Getting the most from iOS 5

iOS 5 for iPhone and iPad just released yesterday with over 200 new features! Making the most of these new features may not be intuitive and most of us probably wouldn't figure them out for months. This post will provide a helpful overview so you can put the power of your iWhatever to work!

Start off with a quick intro vid from Apple.

It breezes you through some of the key features and updates including:
Notifications Center -gives you quick access to notifications (e.g. new text messages), the weather, your calendar, etc.


Newsstand - an easy interface for digital newspapers and magazines


Reminders app - very robust To-Do list


Twitter integration


Reader for Safari - strips out ads and other formatting for a streamlined web article reading experience


Reading list for Safari - very handy 'read later' type of feature


Photo editing features built into the Photos app

Wireless syncing - no longer need to connect to a computer to get updates or backup files


iMessage - free messaging between iDevices (kind of like bbm)


Some additional apps from Apple also were dropped:
Find my iPhone - install this on another iOS device to locate your missing iPhone, iPad or iPod touch

Find my Friends - helps track location of friends on iOS 5. Apple suggests using it for events such as a beach party or Disney trip

Cards - a really cool new card (birthday, holiday, anniversary etc.) delivery service through traditional snail mail. It will be interesting to see how people use this.



iCloud is a whole new platform introduced alongside this new update. Essentially iCloud allows you to seamlessly synchronize your your data (songs, photos, apps, etc.) in a central location on Apple servers. This way you can access your data from any iOS device that has an internet connection.

iPhone 4S users will also get Siri, the voice command enabled digital personal assistant.

Today Steve Jobs died

This is a historic event that I don’t know how to process right now. Steve Jobs' courage, unique leadership and vision have inspired me throughout the years. 

Steve was the Henry Ford of our time. He was a creative genius and a titan of industry. He has set the bar high for what a human can achieve in a lifetime. I feel very lucky to have been a witness to his works and influence revolutionizing technology with outstanding intuitive human centered design. I was in middle school and high school in Silicon Valley when the iMac and iPod came out. I have seen how Apple technology has infiltrated households across the world and has changed the discourse and accessibility of technology. Incredible, especially as this was accomplished at a rapid pace in the past decade.

Steve Jobs was truly a one-of-a-kind creative visionary and with his passing, a huge void has been created for the next generation to fill. He has planted remarkable seeds for the future of consumer electronics. I imagine, like Henry Ford, many successors will come after but very few will be as extraordinary.

My heart goes out to the Jobs family during this tremendous loss.

Online time best spent: twitter

In the vast expanse of the information super highway there's a lot of useless content. Finding the stuff you're interested in can be a little bit challenging and time consuming but there are some good tools out there to make it easier. I recommend twitter as my favorite. Everyone has heard of twitter but not as many as you'd think actually use it. It's easy to use twitter wrong and be dissatisfied but with a little tweaking, it can be an awesome, easy way to get really great content without wasting a bunch of time reading through junk.

I didn't turn to twitter right away. I just found that these days Google News is no longer cutting it for me. Too many semi-interesting articles. I've also been disappointed by the home pages of some of my other 'favorite' news sources. I never caught on to Google Reader either. Of course there's still the less-important digg, and specialized community, reddit. To be fair, there's also delicious, tumblr, and StumbleUpon but those lack the expanse of information available on twitter.

If you set up your twitter account and lists right, you can easily get some high quality information pretty quickly.

I want to highlight twitter's strengths that stick out in my mind:
Content:
Essentially every news source, organization, or celebrity that you might be interested in has a twitter feed and update it regularly. The great part is every post is limited to 140 characters so it's really easy quickly to sort through posts.

Quality Incentive:
With a fire hose blast of tweets each moment, tweeters care more about posting high quality content to stand out from the rest. Getting mentioned or retweeted for good content are also surprisingly strong incentives to post good quality content on twitter.

Accountability:
Each tweet can be 'retweeted' and commented on in the public sphere. This type of instant, public feedback encourages tweeters to be accountable for the content they post.

There is much more I can say and other ways to use twitter but I just wanted to share a bit about how it stands out in terms of an information finding tool. If you decide to give it a try, you should follow me @rajivramdeo.

Rhodia and things

For some reason I love Rhodia, the French paper goods company. My brother and sister would say it's the hipster in me. I just love the unusual orange color and old school logo and typography. In fact, Rhodia claims that their design has remained the same since the 1930's. I recently was very excited to pick up the one pictured here for 1 GBP so I decided to blog about it.

I really appreciate the simple yet high quality design of Rhodia products. I also like how underestimated they are. For example, they use "high grade vellum paper" that feels very good to write on.  For those into pens, the paper Rhodia uses is good quality for fountain or gel ink pens. Also you might notice, the singular sturdy staple that reinforces the binding.

My friend, Pascal V, who grew up in France tells me that Rhodia "cahiers" are ubiquitous in France and it's no big deal to him. He's quite surprised that I take interest in the mass produced brand. I suppose it's the same reaction I would have if he told me he was really into Mead. Maybe it's becoming more ubiquitous in the US. I haven't seen many people with Rhodia's but I have seen them available in mainstream stores like Target.

I first discovered Rhodia at what was one of my favorite stationary stores, Congdon & Crome ... I think it was in 2006 or 2007. It was in the pre-iPhone days and I mostly used a weekly planner that I found super cheap at my university's book shop. It actually turned out to be a pretty good one that I bought for a few years before I switched to Google Calendar thanks to the influence a good friend, Masa K.

Anyhow, It was actually the pocket size notebook at C&C that caught my attention. I was just looking for something cheap and simple that I could keep handy in my pocket so that I could take notes on the go. I just decided to give the Rhodia a chance. I ended up using it A LOT and thus started the good habit of keeping a pen and notebook handy at all times.

In the picture you might notice that my "bloc Rhodia N° 12" is on top of a Moleskine notebook. I am not a fan of Moleskine. It's ridiculously overpriced and the quality is quite poor. I really don't like how quickly the bookmark ribbon gets all torn up. On one of my notebooks, the bookmark ribbon actually came off! I have to say though, I haven't been able to find a similar sized notebook with the same combination of flexibility and sturdiness for a reasonable price. The size works very well for carrying around. I use it a lot for journaling, making travel plans and taking notes in lectures or seminars. It looks quite professional at interviews and meetings. I noticed it was popular when I worked at the Mayo Clinic. It also has a small inner pocket to throw in stuff like postcards, receipts, parking pay stubs, etc. So it's a love-hate thing. Kinda like my sentiments of Facebook or Google. But I'll save that for another conversation.

Pro tip: You might want to buy a Moleskine product when Borders has their 40% or 50% off coupons.

Just in case you're curious, the pen shown in the picture is the uni-ball Signo 207 Micro. One of my favorites, thanks to Ann N.

Anyhow, that's a little window into one of my lesser known great interest in and maybe even passion for stationary and writing utensils.

Cheers.

Modesty & Authenticity

I have been pulled in different directions by my nature to be authentic and my desire to be modest in sharing the details of my life. The prime experience that has inspired me to write this post is my journey to the UK.

I told very few people that I interned at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota then ventured off to Europe and The London School of Economics for the summer. 

If I had a friend who was doing this, I would definitely care to know and would want to keep in correspondence with them during their travels. But myself, I hesitated in presenting this information as I felt I would be 'bragging.' At the same time, by not presenting this information, I felt that I would be somewhat deceptive. Moreover, the prestige of these things does not reflect what's truly important to me. This internal conflict does create a little bit of anxiety and I end up saying nothing due to the uncertainty of how to carry myself.

Many of my closest friends share this internal conflict of modesty and authenticity. I'll be the first to admit that it does bother me a little bit. For example, my Facebook News Feed is filled with comments from people I don't know very well reporting on things that don't interest me very much. When I go to catch up on the latest in the lives of those I do care about, I see very few updates that don't reveal much about their goings on. On the positive side, this does encourage me to call them up or send a direct email. I'm still not satisfied.

In following the Golden Rule and the wisdom of Dr. Seuss, from now on I will try to be a little bit more open and authentic and less modest and guarded.

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”

Interesting

Leadership from General McChrystal

"General Stanley McChrystal is the former commander of U.S. and International forces in Afghanistan. A four-star general, he is credited for creating a revolution in warfare that fuses intelligence and operations."

Notes:
He's from the old school and was raised with Personal Stories and Personal Examples of Heroes.

"Leaders can let you fail but not let you be a failure."

Build their faith. Build trust and confidence.
Build consensus and sense of shared purpose, shared consciousness.

Be transparent, willing to listen, willing to be reverse-mentored from your supporters.

Relationships. "Sinew that holds force together."

"A leader isn't good because they are right, they're good because they are willing to learn and trust."

"When you get knocked down, ... if you're a leader, the people you've counted on will help you up. And if you're a leader, the people who count on you, need you on your feet."

Leadership Training/Inspired Leadership

"Patrick Awuah left a comfortable life in Seattle to return to Ghana and co-found a liberal arts college. Why? Because he believes that Ghana’s failures in leadership — and he gives several mind-boggling examples — stem from a university system that fails to train real leaders. In a talk that brought the TEDGlobal audience enthusiastically to their feet, he explains how a true liberal arts education — steeped in critical thinking, idealism, and public service — can produce the quick-thinking, ethical leaders needed to move his country forward. (Recorded June 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania. Duration: 17:42.)"

Notes:
The ability to create is very empowering.

Ability to confront complex problems.

Critical thinking rather than route memorization

Ethics

Entrepreneurship

Leaders should consider their Responsibility rather than their Entitlement.

Can we create a perfect society?

"We cannot achieve perfection but if we reach for it, we can achieve excellence."

"Real business of leadership is to serve humanity."

Passion, persistance, ability to deal with ambiguity and uncertainty are key skills.

He believes with the right training, Africa could experience a renaissance.
"There are few opportunities like this left in the world."

Civility amidst Disaster

It's remarkable and extremely admirable to see civility and unity prevail amidst crisis and disaster!

More ways to Help

This is a video of disaster survivors in Japan. It was put together by ABC news titled 'Staying Strong in the Face of Tragedy.'

HUMANITY - JAPAN - WE ARE ONE

Disaster caused by earthquake and tsunami in Japan. How to help: here

I put this quote up on my Facebook and twitter:

“When you see what's happening in Japan, you are reminded that, for all our differences in culture or language or religion, that ultimately humanity is one. ... [Y]ou think about your own family, and you think, how would you feel if you lost a loved one, or if your entire life savings were gone because of the devastation?”
- Obama (as quoted in politico)

A friend of mine (ShSi) recently reminded me of the philosophy of human unity, perhaps better unknown as ubuntu. As communication technology becomes even more sophisticated and as global economies take dominate local economies (better known as globalization and exemplified in the global economic meltdown or more recently chaos in the middle east driving up oil & gas prices everywhere) we become even closer to our human brothers and sisters across the planet. The relevancy of our country borders are diminishing. Now more than ever before a crisis in one region of our globe has the potential to affect everyone on the planet.

What does this mean? To be successful (at least in business and politics among other areas) and more important, to be accurate, we need to adopt a global, one humanity, frame of thinking. Not an easy task given the ingraining of pride for our specific country, religion, culture, etc. since we were born. I'm not saying we should shed these things, but recognize that they are becoming more porous than previously believed. Our expansive spectrum of diversity lends beauty and depth to humanity. However, we still have much work to recognize this and eliminate the unjust disparities within our spectrum of difference.

What is happening in Japan is not happening to, them, the Japanese. It is happening to us, humans; and to use Obama's words, our shared one humanity.

How to help: here