Ken Segall, who had a lot to do with Apple marketing in the past, wrote a semi-critical piece about Apple losing touch with simplicity. Reading the article, the title, “How Apple Lost Its Way”, feels a little overblown. I think Ken makes some good points.

However, these days Apple is frequently subject to two conflicting criticisms:

1. The products and services are too complicated. They’ve lost touch with the old days where there were just a few Macs for sale and software was easier to use.

2. Apple isn’t moving fast enough to keep up with modern demands multiple devices (like iPhones of various screen sizes) and complex software that can fully take advantage of cloud services and other modern developments.

Apple can’t have both. Nor can it wind back the clock to a time where software wasn’t so complex and connected. While I certainly hope they’ll keep that legacy of simplicity where they can, I think they need to keep pressing forward toward that second goal, even if at a cost to the first. iOS, for instance, is infinitely more useful to me today than it was just a few years ago because of the addition of complexity.

This week, I guested on Victor Cajiao’s TerraTech podcast where we talked about technology, the law, and automation. It was really nice joining Victor, who was one of my very first podcasting friends back in the day. TerraTech has an interesting format that ranges from Apple geekery to how to build your own watch.

For all of my life I’ve been a messenger-bag guy. One strap over my shoulder and I’m ready to take on the world.

However, as of late I’ve been getting out more and sometimes I’ll fill a bag with technology, a battery or two, water, and some food, and head out to new places to spend the day getting work done and maybe doing a little exploring. The problem is that on these trips, I’m finding the messenger-bag isn’t cutting it. Specifically, it’s causing weird shoulder problems as I deal with the weight on just one side of my body.

I found myself loving my adventure/work days but dreading the pain I’d have the next day. All of this got me thinking that maybe I should consider a backpack. You have to understand that I’ve always been resistent to the idea of backpacks. For some reason, getting a backpack in my head felt something akin to the a sports-car driver switching to a minivan.

So I decided that if I was going to get a backpack, it was going to be a bad-ass backpack that I wanted to wear. I wanted something that is convenient, comfortable, and–perhaps most importantly–something I was happy to wear. I spent way too much time looking for that right backpack before deciding upon Waterfield’s Staad Laptop BackPack.

The Staad is made of waxed canvas and leather with a tapered design that makes the bottom wider than the top. This allows the bag to hold all of my stuff without feeling overwhelming. They have two sizes, slim and stout, so you’ve got even more control over the size vs. carry capacity decision. I went with the “stout” size but even that isn’t overwhelming.

Dimensions
Slim – fits up to 13″ laptops: 15.5 x 12 x 1.0–3.0 inches, 2.4 lbs.
Stout – fits up to 15″ laptops: 16 x 14.25 x 1.5–5.5 inches 2.8 lbs.

As with all Waterfield products, the overall construction is great. There is heavy stitching in all the right places and this bag is clearly built to last a long time. The flap is attached with a WWII-style ammunition buckle that stays secure but also comes open with just a tug.

There are also two diagonal zippers on the outside of the backpack that open to two independent pockets. By rotating the bag on one shoulder, you can get into these pockets easily and without having to go into the main compartment.

Speaking of the main compartment, inside are two sewn pockets. One fits a 15″ MacBook Pro (or a large iPad Pro) and the other holds a standard sized iPad. If you prefer, Waterfield will make you one with a smaller laptop pocket upon request. There are also two internal pockets with a bit of velcro to hold them closed.

One of my favorite features about the pocket is the inclusion of a zipper down the center. One of the reasons I was so resistant to go with a backpack was because I hate having to dig into a backpack down the length of my arm with no ability to see what’s inside. The Stad’s center zipper lets you see into the backpack’s pocket and get what you need. Why hasn’t anyone done this before?

An intangible in all of this is the way the Staad looks. There are a lot of options with waxed canvas and ballistic nylon bodies that can be matched with an assortment of flaps. You can pick the materials to get something that looks rugged or more formal. I got the brown waxed canvas and leather flap because I was 13 years old when Indiana Jones first hit theaters and the model I picked is exactly the one Indiana would use to carry some mummy bones or a priceless artifact. (I could also see Episode VII’s Rey wearing this backpack.)

The back of the bag is a padded mesh that breathes well on hot days and the shoulder straps are also padded and comfortable. There’s also a handle sewn into the top, which is nice when you take the bag off. I’ve had the bag a few months and spent full days trekking with the Staad on my back in the rain and under the California sun. I love the way this bag looks and I plan to use the hell out of it over many years into the future. Learn more from Waterfield Designs.

There are a lot of rumblings in the Apple community arising out of the recent Google I/O conference. Google continues to push forward with artificial intelligence and machine learning as they added additional features to Android making it easier than ever for the operating system to think and act for us.

As a fan of voice technology and digital assistants, I couldn’t help but be impressed. For some people in the Apple community, this is a warning shot across Apple’s bow. If our portable technologies are heading in this direction, Google is flaunting its superiority while Apple seems to linger each year with minor improvements to artificial intelligence, Siri, and the whole principle of getting our phones to think more for us.

One argument why Apple lags at this is because they don’t have the types of cloud data that Google does. Because Apple feels so strongly about protecting consumer data, they don’t have access to much of it. That impairs their ability to use “big data” to improve their services.

I’m not convinced that’s a good enough reason however. Even though Apple may not have “big data”, they do have plenty of access to user data on device. Moreover, the microchips in the modern iPhones and iPads are plenty smart to take a look at what’s going on with your data and act upon it. We got a little bit of that with iOS 9 and I generally am impressed how apps show up now about the time I usually use them.

I don’t feel as if the sky is falling over this issue. To me, it seems a lot more like Apple’s standard playbook, where they let new technologies percolate for a bit and see what really sticks before finding a way to implement it. In the past, they capitalized on coming in once the technology becomes more useful to the masses and packaging it in a way that non-nerds, can take advantage of it. A similar recent dominant technology was cloud sync. Just a few years ago Google was legitimately the only company capable of pulling it off. I’ve been running an experiment on iCloud Drive the last month with 5 GB of data and it’s actually pretty good. Not only that, smaller companies are now syncing data reliably too. I can’t help think there is something similar to Moore’s law for cloud based technologies.

To me, the real question here is that by not using “big data” or even taking better advantage of the data on our mobile devices, is Apple putting itself so far behind that it can’t make that leap frog when the technology becomes more feasible?

The answer to that particular question is not easy. Apple doesn’t tell us anything. For all we know, they have a skunk works project with 1,000 engineers working on this problem right now. Just as easily, however, they could have two guys in a broom closet. We’ll not know until the big “unveiling” some day in the distant future. We speculated for years about the iPad and Apple ultimately delivered. Will they do it again with better AI and digital assistants?

I would like nothing more than for Apple to jump into the fray on this with both feet. I’d love for my iPhone or iPad to handle the tedium and give me more time to create things. I remember watching the movie *Her* and thinking, “I want that.” (Well … at least parts of that.) Maybe we will get that far in my lifetime. Regardless, if Apple does not announce its own AI initiative, I hardly think they are sunk. We are still several years from mass adoption of artificial intelligence in our mobile devices. Just look at voice dictation, which is prety good these days, but hardly used. If people aren’t ready to use their phone to type for them, do you really think they’re ready to have their phone booking appointments and flights for them?

Joe Buhlig posted a thought provoking piece on how he’s switched to writing out anything significant using longhand. Not only does he explain his own experience, he also cites to some compelling research about how our brains behave differently when we’re writing with a pen and paper (or presumably Apple Pencil and iPad Pro) than with a keyboard.

I’ve heard this from many readers and listeners over the years but I don’t see myself ever doing any significant amount of analog writing. Part of it is because my hand writing is so terrible. (Don’t believe me? Watch this.) The biggest hangup for me though is that it is simply too slow. With the sheer number of words I want to get out of my head, the idea of slowing down to write longhand would make me crazy. I’ve known this in my bones for a long time, which is why I’m much more likely to tip over into dictation than get hung up on fancy artisanal notebooks.