Over the past year, I‘ve been receptive to the siren call of the newest iPads. I almost bought an iPad Air but I managed to resist, telling myself that new iPad Pro models would be released soon. About a month ago, Apple did just that.

They were released amidst a pandemic. Hence, I resisted a little longer; after all, I’m not exactly going anywhere.

Nevertheless, a few days ago I relented. “Fine, Apple, you win. I’ll buy your damn iPad Pro”, I murmured to myself with a smile.

Sadly, I’m a maximizer and tend to overthink large purchases such as this. So the question shifted from “should I get an iPad?” to “which one?”. iPad Pro 11” or 12.9”?

iPad Pro 11″ vs 12.9″

Both the iPad Pro 11” and its larger 12.9” counterpart have a raison d’être, as I’ll illustrate in a moment. So deciding which iPad Pro to buy was anything but trivial for me. Mind you, we are admittedly well past first world problem territory, but figuring out which one to buy was still a tough decision to mull over. You might be struggling to decide between the 11″ and the 12.9″ version yourself.

One is not clearly better than the other. It’s all a matter of your needs and usage and, at least for me, both have a lot of appeal.

Still, I made my choice and ordered one this morning, along with a second-generation Apple Pencil and an OtterBox Symmetry Series 360 Case. Once the “world resumes”, I might order a Magic Keyboard case too but for now, I’m home 24/7 and my Bluetooth wireless keyboard (a Logitech K380) will more than accommodate my needs.

Without further delay, I’m going to list the advantages of the iPad Pro 11”, those of the iPad Pro 12.9”, how they fare for my use cases, and finally which one I bought.

Why buy the iPad Pro 11″

• It works well as a second device. If you already have a laptop, the 11” complements it nicely.
• It’s very portable.
• When used as a tablet, it’s lighter and more comfortable to hold. It can even be held with one hand.
• Highly relevant to my case, but it fits in my existing satchel (a Tumi Organizer Travel Tote) that I absolutely love.
• It’s cheaper than the 12.9” model and its accessories are cheaper as well.
• It’s a better device for “regular” books that are not textbooks or technical in nature. In my case, acquiring this device would enable me to sell my existing BOOX Nova Pro 7.8 E-Reader. Though I like that e-reader, so maybe this point is not exactly a pro.

Why buy the iPad Pro 12.9″

• Its large screen is a beauty to behold.
• In split-screen mode, it allows showing two iPad sized apps rather than two oversized iPhone windows like the 11” version does.
• With the Magic Keyboard case, it can act as a replacement for my personal laptop if it were to die.
• It’s better at multitasking and productivity in general thanks to its larger screen. There are few apps that don’t benefit from the extra room (Instagram, I’m looking at you).
• It’s better at creative tasks. Drawing, photo editing, video editing, all benefit from the extra space.
• It’s easier on the eyes, particularly if your vision isn’t perfect.
• It has a full-sized keyboard should you decide to buy a keyboard case. The keyboard cases for the 11″ tend to have smaller keys and/or cramp their keys to fit in the limited amount of space.
• It can show programming and mathematics books in full size since the screen is not much smaller than the equivalent paper versions of the same books.
• In landscape mode, it offers enough space to take notes and read a book at the same time.
• There aren’t any cheap(er) iPad models in the same size range, unlike the 11″ which has comparatively sized cheaper alternatives in the iPad Air and even the basic iPad model. How is this a pro? It’s not a pro, per se, but it weighed massively on my decision making. If I invest a lot of money in getting an iPad Pro 12.9″ now, I can always buy a smaller second device for cheap, should I need a more portable tablet on the go. I could even opt for an iPad Mini at that point. However, if I were to buy an iPad Pro 11″ now and realize later on that I need a larger screen, I will be out of luck, as there are no affordable giant iPads. So I’d have to buy a second iPad Pro or deal with the hassle of selling my existing one and then buying the larger version.

My iPad use cases

Let’s briefly talk about the most common use cases for me. These are not very novel uses, so I expect many readers will have similar scenarios and needs.

Watching movies in bed: Provided you have a case propping it up, the iPad Pro 12.9″ is the better option here thanks to its larger screen. Mind you, the different aspect ratio between the two devices means that the advantage is not as pronounced as you might imagine.

Casual browsing in bed: If you are casually consuming content in bed, laying on your side or on your back, the 11″ iPad Pro is definitely more comfortable to use.

Casual browsing on the couch: The 11″ iPad is easier on your hands and the 12.9″ one is easier on your eyes. Since you can use your lap to help you balance the 12.9″ iPad, I think this is a draw.

Being productive on the couch: Following the same logic as the point above, this is either a draw or it favors the 12.9″ model, depending on your workflow.

Being productive at a desk: This isn’t even close. The iPad Pro 12.9″ takes the cake.

Traveling for business: Pandemic permitting, when travel resumes, I will most likely take my iPad with me. I think the 11″ is a better option on the plane and the 12.9″ will offer a better experience once you reach your destination (e.g., in your hotel room). So I’d say it’s a draw.

Having it on me everywhere I go: Conversely, the iPad Pro 11″ wins this one. You technically can bring the 12.9″ version everywhere too, but I bet in practice most people will be more likely to do so with the 11″ one.

Using it in waiting rooms or as I wait in the car: Both can be used for this purpose, but especially in waiting rooms, the 11″ one is a little more socially acceptable.

Casual consumption at a coffee shop or the library: For the same conspicuity reason, I think that for casual browsing and consumption at a coffee shop or the library, I’d prefer the more manageable 11″ version which is also less likely to stick out.

Productivity at a coffee shop or the library: The 12.9″ version with a keyboard (case or Bluetooth) is without a doubt the more “laptop replacement” of the two. For coding, blogging, journaling, etc. it’s definitely a better option and the 12.9″ size is not prohibitive to transport places.

Drawing: There are exceptions, but most artists seem to like the larger canvas offered by the 12.9″.

Editing photos and videos: Without a doubt, the 12.9″ is the best option here.

Reading and annotating technical books: I think that the 11″ is a better device to read novels on, but for the kind of technical books and papers I read (mostly programming and mathematics PDFs), the 12.9″ is large enough to offer a readable font without zooming in.

Taking notes: This might be a personal preference, but unless you are taking notes standing up, the iPad Pro 12.9″ with so much breathing room offers the advantage here.

Which iPad did I buy?

You probably guessed by now, but I couldn’t ignore all the advantages of the 12.9″ iPad Pro, so that’s what I ordered. The point about being able to buy a cheaper 10-11″ iPad if I really need something portable helped me seal the deal.

I went with the 256 GB Wi-Fi model since the difference from the 128 GB wasn’t huge price-wise. The 128 GB iPad configuration is fine as well for most people, but I wanted to somewhat future-proof it and avoid having to be too space-conscious in my use of it.

I really look forward to receiving it and talking more about apps, my usage of them, and the setup I’ll use to maximize its usefulness for productivity/coding.

Do you have an iPad Pro or are you contemplating getting one? If so, which version?

The post iPad Pro 11″ vs 12.9″: Which One Should You Buy? appeared first on Programming Zen.

I recently ordered a new e-reader. The biggest decision was not so much which specific device to buy, but rather which ecosystem to marry into. Will the device I buy tie me to the Kindle ecosystem or the Kobo ecosystem? And which one is better?

Kindle vs Kobo

I owned both in the past and I did quite a bit of research to make up my mind this time around, so I’m sharing what I found with you.

When you buy a device like the recently announced Kindle Oasis 3 or the Kindle Paperwhite 4, you essentially receive a fairly locked down device. EPUB files are not supported, and you’ll need to convert them to the MOBI format before being able to read them on your Kindle.

There are programs like Calibre to help you out with the process, but it’s still an extra step you must take and the results are not always perfect. On the plus side, you get access to Amazon’s huge catalog of books. Kobo has a giant catalog as well but it doesn’t quite match the Kindle Store.

Since Kobo offers devices that are more open, you’ll be able to buy EPUB from anywhere else on the web and read them on your Kobo device.

Still, there are definitely books that are only available on Kindle so you will occasionally run into a book you can’t have on Kobo. Kindle also offers you seamless integration with Goodreads (since Goodreads was bought by Amazon) which is nice if you keep track of your library there.

Plenty of Books Available for Both

The catalog size is really not a major issue. Both will make most people happy. The bigger difference here is one of philosophy.

If you are the kind of person who loves open source, you might dislike Amazon’s total control on the device. Kobo isn’t open source either, but it’s certainly more flexible and will read a variety of open formats, including the aforementioned EPUB.

It’s worth noting that Kobo books are mostly DRM EPUB, but nobody forbids you from buying DRM-free EPUB books (like my own) and reading them on your Kobo device.

A Tale of Two Countries

The differences I outlined so far are true regardless of where you live, but some important pros and cons are very much dependent on your location.

Kindle vs Kobo in the US

If you live in the US, the newest kindle devices will allow you to play audiobooks from Audible (.com) through Bluetooth headphones.

You also can pay a monthly fee to receive access to Kindle Unlimited, which is a collection of over 1 million books available on an all-you-can-read basis, the book equivalent of Netflix if you will.

Many of these titles are indie or quite niche, but you’ll also find very popular titles like Harry Potter and The Handmaid’s Tale.

If you have Amazon Prime, you’ll also get access to Prime Reading which is a very small collection of Kindle books you get to read for free.

To date, there are about 1000 books in there, so don’t get too excited about it, but hey, if you’re already paying for Amazon Prime, you get them for free.

In the US, you also get to borrow and read on your Kindle, eBooks from the public library system through Overdrive. You can also lend and borrow ebooks from other Kindle users for up to 14 days.

Kindle vs Kobo Outside the US

Outside of the US, the story is quite a bit different. For example, in Canada, the Kindle catalog is smaller (including Kindle Unlimited), you can’t lend and borrow ebooks from friends, and you can’t borrow library ebooks on your Kindle e-reader.

Books tend to also be more expensive than their US counterpart, but in Canada, we are used to paying a premium for everything, except maple syrup and poutine. 🙂

The newest Kindle devices don’t currently support Audible.ca either. This point is particularly annoying when you consider how much Amazon has been pressuring Canadians to switch from the US site to the Canadian one.

Kobo’s Strengths

Kobo, being originally a Canadian company, fares much better in Canada, by allowing people to borrow ebooks from the public library through Overdrive directly from the device, making the process even smoother than the one experienced by American Kindle users.

Integration with the Pocket service is also great, as it allows you to read longer articles you stored in your Pocket account while browsing the web on your desktop.

The closest thing Kindle has to this is offered by a third-party service called Instapaper, but it’s not as seamless in my experience.

Nevertheless, if you are an American reader, Kindle is a no-brainer, unless you have ideological reasons against getting an Amazon device. This is why it is estimated that over 83% of ebook readers in the US are Kindles.

Kobo is the second-largest player in America, and their partnership with Walmart will only help them out. But Amazon’s offering in the US is tough to beat unless you, again, take issue at the lack of open formats on the platform or really need a larger device, since Amazon discontinued e-ink devices with screens larger than 7″.

But if you are in Canada, the Kindle proposition starts to be a lot less appealing. To me, the lack of support for public libraries, in particular, is a major blow.

If you are an avid reader like I am, the cost of the device becomes almost irrelevant if you need to buy every book you read. And it’s not just me thinking this way. The majority of e-readers in the hands of Canadians are Kobo devices for a reason.

The Device I ordered

And that’s why I ordered a Kobo Forma, which is the equivalent of the Kindle Oasis 3, only it has an 8″ screen instead of the 7 inches of the Oasis.

It doesn’t support Bluetooth for audiobooks, but then again, in Canada, neither does the Oasis, and I listen to audiobooks on my phone while driving or at the gym, in any case.

One valid alternative would be to buy one of those Chinese Android tablets with e-ink displays, such as the Onyx Boox series.

Being Android devices, they will allow you to install both the Kindle and Kobo apps, as well as Overdrive, and any other regular Android app.

This way you could have the Kindle catalog and the ability to borrow library books, even in Canada. However, these devices tend to be quite a bit more expensive than even the top of the line Kindle or Kobo, they are not exactly bug-free, and perhaps they lose something by adding more capabilities.

If you are looking for an e-reader, less might be more. Part of the beauty of a device like the Kindle and Kobo lies in their distraction-free nature. The devices are simply not capable of doing much else but reading.

With a full-fledged tablet, even with an e-ink screen, you’re way more likely to become distracted.

The post Kindle vs Kobo: Choosing the Right E-reader Ecosystem appeared first on Programming Zen.

As I mentioned in my previous article, I bought a Chromebook with the intention of using it as a portable machine for web development, writing, and general productivity on the go.

Chrome OS is quite limited so, in practice, my goal requires installing a version of Linux on the Chromebook. And since I don’t dislike Chrome OS for Netflix and casual browsing, I decided to dual-boot GalliumOS and Chrome OS on my Toshiba Chromebook 2 (model CB35-C3300 specifically).

Below, I’ll give you step by step instructions on how to accomplish that.

Create recovery media and back up your Chromebook

Before even thinking of touching your Chromebook, I recommend creating recovery media via a USB stick. You can do so by following Google’s instructions here.

Note that recovering your Chromebook will only bring it back to its original conditions, as it came to you from the manufacturer.

So if you’ve been using your Chromebook already and have data or customizations that are not synced in the cloud, make sure you backup your Chromebook before proceeding.

Choose a firmware

Toshiba Chromebook 2 models from 2015 use a Broadwell microarchitecture which means that it is recommended that you upgrade their firmware prior to installing GalliumOS.

You have two main choices for upgrading/flashing your firmware. John Lewis’ rom or Mr. Chromebox’s utility script.

Both will work, however, there is an important distinction that led me to use Mr. Chromebox’s script.

John Lewis’ script assumes that you’ll be dual-booting Linux from USB or an SD card. If no such stick or card is present, the system will default to booting from the internal hard drive.

This is all fine and dandy until you have GalliumOS installed on the internal disk and happen to have an SD card or low profile USB stick attached to your Chromebook for extra storage.

In such instances, what happens is that the BIOS (i.e., SeaBIOS) will try to boot from the external storage, won’t find the operating system, and fail to boot (typically remaining stuck on Booting from Hard Disk…) until you eject the card and reboot.

This happened to me, as I wanted GalliumOS installed on the internal disk while leveraging a 64 GB card for extra data storage. Mr. Chromebox’s firmware worked out of the box for this layout.

Unlike John Lewis’ script, Mr. Chromebox’s script also asked me if I wanted to set my default boot device to USB, so it’s worth noting that it does support the other approach as well.

Long story short, provided your Chromebook is supported, use Mr. Chromebox’s script.

Flash your firmware

OK, assuming you are going with Mr. Chromebox, here are the steps:

1. Hold ESC and F3 (the refresh symbol key) at the same time, then press the power button.
2. You’ll get a scary warning that Chrome OS is missing or damaged. Don’t worry about it. Press CTRL +D. Then when prompted, press the enter key.
3. Your laptop will reboot a few times and make some warning sounds here and there as it does so. This is all part of the process. Let it do its thing.
4. When step 3 has concluded, you’ll be booted into a brand new Chrome OS installation in developer mode. Enter your WiFi password and sign in.
5. Press CTRL+ALT+T to open a crosh session in your browser. Then type shell and hit enter there.
6. Download and execute Mr. Chromebox’s utility by running: cd; curl -L -O https://mrchromebox.tech/firmware-util.sh && sudo bash firmware-util.sh
7. Amongst the available options, for the Toshiba Chromebook 2 2015 pick option 1 (RW_LEGACY) and answer N (so no) to the question about installing on USB, unless you want to boot from a USB stick or SD card.
8. Follow the prompts until you receive a message about the successful completion of the firmware upgrade.

Install GalliumOS with chrx

chrx is a script that will download and install GalliumOS for you. It can even be used to install other Linux distros, but I suggest you stick to the highly optimized GalliumOS.

Once you’re done with the firmware upgrade described above, you can install and run chrx by entering following command in the shell:

curl -O https://chrx.org/go && sh go

Follow the prompts. At some point, you’ll be asked to provide a size for GalliumOS’ partition. The default, 9 GB, is sensible if you plan to keep Chrome OS.

Two reboots will happen and you’ll find yourself in a brand new Chrome OS installation again. Only this time, not only will you be in developer mode, but you’ll also have a partition ready for GalliumOS.

You know the drill by now:

1. Connect to the WiFi
2. Login with Google
3. Press CTRL+ALT+T to open crosh in a tab
4. Type shell and hit enter

Now we can finally use chrx to install GalliumOS. By default it creates a chrx user for you, which is not ideal, so specify the username (and hostname for good measure). I used:

cd; curl -O https://chrx.org/go && sh go -U tony -H cb

Change tony to your username, and cb to whatever you want your box to be called.

If curl fails with a (23) Failed writing body error, you are likely running the command in the root filesystem / rather than the home directory ~, which means that you don’t have writing permission. cd, as per the command above, before you curl.

Go along with the prompt and any confirmation requests.

Once your machine reboots, you’ll see a developer mode warning screen at boot and you can now use:

• CTRL + D to log into Chrome OS
• CTRL + L to log into GalliumOS

(D for default, L for Legacy Boot Mode, but it might be easier to remember L for Linux.)

It’s annoying that the developer warning screen exists, but to remove it you’ll need to perform some hardware surgery, so I have not bothered with it for now.

At boot, do not press the spacebar, or you’ll be kicked out of developer mode, and you’ll have to redo the process of getting back in developer mode.

This matters more so if you leave your Chromebook unattended or if you let your kids or a non-technical oriented person also use your laptop.

Conclusion

In this article, we saw how you can run GalliumOS (a lightweight Ubuntu distro) and Chrome OS on a Toshiba Chromebook 2 (2015).

We first created recovery media and backed up the machine, next we upgraded the firmware, then leveraging chrx we installed GalliumOS.

Finally, using CTRL+D and CTRL+L, we choose which of the two operating systems we want to boot when we start our Chromebook.

My first impression of the Toshiba and the dual boot setup are mostly positive.

Provided you are a developer or someone who is technically minded, I definitely recommend this setup for a portable development machine on the cheap.

The post Dual Booting GalliumOS and Chrome OS on a Toshiba Chromebook 2 appeared first on Programming Zen.

I almost bought a Lenovo

After mulling it over, and taking into account the feedback I received, I was quite positive I’d be buying a Lenovo X1 Carbon.

And then I saw it: an HP Spectre ultrabook that was available at Costco. Gorgeous laptop. Brilliant screen, great keyboard, good specs, premium price, but not exorbitant. It is also lightweight and slim. HP markets it as the thinnest 13″ ultrabook in the world.

I don’t care too much about thinness (self-deprecating joke not intended), but boy, that laptop is sharp looking. So I bought one with the intention of dual booting Linux on it.

Time to install Linux

I brought my HP Spectre home, did the unboxing and was very impressed by the luxurious presentation, as well as the laptop itself.

It was a beautiful, fast machine and I was one happy camper. For a little while at least…

Failing to install Linux on the HP Spectre

Some people, including Leo Laporte, mentioned that they couldn’t get Linux to run on this laptop. However, one or two others claimed to have had success with it.
I bought the laptop on the off chance that those folks were right. However, that approach didn’t pan out too well for me.

The HP Spectre ships with 3 USB-C ports. One used for the charger, the others as USB or Thunderbolt ports. It includes two adapters, USB-C to Ethernet and USB-C to USB 3.0, respectively.

I placed Ubuntu on a USB key (with UNetbootin) that was connected to their USB-C to USB 3.0 adapter and proceeded to boot the live version of Ubuntu 16.04. Doing so failed.

Pressing F10 gets you into the BIOS, from which I tried disabling secure boot and enabling legacy USB support. No luck. (I must remark that the BIOS options were quite limited compared to those of many laptops.)

Researching the error, I was able to determine that the issue was related to booting from a USB 3.0 device. So I tried a USB 2.0 key. Nothing. Tried to boot from an external DVD drive. Same error.

OK, let’s try something with a more recent kernel? No dice. Fedora 24? Nope.

Installing Linux like it’s 1999

Further investigation led me to find a boot parameter that would allow the live installation to start. Pressing e with the “Try live” GRUB2 line selected enabled me to add acpi=off pci=noacpi to the boot command.

This started the live session, though once it was booted there were serious issues that were probably brought on by disabling ACPI. Truth be told it was 4 am at that point, so I don’t even remember what were the specific issues, but the gist of it was that the laptop was not usable at all with Linux.

It really reminded me of all-nighters I used to do installing Linux and recompiling kernels back in the late 1990s. In all fairness, today’s Linux is fantastic and a big component at play here is how new this laptop is.

I restored the laptop to its original configuration and returned it to Costco. They offer 90 day, almost no question asked, returns on electronics so I was able to promptly get a full refund without any hassle.

I felt a touch sad returning the little guy and even considered running Linux in a VM from Windows. Or perhaps even relying on the upcoming Bash within Windows. I know, I know… but that’s how much I liked it.

I almost bought a Lenovo, for the second time

With the HP Spectre out of the picture, the Lenovo X1 Carbon was tempting me again. I considered the Dell XPS 13, but the, quite honestly, stupid placement of the webcam at the bottom left side was very off putting. I also find the Lenovo keyboard to be superior to that of the Dell.

Okay, time to decide between Lenovo X1 Carbon vs X1 Yoga. The Yoga version is essentially the touch screen 2-in–1 version of the Carbon. It weighs a little more, it costs a few hundred more, and it lasts (battery wise) a little less.

I’m not huge on touch screens for laptops, so my decision was easy enough. Time to order a Lenovo X1 Carbon. Along with the MacBook Pro, I consider the Lenovo X1 Carbon to be the gold standard of developer ultrabooks.

Taking advantage of employee pricing I was able to spec out the Lenovo X1 Carbon I wanted for something like $2,300 (Canadian).

Now, that is, I fully admit, a lot of dough for a laptop. However, when you stop and consider the fact that laptops are what enable me to make a living, they end up being a very small professional investment (we are quite fortunate actually, compared to quite a few other professionals whose tools cost them tens of thousands of dollars).

I was this close to pulling the trigger on the order, but then the Lenovo site decided to malfunction. It did so multiple times, 404ing on me each and every time. I didn’t take it as a sign because I doubt that the Universe is all that concerned about my laptop choices, but it gave me enough time to reflect on my purchase.

Comparing Apples to Lenovos

I realized that, yes, I needed a portable laptop now, but I was about to spend a considerable amount of cash on a laptop without knowing what Apple would have to offer next soon enough.

Would I still buy a Lenovo X1 Carbon if a newly released MacBook Air 13″ with retina display was available today? Maybe, or maybe not.

I’ll be honest. Unless Apple screws it up, they probably have the edge, since I could triple-boot MacOS Sierra, Ubuntu, and Windows 10 on the same machine. But either way, it would be nice to make that call when the two laptops actually exist and can be compared in terms of ergonomics, price, and specs.

Apple is likely to release such a retina MacBook Air 13″ in September or October. Possibly a bit later in the year, though not likely further than the end of 2016.

A Laptop to hold me over

I began toying with the idea of acquiring a laptop to hold me over until the new Macs are out and I can make an informed decision on which laptop I want to pair to my existing MacBook Pro 15″ (which I use as a desktop).

A key consideration for such a laptop would be cost. It has to be cheap so that my purchase decision of the laptop I really want in the fall or winter won’t be impacted by the expense that I make now.

Old Laptops vs Chromebooks vs Cheap Windows Laptops

The three main categories of inexpensive laptops that can run Linux are:

• Old laptops (either older models, refurbished, or used);
• Chromebooks;
• Cheap Windows Laptops (the few compatible ones).

Old laptops and cheapo Windows laptops tend to be more powerful than Chromebooks and, provided they are compatible with Linux, more straightforward to set-up as Linux laptops for development (Chromebooks require extra steps to dual boot.)

However, Chromebooks tend to have the edge when it comes to portability, weight, looks, and battery life.

Chromebooks are also interesting because of the upcoming ability (in the fall, though it’s possible to try it now) to run Android apps.

So I shifted my research instead to Chromebooks.

I almost bought a Lenovo, yet again

Fine, this is getting ridiculous, I know. While researching Chromebooks I came across a smoking deal on New Egg. A Lenovo T430 with docking station for $299 Canadian.

Much like Jesus, I was tempted a third time. Only, by Lenovo.

I think that the T430 above would have made for a great Linux laptop. However, you can essentially anchor a boat with that baby.

When you consider the lack of battery life, the old school TFT panel, the chunky charger, its size, etc, I quickly started to see the value that a Chromebook can add.

And I look forward to the Android app element as well.

Choosing a Chromebook for Linux

Alright, time to pick a Chromebook. I considered several models, but the ones that stood out for me where the Toshiba Chromebook 2, Dell Chromebook 11, and Acer R11.

I’ll cut an already long story short, and tell you that I ordered a Toshiba Chromebook 2. It’s almost universally well reviewed and most people consider it to be the best Chromebook for the money (unless you are willing to shell out more for a Dell Chromebook 13 or significantly more for a Google Pixel).

Great all around and the IPS Full HD display is particularly outstanding in its category.

Full disclosure here: I ordered it from the States. It’s going to take a week before it arrives, so what I write below is my plan rather than what I’ve actually already done.

If you are in the same boat, that wasn’t sunk by the T430 above, you should try to stick to:

• Intel-based Chromebooks for maximum application-level compatibility in Linux;
• Recent Celeron or i3/i5 processors;
• 4 GB of RAM, because those Chrome tabs aren’t going to remember themselves;
• SD card slots to easily and cheaply expand storage;
• Decent, ideally IPS, panel so that you can be comfortable while staring at the screen for long sessions at the time;
• Relatively inexpensive (or you might as well buy an ultrabook). The $200-$400 range is reasonable.

For me, the Toshiba Chromebook 2 ($299 USD) checked off all of those boxes. And I like that its hard drive is upgradable. It doesn’t hurt either that it takes 42 mm M.2 SSDs, which are quite cheap. If I like this laptop a lot, I’ll definitely upgrade its disk.

Chromebook as a Linux laptop for development

There are several ways to run Linux on a Chromebook for development purposes:

1. Simply use the preinstalled Chrome OS (which is a restricted Linux) and leverage cloud-based development environments such as Cloud9 and Nitrous. And if you are a data scientist, use my team’s Data Scientist Workbench.
2. Install Linux via Crouton. This chroot-based approach leverages the existing OS and allows you to cycle through a full-blown graphical Linux environment (e.g., Ubuntu with Xfce) and Chrome OS with Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Back and Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Forward.
3. Do #2 + xiwi which allows you to run Linux apps in a Chrome OS window. Read the fine print, however, as performance can be a concern.
4. Dual boot a lightweight Linux distro such as GalliumOS. In many cases, you’ll have to replace the firmware with a custom version in order to bypass Chrome OS restrictions. Check the hardware compatibility list to ensure your Chromebook is supported.
5. Do the same as #4, but simply get rid of Chrome OS.

I like the dual-boot approach the best. If that fails to realize for some reason, I’ll fall back on the less secure Crouton approach.

Either way, it’s worth keeping Chrome OS for things like Netflix.

Reasonable Expectations

I think I’m going to enjoy the little laptop that’s currently on its way to my doorstep. I have reasonable expectations, so I doubt I’ll be disappointed.

Obviously, a Chromebook (Pixel excluded) is not going to run heavy IDEs or multiple VMs, and I don’t plan to use it for those sorts of purposes.

Still, there is plenty of development (especially web development) to be had on a lightweight Linux laptop like the one I just ordered.

Will I get a MacBook Air in the fall?

I may still buy that MacBook Air in the fall (or whenever the laptop becomes available). Though, there’s a chance that I might buy that Lenovo X1 Carbon after all, at that point in time.

Depending on how much I like the Toshiba Chromebook 2, I may keep it or sell it and recoup some money from it when I buy my portable development gig in a few months.

Maybe, just maybe, I might even just stick to the Chromebook plus the MacBook Pro 15 that I already have (certainly the most budget-friendly approach). I’ll share my decision and experiences developing with a Chromebook, in future posts.

If you have experience developing with a Chromebook, please feel free to share below.

The post And That’s How I Ended up Developing with a Chromebook appeared first on Programming Zen.

Why I’m looking for a new laptop

When shopping for a developer laptop, I usually stick to powerful machines with a relatively large screen. My main operating system is OS X, so my last few laptops have all been MacBook Pros 15″.

My 2-year old MacBook Pro with an i7, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD is still a fine machine. I’m not looking for a new laptop to replace it with. Nor am I looking for more power or more pixels, and I certainly don’t have an inherent desire to smudge my screen by touching it day in and day out.

The reason why I’m in the market for a new developer laptop is that my MacBook Pro is currently used primarily as a desktop machine. It is quasi-permanently hooked up to two large monitors (a Dell 34″ ultra wide, and a way too tall Benq 32″ in vertical mode), as well as a few other peripherals, disk drives, etc.

This is an arrangement that works well enough for me when at my desk, but is suboptimal when portability is taken into account.

It’s a pretty chunky laptop to carry around, unhooking is a pain, and I don’t find it to be comfortable when used on my actual lap. Sharp edges and heat are only two of the ergonomic issues that I’ve run into with it. (Interestingly, I found 13″ Macs to be less problematic from an ergonomic standpoint.)

So the real trouble with this laptop is that it forces me to sit at my desk. My comfort and productivity levels soar when I’m able to switch it up a little during the day. Standing here and there, moving to the couch (I work from home), working from a coffee shop on occasion, and so on.

Adding to the mix both work and personal trips, and it quickly becomes possible to rationalize wanting to buy a second laptop to be used as, well, an actual laptop! 🙂

A premium docking station that supports both monitors with their large resolutions could be an alternative, but it doesn’t solve the other issues I have with the MacBook Pro 15″ when used as a laptop.

Likewise, I have an iPad Air 2 which I like quite a bit as a media consumption device, but it’s lacking for all but the lightest of my productivity tasks.

Looking at MacBooks

Being an OS X user, I first looked at the obvious choices in the Apple lineup. Unfortunately, I don’t believe that Macs are a priority for Apple today.

Take a look at this lineup from the MacRumors buying guide.

All but the MacBook to the left were last updated a long time ago. 427 days ago for the Retina MacBook Pro 13“, 498 days ago for the not-even-HD MacBook Air 13”.

These are still good laptops, but I have a hard time paying full price for old models when new releases are coming soon. We just don’t know how soon yet, though. It could be a couple of months. It could be half a year from now.

So Apple puts me in a tough spot. If their prices were lowered to account for the new models coming up, justifying a purchase now would be much easier — and apparently I’m not the only one who feels this way, with sales of the Pro and Air models currently decreasing while people wait.

The new MacBook is nice, but I’m afraid that at 12″ it is really too small for my needs. I also find the butterfly keys with extremely limited travel to be quite unpleasant (though I hear people get used to it).

Ultrabooks for developers

I prefer OS X because it’s a good compromise. Decent UX as a user; decent UX as a developer.

But I still use Linux (which I prefer for development and deployment) and Windows, too. So I’ve been toying with the idea of getting an ultrabook, instead of a Mac, as my portable option.

As a technologist, I find it useful to remain in touch with all three main operating systems, even if I predominantly use one for day to day use. The idea of an ultrabook, from this perspective, is quite appealing.

I would probably use Ubuntu as my main OS on the laptop and occasionally switch to Windows 10 (chiefly to play with .NET and related technologies).

After doing quite a bit of research on the topic, the best laptop for developers in 2016 appear to be:

1. Microsoft Surface Book
2. Lenovo X1 Carbon
3. Dell XPS 13
4. Asus UX305 or the newly announced UX306.

The Surface Book one is essentially Microsoft’s version of a MacBook Pro, with the included bonus of also being an awesome 13.5″ Surface tablet. It is, understandably, not cheap.

The Lenovo has the best keyboard of the bunch and a larger screen (14″), while still remaining remarkably light.

The Dell has the best screen and a format that is much smaller than its 13.3“ screen size would indicate, thanks to it being almost bezel-less (as such, it’s the size of an average 11.5” laptop).

The Asus is decent all around and is priced right, so it becomes the best bang for your buck sort of choice.

There, I shortlisted them for you. 🙂 If you are in the same situation, I hope that this saves you some time.

My ideal configuration is still i7 / 16GB / 512GB SSD, but since this is not going to be my main development machine, I’d settle for an i5 / 8GB / 256 GB.[1]

What works for you?

I haven’t made up my mind yet.

Part of me wants to wait for the new 13″ MacBook Air/Pro.[2] I have come to rely on the Apple ecosystem quite a bit after all, and use some apps that are not available on Linux (e.g., 1Password) and in some cases, not even on Windows (e.g., OmniFocus, MarsEdit).

Part of me feels like it might be worth “stopping the suffering”[3] and getting a portable solution now. An ultrabook might even force me to rely less on the Apple ecosystem, leading me to search for cross-platform alternatives. (A good thing.)

I’ll let you know what I decide in the end. For the time being, feel free to influence my decision by sharing what works for you. 😉

The post Developer Laptops in 2016 appeared first on Programming Zen.

I visited Facebook, on 1 Hacker Way:

Google:

Apple at 1 Infinite Loop:

Tesla:

And for the sake of nostalgia, Yahoo!:

It was interesting to notice which companies had tourists, on a sunny Sunday morning, and which had me as the lone visitor trying to take awkward selfies.

Predictably, Apple and Google had lots of people taking photos on their campuses (particularly Apple). Facebook had quite a few as well, but not as many. Yahoo! had none as expected. What surprised me was Tesla having none. So much so that I almost felt like I was trespassing there.

Come to think of it, I have friends working at most of these companies (exception made for Tesla), so while I’m here I’ll probably be able to organize a proper tour of the facilities and not just look at the impressive buildings.

Nevertheless it was a fun way to celebrate my passion for technology. I realize it might look silly, but it’s meaningful to someone like me who usually watches Silicon Valley (both the TV show and the real place) from the sidelines.

The post My Tour of Tech in Silicon Valley appeared first on Programming Zen.

Adobe Lightroom does a great job at organizing my collection, which is stored on two external hard drives. I have a primary drive and a backup one. When I import new photos in Lightroom, I have the option to “Make a Second Copy To” and specify my second drive.

Having a local backup is important. In fact, the external drive that used to store my main collection died unexpectedly in September and I had to resort to copying everything from my backup drive to a new drive.

A local backup is convenient and allows you to quickly restore your files, should your main drive go awry. The problem with local backups is that they’re not enough.

Fire, flood, burglary, or even a fluke incident like somehow frying both hard drives at the same time, all come to mind.

Now that there are some relatively inexpensive options in which to store one’s files on the cloud, I’ve been looking for a viable solution to this issue on that front.

There are many services offering some form of on-the-cloud photo backup. Unfortunately most of them either don’t support RAW files or cost way too much money (I’m talking $50/mo for the amount of data I have). [1]

In the past I tried using generic backup programs like Crashplan and I found them to be unbearably slow, as the upload speeds were nowhere near what my connection is capable of.

To make a long story short, it came down to Dropbox and Google Drive. Neither of which support client side encryption upon upload, while also both struggling to handle directories that are stored on external drives.

For Mac, there is an excellent program called Arq [2] which enables you to perform your own encrypted, incremental, versioned backups to various cloud services including S3, Amazon Glacier, and Google Drive. They do not seem to support Dropbox at this time. [3]

That pretty much determined my ultimate choice for me right there. [4] With Google Drive I get 1TB of data for $9.99/mo and that same space is shared amongst Gmail, Google Drive, and Google+ Photos, which certainly doesn’t hurt. Unlike Glacier, which would cost more or less the same, there is no waiting period for your files to become available in case a restore in required.

Arq handles backing up external drives without a hitch. Connect to the drive and the backup starts or continues. Disconnect the drive, and all backup operations are put on pause.

The only precaution you need to take is to change the Google Drive settings on each computer you use, so that the Arq Backup Data is not synchronized (otherwise you’d have 500+GB of data downloaded on each computer).

It’s an almost perfect solution for me, especially because I’m not limited just to photos. I can use the same software and the same Google Drive space for other folders and files that I need to backup. And with the same application, I can also upload selected folders to S3 or other services I use if needed.

The only downside to this is that the data is encrypted so I can’t just look at the individual files on drive.google.com. Something I can live with.

The post Backing up large amounts of photos appeared first on Programming Zen.

Productivity apps on my Mac

• Adium for communicating with my Gmail contacts.
• Skype for computer-to-computer calls and the occasional video conference.
• Google Hangouts for actual phone calls, video calls, and screen sharing.
• Sublime Text for general editing of text or programming languages that don’t have a dedicated IDE like Xcode or RubyMine.
• Byword for writing posts in markdown.[2] I bought the in-app option to publish to blogs and Evernote, as it’s handy in this respect (particularly for the latter). Yes, I could easily use Sublime Text for this, but I prefer the distraction-free approach of Byword when writing larger amounts of content.
• Apple Calendar synchronized with Google Calendar.
• Gmail on the web. I haven’t found a Mac email client I could love.
• Google Drive/Docs when sharing an article with my wife or friends, especially if I want to get feedback before publication. I also use it occasionally as a replacement for Excel/Form.
• Dropbox to synchronize key files between all of my devices.
• Evernote for note taking and bookmarking. I resisted Evernote for a long time, then one day, it suddenly clicked for me. I also have the Evernote Web Clipper for Chrome.
• The Doit.im Mac app which I use for my very loose version of GTD (Getting Things Done). This is essentially my TODO list app/service.
• Reeder 2 connected to my Feedly account, to stay abreast of noteworthy posts and news.
• TweetDeck to handle a few social media accounts.
• iTerm2 as a replacement of the stock Terminal app.
• Market Samurai for SEO and online marketing research.
• Screenflow for screencasting.
• Photoshop and Lightroom for photo editing and handling.
• iMovie for the occasional video editing not related to screencasting.
• 1Password synchronized via Dropbox so that I only ever have to remember one password.
• Skitch for screen grabbing and quick annotations. I particularly like the ability to share the screenshot with one click (when it works), and its integration with Evernote (being made by the same company).
• DragonDrop, a Mac utility that allows you to very quickly copy/move a series of files from one place on your filesystem to another.
• Pushbullet to send and receive SMS from my computer as well as handling my Android phone notifications.
• Keynote for the occasional presentation that is not work related (at work I use the Microsoft Powerpoint, which is provided to employees, or the open source equivalent of it).
• iPython as my calculator and quick data analysis tool.
• TeamViewer to remotely login into my other laptops.
• RescueTime, a recent addition, to keep track of my time, help with accountability, and generally motivating me to do more.

Productivity apps on my Android phone

On my giant smartphone (the Samsung Galaxy Note3) I use most of the same services and apps, provided an app for Android exists. So you’ll see me use Evernote, Dropbox, Google Drive, Hangouts, Doit.im, et cetera, there as well.

The main noteworthy mentions are:

• Gmail as I find the app to be much better than the mobile site version.[3]
• Press as my feedreader client for Feedly, instead of Reeder.
• aCalendar+ as my Google Calendar client, instead of Calendar for Mac.
• buffer to schedule social media posts (on my Mac I also use buffer, but I do so from Chrome).
• Pocket casts to catch up with interesting podcasts such as Ask Altucher, The Tim Ferriss Show, Tropical MBA, and a dozen others.

Not everything on the Mac has a worthy equivalent on Android, so I don’t have a text editor to recommend here for example. On phones, I find that Google Drive, or any of the built-in editors capable of editing files that are stored in Dropbox, to be okay in a pinch.

Productivity apps for iOS

As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently got a new iPad Air 2. It’s an entertainment device but I try to use it for productivity tasks as well. This will be the case all the more so once I get my hands on a decent keyboard case for it.

Much like my phone, where corresponding Mac apps exist for iOS, I use them. So Evernote, Dropbox, 1Password, and even Byword, are all installed there. One exception would be an RSS reader. Technically there is Reeder for the iPad, but I have been using the free version of FeeddlerRSS so far and find that it works well enough.

On top of the more or less cross-platform list, I have a few educational apps which are actually useful thanks to the iPad’s screen size:

• Udemy [4]
• Code School
• Kindle
• Safari Queue [5]

There are more applications, of course, but these are the ones that I use frequently and feel are worth mentioning. That said, this list is never static. For example, just a couple of days ago, while on Skype with my friend Kalid, he mentioned Beeminder to me, praising its accountability and goal tracking abilities. I had already come across it before, but overlooked it. Kalid swears by it, so I’m going to give it a shot.

Let me know what you use and would recommend. I love to check out cool applications and refine my toolkit and workflow as needed.

The post 40 productivity apps I use on a regular basis appeared first on Programming Zen.

I’m sharing those reasons and my findings about each here in the hopes that they might help other shoppers. This isn’t the world’s shortest post, but its length should prove very helpful if you’re in the same boat.

The following is a list of tablets that I considered at the beginning of my selection process:

• iPad Mini 2 / 3
• iPad Air 2
• Nexus 9
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5
• Amazon Fire HDX 8.9
• Sony Xperia Z3 Compact Tablet

Why buy a tablet?

Before being able to pick the right tablet, you should ask yourself why you want a tablet in the first place.

For me, a tablet is a device in between a laptop and a smartphone.

My personal workstation is a 15″ edition of a fully loaded MacBook Pro, which I chose specifically for its suitability as a development machine and other media intense activities. Its power comes in handy anytime I have programs such as Lightroom, Photoshop, or Xcode open or if I’m performing data analysis in Python. Its large retina screen is beautiful and easy on the eyes while programming.

Its sole downside is that it’s not overly portable. Lately I have been doing a lot of traveling in Western Canada (multiple trips per month). I usually travel with my work laptop (which is also a 15 incher). Carrying a second laptop for personal purposes wouldn’t be practical. Furthermore, I’m pretty certain that a 15″ laptop doesn’t fit on the tiny airplane trays on the backs of the seats aboard the relatively small airplanes I’m usually on for such trips. In short, I love my MacBook Pro but it’s cumbersome on the go and I needed something that I could easily take with me on the go.

While traveling, I have come to rely on my smartphone (a Samsung Galaxy Note3 phablet). Unfortunately despite its – huge by phone standards – screen, it’s still too small to get real work done without fatiguing my farsighted eyes. Are we seeing a bit of Goldilocks situation here?

A tablet seemed like a good middle ground.[1] Small and light enough to have it with you just about anywhere, yet large enough to easily use for productive purposes as well.

What would you use it for?

The second question I asked myself was what would I use the tablet for. I mean, yes, it’s going to be a portable computer of sorts, but what am I’m actually going to use it for in practice? As you go through this thought exercise yourself, be realistic and honest about your needs, so as to hopefully help you make the best choice possible.

For me, it came down to the following four tasks:

1. A learning device. I like to read Kindle and Safari books, take Udemy and Codeschool courses, watch TED talks, and so on.
2. An entertainment device (e.g., Netflix, YouTube, Social Media).
3. Writing posts and articles on the go.
4. Communication (e.g., Email, Facetime, Skype, Hangouts).

Even at home,[2] if I’m not in my office chair in front of a 32″ screen (a BenQ BL3200PT), since getting my new tablet, I find that I rarely reach for my laptop anymore.[3]

What screen size for a tablet?

Having established that a tablet was indeed a good idea, the question became what screen size. There are roughly four categories to keep in mind here:

1. Small (6–7″)
2. Medium (8–9″)
3. Large (10–11”)
4. Extra Large (12″+)

Considering that my smartphone’s screen is already ridiculously large (i.e., 5.7″), I could only justify getting a tablet if it was sufficiently larger than that. It simply wouldn’t make sense to buy a different device only to gain an inch or two diagonally. For books, taking online courses, and watching media larger tablets are also simply better.

These considerations helped me eliminate three candidates from the list – namely, the iPad Mini, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4“, and the 8” Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact.

Before we move on to the rest of the list, I’ll devote a few words to those who don’t care all that much for larger screens. 8″ tablets are somewhat of a sweet spot ergonomically (at least for my medium sized hands). They also tend to have very sharp, pixel packed screens.

It’s easy to see why someone would opt for one of these three. The Galaxy Tab S 8.4″ has an absolutely gorgeous super-AMOLED display and a microSD slot for storage expansion. The iPad Mini 2 is currently on sale for a steal of a deal and is an all-around good tablet[4]. The Xperia Z3 is expensive, but it offers a top notch performance, great screen, and some snazzy features, including the ability to use it in a Jacuzzi, as it’s fully waterproof.

In my case however, when it came time to chose between “a little easier to handle” and “a lot more screen real estate” I opted for the latter. I readily admit that it’s a compromise. In the case of 12″+ tablets, the handling becomes too much of an issue for me so I didn’t give them any kind of serious consideration.

My thought process led me to narrow down the race to four medium/large tablets:

• iPad Air 2
• Nexus 9
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5
• Amazon Fire HDX 8.9

Stick to what you know and your ecosystem of choice

Another aspect to consider when selecting your new tablet is the ecosystem of devices you already possess. Do you own a PC or a Mac? Do you use an iPhone or an Android device (or something else)? Are you mostly using Apple services or Google services?

It pays off to be consistent and use devices that can easily synchronize and work together.

In my case, this principle didn’t offer much guidance. I use a Mac, but my personal phone is an Android device. I have two Apple TVs, but one TV also uses Google Chromecast. I have extensive experience with both OSes (iOS and Android), so there would have been no learning curve no matter which device I picked.

Assuming you are not an outlier like me, I’d recommend sticking to what you know and what you use already (unless you’re currently dissatisfied with it).

This discussion on the ecosystem around your tablet actually brings up the reason why I didn’t get the Amazon Fire HDX 8.9. It’s a gorgeous, light, powerful, and fairly well priced device, however, unfortunately much of its value comes from its integration with the Amazon ecosystem.

The apps that you buy for it come from the Amazon Appstore for Android, which has a good selection but nowhere near that of Google Play or the Apple App Store.

Fire OS (an Amazon centric version of Android) is also very well integrated with Amazon Prime’s free goodies options such as video and music streaming. As a Canadian Prime subscriber, unfortunately I don’t get to partake in any of those benefits (only faster shipping), so I passed on what I still consider to be a good device (I recently gifted the 7″ version to my father-in-law, for example, and he absolutely loves it).

I was down to just three contenders then. As you might have guessed, they were the ones mentioned in the tile of this post. It became a matter of iPad Air 2 vs Nexus 9 vs Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5.

Aspect ratio and power

The choice between those three became somewhat unnerving. They were all excellent devices, and you couldn’t go wrong with any of them. With a fair bit of cash at stake however, I simply wanted the best option for me and a tablet I wouldn’t regret.

To make my choice a little easier I headed to the store and tried out the brand new iPad Air 2, as well as the out-for-a-few-months-now Tab S 10.5″. The Nexus 9 wasn’t available in retail stores yet unfortunately.

I found the iPad’s aspect ratio of 4:3 to be nicer to hold, browse, or read books with. The 16:9 aspect ratio of the Tab S was great for videos, but little else. The 10.5″ tablet felt too long in portrait mode. All in all, that meant a definite point in favor of the iPad.

The Tab S screen was stunning in person. Way more vibrant and contrasty than the, by all means great, iPad screen. It would have been squarely a point in favor of the Tab S had I not noticed significant screen burns. I opened a white page, and I could clearly see the ghost of the launcher’s dock icons. I tried several Tab S devices, in multiple stores and encountered this issue each and every time.

Now, don’t get me wrong. This is clearly nitpicking. But older iPads (e.g., iPad Air demo units) did not manifest the same problem. Suddenly the screen, a theoretical advantage of the Galaxy Tab S 10.5, became something to be slightly concerned about.

The mortal blow for the Tab S 10.5 came when I tried to display a technical PDF. The iPad Air 2 was extremely smooth in handling the PDF and could zoom and refocus on a particular area in no time. When I tried the same on the Tab S, there was significant delay. Interestingly, scrolling wasn’t that smooth either. The reading experience (potentially in part due to better software) felt considerably nicer on the iPad.

Benchmarks have shown that the iPad Air 2 is significantly faster than the Tab S. From my experience in the store, the difference is remarkable in real applications as well.

I must acknowledge not only the Tab S’ gorgeous screen (screen burn aside), but also give it Brownie points for having a microSD slot that allows one to add up to 128GB of data to your tablet. Considering that these cards are not too expensive, one could in theory have multiple cards when traveling for virtually unlimited media consumption on the go.

I’ll also must concede that, while not a fan of Samsung’s TouchWiz interface and bloatware, they do provide you with an extra GB of RAM (3 in total, versus the 2GB of the iPad Air 2 and Nexus 9) and the single best multitasking feature of any Android (or iOS) tablet out there. You can have two programs running at the same time on the screen and drag and drop between them. I find the feature extremely useful on my phone, and it would have been certainly all more useful on a large tablet.

Finally, Samsung offers a tablet app so that you can pilot selected phones (including my Note3) through an emulator running on your Tab S. Very handy!

It was tough to say no to the Tab S, but in the end I decided that I had to (above all, for its outdated performance compared to that of the brand new competitors).

iPad Air 2 vs Nexus 9

It all came down to a Battle Royale between these two tablets. The flagship Apple tablet and the flagship Google/HTC tablet running an unadulterated edition of Android Lollipop, the latest and best incarnation of Android.

The truth of the matter is that, by this point I had determined that there was no right or wrong answer. I could have flipped a coin and ultimately have been very happy with the outcome either way.

For the sake of my decision though, I came up with a list of pros and cons for each choice. They can be briefly summarized as follow:[5]

Advantages of the iPad Air 2 over the Nexus 9

• A larger/better/less reflective screen;
• Build quality and QA;
• The models cap at 128GB and not 32GB;
• Thinner aluminum body (but I don’t really care that much there);
• Slightly better battery life;
• Buttery smooth browsing with no lag;
• It has/will have the largest ecosystem of accessories on the market;
• A larger pool of tablet applications available (several apps are currently iOS only);
• New apps tend to ship on iOS first;
• (Opinion) Apps tend to be more visually pleasing and consistent;
• Less risk of dealing with malware (not a huge concern for me, but for some it might be);
• A simple operating system that just works;
• AppleCare+ in North America provides accidental coverage and it’s fairly cheap ($99);
• (Personal) It works well in tandem with my Mac.[6]

Advantage of the Nexus 9 over the iPad Air 2

• Less expensive;
• Easier to handle due to its more compact size;
• High-quality front facing speakers for media consumption;
• Support for multiple users;
• More powerful and customizable operating system (e.g., launchers, widgets);
• It has some apps which are not technically possible on iOS (e.g., RescueTime);
• Many apps are free on Android (if you can live with ads) while requiring a payment in the iOS version;
• (Personal) It works well in tandem with my Android phone;
• Better Google integration.

In the end I went for the iPad Air 2. Specifically a 64GB with Wifi+Cellular in Gold (what can I say, “I love gold”).

If by reading the same list you reached the opposite conclusion and buy a Nexus 9, I can’t fault you for doing so at all.

Before you make your final decision though, I’ll add a few final points:

• I understand their business model, but I still think it’s ridiculous that both companies opted to create 16GB base models at the end of 2014. Google in particular really dropped the ball by not adding a microSD slot. Had that been in place, it might have changed the outcome of my purchase.
• 16 GB is simply not enough on a tablet for most people. If you are opting for the Nexus 9, get the 32 GB model. If you are opting for the iPad Air 2, get the 64GB or 128GB model.
• If you travel or commute on a regular basis, do yourself a favor and grab the cellular version. Tethering with your smartphone can work in a pinch but it’s a pain in the neck to do on a regular basis (and it drains your phone battery very quickly).
• Consider making the purchase through a zero interest monthly plan with your cellular carrier, if any available. It’s much easier to pay, say, $320 upfront + $20/mo interest free for two years, than plunk down $800 + taxes (in Canada) all at once. On that note, I absolutely love my iPad even if, objectively, it does feel overpriced. If the model I chose were to cost $500 instead of $800, I would recommend getting one to anybody without hesitation.
• Get a really high-quality keyboard if you intend to reply to long emails or write with your new tablet. For example, for the iPad Air 2 you can get the BrydgeAir and essentially transform your tablet into a smaller, touch screen laptop. That way you can switch to whichever mode is more convenient (e.g., tablet mode for reading, laptop mode for writing). For the Nexus 9, Google will be releasing their own keyboard case, which looks worthwhile as well.

There you have it. If you are, or already have, pondered this same scenerio, let me know what you opted for and whether my write-up helped you reach your final decision. In the end, I really hope you enjoy your new tablet as much as I’m having a great time with mine.

The post Choosing a Tablet (aka iPad Air 2 vs Nexus 9 vs Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5) appeared first on Programming Zen.

I looked into it and these numbers turn out to be misleading.

iOS apps generate 80% more revenue than Android apps. That is quite different from saying that iOS has 80% market share. Specifically, in Q2 2014, Google Play saw $60M in total revenue, while the iOS AppStore clocked in at $100M. (Source requires registration.)

If we exclude the small impact of alternative Android stores, we are looking at 37.5% and 62.5%, respectively, of their combined market share. No one can deny that it’s still a substantial difference, but it’s definitely more subtle than the often touted 80–20 revenue split. (If we look at downloads, the roles are pretty much reversed with Android devices having 60% of their combined market share of downloads, and iOS devices 40%).

Those numbers are for app revenue. Now let’s look at devices. According to the latest IDC statistics, iOS global device market share is actually quite a bit lower than 20%.

The keyword here however is “global”. Anecdotally, it would be extremely hard to imagine that iPhones have less than a 12% market share in North America, or even the 20% figure I have seen floating around for quite some time now.

The actual OS usage numbers for the North American market show an estimated 51%–42% split in favor of Android, a much less monopolistic picture.

From a developer perspective, these less sensationalistic numbers have a few implications:

1. If you are targeting a North American audience, developing for Android does not give you a big advantage in terms of a reachable user base;
2. iOS still has the edge in terms of revenue, but the frequently heard, “Don’t bother developing for Android”, is absolute nonsense. You can target Android alone and still do extremely well;
3. If you are targeting emerging markets like India, China, Thailand, and Asia in general, Android is a sure bet;
4. It is entirely possible that iOS users have higher incomes on average, but whatever the cause, the numbers seem to indicate that they have a greater willingness to pay for applications;
5. If you are targeting both iOS and Android mobile OSes with your application, taking the strength of both app stores into account, it would make sense to charge for the iOS app while making the Android app available as a free download that relies on ads for its revenue. This of course has the risk of alienating some users who happen to dabble with both operating systems, however they are likely to be a minority so this shouldn’t hold you back, if it’s the road you’d like to embark down.

Personally, I welcome a world where the two major mobile operating systems go head-to-head and converge towards a roughly equivalent market share (at least in North America and Europe). And on that note, having the far off third contender (Microsoft) be less distant certainly wouldn’t hurt matters either.

The post A Few Thoughts on iOS vs Android Market Share appeared first on Programming Zen.