Last week Microsoft surprised the web development world with the announcement that Edge will be based in Chrome’s rendering engine and that EdgeHTML will no longer be developed.

The community’s reaction has been mostly negative. And it’s a solid argument: Having another major browser move to Chromium (as Opera did a few years ago) is a great loss of diversity, it promotes the “made for Chrome” badge, is a threat to web standards that have been long fought for by the whole community, it cripples diversity, competition and might create a dystopia where Google rules what can be made on the web and what not. Just like the horrible days of Internet Explorer 6.

But I think this might actually be a good idea.

Truth be told, Microsoft has been out of the web rendering engine game for years. IE never caught up with the development of web standards, never provided good support and had to carry with a lot of proprietary weight behind it.

Edge was supposed to change that. But the truth is that it never did. Supporting Edge or IE it’s still a pain for most web developers and having to test 3 or 4 different rendering engines it’s costly, painful and annoying for most web development teams. Besides the introduction of the Grid layout system (which is AMAZING!) Edge has been more of a pain than an advantage.

Microsoft is moving from a closed-source rendering engine that has lost a lot of market to an open-source rendering engine that is well-maintained and supported by a large community.

Having most major browsers (Chrome, Safari, Edge) share a solid codebase will save a lot of time and money for developers and companies that no longer need to test a closed-source engine that it’s only used in major corporations.

Chromium’s development will surely benefit from having Microsoft team within their community and in the end we all can count with an open-source rendering engine backed by 3 of the largest tech companies.

It’s obvious that Chromium’s master is Google and they rule the project, but Microsoft can always for Chromium the way Google forked WebKit. Either way, the shared codebase is there for all.

The best move was that Microsoft would have moved to Gecko. It would have been so much better.

It would have created 2 major rendering engines competing with each other and getting better all the time. And Mozilla’s team could use a well-positioned collaborator in the development and growth of Gecko.

But although Chromium is not as good of a choice as Gecko for the web overall (it’s better for Microsoft’s interests for sure), eliminating a rendering engine that is proprietary and has been lagging behind for years in order to replace it the most popular one (and open-source) can only mean good things for the future of the web.

The Next Web made a great point on the fact that this means more frequent releases.

Nobody knows for real how this will actually affect the web development industry, but I sure hope it ends up being a positive move overall.

Every iPhone I’ve ever owned gave me a little of that magical feeling commonly associated to Apple, the gasp, the excitement, the “I can’t believe I’m living in the future” feeling… except iPhone 7.

I’ve owned an iPhone every 2 years since the iPhone 3G.

iPhone 3G was my first one (after iPod Touch) and multitouch was still a technology that looked like magic. With the dawn of apps and the phenomenal mobile data speeds felt magical, incredible. Over time it became slow and almost unusable, it was the only iPhone where the experience downgraded with every update.

iPhone 4 was pretty incredible: The retina screen was beautiful to stare at and a mind-blowing achievement, the camera was the first iPhone camera that took photos that were on par with the digital cameras of that time… and the design, oh man! the most beautiful design an iPhone has ever had.

iPhone 5 was so incredibly light, and that extra screen real-estate was very appreciated. Siri was something I’ve never experienced before, the first look at the AI that I’ve seen so many times in movies, now in real life. The thinness and lightness of that phone. It was also the first phone where the screen was attached to the glass, for the first time you could feel like you were actually touching the interface with your fingers, no distance whatsoever.

iPhone 6 also had a lot of magic to it. TouchID was something incredible (it was the first phone I put a passcode to). The curved glass made gestures a bliss. The big screen was a such a welcome change. The camera was an incredible improvement, it was the first iPhone that got shots close to a DSLR.

iPhone 6 ended up being buggy, I managed to bend it and the battery went nuts after 2 years, so… instead of waiting a 3rd year for the iPhone X, I went and purchased the iPhone 7.

And so we come to my current iPhone (until next week). iPhone 7 was the first phone that had nothing special to it. It didn’t feel magical at all. The non-moving home button? Meh. Camera improvement? Good on low light, but not that much better than the 6. No headphone jack? Well that wasn’t good, just meh. The color? Yes it’s the best black they made so far… but meh. Battery life was never that good, speed wasn’t such a big improvement.

iPhone 7 has been my only “meh” iPhone. Not bad, at all, but the first phone that didn’t have anything that felt “magical” about it.

It definitely feels like a “we need to come up with something this year” kind of phone. It was the first time Apple repeated a design for a 3rd year in a row. And yes, there were a lot of pretty good improvements on it, but the distance between it and the previous model made it feel like it should have been the iPhone 6SS. So I’m not sad to see it go.

Next week my iPhone X is coming and I think it will have a lot of magic to it. I’m specially looking forward to: The blacks on OLED, the FaceID experience, the all-screen phone, the much-improved cameras and the improvement on battery life.

We’ll wait and see, but for the moment, I’m glad I’m leaving the “meh” iPhone.

A farewell to iPhone 7 was originally published in HackerNoon.com on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

It is defined as the behavior and attitudes that stem from strong loyalty to one’s own tribe or social group. But time after time I’ve always failed to understand why almost everyone still seems to be a victim of it in some way.

The main problem with tribalism is that, more often than not, it requires you to hate the other group in order to be a part of the one you’re in. If you don’t hate the Yankees you’re not a real Red Sox fan.

It permeates all across society and it doesn’t make sense in the modern world. From sports fandom to politics, patriotism, race and even religion; tribalism is deeply rooted within ourselves and it only creates problems.

It certainly was useful for a while in our short time in this planet. When we started to organize as a society and started to gather and collect we needed to trust our peers, we needed to establish rules that worked for our group and we were faced with the constant threat of another group coming up and stealing our resources, destroying our settlements.

Over the course of the history of mankind tribalism was a useful tool. But it no longer is, and it ended up in us drawing invisible lines on the ground and calling it “our land” or “their land”. We gave value to certain things and used it as “currency” to trade goods and services between our peers. Each tribe had a different currency, each tribe created different set of laws.

We needed to protect ourselves from the others. We needed to be loyal to our group and we needed to grow ready to defend our land. We created armies, we went to war.

Tribalism then, can only come from fear. When you’re afraid the “others” may take away your food, your home, your family you create a wall that separates you from the world. You start seeing “the others” as a different beast that threatens your peers.

These walls can be in the form of laws, citizenships, religions, borderlines, currencies, weapons and even fences or actual walls.

Whenever humans feel afraid of the unknown they turn to what they know and they become angry at what they don’t understand. When you’re afraid the “others” might steal the fruits you worked so hard for, you start hating them, protecting against them, creating a division that is mostly in your head.

Every war, every conflict, every division you ever heard is most likely related to tribalism in some way. From hooligans trashing a stadium to WWII. It’s all because of that fake mental construct that we are different groups and we need to hate and be wary of “the others”.

Racism, religious fanaticism, patriotism, homophobia, sports fandom they’re all forms of tribalism.

And boy do we love to separate each other into groups! Black people, gay people, christians, jews, activists, nerds, environmentalists, engineers, writers, blue-collars, white-collars, patriots, liberals, rebels. And we love to put everyone in one box or another and then offend and be offended by the other “boxes”, it’s like a cancer that spreads across the entire human race.

And when someone manages to capitalize that fear he/she can make societies do crazy things and lead them to further division. That’s how you get to fascism, vengefulness, radicalism, terrorism and so.

So by giving into your own fear and tribalism you’re one step closer to become a fascist, a terrorist, and you’re promoting that behaviour in the ones around you.

Tribalism in modern society doesn’t make sense. We are a civilized, interconnected and abundant society and there’s no need to feed that mental image of “others” and the need to “protect” from them.

We have come so far. We can talk to anyone, anywhere, at any time. We’re so productive that abundance is the rule of thumb nowadays. It’s just unequally distributed… because of tribalism.

When someone talks about black people or white people I don’t know what they talk about. People that have a different melanin concentration than them? How does that make them different? The concept of race is absurd.

When someone talks about gay people or straight people I don’t know what they mean. People that have sex with a different gender than them? How does that make them different?

When you talks about muslims or jews or christians it’s the same thing. How are they better or worse? Why are they even in a different group?

No one is coming to take your fruit. There’s enough for everyone. And if someone comes to take your fruit, there are institutions that will do its best to provide a fair judgement on the matter. You can face any situation with respect and an open mind.

Tribalism in our current world makes little to no sense. Tribalism is made-up. It’s fear. It’s a made-up fear abused by those who want to achieve power.

If you think the Yankees are better than the Red Sox, or Barcelona is better than Real Madrid, if you think Star Wars is better than Star Trek or Apple is better than Microsoft, Nikon better than Canon, Ferrari better than McLaren you’re being a victim of tribalism. You’re creating a division that will bear you no real win in life and that it really doesn’t exist. You’re not thinking as a civilized, rational person.

This becomes dangerous very quickly: when you start thinking that black people are less than white people, jews are better than christians, Italians are better than Mongolians, men are right and women are wrong (or viceversa), or a terrorist is someone who hates you and want to kill you, so you need to get rid of them first.

You’re being driven by that deeply-rooted fear that the others might take your fruit and need to be eliminated. And while in sports and harmless fandom it can create a healthy competition, in bigger matters it can create wars and division that can ruin countries and even the world.

Last night, tribalism won, fear won. And I bet the consequences are going to be dire.

If you agree with at least some of this and believe that something should be done about it here’s a couple of things you can do:

• Work on being more self-aware of your own tribalism and start working in becoming more tolerant.
• Remember to be curious, instead of fearing what you don’t know, fearing the “others” try to understand how they think, why they feel the way they feel. Be curious about other ways of thinking, believing. Curiosity doesn’t mean that you have to change your beliefs, it just mean to listen with an open mind.
• Learn, Inform yourself, question your beliefs and what you read. Don’t settle with just one perspective of the world. Just because it comes from someone you admire or respect doesn’t mean is true. Try to understand all parts of an argument. It’s hard work, but it’s worth it.
• Be respectful. If you disagree with someone or something you can make your voice heard, but there’s no need for insult or violence in any way.
• Forgive. You surely are a victim of some sort of tribalism, no matter who you are. Let it go, don’t feed the sick cycle by creating further division. Whatever happened, it’s in the past.
• Spread this message so others can do the same.

We all fall victims of tribalism in many different ways. It’s rooted in our deepest instincts. But we can try to be rational, to not yield into an unfounded fear. And I hope that after reading this you decide to do something to make the world a less tribal place by working on being less tribal yourself.

It’s a daily practice. We need to rewrite something that have been within us for thousands of years.

Tribalism is ruining our world. was originally published in Extra Newsfeed on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Difficult access to mental health care, a historic overdose of segregation and hatred towards different races, sexual orientations and people from other places plus the easy access to weapons makes these kind of horrors unreasonably common in the U.S.

It’s a Deadly cocktail and this will continue to happen until these issues are resolved.

Healthcare, education, tolerance, gun control.

Healthcare, education, tolerance, gun control.

Healthcare, education, tolerance, gun control.

I can’t say this enough.

But the thing is, these are gridlock issues in this country. Opinions are incredibly divided on something that should be so evident.

And day after day mass shootings occur and NOTHING have been done law-wise to prevent these things from happening again.

Politics might take a lot longer and we need an urgent solution. At least a start.

So instead of solving this through politics why don’t we try to solve it through capitalism? Using the very same tool that’s so effective in creating new ways of thinking in this country: marketing and money.

Technology can help us live the best version of lives. And here’s my proposal on how tech can help solve the mass shootings that are so common in this country:

(Keep in mind this is a draft idea, it has many holes and it needs a lot of work)

A Bluetooth-LE-beacon-enabled trigger lock. A remote lock switch in every smartphone (at the OS level).

Imagine the full vision of this:

A criminal comes to do a mass shooting anywhere and while he pulls his gun out, someone, nearby, any person with a smartphone taps the “911 button” which automatically sends a signal to police in the area (sharing the location of the phone) and sends a bluetooth signal that locks all weapons (except the Police’s) for X minutes (Say: 45)and immediately de-escalates the situation.

No more shots fired, criminal lose his/her control, no more mass shootings. The police comes, arrests the criminal, done.

This 911 button would be by default on every Android and iOS device.

It’ll help avoid hostage situations, it’ll make the police control a scene much more quickly and safely.

In the ideal scenario this lock would be on every weapon, and every smartphone would have 911 button on it.

That won’t be the case for a long while but in the meantime as long as it helps prevent one shooting, its value could be immense.

It won’t be done immediately, it won’t prevent every mass shooting, but it needs to prevent just one to be a positive factor.

The market would change its perception over time and it will consider people who don’t have these kind of locks on their guns irresponsible. If you’re a responsible gun owner you need to have the remote lock.

And then there could be a law that requires this kind of device on every weapon.

There are a few downsides for sure, but I think most of them are manageable:

What if the guns runs out of battery? It locks, and won’t work until recharged.

What if the criminal is the one triggering this to prevent gun owners in the house to stop him and he comes with a knife? The push of the button also makes a 911 call and sends a location, police will be there investigating soon.

What if kids start pushing it just for fun? They can call 911 just for fun now, so use the same solutions already being used for that. If the call comes from a gathering place (clubs, schools, malls, etc) there will be other calls coming from the same place.

This could prevent “heroes” from taking down the criminals and defend themselves. In a civilized society no heroes are needed, police takes care of the threats. This will immediately de-escalate the situation by removing the killing power from anyone in the area. A guy with a knife is much lesser threat than a guy with an AR15.

Current gun owners won’t add the lock and they are in advantage. You could add one to yours if you’d like but anyway, again, it just needs to prevent one to become useful. It won’t prevent every mass shooting, but it will make a difference where it does.

This is NOT an ideal or universal solution. It solves the consequences, not the causes.

It doesn’t address mental issues or access to mental health care, it doesn’t promote a culture of tolerance, respect and peace. It might even delay gun controls furthermore. But there have been no progress to solve this problem in years, and this could be the next best thing in a very American way: with tech, marketing and money.

The more I think about it, the more I think this could really make a difference. It gives people the power to prevent these horror scenarios from happening.

There are technical issues to address. Bluetooth beacons just detect devices, don’t receive commands and I’m not so familiar with Bluetooth technology to figure out a way of solving this yet.

But the idea is there, it could be a cheap product to sell and it could make a HUGE difference by preventing many mass shootings.

It doesn’t have to solve every threat, it doesn’t have to be perfect or immediate. It just needs to start making a difference and grow from there.

Let’s build this.

If you’re an investor or have the technical abilities to help make this a reality: get in touch

The new Apple under Tim Cook has seen great advances towards social responsibility, environment protection, privacy care, product line expansion, and many other great things that are tremendously beneficial for Apple.

However, one of the things that has really suffered from Steve Jobs’ absence is Apple’s naming conventions. Over the last 5 years, as product choice has grown, Apple’s product names have slowly turned into a mess that’s hard to understand and follow.

These are the current Apple products names:

- iPhone 6s
- iPhone 6s plus
- iPhone SE
- iPhone 6
- iPhone 6 plus

- iPad mini 2
- iPad mini 4
- iPad Air 2
- iPad Pro (9.7 inch)
- iPad Pro (12.9 inch)

- MacBook (12 inch)
- MacBook Air (11 inch)
- MacBook Air (13 inch)
- MacBook Pro (13 inch — 2009)
- MacBook Pro with Retina Display (13 inch)
- MacBook Pro with Retina Display (15 inch)

- iMac (21.5 inch)
- iMac (27 inch)

- Mac Pro
- Mac mini

- TV
- The new TV

- watch sport
- watch
- watch edition

Patterns

There are some easy-to-spot patterns, let’s dissect them:

- Pro: For Professional products, oriented towards a professional market.
- Air: For regular consumers.
- mini: Usually implying a smaller size than a normal product.
- plus: Implying a bigger size than a normal product.
- Numbers: Generational numeric editions (for iPhones mostly) like 5, 5S, 6, 6S.

However these patterns are not consistent nor they are standard across the multiple product lines. However, we can see concepts behind these patterns: they’re used to describe sizes, generations and target market.

For this exercise let’s try to find a common pattern that follows these rules:

• Can be applied across the entire product line.
• Remains standard.
• Solves generational issues.
• Solves size naming.
• Stays in line with Apple’s traditional naming patterns.

Solutions

The most common thing across the entire product line is product sizes, it’s the most pivotal element that defines many categories usually within the mini and Pro brands.

Let’s propose a new naming standard for product sizes, one that can be applied to all lines and is familiar with every consumer out there: S (for small), M (for Medium or Regular) and L (for large). S, M, L. Easy. We could use the current conventions of mini, nothing and pro for sizes, but pro usually means something more than a big size. We can even remove the M since it’s the “regular” product size and we just need to differentiate smaller or bigger sizes. So we end up with S for small and L for large.

Let’s remove letters from generational numbers. So the 5S, 6S and so. Let’s propose either a full number methodology: (iPhone 6S would be iPhone 7) or a “.5” methodology (iPhone 6S would be iPhone 6.5).

So let’s apply that to the iOS devices without adding the M to the regular sized products:

- iPhone 6.5 (formerly iPhone 6S).
- iPhone 6.5 L (formerly iPhone 6S plus).
- iPhone 6.5 S (formerly iPhone SE).
- iPhone 6 (stays the same).
- iPhone 6 L (formerly iPhone 6 plus).

- iPad 5 S (formerly iPad mini 2 but 5th generation iPad mini).
- iPad 6S (formerly iPad mini 4 but 6th generation iPad mini).
- iPad 6 (formerly iPad Air 2, 6th generation of the product).
- iPad Pro (formerly iPad Pro (9.7 inch)).
- iPad Pro L (formerly iPad Pro (12.9 inch).

For Laptops Apple has 3 lines. We can integrate them into 2 under a new naming structure:

- MacBook 2 S (formerly MacBook (12 inch), new generation product).
- Macbook S (formerly MacBook Air (11 inch)).
- MacBook (formerly MacBook Air (13 inch)).
- MacBook Pro (formerly MacBook Pro (13 inch)).
- MacBook Pro L (formerly MacBook Pro (15 inch)).
- MacBook Pro 2009 (let’s kill this one).

For desktop Macs there are 3 different products: iMac, Mac mini and Mac Pro. Let’s integrate them to end up with at least 2 lines based on current setup: Macs that are fully integrated (iMacs) and Macs that require monitor, cameras, and so (Macs). We end up with:

- iMac (21.5 inch).
- iMac L (27 inch).
- Mac S (formerly Mac mini).
- Mac Pro (stays the same).

The TV doesn’t have different sizes, so we could end up with:

- TV 3 (formerly TV).
- TV 4 (formerly: the new TV).

The watch have 2 sizes (38mm and 42mm) and 3 different product lines. The name of the product lines is inconsistent: sport, nothing and edition, and it usually carried the trouble of saying “the watch edition edition”. Let’s use the materials they’re made of to name the product lines and use the standard S, L nomenclature for sizes. That way we end up with:

- watch al S (formerly watch sport 38mm) (baby, when you call me, you call me Al!).
- watch al (fomerly watch sport 42mm).
- watch steel S (fomerly watch 38mm).
- watch steel (fomerly watch 42mm).
- watch gold S (fomerly watch edition 38mm).
- watch gold (fomerly watch edition 42mm).

There are possible variations to this that would make it maybe better. We could remove the whole generational number system and just use the year of launch for older generation products. It would look something like:

- iPhone 6: iPhone (2015).
- iPhone 6S: iPhone.
- iPad mini 2: iPad S (2013).
- iPad mini 4: iPad S.
- MacBook Air 11: MacBook S (2014)
- MacBook: MacBook S.
- TV: TV (2012).
- the new TV: TV.

You can extrapolate that to the entire product line. This can make it even simpler and better with the only downside of someone today buying an iPad mini (2013) feels worse for the customer than buying an iPad 2 S.

Another idea would be to keep the mini and plus naming instead of S and L. It makes it longer, but more familiar to Apple’s current customer base.

Conclusion

This way, we end up with a familiar naming structure that spans across the entire product line, simplifies choice understanding, solves size naming and stays within Apple’s guidelines for naming products.

These naming conventions achieve all the goals we established at the start while being clean, consistent, smart and simple.

This is a great way for Apple to solve the naming issue and provide a clear, consistent nomenclature for their products across their entire product line in a way that helps customers, salespeople and marketing.

Apple won’t change its current product line. But it can start by adding this new nomenclature to their new products as they are released. I certainly would love to see that happen.

Your move, Apple.

WWDC 2014 Keynote just ended and I’m left with a great feeling.

There were no hardware announcements (they’re DOOMED!) and they didn’t need to have them.

My appreciation is that today’s keynote has been the biggest keynote they had in several years and is one that set the grounds for the next 10 years of Apple.

Apple is no longer a “mobile” company. After today it feels like an OS company, a company that deeply cares about making the best OS in both mobile and desktop.

I’m not gonna talk about OSX or iOS new features, you’ll find plenty of those articles around. For me there were much bigger things announced today, and here they are:

Continuity

Or call it “integration”. The deep control Apple has over its ecosystem allows it to pull a level of integration that cannot be matched by any other platform. Today they proved that and the level of integration between our future devices will make us feel like we’re living in the future.

Handoff is truly such a remarkable, transparent feature that it seems magical. A real showoff if you ask me.

Family sharing is a great feature that probably no other platform can easily replicate and that makes things so much easier for parents with little kids and most families in general.

iCloud Drive is a long-overdue debt that Apple is finally paying and it’s going to enable a level of integration that’s going to be awesome for end users (if iCloud finally works as it should).

The Kits and APIs

This, to me, is the most important announcement of the keynote. The series of DevKits Apple announced today are more important than any other OS feature they could have announced, they’re even more important than hardware.

HealthKit, HomeKit, CloudKit, SceneKit, Metal, and so on are platform-enabling technologies. They will create an ecosystem of devices, hardware that will thrive and will bring the next big breakthrough in consumer tech.

Apple has done what they do best, they didn’t invent anything, they just showed everybody the right way to do so. And with HealthKit, CloudKit and Homekit we got the right way to build automated homes and health devices and these markets are set to explode real soon.

These announcements are as big as the App Store was in its time. Think about what the App Store has enabled in the last years. Any time you open an app to achieve something, that’s thanks to the App Store. yes even if you’re an Android user, the App Store created the app market you enjoy everyday today.

Apps turned our devices into the useful tools that they are today. And that’s because Apple provided the right way to do so via the App Store and enabling 3rd party app development on its platform.

Apple is great on its own but it’s even greater when it embraces 3rd party development. And today Apple opened up in a big, BIG way. The biggest way since the creation of the App Store. This is going to be huge.

These new APIs will allow a new generation of Apps and integrated systems so big that I cannot imagine the reach that might end up having. But I can bet is going to be huge.

Apple opened up big time on iOS. Cross-app interactions, 3rd party keyboards, and my GOD Touch ID API. This might end up solving the ID problem everywhere if Android can replicate this properly.

Touch ID might be able to put an end to the password. Finally!

I cannot overstate the importance of these platform-enabling technologies. They’re going to enable the next generation of devices and they’re going to be the foundation of the tech world for the next few years.

Swift

Lastly, a new language. A new ground that will make development faster, easier and that will attract a new generation of developers with fresh minds that will build incredible things.

With this Apple sets the building stone on which it’ll continue to build its empire for the next 10 years.

Swift is surely going to be huge. It’ll make app development easier, faster and more enjoyable. This can only mean better, faster apps and thriving app-market within the iOS ecosystem.

Swift is the core that will enable the next generation of apps to be born. It’s the key to Apple development for the next decade at least.

These 3 things will empower Apple to build the future it wants to build. Apple’s OSs will be the hub of your life. They want to hub everything through their platforms in order for you to have the control of your life at your fingertips. And that’s going to be incredible for Apple users.

“Siri, time for bed”: Your garage and home door will lock, thermostat set for comfortable sleep temp, you Mac goes to sleep, notifications will go off on all your devices, your TV (and your kid’s TVs) will turn off, lights will go off, your kid’s iPod touch will start reading bedtime stories to them and your iPhone will start tracking your sleep patterns and record if you snore that night.

That is what these technologies will enable us to do. And it’s just 3 months away.

Welcome to the future thanks to these platform-enabling technologies that Apple showed today.

And OF COURSE I know Android can do much of this now, Apple is never first to do things, but usually first to make things right. And I can only wait until all other tech companies start copying and replicating these frameworks, pushing for universal standards based on what Apple showed today.

Come 2017 when you’re enjoying a deeper degree of automation in your life, I can bet that’ll be somewhat related of what Apple showed today; just like how you enjoy your smartphone today, because Apple showed us a few years ago how smartphones were done right.

And this is why I think that today was one of the biggest announcements Apple has made in the last few years, bigger than any hardware releases or new features. It’s about the new platforms.

A story about the day I met Woz

As geek, web developer and all the other things my bio says about me you can imagine that meeting Steve Wozniak is kind of a “trule EPIC moment”, a “lifetime achievement”, a “challenge completed”, an “achievement unlocked”, a “level up” for me. That happened yesterday.

After listening to one of the greatest men of my time in the final session of the Brilliants Minds congress in Madrid, My friend and I decided to bend all the rules and sneak in backstage to see if we could meet Woz in person.

We were glad we did, we found where he was and waited a while with some other 20-30 people for him to finish an interview.

When the crowd got around he started signing iDevices and taking pictures with everybody (he even signed my iPad!).

So it’s my friend’s turn to take the picture. He gives me his iPhone and I did what I always do: put the Phone in horizontal and snap the picture by clicking the “volume up” button on the iPhone.

I noticed very few little people take the picture this way, but I always felt it’s the most logical, comfortable way to do it.

And here comes the awesome moment: Woz noticed the way I took the picture and while I was switching places with my friend to take the picture with Woz, he told me: “You did it in the right way, you pressed the button, that’s awesome”.

This defines Woz completely. I mean, the man is surrounded by people, doing lots of stuff at the same time and yet he has the attention to detail to notice how I took the picture, the geekness to be aware of how a picture with an iPhone should be taken and the kindness to congratulate me on that.

Attention to detail, geekness and kindness. If that doesn’t define Woz I don’t know what does.

Woz defined himself in a single moment, and with that he made the thrill of meeting him even more awesome for me.

Thanks Woz!

So Rene Ritchie got me thinking about the possibility of bigger screen sizes for the iPhone.

He makes a good point on increasing resolution, but honestly I don’t think Apple needs to go anywhere beyond 2X already, at least on the iPhone where the resolution is 326ppi.I would make the iPad also 326ppi but that’s another story (battery life issues, and so and so).

So here’s what I figured out.

Basically I think somewhere around 4.5 to 5 inches are the best sizes for a phone and I wanted to focus on that range. I made the math for both the 16/9 current resolution and for a potential return to 3/2 resolutions:

Here it is:

After seeing this I can bet Apple will go with a 4.5 inches 16/9 iPhone with full resolution of 720p (1280x720).

Or if they go nuts and figure out the hardware constrains they can go full HD 1080p at that same size @4x with a resolution of 652ppi (but hey, this one is nuts to consider).

Anyway I guess we’ll have to wait for a year to see if I nailed it, or not. iPhone 6, I’m looking at you.

UPDATE: A rumor that puts my theory in the ballpark at least.

pragmatism or righteousness… which approach to use?

You know how Ned Stark is. Righteous, honorable, the good guy, the moral guy, the one willing to die for his principles. Other may call him the stupid guy, the one that was so blinded by righteousness and nobility that couldn’t think strategically.

The best way to explain Nedstarkism happens on one of the first scenes of the Game of Thrones series:

A deserter from the Night’s watch is caught by Winterfell men and altough he’s scared like hell by what he saw and the reason he deserted is more than understandable (I would run away as well if I see a White Walker), he gets decapitated because it’s the law, it’s the way it has been always done, regardless of common sense.

This is a debate that’s been going on in my mind for quite a long time. All my life I’ve been full of “Nedstarkism”: a term my wife coined to refer all the people that always choose “the right way” of doing things instead of the pragmatic way.

Marco Arment has a great post about this subject: Right vs. Pragmatic and I must say that thanks to that post I’m turning into a more pragmatic person every day, and I’m definitely happier.

Nedstarkism, when taken too far, lead to all kinds stupidity. The thing is, everybody has a different idea of what’s right, and how things are supposed to be. And when the reality hits our expectations with a brick, we get sad, or angry.

People expect things to be in a certain way, and when they become too axiomatized by the way things should be they tend to dumb down. Maybe it’s laziness of thinking about things in their own context and instead applying the same set of rules to everything.

Nedstarkism is what lead religious people to believe that gays are sinners or abortion is a terrible thing regardless of context. Nedstarkism is saying “it’s God’s will”, “it’s the law”, “it’s how everyone does it”, “this is what’s expected of you”.

Nedstarkism avoids change by definition. Because change require breaking the rules and creating new ones. Nedstarkism leans towards keeping values, keeping the status-quo.

Nedstarkism is what lead Ned Stark to tell Cersei Lannister about his takeover of the kingdom before he actually did it to give her a chance and be merciful, look how that turned out.

If there’s anything you can learn from Game of Thrones (SPOILER ALERT) is that Nedstarkism will get you killed [Oh! those poor poor Starks :( ]. In a land where people are willing to play dirty you cannot proceed the righteous way all the time.

Nedstarkism leads to religious fanatism, to pride, to patriotism, to sports fanatism and all the stupid stuff that all these “isms” bring, like killing “in the name of God”, like killing “for King and Country”, like judging other people for where they miss in your set of values.

Pragmatism on the other way is a happier way of living. There is no expected way to do stuff, just take the more practical approach. Forget conventions and standards and look for a smarter way of thinking.

A good Game of Thrones example of pragmatism is Tyrion Lannister. He’s tricky, deceptive and smart. He always play for his own benefit, but deep inside he cares about the peace in the kingdom and the easiest way to solve the problems. No egoes, no family honor, no pride, no bullsh*t. Just pragmatism.

It’s a much smarter way to handle yourself through life. As long as you focus on the good in your heart, you’ll never be pragmatic for evil reasons.

Science is the best example of what pragmatism can do. True scientist know there are no universal truths, and that the few universal truths that we know so far (speed of light, evolution, and so) are subject to change when a new set of rules are discovered.

Science, in its purest form never judges, is curious, wants to learn more, know more, and knows there are no “right ways” to anything. It focus on the causes, it focus on research.

Always keep in mind that even your deepest values, might not be right. If someone disagrees with you, be curious about their thinking, don’t think you have to defend your position.

In science, everything is a hypothesis that can be proven wrong or right. And is always subject to change when new evidence comes along. That’s a very pragmatic way of thinking and look how far it has gotten us.

But being a complete pragmatic is much more dangerous. Excesive pragmatism will lead to corruption, will lead to egoism and to favor yourself in every situation no matter who gets hurt in the way. Being 100% pragmatic can be a lot more dangerous to society. Pragmatism in its more extreme way is Machiavelli’s “the ends justifies the means”.

So how can you choose between Nedstarkism and pragmatism?

I don’t have the answer yet, but I found some guiding principles that help me through choosign wether to be pragmatic or Nedstarkist according to the situation.

In general, be pragmatic all the time. Forget rules, expectations and conventions and think of the smartest, more practical way to handle the situation you’re in.

UNLESS

You might unfairly hurt someone else by being pragmatic: Your boss tells you that he’ll give you a raise if you help him create a situation that will get someone else fired. Don’t do it, avoid harm at all costs.

Some powerful entity uses its power against a weaker one. British power over India, animal mistreating, gender violence, NSA spying on the whole world, racism by law (Apartheid) or just a mean policeman threatening someone just because he has authority. If there’s a big injustice happening caused by the abuse of power, speak up. And please, don’t ever do it yourself.

It leads to corruption: You’re the major of the town and want to of assign that budget to the company of a friend that gave you money for the campaign instead of that other company where you don’t know anyone but you know they’ll do a better job. Don’t do it. Don’t let pragmatism corrupt yourself.

It ends in no benefit for anyone. You kicked that kid that is bullying your kid at school? How’s that helping anyone? Solve it as an adult, educate, provide a better outcome for everyone involved.

SO

Think of others before you take action. How will your actions affect other people involved?

Think of the planet before you take action: It’s easier to leave the lights on, it’s easier to throw that plastic bag in the woods while camping. Don’t, you’re abusing your power to harm a powerless one (nature).

Be and let be: Be yourself and do what you please as long as you don’t hurt others in the way. And let people be themselves as well, don’t judge them or compare to them. Tolerance is KEY. If any, be curious about how others see things, that way you’ll always learn more.

AND ALSO (the exception)

It’s OK to be evily pragmatic when it helps a big part of us: Have to decide wether to kill Hitler or let him escape? Kill Hitler. It’s OK, the best for the majority should always prevail.

If you let go your standards, rules and principles you might think that you’ll be worth nothing, that you might end up in hell or something. But the truth is that if you let go these rules and conventions you’ll be a lot more free, and a lot happier.

Don’t be a Nedstarkist unless you need to be. Pragmatism will lead to a happier, more practical life, less complications and less bullsh*t. You’ll see things for what they are and not what you think they should be. Your expectations about life will low down, and that will give you a lot of joy. We mammals get sad and angry when the reality doesn’t meet our expectations.Learn to control that.

Also be a Nedstarkist when you need to be. There’s nothing more satisfactory that to stand for what you believe in. But make sure that those beliefs are worth it. Nedstarkism can be very expensive for you and the others around you.

Am I contradicting myself? Maybe, or maybe you’re not being pragmatic enough reading this :P

In general, loving and caring someone else is the one true thing you should always stand for. Everything else is probably worthless.

As with everything in life, try to find balance. In this case between the Ned Stark and the Tyrion Lannister within you.

If these words got into you, go share them with some Nedstarkist in need.

Nedstarkism was originally published in I. M. H. O. on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

and you can blaim Apple for it

I’ve been thinking about this one for a while and I think I found the new IE6 and yes… I’m scared.

Every web developer remembers the IE6 nightmare years. A browser, that came by default on a system used by 90% of the people (Windows) ended up having such a large marketshare that they didn’t care about improving the product, respecting industry standards or even updating the product.

So, for years, web developers couldn’t take advantage of the standards innovation that were showing up (Transparent PNGs, CSS floats, etc.). Everyone had to “support” IE6 and it was a real, terrible NIGHTMARE.

Nowadays browsers are updated every few weeks, adding new features and supporting new standards much more faster than before. And with autoupdate is even more transparent for the user.

But there’s an exception to the great days we’re living. It’s a browser, that updates only once a year in a plattform that doesn’t allow any other browsers on it and with over 50% market share. Yes I’m talking about Safari Mobile.

Safari Mobile might become the new IE6.

With iOS not allowing any other rendering engines there are no browsers besides Safari Mobile in reality. For example, Chrome in iOS might add a nice set of feature on top of it (tab sync, etc), but in the end it’s still the rendering of Safari Mobile. No V8 engine, no custom new standards support.

But with Chrome moving to a new rendering engine in a few weeks the divergence between Chrome on Desktop (and Android) and Chrome on iOS will be a lot more noticeable soon.

Mozilla doesn’t make Firefox on iOS because they cannot use their Gecko engine. So, in iOS, we’re stuck with Safari mobile rendering.

If Safari mobile updated every few weeks automagically with the latest webkit specs that wouldn’t be that bad. But it only updates once a year, and it’s starting to feel “outdated” when you compare it to the latest browsers.

For example take Flexbox support. The spec has changed significantly over the last few months. Chrome already have the latest implementation built-in, Firefox as well but Safari and Safari Mobile…. well no, because they haven’t been updated.

But we developers need to support Safari Mobile. It has around 61% market share in mobile market share. We cannot ignore it. Welcome to the IE6 nightmare, all over again.

Right now is barely noticeable but as Chrome moves to blink and Firefox continues to innovate so quickly, Safari Mobile most likely will become the “IE6″ in the block. We’ll all hate that we have to support it and being unable to use the latest specs because Safari Mobile doesn’t support them.

It won’t be as horrible as the IE6 years. iOS has a much smaller market share than IE6 had, they need to compete with Android and Chrome which will surely improve a lot faster and Safari Mobile is built on an actively-developed open-source engine, and that ensures that every update Apple releases, Safari will get the latest stuff.

So it definitely won’t be as the nightmare that IE6 was, but I do think that over the next few years Safari Mobile will become the browser that all web developers hate to support.

I really hope Apple allows other browsers (with other rendering engines) on iOS 7. That would solve the whole thing automagically, or at least that they decide to go on a quick-silent update cycle for Safari Mobile. But yes I know this is Apple I’m talking about… a developer can only dream.

The IE6 nightmare might be back soon was originally published in I. M. H. O. on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.