In grade 6 one of the projects we were given was to make a presentation on a scientific topic. I don’t remember how I found out about the New Horizons mission but it caught my attention. It was the last planet that has not been explored - at least, back then it was still a planet¹.

I remembered I was fascinated by the subsystems, not just the scientific equipment on board, but also the backups in place for the computers, thrusters, and other critical components. There was so much preparation and planning involved, and tons of precautions taken (for the worst case). For example the LORRI imager was covered during the first portion of the trip to prevent it from being accidentally aimed at the sun (which would damage the sensor). New Horizons also set a few records, including the fastest escape velocity and the farthest engine burn. And now, it also is sending back the most hi-res images yet.

Even on Earth, humans have yet to discover, map, and explore endless areas like Antarctica and the ocean just to name two. It will take an incredible amount of effort, technology, and time to do so. But Earth is just an infinitesimal point compared to the vastness of space, which makes it a pretty big deal to be able to send a probe to such a remote location and make discoveries. What’s mind-boggling to me is that we are able to send programed robots that maneuver and take measurements autonomously at an unimaginable distance.

Flyby Assist

There’s a arcade-like machine at the Ontario Science Centre which was a great interactive (real-life) simulation of how gravity can be used to alter the speed and direction of an oncoming object. It comprised of a spinning plate where a magnet was hidden underneath. The objective was to fire a ball so that it hits a bell in the center. However there was an upward slope so one must fire the ball at the correct angle and time in order to sufficiently “fling” the ball. (It made such a nice chiming sound!)

New Horizons took advantage of Jupiter’s gravity assist which shaved off roughly 20 years off Pluto’s approach². Voyager 2 was even able to use Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune as part of a Planetary Grand Tour³. This is just a great hack.

Increased Finding ⇒ Increased Funding?

Space exploration is an area that should continued to be invested in, and with greater pace. There has been many advances, even in the private sector such as from SpaceX and SpaceShipOne⁴. However this is still a developing industry, and one with unlimited potential (longterm: mining and colonization). There are a lot of benefits in increased investments by governments and companies. Historically during the Space Race, many new innovations occurred, consumers benefited from improved products, and was great for the economy. That is the definition of a good investment. The New Horizons flyby of Pluto and the discoveries made can be a catalyst for a new generation of growth. Let’s see what further records it can set.

I wanted to write down my opinions on the Pebble (while it is still fresh in my mind) before my Apple Watch arrives. Although it is fairly critical, I tried to give suggestions on how to Pebble can improve the overall product.

Ordering

I ordered the Pebble last October and took about 20 days to arrive. This was longer than I expected but most packages that are shipped free internationally (in this case from Singapore) often take a while. However this is not a good experience for customers as it sucks to wait 3 weeks just for shipping. From a sales perspective, reducing the shipment time can potentially pull in a customer who is deciding between two similar devices.

I know that it is costly to have distribution centers but one potential starting point (if they don’t have distribution centers already) is to use part of their existing offices. It would be very interesting to know how many customers are located in the Waterloo and Palo Alto region (where they currently have offices).

Unboxing

The box was well designed and definitely had a lot of thought went into it. For example, one of the sides included the supported devices. The text was carefully placed so that “Works with Android” was above “Made for iPhone”. When I imagined it placed the other way around, I read “Made for iPhone (but also) Works with Android”, which makes it sound as if Android support was an afterthought.

Opening the box was more difficult than it should have been. The lid was very stiff and it took a multiple shakes (and some physics) to get the bottom to slide out. It has been a while since I first did the unboxing so I don’t really remember the details of the inner packaging experience. However looking at the shaped cardboard (which was used to support the Pebble in the box) didn’t give a sense of quality and style. I know it’s probably not too worthwhile to spend a lot on packaging, but perhaps switching to a different method of packaging might be able to solve both hurdles.

Notifications

I wore the Pebble daily about 90% of the time for almost 7 months. My primary use was just to check the time¹. Receiving incoming notifications was also useful in some cases but I often fail to see them because I turned off vibrations (as will be explained later).

There are several ways that reading notifications can be better. One small annoyance I have is when scrolling through multiple notifications of varying lengths. When at a long notification, the first press would scroll that notification to the bottom, and then the second press would move on to the next. This creates a choppy experience and is mainly a limitation of the low screen resolution and lack of a precise input method like a touchscreen or crown. There are also bugs relating to determine the screen height required to display a given text because in some rare cases, although the entire notification can fit on a single screen, yet the software thinks it requires just a few extra pixels, leading to an extra button press.

Hardware

I don’t use apps too often but the stopwatch app is quite useful. The basic functionality works very well because it is precise to start/pause the clock if my fingers can remain on a button rather than having to accurately tap on a phone. This is one area where having hardware buttons is an advantage because the usual 3 functionalities (start/stop, lap, reset)² can each be assigned a button.

However, I think that a device which only has buttons as input methods will be severely limited in the functionality of apps. For example, there is no input method that allows for a continuous stream of data (aside from the accelerometer and compass), as a crown would provide. It also does not allow for dynamic and responsive actions as available on a touchscreen. This requires a convention on what each button does and is challenging to structure advanced apps without resorting to complicated navigational hierarchies.

Quirks

I’ve noticed that iOS will prompt me to “Allow Pebble to communicate with…” dialogs every couple of days. This system dialog is very annoying because given the two options, clicking “Allow” switches me away from my current app into Pebble’s, but clicking “Cancel” disables many features such as music control. As far as I know there is no setting to always allow access. I’m pretty sure this is an iOS hassle and I doubt there would be any changes regarding this from Apple’s end (especially after they launched their own wearable).

I find the vibration too jarring, noisy, and sudden, as the device is strapped to my wrist, amplifying the effect. (I can even hear the Pebble bounce slightly when it vibrates on a desk.) It would be great if there was a ease in/out effect which might be able to be achieved with a software update. However, it’s possible that the Pebble does not support PWM motors or has other limitations that do not allow for this. Another solution is to decrease the speed and weight inside the vibrator to reduce the harsh vibration. And hopefully the Pebble Time will be more subtle in it’s notifications.

Summary

I know this post is pretty critical of the Pebble. However keep in mind that this device is roughly three year-old technology. Also iOS does not offer many integrations and this limits the features that a Pebble (or any non-Apple) smartwatch can offer. Nonetheless I’m very curious to see what new applications (and apps) will arise with Pebble Time’s “SmartStraps”.

Download the force

There have been rumors surfacing lately of Apple’s new 12-inch device(s). There’s not much information leaked (mostly concepts), especially since Steven Colbert became Chief of Security. However it’s always fun to speculate.

The biggest mystery is if this device only has one port and, if so, why? As surprising and overly minimalistic as it would be, this might be a clever design in practice.

It is important to recognize that the target market for this device is for users who travel a lot. One of the biggest annoyances for me is the number of cables that I have to plug in. On a MacBook Air, there are 4 major ports (5 if you regularly listen to audio¹). It would be very convenient if only a single cable was required to connect all of my peripheral devices.

Thunderbolt 3

If this device does indeed have only a single port, Thunderbolt is a likely candidate. It is already present in current MacBooks, and the upcoming version should be able to deliver up to 100 watts².

However the magic that can make a single-port computer usable is literally the power adapter. Apple can get away with a single data port if the power adapter doubled as a hub. Recently there have been many docking stations available where external devices would be connected to the station, and only a single Thunderbolt cable is attached to the MacBook. If this was indeed true, it would be very convenient to finally deal with just a single cable. I am hoping that it can even be MagSafe. If Apple and Intel follow their previous 1.5 year gap between releases, it’s possible that Thunderbolt 3 will be the power source.

Rumors by the dozens

Throughout the past few months, there were rumors of multiple 12-inch devices, one for each of the iPad and MacBook classes. It is very probable that these rumors are referring to a single device. But the real question is what would Apple call it?

The name of the product really signifies its intended use. The iPad is very suitable for browsing responsive media and interacting with the device, while the Mac is more geared towards creation and granular controls. What would be the focus of this new device?

Depending on the situation/application, the touchscreen or keyboard would be a more preferable method of input. My biggest fantasy would be if this device could run both iOS and OS X. Intel has released it’s new Core M processor, which is super low-power (both consumption and performance) and could be a great fit for this device. Apple is also pretty skilled at making its own A-series of ARM chips, and the A8X powering the new iPad’s are pretty powerful. If this device contained both these chips, it will allow users to build and interact with software in the most natural way for their particular task.

Uni-direction

iOS and OS X have increasing become similar³, especially with the recent iOS 8 and Yosemite back-to-back release. However, Apple has stated before that it has no plans to create a unified OS. Of course, they have reversed their decisions many times⁴, but this time they might be telling the truth - this device actually runs both OS’s.

iPad + Mac = iPad Air

The iPad Air would have been a perfect name for this device. Sadly, it is already used. Apple probably won’t pull a Microsoft Surface on this one. If only they had stuck with the The New iPad naming conventions…

However, there is still the chance they will call this device the New iPad Air - (jokes :).

Challenges

Of course this device would be seriously expensive. Fitting a (retina?) touchscreen into this super-thin design would also be a big challenge. There would need to be methods of sharing data between the two OS’s while minimizing the need to keep both running at the same time to save power. The lack of USB support (without using an adapter) would be a huge decision-pooper for many. It lacks the processing power to do barely more than just browsing and emails, yet developers will likely need to purchase one for testing purposes. And of course there will be dozens of other small gotchas being a first-generation device.

Apple has been busy. The next public product due to be released is probably the Watch. What’s left of the developer team is working on the next iOS and OS X features for WWDC. Phil Schiller and Eddy Cue are probably still in talks about the App Store. Well, it’s good that Apple has many employees because you know what I see when I look at my MacBook? Too many ports.

I worked with Eric Bai on our CS246 final project based on the Monopoly game. This game option was new this year, and it is based on the University of Waterloo buildings, with some quirky campus references such as the DC Tim’s Line and Goose Nesting.

This project was one of the largest games that I had completed from beginning to end and I learned a lot along the way. I get the most experience from these projects because I work on the it from start to finish, from the architecture of the code, ensuring that it meets the given specifications, debugging, and finally creating a website to showcase it. This project also allowed me to gain a better understanding of the steps to launch a product, which will help me when planning future projects.

This project had gone very smoothly. One important consideration was to keep each other informed of any deviations from our initial plan. This wasn’t a big challenge for us because we planned out how the program would be organized before we implemented it. Furthermore, we usually didn’t work on the code at the same time which allowed us to message each other afterwards when we did stray from the plan. We also split up the work in a way such that there were few dependencies between us, and we didn’t need to understand each other’s exact implementation details to accomplish our own task.

Plan accordingly

The only problem that stuck out for me was right before the due date. We realized that creating the documentation¹ took a fair amount of work. However, we started working on this just hours before it was due, while also doing our final testing to make sure our game met the specifications. Instead, we should have finished the documentation the day before (without much time pressure), and dedicated the last few hours solely to testing.

The biggest lesson I learned from this project is to carefully consider the marking scheme at three critical moments in a project. These points are at the beginning of the project, somewhere in the middle, and a few days before the deadline. It is pretty obvious that a plan should be drawn up in the beginning. It is just as important re-examine the schedule towards the end so that the features that will be part of the release can be finalized.