Regular People Have No Idea How To Manage Photos On Their iPhone

I'm serious, they don't. They don't know that they don't, but they don't. If you grab a co-workers iPhone and they have 2500 photos on the camera roll, then you know they don't. They'll just keep taking photos and assume "the cloud" or whatever is backing it up. For a time, it is. That is until their backup hits the mythical 5GB mark and iCloud starts pestering them to remove data or buy more space. Some people buy more space, but most just continue to ignore it and hope Apple has their back. I hate to break it to them after their takes a swim in the lake, but they don't. Multiple companies are stepping up and trying to solve this problem in different ways, though.

  1. Dropbox - It asks you on iOS and on the desktop to automatically upload photos. In fact, Dropbox will give you 3GB of additional free storage if you upload 3GB of photos.

  2. Google+ - Google is largely doing the same thing as Dropbox, but only on iOS. They even mark the photos as private by default (good move).

  3. Everpix - Just go read my review.

Apple needs to do one of the following things (in my opinion):

  1. Buy Everpix and integrate that functionality right into iOS and the Mac. I love Everpix as standalone company, but a lot of people aren't ever go to hear about them unless it was functionality built right in by default. Also, photo stream needs to be reversed. Apple should store ALL photos/video taken with your iPhone and just store the most recent 1000 (or 30 days) locally on the device.

  2. Make iCloud free for the total size of all the active devices backing up to that account. If I have a 16GB iPhone and a 32GB iPad, I should have 48GB available on iCloud for backups. If a device doesn't "check in" every 90 days, then that amount is removed from your quota. This would also be another reason to buy higher storage devices.

  3. Make iCloud storage a terabyte for all users for free. This is virtually the same as number two, but giving you so much that you'll likely not run out for a decade or so. Yahoo did it for Flickr, why can't Apple?.

The kids born 2010 and beyond (when the iPhone camera actually got good), will have a ton of pictures taken of them. Parents largely don't have a digital workflow that allows for backup, usability, and long term storage. Apple has always prided itself on making technology for regular people. This is a problem that regular people need solved. Photo storage and backup needs to be automatic and so easy that it's nearly impossible to screw up.

Adventures for iPhone

Adventures for iPhone is a travel/adventure journal app for the iPhone that uses Evernote as its syncing engine. I like this idea because I know that I can easily view the data in the Adventures App or in Evernote. Each "adventure" is stored as an Evernote note (inside an "Adventures" notebook) and can contain 1 location, 10 images, and the actual text. At $2 (on sale), it looks like a steal.

Developer website

Everything’s Easy When You Don’t Understand

George Spencer:

“You block adult content with parental controls, why can’t you block child abuse material?” — MP Claire Perry solving the problem of online child abuse at a summit designed to consult experts from ISPs, Google, and others on how to crack down on child pornography

If her failure to understand the way the web works is understandable, the role given to her in government certainly isn’t. Would you hire someone who doesn’t know what a hyperlink is? Maybe. Would you allow them to be in charge of a nationwide always-on system for automatically filtering the internet? Probably not, unless you didn’t understand the web either.

Basic computer skills are non negotiable parts of working in 2013. If your job requires you to learn a software package you are unfamiliar with, you need to figure out a way to learn it. Either take a class, read a book, or just dive right in. Technology is a huge part of any sort of business and when people act like "I just can't understand computers like you computer people do", I often think, shouldn't that be part of your job requirements? I am not saying that Susie in accounting needs to understand killing the OS X dock via terminal, but she should probably understand how to drag an application to the dock. There is a huge difference between being a 'tech person' and having a general understanding of technology. I am not asking everyone to be as big of a technology person as me, but I am asking everyone to at least try to understand. A mechanic doesn't ask me to understand how to rebuild an engine, but I should probably know enough to change an air filter or a wiper blade (and when to get my oil changed).

Link via @jaredcallais

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My thanks to Top Storey Apps for sponsoring Chambers Daily this week

Starbucks Teams up with Google to Upgrade Wi-Fi

Starbucks Newsroom:

SEATTLE, July 31, 2013 - Starbucks today announced the selection of Google to provide the next generation of its Wi-Fi offering for its customers. Beginning this August, new U.S. company-operated Starbucks® stores will begin to receive up to 10 times faster network and Wi-Fi speeds. Over the next 18 months, Starbucks will convert more than 7,000 U.S. stores to the upgraded store network and Wi-Fi experience.

This is great news! I said a few months ago, guest WiFi that actually works is a great opporuntity for coffee shops and hotels. The WiFi at many of these locations is so bad that it's unusable during peak times.

Via @johnstultz

The Mixed Bag - What Defines a Good Bag?

Fraser Speirs:

Welcome to The Mixed Bag. What is this site for? Well it’s about bags. Computer bags, to be precise.

I wanted to read a site where really, really good bags were reviewed in depth. There are sites that review bags from a commercial point of view and there are sites that occasionally review a bag along with all kinds of other reviews.

When Fraser told me about this a few days ago, I immediately subscribed via RSS. I have an absolute love/hate relationship with every bag I have used. Sites like this are why I love the internet.

Website

Twitter

Instagram - A perfect use of Instagram video

Managed Service Providers And Employees Who Don't Need The IT Department

BYOD is one of the hot buzz words among enterprise and education blogs right now. While I am a big fan of 'baseline' BOYD (where you set a range of supported devices like iPad running iOS 6 as the minimum), I don't believe that employees should be able to bring any device they want. On the flip side, you have employees bringing devices in that they are experts of. They don't need the IT department to teach them how to setup their mail client. They just want to know the server address. They don't need to know how to install the company CRM app. They just wanted to know the name of it and their password. These are the employees who simply want us (the IT departments) to make sure they have a fast Internet connect at the office. They are 'good' (in reference to when you ask someone do you need anything and they respond with 'nah, I'm good'). They don't need 'us' for every little computing task. The Post-PC era has changed us forever. The Gmail generation (the people who were in college when Gmail was released) is thriving in the workplace. If their company switches to Google Apps, then they need very little training. They just need their email address and temporary password. They probably know more Gmail tricks than I do. Again, they are 'good'. IT departments are being shoved out of the end user device world, but this will give us more time to focus on routing protocols, firmware upgrades, and RF optimization. All that time we've spent rebooting XP machines can be spent on things that we actually like to do, right? I hate to break it to you, but there is a new trend and if you are a SysAdmin by trade, then you need to be afraid. Managed Service Providers (MSP) is the new cloud computing.

What is a MSP? A MSP is a turn-key IT operation. They do it all. They come in and set up and manage your entire network for a monthly fee. It's similar to when an accounting department outsources payroll. If end users are taking care of their own devices, then the IT department is at risk from being out-sourced to a MSP. Gartner predicts this will be a $288 billion dollar industry in 2013. As employees become more skilled with technology, the IT department will be handling fewer help desk tickets. As they handle fewer tickets, the shrinking of the department is inevitable. If there is less work to do, then you ultimately need fewer IT people (this is what they call operational efficiency). The same amount of work is being done with less people. The 'powers that be' might take notice of this and look for other ways of shrinking a 'cost center' (IT is basically an expense that doesn't generate revenue). Instead of having a Microsoft Exchange admin, the company might switch to Google Apps or Office 365. Instead of running a custom built CRM, Salesforce.com might be deployed. As this trend continues, all the IT department is left with is maintaing the firewalls, switches, and WiFi. This is where the MSP enters. The pitch is that its a turn-key operation. The subscribing company pays a monthly fee and 'it's all handled'. Upper management can out-source the network infrastructure, while the end users handle their own devices. Where does this leave the IT department? It leaves them being handed a pink slip. We are no longer needed in the above scenario. It's sad, but true. We are a manual cog in a wheel that is being automated.

What does the IT person who would prefer to remain employed do about this? You ultimately can't fight it. This trend is growing. You've got to evolve. You've got to become more than just a broke/fix person or a SysAdmin. You've got to help turn your IT department into a solutions department. You've got to be able to do things that the MSP can't. You've got to be able to solve business problems with technology that create operational efficiencies (now you are paying your own way). You need to be able to connect puzzle pieces. You see work flow issues between departments and piece together solutions to solve it. Let the MSP handle the 24/7 uptime and maintenance windows. You can spend your time coming up with technology solutions that allows your end users to get more out of their devices using the network that someone else loses sleep over. The future is set, so you've got to choose the train you want to jump on. MSPs are the way of the future, whether we like it or not.

Plenty Of Tech Buzzwords, But Short On Evidence

Elise Ackerman:

Earlier this year, the Spring Cove School District in rural Pennsylvania decided to invest in more than 1,000 Chromebooks after they determined the devices would cost less than regular maintenance on the district’s existing computers. Superintendent Robert Vadella calculated that by replacing some of those computers with Chromebooks costing less than $399, the school district would save $54,000 a year over the course of a four-year upgrade.

I'd take a Chromebook over a Dell.

In Marshall, Wisconsin two employees were able to unpack and configure 500 Chromebooks in just three days. “They’re easy to set up: Just press ‘control, alt, e’ and they’re ready for a student,” Shane Millin, technology director, told EDTECH Magazine.

This is compared to a PC, right? After including the iPad in the headline, all the argument has been against the PC.

In 2012, the Leyden High School district in the Chicago suburbs distributed more than 3,500 Chromebooks to each of their students. The district considered netbooks but dismissed them for having finicky Internet connections and being slow and prone to freezing. IPads were passed over for their lack of a keyboard. The district was also worried that they’d have to hire staff to keep the devices updated.

Netbooks will go down as a black mark on the technology industry. It's what happens when the focus is soley on price. I'm confused on the hiring of staff? iPads are extremely simple to keep updated. It only takes 2-3 taps and the OS actually prompts you.

Gene Tognetti, the vice principal at St. Leo the Great in San Jose, CA also teaches 7th grade social studies. “The fact that Chromebooks turn on instantly makes a big difference in the classroom,” he said. “You don’t have to wait two or three minutes for the computer to grind away until it’s useable,” he said in an interview with Forbes.com. The fact that Chromebooks turn on quickly, also means he has no qualms about asking students to turn them off when he needs their full attention. Tognetti also praised Chromebooks’ eight-hour battery life, noting that they are still going strong at the end of the day

The iPad has the same advantage here (as does a MacBook Air on the battery).

Plenty of arguments have been made against Chromebooks. They don’t come with an extensive app ecosystem. They aren’t good for applications that require powerful clients, like video editing

So it's good for Google services? What else?

But for the educators I spoke to, none of these disadvantages mattered. What they were focused on was teaching kids what they called 21st Century skills—collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking. For them, Chromebooks were the easiest and most economical way to achieve that goal.

I'm reading a lot of EdTech buzzwords, but no real life examples of impacting the classroom.

Link via @rsalermo

OPEX is the Future for Enterprise Technology

When I came to Brainerd Baptist School back in 2009, we began systematically moving to an OPEX model for all of of our IT-related purchasing. This includes laptops, iPads, and network infrastructure. While most companies don't currently have built in plans for OPEX models, we accomplished this by simply leasing equipment from either the company directly or from a third party leasing firm. I am a big fan of moving capital expenditures (CAPEX ) to operating expenditures (OPEX).

  • Budgeting for payments rather than purchases

Cash flow is king when it comes to the business world. By moving infrastructure and equipment costs into payments, it better allows accounting departments to manage and forecast expenses. The IT department isn't sending in purchase orders for large quantities of products at a time, but rather for smaller recurring invoices.

  • Systematic upgrades

Lets say that you spend $100,000 every 3 years (average IT life cycle from my experience) on new computers for your organization. What happens when it comes time to purchase new gear? It has been a bad quarter and you get asked o push the purchase to the next quarter (and probably the next). By moving to an OPEX model, you simply make payments and receive new gear whenever your contract states. Otherwise, the 3 year turn over can easily become a 4 year turnover. Technology is always changing, so this allows an organization to change with it.

  • Easier revenue forecasting for manufacturers and VARs

Manufacturers and VARs also love the OPEX model. It's consistent revenue stream and makes forecasting a lot easier. Employees like to get paid every two weeks, so its much easier to manage cash flow when they know that are nearly guaranteed to bring in $XX per month even without a new sale (accounting for regular churn).

As cloud enabled networking becomes more prevelant, OPEX models make even more sense for all parties involved. It allows manufacturers to consistently put R&D resources into their cloud systems (because of steady revenue streams), while end user organizations receive built in support and systematic product upgrades.

Out of School 45: Testimonial Year

My thanks to Andrew for co-hosting for me this week!

Show Notes

Andrew Jewell from Cedars sits in for Bradley this week. Fraser and Andrew reminisce about the early days of iPad at Cedars, talk about the ongoing impact of the iPad and look to the future of report cards, digital portfolios and student-led reporting.

Listen to the show

Subscribe to the show

Sponsor:

TapTyping

Android Authority Doesn't Understand Educational Technology

Nate Swanner:

If you think the world as we know it is tech-centric, think about what life will be like when our kids grow up. Those little monsters will probably exist in a space we can’t even imagine, and many of them are often more tech savvy than their parents. Kids are the future, technology is the future, so they should have as much tech as possible in their classrooms, right?

We are calling our students little monsters now?

According to Amplify, there is a problem with the execution of getting tech into their hands. The company, which is a huge proponent of Google technology in schools (as are we), recently conducted a survey. They polled 558 educators in the K-12 arena, and found some troubling statistics. As Android and Chrome fans, we’re a bit concerned about what tech is getting into the classrooms. As stewards for the next generation, we find a trend we can’t quite understand.

Let me get this straight, a company who sells an Android based tablets is concerned about schools using the iPad? The last sentence should read:

As business owners, we can't figure out how to beat the iPad so we are going to rip it in the following paragraphs.

When asked which devices their districts intended or had already implemented into the schools, a staggering 81% said iPads, with only 31% noting Chromebooks would find a way into their schools. When we examine the Los Angeles School District deal for iPads, we may see a troubling trend developing.

I sense a troubling trend as well, but probably for different reasons.

A $30 million deal meant Apple could provide the LASD with 45,000 iPads, at $678 apiece. The tablets would come bundled with educational software, but that price per unit is about $200 more than the average iPad runs. More troubling is that the LASD has roughly 640,000 students, meaning only about 7% of students would see the technology. Even more curious is that Apple notes the contract is for 31,000 iPads, meaning less students will be reached, and roughly $9 million of the deal is going elsewhere.

I've not seen the details of it, but it's likely going towards an MDM solution (and possibly WiFi upgrades since Apple resells Aerohive). It could also include deployment assistance, teacher training, or accessories like the Bretford carts. I'd guess the additional cost per device includes AppleCare+. It's hard to buy off the shelve products when buying 31,000 of anything. You've got to get the deployment strategy right. This has been true going back to Dell Windows XP deployments.

While iPads are popular, the financial decision to utilize them escapes us. For the same $30 million, the LASD could have purchased 120,000 Samsung ARM Chromebooks, or 150,000 Acer Chromebooks. This effectively triples the number of students who can get technology, and probably on devices better suited for productivity. If the form factor were a concern, both the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 are a better price than the iPad.

Ease of use, battery life, app selection, and hardware quality are just a few things that come to mind. It's not always about price. We shouldn't seek out the cheapest possible solution. We should seek out the best solution and then look at budgeting aspects.

With over 3,000 schools utilizing Chromebooks, using an expensive iPad smacks of ignorance about the issues. If there is a solution to reach more students with technology, why isn’t it being widely implemented? The goal should be a cohesive learning environment for all students, and mitigating spending issues on a management level. Chromebooks accomplish that, and Android is catching up.

So all the schools who've deployed iPads are ignorant? The most expensive deployment is the one that doesn't work. Management of 31,000 devices is complicated regardless of the device or OS.

Apple is making a push to get their devices into schools, which is admirable. All schools should have tech involved, but with cash-strapped schools in every corner of the nation, it seems the money would be better allocated with Chromebooks. The educational program for Android, which was announced at I/O this year, is just starting, but we hope for big things to come from it. Whether it be Android or Chrome, we’d still like to see more cost effective tech in schools. All kids deserve that much.

Apple is making a push to get its devices in schools? Apple is dominating education with the iPad. It's not because it's the sexy new device, but rather that it works. Apple has built up its deployment model and ecosystem to a place where it's much more cost effective to deploy iPads than it ever was for PCs.

More cost effective technology is certainly an admirable goal, but I don't think that's the only goal. You discover your educational goals first and everything else just stems from that. Microsoft recently gave away 10,000 Surface RTs to teachers because of trouble gaining traction against the iPad. If you can't sell them, give them away.

If it's all about price, then we should probably just buy this for schools and be done with it.

#iPadOnly

#iPadOnly is a new book written by Augsto Pinaud and Michael Sliwinski.  While the book is interesting based on the topic alone, I find the distribution even more intriguing.

1. Nook
2. Kindle
3. Paperback
4. iBooks
5. iBooks for iPad
 
iBooks for iPad means it's an iBooks Author book and contains interactive content.  This is Apple's leg up on Amazon.  An iBook and Kindle book are largely the same.  This means you buy on price and platform.  iBooks Author means exclusive to iPad.  Is this a coming trend and what can Amazon do about it?
 
#iPadOnly website via Brett Terpstra

 

Out of School 44: Don Orth

I am off on paternity leave for a few weeks, so Don Orth filled in for me. I can't wait to listen (I have a lot of free time for podcast listening with a new born).

Listen at outofschool.net or subscribe in your favorite podcast app.

Show Notes:

With Bradley off on paternity leave, Fraser talks to Don Orth of Hillbrook School about learning spaces, classroom lighting and deploying technology in a Silicon Valley school.

Sponsor:

TapTyping

Links:

Hillbrook School

Common Sense Media

CSM Graphite

Dropbox's Pivot

On various episodes of Out of School, Fraser and I have talked about how Dropbox feels like a legacy app on iOS. The future of its iOS app is probably just for authenticating other apps to its syncing platform and seeing an overall big picture of your data from your various apps.

Dropbox is like a service that syncs CDs that was released in 1999. It's useful and amazing, but its existing product model isn't built for the future. Don't take all of this to mean I don't like Dropbox, because that isn't true. I love Dropbox and am a premium member. I just have some questions about the usefulness of it in the post-PC world as is.

A folder that syncs means nothing to an iOS only user. As iOS continues to mature as a platform, you will see many users skip the PC entirely. This is a huge problem for Dropbox.

On the other hand, Evernote is drastically better positioned for this transition than Dropbox is. Evernote isn't building on top of anything from the PC era (like a file system), but rather forging its own path in a file-system free world.

Dropbox is a folder that syncs and it does that extremely well, but that probably isn't enough in the year 2020. The future of Dropbox as a company depends on this. This is as close as a pivot as you'll see from them. This is Dropbox trying to stay relevant in a file-system free world.

Dropbox's Datastore API and iCloud

Dropbox recently announced its new datastore API and it's getting a lot of buzz as an iCloud competitor (specifically the core data sync portion). While it's far less technically advanced than core data syncing (this might be a good thing), it does seem to be going after the same kinds of apps. Does Dropbox have an advantage over iCloud because it doesn't require the app to be sold through the Mac App Store and it works with web apps (and other device types)? Does iCloud have an advantage because every Apple ID customer already has an account? Yes on both ends. I think this is ultimately a win for users as it's competition for Apple's iCloud service. Apple is at its best when it's backed into a corner.

Does it make sense for a developer to trust either system, though? Does it not make sense that the The Omni Group would want to control its own cloud infrastructure (they do) rather than rely on a third party? Shouldn't great developers follow the Cook Doctrine (believing that you need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products you make)?

The Pixar Connection

Jon Negroni:

Several months ago, I watched a fun-filled video on Cracked.com that introduced the idea (at least to me) that all of the Pixar movies actually exist within the same universe. Since then, I’ve obsessed over this concept, working to complete what I call “The Pixar Theory,” a working narrative that ties all of the Pixar movies into one cohesive timeline with a main theme.

I'm not saying he's right, but it's certainly not an awful idea.

Apple TV and Plex: My Home Grown iTunes Match for Video

I love my Apple TVs (I have three of them), but it's increasingly frustrating that I have to sync my content to iPhones and iPads. I have an old 2009 MacBook Pro with a 1 TB hard drive that serves as the hub for my Apple TVs. Unfortunately, this is not the computer that my iPad and iPhone sync with. If I want to sync one of those movies to my iPad, I have to share it via AirDrop or Dropbox. I then add it to iTunes (and then sync via lighting cable).

Enter Plex.

Plex is a media application for the Mac, PC, and various NAS devices that has a corresponding application for Roku, iPad, iPhone, etc. It's dead simple to install and get working. It's a simple web server that you install (you drag the file to the Applications folder and run it to set up). It then runs in your menu bar. I told Plex where my movies and TV shows were located and it went to work scanning them. I am meticulous when it comes to metadata, but Plex does the heavy lifting if you aren't. Through the free Myplex service, it's simple to share to your iOS devices when you are on a different network (WiFi or cellular). It's even possible to share your library to another Plex user (to their Roku, iPad, etc). With the optional PlexPass, you can even download movies or TV shows for offline viewing (PlexSync). The PlexSync feature is free for PlexPass users during the beta period, but will be an optional subscription afterwards. The folks at Plex have not said how much it will be or whether a PlexPass will be required or not.

The great thing about Plex is that it doesn't interfere with my Apple TV. I still use iTunes to manage my media and therefore the Apple TV can see it just as before. The only difference is that Plex is watching the movie and TV show folders in Finder. The main downside of Plex is that you must leave a Mac/PC running at all times. I'd love a service like iTunes Match where it could scan my library and serve it up via the cloud. In the meantime, Plex will give me a nice solution. I was already leaving a Mac on to serve up Apple TV content and now I can use it wherever I am (with no syncing via lightning cable).

Plex for iOS

Plex for Android

Plex for Apple TV - I don't use this, but it looks interesting.