iPhone X first impressions

It turns out I was lucky enough to have my iPhone X order bumped up from the original third week of November date to it getting delivered yesterday afternoon. Major kudos to Apple's supply chain prowess: to launch a brand-new phone simultaneously in 55 countries where initial demand is surely in the tens of millions is an astonishing feat. 

Or perhaps that's just happy me who got his iPhone X way earlier that expected talking. 

Nevertheless, I've had about a day's worth of use, and here are some preliminary impressions: 

• Face ID is fast and works seamlessly in all lighting conditions. That said, Touch ID is still faster, which is expected as the fingerprint technology is matured while this is the first go for Face ID.
• One Face ID quirk for winter months: it doesn't work if you're wearing a mask/half the face is covered. I hope in future iterations the Face ID system will add technologies like retinal scanning to its repertoire so that it can unlock the phone under more situations. 
• The OLED screen is perfection. It makes even my 5K iMac display look pedestrian by comparison: infinite contrast ratio, precise calibration, and fantastic viewing angles. I'm glad Apple waited this long to introduce OLED in the iPhone because early Samsung OLED screens were atrocious.
• With the combination of glass front and back with polished stainless-steel surround, the X is the best feeling iPhone to the hand since iPhone 4. There is no chance I'm putting a case on it; the back glass is grippy enough - an upgrade from the soap-like aluminum of iPhone 6 and 7. 
• I don't miss the home button: swiping up from the bottom edge is quite natural. What isn't natural is the gesture it replaces: control center - it's now swipe down from top right. Rejiggering that muscle memory will take longer.
• Of course, apps that have yet to be optimized for the new display arrangement look awkward at best and unusable at worse. Most frustrating part is the keyboard - outdated apps don't use the new keyboard layout, and your muscle memory will hate you. 
• The X is slightly heavier than the 7 Plus, even though it's dimensionally smaller. I personally don't mind it because it'll be less prone to fly out of my hands/easier to clutch. 
• True-tone is so amazing that I wish all my other displays have it. I turn it off when I need to do photography work (read: instagram), but otherwise it's a pleasure on the eyes. 

More in the weeks to come as I get familiar with the phone, including taking it on a trip to Taiwan during Thanksgiving week. 

Good riddance, Flickr

How was your weekend? Hope it was splendid. I spend the two days entirely in from of the iMac. 

Because I finally got off my ass and finished porting over the rest of the data from my old tumblr website and flickr page over to this Squarespace site. Transferring photos is the easy part - I did it a month ago; the rest of the metadata such as titles and captions I had to do manually. It's as dreadfully boring and tedious as it sounds. 

A hearty good riddance to flickr. It used to be wonderful back in the day before Yahoo bought its parent company. These days it's one of the company's many neglected children: no substantial updates of any sort in the past years. Photographs still get compressed to hell, the layout is in desperate need of redesign, and its geolocation maps are utterly useless (Apple Maps at its troubled infancy was better). Surely the only reason me and others have continued to use flickr despite its glaring shortcomings is friction: it takes considerable effort to move hosts.

And now that Yahoo has sold to Verizon, flickr users shouldn't hold their breath for updates. It's a platform way beyond its prime. Instead of a flickr landing page, photo hobbyist and professionals should have their own website: hosts like Squarespace or Smugmug make it too easy, and quite affordable. 

With my flickr page is shuttered, I only have this website, instagram account, and twitter page to manage in regards to online presence. It should be much streamlined and focused going forward. I haven't been on Facebook in years, though I still have a LinkedIN account that for all intents and purposes is there because every other working professional has one. Not sure why exactly, but here we are. 

Retirement savings goals

Yesterday I saw this tweet of jean Chatzky's: 

By the time you’re 30, aim to have 1x your annual income set aside for retirement. At 40, 3x; at 50, 6x; at 60, 8x; and by retirement, 10x.

— Jean Chatzky (@JeanChatzky) November 1, 2017

Upon reading the tweet, I actually felt pretty good. I turn 30 next month, and in solid humble-brag fashion I can say the goal of having 1x annual income saved for retirement is of no issue. Ramit Sethi's book on personal finance taught me the ropes back when I started working full-time. Saving for retirement isn't a chore - it became automatic. I don't think about it at all.  

However, judging by the replies to the tweet, I guess I'm an uncommon case amongst my peers? The responses were full of millennials lamenting their financial misfortunes, being burdened with the likes of student loans, outrageous housing costs, and stagnant wages. Plenty of avocado toasts and 10 dollar lattes jokes were mixed in there as well. Lots of excuses given on why people don't have the appropriate amount of retirement savings, if at all. 

While I don't doubt the veracity of these people's situations, I question their defeatist/victim attitude.  

Let's all agree that saving for retirement is important, no? Barring any natural disasters or nuclear holocausts, our generation should live quite a long time beyond the current 65 year retirement age. Having enough money to sustain a suitable lifestyle is going to take some time accumulating, and people should start as early as possible.

For sure external circumstances have made it difficult for millennials to find jobs and save. However, complaining about the situation - as in the tweet's replies - isn't going to do anything positive. Is the government (or some other macro entity) going to suddenly forgive all student loan debt, build massive amounts of affordable housing, and provide people a better paying job? Of course not. It's all up to you, the individual person, to fight for what you desire, and in doing so save for retirement. 

Don't we often joke that Social Security won't be there by the time us millennials reach our autumn years? People can say how unrealistic those goals set by Chatzky are, but the fact remains you still have to save. If my family of four can do it on $1,500 per month income way back when, so can you.  

Modifying the Miata shall begin

It's been nearly two years since I bought my Mazda Miata, and to date the only modification I've done is switching out the stock shift-knob with a titanium unit from WC Lathe Werks. Other than that, the car is utterly stock. 

What happened? I used to love modifying cars. Ever since reading my first issue of Import Tuner (RIP) back in my early teens, I was hooked on vehicle upgrades and go-fast products. On my first car the Toyota Corolla - not exactly a car worthy of modifying - I put lowering springs, new shocks, wheels, LED tail-lamps, sway bars, strut bar; the list goes on. It turned the otherwise mundane and anonymous grocery-getter into a car of my own special identity. There were some special days indeed wrenching on that car with friends, putting on new wheels for the first time, and countless detailing sessions to make it all look spiff and proper. 

What changed with the current car? Adulthood, I guess. I'm not nearly as cavalier with money as I were and can be back in college. Back then whatever I earned from work I would spend it completely, in contrast with today where I have to allocate funds for various adult stuff like retirement accounts and rainy-day funds. Other areas of interest like photography and traveling also grew more dominant as to where I want to allocate spares dollars. Car modification took a complete back-burner: I've already got the car, and it takes me to places; why should I put more money towards it than necessary? 

I've lost what a joy it is buying and putting on new car parts, though it can't replace the joy of having properly funded investment accounts. Nevertheless, I would like to make a cautious return and will begin slowly modifying the Miata. It shall begin with the wheels, as one does. I shall update with what exactly in a future post. 

I try KonMari method

I spent this past weekend cleaning out my room in accordance to the KonMari method. I tossed away anything that I haven't used in the past year, and for things of sentiment/ornament, I kept only those that "sparked joy." Following those restrictions led to quite the production, as I literally spent the entire Saturday sorting and collating, resulting in 10 trash-bag full of junk. My closet has never been so barren yet utterly organized. 

You know how you never realize how much stuff you've accumulated until you need to move? The KonMari method does the same thing, only this time instead of moving the stuff to a new place, much of the stuff is headed for the trash-bin. Of the 10 trash-bags I threw out, three was clothing, which is amazing because I've always thought I skew towards the frugal side when it comes to clothing allowances. Turns out even someone like me who seldom buy clothes can still end up with three bags worth of items not worn in the past 12 months. 

Packing for travel will be much easier, because nearly all the clothing I now own can fit inside the 29-inch roller bag. 

A room that's gone through the KonMari tidying method is absolutely transformative. When I woke up on Sunday morning after laboring all day Saturday, there was a strangeness to the room that I've never felt before. It had the impression of the halfway point between my room of old and a freshly-cleaned hotel room. It was a new strange, but it felt instantly comfortable and inviting. Everything single item within the room, without reservation, elicited a positive interaction/reaction, and for me that's the ultimate magic of KonMari method. 

Henceforth I shall be much more deliberate in keeping things that don't make me happy away from my room. 

Spending over 1K for a phone

Did I just spend $1,200 on a phone?!

That was the my first thought as I clicked the last of many buttons to finalize my preorder for the iPhone X. I was not quick enough to be allocated a unit on launch day, rather relegated to a two to three week post-launch window. It would be wonderful if the phone would arrive before I am to take my trip to Taipei on the 18th.

Indeed the modern smartphone has become an indispensable device, the one piece of technology we interact with most by a significant margin. The devices themselves have become increasingly powerful and versatile, able to perform tasks done on a Mac or PC most people would otherwise use. With these criteria I can certainly make a solid case for spending over a grand on the iPhone X: the return on "investment" is absolutely assured.

But it still feels kind of dirty.

Justify it as I can and may, the iPhone X remains a glamour and status device, one that I ultimately I can do without - because I've already got an iPhone 7 Plus. The Apple phone of last year still performs flawlessly, and with 128GB of space I'm not likely to run out anytime soon (the 256GB model I bought of the iPhone X is complete overkill). The smart decision would be to pocket the $1,200 and continue to make the remaining payments on the 7P. Alas, if I were run on purely smart decisions I'd be a much more financially endowed man today. 

As with most trends started by Apple, the thousand dollar smartphone will be the new-normal by next year. Just you wait, my Samsung toting compatriots: your time for agony and shame in spending such absurd money on a phone will arrive soon enough. 

iPhone X preorder

Happy new iPhone preorders eve! On 12AM pacific standard time tomorrow, preorders for the iPhone X goes live. I've got everything setup and ready to go. Apple makes it surprisingly easy for those of us in the iPhone Upgrade Program. I'm already pre-approved for the new lease and have selected the particular model I want (256GB in silver). All I have to do come midnight is open the app and click the link at the top. 

There's plenty of talk - as usual - about how little initial supply there will be of the iPhone X. Certainly there's reason to believe it when you look at the phone itself: first time Apple has gone with OLED displays, and ditching the Touch ID sensor with an entirely new fascial recognition Face ID system. It's highly complicated, and one wouldn't fault Apple for having difficulties producing its usual quantities. Speculations abound that supply will be so tight that one would consider himself lucky if he gets an iPhone X this side of New Years 2018.

I'm of the opinion that supplies of the iPhone X will be no worse than any other year; for the past two years I've gotten new iPhones on launch day no issues. Apple is launching the new phone simultaneously in 55 countries, which leads me to believe they are confident demand can be met. Otherwise wouldn't you think they'd restrict to far fewer countries at launch?

Nevertheless, god speed, fellow iPhone X preorder people. It's the most wonderful time of the year.