Trip to San Francisco for WWDC

It’s been a crazy 36-hours since finding our I’ll be attending WWDC 2016 as a student scholar. The unexpected excitement of seeing the ticket appear in my account, and the arrival of the all important confirmation email were both highlights of yesterday. Attending WWDC is something I’ve always wanted to do, and I’m lucky enough to be attending years before I imagined I would.

It’s going to be a crazy, yet awesome week. Arriving on the Saturday will give me 24 hours to settle in to the beautiful city of San Francisco before the conference check in and registration begins, potentially followed by an orientation afternoon for the scholars, graced by the presence of Tim Cook - as I’ve been told occurred last year.

Touristy things on the agenda include crossing the Golden Gate bridge, visiting Fishermans Wharf (from memory, the clam chowder was 👌🏻), as well as general exploration of the city sites such as Lombard Street and the Painted Ladies.

At the conference, Monday’s Keynote will undoubtedly be the most exciting part - even if it does mean waking up before the sun to get a spot in line. I hear the lab sessions are invaluable, while the sessions not so much. I’ll try to mix it up throughout the week and get a fair share of both. On top of that, the vibe throughout the city during the week - and particularly around Moscone Centre - will be electric. 7500 geeks all united under one cause, sharing a common interest… programming. It’ll be an awesome opportunity to meet new people, with 349 like-minded scholars from all around the world, as well as people I am already familiar with due to their online presence - mainly bloggers and podcasters whom I’ve been reading and listening to for years. Meeting Apple executives would also be a highlight, should it so happen, as will extra curricular activities such as a trip to Google HQ (which is currently in the early stages of organisation). As fun as it would be to attend WWDC parties such as The Talk Show live (assuming it’s going ahead this year) and RelayCon, I will be unable to due to my age. Unfortunately being of legal adult age in Australia counts for nothing in the USA. On the whole, WWDC is definitely an exciting opportunity and I intend on making the most of every second spent in San Francisco.

At this point I unfortunately still have some concerns which I’m sure will be resolved in due course. WWDC ends on June 17th this year, meaning the earliest flight I could catch out and still attend the conference in its entirety would be the evening of June 18th, meaning I arrive back in Sydney early morning June 20th. My university exam block begins June 18th, which could prove to be a problem. As I type this, I don’t have my timetable and I haven’t heard back from my university as to whether or not it would be acceptable to reschedule an exam, should a clash occur. (WWDC certainly relates to the I.T. component of my course, will enhance my skills, boost my connections, and all round be an informative educational experience.) Worst case scenario, I have to leave a day or two early to make it home in time for an exam, but the verdict is still out on that one. Here’s to hoping my first exam won’t be until the Tuesday or Wednesday.

I plan to update this blog with thoughts, tips, and anything else that comes to mind as I prepare for this trip and also while I’m in San Francisco. At this stage the plan is to write a short post every night about the day, what I did, what I learned, and what cool people I met. But no promises at this stage, we’ll see how that goes!

It’s going to be a crazy month as I prepare for this trip. There’s flights to book, a hotel to confirm, assignments to finish, exams to study for, and shifts to work all between now and then. It’ll be a challenge, but I’m excited knowing once I get to the end I’ll be spending a week in San Francisco attending WWDC 2016. The experience will truly be once in a lifetime.

Update (13/05/16): All sorted with my University, should I have any exams while in San Francisco, they’ll reschedule them. Flights and accomodation have now been booked - bring on WWDC. 👍🏻

Update (02/06/16): Not looking so good with University anymore. After submitting a formal request to have exams rescheduled, they’ve declined it. Currently in the process of appealing and talking to subject coordinators to see if they can influence the decision at all. Credit to them, they’ve all been very understanding thus far.

WWDC 2016

It’s official - I’ll be attending WWDC 2016 in San Francisco as a student scholar. Exciting times!

The Kindle has a secret selling point

The Kindle is great. I have the most recent Paperwhite and love it. Instant access to books, great battery life, thinness, e-ink display, free of notifications and other distractions… The list of Kindle benefits is certainly not lacking. Recently having read many reviews of the new flagship Kindle Oasis, I’ve begun wondering why no one focuses - not even Amazon - on what should be Kindle’s #1 selling point: A Kindle will more than pay for itself. 

In my experience over the last six months of reading exclusively on a Kindle, each biography or novel I buy that I otherwise would’ve bought at a physical book retailer is at least $5 less from Amazon, and often in excess of $10 cheaper. Then there’s the exposure that Amazon gives you to books - I receive plenty of recommendations both on the Amazon website and via email of popular books that are discounted for a limited time. I’ve read a handful of these sub-$5 novels recommended by Amazon, that I wouldn’t have otherwise discovered, and have enjoyed them immensely. 

Just some quick price comparisons: 

- The Martian by Andy Weir: 

          $22.99 @ Dymocks  |  $10.99 on Amazon Kindle

- Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson:

          $22.99 @ Dymocks  |  $13.99 on Amazon Kindle

- Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges:

          $19.99 @ Dymocks  |  $14.99 on Amazon Kindle

- More Fool Me by Stephen Fry: 

          $24.99 @ Dymocks  |  $10.99 on Amazon Kindle

For the sake of the above comparisons, all prices are in Australian dollars and accurate at the time of writing (6th May 2016). Prices compared between dymocks.com.au and amazon.com.au.

Dymocks just can’t compete with the prices offered for the exact same books from Amazon. The smallest price saving from the above list of examples is $5, with the highest being $14. On average, $10 is saved per book bought, so to essentially “pay off” a Kindle Paperwhite (at ~$180) it would take 18 books - about a years worth of reading for a keen reader. That’s not to mention the dozens of other books that will be purchased over the life of the Kindle, all with savings of approximately $10.  

So, if you’re on the fence about the Kindle I urge you to consider the cost savings associated with the purchase of this device. It’s something not often mentioned in reviews or even by Amazon themselves, but it’s certainly something to consider.

WWDC Student Scholarship 2016

Applications closed 24 hours ago for student scholarships to Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC). For the first time, I’ve sent in a submission. Having only ever heard positive things about WWDC, it is a dream to attend one day, even if that day doesn’t occur this year. 

By this time next week, the status of my application should be known. Undoubtedly the first place I’ll share the news (should I be accepted or rejected) will be Twitter. Now the wait begins… 

The case for a dedicated Heart Rate ‘mode’ in watchOS

The Heart Rate monitoring features of Apple Watch are simply great. It is that which sets it apart from other smartwatches at the moment (I write while looking sadly at my Pebble Time).

Currently as of watchOS 2.2, Apple Watch measures the heart rate of a wearer in two separate ways: Every 10 minutes in the ‘background’ - giving you an indication of general resting heart rate trends throughout the day, and when the watch is in a dedicated “Workout” mode - meaning a user has told the watch they’re currently exercising and want it to measure their heart rate and activity. The heart rate monitor is surprisingly accurate during a cardio workout, typically only a beat or two per minute off from the elliptical machine at the gym which also reports heart rate. During a dedicated workout, the watch will measure heart rate continuously (updating the reading approximately 10 times per minute, or every 6 seconds). This gives a pleasantly detailed and accurate view of your heart rate during exercise. Unfortunately the heart rate sensor - which shines green LED lights onto a wearers wrist, measuring their heart rate through a process known as photoplethysmography - cannot run continuously throughout the day due to battery life constraints.

The Apple solution to this is to take a “background” reading periodically every 10 minutes, so long as the wearer is still at the time of the reading. This works great for providing a general overview of trends throughout the day.

In a perfect world, the Apple Watch would measure resting heart rate continuously, however we probably won’t reach a point where this is possible for another few years at least. In the meantime, I’d like to propose a dedicated “heart rate” mode for Apple Watch. This mode would allow a user to tell the watch they’d like continuous monitoring of their heart rate for a specified period of time, while acknowledging they understand the watch battery will drain faster than normal during this time. The current solution is to start a workout, however this is less than ideal as a workout is meant for just that - when you’re working out - and only provides a single figure displaying “average” heart rate upon completion. A dedicated heart rate mode on Apple Watch would allow for this continuous monitoring and a nice interface to accompany the data. Perhaps a colour-coded graph displaying all recorded data on your iPhone at the end of the heart rate monitoring period.

There are many use cases for this dedicated heart rate mode - watching live sport, watching a horror movie, during a job interview, or even just wanting more accurate heart rate monitoring at certain times throughout the day (just after you drink a coffee, perhaps?) Personally, I’d love to see the dramatic swing of my heart rate while watching live football and be able to analyse the trends in this data later on - how high did my heart rate jump during extra time? There are undoubtedly endless useful ways in which this technology could be used, and it would be fantastic to see Apple introduce a feature such as this dedicated heart rate monitoring mode for Apple Watch.

Here’s to the changes coming in watchOS 3.0 at WWDC 2016!

Schedule sleep on your calendar

No seriously, do it.

After listening to Episode 24 of the increasingly excellent Cortex Podcast with Myke Hurley and CGP Grey, in which Grey explains his calendaring philosophy, I laughed and ruled Grey out as crazy for having dedicated “sleep” entries on his calendar.

A routine/schedule for sleep? You’ve got to be kidding- no one needs that!

Not sure why, but I decided to try it out. The result? It worked. Having a schedule and sticking to it seems to work. I no longer say, “Just 5 more minutes of this Podcast, or one more Twitter search.” It’s now a matter of, “oh sleep is next on my calendar, I’d better adhere to that.”

It’s not a magical solution and there’s no guarantee that you’re going be able to stick to it just because it appears on your calendar, but I would urge anyone who feels their sleep could do with a bit more routine to try it out- or else you’ll never know if there’s method to CGP Grey’s madness.

PSA: Telstra offering free mobile data to all customers tomorrow April 3rd, 2016

After a series of outages in recent weeks, Australia’s largest telco Telstra are offering customers a day of free data tomorrow, April 3rd 2016. This is the second Sunday so far this year that Telstra are having a #DataDay, and there’s been plenty of warning that this one was coming so I hope you’ve had your downloads queued up! If you’re a Telstra customer go ahead and make the most of the day - stream, share, download, upload, side-load (err) as much as you like. During the last data day on February 14th, there were many reports of severe congestion on the Telstra network, and we can only hope Telstra are better prepared this time around.

It is worth noting that as Daylight Savings ends overnight in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and the Australian Capital Territory, these states put the clocks back an hour at 3am and will have a 25 hour long “data day” to enjoy.

So while you’re patiently waiting to begin those downloads as the clock strikes midnight, check out these tips from Trevor Long on “How to (legally) make the most of Telstra’s free data day.”

PSA: Telstra’s mobile network is down nationwide... again

For the second time in six weeks, the Telstra mobile network has gone down all around Australia. These reports have been rolling in for nearly an hour as I type this, and the only public statement Telstra have provided comes from their Twitter page and is as follows: 

We are aware of an issue affecting some of our mobile customers. We’re working to fix this as soon as possible. Sorry for inconvenience.

- Telstra (@Telstra)

March 17, 2016

Hardly useful when millions of customers want to know where their service has gone… Some report just 4G is down, most can’t make calls, and many say their service isn’t working at all - with their phone reporting “SOS only.” 

Poor Telstra customers. Here’s to hoping the outage doesn’t last much longer, and that customers are compensated in a more meaningful way than they were when this happened last month.

Meanwhile, I’ll sit back and watch social media explode over this incident all while enjoying my reliable connection to the Optus mobile network. 

Update: Nearly an hour later with no reason or explanation from Telstra. The closest thing to any relevant update comes from Trevor Long on Twitter: 

My information is that @telstra has around 4000 sites down. Around half their network is my understanding #telstra

- Trevor Long (@trevorlong)

March 17, 2016

According to the latest information from OzTowers, Telstra have 7455 active sites around the nation (as of writing this on 17th March 2016.) 4000 down is indeed just over 50%, but when you consider the load on the remaining ~3500 due to the congestion as a result of the outage, I daresay the number of customers who can get online at the moment is significantly less than 50%. 

The 28-day billing cycle

This morning I woke to the news that my favourite Australian mobile carrier, amaysim, have made some changes to their Unlimited plans. Great - more data, extra international call allowances, what’s not to love?! Turns out, they’re switching to a 28-day billing cycle. This is becoming increasingly popular in the Australian phone plan market, and I’m here to tell you why it matters.

I am not a fan of this new “trend” towards 28-day billing cycles on mobile plans, generally on prepaid or “no lock-in” services. While some people may look at it and think, “It’s only two days less, that hardly makes any difference,” there is something to worry about. Now it’s great that amaysim are increasing the data allowance per month at no ‘additional cost’ however you aren’t getting this extra data for nothing, and let no one tell you you are.

Lets analyse the whole 28-vs-30 day billing cycle for a moment…

If you’re paying $39.90 (the price of the most popular amaysim Unlimited plan) per recharge - or billing cycle - you pay $485.45 for a years worth of service. This figure was calculated by multiplying the price per month by the amount of recharges per year - in this case 12.17 (30 goes into 365 approx. 12.17 times). This ends up being $5.45 more per year than someone who pays every “month” where the billing cycle begins and ends on a set date per month. No biggie. But lets compare that to paying per 28 days, you will recharge 13.04 times per year, paying $520.13 - that’s $34.68 more over the course of a year, nearly the cost of a whole extra recharge.

Now I know that 30-odd dollars isn’t much, and that it shouldn’t really warrant a complaint, however I just wanted to make it known that these changes are significant. Particularly for someone with limited budget who thinks they’re paying $39.90 per month for service, when in fact they’re paying $43.34. It isn’t just amaysim, but by moving to 28-day billing cycles all of the carriers including the big three - Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone - with their prepare plans, manage to squeeze nearly a whole extra recharge out of each customer per year. Just keep that in mind when you sign up for a mobile plan on a 28-day billing cycle.

Customer Letter - Apple

Encryption. That’s a word which gets thrown around a lot in todays modern world of smart, connected, “internet of things” devices. Tonight, CEO of Apple Tim Cook has boldly gone ahead and written, “A Message to Our Customers” which now appears on the Apple.com website homepage. In his letter, Tim has arguably hit the nail on the head by openly reiterating Apple’s pro-encryption methods of software and hardware development saying, “We have even put that data out of our own reach, because we believe the contents of your iPhone are none of our business.”

For years, cryptologists and national security experts have been warning against weakening encryption. Doing so would hurt only the well-meaning and law-abiding citizens who rely on companies like Apple to protect their data. Criminals and bad actors will still encrypt, using tools that are readily available to them.

Here’s the thing: The bad guys will always find a way to get what they want, and we shouldn’t be making it easy for them. There are arguments that suggest encrypted services such as iMessage shouldn’t exist, because criminals can use them to communicate without being tracked. Here’s the thing, if iMessage (or iOS in general) loses its encryption, a criminal can pay a small fee per month for a VPN service which allows them to stay anonymous online anyway. By taking away this encryption, you’d be exposing literally billions of devices full of information to hackers in attempt to catch a few out who are already capable of having an almost-zero digital footprint. The only way to open this data up to the government involves making it easily accessible to hackers, a tradeoff which shouldn’t be considered.

[…] it would have the power to reach into anyone’s device to capture their data. The government could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone’s microphone or camera without your knowledge.

This begs the question, is it worth giving up the data of millions of innocent individuals for almost no gain? The answer is unequivocally no. You know what would also discourage terrorism? Attaching a microphone to every citizen, have it recording 24/7, and then analysed for information on potential terrorism plans. Is this going to happen in the near future? No. Is this extreme? Yes, and that’s why it won’t happen. Giving up the privacy of millions in the hope of catching a few doesn’t seem like the best tradeoff, particularly when there will always be other ways for these people to hide. Hence there is no guarantee that even by giving up this data, the government will be closer to finding out about and preventing acts of terrorism.

And ultimately, we fear that this demand would undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect.

Tim’s closing line is powerful and speaks the world of truth. There needs to be a line, and a backdoor in iOS certainly crosses it. You don’t promote freedom and safety by exposing personal data. It doesn’t, and can’t, work both ways. Apple currently have established themselves as market leaders in privacy and encryption, leading to a competitive advantage. This sells iPhones and is a big deal to the privacy conscious. It’s great for customers to have choice, and should Apple be forced to decrypt iOS this will begin a slippery slope down a path to a world where all our data is insecurely stored. Apple have always made privacy and security a priority, and it’s great for consumers to have this choice. We need ensure this continues and isn’t disallowed going forward.

I’ll end this post with what, for me, was the Tweet of the night related to Tim’s letter:

To be totally secure, it need to be physically impossible. As long as there’s a human deciding what’s possible & not, there’ll be conflict

— Steve T-S (@stroughtonsmith)

February 17, 2016

This matter can’t be left to human judgement. It needs to be impossible for Apple, their engineers, and the government to access this data, or else the keys will undoubtedly be abused.