Things I want to see from Apple, but probably never will....

I've ranted previously on my disappointment in Apple as of late (ie last two years) and now will give a few ideas on what Apple can do and also a few personal requests as a geek.

1.  Allow me to use my Apple Watch with more than one iPhone.  Some of us who own several generations of iPhones like to switch between our huge Plus models and go back to our normal sized iPhones.  Right now, you can't do this at all. You can but it's a HUGE PAIN IN THE ASS!! Possibility of this happening? Perhaps in iOS 10?

2.  Apple Watch: Listen to us users on features for Apple Watch in the software realm.  That friend button that barely anyone uses? How about you let us launch ANY app on our Apple Watch with it? I'd love to have it launch iTunes instead of the Friends.

3.  MicroSD on our Pro version of an iPhone.  32GB as the smallest iPhone offering.  Stop being a cheap ass and douche by still selling a 16GB phone in the day and age where I can buy a 200GB microSD class 10 card for only $80.

4. Make a 2 in 1 Macbook Air w/an iPad Retina as the display.  Windows is killing the 2 in 1 market and the latest offerings by Lenovo are really amazing pieces of tech; the X1 Yoga and Tablet are iPad killers in the business world.  It's been 7 years now and the iPad still can't replace a work laptop and honestly never will.  We have hit tablet and smartphone saturation as I had mentioned a year ago.  Every phone and tablet is decent at worst and very solid as the average.

5. Stop trying to out design functionality.  Stop making shit thinner and removing ports.  We have hit peak thinness.  Having a dongle to plug accessories into your laptop is bullshit and really annoying.  Sure USB-C is a great standard but the world lives in an old school USB format world too.   Until your screens are flexible/rollable, stop making shit thinner.  We don't care at this point!

6. Apple Watch: Can you add a keypad on the phone app? I'd like to be able to buzz people into my condo via my Apple Watch but can't because there is no keypad option when you receive a call.  How does one miss this most basic thing?

7.  AppleTV sure didn't kill console gaming or even make a dent into it. HA! Every gamer seemed to know this but yet every tech blog was all on the 'AppleTV will give console gaming a run for it's life' type of articles. BULLSHIT.  Called it.  We see it.

8. AppleTV, why can't we use the built-in storage to save local media to it? Such a waste...

9. Mac Mini/Macbook Pro lineups; so can we get a real update to these with real processors?  More specifically can you stop making memory soldered onto the motherboard? Allow us to keep upgrading/replacing our memory and hard drives?   It's like your trying create waste by making "un-upgradeable" products.

10.  Just listen to the users of your products.  You don't have Jobs anymore and are forgetting the mid 1990s Apple.  That Apple needed Microsoft to bail them out.

JOON IS SOON!!! No Man's Sky and why this geek can't wait!!!

Ok.. It's time for me to post this... there's a game coming out on June 21, 2016 called No Man's Sky. It's on the PS4 and PC. And I personally believe this game is going to be a game changer literally.

This post could easily be made into a short thesis but I doubt anyone wants to read such a paper on a video game so I'll do a cliff notes version.

No Man's Sky (aka NMS) is a space exploration/survival game that is played within a procedurally crafted universe that is created mainly with the use of procedural methods and algorithms. This math combined w/the Super Formula hypothesis let's the creators of this game basically build a universe w/over 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 planets. Literally 99.9% of the planets will never be discovered, explored or played. 

These planets are real sized planets. Each star you see in the sky in the game is a system you can explore and go to if you have the proper ship and resources. Also the planet, animals, fauna and landscape is all built using procedural generation however it is not purely procedural though; there are basic rule systems put in place to make sure things don't look too alien.

Any who, here's a podcast of mine on why I'm so excited for No Man's Sky!

The MINI Cooper Coupe... future rare MINI?

Hello my friends.  Today's post is going to be a more thought, speculative based and of course MINI Cooper Coupe related.  I've had my R58 Bonnie for nearly 2 3/4 years and have enjoyed everyday with her.  She's been a fun car to just go for a cruise in and just reflects my personality so well.  I'm unique, small and loud, hehe. :)

This last year, 2015, marked the final year of production of the MINI Cooper Coupe (R58) and Roadster (R59) models.  These models were introduced and released in very late 2011/2012.  Sales for both models have not been very good but honestly I don't think MINI expected them to be.  I still believe that the Coupe especially was more a research and brand/tech test bed for MINI.  Most car blogs ridiculed the Coupe for it's 'backwards baseball cap' roof line/design and complained about it being only a two seater car.  Wait, these are car blogs?   No, what MINI gave the world was a proper R56 drivers car in Coupe form.  It took the R56 formula but added more street and race car to the mix.  The Coupe and Roadster do not handle like a hardtop cooper.  I've driven the latest F56 JCW versions at the Indianapolis 500 speedway at the Miles Ahead Motoring school and a few R56 loaners.  The Coupe is lower to the ground and of course less top heavy.  Weight distribution is even more balanced and stability is further enhanced by the fact that the coupe still has the rear brace bar that the roadster has; ie even tighter chassis.

Podcast: Angry Geek Rants at Apple and Nintendo.. LISTEN TO US!!!!

I'm pissed.  Especially at Apple and Nintendo....  Design over functionality is not what i want anymore... we have hit thinness peak...

AT&T and iOS devices... BAM! NumberSync and Wifi Calling..

AT&T announced a while back about a new service they were going to offer called NumberSync.  I honestly just blew it off as another gimicky service that was carrier based so most likely horribly implemented.  This week the feature has been enabled on iOS devices along with... WIFI CALLING!!!!  These two new features go hand in hand and use each other to work.  Let's take a look at setting this up since it can get a bit confusing and took me a few tries to get all figured out (I also just ported my Google Voice number back to a carrier since I have now given up on GVoice after 2+ years of trying to make usable in a multi OS environment).  Note: This post will be refined w/screenshots shortly.. :)

RockBand 4 on the PS4 and how to deal with crazy DLC and tuning your library :)

So.. yea.. i'm a total RockBand junkie.  I have been playing Rock Band since the PS3 and the first game.  I have since then bought every disc game minus the Lego one's out there and even got Blitz but that was just for it's awesome song list.

Nonetheless, the jump to current generation consoles (PS4/Xbox One) made me jump with joy.  Finally, I could put away the PS3 and move it to the bedroom.  It's now been several months since launch for Rock Band 4 and I plan to recap how to manage your library if you are like me and TONS of DLC with the exports being available.

MINI Cooper Coding: NCSExpert on Windows 10 without a VM

I wrote this post a while ago on the NAM forums but want to share it with my MINI Cooper readers, just in case.

So, long story short after getting the newest LED DRLs installed at my MINI dealership they had to replace my whole radio since the brakes coding went a wry and fried the radio, etc etc. After hearing that there was indeed a proper code upgrade from MINI, i realized my previous NCSExpert setup using a virtual machine XP in Windows 7 was probably not going to work since i needed newer datens and also was sick of the VM solution.

After much digging, i found a newer client of NCSExpert that runs on Windows 7/8/8.1 32bit and 64bit and also new datens that work with my just updated coupe (as of March 12, 2015)! ie I have been able to recode all of my settings back along with VIM (which I'll add notes about too! not many details out there at times).