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Numbers – the Forgotten Spreadsheet

Posted on August 24, 2018 by admin Posted in Software Leave a comment

What it is: Numbers is Apple’s spreadsheet available as part of the iWork office suite.

Most companies use Microsoft Office, which means you need to edit and create Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents. For people who need to do this regularly, they might as well use Microsoft Office. For people who don’t need Microsoft Office compatibility but still want to use an office suite, they might as well try the free iWork office suite instead.

Hardcore spreadsheet users will always rely on Excel, but although Numbers may not be as powerful as Excel, it can actually be easier to use. One huge advantage of Numbers is that Excel creates an entire screen of rows and columns. When you design a spreadsheet, you wind up with numerous empty rows and columns cluttering up the screen.

Numbers, on the other hand, lets you create spreadsheets only as large as you need them. Then the rest of the screen can be filled with charts or even other spreadsheets. Where Excel forces you to work within the fixed widths of columns, Numbers let you create separate spreadsheets on a single page that can have wildly different column widths.

If you’ve never used a spreadsheet before and don’t need to use one professionally at work, then Numbers can be more than enough. It makes creating and using a spreadsheet simpler than Excel. You can always import and export Excel spreadsheets if necessary, but Numbers will never be an Excel clone.

The bottom line is that if you need Excel, use Excel. If you don’t need Excel, try Numbers before buying Excel. With Numbers, you might find a free spreadsheet that’s easier to use than Excel.

To learn more about the features in Numbers, click here.

Adobe Photoshop Comes to the iPad

Posted on July 13, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, Software, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: Adobe announced they plan to release Photoshop for the iPad.

In the early days, mainframe and minicomputer users derided PCs as “toys” because they couldn’t run professional applications. As PCs gradually got more powerful, the software available for them got more powerful until PCs killed the mainframe and minicomputer market. Yet when the iPad first arrived, PC users derided the iPad as a “toy” because it couldn’t run professional applications like Photoshop.

Now as the iPad gets more powerful processors and graphics, rivaling even some current PCs, the iPad is getting more powerful professional applications such as Adobe Photoshop. Adobe discovered that many Photoshop users want to do work on the go on an iPad. While Adobe had released simpler versions of Photoshop on the iPad, users want the real thing.

That opens up a new market for Adobe since competitors like Affinity Photo and Pixelmator had already offered iPad competitors long ago. The announcement of Photoshop on the iPad simply validates the iPad as the next computer of the future. Eventually, Apple will release Xcode on the iPad to create apps directly on the iPad and other companies will release similar professional applications on the iPad until the iPad will become the next PC. Just as PCs eventually displaced mainframe and minicomputers, expect the iPad to eventually displace many PCs, including 2-in-1 models that still cling to the laptop form while offering a tablet experience as well.

Mobile computing with tablets is the future. PCs will always be useful just as mainframe and minicomputers are still useful. It’s just that tablets like the iPad will be far more useful and common for everyday and professional tasks.

The New Word Processors

Posted on February 11, 2018 by admin Posted in Software, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: There are two different word processors on the market today, Scrivener and Ulysses, that are alternatives to traditional word processors.

Traditional word processors like Microsoft Word have two problems. First, they’re designed to format text for printing. Second, they’re designed to focus on writing one document at a time. Pages is Apple’s free word processor that isn’t as powerful as Word, but because it’s free, it can be a decent alternative if you don’t need heavy duty word processing such as automatic indexing, mail merge, and macros.

Pages is basically a simpler version of Word but still focuses on printing and showing one document at a time. That’s why there are two alternative word processors that are gaining popularity called Scrivener and Ulysses. The main feature of both programs is that where a single Word file only contains one document, a single Scrivener or Ulysses file can contain multiple documents. This lets you organize multiple, related documents in one location.

To duplicate this in Word or Pages, you have to create separate folders on your hard disk, which risks losing or misplacing files. Both Scrivener and Ulysses let you create separate folders within your file so you can organize related documents together and work on whichever document you wish without losing track of anything.

By letting you store text in separate documents within a single file, both Scrivener and Ulysses make it far easier to work on large projects such as a book. Since you can combine your separate documents together in different ways, you can easily rearrange your text and selectively choose which text to print or not. Also since both programs aren’t solely designed for printing on paper, they can easily create ebooks. Since many people don’t print documents as much as they share them electronically, Word’s focus on print while ignoring ebook creation is a minor but growing flaw.

The bottom line is that traditional word processors like Word and Pages are archaic compared to more modern word processors like Scrivener and Ulysses. Not surprisingly, both programs started out on the Macintosh and evolved to iOS as well. Scrivener, unlike Ulysses, is also developing a Windows version of their program but the shift away from Windows and print is already apparent in the focus of both programs.

It’s easy to understand how to use a traditional word processor but a little more difficult to understand how Scrivener and Ulysses work because of the different focus. Still, if you’re a writer, take time to learn either Scrivener or Ulysses and you’ll quickly see how they make Word and Pages obsolete. If you just want casual word processing, Pages is fine. If you want more heavy duty word processing, Word is fine. However if you want an organizational program to make writing easier, try Scrivener or Ulysses. Then you can always export your text from either program and polish it in Word if necessary.

Both programs can work alone or in conjunction with Word or Pages. Once you try Scrivener or Ulysses, you’ll see the huge limitation of traditional word processors and you’ll never want to go back.

To read more about Ulysses, click here.

FinTech and MetroMile

Posted on February 3, 2017 by admin Posted in Business Leave a comment

What it is: MetroMile is one of many FinTech companies using data to optimize the finance industry.

The main advantage of technology is to eliminate inefficiencies. A word processor eliminates the need for a far less efficient typewriter and a spreadsheet is far easier and more accurate than an adding machine and a ledger. Initially, technology has been used to improve common tasks but technology is also moving into specific industries, and one of the major industries is the financial world.

The world of finance involves money, but how that money gets stored, invested, or transferred is where the inefficiencies pop up. One FinTech startup is MetroMile, which provides car insurance by the mile. Traditional car insurance simply covers people based on their driving habits and location, but MetroMile uses fine-grain data to provide coverage based on the actual miles you drive, not just on the location where you live. This allows greater efficiency in providing coverage only when you need it.

For some people, MetroMile can drastically lower their car insurance costs while for others, MetroMile might actually be more expensive. The key in that MetroMile uses data that wasn’t previously available to insurance companies before. Now companies like MetroMile can identify low-risk drivers and provide lower cost insurance.

MetroMile could never work without data and access. Data provides information and access provides information specific to individuals. Uber pioneered the idea of ride-sharing services but that could only work when access was freely available to both drivers and riders through smartphones, and data could be shared between them such as a rider requesting a ride and the smartphone app provides that data to a nearby driver who can pick you up.

Without data and access, people simply have to guess and that’s how the financial industry currently works. Car insurance companies don’t know where you drive or how far you drive, so they have to guess. By using a smartphone app that measures you miles, you can get finer grained insurance coverage because of improved data availability and access to that data from multiple locations such as from a car to the insurance company.

FinTech is the latest and hottest area for technology because it’s not about solving technological problems so much as it’s about solving financial problems using technology. Improved solutions simply mean more money while improved solutions in the technology field often just means greater speed or greater storage. FinTech is about applying technological solutions for a purpose other than just for the sake of improved technology.

If you look at technical specifications for computers, you’ll often see a laundry list of features that focus on faster processors and more memory, but none of that matters if it doesn’t solve an actual problem. That’s why so many people still resist using a computer because they see no purpose for it in their own life.

FinTech changes that perspective because by using technology, you can make more money or save more money, or even both. FinTech companies will make more money while customers of FinTech businesses will either save money or make money.

Keep your eye on FinTech companies like MetroMile. They’re showing how seemingly non-technology industries can be drastically changed with technology. If technology can dramatically improve an industry like finance, imagine what technology can do to remove inefficiencies in your particular industry.

Jony Ive Talks About the Touch Bar

Posted on October 31, 2016 by admin Posted in Hardware, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: Jony Ive is Apple’s main designer and explains why Apple developed the Touch Bar.

No matter what you may think of Apple, Jony Ive has been the primary driving force behind the user interface and design of everything from the latest Macintosh models to the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. What’s interesting is how Jony Ive thinks and in his latest interview, he explains the rationale for the Touch Bar.

What’s particularly interesting about his interview is when he states, “We don’t limit ourselves in how we will push — if it’s to a better place. What we won’t do is just do something different that’s no better.”

It’s easy to come up with something different. Just look at Windows RT and Windows 8 to see how Microsoft created something different but not necessarily better. What was the compelling reason to use Windows RT or Windows 8? Even die hard Windows enthusiasts used various shell programs like Start8 or Classic Shell to make Windows 8 more usable and familiar than the tile-based interface Microsoft tried to force everyone to use.

Another example of something different but not necessarily better are touch screens on PCs. Touch screens make sense on smartphones and tablets because the touch screen is right in your hand in the first place. On PCs, touch screens are nice to have but not necessarily better. In a typical laptop, the touch screen is close enough to touch, but it’s not necessarily a better input device than the mouse or trackpad. On desktop PCs, the screen is further away from the user’s hands so reaching out to touch and manipulate the screen is even less convenient.

Once you get used to a touch screen on a PC, you’ll notice their glaring omission in non-touch screen PCs. Yet the crucial question is whether touch screens are a convenience or a necessity?

Take away a mouse/trackpad from a PC and you can still manipulate your way around solely with a keyboard but it’s extremely inconvenient to the point of uselessness. That shows how important a mouse/trackpad is as an input device for computers.

Take away a touch screen from a PC and it’s a minor annoyance. You can still do everything with a mouse/trackpad. It may be a little slower or clumsier, but touch screens aren’t radically better or crucial than a mouse/trackpad. Strip away a mouse/trackpad and touch screens are the only form of interaction on smartphones and tablets.

Touch screens on PCs are generally convenient but not necessary. Now look at the Touch Bar.

Like touch screens, the Touch Bar is completely optional. Take away the Touch Bar and you can still use a Macintosh. In fact one of the latest low-end MacBook Pro models lacks a Touch Bar and comes with a traditional row of function keys instead.

What the Touch Bar offers is speed and convenience by displaying shortcuts for the specific task you’re doing. Although you can work without a Touch Bar, the Touch Bar offers shortcuts to make your work easier and faster. In comparison, a touch screen isn’t always easier or faster than a mouse/trackpad. For precision, a mouse/trackpad is actually better than a touch screen. For simplicity, a touch screen is more intuitive than a mouse/trackpad.

A touch screen doesn’t offer dramatically better performance over a mouse/trackpad. The Touch Bar does offer dramatically better performance over a mouse/trackpad/keyboard by displaying one tap access to commonly used commands. Over time, the Touch Bar may be optional, but it can speed up your work and that’s what makes the Touch Bar more important than a touch screen.

A touch screen acts as a supplement to a mouse/trackpad/keyboard on a PC. The Touch Bar acts as a shortcut to a mouse/trackpad/keyboard. That subtle difference is what makes the Touch Bar more important as an input device. Over time, more PCs will have a touch screen as standard equipment and more Macintosh computers will have the Touch Bar as standard equipment.

Watch the future to see which one will proved dominant. Touch screens are never coming to the Macintosh so Macintosh users will need to switch to a Windows PC if they believe touch screens are crucial to using a computer. If PCs start to adopt the Touch Bar concept, then you’ll know which user interface idea is truly more useful.

To read Jony Ive’s interview, click here.

The Touch Bar is the Future

Posted on October 29, 2016 by admin Posted in Hardware, Software, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: The Touch Bar is a touch sensitive panel that replaces the traditional row of function keys.

For decades, keyboard manufacturers kept the top row of function keys for compatibility reasons. Yet few people ever use those function keys. That’s why most computers now assign hardware controls to function keys because function keys are generally useless. So getting rid of function keys simplifies the keyboard, but replacing it with the Touch Bar is far more useful because the Touch Bar can optimize itself for whatever task you’re currently doing with your computer.

The Touch Bar is the future of computer keyboards because function keys are useless and the Touch Bar is infinitely more useful and versatile. This is like comparing a horse and carrier with a car. How many people want to own a horse and feed and care for it when they could just own a car instead? Horses are largely obsolete for transportation in the same way that function keys are largely obsolete for computers. Getting rid of function keys hurts almost nobody.

By making the Touch Bar customizable as you use a program, the Touch Bar becomes useful. Obviously Apple isn’t going to limit the Touch Bar to laptops but will offer an Apple keyboard with a Touch Bar that you can use with a desktop Macintosh. As more people get comfortable with the Touch Bar, will it gravitate tot he PC world of Windows and Linux?

Back in 1984, Apple introduced the Macintosh with a mouse. Eventually PCs started using a mouse as well when people realized how useful a mouse could be. The same will likely happen with the Touch Bar.

PC manufacturers will eventually adopt the Touch Bar concept because function keys are obsolete and Apple just made this glaringly obvious to everyone. Second, once Macintosh users get comfortable with the Touch Bar and find it simplifies computing, PCs will want to adopt a Touch Bar as well.

Most of today’s PCs have already adopted touch screens so touch screens are now commonplace on everything but the Macintosh. Since many people are used to touching the screen of a tablet or smartphone, they’re finding PC touch screens useful for simple manipulation of items. The key question is once people find how useful the Touch Bar is (and how useless function keys are), the Touch Bar will also become commonplace, but only on the Macintosh.

Are Macintosh users clamoring for touch screens? Some are. Will PC users clamor for a Touch Bar? Every time they see the row of obsolete function keys serving absolutely no purpose, they can imagine how a Touch Bar could help them instead.

The big difference between the touch screen and the Touch Bar is that the touch screen doesn’t replace anything useless but serves as an additional input device. The Touch Bar makes the row of function keys glaringly obvious how useless they’ve been for decades, so getting rid of something that serves no purpose and replacing it with something that serves a great purpose is a bigger psychological advantage.

Touch screens give you something you didn’t necessarily ask for but can appreciate using. The Touch Bar also gives you something you didn’t necessarily ask for, but can appreciate using, and the Touch Bar eliminates useless function keys at the same time. By adding new features and removing useless ones, the Touch Bar has the potential of making it easier for people to adopt the Touch Bar as a secondary input device.

Eventually the keyboards of computers will be as versatile as the virtual keyboards on smartphones, adapting and optimizing to whatever task you’re doing. Until that day comes along, the Touch Bar is a step towards making the keyboard more versatile.

The future of keyboards can’t ignore the Touch Bar. It’s soon going to be a part of every computer, including PCs.

To learn more about the Touch Bar, click here.