Here’s a good article on why good PR — and expectations management — is so key in the industry. Nevertheless, I can’t say that I am surprised that Apple has made a blunder like this. After all, this isn’t the first time they’ve lied to their customers.

It will be interesting to see how they decide to play this; I can’t help but imagine that some of their most loyal customers will become disenchanted with the company (like I have)!

I couldn’t really have picked a better day for this either; everywhere around me, throngs of starry-eyed Apple lovers were crashing websites and going crazy about pre-ordering their new iGadget, the new iPhone.

Some people say that I’m just a big grump and that my disdain for Apple is unwarranted. I maintain that I have a philosophical problem with what Apple is doing, and I’m not alone. The main gripe is that I don’t like how Apple keeps such a totalitarian rule over what their users can and cannot do. The App Store approval process is extremely subjective and it deprives users of having true choice in the marketplace. What results is that applications that do make it through are locked down in terms of what they are capable of doing.

Take Google Voice, which is a service that allows users to make VoIP calls. It was well on its way to being approved and, without much notice at all, was mysteriously yanked a little while later. Same deal with tethering. Every other major smartphone platform has facilities to do this and, despite having some of the most advanced hardware in the world, users are not able to really take advantage of it on their iPhones.

Perhaps I am a little bit biased. As a very entrenched Google user, I have become very accustomed to the instant Gmail and Google Talk notifications that I get on my phone. (And I do mean instant; no stupid polling required.) I love how, whenever I make an international call, Google Voice kicks in seamlessly (in my phone application) so I don’t pay AT&T’s crazy international rates. So perhaps it is because the iPhone lacks all of these things that I refuse to get one.

Well, that’s not entirely the case either. The fact is that Apple has made it difficult for developers to make any of these things possible. In addition to the aforementioned Pandora’s Box of an application approval process, Apple is constantly behind the times with its software. Does anyone remember when they claimed that they didn’t want to allow background processes because it chewed up too much battery and made things slow? News flash, Apple: both RIM and Google made background processes work just fine. If you’re worried about stupid users getting carried away with running a ton of things, then say it. At least you’d be calling a spade a spade. But don’t make up dumb excuses for the laziness or ineptitude of your software developers. Background processes are nothing new and, to my point, your lazy and/or inept software developers managed to finally figure it out.

Don’t get me wrong, I respect Apple for some of the innovations that they have made over the past few years: the idea of the iPhone, the idea of the iPad, the iPod, and the simplicity of Mac OS X are all brilliant. Steve Jobs was able to turn an ailing brand and company into one of the most prolific and recognizable corporations today. Apple has an amazing user interface, through and through; everything is sleek, simple, and sexy. They push the envelope with their mobile hardware. And they’re an environmentally conscious company to boot.

But, in a world that has become too captivated by how something (or someone) looks, I am not convinced. There’s promise to make the whole package more appealing, but Apple still has a long way to go before it can win me back again.

Donald Miller writes that people won’t be able to tell great stories unless they are willing to take the risks to pursue what is really important to them. As I find myself caught between corporate success and personal actualization, I feel that there is so much social pressure to just keep that good job and blur in with the rest of society. On the flip side, a recent series at Forefront considered what it took to pursue greatness.

I should clarify what is meant by greatness. It goes beyond the social recognition of greatness (as that is often quite vain), and it also transcends being great at something. (These two are often closely related to each other.) It’s about being great, as in being a person that changes the world for the better and inspiring others to do the same.

That’s what I want to do. The problem is, of course, that I do not know how I want to go about doing it. I can certainly take any number of situations in which I have found myself and devise ways to transform them into those life-changing moments, but I haven’t. Similarly, I feel like I am squandering where I am right now. New York is full of potential and the potential impact of change here is largely unparalleled.

But such grandiose thinking is intimidating. Chances are that I won’t be someone who will change the face of New York and have this huge lasting effect on its inhabitants. I’m fine with that. That doesn’t mean that I don’t dream big but I have to be realistic with my expectations. So I am scaling things down, accordingly. Over the past few weeks, I have been trying to suss out how I want to apply the things that I am good or great at doing so that I can become a greater person. This will continue for however long, as well. But I’m basically looking to see how I want to invest my time, and if I have the fortitude to take the risks that I feel are beckoning me. Suffice it to say that the gears are turning in my life and I am feeling particularly motivated to do something.

I feel like I have to follow my heart and trust that my brains will figure it out. I think.

Stay tuned.

I should begin that, while I do miss home, I still have a lot of things keeping me in New York. So this is not necessarily a location thing. Nor is it necessarily a job thing; Bloomberg is a great company and I am grateful for the opportunity to work there.

What I think it boils down to is a passion thing. I’m not passionate about New York, nor am I passionate about the finance industry. Now, up to this point, I have used a lot of negations so let’s turn things around a little.

I want to make a difference. I want to help people. I want to know that I am helping people. (That’s why I love Forefront!) There are lots of opportunities here in New York to make it happen, and I just need to be more willing to sacrifice my time, energy, and money to do it. More importantly, I need to start taking risks.

I recently re-read the commencement address that Steve Jobs gave at Stanford a few years ago. The part on death was particularly moving and, somehow, I need to take it to heart.

Something’s gotta give.

That said, there are many ways that I could get around this problem. Recently, I challenged myself to stop taking out food for lunch when I’m at work. (This has, consequently, reduced the frequency of me taking out food to just around nil.) Doing this was/is difficult for a few reasons: lunch is a social thing at work, take-out food is very tasty, and I would have to motivate myself to prepare lunch after a day at work and time at the gym.

The folks at work have been quite supportive of this. As they make their rounds, gathering people for the trek to a local restaurant/deli, I get asked if I brought lunch to which I coyly reply that I had. And that’s that — no problems. To combat the tastiness of take-out food, I’ve had to avoid “bland” lunches; otherwise, I think that I would succumb to restaurant food. Over the past couple of weeks (which is the extent to which this challenge has lasted so far), I’ve made frittatas, various pasta dishes, and other meals that I’ve loaded with flavour. It’s tough, but it’s working so far. As for the time issue, I have often found myself making the next day’s lunches after 11:00 pm. And that really sucks. (Those who know me also know that I love sleep!)

By preparing my own lunches, I get to choose what goes into my meals; I control the salt, fat, carbs, calories, sugars, and everything. If I am really serious about being healthy (and I’d like to think that I am working my way towards it), I will leverage this control. But, one step at a time first. The other benefit is that I get to make use of my lovely kitchen and practice cooking. Previous apartments have had sub-optimal kitchens but, now that I have a reasonably good one, I can resume recipe experimenting and tweaking.

The other thing that I can do is to focus on the quality of the ingredients. One of the simplest, most responsible, and most helpful ways of doing this is to buy organic food. Bonus points if it’s locally sourced too. While the price is a bit higher, I’m trying to convince myself that it will be worth it in the long run. In addition to doing something good for the planet, I’d like to think that I’m doing something good for my body too. Now, I am not going to say that I am going to always buy organic food from now on; that is presently a bit overzealous and too lofty of a goal. But I’m starting to ease my way into it and that’s step number one.

This morning, I hit up the local Whole Foods (which, sadly, is a solid 30 minutes away) to procure good meat, fruits, and vegetables. Outside, the Union Square Farmer’s Market was in full swing so I took a peek at what was available there. (Given that it is winter, I expected little besides potatoes, squashes, and apples.) I did pick up a few things (apples, eggs, and honey), but what I really took away was how ghastly expensive locally sourced meat is.

It was just about double what I’d pay at Whole Foods which, in turn, has a pretty big markup over a traditional grocery store. My heart sank. (Those who know me know that, as far as food goes, I love meat.) And to think that those prices were what the farmers were charging in order to remain competitive. It made me think how the corporate farms manage to make their products so cheap. Sure, economies of scale will help a little bit, but there are some serious cost-cutting practices in place. (I’m almost scared to watch movies like Food Inc.; even articles like this make me nervous.)

I’m reminded by the adage “You are what you eat.” Increasingly, I am surrounded by cheap, processed, mass-produced people. One day, and hopefully sooner rather than later, I sure would like to be wholesome, healthy, ethical, and responsible.

Whatever the reason, I am terribly homesick. Feeling this way has caused me to re-evaluate my current disposition quite a lot, and I have to say that my adversity to change is whittling away. Now this may not mean that I’m going to hop on the first plane back to Canada (read: I am not), but maybe what I expect to get out of New York can change.

There are two main reasons why I am staying in New York: the first is my job (which happens to be the reason why I came to New York in the first place), and the other is my church. If I were to move elsewhere, I would certainly miss one of those two (and I’ll let you figure out which one that is). So again, I’m re-evaluating.

Canada, I miss you.

At the beginning of this year, I set out some goals for what I wanted to accomplish: there were professional, physical, intellectual, and social aspirations. How did I do? To be honest, pretty terribly. While I think that I have done quite well in my career at Bloomberg over the past year, my dedication to the gym/diet has been inconsistent (with a full three or four months of inactivity), the CFA never happened (for work-related reasons), I haven’t been cooking as much as I would have liked, and I still feel that friends back in Canada have been given less attention than they are due. But there are some gems in 2009 that I feel compelled to share and archive:

1. Work has been quite amazing this year. I feel that I have significantly increased my exposure at Bloomberg and have been working on really cool and important products. This year has been one of transition for my team, as we have been hiring aggressively and have been adjusting to a new management style, and I have been able to get involved in projects and with people beyond the realtime space, which is my current area of expertise. The highlight was delivering our flagship realtime product to the BlackBerry and iPhone platforms, which was a huge win for the team and our clients.

2. I found an amazing church. I have written about Forefront before, but much has changed since that original experience. The first thing was getting involved with a small group, which was a big step in getting connected and developing a commitment to the church. Then it was deciding to lead a small group. Then it was deciding to help out with the worship team. I haven’t feel this plugged into a church since the days of insanity at The Embassy, where I somehow had my hand in a lot of what the church was doing. Volunteering has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience and I cannot wait to get more involved with this great community.

3. Part of the reason that I am so keen on getting more involved with Forefront is because of some of the people that I have met there. The small group in the spring/summer grew together quite quickly and a bunch of great friendships were borne from it. There was this cool balance of people there, with the right mix of humour, sarcasm, vulnerability, boys, girls, shyness, craziness, Canadians, and so on. From small group, I got plugged into the community group (which is a gathering of several small groups). It’s kind of like a church away from church. In this larger group, I met even more wonderful, genuine, talented, and passionate people.

But this year wasn’t just about meeting new people; despite earlier claims of leaving my friends in Canada high and dry, I think that I have been doing better than before. I have certainly maintained my friendships, and have managed to reconnect with some old friends from whom I have not heard in many years. (Clearly if they haven’t deleted me on Facebook yet, that means I’m doing something right, right?) I feel really blessed to be surrounded by such amazing people from both far and away, and I really hope that I can be a better friend. Even for those from whom I have not heard in a while, I am assured that it is still not too late. (Encouraging everyone to get on Google Talk is step number one!)

4. Love was everywhere! I went to a handful of weddings this year where friends of mine were getting married to other friends of mine, and there were other still that I couldn’t attend; indeed, a group of FOURTEEN of my friends got married to each other!! It was such a joy to have been a part of the weddings (and apologies to Laura/Phil and Ashley/Chris for missing out!) and I wish all of you the happiest of days ahead.

5. I did lose someone special: my grandma. But even though it was a loss for me, she has been freed from her broken body and is hopefully in a better place now.

6. At long last, I have moved into my own apartment! This is a big step in my life and has opened up all sorts of doors in my life. (I had some excellent roommates but, let’s face it, I can’t have roommates forever.) As I continue to fill the apartment with things that make it more homely, I am very much looking forward to taking advantage of the new freedoms that having my own place affords me. Especially the delicious kitchen.

So, given all of this (and there is much more that I haven’t said), I think it stands to reason that 2009 was a very good year for me! Probably one of my best, actually. Perhaps the icing on the cake is that there is so much to which I can look forward in 2010; I wait with bated breath for what’s in store.

As the year winds down, I hope that all of you have had many fond memories of the year that it was. Of course, all the best to an even better 2010!

• UI is very slick. The responsiveness is very good and it is the fastest Android phone that I have used. Plus, some of the 3D visual effects are really nice. It’s definitely a polished interface.
• The lack of the “bounce” that iPhone users have when they reach the top or bottom of a screen. That little visual indicator is not implemented across all applications and I think the UI experience is weakened by this.
• No multitouch. Those used to the iPhone may be irked by this but, again, this is nothing new for Android users.
• Amazing form factor. Many people have said that it is thinner than the iPhone and it is very sleek. Solid build and it feels just right in my hand. Didn’t get it to a scale so I have no idea how much it weighs. It’s pretty light though.
• Incredible camera. I’m guessing it’s a 5.1 megapixel camera, with autofocus and flash. It rocks the socks out of my current mobile camera (but it’s not hard to beat the iPhone 3G’s hardware on that front).
• Google Goggles is amazing. I pointed it at a wrapper for a tea bag and it found all sorts of things about the manufacturer and the product. There is some serious voodoo magic going on at Google.
• Mediocre keyboard. For a pure virtual keyboard, it’s not bad (read: it’s about on par with the iPhone’s) but it can’t hold a candle to the amazing keyboards RIM has been pumping out.
• Mediocre trackball. It’s set pretty deep (unlike my BlackBerry Bold’s) so it’s a little weird to use. Pressing it doesn’t wake up the device either.
• Google Maps has been enhanced with some cool features (like finding out what the address is by holding your finger at the location in question).
• The Gallery application, which displays the photos and videos, is really nice. Nice eye candy and it makes sharing quite straight-forward.
• Beautiful screen. It’s sharp and bright, like the Bold. Love.

Bottom line: If I were to get an Android phone (which I want to), this would be it.

The move itself was pretty smooth (thanks to some fellow non-Americans who kindly helped!), and I would like to think that I got the space set up relatively quickly; within a week I had my first guests over and there were no boxes or other odds and ends lying around. (There was, and continues to be, a distinct lack of artwork so the bareness of the apartment which leaves much to be desired.)

This transition came with some concerns. Chief among them were the financial constraints that I have placed on myself; since the [higher] rent and utilities now fall squarely on my shoulders, the amount of disposable income has decreased quite substantially. Indeed, this is the most that I have ever paid for rent (albeit not by too much), and I’m feeling it. While I have budgeted around my current income, let’s just say that I am really, really, really [REALLY] keen on getting a raise!

Another concern was the amount of time that I would end up having to myself. Sometimes, this is amazing and just what the doctor orders. In other times, I felt that I’d miss the random sounds of shuffling, a sign that there is life outside of the room I occupy. I have had some pretty excellent roommates in the past, and the many great times will certainly be missed. So far, my life has been jammed full of things to do so I haven’t had much time to consider the solitude, but I know the day will come.

That said, I think that a lot of good has come from these concerns. In my state of heightened fiscal responsibility, I have started to cook a whole lot more. (In fact, the kitchen in the apartment was one of the primary reasons that I wanted to live here!) So the combination of doing something I love, eating health, and saving money is pretty awesome, and I don’t expect that will let up any time soon. If only there was a ridiculously awesome grocery store like Fairway around here…

Secondly, being on the Upper East Side (UES) has brought me much closer to many good friends. In a city where I never expect to see anybody I know on the streets, I have already ran into a couple friends. And a bunch of others are just a stone’s throw away. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to building out relationships here!

Speaking of “here”, I think that I need to clear the air in terms of the UES. There are those out there who think that the UES is full of yuppies, snobs, post-grad frat boys, and other socially scorn-able archetypes. Make no mistake, there are many of each of these types of people around. And there are plenty of their favourite hangout spots around, too. (Yes, I’m looking at you, beer-ponging, boat-racing, flip-cupping filthy college bar.) There is also a lack of many useful things, as well. The most noticeable of these is a second subway line; the 4-5-6 trains are suitable for a social experiment concerning human-sardine likeness, but not appropriate for normal commuting. And hats off to Citibank for being wildly successful at only having branches where I don’t need them. Thus, I have had a general aversion to the UES, in line with many New Yorkers, because of these assumptions.

But there is much more than these disdainful characteristics. It’s right by Central Park which, when the weather starts making a turn for the better, will be a haven for my bike and my running shoes. There are some great places to eat up here (although it is no Hell’s Kitchen). It’s quiet. You can see the sky. It doesn’t feel like you’re traveling to another country to come here. (Sorry, Brooklyn.) There’s even a Costco up here.

Can I stay here forever? Of course not. Few things beat having a home with a nice front lawn and a big backyard with a barbeque. But I can’t really get that anywhere in Manhattan. So as long as I’m here in New York, I have to say that being on the UES is going to be pretty okay to me.