iOS 7, new iPhone screen sizes and insta-deletion

▼ Decisions, decisions: update your iOS apps now for iOS 7 and be ready on day one, or wait until new iPhones and iPads arrive and incorporate support for a possible new screen size/resolution in the update?

On the Tapadoo blog, Dermot Daly writes that when the iPhone 5 came around, his clients were initially reluctant to spend money updating their iPhone apps to support the bigger screen, but the letterboxing that happened with the unupdated apps made those an ❝insta-delete❞ for many users. He thinks that iOS 7 will play out in much the same way.

(On episode 63 of the Amplified podcast, Dan Benjamin argues that people won't delete apps unless an alternative that does support the bigger / higher resolution screen or new aesthetic is available, and I certainly agree with that.)

However, what if Apple once again releases iPhones (or iPads) with a different screen size/resolution? Unless you really want to have your update ready on day one, it may be prudent to wait for that shoe to drop before finalizing a big update, and certainly start laying the groundwork for another screen size now.

It will be very interesting to see how regular users react to the big changes in iOS 7. It could be like a website redesign, where lots of people complain. But I think even regular users will know there are big changes, and either decide to stick with the old iOS or upgrade understanding that things are going to be different. I also think that old apps won't stick out like a sore thumb immediately like what happened on the iPhone 4's higher resolution display, or to a lesser degree, on the iPhone 5's taller screen. But as users spend more time with updated apps, the older ones will start worse and worse. So there's probably a grace period before that deletion impulse kicks in.

Permalink - posted 2013-07-17

My OHM2013 talk: Federation fosters freedom

▼ Between 31 july and 4 august OHM2013 ("Observe. Hack. Make.") will take place in Holland. I'll have a talk on the 4th at 16.00 about how network protocols that let you run your own server foster freedom, while monolithic services such as Facebook and Twitter do the opposite.

Update: these are the slides (PDF, 4 MB)

This is the abstract of the talk:

Many services are monolithic: you can only Skype using the Skype client, and only Facebook using facebook.com. But it doesn't have to be that way: everyone can run their own mail server. Federation makes for more complex protocols, but is required for freedom.

A decade ago, the only way to use instant messaging was through a service like ICQ, AIM or MSN. Today, everyone can run their own Jabber server, and the servers communicate using the XMPP protocol, the same way as you can run your own mail server, which communicates using the SMTP protocol.

A federation of independent servers means that no single entity can control huge numbers of users. This has huge advantages: no single business can pull the plug on a service, or change it in ways the community doesn't like. Competition gets to drive down the price and/or improve the user experience. Last but not least, users have a choice of jurisdictions and can use servers in a country with at least a modicum of privacy protection on the books.

This talk will outline the challenges an opportunities for federation in areas such search and social networking (Twitter!), drawing inspiration from the XMPP and SIP protocols. It is a high level talk about fundamental choices—there will be no header diagrams or DTDs.

Permalink - posted 2013-07-15

Buying a USB 3 - Gigabit Ethernet adapter

▼ I currently have a MacBook Air and plan on getting a MacBook Pro with Retina Display when the new models are released.

Both of these lack Ethernet ports. So I got Apple's 10/100 Ethernet to USB adapter two years ago. But it's pretty useless, because it only does 11 MB/sec, while I get 14 - 16 (sometimes as high as 22) MB/sec over wifi. So when a year ago Apple released a 10/100/1000 ethernet to Thunderbolt adapter I got that one. Which is great, except that you can either plug in the GE adapter or an external screen, not both.

When I get the new computer, I guess I'll have to buy a second GE adapter so I can transfer data between the two computers at the highest possible speed. There are now 10/100/1000 Ethernet - USB3 adapters. Those should give me full GE performance on the new computer that will have USB3, but in the meantime something better than wifi using USB2 on my current machine.

So I asked for suggestions on the Ars Technica forums:

Looking at Amazon UK, there are numerous options. Can anyone recommend a specific one? My requirements:

• has to work with MacOS
• preferably no driver required
• full GE performance over USB3
• at least 200 Mbps over USB2
• wake on LAN support is important
• jumboframes and energy efficient ethernet support would be nice

I didn't get any recommendations. I decided to go with the Anker one. Here are the unboxing photos:

This is how it compares to Apple's 10/100 USB and 10/100/1000 Mbps Thunderbolt adapters:

Minor gripes:

• the box is very small, the USB cable is bent a bit further than I like and the driver CD barely fits, despite it being an 8 cm CD
• because it's not a regular CD, it won't fit in many drives, including the ones Apple has been using for the past decade
• the installation leaflet doesn't tell you where to download the Mac driver] (or that this is needed in the first place)
• the adapter and the USB 3 connector are rotated 180 degrees relative to each other. So under normal circumstances, the adapter will be upside down

After installing the driver, you get a new ethernet interface:

Although it says the MTU can only be 1280 - 1500 bytes, values up to 4070 are accepted and larger ones are replaced with 4070. Strangely, the actual MTU setting that you get is 4 bytes larger: you can do pings with 4074-byte packets.

The wake-on-LAN seems to work as it should, but I'm not sure the energy efficient ethernet is implemented in the driver. With the Thunderbolt adapter it says it uses EEE when connected to the new Time Capsule, but this one doesn't:

en6: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 
	options=23<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,TSO4> 
... 
	media: autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex,flow-control>) 
	status: active

I got mine from Amazon.co.uk, at the time of this writing for £21.99 (associate link), but it's also available from Amazon.com, as I write this for $21.99 (associate link).

Permalink - posted 2013-07-05