Thursday, May 6, 2010
New digs.
I've moved this blog over to southernj.com in order to have more control over the design, posting frequency, and, frankly, to play more.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
New Beetle Days
With my beloved Clubby in the shop for a few days, I once again found myself with a replacement vehicle. Alas, this time the dealership was plumb out of real MINIs, so they turned me over to the nice folks at the Rent-A-Car-Within-A-Dealership who traded my Amex for a loaner vehicle. The nice man behind the counter, apparently forgetting that I had just left my MINI, “You want a big car or something small?” Heh, something small, please. I pictured something small and sporty; he apparently was just thinking of small.
A loaner is better than a test drive or a rental. Test drives are too short and rentals cost actual money. Since the Clubby is under warranty, this one’s on MINI’s dime. Having spent a few days with the vee-dub, I’m passing along my notes.
With only a few grand on the odometer, this is indeed a 2010 VW "New" Beetle. The wear is minimal, although I swear the last guy who borrowed it loved his cigars. The equipment is basic and includes synthetic leather as well as a six-speed automatic transmission with Tiptronic® control. The exterior is candy white, also known as feminine ivory.
The engine is pretty smooth and has ample power at speed. On the freeway, the little dub did fine in the left lane. The car feels heavier than its small shape would indicate, but as a result it feels planted most of the time. The turning radius is quite tight and, except for body roll that makes fast cornering less than thrilling, I get the sense the diminutive wheels would do quite well on skinny roads or metropolitan cities.
The dash is attractive and the controls, including the radio, are sensibly laid out and symmetrical. When darkness falls and the headlights come on, the dash lights up in a pleasing blue with really good contrast and a nice vibe. Psychologically, I liked the car more at night than during the day for this reason.
While I didn’t have anything that I outright hated, there was much that was underwhelming in the New Beetle. The environmental controls seem to have been done hastily by someone very, very tall. The air vents didn’t ever point downward; it was either at my neck or over my head. This, combined with the overzealous fan speeds, meant that I spent a great deal of time turning the fan on and off while fiddling with the vent directions. I much prefer climate control that required less intervention.
The engine is underpowered. Although not the most gutless thing I’ve driven, it was definitely rental-class. At low speeds, especially in coast-and-go environments like a parking lot, the Beetle just doesn’t have grunt. The result is that moving at 5-10 miles per hour is jerky. Turn on the a/c and the power disappears entirely. In addition, while cruising speeds and normal acceleration are smooth, passing isn’t impressive. At 65, flooring the throttle results in around a one-second lag before the transmission ungracefully drops into 4th and spins the rpm’s up high enough that the torque curve is over.
Another puzzling dichotomy is the round-box thing. This car is round on the outside; really, really round. It’s hard to ignore, especially when looking at the interior roof. However, everything else about the interior seems built like a cube. The dash is flat. The doors are flat. And the seats? Flat, flat, flat. This makes the car look wider than it actually is, but in reality makes the front seat a little short and the back seat quite cramped. In this case, the difference is enough to make the feel more obvious than the appearance.
The vee-dub really isn't a bad car, but it's not anywhere close to exciting. Women overwhelming liked it while a good friend's 15-year-old said he wouldn't be caught dead driving one. And thus my epiphany: if you want to keep your 16-year-old boy away from the wheel, get him a 2010 New Beetle in candy white. It will spend all its time in the driveway.
A loaner is better than a test drive or a rental. Test drives are too short and rentals cost actual money. Since the Clubby is under warranty, this one’s on MINI’s dime. Having spent a few days with the vee-dub, I’m passing along my notes.
With only a few grand on the odometer, this is indeed a 2010 VW "New" Beetle. The wear is minimal, although I swear the last guy who borrowed it loved his cigars. The equipment is basic and includes synthetic leather as well as a six-speed automatic transmission with Tiptronic® control. The exterior is candy white, also known as feminine ivory.
The Good
The engine is pretty smooth and has ample power at speed. On the freeway, the little dub did fine in the left lane. The car feels heavier than its small shape would indicate, but as a result it feels planted most of the time. The turning radius is quite tight and, except for body roll that makes fast cornering less than thrilling, I get the sense the diminutive wheels would do quite well on skinny roads or metropolitan cities.
The dash is attractive and the controls, including the radio, are sensibly laid out and symmetrical. When darkness falls and the headlights come on, the dash lights up in a pleasing blue with really good contrast and a nice vibe. Psychologically, I liked the car more at night than during the day for this reason.
The Not-So-Good
While I didn’t have anything that I outright hated, there was much that was underwhelming in the New Beetle. The environmental controls seem to have been done hastily by someone very, very tall. The air vents didn’t ever point downward; it was either at my neck or over my head. This, combined with the overzealous fan speeds, meant that I spent a great deal of time turning the fan on and off while fiddling with the vent directions. I much prefer climate control that required less intervention.
The engine is underpowered. Although not the most gutless thing I’ve driven, it was definitely rental-class. At low speeds, especially in coast-and-go environments like a parking lot, the Beetle just doesn’t have grunt. The result is that moving at 5-10 miles per hour is jerky. Turn on the a/c and the power disappears entirely. In addition, while cruising speeds and normal acceleration are smooth, passing isn’t impressive. At 65, flooring the throttle results in around a one-second lag before the transmission ungracefully drops into 4th and spins the rpm’s up high enough that the torque curve is over.
Another puzzling dichotomy is the round-box thing. This car is round on the outside; really, really round. It’s hard to ignore, especially when looking at the interior roof. However, everything else about the interior seems built like a cube. The dash is flat. The doors are flat. And the seats? Flat, flat, flat. This makes the car look wider than it actually is, but in reality makes the front seat a little short and the back seat quite cramped. In this case, the difference is enough to make the feel more obvious than the appearance.
The Verdict
The vee-dub really isn't a bad car, but it's not anywhere close to exciting. Women overwhelming liked it while a good friend's 15-year-old said he wouldn't be caught dead driving one. And thus my epiphany: if you want to keep your 16-year-old boy away from the wheel, get him a 2010 New Beetle in candy white. It will spend all its time in the driveway.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Snow in August! Er, February
Less frequently than a blue moon is actual snowfall around Atlanta, at least for the years I’ve been here. Although I’m used to much deeper drifts from my upbringing in the Rockies, snow here catches the locals completely off guard. I’m amazed at how utterly things shut down.
Despite the human chaos, the birds still chirp (and eventually come back to their man-made birdhouse when the photographer stops startling them).
The MINI’s bike rack just tucks in for a few cold nights until it warms up. For now at least, I’m determined to leave that rack on there in a show of defiance against any cold.
Despite the human chaos, the birds still chirp (and eventually come back to their man-made birdhouse when the photographer stops startling them).
The MINI’s bike rack just tucks in for a few cold nights until it warms up. For now at least, I’m determined to leave that rack on there in a show of defiance against any cold.
Monday, February 1, 2010
iPad is the new Black
“You know the hardest thing about being smart? I always pretty much know what’s going to happen next. There’s no suspense.”
— Billy Bob Thorton in Bandits
These days, friends and colleagues routinely ask for my take on new technology, particularly from Apple. The iPad is the current topic.
I really can't get around the name and I know that this is the most obvious thing about it. I can only hope we collectively come up with some other way to refer to the iPad because I feel like Apple just threw me the keys to a shiny new Porsche but there's a catch; it's hot pink.
There's no doubt for me that Apple hit the concept square on. Smart-but-clueless* people have been trying to get the tablet concept right for years. Dismissing the iPad just because it falls between two products, like the iPhone and a MacBook is stupid. Every tech company with a future is staring at this space; it's why the netbook even exists. So give Apple credit for seeing what others see. Of course this only gets them in the game.
Where most pundits and critics publishing exuberantly negative reviews miss is that Apple nailed the iPad's execution. The critics missed this on the iPhone and seem to have learned little since then. In a nutshell, the iPhone didn't produce better specs; it didn't do more; it didn't even do less. The iPhone's breakthrough is that it made its owners super productive (relative to Blackberry and Palm people) and brought smiles to their glowing faces while doing it.
Think about it: The iPhone is the first phone that users can't use enough of. AT&T, Verizon, and T-mo never complained about those 'blasted Blackberry users' consuming too much of the network. The iPhone created a cycle of hyper consumption (users) and creation (developers) where both sides keep coming back for more. In the years that I had a Blackberry, I don't think I ever went back to the developer for an updated app. The Blackberry didn't change my life, at best it made my time more efficient. In contrast, the iPhone is great because I use it for different tasks altogether, not to make the old ones faster.
The iPad will change your life, if you want it to.
“I love Apple computers. I’m obsessed. My MacBook challenges me: ‘What are you going to write that is worthy of me?’”
— J. J. Abrams
The iPad will change our fundamental definition of a flat tablet because it changes the way we interact with it. For example, I foresee this changing the entire way I do presentations.
A few weeks ago I did an in-person presentation for a couple of smart potential clients in their conference room. After my video adapter failed on me, I defaulted back to their in-room laptop hooked up to a projector screen 25 feet away. The presentation consisted of me making a statement, them asking a question, all of us turning our heads to look in the same direction toward the screen, and then snapping my head back and forth to get their reactions. It was impossible to read their body language—let alone quickly react to it—using this method.
How different would the meeting go if I pulled out a sleek iPad. "Wow," they'd say, "that's really slick." (Every college student knows that you put your paper in the best binder you can afford.) I show them websites and designs while holding the iPad out in front of me; when I want to hit a point home, I just flip the iPad upward and use it's self-rotating sensors or even push the iPad across the table. Now I can read body language and respond to it faster. I would think, "That guy seems intrigued by the user interface example I'm showing. I'll slide him the iPad and let him tap around the example himself."
I've never seen a presentation where two people that weren't familiar or comfortable with each other sat shoulder-to-shoulder to look at a MacBook screen at the same time but I have seen two or more lean over a piece of white paper or a notebook countless times. The iPad is the future of hover-and-study.
A word on Flash. Flash isn’t dead but it’s not becoming more relevant. Most complaints I've read on the lack of Flash support point to its unique ability to show dynamic, interactive content. This misses the point. HTML5 and AJAX aren’t gearing to replace Flash’s functionality but rather its relevance. Flash is a stable wrapper for content beyond HTML's current capability, however, the content itself is changing. Decrying the lack of Flash on the iPad assumes that what people want from the iPad is only a more portable version of their desktop. No, people will want their iPad to do things that no existing website or device can.
*Smart-but-clueless people make up 95% of the tech industry. These are the people who work on the future but hesitate to actually create something that doesn't exist. They coined the phrase, "Nobody got fired for buying IBM." Their opinions have no real effect on what Apple creates.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)