It Just Works

With Steve Jobs' passing, it seems everyone has something to say about him and Apple. Therefore, I will share one story as well. I bought an iPad when it first came out and it has become an indispensable device that I use everyday. This is no surprise since I've always liked Apple's products, starting from the Macintosh, especially for their design and ease of use. Steve Jobs once said, "This is what customers pay us for - to sweat all these details so it's easy and pleasant for them to use our computers. We're supposed to be really good at this."

What has surprised me is the iPad is so easy to use that even my two-year old daughter, Ava, can use it. I only have to show Ava a few times and she is able to learn to use the iPad to watch her cartoons. She knows to press the home button to turn on the screen; slide the tab from left to right; press the home button again to see the icons; swipe to find the Videos icon; tap and find the cartoons in preview forms; choose and tap the video; and hit the play tab. Now at three years old, she even knows how to adjust the volume from the screen and hit the small button on the top to turn the iPad off.

Below is a picture of Ava watching Elmo at a friend's wedding banquet in Hong Kong; the iPad allows the parents to eat in peace.

While I like to think of my daughter as really smart, the truth of the matter is the iPad, like many of the products by Apple, just works. It still amazes me that a two-year old can use the iPad by herself. This is really a testimony to Jobs' philosophy about design, as he once said, "Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works."

Instagram

Recently I downloaded the iPhone app Instagram and it is just a fun program to play with. With careful cropping and the use of filters provided, any photo can take on a dramatic new look. After the image is processed it can then be shared publicly. Through Instagram one can also browse photos from users all over the world.

I have used Instagram to rework some of the images I took a while back with my iPhone. Most of the images are of architecture and below is a sampling.

Beijing Airport by Foster and Partners

Staircase at the Qingdao Grand Theater by GMP

The Atrium at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City

The Sculpture Gallery at New Canaan by Philip Johnson

e-book

I have the Kindle app from Amazon on my iPhone, but the screen is too small for me to read books comfortably. With the iPad, I can now read e-books more like a physical book; who said size doesn't matter?

The first e-book I bought is The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain. It was on sale at Amazon for US$3.32 with no sales tax and no delivery charges; instant gratification.

iPad

I don't know if I would call iPad the Jesus tablet but it is an extraordinary device. I no longer have to sit at my desk to surf the net. Now I can just kick back on my Eames lounge chair and have the Internet in my hands. In fact I am writing this blog entry on the iPad. I can also read the New York Times with my morning coffee, almost just like the old days.

The First Anniversary

It is hard to believe that I have been blogging for a year now. All of this started with a modest post letting the world know that I bought a new TV. Actually the blog was intended for friends and family in the U.S. to see what we were up to. I started my own blog because I didn't want to use Facebook; I want my own space and some control over the format; after all I am an architect. But just for fun, let's compare Facebook with my blog. Facebook gets over 260 billion page views a month, while my blog generated 5,633 page views in this past year.

Roughly halfway into the first year, I set up an AdSense account which placed a few automatically generated ads on the right side of my blog. I was just curious whether my blog will miraculously make some money for my 529 accounts. On this anniversary, the result of the experiment is actually pretty funny. I have a total estimated earning of US$0.39. Therefore, I am going to take the ads off. I better stick to my day job.

While my blog doesn't rank anywhere in terms of page view, it is not a blog with an audience of one, at least not yet. I do have a cult (sounds much better than "small") following. While my blog is not their home pages, I want to thank them for checking in regularly. These dedicated fans are enough for me to continue.