hello!

My name is Ramkumar Shankar and I love Sweden, my iPhone (but possibly considering the switch to Android), guitar, linux, open source, football, metal, and general geekery among other things...and in no particular order (except for Sweden at the top of the list). I also use some of that knowledge to pay my bills as a technology consultant.

This is my tumblelog, where I post original content as well as some of the good stuff I find around the net.

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"I’ve been using a Nexus One Android phone for the last few weeks, and Carr’s quote summarizes the fundamental difference between Android and iPhone OS. On the iPhone, once you’re in an app, everything happens on-screen, with touch. Everything. You go outside the screen to the home button to leave the app or the sleep button to turn off the device. On Android, many things happens on screen with touch, but many other things don’t, and you’re often leaving the screen for the hardware Back, Menu, and Home buttons, and text selection and editing requires the use of the fiddly trackball. An Android gadget never disappears."

John Gruber, on comments from New York Times’s David Carr on the iPad

#apple #iPad
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"I need to talk to you about computers. I’ve been on a veritable roller-coaster of “how I feel” about the iPad announcement, and trying not to write about it until I had at least an inkling of what was at the root of that."

stevenf.com

Read it. It’s awesome.

#computing #thoughts #apple #iPad
0 comments text Stephen Fry on the iPad

There are many issues you could have with the iPad. No multitasking, still no Flash. No camera, no GPS. They all fall away the minute you use it. I cannot emphasise enough this point: “Hold your judgment until you’ve spent five minutes with it”. No YouTube film, no promotional video, no keynote address, no list of features can even hint at the extraordinary feeling you get from actually using and interacting with one of these magical objects.

Such a refreshing read. And that’s not because he really seems to love the iPad, but simply because it’s an honest candid take on Apple’s new product.

iPad About [Stephen Fry]

#Apple #iPad #thoughts
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"RT @mikema: People… get over the iPad name… you’ll just have to start calling your hygiene products something else."

Snaggy

#iPad #Apple
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"Apple responsible for 99.4% of mobile app sales in 2009"

That’s a pretty impressive figure. (via Arstechnica)

#apple
0 comments link The Complete 'Get a Mac' Campaign

#apple
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The New iPhone 3GS (Parody) (via jacksfilms)

#iPhone #Apple #funny
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@Snaggy:

rats, our iPhone app was rejected because “it contains content that ridicules public figures”. I thought that was a good thing. :P

Apple’s ridiculous approval policies at work again.

#apple #iphone #joyoftech
0 comments link Criticism and praise for Apple's Push Notifications - Ars Technica

Great article at Ars again, this time examining the pros and cons of Apple’s push notifications in the iPhone.

There’s a lot of talk about background applications on the iPhone, and (as the article points out) for good reason especially for music streaming apps. But I’d tend to agree that most apps do not need to run in the background. IM apps only need to let me know when I get a new message.

With that in mind, I’d place the focus on the way notifications are handled on the iPhone OS right now. The modal notification window definitely seems to be lacking, and an icon badge might be too inconspicuous to get noticed (especially with the number of apps people have on their phones). Android or Palm’s WebOS handle notifications in a much better unobtrusive way. Fix that Apple, and things should already look much better.

#apple #iphone #thoughts
0 comments link Electronista | U2 blames Apple for switch to BlackBerry

…the artist revealed that U2 had approached Apple for designing products but had been rejected, leading the band to switch to RIM when it became clear it could have a more direct hand in final products.

If the fugly U2 edition iPod is anything to go by, I’m rather pleased with this news.

#apple