a couple years back. You gotta wonder if Google believed Apple was moving too slowly when it came to standards adoption. It seems a reasonable conclusion.

I’d love to hear from Don Melton on the subject. Don was the guy that started the Safari and WebKit projects at Apple. He would know better than anyone why Apple is doing what they’re doing. Having worked on some large projects in my past life I feel pretty confident in saying it’s a matter of company priorities. Pretty simple really. You have to put resources where it makes sense for your company.

Apple will come around. They have to. The web will eventually mature to the point that it can compete with native applications. When that happens the browser will have to become the new operating system.