I wasn’t sure that I wanted a “big” iPhone as I was perfectly happy with the 4” form-factor. But if I was going to get a new phone and the new ones are bigger, I reasoned, I may as well go really big and go for a 6s Plus. On paper it made perfect sense.

Then I played with one in an Apple Store and I laughed. In practice it was comically big. I really didn’t want a phone I could only realistically use with two hands.

This weeks PhotoFriday theme is “Transportation.” Here is my entry. It was taken in Vienna, er, wow, six years ago. Doesn’t time fly?

I read a couple of things about the intersection between technology and the liberal arts today, otherwise totally unrelated but the need for a connection between the two.

# What the humanities can learn

The first was in the conclusion of Walter Isaacson’s “The Innovators,” [affiliate link] a book about the inventors of the “digital revolution.” He started by talking about how engineers need to understand the arts and humanities (as Steve Jobs insisted Apple did) and moves on to how the opposite is also true:

This weeks PhotoFriday challenge theme is “Glass.” My entry is a picture of The Shard in London, from a couple of years ago when I could see it from my office.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Yellow.” I’m entry number 60.

My entry in this weeks PhotoFriday challenge, “Yellow,” is a picture of one of my birthday presents from last year.

A couple of days late, but this weeks PhotoFriday theme is “Minimalism.” Here is my entry. It was take in Littlehampton earlier this year.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Signs of Autumn.” I’m entry number 34.

(Incidentally, this isn’t the first time “Minimalism” has been a theme. My previous entry was here.)

Keeping with tradition, I’m going to write about my new gadgets but my “unique selling point” is going to be brevity. And, in this case, another angle I bring is being a Brit — much of the mainstream tech press is American and content is still very much a local.

## Good

• The same but better. I liked the old one, so I mean that as a compliment.
• Feels much faster than the old one. (The hardware should mean that it does, but if Android has taught us anything it’s that specs don’t guarantee performance.)
• I think Siri is going to be great, and the more apps that it understands the better. For the past couple of weeks¹ it’s only supported iTunes and some of the less useful stuff (weather, sports scores).
• I really like the remote. Clearly it’s not designed for serious gamers but I don’t consider that a flaw. I’m not a serious gamer. (As an aside, it’s weird that much of the press have been complaining about the remote as a game controller and saying that the device won’t replace your Xbox One or PS4. I think it’s a good compromise between the two extremes.)

## Bad

• I think the price is starting to get a bit high as a casual/streaming device.
• Missing a bunch of apps, though, hopefully, this is something that will be solved with time. There’s already Netflix, but I’d like to see BBC iPlayer², 4oD and Amazon video. US media companies seem to have been more on the ball than those in the UK, though many had apps on the old Apple TV; maybe they had less work to do to bring their streaming apps to the 4th gen?
• I don’t have many apps yet but it’s clear that we’ll need folders sooner rather then later.

## Ugly

• The idea of copying all your credentials and configuration over from your iPhone is fantastic. Entering your Apple ID username and password using the on-screen keyboard is a pain. However, it seems not to be working for a lot of people and for me it took so long that I almost gave up.

Overall it’s already slightly better than the 3rd generation Apple TV and has the potential to get a lot better as the App Store fills out. In my mind, it’s odds of success likely rest on the cost. It’s therefore a shame that it’s possibly on the high side. Of course, that’s not been a problem for Apple in its recent history.

This weeks PhotoFriday challenge is “Signs of Autumn.” Here is my entry. It was taken in Windsor

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Skyline.” I’m entry number 57.

This weeks PhotoFriday theme is “Skyline.” My entry is of New York from the top of the Empire State Building.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Color.” I’m entry number 48.

One of the slightly more hidden features of CloudKit, Apple’s cloud-based back-end service for applications, is that you can use it to synchronise content as well as simply query it. I use this approach to sync favourite search terms between devices in my app Yummy.

However, I found the process wasn’t as well documented as it might be. It’s all there, but it’s written as many man pages are: it makes total sense if you already know what you’re looking for. This post is my attempt to make the process clearer.