How has Apple got away with screwing up our iPhone 3G?

A couple of months ago the world waited with baited breath for the release of the OS4 upgrade for Apple's iPhone operating system.

I didn't rush to upgrade the OS on my 3G, but a day or two later when I synched my phone with iTunes, it installed the upgrade.

Since then the phone has run slower, some of the apps just quit or stop working - even Apples own apps. The phone hangs and generally performs worse than it did when I first got it.

In short, my User Experience has downgraded, not upgraded.

Sure, OS4 works fine in 3GS phones and of course on the latest iPhone, but why the heck did Apple release it for 3G iPhones as well?
Did they test it on 3G iPhones at all?
If they did, didn't they notice how it screwed up performance?
If they did notice it screwed up performance, why did they release it for the 3G iPhone?
And given the widespread problems that 3G iPhone users have reported, why hasn't Apple worked out an OS4 fix to rectify it?

I now have a phone that was delivered to me less than 18 months ago, which works worse than when I first got it entirely because of software made and delivered, in a closed system, by the manufacturer. If that's not an Apple screw-up, what is?

Social Media help friends and family connect more

I'm increasingly convinced that a major benefit of Social Media is in reinforcing connections with people we already know but may not see or speak to as often as we would like.

Thanks to Twitter I have regular connections with my brother-in-law Mike in Sheffield - we never used to interact except when he came to visit.  Also thanks to Twitter and Flickr, I keep up to date with friends in my home town between our monthly photo group meets and occasional chance encounters.

Let's get physical

Just back from two weeks in Greece, bronzed, more toned and barely heavier than I was before, I'm trying hard not to feel smug, but it isn't working.

The first day of the holiday the kids had a windsurfing course and I eavesdropped for a refresher - I tried windsurfing several times in 1982 and thought it should be easy enough to get back into. However, the first day this time was awful - falling off into the sea countless times, struggling back onto the board, hauling the mast and sail up with my arse sticking out and my legs wobbling, falling off again, looking and feeling like a complete dork. After an hour or two I realised why I hadn't done it for a long time and decided to give up. But then, at the end of the session it all came together for a minute or two and I thought maybe I'll stick with it.

So I tried again and ended up going out windsurfing morning and afternoon, for about 3-4 hours a day, graduating to a smaller board (155 litres) and a bigger sail (5.0 sq metres). Gradually I fell off less, needed less hauling back upwind by the rescue boat, and was able to ride the winds at some speed. Mind you, I was constantly overtaken by kids in small sailing boats, because boats go faster than windsurfers. But I stuck with the windsurfing because it's more like riding the waves and the wind bareback - holding on to the boom, you have direct physical contact with the force of the wind. And, as I discovered, it does great things for the upper body muscles and the core strength.

For one such as me who spends most of my working time sitting and writing, there's something deeply refreshing and humanising about getting really physical. I realise I'm very lucky to be able to do it, both financially and from a health perspective - my mum is now in rehab after falling and breaking her femur. So I intend to make the best of it for as long as I can.

In this increasingly IT- and screen-mediated world, there's a real danger of retreating from our physical beings and living far too much in just our heads. In doing so, we lose physical awareness and what I think of as Body Intelligence. When we live fully in our bodies, we are more grounded and benefit from a more rounded understanding of life

When somebody tells you to relax, what's your reaction?

What happens when an angry agitated person is told to relax? Alternatives you may have heard:

"Don't take it so seriously."

"C'mon, lighten up."

"Don't take is so personally."

"Where's your sense of humour?"

From what you've seen or experienced, does the agitated person suddenly snap out of it and relax, lighten up and chuckle?

Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette

On Monday I was at an international meeting in London with some youngsters (+/- 30) from various countries. Out of 9 of us, the three German lads and one South African smoked a cigarette every hour or so, out on the balcony.

Since the Monday before, I've been going to visit my mum in hospital in Bath every day - she fell in our kitchen and broke her femur. From the distinctive baccy odour of them I would estimate around half of the medical staff (nurses, orderlies etc, not doctors) are smokers.

Just a couple of weeks earlier my wife was "shadowing" in the same hospital - prepared to start work there in August. Her first stint will be in the ward dealing with respiratory patients, who are in a lot worse shape than many other types. Virtually all of them are smokers.

And thinking a lot further back, my Dad smoked 60 untipped a day all the years I was living at my parent's house. The whole place was shrouded in smoke all the time. He continued smoking after his first heart attack at 60 something, and pretended to stop after his second a few years later. (He used to "go for a walk" and come back reeking of cigarettes and mint). As a kid I swore I would never smoke but I started around age 18-19 and continued to my mid-30s - never more than 4-5 a day usually, but even so....

Of course rates of cigarette smoking have gone down a lot, but my recent experiences show that there are still plenty of people smoking. I could go all high-moral-tone, but I must recognise that I too smoked for 20 years or so despite having had graphic evidence of its ill effects. I wasn't smoking to impress people - I mostly smoked alone at home, towards the end of the day. Even while I was smoking, I could feel it harming me, yet I continued. What the heck was I doing?

And now, despite being pretty optimistic about most things, I wonder what real chances there are of people changing their behaviour for the better (energy use, eating better etc.) when so many of us carry on with an activity that's expensive, socially discouraged and is virtually guaranteed to cause severe health problems?

Human beings don't do facts - we do perceptions

We human beings are not computers or machines. 

Even if we are "no more than" assemblages of chemicals and electrical impulses, our organism is far, far, far more complex and subtle than even the most sophisticated devices created by man.

Treating human beings like machines, or expecting us to process information like computers, is not only wrong, it's wrong-headed - stupid.

"Perception" is not a bug in our human system that prevents us from grasping "reality". Perception is as close as we get to understanding "reality" - it's how we decide which "facts" are relevant, and how we assemble and make sense of those "facts".

Failing to understand the crucial role of perception in human interactions, or ignoring it, is equivalent to thinking that the earth is flat or that the sun goes round the earth.

You are scuppered unless you are hands-on and learning from your experience

In our hyperconnected world, huge amounts of information are available to anybody with a connection. That levels the playing field. It means that a 20-year-old anywhere can muster facts and figures about any field as quickly as most 50-year-olds who have worked in that field all their life.

At any age, in any field of activity, what counts now are two things:

- Personal Experience, which means hands-on, things that you have done yourself NOT the innumerable case histories that are everwhere

- Learning from your Experience which means paying attention to the things you experience, reflecting on them and discussing them. Merely clocking up years doing a particular activity is no guarantee of expertise in it. Another person who has spent much less time doing it, but has learned more from it, will have a clear advantage.

Easy-going as I am, I increasingly find myself listening out for real substance as opposed to bullshit and bluster. I have found real substance in people of all ages, including teens - people who have actually tried things and gained insight from what they've tried.

Apple arguments - what are they really about?

Nobody much seems to argue about ideology any more.  My father-in-law, Billy Bragg and a few other stalwarts still fly the red flag but it's not a discussion that stirs much passion.

Contrast that with the passion for and against Apple.  Every day, in various places - in articles, online forums, in pubs and bars and diverse locations - people get very heated about the pros and cons of Apple.

Being a student of human nature as I am, and believing that arguments are usually about much more than the "content" of what's being argued about, as I believe, you can imagine that I'm wondering what the heck all the Apple arguments are really about.

I can certainly give a pretty full account of why I get worked up on the subject, but before then I would be interested to hear from others what they think.  If possible I would like to hear you perspective on what the Apple arguments are really about, rather than the minutiae of he said/she said, product specs and market share.

Ice cream - the vice for softies

It probably started in my home town, Windsor. A little Neopolitan family ran a cafe with under-the-counter bookmaking and ice cream when the weather was hot, or at Christmas. Just the one flavour, known these days as "fior di latte". Happy days.

Studying in Florence in the 1970s there was the famous Vivoli's to lure me into the ways of indulgence, then working in Rome in the early 80s Giolitti was just round the corner from the office. Since then, I've always made a point of checking out where the best ice cream can be found.

Living in or near Amsterdam 1994-2004 Pisa Ice near the RAI was always worth a detour, Their liquorice ice cream was out of this world. The only downside was they closed for the winter.

In London, just along from the Polish Centre on King Street Hammersmith was a little Iranian restaurant that served gorgeous safran ice cream - barely sweet, but utterly delicious.  Haunting, even.

On holiday with the family in the States in 2007, we found a place in Moab UT that served pretty good ice cream but the portions... even a single scoop ($3.00) was the size of a baby's head. Up in Yellowstone Park, the local ice cream made from Montana milk was very good indeed.

And now the nearest serious temptation is about 6 miles away in Bath - the Real Italian Ice Cream Company is a regular haunt of mine. The texture is excellent but you have to know your flavours. The coffee and chocolate are rich and intense but the mango and the tutti-frutti I had yesterday were a bit non-descript. Just up the road is a little place that does excellent Turkish Delight ice cream plus a few other interesting flavours.

The one I still yearn for is Black Sesame Sesame Seed ice cream I had a small Japanese restaurant in mid-town Manhattan in September 2008.

I could live out the rest of my days without touching wine or beer and not worry too much about it. But ice cream ....

The acid test of conversations

No (wo)man is an island. We are social beings, reliant on each other for practical needs but also for emotional well-being. The more options we have to connect with others, the more we are able to create and maintain the connections we need for our well-being.

Conversation is an essential form of social interaction, except perhaps for the Finns and some teenage boys.* So your approach to conversation is important for your well-being.

Your approach to conversation can leave people wanting more, it can leave them feeling neutral/okay, or it can make them feel like avoiding you.

Whatever your medium of conversation - face to face, Twitter etc. - the acid test is whether other people want to interact with you again, or not. If they don't, you risk a slippery slope to isolation.