Why I suddenly want an iPod Nano

For some reason, the 6th Generation iPod Nano is currently on my wish list. That's weird, because I usually do not like Apple products, and mostly I just hate them. But the latest generation of the iPod Nano (as of this time of writing) has fulfilled one of my wishes: To make the conventional timekeeping watch do more than just tell me the time. I've tried that with a few sports watches, you know, the ones that come with timers, countdowns, barometers, a compass, and even altimeters. But I'm not trekking mountains or anything to use an altimeter, nor directionally-challenged to use a compass, or even too obsessed with the weather to use a barometer. Also, those watches are bulky.

And I am also in need of a more convenient portable sound system. Right now I roam around with my preferred pair of earphones connected to a Bluetooth headset hung around my neck, like a pendant on a necklace, while that Bluetooth headset is, in turn, paired and connected with my phone. I like this headset because it allows me to change songs whenever I don't like the one that's currently playing, since I play all my songs and just shuffle them around. Also, if someone is calling, I don't have to pull out my phone to answer it, I can just press the Answer button on the headset to answer the call, then I'll initialize the customary "Hold up I'm talking on my Bluetooth headset" pose (which is putting your index finger on the earpiece and bowing your head a little) so that I don't look like I'm talking to myself or to a random person in front of me (an unfortunate side effect of Bluetooth headsets).

Anyway, I'm here to ramble about the 6th generation iPod Nano, not my Bluetooth headset. And since I'm lazy, I'm just gonna post the things I like and do not like about the device in question in a list form.

What I like

• The watch form factor. The iPod Nano isn't actually designed to be worn as a watch, however, some guy probably looked at it and thought, "Hey, I can probably put a strap on this and wear it around my wrist".
• Low-profile. The iPod Nano is tiny, and I like that because I don't really like having big devices strapped on me (my phone is an exception).
• The plethora of other features on the phone. Like the pedometer and timers, which will probably be useful when I start running, and the FM radio plus other stuff.

What I don't like

• iTunes lock. This is given for all iPods and iDevices, especially those which are new. New iDevices do not allow the user to interface with their computer(s) with something other than iTunes which is a damn shame because (1) I do not want to boot into Windows just to manage my music, and (2) I hate iTunes, it's clunky and slow as hell.
• No Bluetooth. I would've liked the iPod Nano more if it had the capability to connect to a Bluetooth headset, because I think having a wire run up from my wrist looks kind of weird in general.
• No video playback. It would've been nice if the iPod Nano had video playback capabilities, but no, it didn't.
• Non-expandable storage. 16GB of storage might seem enough at first but I might need even more when the time comes. Sadly, I won't be able to buy a larger SD card when I need to because Apple doesn't use them.
• No GPS/Navigation support. Having a watch tell me where I am would be very awesome, not to mention convenient.

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Right now though, I'm sensing that Apple is about to release a new generation of iPods again, particularly the iPods that aren't the iPod Touch (stop fucking calling it an iTouch for fuck's sake). So I'm thinking of buying the 6th generation iPod right now instead of waiting for the 7th because I am certain that the 7th isn't really much different from the previous one, I just heard rumors that the new one is much like the 6th but with a camera (of all things!), but I don't believe in rumors, the entirety of religion is built on that shit. Also, I think that if the 7th generation iPod Nano did come, it's gonna take a while for it to be sold in the Philippines (because this country is slow on everything), and if it does get sold the accessories for it, especially the watch strap, is also going to take a while for it to reach the country.

Still, I'm in a bit on a financial lockdown right now, and I'm just doing my part in being frugal and saving up money so that I can buy one myself. If you happen to know and see me personally though, you can try and donate to my worthy cause. :)

My review of the updated Blogger interface

As I've stated in my previous post, I've just come back to writing on my blog again. It feels really good to be typing nonsense again, especially since my ThinkPad has one of the most comfortable keyboards I've ever used.

Anyway as I was writing my previous post, I stumbled upon a small bar with blue text on the top of Blogger's composed page. It said something along the lines of "Try Blogger's new interface". I was intrigued, because recently Google has been redecorating and redesigning the interfaces of many of their web services, starting from Gmail to Youtube and Docs. Being tired of the default Blogger interface (seriously they've been using that for more than 10 years), I was intrigued and decided to give it a try.

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Consistency

Finally, Blogger looked like a proper Google Web Service rather than something separate from the rest of the services. The interface is highly inspired from Google Docs (which I greatly use and recommend) and Google+ (which I do not really use but highly recommend for other people who do not like Facebook). The sense of minimalism is apparent in the design, as well as intuitiveness. All major functions that you are ever going to need are on top of the area you are editing your post on, but then again, that's the de facto interface design of mostly everything you type text on.

However, added on top of that editor and its buttons is a row of very cleanly-laid and good-looking text and buttons, as well as your Google+ name and picture. However, the prominent "Google bar" that appears on most Google services such as Docs, Calendar and Gmail appears to be missing, but I don't really care since adding it probably makes it look out of place. It might also prove to be quite distracting.

I highly suggest that Google replace the buttons on the main toolbar though -- they appear to have been taken from Blogger's last look. I suggest that they use something similar to Google Docs' monochromatic, minimalistic buttons.

Editing

As a coder one might expect me to prefer editing my post in Blogger's raw HTML editor instead of the WYSIWYG editor Blogger provides. That would have been the case before Blogger updated its interface, as I find the editor to be ugly and boring as hell. However, with the new redesign I'm now more apt to use the WYSIWYG editor instead. It feels so clean, and the minimal design always inspires me. But that doesn't mean I don't need the HTML editor -- I still use it to fine-tune the elements of my post.

While I'm on that topic, the HTML editor appears to be very well designed as well, and it is noticeably wider than the Compose mode (I will now address the WYSIWYG editor as the Compose mode from now on). That's good because HTML tags can take up a lot of space and no one likes too many newlines.

Cons

No interface is complete without its flaws. As such, I will now proceed to list them here in this section.

No option to easily change formatting styles in Compose Mode

Someone who is experienced in word processors would prefer using "Formatting Styles" to format their bodies of text rather than just manually editing them. This is important for consistency, and it can also save you a lot of time.

However, on Blogger's Compose mode, there does not appear to be a menu or a button in the main toolbar that allows me to quickly switch formatting styles. This is disappointing because I have to go to the HTML editor and wrap my headers into appropriate header tags in order to turn them into headers. And yes, I know it will work as well if I wrap them in tags inside Compose mode, but it would look pretty much out of place with the rest of the interpreted text.

No indication of whether your post has been (automatically) saved

Google Docs has this neat little feature on the autosave that tells me whenever the document I'm working on has been automatically synced and saved to Google's servers. I really like that feature because I am paranoid that my files might not have been saved and that the next unfortunate crash of my browser would be the end of my work.

Blogger does not have that feature. The system automatically saves your work everytime you stop typing for a while, but it does not have that persistent indication that your work has been saved. While you are not typing to ponder some thoughts, Blogger automatically saves your work, and the Save button on top of the main toolbar briefly turns into a "Saving..." button that indicates that your work is being saved. While that is quite comforting, sometimes I'd like to know that Blogger has already saved my work some time ago while I stopped typing to ponder my thoughts, as I usually do so for extended periods of time and I usually leave myself in a state of short term memory loss afterwards.

My suggestion? Put something that tells me when the last edit I made was saved somewhere. I'm not saying the Save button should be removed entirely (as shown in Google Docs), because I think for this matter, it is still necessary.

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I think that's all I have to say about the new updated Blogger interface for now. It's pretty, intuitive, and most importantly, minimal. There's just a couple of stuff that they should try to fix here and there. I'm quite too tired of further scrutinizing the interface and adding more feedback, because at the time I'm writing this it's already really late. But I do expect improvements to happen in the future, somehow.

I'm back (after a long time)

For some reason I find myself writing again in this personal weblog/blog/journal/whatever of mine, after a very, very long time. The last post I made was dated around September of 2011, and now it's been 6 (or 5? My inborn capacity to count is very limited) months since I've been here. I've had many reasons why I've suddenly went dark for quite a while.

First off, and might I add is the most obvious reason, is that I got lazy of writing. I think I have lost my passion for it, but thankfully not my touch. I might have silently realized that I like writing code better than writing creative compositions and self-ramblings. But yes, I probably just got lazy.

Second, I'm trying to avoid Facebook. I made a pitfall during the time I started this blog (which is like, 2 years ago), in which I used this Facebook app (do they call it an app? I don't really know) that tracks this blog and then posts on my wall whenever I make a new post. For some reason I now find that annoying because I don't like people thinking I'm active on Facebook (I'm not, at least, I'm trying not to be), but then again, Facebook sure reels in a lot of traffic. So I'm in the middle of thinking whether I should leave it as it is or remove it.

Third, well, I've been busy with life, particularly the lazy parts of life.

I can't promise myself or to other people that I'll continue to write on this blog, but my fingers have been really itchy for a while and they're tired of typing any more code. There's also lots of stuff I wanted to write about, so maybe I'll be actively posting on this blog for weeks to come.

Hopefully.