Apple Airpods are magical

The Apple Airpods are awesome. 

I finally bit the not inexpensive bullet and purchased a set of these wireless earphones. Not since the original iPad have another Apple product been engineered so profoundly complete and joyful to use. Steve Jobs would've been proud of Airpods.

They are, in essence, Earpods with the cords chopped off, therefore if Earpods weren't particularly comfortable for you, then Airpods are going to be more of the same. Thankfully the corded version have alway fitted me wonderfully, and with the Airpods on it's supremely comfortable; no amount of extreme head angles have yet to dislodge them. They simply disappear from thought once I put them on. 

I didn't think going wireless with regular earphones would make such a big difference, but it truly does. Walking around listening to music on the Airpods is the closest facsimile to having background music playing me while I go about daily business. Unlike the equally awesome Bose QC35 headphones, Airpods weight almost nothing and doesn't block outside sound, so my motive freedom is way less encumbered. I can walk around with Airpods all day, though sadly the meager five hour battery life puts a stop to that fantasy.

Connecting the Airpods to the iPhone is so painlessly easy It would be an insult to call it pairing. All I had to do was flip open the charging case and a graphic instantly popped up on the iPhone prompting a click to complete.

Thanks to whatever voodoo magic Apple has done with the W1 chipset in the Airpods, the bluetooth range is fantastic. The Airpods don't feature an on/off switch because the sleep/wake is instantaneous: as soon as I insert Airpods into my ears, sensors know to power on and resume connection. Conversely, taking them out automatically pauses whatever is playing and it will turn itself off after a period of inactivity. 

So now when I use other earphones and headphones I am baffled as to why they can't similarly act this intelligent. Making people do such a thing seems to be a forte of Apple: when Touch ID came out, inputting a passcode to unlock other devices were an utter pain.

Apple often get lambasted for calling its products 'magical', but if there ever is one device that deserves that moniker, it's the Airpods. It just might be my favorite consumer tech product I bought this year. 

Convenient stores in Asia are awesome

Why can't America have convenient stores like they've got in Asia?

The 24-hour convenient store like 7-Eleven is ubiquitous in Asia, and for good reason: they are fantastic. The stores offer a selection of actual real food (and junk food too, of course) and any sort of daily household items one would need. Most have a dedicated sitting area for people to eat their meal, and some even have bathrooms should the particular 7-Eleven not be one close to home. One can literally live only frequenting a convenient store, no supermarkets, with no adverse health effects.

Contrast that to the convenient stores we've got here in the States: when's the last time you felt safe going to a 7-Eleven? All they stock is junk food, and the best hot food they can offer you is a bloody hot-dog. Where's the amazing selection of ramen? 20 flavors of tea? Fresh breakfast and dinner food? Can I make it to my parked car without getting robbed?

When I book AirBnb on Asia trips, I make sure to stay at a place that's close to a convenient store, which isn't difficult because they are everywhere. Just this past Taipei trip there was a 7-Eleven right around the corner, and I would visit it every morning to stock up on tea drinks for the day. Late night cravings would be satisfied with a a quick ramen run. 

Laugh all you want, but one of the big draws Asia has for me are their 24-hour convenient stores. I miss them very much when I fly back home. 

The iPhone X camera is fantastic

During my Taipei trip, I had the opportunity to extensively use the iPhone X's camera, and the verdict is this: it's utterly fantastic. 

It's amazing what camera lens can do when it's paired with incredible computing power. Apple overcomes the physical limitations of the smartphone form-factor - sensor and lens can only be so big - by performing calculations and predictive algorithms that traditional camera makers like Canon or Nikon cannot. The iPhone may be outputting JPEGs, but those photos have got vastly more computing done to it than say a Canon 5D - and all the user do is press the shutter, adjusting nothing. 

I got astounding hit-rate with the iPhone X JPEGs on the trip: exposure and color temperature are almost always spot-on. 

Of course, Apple have upgraded the sensor technology as well, but I firmly believe it's the A series chip inside the modern iPhone that's the X factor in the tremendous photo capabilities. We're to the point where my non-photography inclined friends cannot discern the difference between - when viewed on mobile - the shots off of the iPhone X and A7R2. With the iOS 'portrait mode' in its second generation, the X can even do convincing bokeh shots. It's truly astounding. 

In the future I would have zero qualms about leaving the dedicated camera behind and simply use the iPhone X as the sole travel camera: it is that good. Once Apple figure out/allow proper long exposure shots, there will remain nothing an iPhone can't do that a proper camera can. Even dynamic range limitations are already solved by iPhone's brilliant auto-HDR function. 

From a photographic perspective, a hearty job well done on the iPhone X, Apple. 

Asia is my Vegas

For plenty of people, Vegas is their escape from the drudgery of adult life. They go there often to eat, drink, play, and celebrate. 

Asia is my Vegas. 

I've just returned from my trip to Taipei yesterday, marking the fourth time I've visited an Asian city within a 12 month period (Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul, and Taipei). I simply love it in Asia, and like most people are wont to do on their 'Vegas trips', I go there mainly to eat, drink, play, and celebrate. Only flaw is the price of the plane ticket makes traveling to Asia significantly more expensive than heading to Vegas.

It's so worth it.

While I enjoy the diversity we get here in America, spending time amongst people who look like me and share the same culture and habits is also a treat. We all crave homogeneity on some level: it explains the cliques we form during high school lunch hour. in Asia there's a homey feeling that entirely different than the vibe in San Francisco. Even though I'm technically a tourist, I blend right in. At least I think so.

A city boy at heart, the urban density, the interconnectedness, and the supreme convenience of Asia is super attractive to me. It truly comes alive at night: the most memorable parts on these trips were walking through the city streets taking in the lights. 

All without an ounce of worry about getting mugged. That's a freedom we ironically don't have in America.

First rainy day of the season

Today was the first truly rainy day of the season, and with great predictability the traffic conditions were absolutely atrocious. A friend texted in a group chat to advise working from home if possible. Traffic in the Bay Area is bad enough on a good sunny day; mix it with heavy precipitation? Forget about it.

Late fall and winter is the time it rains in San Francisco, fairly consistently, so what I don't get is how are people not ready for it? Lack of preparedness is the only possible explanation for the slowdown that always happens when it rains, right? 

Remember a few years ago when it snowed in Atlanta for the first time in never and drivers were caught off-guard? San Franciscans don't have that excuse. 

Perhaps people are too squeamish about going at a normal pace in sight of the rain. Don't think Bay Area drivers skew towards the hesitant side? I bet you've never got stuck behind someone who refuses to merge out unless the oncoming car is a block away. One thing I admire about New York City drivers is that if there's a gap, they go for it. Quick and unobtrusive.  

Anyways, for sure one shouldn't be blasting beyond 70 miles an hour when it's pouring down, but 50 shouldn't be the correct answer, either, and I definitely got stuck behind a few folks doing 50mph today. Unless a monsoon is coming down, going vastly slower than the speed limit on a major metropolitan highway is hugely detrimental to proper traffic flow. 

Good news, though: everybody got a free cash wash today, and many more to come in the season. One of the little sweet joys of life is seeing the water beading off the car's sheetmetal: because it let's me know I've done a good job keeping it consistently waxed. To watch the pooled water glide off as I get up to speed on the highway is a always a treat, in a supremely childish way. 

Currency exchange

In preparation for the Taiwan trip next week, I went to the Mechanics Bank downtown today to exchange for some Taiwan dollars. It's always good to have some cash on hand to at least get from the airport to the hotel. 

In doing so I was reminded of the last time I visited the same bank this past May: to buy some Korean currency. Both times I purchased around $200 worth of local money. 

On the Korea trip, I could have easily not used any of the cash I exchanged: the country is fabulously accepting of credit cards. From the airport bus kiosk down to the elder ladies peddling food in front of the baseball stadium, I was amazed at how often i can use card to pay. For a person living in the States used to seeing 'cash only' signs in many storefronts, it's a pleasure and convenience I wish America would adopt. 

Unfortunately, Taiwan isn't nearly as friendly to credit cards as Korea, at least from my previous experience two years ago. Perhaps it'll be different this time: on the last trip we had to take a one-hour bus ride from the airport to get into Taipei, now there's a dedicated subway line taking half the time. 

I for one cannot wait for a true cash-less society, with my wallet's contents all residing in the smartphone. To pay for anything, all I have to do is hover my phone over an NFC device. Apple Pay on the iPhone is getting there, but there still exist a huge dearth of places that accept it. I will not be surprised if Korea is the first country to go truly/completely mobile wallet.

Wait, would that mean I'll have to switch to a Samsung phone and get Samsung pay?  

It'll rain in Taipei

Next week is Thanksgiving, and by the virtue working in higher education I am able to take the entire week off. I'll be off to Taipei, Taiwan for some much needed vacation time in my beloved Asia. The Google Travel app sent me a notification today alerting me to the weather conditions, and it is forecasted for rain the whole time. My travel good-luck charm appears to have finally deserted me. 

I thought November in Taiwan would be chill and sunny. I guess not. 

Amor fati, as stoics say. 

While I'm not thrilled for the rain, at least it isn't monsoon season (that's during the summer), so it'll just be periodic bursts throughout the day - entirely survivable, just have to purchase an umbrella upon touching down. Rain will force us indoors most of the time, which is just as well because for me the biggest reason to travel to Taipei is the fabulous food so we'll be doing lots of that. Instead of drinking plain water I plan to replace it completely with bubble tea. Even the most hole-in-the-wall tea spot in Taipei is on par with the best we can get in the States. 

Better bring the North Face jacket, though. Shoutout to whoever invented Gore-Tex.

These past years I've been listening to kpop almost exclusively, but in order to get in the mood for the Taiwan trip, I've momentarily dusted off the Chinese music playlists and got immediately taken back to the early 2000's. That's the magic of music: it can transport you back to any time period and let you relive the moments. In my case, that would be my late teenage years of much angst and lazy days. 

Hearing Chinese songs again made me realize I probably should brush up on my seldom-used mandarin. I would not be surprised if my first words towards a person at Taoyuan International Airport is in Korean.  

Excited.