It’s a good day to be a New Yorker. A beta version of MTA Subway Time hit the app store today. For years, the MTA has been slowly, oh ever so slowly, installing countdown clocks in stations to let riders know when the next train is arriving. It’s not a perfect system, but nothing about this city’s subways is. With today’s app release, the info collected and displayed on the clocks is now available on iphones. But, there’s a catch. The countdown clocks have yet to be installed on all the subway lines, so Subway Time only has data for 7 lines. (Conspicuously absent is data for the L train, which was the first line to have the countdown clocks. Apparently, the clocks on the L use a more advanced technology, and that is what is keeping it from…hell, who knows. It’s the most advanced, so it was implemented first? Whatever, the MTA said it’s coming to the app in 6 to 12 months.)

Open the app, and this is what a user sees:

The interface is ugly, and it’s not optimized for retina screens. But I’m willing to let that slide. Does it work? Yes, it does. A user selects a line and a screen appears showing all the station stops on that line:

Choose a stop, and the data from the clocks is displayed:

It’s not bad, and does what it’s supposed to do. Besides the ugly design, though, the interface does have its issues. The information isn’t organized all that well. A user gets the name of the line and the destination, but it could use a header pointing out if it’s an uptown train or a downtown train, if it’s Bronx-bound, Brooklyn-bound, etc., and if it’s an express or a local. Also, the image above results from clicking on the 14th St. Union Square station, which has multiple lines stopping on a single platform, so a user gets the info for the 4, 5, and 6, even if they only tapped on, say, info for the 6 train. This is a good start, but the MTA has a lot of work to do to make this a tip-top app. And, there’s a lot of this nonsense:

Loading screens and poor transitions. That shouldn’t be a hard fix, but this is brought to you by the same people that can’t prevent subway cars from smelling like feces.

Being home with my parents for the holidays reminds me to thank all customer support people troubleshooting and explaining the details of technology to all the parents and grandparents in the world. I know it can be hard.

Explaining things like:

—the differences between cookies and cache
—the differences between a web browser and Google (or Facebook)
—why iCloud can’t back-up what you’ve saved within a website

And for all you customer support people who suck at helping non-nerds through problems? Learn how to unsuck your people-helping skills. This computer shit isn’t as obvious as it seems to people like you and me.

Every time theres more bad news about Nokia, the more my ironic this 2009 cover from Fast Company becomes:

I originally posted this on 22 Oct 2009.

From MIT Technology Review:

A woman who is completely paralyzed below the neck has regained the ability to reach out and interact with the world around her thanks to the most advanced brain-computer interface for operating a robotic arm so far.

In February, surgeons implanted two four-millimeter-by-four-millimeter electronics chips into the participant’s motor cortex, the region of the brain that initiates movements. Each chip has 96 electrodes and is wired through the skull to a computer that translates her thoughts into signals for the robotic arm. The work, performed by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, is reported in the latest issue of The Lancet.

Controlling artificial limbs with your brain, phones with video chatting. Self-driving cars for Google.

We are officially living in the future.

It’s great to see RIM validating Apple’s product design strategy.

Influencer: iPhone 5, launched September 2012

Influenced: BlackBerry 10 L-Series, leaked December 2012

ZDNet: Micro>soft pulls the plug on its Silverlight.Net site

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p>Maybe Microsoft realizes the war is over afterall.</p

Apple updates the iWork apps for iOS, improving their compatibility with Microsoft Office.

…and the relevancy of Microsoft Office continues to diminish.

It’s no wonder Apple continues to make inroads in the enterprise market.

I want to give a shout out to Squarespace, the new hosting provider for my portfolio, The Combustion Chamber.

I launched The Combustion Chamber in 2001. Over the last 11+ years I’ve always done my own updates and redesigns to the site. I’ve written my own Actionscript in Flash and my own HTML & CSS.

This current iteration is the first time I’ve used third-party tools to create and administer my portfolio. I’ve been tinkering with with Squarespace since I signed up a few months ago and I’ve found it to be great for both geeks and non-geeks alike. It’s intuitive but lets you get into the code if you want to.

If you want to support this site and are interesting in Squarespace, click on the link below. Try it out for 14 days, no credit card is required.

Squarespace 6

Note to Geeks: Squarespace, as it stands now, is intended for managing one domain (or multiple domains resolving to one). I would love if they provided the ability to administer multiple domains from their awesome configuration area. This doesn’t seem to be part of their business model nor something they’re interested in. I still love the service, but my use of it as a web designer and part-time developer will be limited to just one domain (for now). Also check out their Developers Area.

From Kevin C. Tofel over at GigaOm: Microsoft Surface with Windows 8 Pro: $899 in January

Now that Microsoft’s Surface with Windows RT has launched, the company is sharing details about the more powerful tablet known as Microsoft Surface with Windows 8 Pro. The device, available in January 2013, will cost $899 for a 64 GB model while doubling the internal storage adds another $100. Optional keyboard covers will also be available while the tablet does come with a digital Surface pen and Palm Block technology.

Microsoft has to get over their obsession with having “Pro” versions of their products.

It’s not new. They’ve had “Home” and “Professional” versions of Windows for a long time (at least since XP).

The thing is, people don’t care about “professional” versions, nor can they tell the difference between pro and regular versions. Mac users seem to have been ok with just one version of OS X since it came out in 2001.

I’ve worked with and visited the offices of Fortune 500 companies and I’ve witnessed, on a regular basis, CEOs, EVPs and Senior Directors using iPads during meetings. They don’t need “pro” versions of the iPad. Any “professional” qualities the iPad might have are implicit.

The only people who care about the “Pro” qualifier on Microsoft products are people who work at Microsoft.

While Tesla wins Motor Trend’s 2013 Car of the Year with their battery-powered Model S, there’s (still) work being done to improve the combustion chamber by a six-year-old startup called Transonic Combustion:

Transonic Combustion is creating an efficient fuel injection system for an internal combustion engine that minimizes heat waste. The system involves heating fuel to a “supercritical” state before injecting it into the combustion chamber, allowing it to combust without the need for a spark. The company uses software to precisely adjust the injection based on the engine load.

The system can run an engine that uses both gas and diesel as well as biofuels, and it is supposed to create an engine that is 50 percent more efficient than standard engines. About two years ago Transonic Combustion showed off a demo vehicle with its engine tech that got 64 miles per gallon in highway driving.

Breakthrough innovations are amazing. They captivate us. They push technology forward. But I also find love when people push existing technologies to their limits, to find out what’s possible with what we’re already using.

There’s no way around that fact that we’re going to run out of oil on Earth, but while we are still using it, why not continue to strive to perfect our use of it, while we search for replacements?

Ars Technica: Microsoft to kill off the Messenger client and regroup under the Skype brand

Microsoft’s instant messaging and video chat are set for a major shake-up, with Microsoft announcing today that the Windows Live Messenger brand and client will be retired in the first quarter of 2013. They’ll be replaced by the Skype client and Skype name everywhere, except for China, which will retain the Messenger naming.

I like seeing Microsoft take steps to trim fat from the their product line.

Of course, this is Microsoft, so they’re as likely to botch this as they are to make it a success.

GigaOm: Pinterest debuts secret boards

Boards for your porn. Makes sense.

Smart move, Pinterest.

All of Shawn Blanc’s internet nerd friends are loving the new iPad Mini. The fact that it’s lighter, smaller and still uses all of the apps and games from their larger iPads seems to be making up for the lack of a Retina screen.

John Gruber points out even Paul “Windows Supersite” Thurrott’s initial reactions to the original iPad in 2010 are coming true.

…and Instapaper’s Marco Arment thinks the iPad Mini will be the best-selling iPad from now on.

This is making me think Microsoft is not only getting to the tablet party late with their Surface, but they’re not even wearing the right attire. Everyone is changing into smaller, thinner and lighter iPad Minis and Microsoft is ringing the doorbell with a heavy, 3-piece suit, suitcase and let’s not forget, a keyboard!

[cue the obligatory 1980’s record-scratch, while everyone at the house party goes silent and turns to look at Microsoft standing awkwardly at the door, nervously *clicking* their Touch Cover]

Once again, Google is proving itself to be much more of the ‘Microsoft of the 2000s’ than Microsoft is. When the iPad came out, instead of racing to come out with their own 9/10-inch tablet, they saw where the puck was going, and that was to the 7-inch form factor. They debuted the Nexus 7 in 2011. They waited until November of 2012 to release a 10-inch tablet.

People are continuing to move even farther away from “tradition” PC experiences and it might be too late for Microsoft.

The mindshift is underway.

Apple Hides Samsung Apology So It Can’t Be Seen Without Scrolling

Classic. Check it out for yourselves.

This reeks of Steve Jobs’s anti-establishment thinking.